CHAPTER FOUR
[EQUALS]
Molly kicked Kai's shin to wake him up from whatever trance Bonnie had him in. His eyes jolted open and he found himself in the living room of the Salvatore tied up on a chair.
He glances down at the restraints, then back up to Molly, who towered over him, angrily. "Let me guess. These were your idea?" He asks, trying to lift his hands up. Before anyone could get a word in, Molly had punched Kai across the face. Sending Bonnie to her feet to hold her back a bit. Kai let out a deep groan, then turned to face Molly again. "Okay, I deserved that." He sighs, popping his jaw back into place.
Molly rubbed her knuckles. "You deserve a lot of shit like that." She says, Bonnie standing behind her.
"Now time for the Q&A portion of the night." Damon sighs, twirling a fire poker in his hands.
"That for me?" Kai nods towards the fire poker.
"Yep." Damon says, holding it out towards Kai's chest.
"Yeah, you don't have to do that." Kai says.
"No?" Damon raises his eyebrows.
"We're on the same team." Kai responds.
"Ha." Molly scoffs to herself and plops down on the couch.
"Really?" Bonnie says, crossing her arms. "Do you always try and kill your teammates?"
"The important thing is that you have your magic back." Kai says. Bonnie and Damon exchange glances. "You don't think I'd actually kill you guys?" Kai raises his eyebrows.
"Yes." Molly stands back up, walking towards Kai angrily. "Yes I do because you hit me over the head with a rock, tied me up twice, and held a knife to my throat. All while repeatedly telling me you were going to kill me."
"All part of the plan." Kai says. "And you healed, you're okay." He smiles at her. "There might be a little— emotional damage, but it worked."
"So you did all that, just to make sure I'd have my magic?" Bonnie asks.
"Of course I did." Kai says. "Because your magic is the key of getting the hell out of here."
"What?" Bonnie narrows her eyebrows at him. "How?"
Kai shrugs, adjusting in his seat a little bit, smiling to himself.
"Kai." Molly says sternly. He glances down at the tape around his wrists, then back up to Molly. "No way."
"Then I guess we'll just hang out here." Kai responds.
Bonnie lets out a huff and walks over to him, opening a pocket knife and beginning to cut the tape off of his wrists.
"If you try anything, I'll rip your head off." Damon says.
Kai scoffs, and rubs his wrists, letting out a sigh. "Alright." He begins. "To get home. We'll harness the power of the eclipse, using a mystical relic called an ascendant. Last time we had it, it was in Oregon."
"We?" Bonnie asks.
"It belonged to my family." Kai responds, taking the pocket knife Bonnie just used on his tape to cut his finger tip. "Here's a little blood to get you started. Now all we need is a locator spell to pinpoint its whereabouts." Kai says, standing up and turning to Bonnie.
Molly narrows her eyebrows at her as he stares at Kai. "You think you can do it?" Molly asks.
Bonnie sighs. "Hell yeah."
—
Molly leaned up on the arm of a couch, tapping her feet impatiently as Bonnie and Kai talked amongst themselves as they worked on the locator spell.
Molly studied Kai's every move. The way he raised his chin at Bonnie as a sort of 'power-move.' Or the way the corners of his lips turned up slightly as he watched her work. Or the way his eyes followed her hands along the map—
"Hey." Damon says to Molly, she looks up quickly and he hands her a glass of bourbon. He sits beside her and they take sips at the same time. "You don't like him."
Molly turns to Damon. "Do you?" She asks.
He shakes his head. "No. But you really don't like him." He says. Molly huffs. "How long did he have you?"
"He knocked me out with a rock last night while you were watching the movie." Molly says, like it was a normal thing that happened.
"Hm." Damon says, tapping the glass on his lips.
No one has yet to ask if Molly was okay.
"It's moving." Bonnie says, Damon and Molly walk over to the table to watch the blood stream across the map.
Molly watches it intently, and looks up after she sees Kai's stare on her. Neither of them look away, Kai just stands there with a smug look on his face. Molly annoyed.
"It looks like it's coming to... Mystic falls..." Bonnie thinks out loud. The candles surrounding them rise. "It feels like it's so close." Molly looks at Bonnie confusedly. Bonnie raises her hand and slowly places it on Kai's chest. "It feels like it's... Right here."
"Oh—" Kai narrows his eyebrows and reaches his hand into the inside pocket of his green jacket, pulling out a small device made of old gears. "Where'd that come from?" He smiles, playing innocent.
"Seriously?" Damon says annoyedly.
"So we set this whole thing up just for you to have it the whole time?" Bonnie huffs.
"It was just another test to see if Bonnie was in the right to shape to perform the spell." Kai shrugs, then glances around everyone. "Pack your bags. We're going home."
"That's it?" Molly says. "Just a spell?"
"Mhm." He responds, coming from around the table and grabbing a backpack full of stuff.
"Then why haven't you done this years ago?" Molly asks. The four of them begin to walk out the door.
"'Cause I'm not really a witch." Kai says.
"You said you were in a coven." Molly responds.
"I'm in a coven, yes." Kai says, holding the ascendant up to the sky, and squinting an eye to look through it. "I'm just a little... Defective." He shrugs.
"How so?" Molly asks. At this point, it was just her and Kai walking along as Bonnie and Damon carried their own conversation behind them.
"You ask a lot of questions." Kai says.
"I like to know things." Molly shrugs.
"I can tell." He says. "I remember one day you were so bored you spent the whole day reading all about east asian pandas."
Molly narrowed her eyebrows at him. "You're a stalker."
