AN: Sorry for the delay. Enjoy.
"Bonnie."
Bonnie eyes fluttered open as she felt cold air brush the nape of her neck. A dreamy smile stretched across her lips and she shuddered feeling goosebumps dance across her body. She had thought that she had closed the window before she had went to bed earlier that night, but judging from the way her nipples were beginning to harden and body began to shiver, she had more than likely forgotten. Sighing softly, the exhausted Bennett witch rolled over to snuggle closer to Enzo in an effort to seek warmth, but was startled to find that the vampire wasn't lying next to her. Her confusion deepen and her eyes widened when she discovered that she wasn't in her bed. Instead of being safe and warm in her own home, she was sprawled out on a dusty floor inside of a room that she didn't recognize. The artwork on the walls was covered with water spots, blood splatter and dust and the furniture was all turned over, torn and broken.
"Bonnie."
"Where am I?" she wondered as she licked her lips nervously. Her mouth was dry and her head felt fuzzy like she had been sleeping for weeks.
Forcing herself off the floor and onto her feet, she stumbled towards the door, desperate to get out of the mystery house and find Enzo. As her hands curled around the golden door handle, she tugged it open gently before stepping out into what appeared to be an empty foyer. Bonnie suddenly had the eerie feeling that she had been there before. Moving past the staircase, she walked into the living room and felt her breath catch as she was hit with a startling revelation. She was at the Lockwood's Manor, but something was off. The place looked like it had been destroyed. Blood and water was leaking from the ceiling causing several puddles to form across the floor. Paintings had been torn off the wall, furniture was knocked over, and the air reeked of blood and death. There were books scattered across the floor and picture frames that were shattered, torn and blotted with specks of dark blood.
Who would vandalize the Lockwood Manor and why? Bonnie wondered as she looked around the living room for clues.
Her curiosity deepen as she came across a pile of photo's sitting in the darkest corner of the room. As she squatted down and began to look through the images, Bonnie's confusion deepened as she realized that none of the pictures were of Tyler and his family. Instead, all of the photographs were centered around Elena. Elena smiling with Matt and Caroline at party, Elena and Damon engaged in a passionate lip lock, Elena and Stefan laughing on the back of a motorbike. There was even a picture of Elena with Alaric, Josie and Lizzie. None of the pictures included Bonnie, and she found that both strange and hurtful.
"Don't feel bad. I didn't make a special guest appearance in "The life of Elena Gilbert" photo collage either."
Bonnie whirled around and found Tyler Lockwood standing behind her with a smile and his arms folded. He was shirtless and wearing tattered pants with stains that suspiciously looked like splotches of blood. While a small part of Bonnie was excited to see her old acquaintance, but the more practical side of her was wary. The last time she had been face with the handsome hybrid had been at the Armory when had nearly killed her while trying to rip Damon's throat out. Even though she hadn't blamed him for what had been an accident, Bonnie had become terrified of Tyler and had kept a healthy distance from him.
"This isn't possible," Bonnie said slowly as she observed him with morbid curiosity, "You're dead."
He snorted rudely before turning his back on her and walking across the room.
His boots caused the mixture of water and blood to splash nosily as he stomped over to the granite table and lifted himself to a sitting position on the edge of the piece of furniture. The moonlight was shining through the broken window on the East side of the room illuminating the stoic look his face as he directed his heated gaze towards Bonnie.
"I'm dead and you are roaming around my abandoned house in the middle of the night," he murmured flashing all of his canine's while his eyes briefly trailed across her barely clad body. "You went through a pretty traumatic experience tonight. You shouldn't be surprised that you are suffering some mental after affects."
Bonnie bit her bottom lip softly. She wasn't prone to sleep walking, so she knew that her climbing out of her bed and trudging half way across town like a mindless zombie was unlikely. She also canceled out the option that would suggest that she was suffering from hallucinations which would have explained Tyler's presence. The only other logical explanation was that she was dreaming or she was having a...
