thirty-eight. a bird in a gilded cage
Salvatore Boarding House
Damon is sitting in an armchair in the massive living room, looking tense and annoyed, along with Rosie and Stefan, who are sitting closely together. A car engine is heard nearby before Isaac opens the main door and walks in.
"You don't live here." The eldest vampire in the room pointed out, doing nothing to conceal his annoyance as he was ignored, "How was the rave?"
"Oh, you know, loud, lame, rave-like." The emotionless one finally replied.
"Anything we should know, or anything you'd like to talk about?" The icy blue-eyed older vampire brother asked in a passive-aggressive manner.
"Where do you guys keep your weapons?" The youngest one looks around.
Puzzled by the sudden out-of-topic question, Damon shares an odd look with Rosie and Stefan before he gets up and walks over to him, "Pardon?"
"Crossbows, vervain grenades, all that hunter crap Jeremy was into? Ah! Yes! The throne." Isaac walks over to a chair and opens a hidden compartment full of weapons underneath the seat; he packs some lethal weapons into a duffel bag. Damon vamp-speeds over to Isaac and tries to inject him with vervain, but Isaac catches his right hand before he can do it; Isaac sighs in a genuinely tired manner, "Elena told on me. Shocker."
"Not a good time for a humanity flip, Newton."
Isaac breaks his hand and he drops the vervain syringe, "Do yourself a favor. Stay out of my way today." He walks out through the exact main front door and closes it behind him as Damon snaps his right hand back into place.
Damon, Rosie and Stefan hear Isaac drives off in his silver Mazda and the eldest vampire amongst the trio throws a vase to the floor in frustration. Later, Rosie walks back into the parlor room to find Stefan, tired and puzzled, watching as Damon is striking several furnitures with an iron poker.
Rosie called out, also deeply concerned, "Damon. What are you doing?"
Stefan turns around to face her, "He's looking for a...healthy outlet for his rage." His brother uses the poker to knock down a lamp, shocking the girl.
His lovely girlfriend frowns at him in confusion, "How's that going?"
Damon spoke up without facing either of them, "I haven't found it yet. Add Isaac without his humanity on the list of problems we have at the moment."
His self-righteous vampire brother nods a little, "Which means every day that goes by is one year of guilt waiting for him on the other side."
"Yeah. Well, not to add to our growing list of problems, but we didn't just lose Isaac. We lost our chance to spark Caroline's humanity. Turns out, he was her emotional trigger." Damon offers her the iron poker, "No thanks."
"Get that thing away from her." Stefan protectively demanded him.
"Well, take it away from me. Because I'm seconds away from using it on this." Damon grabs the digital camera that Bonnie brought back from the prison world; Rosie takes the poker from him and sets it down before glancing at the still-frame of Damon and Stefan's mother on the screen.
Rosie recognizes the familiar woman immediately, "Oh my God. Is that..."
"This...is Lillian Salvatore — your dead/not-so-dead future mother-in law." Her frustrated vampire ex-boyfriend labeled his own undead mother.
She looks up at both brothers with a smile, "Your mother is alive?" She takes the camera for a closer look as her boyfriend stands beside her.
"Yep. Turns out, she's been in a prison world snapshot of 1903 for over a century." The eldest vampire amongst the trio pointed out in annoyance.
"Wow. The last time I saw her, I swear she looks exactly the same." She said, "But on the bright side, at least your mother is still alive, as a vampire."
"Oh, yeah. Alive and well. Not in the pine box that I thought I buried her in in 1858. And apparently, she's not just any kind of vampire either — she's a Ripper, Rosie. Makes perfect sense. Stefan was always such a mama's boy."
Rosie looks up at her own boyfriend, who smiles sheepishly at the information, "Remind me how much of a mama's boy you are again?"
Stefan shakes his head in denial, "We don't have to touch on that--"
"He would have hanged himself with mother's apron strings if it meant her approval. We both would. We loved her. She was our world." Damon spoke.
Rosie smiles cheerfully at both of the brothers as she has an idea.
Stefan observes his lover's all-too-familiar face, "What?"
"I've got an idea. Speaking of mothers, Isaac's never met his because she died in childbirth. All we have to do is ask a witch to cast an illusion spell."
Damon frowns at the idea, at the mention of magic, "What? No. No way."
