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Chapter 10: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide

Bonnie Bennett had never been like her best friend, Caroline, who loved Halloween, or like her other bestie, Elena, who could be easily frightened under the right circumstances. She felt rather oblivious to the whole thrills and chills of Fright Night. Until this Halloween. Tonight, Bonnie Bennett felt real fear and not just for herself but for everyone she cared about.

The night had started out like any other night. They had been sitting on Elena's bed, planning the night's activities and having fun. No big deal. Teasing Jeremy, also part of the same old. But when Oliver Kenner's body had been found in the woods by his brother, Jackson—that made the stupid threats posted at their school real—and not so funny after all. Watching Hayley wail. Watching people beginning to panic. Trying to talk to Jeremy. All of that left Bonnie tense, sick to her stomach and desirous of curling under her bedcovers and waiting for the nightmare to end.

Everything felt unreal. It was like she began to do everything on autopilot. One part of her tried to be rational while others collapsed under the heavy cloud of paranoia and terror. Or at least she wanted to believe she wasn't acting like everyone else. However, this minute she was on the phone with Jeremy Gilbert, her sometimes, sort-of, maybe quasi boyfriend although they never really talked about what they were aside from stolen moments together. Complicated. They were complicated due to the whole my friend is your sister and you're in high school but I still kind of love you as more than a friend. But they had never actually said it. And tonight would be the last chance Bonnie ever got to tell him.

Damon took off. Stefan was missing. Caroline was yelling for Rebekah. Her voice was louder than most from her former years of cheerleading. But this was not the peppy Caroline known for her school spirit. This Caroline's eyes were red-rimmed, her mouth open, lips stretched back from her teeth, her entire body shaking from the howl. "Re-be-KAH!" To the sound of nothing in return. No echo. No response. Silence except for Hayley's keening.

More chaos. Finding out that there was a second victim. Or maybe a first victim. This one luckier than Oliver. Hayley Marshall. Screaming her head off in the background. Caroline. Glassy eyed. Confused. Looking for Klaus. Elena. Panicking. Damon. Distraught. Elijah. Trying to keep calm. Trying to keep others calm.

"You just need to wait for me," Bonnie heard herself saying to Jer. She would tell him the minute they were alone together. She would tell him. I. Love. You. But it would help if he lived to hear them.

"I've got to get back to your place to make sure Jer's okay," Bonnie told Elena and Caroline breathlessly.

Elena looked relived. Bonnie knew her friend was torn between the desire to protect her remaining family and being by Damon's side. "Thanks, Bonnie, you'll let me know the minute you find him?"

"Of course," Bonnie said. She hugged Elena and then Caroline before hurrying through the woods, being slapped by tree branches and nearly falling over roots. Making it to her car, she fumbled for the keys, jumping whenever a noise got too close for comfort.

The keys slipped through her now trembling fingers and she cursed under her breath. "Damn it," she muttered.

"Now, child, is that any way to talk?" her grams tsked. Bonnie felt hot tears fill her eyes. Wiping them away with a quick brush of her hand, she sucked in a calming breath. Her grams had been gone for two long years now but sometimes she still spoke to Bonnie. If she told anyone that they would have her locked up in Mystic Falls Center for the Mentally Unwell. Such a nice name for such a horrible place.

Dropping to her knees, Bonnie's hand scraped against hard cement as she looked for her keys in the pitch black make-shift parking lot. Seeing a pair of black boots and then the end of an axe, Bonnie slid under her car. Her hand closed over her mouth to prevent herself from emitting the scream of terror she felt building. The feet paused for a moment across from her eyes and then moved on.

Bonnie silently counted to one thousand and then crawled, cautiously, out from under the car. Slipping her key into the driver's side door, she peered into the back, scared that someone would pop out from there. When the coast seemed clear, she closed the door, as quietly as possible and started the engine. As her headlights came on a figure with long black hair and features that looked oddly familiar appeared in front of her; she screamed as the woman lifted her axe.

The car caused dirt to fly when she slammed her foot on the accelerator and then flew backwards. Gritting her teeth, she spun the wheel in a wide circle and away from the maniac. Pumping the brake, she gained control of the car before gunning the engine again and flying out of the parking lot. She only slowed down when she found herself on a residential road. The streets were far too quiet for Halloween. Where was everyone? No lights shown from the houses. It was like everyone had left town.