"Vision," she mused aloud, "You being here with me in this house is a vision."
Tyler clucked his tongue and nodded in confirmation.
"Bingo. Your dinivition and your subconsciousness are merging together in your third cycle of REM state. Everyone that you are interacting with are just a manifestation of the mind. In lament's terms, the people that you are seeing aren't exactly real, but the events that are to come will be," he explained simply.
Bonnie made a move to take a step towards him, when she felt her bare foot sink into a puddle of thick crimson liquid. She felt her stomach turn when she looked down and found that she was standing ankle deep in blood. She swallowed deeply forcing herself not to think about who the blood had previously belonged to. Instead she decided to focus on the task at hand. The sooner that she could get answers out of Tyler, the sooner she could get the hell out of the little house of horrors.
"I take it that you are here to warn me about something," she pressed impatiently.
He shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. "I am, but let's be honest. What's the point? Whatever I tell you is going to fall on deaf ears because you are not going to let anything stand in the way of saving your little friends."
Bonnie narrowed her eyes as she heard the bitterness and judgement in his voice.
"You say that like it's a bad thing. I'm not going to stand here and feel bad because I do whatever it takes to protect people," she said defensively.
Tyler rolled his pink tongue across his lips as he stared at her with anger and rage in his dark brown eyes speckled with golden hues.
"Those people are not your friends. What kind of friends make a decision whether to kill you or not by flipping a fucking coin? What kind of friends would allow you to continue to sacrifice and put yourself in harms way for them? What kind of friend would choose to desiccate rather than hang around and help look after you?" he demanded angrily as he slid off the table and towered over her, "For god's sake, Bonnie. Open your eyes. What is it going to take for you to get it through your head that you are better off without them? You already lost your grams, your father, and your mother? Who do you have to lose next? Matt? Enzo?"
His callous words cause anger to ripple through Bonnie and she shoved him causing him to stumble a couple of steps backwards.
"How dare you?!" she thundered, her olive green eyes flashing angrily.
Tyler growled loudly before grabbing her wrists yanking her roughly to his chest.
"As long as you continue to play the martyr to Elena and the Salvatore brothers, you will continue to lose the people you love and one day you will wake up and find yourself alone with nothing but faded memories and piles of regrets," he warned his warm breath fanning across her cheek as he glared down at her, "Is that what you really want?"
"Let go of me," she hissed snatching away and glaring at him murderously.
"I'm just trying to give you a heads up, Bennett," he sighed softly.
"A heads up about what?" she snapped.
"Stefan."
Bonnie stared at him confused.
"What about Stefan?" she asked warily.
He stared at her as if he wanted to say something important, but he bit his tongue. A look of frustration and sadness flashed briefly across his dark face.
"All you need to know is that you can't save him and if you try, you will lose everything," he said quietly.
Bonnie shook her head. She knew that she should heed Tyler's warning, but something inside of her refused to listen to his grave warning. If Damon was capable of redemption, then so was Stefan.
She turned to leave when his voice stopped her abruptly.
"There is something else that you need to know," he taunted softly in a sing song voice.
Whirling around, she was fully prepared to tell him to go to hell when the words died on her lips. His eyes were no longer their usual color and shape. Instead, there were twice their regular size and solid black. He flashed forward nearly knocking her off balance as he invaded her personal space.
"The great awakening is coming." His breath fanned across her cheek as he stared down at her intensely. "Are you ready?"
She blinked and when she opened her eyes, he was gone.
She felt her breath catch as she heard the distinctive sound of a wolf's bone chilling cry off in the distance.
Feeling more than ready to get the hell out of Lockwood Manor, Bonnie was making her way to the front door of the house when she heard strange noises coming from upstairs. Halting in her retreat, she cocked her head to the side and listened closely. She detected the sounds of soft humming, girlish giggles and a masculine deep moan. It was obvious that other people were in the house, but the question was, who were they and what were they up to?
