ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 3 •

CHAPTER 3 : groundhog day

HER WORDS WERE ECHOED into the new world, the whole population hearing the whispers of Roma's last words. It was still, for these moments, the hot poker even dropping out of Damon Salvatore's hands. For the new arrivals, the boy who called himself Kai was already enough to deal with. Kai, however, had had four months to get used to the two but this- this was a shock. Nevertheless, he couldn't say he wasn't intrigued.

'This is for the good people you have ruined.'

Suddenly, the ground shook as if there was some kind of terrible earthquake, except nothing was falling over and the only thing that had really changed was the piercing white light in the middle of the room. I mean, this was a perfect time to escape for Kai if he wanted to- but he didn't want to. He already knew he was going to have so much fun.

When the light had died down, and the shaking had stopped, all that could be heard was the long, frightening scream of the girl that had materialised in front of them. She was a bunch of limbs of the floor, her head in her hands and her forehead touching her knees. She was shivering uncontrollably as if someone had doused her in ice cold water but the girl was perfectly dry. After a few seconds, Roma rose her head slightly, in order to get a look at her new surroundings. She blinked a couple of times to get the light out of her eyes and tried to focus on the three blurry figures in front of her.

When her vision was back to normal, she blinked to find two men (one of which was bound to a chair) and one girl staring intently at her. Joshua Parker was not one of these men.

No," she began, her voice hoarse from screaming. "No, no, no, no, no."

She tried scrambling off the floor but her legs were still too unsteady and she collapsed back onto the floor again. She heard one of the men say something along the lines of 'woah there,' but no-one made a move to help her. She was in a different place at a different time, when she should be sitting on Joshua Parker's dead body.

"Where is he?" She asked calmly, trying to hide the tremble in her voice.

No-one answered her question. After an uneasy silence, the man who wasn't tied to a chair grumbled and move towards Roma to help her up but once she'd taken his arm and got to her feet, she quickly turned and shoved him hard. He stumbled back and Roma took this opportunity to elbow him in the gut, hard, so that he keeled over. In his moment of weakness, she grabbed his head and placed a knife to his throat.

"Where the fuck is he and where the hell am I?"

The girl made no move to save the head in Roma's hands and the man himself didn't make too much of a hassle. Only the boy who was tied up responded, a big grin taking over his face in a maniacal way.

"That's just it, sweetheart." Roma's grip loosened and she let the man go. "This is hell."

The man sauntered back casually to the other side of the room, creating a distance between Roma and the rest. If anything, he looked mildly annoyed but that's it.

"I'm a vampire so that wouldn't have worked, handsy. Try harder next time."

Roma refrained from saying 'oh yes it fucking would have,' and didn't respond, staring back at her crowd just as hard as they were staring at her.