A woman with long blonde hair leapt from the top of a fence to Bonnie's right and came running toward the car, her arms waving frantically. Bonnie made up her mind to slow down while she feared it might be a trap. Rebekah's face came into view and she felt relieved, stopping the car completely so the blonde could get in. She hit the passenger side window so it rolled down as Rebekah approached the car. "Hey, Rebekah!" she called, relieved to see someone she ordinarily hated. Then she saw the blood on the girl. "Oh. Are you okay?" she felt lame. Stupid question. Obviously you can't wear that much blood and be okay.

Rebekah jerked the passenger side door open, collapsing into the car and not bothering with a seat belt before replying, "No. Both my parents are dead. I have a long lost sister who is killing people. And I can't find any of my brothers." Her gaze moved from the dark, silent street and then back to Bonnie. "I assure you that sitting here staring at me will only get you killed."

This was all it took for Bonnie's mind to return to her prior objective: finding Jeremy. "I'm going to Jeremy's," she told Rebekah who did not try to hide her disdain. Even in a situation like this, she had to act like a spoiled brat. Stopping herself from not-so-politely inviting Rebekah the hell out of her car, Bonnie reminded herself that Rebekah was scared and traumatized. But did she have to be such a bitch?

They drove without speaking a word to each other until they got to the Gilbert's. Maybe Queen Bekah would like to stay in the car, with the motor running, in case one of the killers appeared so she could drive off, leaving Bonnie to die horribly.

Getting out of her car, Bonnie's eyes flicked to the Parker residence where someone had just gotten out of a car. Rebekah tensed and Bonnie moved to get back into her car when she recognized the long legs and arrogance that was Malachi Parker. Usually Bonnie would not be happy to see the guy who had come onto her regularly for the past three years without taking a day off. Not even Christmas when he tried to kiss her under the mistletoe one year before his lips connected with a wall. "Kai!" she called to him with a genuine smile.

"Hey. Liv called me and told me to get my ass home but then she hung up or something. Besides the dead bodies in the woods were kind of killing the mood. So what's up with you?" Kai asked with a wide grin.

Bonnie winced when she saw Rebekah's body tighten as if she might attack Kai. Not the best choice of words. But that was Kai. Love him or hate him.

"My father was beheaded and my mother made me leave her with a couple of psychos," Rebekah told him and Kai just stared at her before he let out a laugh.

Again. His choice of reaction could have been better. Bonnie saw a glint of nervousness in his eyes that Rebekah did not seem to see as her eyes moved away from the tall man before them. Maybe it was because Kai had spent so much time pursuing her that Bonnie had learned how to read him. His body had shifted and his hands had moved, wiping at the sides of his pants. Sweat. His palms were sweating. He felt the fear. He just didn't want the women to know it.

"Man, Halloween really makes people say some weird shit," Kai said and Bonnie rolled her eyes. He could bullshit if he wanted but she knew him too well. Deciding to not call his bluff, she went over to the Gilbert's front door and would have knocked. However, the door hung wide open. Never a good sign.

Stepping inside, gingerly, avoiding the bloody hand print on the front door. "Jeremy?" Bonnie called, looking around for her boyfriend. She felt relieved that he was nowhere in sight. That meant he might still be alive and have half a chance of getting through this night.

Kai said something which Bonnie chose to ignore. He and Rebekah began to snipe at each other. Bonnie mused that maybe Kai would develop a crush on the Mikaelson sister when this had ended and they could drive each other crazy. The only problem was that Rebekah did not even live in Mystic Falls. Perhaps Kai's feelings would become so strong that he would follow her all the way to New Orleans. Fat chance.

Rolling her eyes as she took a quick tour of the house with her companions, she stopped by the answering machine and pressed play, hoping to find a message from Jer for Elena. Instead she got a message for Jer from Elena. Why were they in jail? She wondered to herself.

Kai and Rebekah started in on each other again and Bonnie felt her head begin to pound. When Rebekah moved to leave, Bonnie called after her, "Where are you going?"

Rebekah pivoted on one heel and glared at Bonnie before responding. "I'm going to find my brothers before they, too, become the victims of tonight's Halloween massacre."

