Bonnie could feel herself moving. Or being moved rather, as she wasn't putting forth any effort to move herself. Sound slowly drifted to her ears. She heard a faint rhythm, accompanied by a male's voice that seemed to be performing a musical number. She opened her eyes to see everything encased in darkness: her jeans, the dashboard and outside of the window.

"Oh good, you're awake. Nice to have you back in the land of the living. Well, don't know if you could consider this the actual 'land of the living', but, you get the point." Kai spoke facing the road, with one hand on the steering wheel.

Bonnie was hardly listening. She clutched her head with her right hand and pushed herself upward in the seat with the other. Her vision had stabilized and she was no longer dizzy, but slightly lightheaded.

"You poisoned me." She put as much malice in the statement as she could muster, but to her dismay, it came out as a low croak.

"Technically, all I did was give you an excessive amount of painkillers. I didn't actually tamper with them. Now that would be poisoning you. Besides, you were only out for a couple of hours. Note to self, I need to double the dosage in case there's a next time."

"There won't be a next time!" She snapped. "And why -?"

"Well if three painkillers only kept you down for two hours then…"

"Why did you poison me, Kai?" She said more sternly.

"Oh that. Because we had to get a move on. I couldn't locate a single source of magic anywhere in Utah. And how else was I supposed to convince you to leave? Ask?"

"It would have been better than you slipping me painkillers." She spat.

"Bonnie think about it: Would you have willingly packed up and left the state with me to look for another source?"

She knew the answer to that was 'No', without a doubt. As much sense as his logic made at the moment, Bonnie couldn't help but argue that he could have went about it differently.

"I had pretty much covered most of the state the second night I moved in. I checked every nook and cranny to no avail. Last night was to make sure I didn't miss any areas. And now we're here." He sent a bright smile her way.

Bonnie looked outside of the window to see trees blurring past. "Where are we?"

"The Centennial State!" He paused for a moment. "Colorado if you didn't catch the hint."

"I know what the Centennial State is!" She barked.

"Well excuse me." He said mockingly.

So they hadn't gotten too far. They were still surrounded by trees. She was surprised that they hadn't gotten further considering how fast he was driving. She looked down to her chest to see her seat belt snugly wrapped around her torso.

"At least you had the decency to put my seat belt on."

"I can be a gentleman at times."

She saw something lumped in the back seat out of her periphery. She turned to see his and her bags. She gasped, remembering Mrs. Cuddles. She reached back and yanked her bag into her lap, poking inside it frantically.

"No need to worry, I made sure to pack everything."

She let out a sigh of relief at the sight of her old childhood friend, sitting at the bottom of the bag, just as Bonnie had left her. She glanced over to see Kai looking straight ahead. Did he know? He must not. He couldn't. He wasn't in a raging fit nor had he made some snarky, condescending comment about having figured her out. She rubbed her thumb along side the stuffed animal's' ear and she could feel her magic lightly pulsating through her hand. She took her hand out of her bag and proceeded to zip it up.

She gritted her teeth. How stupid had she been? To actually believe for one second that Malachai Parker could be anything but the hellion he was? She watched in disgust as he turned the dial on the radio, in search of a song to play, completely oblivious to her inner berating. Foolish, idiotic, moron, any word synonymous of unintelligent filled her mind. She wanted to kick, scream, to throw an all out tantrum. She was angry at the situation, at him for putting her in the situation to begin with and most importantly, herself.

She had done exactly what she was afraid of doing: let her guard down. She had become complacent. She hated how weak it made her feel. How vulnerable it made her appear to him.

She had to do something. He was going at about seventy-five miles per hour. He could drive as recklessly as he wished, given that it wasn't possible for him to die in this special made to order prison. She, however, was fully susceptible to death in this realm. She tugged at her seat belt to ensure its security.

Kai had finally settled on a station. "Alternative rock, close enough to grunge, I guess. What do you think about -"

Bonnie reached over and yanked the steering wheel in her direction. The night air was filled with the sound of the car skidding off the road. She clutched the door handle as the ground beneath the car shifted from asphalt to grass. Out of her periphery, she saw Kai fighting to regain control of the vehicle to no avail. She heard him grunt as the car collided with a tree with a tremendous force. A force powerful enough to eject both airbags. The hood of the car compressed seconds after impact. The windshield shattered, sending clusters of glass flying back towards them.