Against her better judgement, Bonnie began to make her slow ascension up the stairs.
With each step that she took, she unknowingly left bloody footsteps in her wake.
Bonnie dug her nails into the soft flesh of her palms and hoped that whoever she encountered next would be a lot more helpful than Tyler Lockwood had been. Arriving at the top of the staircase, Bonnie proceeded to make her way to the room where the sounds were becoming less muffled and more distinct. Pushing the door open, she opened her mouth to speak when the sight before her left her speechless. A woman with shoulder length hair was sitting perched on top of a man, but the room was dark and their faces was hidden. From the way they continue to murmur and converse, it was obvious that they were completely unaware of her presence. The sound of lightning crashing somewhere near by caused Bonnie to jump, and glancing out the window on the opposite side of the room, she noticed that the light drizzle from earlier had evolved into a full on rainstorm. Looking around the room, she couldn't help but notice that white lilies were blooming out of the wall. Despite the fact that flowers appeared fresh, the room still smelled like decay, sex and death.
"Oh god," the woman whispered hotly, "Go deeper."
As Bonnie moved closer, she could see the milky white flesh of the lovers pressed together as they engaged in passionate intercourse. She tried to catch a glimpse of their identity, but the shadows from the dark room was doing a great job of shadowing their faces. As they continued to moan and wither against each other, Bonnie begin to feel like a voyager and decided to leave the room before the couple noticed that they were no longer alone.
"Welcome to the place where all of the magic happens."
Bonnie lifted her head to see a figure emerging from the shadows and she felt a jolt of surprise and confusion when the mysterious stranger revealed themselves to be Anna, Jeremy's ex. Her brown hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail and she was wearing a leather black jacket and funky purple and black strip leggings.
"Talk about your plot twist," the Asian girl laughed enjoying the look of shock on the other woman's face. "I bet I'm the last person you expected to see."
"Of all the ghosts, of all the realms, why am I seeing your face," Bonnie asked not bothering to hide the contempt in her voice.
"The answer is both quite simple and somewhat complicated," she sighed sitting on the edge of the bed and pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on her right knee cap. "I am here to warn you about betrayal."
Bonnie felt a couple of choice words threatening to spill from her lips, but her face remained hard and neutral.
"I was the girl who plotted with Ben and convinced him to flirt and pretend to like you before kidnapping you and holding you hostage. I was the girl who Jeremy cheated on you with when I was nothing more than a ghost," she pointed out looking somewhat remorseful. "You associate my memory with betrayal."
"So you being here means that someone close to me is going to betray me," Bonnie walked across the room and stared out the window mesmerized by the fury of the rainstorm. "Great."
Anna laughed and shook her head.
"I'm glad that you find people turning on me amusing," Bonnie said coldly.
The dead vampire observed her curiously.
"When I told you that I am here as a warning of a betrayal, you immediately painted yourself as the victim. You couldn't begin to wrap your mind around the fact that you are capable of betraying someone," she said bluntly.
Bonnie stared at her like she had suddenly sprouted a second head.
"Excuse me?" she sputtered incredously.
"Sometimes life comes at you hard, Bonnie. Some of the most purest of hearts have had weak moments and have fallen into temptation," she said with a soft look of understanding in her eyes, "No one is perfect."
"You don't know anything about me. If you did, you would know that I am loyal and I would never betray the people I care about," she said caustically. "I have protected the people I love time and time again and I have never turned on them."
"Yes, you have a track record of protecting your little supernatural squad, but at what cost?" she started.
Bonnie rolled her eyes. "If you are about to rattle on about my loss and sacrifices, save your breath. I don't need a reminder," she said snidely.
"If you already know these things, why are you not do anything to change them? You don't strike me as someone who is insane, but I'm dead and I'm not really here so what do I know?" she said sweetly.
"Of course I'm not insane," Bonnie huffed.