Bonnie followed the angry blonde with Kai on her heels. Kai and Rebekah argued all the way to the car and continued once they were inside. Ignoring them in favor of buckling her seat belt and starting the car up, Bonnie slammed on the brakes the second she felt a bump, sending Kai and Rebekah forward in their seats. Her first thought was: They should have put their seat belts on. Her second was: Oh, God! I hit someone!

They got out of the car and Bonnie's eyes widened in incomprehension when she realized that a scarecrow lay under her car. "Get back in the car!" Rebekah's voice screamed at her. Bonnie's body recoiled backwards when an axe came close to giving her a new haircut. Axe Lady missed and the axe became lodged in the roof of the car. Bonnie did not stop to watch her foe's struggles to retrieve her weapon. Getting back into her car, she hit the gas pedal, twisting the wheel frantically. There was another lunatic threatening Rebekah. Bonnie had had enough. Backing up, she caused Axe Lady to fall off and plowed into her, sending her flying before she spun the wheel and sent Rebekah's stalker flying a good yard from them.

"Whoa. Now those people are really into Halloween," Kai said with a laugh. Rebekah was about to hit him when he pulled out his phone. "I've got a message from Liv. Want to hear?" Bonnie and Rebekah nodded.

Listening to Liv's message to her older brother gave Bonnie the same sense of unease that listening to Elena's message had. Now she had no idea where to go until the decision was made for her.

The back windshield exploded and Bonnie slapped her hands over her ears, bracing for the impact of a bullet. Her eyes opened when she realized she had not been hit. But she felt blood on her cheek. Looking behind her, she found Kai, slumped over, blood pouring from his head. "No," she moaned. Maybe to herself.

"We have to go to the hospital," Bonnie told Rebekah, looking at Kai, feeling miserable.

"He's dead," Rebekah argued. Callous as ever.

No, he's still breathing," Bonnie replied. She placed her hand just outside Kai's lips, feeling the warmth of his shallow breath on her palm, making her shiver.

"Damn. Well, drop me at the sheriff's first. I still have my gold card and someone has to rescue Elena and Damon from their stupidity as usual," Rebekah retorted.

"Fine. But we're going to have to be quick," Bonnie muttered, slamming her foot on the gas. She ignored anything else Rebekah had to say and the minute the blonde got out her car, she yanked the passenger side door closed and pounded the gas with her foot. "Kai! Kai, can you hear me?" she called. Kai grunted. That might be a good sign. "Kai, if you live, I will go out with you. I will. You know I don't break my promises. I'll even let you kiss me. Okay?" She felt tears running down her cheeks as she spoke. Kai did not reply.

When she got to the hospital, she ran through the automatic doors, "I need HELP!" she screamed. "My friend was shot in the head!"

A couple of doctors and nurses came running. "Where is your friend?" one of them asked.

"In the car. In my car. Just outside," Bonnie told them.

"Okay. Thanks, hon," one of the nurses said. "As soon as we get him you'll need to move your car to parking. We need the ambulance bay open at all times. Okay?"

Bonnie nodded, feeling numb. She followed them outside. Getting inside her car, she drove up the curling ramp and into the parking garage. It always felt kind of creepy but especially when there were people trying to kill those you cared for. Getting out on shaking legs, Bonnie walked to the elevator and got out on the first floor to ask about Kai. They couldn't tell her anything since he wasn't family. She considered lying and telling them she was Kai's fiancée and then felt guilty considering the fact that she had all but forgotten about Jeremy.

Liv came toward her about an hour after Bonnie arrived at the hospital. "Bonnie, what's wrong?" Liv demanded with her usual amount of tact. Her wild curls looked wilder. Her face pale. Her lips pressing into a hard grimace.

Bonnie couldn't hold it in anymore. Too much had happened tonight. "Kai…It's Kai…He was…" Bonnie trailed off, choking on her own sobs as Tyler approached.

"What happened?" Tyler asked, his own eyes haunted.

"I was driving and found Rebekah, running away from one of the killers. We drove to Jeremy's but he wasn't home. Kai came over, looking for you." Bonnie stopped, trying to calm down. When we were driving away, someone shot at the car… and… and," she started to sob again.

"They shot Kai," Liv finished Bonnie's explanation for her.

"He's in surgery. They don't know if he'll be okay or not," Bonnie said quietly, trembling. "Rebekah's who knows where as are Elena, Damon and a ton of our friends. I don't know where most of our friends are," Bonnie moaned. She wanted to see her friends. She wanted to know they were okay.