The impact lunged their upper bodies forward. Their faces barreled into the polyester fabric. The warmth Bonnie felt on her lips and nose were a sure sign that they were busted, if not fractured.

Bonnie slowly leaned back against the headrest. She timidly reached upward with her hand, her middle finger making contact with blood on her lip. She eyed the viscous, red liquid on her finger before glancing over at Kai who appeared to be knocked out. He sat motionless, with his hands sprawled over his lap and head lolled onto his headrest. A thin line of crimson trickled down the side of his face. Bonnie figured she only had a moment to act. She reached over towards his pants pocket, floundering for a moment until her hand came across a cold, metal object. She retracted her arm, ascendant in hand. She unfastened herself and fumbled with the doorknob, never taking her eyes off Kai's seemingly unconscious figure. She stumbled out of the car, hands and knees connecting with the grass first.

Without a second thought, she darted into the woodland, bag and ascendant in hand. The breeze from the crisp night air soothed the warmth on her face. She could feel the shards of glass peel away from her body as she charged through the forest. Thank Heavens for her twenty-twenty vision; everything in her line of sight was immersed in darkness. She had no idea what time it was. If the sun would soon be rising. Whether it was closer to dusk or dawn.

She prayed that it was the latter of the two. She finally had the ascendant. She was one step closer to going home. As she ducked and dodged boulders and trees, the realization hit her that she had nowhere to go.

Just find somewhere to hide until noon. God knows how long that would be. Kai claimed that he had packed everything. Perhaps he had thought to pack her watch as well. She came to a staggering stop, and threw her bag to the ground, leaning on a tree to catch her breath. She dropped to her knees and began digging through it's contents, she came across her cell phone, which was useless in this situation given that it was dead. She threw it back in the bag, and kept looking. Her hand grazed an elongated, cold object. To her luck, it was a flashlight. She clicked it on, zipped up her bag and threw it over her shoulder. She shoved the ascendant in her pants pocket.

She felt a bit of solace having found some light. Having finally slowed down, the chill of the night air began to seep into her bones. She began to shiver, shining the flashlight in any direction around her. The thin trees appeared to be more elongated than the trees she was used to in her home town. All she could see of them was their silhouette before she shined the light upon them, then upwards towards the night sky. Millions of tiny stars were spread on a sheet of deep purple. If it weren't for the fact that she was being hunted by a sociopath, she would have loved to stop and soak in it's ethereal beauty. It wasn't a sight she had the pleasure of seeing every day, living in the city.

She brought the light of the flashlight back down to her line of sight and headed in that direction, whichever way it may be.

"Gotta start somewhere." She trudged on for what had to be at least thirty minutes before she came to a stop in the middle of even more clusters of trees.

"A compass would be nice right now." However she didn't recall seeing one in the bag. She huffed and pressed onwards.

She turned to check behind her. "Maybe I should have ran back along side the road. There would likely be houses in that direction." She thought for a moment. "Then again, that would have made me an open target for Kai."

She shook her head. "Back to this again, huh?" She had come to a leisurely stroll. "Talking to myself outloud?" She recalled the first few weeks of being imprisoned. She hadn't spoken much back then. Preferring the sound of the television to her own voice. At least that way, there technically were other voices she could listen to so she wouldn't feel too isolated. By the time the third week had rolled around, she had had all sorts of conversations with herself back then. "Hmph, well, I suppose talking to myself is better than the alternative: having to talk to him."

She rolled her emerald eyes at the thought of him. "I wonder if he's awakened by now? It's been at least an hour since the crash." She stopped walking. "The car crash -"

Her mind's eye finished the thought for her. Next to letting her guard down with Kai, that had to be the second most dangerous thing she had ever done. Was it impulsive? Yes. Reckless? Obviously. Necessary? Ab-so-fucking-lutely!

The important thing was that she was alive. She had achieved her goal through cockamamie means but it worked nonetheless.

She cocked her head. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

Crack!

Bonnie's body jerked in the direction of the sound. Her flashlight revealed there was nothing there. She gripped the handle so tightly, she could feel her knuckles turning white. She was frozen in place, wondering what in the world she could use to defend herself.

She heard the movement again. The sound of sticks breaking under a person's feet. Kai's feet. She turned on her heel and sprinted deeper into the forest once more. It might have been him or an animal, she wasn't sure. But one thing she was sure of was her body's fight-or-flight response screaming: flight!