"You sure that's a good idea, baby?" Her concerned boyfriend asked.
"This is our way to get Isaac back! You can't tell me that his dead/not-so-dead mother isn't an emotional trigger under an illusion spell."
"Rosie, this woman killed so many people that an entire coven of witches built her a permanent timeout! You don't fix one problem by unleashing a bloodthirsty Ripper." Her alarmed ex-boyfriend reminded her of failure.
"Think about it. If this works, we don't just get Isaac and Caroline back. We get your mother back. Aren't you even a little curious to see her?"
Stefan and Damon share a look of approval and reason in defeat.
The latter sighs tiredly, "I might know a few witches that could help."
****
Whitmore Coffee House
Bonnie is sitting at a small table for two people with a reluctant Kai, who's deeply concerned about Minerva's condition, by her ongoing psychological turmoil, who is now soundly asleep again at her cleaned up dorm room.
"You want the 1903 ascendant? Well, sure. Just let me reach in my pocket and pull it out." Kai takes the mystical relic out and slams it on the table.
"Careful with that." Bonnie advised with a serious frown.
"I'm sincerely looking for a way to keep Minerva alive and well and happy, so this is it. Okay? The problem is, the Gemini kept the existence of the 1903 prison world a secret for generations, so find the key to that particular jail cell, I'd have to navigate ancient texts, undo layers of magical cloaking spells, and...here it is. When Damon told me about Mama Salvatore, I started looking." The younger witch reaches for the ascendant, but Kai pulls it back as he continues, "And if I wanted to, I could get her out. Newly minted leader of the Gemini coven and all, I don't even need a celestial event to zap us there." He sets the necessary ascendant back on the table.
"Us?" Together? The necessary Bennett witch asked, puzzled.
"Okay. Here's the catch: I'm going with Minerva."
"Wh-- she drugged herself and smashed her mirror--"
"Definite signs that the poor little pipsqueak's mentally ill. All she needs is to have fun, and 1903 can be fun, right, the-the Gilded Age. I'm sure girls like her dream about time travel before, and girls like you too." He smiles.
"You sure she wouldn't rather just die of cholera than spend an afternoon with you? Because I would." She smiles in return at a sarcastic manner.
"You're way more likely to die at the hands of your gal-pal Caroline. I bet it will be over something stupid, like, she stops doing laundry, and you make some snippy comment, and she snips off your tongue. I mean, if only there were some way to reunite her with her humanity." The young man spoke.
Bonnie is contemplating his decision to travel to 1903 together.
****
Whitmore College, Auditorium
Caroline is auditioning in front of the young male director, who is taking notes, on stage as she sings, "Maybe there's somewhere, a lesson to learn. But that wouldn't change the fact, that wouldn't speed the time. Once the foundation's cracked, and I'm still hurting." She wipes a fake tear off her left cheek and turns off the slow music, "Hello? Pretty sure I crushed that." As a sophomore drama major, to be precise, she's actually doing extremely well.
Suddenly, the director's head falls off, revealing that the emotionless Isaac is sitting behind him. He slow claps in the big dark shadow in the room as his best friend shields her turquoise eyes from the light to see who it is, "Moving. Truly. Although it did lack a certain, um, authenticity." As if.
Her eyebrows furrow, "What the hell are you doing? That was the director!"
"And you are a vampire without humanity, singing about heartbreak." Ironic.
A scoff of ridicule escapes the golden blonde, "It's a performance, Isaac."
As Isaac speaks in a stone cold manner, he gets up and walks down the stairs toward the stage, toward her, "It sure is, Caroline. Especially this carefully crafted good student routine, straight and narrow, anything to keep you from making a mistake you might regret one year from now when you flip your switch back on. Oh, except the whole ruining my life part."
"Well, if your humanity's off, then you shouldn't really care how I deal."
"No, no, no. See, that's where you're wrong. Because, like you, I'm prone to doing bad things when my humanity is off like an ordinary vampire would, but unlike you, I don't have an elaborate system to keep me in check."
The Forbes girl smiles at him sarcastically, "Well that's not my problem."
"Well, I'm making it your problem. If my life is going to fall apart when my humanity starts flooding back, then so is yours. When I'm done with you, you'll be drowning in mistakes." Her partner in crime vowed mischievously.