"Are you sure?" Anna eyebrow arched slightly. She hopped off the bed and made her way over to Bonnie with a serious look on her young face. "Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You keep putting Elena's and the Salvatore's salvation above your own needs and the result is the same every single time. You make sacrifices that involves the loss of people you care about and each time a little bit of your own happiness slips away." When Bonnie remained silent, Anna sighed and offered her a genuine smile. "Here's a little piece of advice. Betrayal isn't a bad thing when it comes to self preservation. If and when it comes down to choosing between your life and Elena's or Damon's or Stefan's , it's okay to chose yourself." Anna walked towards the exit of the room and paused in the doorway before looking back at Bonnie, The great awakening is coming, Bonnie," Anna murmured, "Are you ready?"
Bonnie felt a shiver dance down her spine as Anna parroted the same eerie words that Tyler had said to her.
As Bonnie continued to wander through the halls of the Lockwood Manor, she felt herself feeling a sense of frustration and hopelessness. Talking to Tyler only made her feel guilty and talking to Anna had irritated her. What was the purpose of this vision if she was only talking to people who pointed out problems, but failed to give solutions that would not have to make her break ties with the people she cared about?
The sound of faint praying caught Bonnie's attention as she made her way back downstairs.
"Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus. Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen."
Bonnie walks in on a priest on his knees in front of the fire place. He has the black and white collar secured around his neck and clutching black Rosary beads in his left hand.
Sensing her presence, he slowly rose to his feet and faced her. Bonnie gasped surprised.
"Pastor Young!"
"Hello, Bonnie. It's been a long time," he said smiling with a nostalgic look on his face. In his hands, was a burgundy bible with the golden letters 'Holy Book' inscribed across it. "I remember when Sheila and Rudy had you baptized in the my church. When I held you, I remembered thinking that you were the perfect symbol of Christ's love."
The haunting tone in his the pastor's voice caused the hairs on the back of her arms to stand up. While she hadn't been much of a church goer, she always gotten a bad vibe whenever she would cross paths with Pastor Young back when he was alive. He had always seemed cold and detached and had a sinister aurora around him despite the fact that he was a man of the cloth. There was a dark hatred that he possessed that had festered beneath the surface.
"Let me guess," Bonnie sighed, "You're here to warn me about how my loyalty to my friends will somehow cost me my soul?"
Pastor Young observed her strangely before laughing softly.
"I'm here because a great cleansing is coming. The scourge that defiles our precious town is about to be wiped from the face of the Earth and God's judgement and wrath will fall upon the wicked and the damned," he said quietly.
Bonnie blinked and stared at him confused.
"I don't understand," she said softly.
"You have lost your way, my child," he murmurs as he shakes his head in disappointment, "You have let those demons use you and defile you. You have strayed from the path of righteousness."
"Those demons are people that I care about," she started defensively.
"They are an abomination," he shouted angrily causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. He glared at her with such disgust and contempt that Bonnie was unable to bring herself to look him in the eyes. "They prey on the innocent, they have spilled the blood of the innocent, they have feasted on the flesh of the innocent. You have had the power to stop them and to end them a long time ago, yet you align yourself with the wicked. You turn a blind eye to their depravity! Why have you forsaken the people who needed you the most?"
Bonnie swallowed the lump of tears that had formed in her throat. Tyler had warned her about Stefan, Anna had warned of betrayal, and now Pastor Young was fanning the flames of her guilt and self loathing. Even though she had forgiven all the vampires in her life of their past sins and transgressions, a part of her carried the burden of guilt for all the broken lives that they had left behind in the wake of their blood lust and vengeance. She tried reasoning with herself that she had done the best that she could when it came to her powers. She had prevented hell from being unleashed on earth by keeping up the veil, she had saved her friends from being caught in the destruction of the other side, she had bought Jeremy back from the dead, she had saved Elena countless of times. As she counted all her acts of heroics and sacrifice in her head, deep down she knew that none of it mattered when it came to the innocent lives that she could have saved, but didn't.
