Bea had never been taken captive before. However, it didn't take a genius to realize what had happened, especially when she became hazily conscious and immediately felt the sensation of vervain around her wrists as she laid on the hard ground.
Letting out a cry as her flesh burned, Bea's eyes flew open and she began trying to pull at her restraints. While looking around wildly she noted that she was in a basement of sorts, based on the concrete flooring and stairwell that led upstairs. There was no sign of whoever had taken her.
When she turned around to get a better look at what was holding her, her stomach dropped.
The thick metal chains that encircled her wrists were looped multiple times around hooks and rings embedded in the wall. They were coated very obviously with vervain, seeing as her fucking skin was sizzling. But that wasn't even the worst part.
There were multiple vervain plants on the other end of the room and the infected air was likely causing her dizziness. Behind the plants were a few industrial strength fans pointed towards her. This… this was about to get bad. Really, really bad.
Bea wasn't positive who'd abducted her. She and Rigby had enemies, sure. But not any blood feuds or ridiculously over-the-top vows of revenge, other than –
Oh. Well. This was likely Niklaus.
Her thoughts couldn't wander too far. Every other second she was focused back on the pain in her wrists that now made her eyes tear up. It didn't stop. Though the acidic properties of the vervain seemingly weren't going to eat away at her flesh to the point of massive internal injury due to her body constantly healing itself, it still fucking hurt.
Bea didn't quite know what to do. Should she scream to alert somebody nearby? Or would that draw the attention of her captors? Would faking continued unconsciousness work?
As she shifted, the vervain touched another part of her arm it hadn't yet and she cried out once again. Faking unconsciousness wasn't going to work.
In the midst of her frantic brainstorm, footsteps echoed out from the ceiling, letting her know that people were walking around in the room above her. Only a moment later she made out the sound of people walking towards the top of the staircase, and the door creaked open. When her captors descended and finally stood in front of her, Bea tilted her head back and addressed them in a lofty drawl.
"This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed."
The high school girls looked confused at that and the younger Salvatore was squinting at Bea as if trying to figure out what she'd said. But Damon Salvatore snorted and sounded incredulous when he said, "A Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference? Really?"
Bea shrugged as best she could and tried to appear calm. She was not letting these arrogant little ingrates know how deeply she was rattled by the current situation. Especially because she'd left Kol with his siblings, and they'd likely take hours to even begin to sort out their troubles.
Kol wouldn't know she'd been taken for a while. So there was no one coming to help her.
Bea didn't like playing the damsel in distress. But she wasn't a complete moron – right now she needed assistance. No matter how irritating or immature, the doppelganger, witch, and three vampires were in control of the situation and she couldn't overpower them.
She could, however, try to figure out why they had a stick up their asses.
"Why am I in your basement? The interior design is in need of some updating and this dress that's getting dirty costs more than a human kidney on the black market."
Stefan was the one to walk over and crouch down in front of her, making eye contact.
"This isn't our basement. This belongs to a nice woman two towns over from Mystic Falls with an isolated house who was compelled to only let us in. So don't worry, your pride will be intact if you start to scream. There's no one to hear you."
Bea began to feel fear come over her, which wasn't going to help the situation at all. So she let the fear become rage.
"You didn't give me an answer, salaud."
Stefan laughed at that and had an edge to his voice when he said, "You don't get to make any demands. You aren't the one in charge right now."
Damon seemed to want to skip to the main event and lightly pulled Stefan back, taking a step forward himself to address her.
"What are you doing in Mystic Falls?"
Bea was fairly sure she had explained herself, actually. And even clarified that she would be leaving soon. Rigby had asked that she not start anything with the little rag-tag group in front of her, so she hadn't killed them all or asked Kol to kill them all that day in the school parking lot. She sorely regretted that choice now.
"Currently I'm being tortured."
None of them moved or seemed to take her bait, but a few of their expressions tightened and she figured she may as well get it over with so they would let her go.
"I'm not planning anything specifically in Mystic Falls, actually. I've gotten what I wanted and will be leaving soon. Any plans I have are unrelated to your little Scooby gang. There's no reason to keep me here."
What Stefan said next, however, actually left her a bit baffled.
"I saw the woman you said was your sister with Katherine a few days ago, after you spent time with the Originals. You compelled Elena and you tried to kill Caroline. And you're really saying that you aren't planning against us?"
Bea nodded. And then turned to face the blonde vampire in question with a very put off expression.
"If I had wanted Miss Forbes dead, she would be in pieces."
A blinding pain flashed through her head and Bea couldn't hold in a scream. She felt her fangs descend as blood filled the veins beneath her eyes and tried instinctively to press her hands against the sides of her head, but the restraints didn't allow her that much movement and instead the vervain-coated metal bit even further into her wrists, prompting another scream.
The pain stopped, and Bea was left panting. The Bennett witch had her hand extended and wore a judgmental expression. Jesus fucking Christ, what did these people want from her? So she'd compelled the doppelganger! Rigby fucking Katie was none of their business. And Caroline? Bea saved the girl, which apparently had been the wrong decision seeing as it counted for jack shit.
When Rigby and she had set out to Mystic Falls all those months ago to retrieve Kol's body, they had not predicted a bizarrely self-righteous group of teenagers getting themselves involved. And Bea had never before been tortured. She'd been in extreme pain before, yes, but this was new to her. To now be suffering at the hands of her former students somehow felt especially degrading.
"Feel like talking yet?"
Bea had to take a few deep breaths before she looked at the witch and said as evenly as she could, "Miss Bennett, you're being particularly disruptive today. You'll be seeing me later."