Caroline, absolutely offended, walks toward him in a challenging manner and looks at him incredulously, "This is seriously about revenge? Really?"
"Yes, it is. And this?" He holds up his hands, which are covered in fresh human blood, "This is a control freak's worst nightmare. This is me undoing your routine. This is me..." Isaac wipes blood onto her lips, causing her face to vamp out, "...forcing you to let go, one day at a time, until you break."
He walks out of the auditorium with a genuinely pleased smile.
****
Salvatore Boarding House
Kai Parker steps into a guest bedroom upstairs, in which Minerva is sitting on the comfortable big queen-sized bed with her hazel eyes shut, consumed in her own deep thoughts, hence he gently mentioned her while he is holding a folded warm navy-coloured fur collar hooded long but thick slim coat, "Hey, unless you want to freeze to death, I suggest you wear this." Considering it's going to be freezing with snow in the 1903 prison world.
Minerva Devon opens her big eyes to look at him, "Do I really have to go?" She doesn't even have the interest to even know about Lillian Salvatore; let alone travel in time to go back to the early twentieth century of her town.
"You're going to love it, trust me." Kai advised and puts the coat on for her before he sits next to her, "Just like how you're thrilled with my 1994--"
"I'm not." The Devon girl asserted with attitude, "Time travel is lame."
"Well, I'm going to take that as '1994 is lame'. But come on, this is 1903. Pretty sure it's much more interesting than the nineties." He encouraged.
Minerva rolls her eyes and gets up to reach her satchel placed on the study table which she rummages for her pills, with little success that she starts to look around the desk for it until she looks at Kai, who remains on the bed.
"What are you looking f--"
"Where's my pills?" The banshee snapped.
"What?"
She speed-walks up to him as she repeated the question assertively about her medications; Kai remembers about the antidepressants hid safely by Bonnie to make Minerva's condition better; he maintains an oblivious but indifferent expression right in front of her of the urgent mention.
"What pills?" Kai said as he has decided to play dumb.
"Damn it, Kai, you know what pills I'm talking about! I can't lose them! They're supposed to make me better! I have to be better--"
"Those pills are the reason you're this way."
"What?" Minerva, who is on the verge of crying, whispered.
"Hey, hey." Kai gently holds her and urges her to sit again, "Remember what you told me? You can cry, because it's okay. I know this is hard, and if you need to be upset, you should let yourself be. Let them out, go on."
Minerva is already crying, which he holds her close into a warm embrace for solace intentions, gently rubbing her arm for more comfort while softly shushing her that they are seated in silence, gasps and hiccups leaving her.
"I'll be right here for you. I promise." He loves her; Kai gave her his word.
The room door then opens by Damon, who is about to call out for Minerva when he finds her wrapped in Kai's warm arms, which he purses his lips at.
"Hey Damon. This will only take a minute." The witch assured him.
"I don't even want to know." The vampire walks back downstairs to the living room, where Bonnie is awaiting them impatiently and anxiously.
"What the hell is he doing? We can't do the spell without him."
"Somebody's heart broke, and it ain't mine." Damon notified.
Bonnie sighs, Minerva. "Let's just hope his idea of fun will work."
"Yeah, you're not the only one who needs our banshee to function well again. Honestly, I hate to see her ruining her own life too." Damon admitted.
"Let's just pretend you actually care about her, okay?" She bitterly said.
"See, that's where you're wrong. Because, like you and our time playing Family Guy in land 1994, it gives me the chance to do good things with the both of you. It makes me care, so thank you, Gemini." He reminded her.
"If only she's okay so we don't have to travel to this other prison world." Bonnie sighs in genuinely deep concern, "Because Isaac's problem is also hers. And if her life is going to fall apart the moment she took those drugs, then so is his once his humanity is back. Seriously, it's like the three of them are going to drown in mistakes, and that includes Caroline too." Bad.
"I'm pretty sure no-humanity Isaac is doing this about revenge. Because he knows that if he goes down, so does Blondie." Damon shrugs it off.
"Hey. We're ready." Kai walks into the room with Minerva next to him.
They are all dressed in attire for colder climate. Bonnie grabs a large knife to cut her left palm with and draws blood for the spell to travel to 1903.