"Why did you forsake the people who needed you the most?" Pastor Young repeated, his voice quiet and filled with sadness.
"I...," she started, but trailed off brokenly.
"It was because you were weak," he finished for her. He approached her and stopped when he was standing inches away from her. Taking her chin between his thumb and index finger, he gently tilted her head back so that she was forced to look him the eyes, "You were weak and people, good people, suffered. You have a chance at a redemption. You have the chance to once again walk in the light and leave behind the darkness. All you have to do is let them go."
Bonnie tensed and jerked away from his touch. Pastor Young had tried appealing to her guilt in order to lead her to accepting the fact that letting go of her friends was the right thing to do, and it had almost worked.
"I will never turn my back on them," she said stubbornly as anger began to warm her chest.
"You stupid and foolish girl," Pastor Young cursed as he gritted his teeth and glowered at her hatefully, "Your obsession with that girl and harem of vampires has rotted you to the core and you are so blinded by loyalty that you can't even see the irreparable damage that they has done to you."
"I'm not obsessed with them. I care about them because them because they are my friends," Bonnie growled, "You are so blinded by the hate you have for all things supernatural that you can't even see that hate isn't the response to darkness. Only love can drive out darkness and my love for Elena, my love for my friends is something I am not going to let go because you don't think they are worthy of it."
"It's clear that you have chosen your side. I am here to warn you that The Founder's Counsel will rise again and you and those demons will fall and you will burn with them," he hissed hatefully.
"You mean like my ancestors burned when the first Counsel lynched them for being witches?" she retorted coldly.
Pastor Young fell silent and glared at her seething.
"You can stand there in your collar and clinging to your rosary and good book, but at the end of the day, you are just as much of a monster as they are, but in my opinion your kind are worst. Your kind lynched my people for being different. Your kind murdered in the name of the Lord. Your kind passed your hate and you sickness down from generation to generation, so don't stand there and tell me I'm going to burn," she said evenly, "If the Founder's Counsel decides that they want to come for me and my friends, my friends will tear them apart and you will watch them burn."
"All of this because you refuse to let those demons go," he said, his voice soft and hollow.
Before he could say another word, Bonnie turned her back on him and bolted towards the exit of the room.
"Don't forget that HE is your redeemer. HE is your savior. Those heathens that you try so desperately to protect. THEY will be your downfall." He bellowed after her angrily as he shook the weathered Bible towards the heavens "The great awakening is coming. Are you ready?"
As she stumbled into the hallway, she cried out as she stumbled over something solid and soaking wet and landed on her hands and knees. As she moved to get back to her feet, she found her hands pressed against a hard chest. She felt her head swoon as her gaze fell upon Matt's bruised and paled face. He had a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead and his blonde hair was caked with blood. His brilliant blue eyes which were usually filled with warmth was now lifeless and his mouth was left open forming a silent "O". Several feet away from the Sheriff's body was the rigid bodies of Caroline Forbes and Alaric Saltzman. The blonde vampire had a stake sticking out of her chest causing blood to drench her pretty yellow blouse and Alaric his neck was snapped causing his head to twist at an odd angle. Her hand flew to her mouth trying to suppress the sob that was threatening to escape. Scrambling to her feet, she fought the urge to scream. The images was so jarring and horrific, that Bonnie felt her stomach lurch and clearing the staircase, she ran into one of the rooms upstairs and vomited in a crystal vase.
"You can't save them, Bonnie," a soft feminine voice caressed her ear, "They have gone to a place where you cannot possibly follow."
Blinking back tears Bonnie stood up and whirled around to address her latest visitor who was none other then Elena herself.