"No, I like to know things." He says, shooting a quick smile at her before looking back into the ascendant. Molly almost laughed, but caught herself before she could feed his ego. "I'm surprised you even lasted this long."
"What do you mean?" Molly asks, walking beside Kai down the road.
"I mean, at two months stuck in this place I'd already tried to kill myself three times." Kai shrugs.
Molly swallowed, then clenched her jaw. She felt bad, and she wanted to express that to him. She knows the pains of suicide better than anyone. But she wasn't there with him yet. Even if what he did to her was just 'a part of his plan' it was still terrifying, and she knew deep down it wasn't just a ploy. He knew what he was doing too well.
"—Portland." Bonnie mumbles from behind them. Molly and Kai both glance behind their shoulders to see Bonnie and Damon frozen in place reading a newspaper.
"What?" Molly asks.
"Family massacred in Portland." She points at the newspaper, not breaking eye contact with Kai.
Molly steps forward and takes the newspaper from her. 'Family Massacred in Portland, May 10th, 1994.' She narrows her eyebrows and continues reading. 'The eldest brother is still missing, Malachai, aged 22.' Molly looks up with wide eyes.
"The only one missing is a kid named Malachai." Bonnie says, Damon and Molly exchange confused glances.
"Who names a kid Malachai?" Kai says. "It's like they expected me to be evil."
Molly felt her stomach drop with that all too familiar feeling of terror. "You murdered— all of these kids." Molly says, words she never wanted to come out of her mouth.
"Hello? Not everyone died?" Kai says. He didn't seem phased. "I had a soft spot for one of my sisters, otherwise I would've cut her lungs out. Not just her spleen."
Molly studies his eyes. He really was a psychopath. A real one. A serial killer.
"What?" Bonnie says, choking on her words.
"You can survive without a spleen." Kai smiled as he spoke, like he was proud. And he was. Kai glanced at Molly who just watched him with wide eyes, her fear must've triggered him to continue talking. "Look," he says, pointing at the pictures on the newspaper. "These two— I hung off the stairway railing. And then I put a hunting knife in her abdomen. And him I drowned in the pool. And he kept fighting me— like— I saved you for last... you ungrateful... little..." Kai's words trailed off and Molly tried to prevent herself from picturing all of this happening. "Well that's that." He perks up and continues walking.
"I can't do this." Bonnie says. Damon and Molly turn to her at the same time, with the same expression.
"What do you mean?" Damon asks. Bonnie turns around and begins walking back to the house.
"I mean I'm not performing the spell." Bonnie says.
"Bonnie— you cant be serious—" Molly says as she walks after her.
"I'm very serious." Bonnie says as she reaches the front porch, swinging open the door and walking inside. "I'm not letting a vengeful serial killer back into the real world."
"So instead we're just gonna be stuck in here with him forever?" Molly asks, losing patience.
"Okay I'm not that bad." Kai says as he walks in through the door.
"Bonnie we have to get back. Not only for Elena but for my brother." Damon begs.
"Oh, come on Bonnie, you want to get back and see all your friends," Kai begins. Molly turns to him with an annoyed loon. "And I want to give my entire coven an excruciating death. Win-win."
"As soon as we get back we can lock him up." Molly says. "We've dealt with crazy people before we can do it again." Molly says, walking towards Bonnie. Kai scoffs.
"I'm sorry, Molly." Bonnie sighs.
"Sorry's not gonna work for me." Kai says, charging towards Bonnie and grabbing her arm. But before he could do anything else, Damon had him pinned against the wall in a second.
"Look we may be having a bit of a disagreement right now, but if you lay a hand on her I'll rip your throat out." Damon says angrily.
"Kind of a non-issue now." Kai sighs, glancing out the door. The eclipse, that Molly hadn't even realized was happening, has now gone away. "Rain-check for tomorrow?" Kai asks.
"No." Bonnie says, walking away. Damon gives Kai one more stern look before getting off of him and following behind Bonnie.
"Great job." Molly raises her eyebrows at Kai. As bad as what he did is, could he not have held off on flaunting his murder sprees until after Bonnie had done the spell? Considering he's been watching them for months, he should know that Bonnie's a bit too soft at heart.
"Well now I just get to spend more time with you." Kai smiles, crossing his hands behind his back.
"Just because we're sort of on the same team here does not mean I excuse what you've done." Molly says sternly.
"Don't act like you're so much better than me." Kai smirks. Molly hated that his height over her gave him this sort of 'power move.' Molly was 5'8 and he still towered over her. "I know how werewolves trigger their curse."
Molly clenched her jaw. "That's different."
"Is it?" Kai says, getting closer to her. "We both took human lives." He narrows his eyebrows at her, Molly frozen in place as he stood less than a foot away from her.
Molly swallowed. Was he right? Were her and him the same?
She shook her head. "I won't let you do mind tricks on me." She says, staring up at him angrily.
"These aren't mind tricks. You know I'm right." Kai says. His tone was much different. He wasn't being chirpy or cocky, he wasn't putting on a performance. He felt genuine, but in a bad way. "We're the same."
Molly contemplated his words, before spinning on her heel and beginning to follow Bonnie and Damon out the door. But she felt a tight grip on her arm hold her back.
She spun back around and looked at Kai's hand, then up to his angry eyes. Molly was at a loss for words as the both shared the same expression. "Do you feel guilty about what you did?"
"Not at all." Kai says, without even taking a second to think.
Molly pulls her arm out of his grip quickly, she was going to say something— but she decided it's probably best to leave it there. She heads up to the library without saying another word.