"Damn. Crocodile Dundee called. He wants his knife back." Kai mentioned in hopes to cheer the caramel brunette up, who doesn't say anything.
"Yeah. You know, he's no longer a thing, and neither is that joke." Bonnie uttered instead as she smiles sarcastically up at him in a smug manner.
"Ouch."
Bonnie sheaths the sharp knife and drips her blood on the ascendant. Elena then walks in, also wearing a thick winter coat which she mentioned about.
"Is this presentable attire by 1903 standards?"
"Whoa. Who said you're coming?" Damon asked in clear concern.
"To meet the woman who gave birth to the epic love of my life? Me."
"Oh God, it hurts." Minerva sighs heavily in a tired manner.
"What?" Bonnie asked as she looks at her in transparent concern.
"The sound of her talking." Minerva points at the vampire doppelgänger.
Kai smiles at the displayed tactless manner, "Powerful as I am, there's a limit to how many people one witch can transport with this spell."
"Right, which is why there's two of you." Minerva glances between him and the young Bennett witch, "Goody. Can we go now please?"
"Fine. Let's go get Mama." Damon said.
Everyone joins hands while Kai began to chant, "Sangiema meam et nos mundo carcerema..." Everyone is transported to the 1903 prison world without the ascendant; they are outdoors, near the woods in a snowy Mystic Falls. It remains daylight, and the group all looks around at the scenery.
"Well, isn't this a picturesque slice of hell?" The oldest one remarked.
"You guys go ahead." The merged Gemini twin contended with a nod.
"I'll start the locator spell on the ascendant." The Bennett girl announced.
"But Kai just had the ascendant. Why do we have to find another one?" The younger vampire asked as she maintains her gaze on the ex-sociopath.
"The ascendant can't travel between worlds, which means we got to find it's mirror image here in 1903." The Gemini coven leader simply explained.
"Page ten on the world-jumping rule-book. Shall we?" Damon sarcastically spoke before he starts to walk toward the old Salvatore boarding house.
"Wait. So, we're leaving Minerva with him?" His concerned girlfriend asked Bonnie, who's watching their banshee friend walking to the woods with Kai.
"Honestly, I don't want to leave her alone with him either. But I believe she'll be fine. He's good now, remember? New leaf." Bonnie voiced.
Elena leaves to join Damon while Bonnie is alone to start the locator spell. A few moments later, Kai is catching snowflakes on his tongue as he looks up while a moody Minerva is watching him that he giggles as he stops and turns to her in hopes that he can cheer her up. They remain in the woods, though not too distant from Bonnie, who is grimly locating the ascendant.
"This isn't working." Minerva reported that he hums in question by the comment and she folds her arms, "Whatever this is. It's no fun."
"Well, what'd you want to do? Just stay here and catch snowflakes until Damon comes back? Probably not, 'cause that's going to be really boring--"
"I want my pills. Please?"
Kai sighs, looking at her in sympathy, "Tell you what? Why don't we build a snowman instead? Or, a castle made of snow. I mean, when was the last time you ever did so, right? And it's not like you do this everyday, so--"
Minerva interrupts him by throwing a snowball toward him, giggling a bit when she sees his truly surprised expression that Kai laughs in response.
"Okay, you're on." Kai quickly makes his own snowball and throws it toward her, who tries to avoid it in which they start playing it together while running deeper into the woods, having a snowball fight; Bonnie opens one of her eyes to peek on them and smiles as she continues to chant.
Minerva seems to freeze in her movements when Kai's snowball finally hits the back of her head, which he laughs at and raises a victory fist.
"Okay. So does that mean I win?" He retorted, "Mins, you okay?"
"Yeah. I just remembered how boring this game really was."
"Mmhmm. I guess it's time to build Mister Snowman then." Kai, who feels bored, starts to do so right after he kneels down on the snowy ground while she looks down at him, gathering some balls of snow. After a moment, Minerva kneels down to join him, who smiles as he watches her for a moment, "You have no idea how much effort it took to build one on your own. I mean, Jo's not really an outdoors person when it comes to winter, so I usually go out with my brother Joey. Separately, obviously. He's the one who would usually build an ever bigger snowman than mine to beat me."
