She had skimmed through some grimoires of dark witches who had long since had their final breath. Their findings and spells were riveting and fueled her to push through even as her hand started to cramp, and her eyes felt dry. She had to find answers.

She had to know as much as she could. As quickly as she could too. Yet, her resolve was slowly dwindling as she found little of what she was searching for. The wealth of information was great, but her questions had no answers to be found in the texts,

After three hours, Klaus visited the library. He had put a glass of water near her and a plate of cheese and crackers. The expensive cheeses, of course. Everything had to be worth more than a regular person's salary.

As she took a break to snack, she noticed Klaus chose to sit by a window and had a book in hand. The sunlight cast an almost angelic glow against his blonde hair. His blue eyes set on his book.

The embodiment of Lucifer looked angelic. She wanted to roll her eyes but instead kept eating the delicious snack she had been given.

He hadn't looked up from his book when he asked, "am I distracting you?"

She hadn't realized he could probably sense her gaze. She felt her cheeks heat up and let her eyes focus on her snack.

"Not at all."

She should be somewhat relieved. Klaus had been very respectful of her boundaries. He had shown her around the library and then had left for those three hours. Right now, all he was doing was reading a book away from her. He wasn't even engaging with her except when he noticed her prolonged gaze.

It would take a while until his and his family's presence would not cause her witchy senses to be on edge. She had been okay left alone in the library, but she was face to face with her magic not being sure. Emotionally she had changed and because of that, her magic had too. However, the scars of the past were still there. Her magical senses were unsure if he was friend or foe.

After she was finished eating, she was back to the grimoire. Klaus wasn't lying that many used it as a journal of sorts. Alongside spells, findings, and experiences came tales and stories. She started flipping through the pages like a madwoman when a few certain stories appeared. She could hear his low chuckle and nearly threw the grimoire his way.

"I warned you."

"Who the fuck writes about sex and magic?"

"A lot of dark witches." He smirked. "Just stay clear of the back pages and you should be fine."

"Thanks for the belated suggestion."

She closed the grimoire. She hadn't found anything useful about the Other Side. She knew it may be minimal, but she assumed she wouldn't be one of the few witches that knew about it in concrete terms. There was speculation in some grimoires, but it wasn't exactly a concern or curiosity for the average witch whether they be light or dark.

It was nature. Who in their right mind altered nature? Of course, she had to be the one.

Her eyes then went to Klaus. Speaking of altering nature...

"Why did your mother turn you into vampires?"

"Stefan and Damon really don't tell you much about our chats, do they?"

She shrugged. "They only told me what would help me stop you or the others."

"How much do you know?"

"I know your mother turned you and she was the one found dead in the last coffin. Why would you keep your mother's body preserved in a coffin, anyway? I know at the very least you hated her."

"They tell you so little." Klaus leaned back. "Though I suppose Stefan may not have had a chance to. My mother was alive in the coffin prior to your opening. Ayanna had cast a spell on her coffin to protect my mother, but they had made a deal. If her bloodline dwindled to one, she would immediately die if only one opened it. If there were more than one, she would live."

Her brows furrowed. Stefan hadn't told her that part. She guessed he hadn't known the information long before she opened it, but did he have the chance to tell her?

"She agreed to that?"

"My mother was probably under the impression we would protect the Bennett witches. I believe Ayanna did too. Not a much different arrangement than Damon and... Emily, correct?"

She nodded but wondered how he found out about that. Maybe Stefan had told him while under compulsion?

"I suppose Ayanna never foresaw her descendants would have their own opinions on the matter. Ayanna's own daughter wanted nothing to do with us after her death." He closed his book. "Anyway, my mother turned us into vampires because my little brother Henrik died brutally to werewolves. She became petrified of death especially the death of her own children."

"I never saw any of this in her grimoire."

"Want to create a new vampire race?"

"As if." She sighed. "But it makes me wonder how she figured out how to create immortality."

"I don't know. The only person who could know is Ayanna. You could ask her."

"I can't."

A regular witch could contact their ancestors and converse with them. Ask for helpful advice, maybe. Yet, the only person who had talked to her was Emily and it had more to do with Damon than her. At first, it hadn't bothered her. When Grams had died, it weighed on her. Why hadn't she talked to her through the Other Side? Why hadn't her mother? Had she failed her whole goddamn line that no one not even Emily would talk to her now? She would carry on doing what she needed to do, but it still left a wound in her heart. In her moments of need, silence was what awaited her.

"You can't?"

She shook her head. She grimaced as her vision started to blur. She shot up and wanted to run to the bathroom, but Klaus was in front of her within a second.

"Here."

She wanted to laugh. Klaus was handing her a handkerchief.

