CHAPTER FOUR | THE WORLD HAS TURNED AND LEFT ME HERE
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MORNING HAD COME AND HOPE HAD BEEN RESTORED IN BOTH KLARA AND DAMON. They were headed through the forest, each of them in a overly-preppy mood at the thought of finally going home to their loved ones. Klara turned back around to see Damon imitating a sword fight with a large stick and scoffed. It had been a while since she'd seen Damon truly hopeful— since she had seen them all hopeful.
"You're in a good mood for the first time this decade," Bonnie commented as she listened to Damon's whistling from behind her, then he started to poke her with his stick. The Bennett girl turned around and swatted him away. "Stop that!"
"I have a hot date with my girl tonight." Damon replied, matter-of-factly even though Bonnie was still extremely hesitant to work with Kai.
"Correction: We all have hot dates tonight." Klara corrected in a perky tone as she thought about throwing her arms around Stefan Salvatore's body.
"Yeah, assuming Kai's telling the truth." Bonnie interjected with her usual cyncial tone when it came to Kai.
"I'm thinking dinner and a movie. You know, what? Screw the dinner and a movie, skip straight to the good part." The Salvatore wriggled his eyebrows again as he started poking Klara with his stick.
Klara turned around and attempted to swat Damon away while a sigh left Bonnie's lips. "Yeah, and assuming I can do the spell, which I won't know until I see it." The witch continued to last all the negatives.
The blonde vampire folded her arms across her chest as they continued to walk. "Oh. Ever the pesimist, Bonnie. If it helps, I have every single faith in you."
"Klara's right. Whatever happened to hope, Bon? Remember how I was all like, boo, grr. And you two were like, hooray, hooray. We're getting out of here."
"Look, I wanna go home more than anything, but Kai's a sociopath." Bonnie lowered her tone of voice while she clutched her backpack strap. "Who's to say he won't screw us over?"
"Me. I say." Damon bit immediately while her rested the large stick against his shoulder. "Because I will kill Kai and anyone who comes in the way of me going home." He then extended the stick and pointed it out in front of him.
"I heard my name. All good, I hope." Kai appeared out of the trees with a innocent smile on his face and the Ascendant in hand. "The eclipse will happen directly overhead. In perfect alignment with the Gemini constellation." He turned his head toward Damon. "You need to dig into the tunnels below us. We'll do the spell there."
Klara furrowed her brows as she heard a grunt leave Damon's mouth. "And, uh, why exactly are we doing that?"
"Have you never portal-jumped through an eclipse before?" The boy feigned surprise as he glanced between the three supernatural. "Okay, look, the light of the eclipse will shine down and activate the Ascendant. You spout a little witchy-woo and then, poof— anyone standing in the circle of light holding the Ascendant goes home."
"By witchy-woo, I assume you mean the spell. Let me see it." Bonnie raised a skeptical eyebrow toward the boy. She didn't trust Kai one bit, even more so now that she knew what he was capable of.
"When the time comes." Kai shrugged and then immediately stepped right past them and off into the other direction.
"Where are you going?"
"Into town. I need to gather some important supplies."
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Bonnie and Klara were siting on a rock, staring up at the sky. All they could hear was the soft rush of wind which shook the trees ever so softly—and the sound of Damon digging into the ground beside them.
"Hey. You know, there's a very probable chance you're digging your own grave and... Not bothered." Bonnie shrugged. She glanced down to Damon who eventually stood upright to regain his breath.
"But, uh, could you keep the noise down?" Klara wriggled her eyebrows toward her best friend. "Bon and I are trying to relax, you know? Kinda hard to do when all I can hear is you muttering to yourself like a crazy person."
Damon didn't respond to Klara's sarcasm, instead he grabbed the pick-axe and used all his strength to plunge yet another hole into the ground. Only this time, it went right through and into the tunnels below.
"Looks like I got back just in time." Kai mused from behind the two girls, who turned their heads to see him stood with a smile on his face and a backpack on his shoulders.
Klara sped straight over to Kai and grabbed hold of his backpack. She began to unzip it to take a look at the contents, though it wasn't what she expected. "Zima. Grunge. Loads of weird collectable cards and, a pager. Are you serious?"
"Five-five-five-hi-Kai. No way I'm giving those digits up." Kai grinned toward Klara, though she wasn't the least bit impressed by his comments. She just wanted to leave.
"Those were the important supplies?" Damon narrowed his eye toward the boy out of irritation.
"Look, the future sounds great, alright? I'm super excited about the internet. But, 1994 has been my home for most of my life. I'd hate to get homesick. So, let's get down there—"
"—No." Bonnie immediately interrupted Kai as she got up to her feet. "We are not going anywhere until you show me the spell."
"Okay." He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and remained silent with a shrug. He looked into Bonnie's eyes, a smile on his face, though it was obvious he wasn't telling her anything.
Damon and Klara remained stood beside each other, frowning at the silence around them. "Are we literally not going anywhere?" The Salvatore glared between them.
"Fine. You don't wanna show me the spell. Then you can do it yourself. You want me magic?" Bonnie extended her hand confidently toward Kai. "Take it."
Kai chuckled quietly as he looked at Bonnie's extended arm and then to the two vampires. "Uh, oh. She's being brave."
"I'm serious, Kai. This was your big threat, wasn't it? If I don't do the spell and let us out of here, you'll just take my magic, leave me for dead, and do the spell yourself. So, go ahead. Take all of it."
"Don't mind if I do." Kai shrugged and placed both palms onto Bonnie's upper-arms. His hands started to glow red as Bonnie groaned in pain.
"Bonnie..." Klara trailed off with a worried tone in her voice. She glanced at Damon, who didn't take his eyes off of Kai for a second. "He's gonna kill you. Bonnie, stop—"
Kai released Bonnie finally and let her stumbled backwards slightly. Breathlessly, she glanced back up at the siphoner. "He doesn't know the spell. Which means we don't need him. Motus."