Minerva doesn't reply as she gathers the snow in concentration. Kai smiles as he recalled her sweet advice, "Even if you don't want to talk right now, I'll be here when you do." She pauses in her doing and looks at him as the handsome young man laughs slightly, "You have really nice eyes. Cute."
"Charming." Minerva proceeds to build the snowman with him as a pair.
****
Whitmore College, Dormitory Building
Caroline is peacefully alone in her own dorm room, working on a homework at the study table, when she suddenly hears a distinct noise nearby.
She looks up in wonder and looks around, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
She hears another clanging noise and finally gets up to see what is going on; it's Isaac, who's messing around with a soda machine in the main hallway.
She frowns at him in annoyance, "Damn it, Isaac! What do you want?"
Isaac pretends to grab a soda can, "Uh, I brought you a little peace-offering. I figured with all that singing, and furnace-stuffing, you must be parched."
He pulls the pin from a vervain-grenade and throws it at her. She doesn't realize what it is quickly enough to move out of the way, and is instead thrown backward with the force of the toxic explosion. She falls flat on the floor of the main hallway as sharp shattered glass rains down on her and the skin on her face and hands sizzles from the toxic vervain. Isaac walks toward her in determination and grabs a piece of wood from the stairway railing to use as a sharp stake before he straddles her on the floor and flips her over.
"Now, see, this is how a vampire with no humanity is supposed to act! I am inflicting actual pain!" Physical; the older vampire snarled down at her.
The younger one groans in pure agony underneath him, "Leave me alone!"
"Why? You thinking about giving in? Letting go? Breaking your code?"
"Isaac, stop!" Why is he doing this to her? Isn't she supposed to be his friend? Perhaps this is the darker side of Isaac King she never knew.
"Come on, Caroline! Just let go! I promise it'll feel good."
"I am not going to let you ruin my life." The blonde snarled back.
"Okay! Then I'll end it." Isaac raises the makeshift stake and is about to stab her with it when Caroline vamps-out, bites his right wrist, and uses his distraction to flip him over and stake him in the stomach with it instead; the twenty-two-year-old emotionless vampire shouts in his own agony now.
****
1903 Prison World
In the woods of the latter's snowy hometown, Kai and Minerva enter a small shed in which they both found large quantities of firewood and an old wooden chair to which the former checks the stability of it before allowing the younger latter to sit down, which she slowly does and smiles at him.
Kai sighs in relief, "That was fun." Minerva hums in response and he sits on the floor, not too far from her, "You okay?" She only looks at him and he smiles awkwardly, "Right, sorry. Wrong question there. This is great, isn't it? Nice shed. Warm. It reminds me of my friend's back in Portland. It's like, we had this whole garden shed to ourselves, you know? It's where we're free to do anything, but I doubt that shed's still standing. I mean, I hope it still is. But what does it matter anymore now that all my friends are dead?"
"So why don't we go there?" To the shed; Minerva finally suggested.
He looks up at her in surprise, "Wh-- you want to go to Portland?" Oregon.
"Don't you?" The Devon girl scoffs, "I mean, it's still your family home." In which Olivia Parker remains now, along with Joshua, with their own coven.
Kai thinks it over as he slowly smiles at the idea, "Sounds like a plan."
"I used to go to a shed too, back when Caroline's dad is still around." Along with the cabin, Minerva recalled with her big hazel eyes shut, "But people move on, and the shed's burned, so...All that's left is the memories."
"A shed back at Caroline's dad's cabin?" Kai recalled as she hums weakly.
"Luke almost died there." Minerva laughs slightly, "He was kidnapped, tied up, and Enzo ignited a rapid fire which truly ends my childhood shed once and for all. All thanks to Damon, who killed the love of his friend's life."
"I'm sorry." The young man holds her bandaged left hand, the one injured earlier by the broken shards of sharp glass of the mirror but is now healed.
Minerva opens her big hazel eyes to look into his blue-gray ones which are sympathetically looking up at her that after a moment of silence, she leans in for a short kiss as his other hand holds her face. They pull away for a while before another kiss is shared, more intimately and passionately this time.
Malachai laughs a bit when they slowly pull away, "You bit my lip."
"I love you." Minerva softly expressed, meaning each and every word.
Kai gently strokes the side of her face before he leans in to place another kiss in response. Though she is the one who slowly lets go and stares at him.