She felt raw. Exposed. The tears were rushing, and her emotions were pounding on her to let them out. Soon, her emotions rushed past her barriers as they crumbled. She couldn't stop the words from coming out. Honesty poured out of her as did her pain.

"Emily only visited a few times, but it was to talk to Damon or about him and Stefan. Besides that, no. No one talks to me even if I try to contact them first." She took his handkerchief and wiped her tears. "I know to you when we fought, I was the fool. Who puts their life on the line for friends who treats them like a tool? But they were all I had. If I turned away, what would my mother or my Grams' death mean?"

"I understand... Trying to make someone's death mean something."

"II try not to let it bother me, but somedays it lingers."

The tears were evidence of it. She didn't want it to, but her emotions damned her. The lack of contact had made her journey less clear. So many moments she could have used her ancestor's advice or even company. It was not the silence that bothered her the most. No, it was the loneliness. Knowing her cries fell on deaf ears. Before her change, she could cry from her car to her room with no interruption. No one to ask if she was fine. No one, dead or alive, saw Bonnie after she left school unless they needed her to fix something. She could scream in her living room for hours and no one there to console her. Alone.

And in those dark moments, she yearned to see Grams' ghost. She wanted to hug her as Grams told her it'll be okay. She wanted her Grams there with her, but she was taken away from her like her mother by an untimely death due to the ones close to her.

"It never goes away," he admitted. "It's always there at your lowest points. The what-ifs come rushing in and you analyze everything all over again. But you can't change the past. No one can. But one is not stuck in hell forever."

She handed back his handkerchief. "It feels like I'm almost always in hell. Everything else feels like a distraction... But thanks."

Him seeing her cry and then telling him the truth of her anguish had left her exposed. Right now, their bodies were near enough to touch. She couldn't have him be this close. This moment shouldn't have happened. She should have kept her guard up.

It felt wrong. Their closeness felt intimate. She shouldn't be like this around Klaus and yet, she was. He seemed to understand her pain enough to put it into words. He had been the one to console her. He didn't minimize it or dismiss it. He understood.

The pain in his eyes made her see Klaus differently. She was forced again not to see him as just an ally or a monster with a leash. He had felt a similar pain. He had emotions in all their complexity. She saw the humanity in him.

"Maybe you should take a break from reading? Does a house tour sound nice?" He brushed the hair out of her face. "At least nice enough as a distraction?"

When she nodded, he offered his arm. She exhaled but took his arm. As he guided them out of the room, she slowly but surely began to rebuild the walls she desperately needed to keep him from seeing more of her raw emotions.

Yet, even she knew there were now holes in those walls.

-X-

A woman with long raven black hair and ebony skin resided on a cliff with rocks and a river below. She adorned fine ancient silks dyed the color of gold. A dark Greek goddess one could guess she was. She was closer to godhood than witchhood. However, she was not powerful enough to escape her prison. A prison within the Other Side. One of many, but hers was the first. A prison unlike any other.

The serene scenery would make one believe she was in paradise, but she was in fact in hell. A hell she had known for a very long time, but soon she would escape. Time was her only true enemy at the moment. But she waited. Her time to strike would arrive and she would feel her first breath again.

A lowly pack of witches came over to her. How predictable... The older Spirits sent the young ones to do their bidding. How pathetic.

One brave enough witch shouted, "you will rot in this cage for the rest of eternity unless you agree to work with the Spirits."

"If you think this prison will hold me for much longer then you must not know who I am."

"You're the creator of the Other Side."

She smirked. "Very good. At least they tell you that much."

"All you are is just a Bennett witch."

"I am the Bennett progenitor." She looked up as dark clouds quickly formed. Despite not being able to access all of her magic, she could still mess with her prison if her emotions were peaked. "And you dare add 'just' near the name of a Bennett? A bloodline with no equal? Even the weakest ones could kill all of you."

The witches having finally taken notice of the storm brewing looked at her with fear. They vanished in the next moment causing her to laugh. All of them would know true hell once she escaped. She'd have her revenge.

"I will be with you very soon my loves..."

She would change fate no matter the cost for her two soulmates, Silas and Amara. She would escape to awake them then she would exact her revenge.

She turned back to the river and waved her hand. An image conjured from its rushing blue currants. The image contained a young woman, similar looking to her, gazing at a lush garden. Despite the beauty the young woman was surrounded by, her eyes held a deep sorrow. A sadness she knew well.

"I may be the first of our kind, but you are the last, Bonnie."

If her descendant could hear her now, she would offer her good luck. Yet, the fact they had the same goal and power as one another...

Qetsiyah chuckled. "Do Gods need good luck?"