Kol's voice sounded not far away. "I'm over here, love," he called, beckoning her over to his side.

Feeling relieved for this once who knew how many times by now, Bonnie moved toward Kol on legs that felt like they were encased in cement. "Kol," she whispered as he slipped an arm around her while a nurse checked his head wound. "You're okay?"

"He'll live. As long as he's careful for the next couple of days. He should make a full recovery," the nurse said.

"Perhaps I can get out of a few exams this week," Kol said with a grin, winking at Bonnie who smiled back. "Haven't seen my siblings, have you?"

"I saw Rebekah," Bonnie did not tell him that his little sister went on what might be a suicide mission.

"Good. Good. What about the boys? Seen any of them lately?" Kol inquired, hopping off the stretcher.

"No," Bonnie said, shaking her head.

"Damn. Afraid you might say that. Well, there is no time like the present to go looking for them, is there?" Kol told her.

Bonnie nodded. "I heard there's something crazy going on at the Sherriff's station. Some of them might be there," she suggested.

"Good enough plan for me," Kol told her. They got on the elevator and headed to Bonnie's car. Bonnie drove out of the hospital's parking garage without incident. The drive was quiet except for the times she had to stop Kol from going to sleep. You couldn't allow a person with a head injury to go to sleep.

"Kol, wake up!" Bonnie shouted when she saw Mikael Miklaelson's car. Then she remembered Rebekah saying a million years ago that her father was dead.

"Father!" Kol shouted with a look relief. He jumped out of the car Bonnie came to a stop.

"Kol, don't!" Bonnie cried, trying to catch up with him when Kol stopped and then leaned over to vomit.

"Oh, God! Oh, no!" Kol moaned. After a long moment, he made his way back to Bonnie's car and called Rebekah. "Bekah, pick up the blasted phone!" he shouted before throwing it on the floor. "Damn it!" he yelled, clutching his head.

Bonnie wanted to comfort him but her phone began to ring. Tyler's name flashed across her screen and she thought it might be an update on Kai. "How quickly can you get back to the hospital?" Tyler asked her in a hushed tone.

"Ten, maybe fifteen minutes," Bonnie said. "If I obey the law."

"Fuck the law. Get here! Now!" Tyler snapped before hanging up.

Bonnie hung up. "We need to get back to the hospital," she told Kol who nodded and got back into her car. Her foot pushed the accelerator all the way to the floor. "Buckle up!" she yelled at Kol.

Soon they were outside the hospital's front doors. Back in the ambulance bay. She would get into so much trouble if an emergency vehicle showed up right now. Then the doors opened and Tyler came out with Klaus followed by Liv with Stefan. Kol went running to his brother while Bonnie remained behind the wheel.

When Klaus was inside the car they had to explain that his father was dead. "We saw him on our way here," her words fell out of her mouth like boulders crashing down a steep cliff.

Bonnie had begun to drive away when Stefan played a message from Damon. "Stefan, stay away from me…" Damon's words made Bonnie's stomach move over in a complete somersault.

"Baby girl, you're in for a big mess before this night is out," her grams whispered to her.

Shaking her head, Bonnie tried to concentrate on the road before her and something going on in the backseat of the car. "Klaus, what's going on back there?" she demanded.

"Stefan, mate, wake up," Kol cried out.

"His pulse is fading," Klaus told them. Bonnie turned the car around in a wide U-turn. "We can't go back there!" Klaus shouted with a look of horror.

"If we don't, he dies!" Bonnie yelled back.

"If we do, he dies all the same!" Klaus snapped.

"What if it were your brother, or Rebekah, or Caroline? Where in the hell is Caroline?" Bonnie shouted at Klaus, turning to glare at him.

"Eyes on the bloody road, Bennett!" Kol yelled.

"I. Don't. Know!" Klaus screamed before he started to cry and then punched the back of his seat in frustration. "I don't know. I don't know!" he kept saying.

"We'll find her," Bonnie swore. "And we will make these crazy bitches pay for all of this. You don't fuck with me and my friends!"

"That's my Bonnie." For a moment, Bonnie saw a glimpse of her grams standing beside the road, nodding at her with an approving smile and then she disappeared. Maybe Bonnie was going crazy but maybe it took a crazy person to stop tonight's madness.

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halfmylifeDE: Thank you. I hope you enjoyed the update.

Peace,

Jessica