Beastly | TVD & TO

1 - Stalking

The unknown feeling coursed through her like an avalanche and sent shivers down her spine in its wake. The goosebumps that formed on her arms were foreign to her in the land without time. It had been years since she felt cold, as she took to living in the warmest region of her old country. Now borders didn't matter, there was no one to patrol them anyhow.

She knew what the feeling meant. Someone new had entered the prison world. Who could they be? Were they members of the Gemini Coven? Maybe it was-

No, she wouldn't get her hopes up. There wasn't a single person who cared about her, who would look for her. The time she had already spent stuck in the prison world was proof enough of that. But who is this newcomer?

She wanted answers and she knew how to get them. Quickly walking to the shelf where she kept her maps, she grabbed one and spread it on her dining room table. She lit a candle and used a knife to cut her palm and let her blood fall over the map.

The spell she chanted out used her connection to the prison world to find any living person. She eagerly watched as the blood split into two dots and spread out to two locations. The first was in Southern Mexico, where she knew Kai was staying at some beach resort. The second led to Virginia, to a town called Mystic Falls. She wasn't sure what business the Gemini Coven would have in Virginia, but she was glad this newcomer wouldn't be in Portland. Kai couldn't do magic on his own, so he would surely go to Portland first. Then he would likely find something to siphon, or demand she do the spell for him. Either way, she needed to meet this person first and get them on her side.

Yet, this person coming from Virginia was also bad news. How long had it been since the Gemini Coven had traveled to imprison someone? How dangerous was this person? Bad enough to travel cross-country to capture, yet not so bad as to create a new desolate prison world. Either way, she would have to be careful when meeting them.

She ran into the bedroom of the penthouse hotel she had been staying in and threw the necessities into her duffel bag. Virginia was far from Las Vegas, where she lived for several years, but she would surely get there much before Kai. That is if he even cared enough to look for this new person. She hadn't seen Kai for 2 years, but he seemed to mentally deteriorate more each time their paths crossed. She had no idea how he'd react to someone new.

Her yellow Porsche Carrera was roaring down the highway before long. The stereo playing an old Beatles CD. She hadn't listened to the band before her time in the prison world, but even after their prime the band's CDs were everywhere, and she grew tired of what had once been popular on the radio.

It took three whole days, only stopping for gas and to sleep, for her to reach Mystic Falls Virginia. She found herself missing the buildings and fluorescent lights of Las Vegas, they brought some life to the desolate prison she was cursed to endure.

Once there, she immediately went to the library. It would be easiest to do a second locator spell rather than trying to find the newcomer while remaining hidden. Before long, she had located a map and identified a residence— The Salvatore Boarding House.

While she walked to the house she contemplated her next move. Introducing herself immediately would be a terrible idea without having any knowledge of who this person was but the consequences couldn't be too bad as she couldn't exactly die in the prison world. The Gemini Coven ensured her life was as tied to the world as Kai's was, so her suffering could be eternal.

She contemplated what she would do if Kai had gotten there first, but that would be impossible. Even if Kai had a magic item nearby to siphon from and perform a locator spell, her drive was much shorter and she knew Kai didn't like flying airplanes after a particularly bad incident involving crashing in the ocean. Kai also knew his Coven's history with prison worlds and would know this stranger could be dangerous.

She paused before approaching the house, this person could be a werewolf or vampire in which case they would hear her if she got much closer. She cast a cloaking spell to make herself invisible and silent before walking to the front door.

Shock jolted through her when a woman's voice yelled, "Damon we got noodles from the store, right?" Was the new woman crazy? Why is she pretending to have a conversation with someone?

"Yeah, should be in the middle cabinet," a man replied. A man and a woman. There were two new people in the prison world.

She quickly realized her mistake. The locator spells she had done used her blood to find any other living person- whether witch, human, or werewolf- but vampires were very much dead. Her spell wouldn't have located a vampire. In which case, there could be more. There was one living person, but any number of vampires could have been brought into the prison world. Had she walked right to her death? No. They still didn't know she was there. She was safe for now.

She quickly retreated down the block and didn't let up her cloaking spell until she entered a house on the other side of town. She quickly cast a species spell, to keep all vampires out of the house she had chosen as her safe haven.

She pulled her map of Mystic Falls back out of her duffle bag; glad she had kept it from the library. She used a new spell that could trace vampires and watched as three dots appeared on her map of Mystic Falls. So, it was just the two and only one is a vampire.

◈◈◈◈◈

The pair did not get along. Watching them for three days without saying anything was truly a showcase of her patience because their bickering was annoying. In the three days of collecting intel, she deduced that the man was a vampire. The way he downed his alcohol was the first sign and his drinking out of blood bad was her conformation. She had thought the woman was human at first, but then she saw her fail several times at performing beginner spells. The woman was a witch who couldn't use magic.

The vampire, his name was Damon, egged the woman on every day. He seemed quite eager to get home to the real world. The witch, Bonnie, lacked focus and patience. It seemed like she wasn't giving the magic a fair shot.

Other than the bickering, the two were quite boring. Damon made pancakes every morning with fake fangs on the blueberry smiley face. Then Bonnie would turn her nose up at it or roll her eyes. They also went to the grocery store every day. They likely just did it for something to do, but does one really need new groceries each day?

Then they'd return home, where Damon would drink his sorrows and Bonnie would fail horribly at introductory spells yet again. It was pitiful. They also didn't even know they were in a prison world, which was strange. They also never mentioned the Gemini Coven or crazy witches. They don't refer to the prison world as a prison, well Bonnie didn't Damon seemed to think the world was his hell. Bonnie on the other hand thought her grandmother brought her to the prison world to save her.

She wondered what Bonnie must've been through to assume her grandmother put her in prison to save her life. Was this better than the real world? Or had Bonnie just personally suffered enough for it to seem that way? She couldn't get the full story just from eavesdropping as the two obviously knew each other well enough before being placed in the prison world.

She decided three days was enough. She had no idea how Damon would react to her, but Bonnie surely wouldn't immediately kill her. Witches were supposed to protect the balance of nature, and murdering everyone isn't how you do that. It had been so long since she could talk to someone, and she didn't want to wait any longer. She will be introducing herself today.

She removed her cloaking spell and took several deep breaths, internally debating with herself, before she raised her fist and knocked on the front door of the boarding house.