The only sound she heard was the sound of her own two feet, frantically scurrying along the grass. She was unable to tell if what or who she heard was following her. The aim of her flashlight darted between her front view and the ground as she clutched it in hand.

A boulder came into view and she quickly took refuge behind it, flicking the flashlight off as she did so. There was nothing but the sound of a nearby river. Her back was facing the cold lump of stone. She held her elbow up to her mouth to silence her ragged breathing.

Each second seemed like a separate a lifetime as she waited. She frantically took in her surroundings on either side of her. She peered behind the boulder to her left, stepping out cautiously. She began to pick up her bag off the ground when two hands took ahold of her shoulders.

Bonnie screamed and flailed as powerful arms encased her neck and torso. One arm was wrapped around her neck, while the other restricted her arms to her sides. Her back was pulled flush against him. He was panting, almost as give out as she was from running.

"Ya know Bonnie," his breath was hot against her ear. "The way you run and hide from me makes me think you like to be chased."

Bonnie squirmed at his words, struggling to free herself to no avail. "And as much as I like this little cat and mouse game we got going on, it's getting old." He tightened his grip around her throat for further emphasis. "And I tend to get bored easily. So for both of our sakes, I say it's time to play a new game. And in order to play it, we'll need…" His right arm released her torso, and he traced his index finger ever so slowly along the curvature of her waist and hips, finally diving into the front pocket of her jeans. Bonnie was disgusted at herself due to the shiver that wracked her body at his touch.

He gasped. "There it is," he pulled out the ascendant and held it up for her to see. "This little gadget that's the sole cause of all this commotion."

Bonnie was now able to clutch onto his elbow around her neck.

"What do you say? It's a two player ga-"

In one swift motion, Bonnie had thrust her head backwards, colliding sharply with Kai's nose.

"Ahh!" He shouted and instinctively reached for his nose, letting her go in the process.

She stood before him and watched as he attempted to collect himself. "I am not running from you any longer!" She said each word deliberately and with conviction. "This game ends tonight, Malachai!" She hadn't seen him face-to-face since the car incident. He had cuts and scratches along his face, as she was sure she must have as well. His lip was busted and his clothes were somewhat tattered; Presumably from scouring through the forest to look for her.

Kai wiped the blood off his nose and snickered. "My father was right about that Bennett fire." He nodded to himself more so than her. "At least that was one thing he was honest about."

Bonnie couldn't take it anymore. His smug face every time he thought he would one-up her. If only he knew who truly held the upper hand in this situation. She wanted to scream her secret to the empty world they shared. But she knew that wouldn't be wise. This wasn't the right time nor the place.

Her eyes darted down towards the circular object he held in hand. He had once again, unknowingly leveled the playing field.

The rage she felt was overwhelming. She felt a turbulence wracking her body. He had to pay. Right here. Right now. The slap had happened so quickly that she wasn't sure that she had actually raised her hand to commence it.

Bonnie normally wasn't the type to act out of emotion. That was more of an Elena or Caroline feature. But not level-headed, calm, cool and collected, Bonnie Sheila Bennett. Normally she'd be the one to retort with a quick-witted comeback. However, these were not normal circumstances. She had been pushed too far and too long. She was drained, in every way a person could be drained: physically, mentally and emotionally. A verbal lashing simply wouldn't do with this one.

The look on Kai's face was one of disbelief. He was taken aback at her sudden outburst as well. This wasn't a spell she had cast to thwart his devious plans, nor had she outsmarted him in some clever way; which, deep down she was certain that he loathed and took delight in, whether he would admit it or not. This was a slap to the face. A physical assault. Something about it felt more personal, more real and by far, much more offensive. And they both understood that very aspect. Unlike Bonnie's expression of defiance, Kai's face slowly morphed into that menacing look of hatred. A look she had grown accustom to.

Neither of them spoke. They simply stood there facing one another, the sounds of the forest seemed to fade away. Kai slowly stepped closer to her, never wavering his intense gaze, nor did she.

Kai finally broke the silence by saying, "We need to go." He picked up her duffle bag, slung it over his shoulder and sauntered off without another word.

Bonnie knew she was expected to follow suit. She closed her eyes and exhaled, not even aware of the fact that she had been holding her breath. Only to reopen them to find them tear-stained.