"I meant my apology." He remarked, "Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be here, and I can't have that, because my guilt keeps me up at night. After what I did to you, and Bonnie, and the rest of your friends, I know that I'm the main reason why you're this way, and I'm really sorry. I don't-I don't expect you to believe me. But I need you to give me one more chance. I understand if you don't want to, and I'm not forcing you to, but--"
"How many more false promises am I going to hear?"
Kai guiltily frowns, puzzled, "What? Minerva, I'm not-- I'm trying to say that you're okay to feel how you do. That I'm here for you. I'm allowing the moment to be yours. But I really am sorry for anything I did that hurt you."
Forgive and forget. Minerva nods a little.
****
Whitmore College, Dormitory Building
Alaric, being the reluctant one, and Enzo, the determined one, have just arrived to the main building, in which the latter, holding a crossbow owned by the retired vampire hunter, leads them both inside prudently. The former is holding a stake-shooting rifle, and cocks it as he follows behind him.
Elsewhere in the building, Caroline is dragging Isaac's unconscious body through the main hallway, the stake remains buried severely in his stomach. After a moment, a girl, seemingly a sophomore, in a field hockey uniform and carrying a field hockey stick comes into the building and sees Caroline.
"What are you doing?"
Caroline freezes in her place for a moment before turning around and dropping her unconscious best friend's left arm on the floor, annoyed by the unknown girl's presence, "What are you doing? It's called 'spring break'."
"It's called practice." She notices that the young man has a sharp piece of wood severely in his stomach, which alarms her instantly, "Is he okay?"
The Forbes girl sighs in more annoyance and walks toward her, "He's fine."
Suddenly, Isaac wakes up, pulls the makeshift stake out of his abdomen, and throws it at the girl; it embeds itself into the unexpected girl's stomach, and Isaac looks almost bored as he stands up and walks toward them.
His controlling best friend scoffs in frustration, "Nice going, you jackass!"
She pulls the stake out of the girl's stomach and bites her right wrist to feed her her blood to heal the poor human.
"Second lesson in losing control-- No. Saving. Strangers. Duh." Isaac's face vamps-out and he vamp-speeds over to the blonde to pull her away from the girl drinking her blood, but Caroline anticipates it and hits him upside the head with the makeshift stake, knocking him onto the floor.
Caroline forces the girl to look her in the eyes so she can compel her, "Go to your room. I'll deal with you later." As the girl runs away, Caroline addresses him, "So, to summarize, 'letting go' means being an idiot, increasing your chances of getting caught, and worst of all, actively making choices--"
Isaac suddenly cuts her off by vamp-speeding over to her and shoving her against the nearest wall. He covers her mouth with his right hand and puts a finger to his lips and he quickly shushes her to remain silent. He looks down the main hallway, where Alaric and Enzo are following the trail of dry blood and shattered glass into the next room. Enzo has his crossbow raised, armed, and is about to check another room when Alaric sees another vervain-grenade rolling down the steps. Alarmed, Alaric turns toward Enzo.
"Uhhh, Enzo?"
Enzo turns and sees the grenade as well; he sighs, "Bollocks."
He grabs Alaric by the leather jacket collar and vamp-speeds them away from it just as the grenade explodes, just barely missing being hit by it.
****
1903 Prison World
Bonnie is walking through the snowy woods as she calls out for Minerva and Kai, silently hoping that her best friend is alright. She stops when she finds a small snowman which was built by the two and she smiles at the thought. Honestly, that's the cutest thing she has ever seen. Bonnie thinks of something as she stares at it before she hears murmured voices coming from the nearby small wood shed. Slowly, she prudently walks over to it and decided to eavesdrop closely by leaning against the closed wooden door.
"It's been a while. I think we should go back." Kai mentioned.
"You sure?" Minerva asked as she looks at him.
"Mmhmm. Bonnie must've found the ascendant already."
"Okay." The Devon girl gets up from the old wooden chair.
"Thank you." Kai suddenly said, meaning each of the two words.
Minerva looks up at him cluelessly, "For what?"
"You, believe that I'm capable of change, that's why you agreed to spend an entire day with me. Having fun with me out there in the snow. I mean, I could gut you, just like what I did to Bonnie, but you believe that I won't, so I won't, because I am truly grateful for having someone to believe in me, for the first time in a very long time." And that's why I love you. He expressed.