Within a split second, the pick-axe that Damon was using to dug into the tunnel had ended up embedded into Kai's chest. "No! No. Bonnie. Great work, Bonnie!"
"Okay. Right, you obviously did that for a reason. So, what's the plan?" Klara raised an eyebrow toward Bonnie who sat herself down on the mound of dirt and started to flick through a grimoire.
"I think her plan is to kill every single possible way of getting home. Maybe she wants to stay here." Damon commented as he yanked out a bottle and started to pour the contents down his throat. "On the bright side, this stuff's not bad. It's fruity and fizzy."
"Give it here, then." Klara grasped the bottle from Damon's grip and emptied the last few droplets down her throat. "Okay. Not bad."
Bonnie lifted her eyes up to the two vampires that were more interested in the contents of the bottle than anything else. "Could you guys stop? I'm working on something."
"On the not-so-bright side, is your intelligence because you took the only chance of us getting out of here and turned him into a giant— douche kebab."
"Guys, think about it: What prison gives an inmate a key?" Bonnie glanced between the two vampires. Damon looked dumbfounded, as if he were making no attempt to understand. All while Klara looked clueless.
The blonde vampire furrowed her brows toward Bonnie, who obviously had a theory about what was going on. "Explain, please?"
"I think the Gemini Coven used a Bennett spell to create this place. What if that's why my Grams sent me here? The last thing my Grams said to me was to stay strong. What if that was her way of telling me I had the power to get out? I have the Ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from. Plus, a burning desire to get away from Damon." Bonnie explained to Klara, while Damon appeared to be offended by the last part.
"Oh, my God. That's why Kai didn't kill you before." Klara slowly started to let all of the pieces fall into place. "He needed you. He needed a Bennett— you're his only way out."
Bonnie lifted herself up from the ground with a confident smile, while Damon furrowed his brows. "Woah. Where you going?"
She turned around with a smirk. "Home. You guys coming?"
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As the eclipse slowly started to set in, they new it wasn't long before they were able to leave the 1994 prison world. Klara took a deep breath and smiled as she stared up through the clearing of the tunnel. "It's happening, guys."
"Alright. Let's get awkward." Damon excitedly grabbed hold of Klara's hand as they took their places beside Bonnie. "Like this?" The two vampires placed their hands into the Acsendant, while Bonnie nodded. "I'm sure there are about a billion people you two would rather be here with."
"Don't be so sure." Klara smiled toward Damon as he chuckled finally. "Okay. Let's do thi—" Before Klara could even finish speaking, Bonnie flew backwards and against the wall with an arrow in the middle of her chest. The Ascendant flew across the room on impact.
"Forgetting someone?" Kai smirked as Damon and Klara turned around to see him standing with a crossbow in hand. "Did you really think I hadn't tried to kill myself before? Because I had. Lots of times. Lots of ways." Kai noticed Klara eyeing up the Ascendant on the ground and immediately let another arrow fly from the crossbow and into her thigh.
"Ah!" Klara cried out as she dropped down onto the floor. Damon sped over to Bonnie, yanked the arrow out of her chest, but before he could feed her his blood, Kai had ran for the Ascendant. "No!"
The blonde vampire yanked the arrow from the thigh and sped toward Kai. She slammed his body against the wall, while Damon grabbed the Ascendant and tossed it to Bonnie. Damon then sped over to assist Klara once he heard another arrow pierce right through her back.
"Don't touch her!" Damon growled viciously through gritted teeth as Klara dropped to the floor and attempted to yank the wood from her back. He held Kai by his collar, though the boy persisted to plunge an arrow into Damon's chest. "Bonnie, get out of here."
"I'm not gonna make it." The Bennett witch cried out from the ground as she glanced between Damon and Klara. Her wound was still bleeding, and she knew that she had a choice to make. "But you two are." She raised her hand and threw Kai away from Damon, then she pulled Damon and Klara toward her. Once they were within the circle of light, Bonnie tossed the Ascendant into Klara's hold.
"Don't!" Kai screamed out as he watched Damon grab onto Klara, but their eyes were fixed to Bonnie.
"No." Damon muttered. "N—" And with that, Damon and Klara were gone and all that was left was Bonnie and Kai.
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The tumble back from the 1994 prison world was horrific. Even more so knowing that Damon and Klara had both left Bonnie alone with the psychotic freak that was Kai Parker and there was nothing they could do about it. They opened their eyes and were stood in the middle of the Salvatore Crypt. Damon extended his hand and caught a bottle of bourbon mid-air. It was thrown by someone, but when Klara readjusted her vision, she saw the culprit.
Klara's eyes fell to a broken and confused looking Stefan Salvatore. Damon shrugged, glancing between the bottle of bourbon and his brother. "So, what? We're gone a couple of months you think it's okay to waste a perfectly good bottle of bourbon? Fancy a sip, Goldie-Locks?"
Damon handed the bottle of Klara, who shrugged. "Don't mind if I do." She chuckled, though Stefan remained frozen as he watched the two interact as if nothing had happened. "Stefan?"
"Klara? Damon?" He whispered out in a shaky voice. He seemed hesitant to even believe that his girlfriend and his brother were stood in front of him. "How am I seeing you two right now?"
"Because we're not dead, Stefan. I mean this stuff's good, but it's not I see dead people good." Damon chuckled softly as Klara took a slow and shaky step toward her boyfriend. "It's a hell of a long story, brother, but we're back."
"You're back?" A flicker of hope washed over Stefan's face as he opened his arms ready for Klara to run into, which she did. "You're back." He breathed out finally as he took in the familiar scent of the woman he lost.
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