Tempted | Kai Parker

forty: floodgates

Kai's POV

The first night we captured Andie I was sure that if I just tried hard enough, I could get her back.

Her friends told me that it wasn't possible. That she wasn't ready. But my whole life I had been told that things were out of my reach, and I was yet to have found something I wasn't capable of.

That was how people had always viewed me. Incapable. Too weak. Not powerful enough. But they underestimated me. I was capable of much more than most people saw when they looked at me.

And I thought that was the case with Andie too.

I thought it was laughable when her friends told me to wait a few extra days until the hunger started to affect her.

Because - what did they know about what I could achieve?

But two more days had passed, and we were no further forward.

Two whole days of starvation and isolation. Caroline told me that every movement would've been agony. That she would've been in so much pain she hardly would've had room to think of anything else. And yet, she still wouldn't budge.

In fact, if anything she had gotten more stubborn.

And it wasn't like we weren't trying. We were throwing everything we had into it. Caroline and I had even both agreed to set up camp at the Salvatore house for the next few days while we tried to get her humanity back on.

Our plan was essentially that we would all rotate, taking turns to talk to her about emotional subjects until we eventually managed to overwhelm her.

We thought that if we gave everything that we had 24/7 for a day - maybe two, she'd be forced to crack eventually.

But we agreed our 24/7 emotional torture would only work after an extra couple days of starvation - primarily due to my tragically failed attempt on the first night.

Which was impossibly difficult to do, but even I eventually came round and saw that it was necessary.

The two days felt like two months, but this morning marked the start of our efforts. All of our plans rolled into action at six a.m. We had planned to take it in turns. Damon would go first, then Stefan, then Caroline, and finally me.

We figured that the other three would wear her down. Start to slowly chip away at her. And then I'd be able to go in and finally push her over the edge.

And our plan was to continually rotate as many times as it took for her to finally break.

But by the first rotation it was clear that we might've misjudged a few things.

The major downfall in our plan was that none of the others could get her to talk. It didn't matter what they said to her. It didn't matter whether they screamed at her, or laughed at her, or brought up some of her most emotional and traumatic memories. She just stayed silent.

They said she looked like a doll. Like she wasn't real. She just stared out into space with a lifeless look glazing over her eyes.

She didn't even flinch. She didn't acknowledge that they were there even once. It was like she was totally and completely unaware of their presence.

And I initially thought my efforts would amount to the same. That she would only offer me the same stony silence as she had the rest of the group.

But I was wrong.

I could get her talk. Only a little - only when the conversation suited her, but it was something. And a lot more than the rest of them had managed anyway.