An uncomfortable though touched Minerva sighs as she looks up at him, "You're welcome. And maybe you're right. Maybe, deep down, I do believe that there's a sliver of good in you. And I hope Bonnie sees that in you too."
Kai smiles gratefully, "You do. Why though?"
"It won't rain forever." Minerva opens the only door to find Bonnie standing there, who looks awkwardly speechless that she's been caught.
"Bonnie, hey, you found the ascendant." Kai casually mentioned and grabs it, examining the mystical relic, "It's cool, isn't it? Where'd you find it?"
"It doesn't matter. We got to go, now." The necessary Bennett witch leads the way out of there in hopes they will meet the others again quickly.
****
Whitmore College, Dormitory Building
Caroline has just found Alaric and Enzo unconscious on the floor by the grenade attack, with the vampire laying face-first on top of the human's body. Caroline shoves Enzo off of the man, and he falls lifelessly to the floor beside him. She stands back up when she sees Isaac approaching them.
"At least they're still breathing."
"Aw, Damon and Stefan must be up to something really good if they sent the B-team." He picks up another broken piece of wood off of the floor and waves it in the air, "What do you say we send them a little message?"
Caroline picks up Alaric's stake-shooting gun and aims it at Isaac in defense.
He resists the urge to laugh at her, "What are you doing?"
"Stopping you from leaving the cleaning staff two dead bodies. Not to mention, killing Elena's former guardian and your friend's best friend. Did you like being locked up and tortured to get your humanity back?"
Isaac finally laughs patronizingly at her, "It must be so exhausting, over-thinking everything." He walks toward her in a daring manner, "Denying your own urge to kill." He pushes his puffed up chest right up against the end of the stake-shooting rifle, "Just be done with them."
Caroline cocks the loaded gun and glares at him, "Back. Away."
Her best friend sighs in disappointment, "Fine. If that's what you want."
He flips the stake he's holding onto the floor and walks out of the room all by his own stone cold unpredictable self. Caroline, looking confused and a little disappointed in herself, drops the loaded gun and chases after him.
"Hey!"
Isaac kicks the closed door to the field hockey sophomore girl's dorm room, where she is sitting on her bed, still clutching her severe stomach wound and looking scared to see him. Caroline follows him, looking exasperated.
"Where are you going?"
The older vampire pulls the poorly compelled girl to her feet by the arm and grips her shoulders tightly as he shoves her toward his controlling best friend, "You think I don't know everything about you?" He flips the girl around so she's facing him and compels her, "Stay still, and don't scream."
"What are you doing?" Caroline asked in an unamused but calm manner.
"The thing that you keep resisting, of course."
Caroline watches, partly in horror, and partly in envy, as Isaac vamps-out and bites into the girl's neck, feeding deeply on her blood, right in front of the control freak. Isaac looks up at Caroline as he feeds viciously on the sophomore, clearly enjoying the fact that she seems so tempted, and after a moment, he pulls away, blood dripping down his face, and smiles at her.
"If you're trying to tempt me, it's not working."
"I don't have to try-- deep down, you and I are exactly the same, Caroline. Come on, you can break routine for a second, right?" He spins the poor girl, who is swaying on her feet, around so she's facing his blonde best friend. His right hand is holding the girl's head to the side so her throat is bared to her, and he smiles cutely at her, "She has a really pretty neck."
Caroline looks even more tempted as Isaac bites into the other side of her neck and feeds on the girl. He pulls away again and looks up at Caroline with a dazed expression, and after a moment, Caroline's face vamps-out before she vamp-speeds over to him and begins feeding on her as well.
Isaac backs away and watches in pleasure as Caroline drinks the girl's blood, and when she's finished, she throws the girl onto the floor and lunges for Isaac and begins making out with him passionately. She vamp-speeds him against a wall as they make out, and she starts pulling off his leather jacket. Isaac takes the lead and shoves her against the soda machine and takes off her jacket as well as she starts to unbutton his jeans, and once she's done, he lifts her up and wraps her legs around his waist.
****
Salvatore Boarding House
Kai is about to walk past a guest bedroom down the hallway upstairs when he overhears Rosie speaking to Lily in there, who is sitting behind the desk, staring at the computer's screensaver that slightly resembles the Aurora Borealis. Rosie has set some fresh sheets on the queen-sized bed for her.