Elena was sitting in a chair that stood six feet high on top of a cushioned seat that spanned a full yard. It's immense claw feet rise, flanked by winged creatures and regal sentinels gave off a haunting and dark disposition. She was wearing a black Tulle sequin beaded sweetheart mermaid dress and her hair fell around her shoulders pin straight and luxurious. She was the picture of unspoiled perfection. Behind the massive chair stood Damon and Stefan who wore blank and apathetic expression on their faces. They were shirtless and barefooted and wore nothing but tight black trousers. The cold look in their eyes chilled Bonnie to the bone, and she forced herself to tear her eyes away from their faces and instead focused quietly doppelganger in front of her.
"Why?" Bonnie asked brokenly, "Why did you do all of this? Why did you destroy everyone we cared about?"
"You thought that you could take what belongs to me," she said quietly, her voice calm and deceptively sweet, "You thought that you would take my place and command the loyalty, the affection, the respect of the two men that I had first."
Bonnie shook her head confused. "I don't know what you are talking about Elena. I would never betray you."
Elena smiled gently.
"You are a lot of things, Bon, but you were never a great liar," she said softly, her face filled with sadness. "I know that you have feelings for them. You can lie to yourself, but you could never lie to me."
She rose from her dark throne and slowly advanced towards Bonnie. The air became thinner and colder with each step that she took. "Everything that will happened is the result of your blind loyalty to me...to Damon. To Mystic Falls."
Bonnie felt light headed and confused. Closing the distance between them, Bonnie reached down and grabbed Elena's hands in hers. They were surprisingly soft and warm.
"I can still save them," she said hoarsely, "I can still save you.".
Elena laughed gaily, and the sound was pleasant and familiar that it caused Bonnie's heart to twist in her chest. Snatching her hand out of her grip, Elena looked over her shoulder and smiled in the Salvatore's direction.
"Subdue her, my loves."
Before Bonnie could blink, Stefan had his arm link through one of her arms, and Damon had mirrored the same action. Both brothers mechanically placed a hand on her shoulder forcing her down to her knees.
Bonnie struggled to shrug them off, but felt her vision blur as the air to her lungs became severely constricted. It took her several seconds to realize Elena was strangling her.
"You are weak, helpless and desperate. Desperate to be loved. Desperate to be good enough. Desperate to be needed." She said her voice brittle and hard. Bonnie tried to speak, but was unable to as Elena's finger tightened around her windpipe. "You will always be the sad little girl trapped in my shadow. Never moving forward and always willing to serve at my leisure. How does it feel to be so embarrassingly pathetic?"
"Elena, please," Bonnie choked violently, "You don't have to do this."
"Everything that you have witnessed here shall come to past and there is nothing that you can do to stop it, and do you want to know why?"
she whispered cupping Bonnie's face in her hands, her brown eyes sparkling with unshed tears, "Because you need to learn your lesson. Your sacrifices mean nothing. Your loyalty means nothing. You mean nothing."
Damon and Stefan releases Bonnie and rejoin Elena standing proudly by her side while glowering down at her coldly. Bonnie trembled as her hands flew up to cradle her bruised throat.
"The great awakening is coming," she murmured triumphantly, "Are you ready?"
#
Bonnie's eyes snapped open and she sat up in her bed gasping and trembling uncontrollably. The angry red numbers on the alarm clock sitting on the dresser read 11:56. She had been asleep for six minutes, but the vision had felt like she had been sleeping for hours. Glancing down at the slumbering vampire next to her, she breathed a deep sigh of relief when she realized that she hadn't woke him. Moving gingerly, she laid back down and stared up at the ceiling feeling her heart race a million miles a minute inside of her chest. Bonnie didn't want to believe that what she had witness in the vision would actually come to pass, but she knew better than to ignore the warnings. Why did Tyler, Anna, and Pastor Young appear to her to warn her about Elena and the Salvatore brothers? What did they mean when they mean that a great awakening was coming? How was it possible that so much chaos, loss and destruction would come by the hands of people who she cared about and who cared about her? None of it made any sense and the entire thing was leaving Bonnie with conflicting feelings. Feeling her eyes grow heavy, she drifted back into a deep sleep, but as she tossed and turned she was consumed of nightmares of Elena, blood and death.