Bea shifted slightly, allowing her posture to slump slightly against the wall, and kept her tone falsely nonchalant when she spoke to the group – a direct contrast to her scathing words.
"Funnily enough, your little group has killed many more in Mystic Falls than I have, and unlike you I haven't tortured anyone. What's your count? The drug addict, the ripper's best friend, the werewolves, the tomb vampires, the carnie, Elijah's mages, I guess everyone who died when you attempted to avoid the ritual just to name a few - maybe you should be the ones chained up like animals in a basement."
The high school students all seemed to have lost a significant portion of their bravado, but the Salvatore brothers' resolve evidently became stronger.
"You know all this because you've been spying and working with Katherine and the Originals."
Bea couldn't tell them about the plans Kol and she had been only just outlining against Klaus. They couldn't know about what had happened to her at Elijah and Klaus's hands – for now they had to remain in the dark about the feud between the Mikaelson brothers. Any outside interference when the Originals were already at odds could make the situation much, much worse. Their possible belief that Klaus was her ally might make them wary to hurt her.
To her immense surprise, Caroline suddenly began talking in a low, somewhat apprehensive voice.
"She didn't really try to kill me, I told you guys she threatened me, but she stopped Kol from killing me. She might be- "
She was cut off by the witch, who spoke in a harsh tone when she said, "Are you really ready to take that risk? She's after Elena and a risk to everyone in this town!"
Bea rolled her eyes, she couldn't help it. Not everything was about the stupid doppelganger. The girl was merely a lesser version of Katie.
"Let me go. This is the only time I will tell you. I understand protecting the ones you love, but I am not plotting against you. If you let me leave now, I might spare some of you."
Damon smirked, and Bea knew that it was a hopeless endeavor. When he nudged Stefan and Caroline then lightly grabbed Elena's hand to lead them upstairs, Bea knew something bad was about to happen. Especially when Caroline cast a nervous, pitying expression at her over her shoulder. Once the Bennett witch was the only one left in the basement, the girl began walking toward the fans behind the vervain plants.
Bea would not beg. But her throat tightened and she could feel a wave of panic when the girl reached for the switches.
"We'll come down later, when you're ready to talk."
Bea's screams echoed in every room of the house.
Nearly two hours had passed and Caroline still flinched every time she heard the vampire downstairs scream. Being a vampire herself meant she could hear every sob and wet breath the woman took through a throat that was likely bleeding due to the intense amount of vervain in the air.
Elena had left, escorted by Stefan and Damon to 'round up supplies' or whatever. On one hand Caroline understood why she wasn't here – it wasn't really safe for her as a human – but on the other hand she felt a tiny, vindictive part of her wishing Elena had to listen to the screams, too. Because honestly? Caroline felt like she was starting to crack.
Bea hadn't spoken yet, instead keeping her cries wordless. When she once again heard a small, stifled sob, the handle of the mug of tea Caroline was holding fractured.
Bonnie was sitting across from her at the kitchen table – directly next to the top of the basement staircase – and could hear the cries as well. Upon hearing the crack of the porcelain mug handle, she raised her eyebrows with an expectant expression, as if she couldn't imagine why Caroline was having trouble.
"Bonnie, this isn't us."
Immediately after she finished talking in a beseeching voice, Bonnie's expression closed off completely and she sounded derisive when she responded.
"We aren't the bad guys here. She is working with the Originals and Katherine. Did you just forget everything they've done? Katherine killed you, and Klaus destroyed everything. Finding out their plans will let us save lives. If you can't handle it, leave and get Damon or Stefan back here."
The same sick feeling didn't leave the pit of her stomach. Ever since Stefan had shown up with an unconscious Bea and decided with Damon to keep her captive, Caroline had been playing their interaction from the night before over and over.
Kol, Bea, and the woman they'd called Rigby were a threat. Kol was incredibly terrifying, but he'd mentioned killing her as if it was to piss off Klaus, not because he was plotting against her and her friends.
She couldn't get Bea's expression out of her mind either – the sad, distant look when she'd said Caroline wouldn't die because it shouldn't happen 'again'. But that made no sense, because Katherine had killed Caroline the first time and weren't they working together?
Bea had said killing her would make the teenagers 'annoying'. And Caroline had been sure that it meant she didn't want to act just yet. But now when she thought back over it and theoretically tried to view the situation as if Bea wasn't lying –
Caroline and her friends would be 'annoying' because they weren't involved in Bea, Kol and Rigby's plans. That meant that pissing off Klaus wasn't just about the daggers, it had to be something bigger. When her theory began spinning out of control, a part of the conversation she'd forgotten amid all of her fear came back.
"It's only fair after what he did to Bea."
With a fake smile, Caroline tried to put Bonnie at ease and said, "I'm going to go try to find something to eat in the woods. I'll be back in ten."
When she sped outside and finally stopped a mile away, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. Scrolling through her contacts, she paused and stared at the one her finger now hovered over.
This could put them all in danger and it would definitely complicate things. But Caroline had to know if they were wrong about Bea, if she was telling the truth. If they kept torturing a woman because they'd guessed incorrectly, Caroline wouldn't be able to look herself in the eye ever again.
When she finally pressed down, the person on the other end picked up nearly immediately. Without waiting a second, Caroline blurted out, "Is there a reason Kol's wife, Bea, would be mad at you? Besides the daggers?"
There was a pause before Klaus responded to her question.
"I was the one who killed her."
As always, please let me know what you think of Kol, Bea, etc. and if anyone seems OOC