The younger one smiles in genuine sympathy for her, "Whole world runs on those things. It's called the Internet. The sooner you learn them, the better."
The older woman smiles at her in return, "Maybe you could teach me?" Considering she has always been intrigued with the Kartwright women; she was, after all, close with Astrid Kartwright, being the hybrid's own mother.
The caramel brunette starts making the bed for her, "Uhh, that's more Stefan's thing. But we're kind of busy with our current predicament."
"I see." Her boyfriend's mother walks toward her, "Stefan was right. The night of my funeral, an angel did visit him-- me." Her son's girlfriend looks at her in utterly genuine surprise, "I had just turned, and...I wanted to see my boys. But when I leaned down to whisper into Stefan's ear, the hunger surged. All I could hear was the pulse in his veins, all I could smell was the blood. So, I fled. For their sake. And, no matter how deeply they felt my absence, it is half as deep as I felt theirs. Can you understand that?"
Rosie nods in understanding, "I do." She pauses for a moment as she only stares at her once-future mother-in-law, "I'll let you get some sleep."
She turns to walk out of the room until Lillian stops her, "Rosalin?"
The mentioned girl sighs and smiles warmly, "Call me Rosie, please."
"Rosie. As much as I am looking forward to us getting to know each other again, I fear that I can't truly be myself until we retrieve the ones that I've left behind." Her friends; the woman informed her as a slight ultimatum.
"Oh. Right, your traveling companions." She rephrased from Damon earlier.
"Yes, they're my family. When will we be going back?" Lillian asked, worried.
"Soon. But don't worry-- your prison world's not going anywhere." Rosie's warm smile remains before she walks out of the room; as she does turn to go, Kai instantly cloaks himself so that Rosie couldn't see him, indicating that he has watched the whole scene between Rosie and Lily curiously.
Meanwhile, in Minerva's bedroom at the other end of the upstairs hallway, Bonnie is with her, both girls sitting on the big queen-sized bed and Minerva is now comfortably in her red short silk nightgown with flower lace.
"You want something to eat?" Bonnie asked and her best friend only shakes her head in response, "You didn't even have lunch. I don't believe that you're not hungry right now. I'll just get you something to munch on--"
"You don't have to be so busy, and I seriously just need to sleep the day off because today is tiring. Really." Minerva yawns, tired, "Where's Kai?"
"He's probably eating, which you should be too." The young witch shrugs, "And I can't believe Damon's living under the same roof with his mom. Honestly, she's beautiful, and he has her eyes." She smiles at the thought, "Looks like you're tired from having fun out in the woods with Kai, huh?"
The young banshee smiles weakly as her big eyes close, "We kissed."
A surprised Bonnie tries to not make it obvious that she is, "Is, that good?"
"As long as we're honest with each other, yeah." Minerva sighs tiredly.
"Y-You love him?" The genuinely curious Bennett girl said after a moment, only to get no response as the tired caramel brunette is already asleep.
Kai shows up at the doorframe of the room, watching them. Bonnie covers her best friend with the warm blanket and gets up to go when she sees him. He shyly smiles at her while she forms a tight smile at the same time.
"I liked seeing that side of you today." Bonnie admitted reluctantly.
Kai makes a look of surprise and disbelief of the comment, "What?"
"Compassionate and protective? It's not everyday you're seen like that."
Kai slowly walks closer toward her, "You think I'm capable of change?"
"I think you can cheer Minerva up, and possibly, get her back to normal. She keeps talking about you the minute we get back." The young adult spoke.
Kai looks at the sleeping banshee, "I love her, and I think you know that."
"Just give her some time to get better, okay? Because I know her better than anyone else and she is not this person. She's actually a real optimist, but I guess, sadly, she just lost hope." A sad but sympathetic smile appears on his handsome face at that, "It's never a waste of time to look for the good in someone. I hope you can find the goodness inside of you, Kai."
Kai scoffs, "I slaughtered my siblings and spent eighteen years in isolation as a sociopath. I think we're going to be looking for quite a while." Sadly.
Bonnie smiles up at him in sympathy while Kai sighs in a hopeless and tired manner and she pats his puffed up chest before walking out of the room.