ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 4 •

CHAPTER 4: the crazy place

IT WAS A HABIT OF ROMA'S to wake up in the middle of the night when she had slept throughout the day. Her body didn't seem to care that she needed the extra sleep, it woke her up nearing midnight regardless. She had been sent to one of the bedrooms furthest away from Bonnie and Damon, not that she cared or complained. Kai, she wasn't so sure about- hopefully they had left him chained to a chair or something. She would not put it past the boy to murder them all in their sleep.

After laying there sleepless for nearly twenty minutes, she decided to go to the kitchen and get herself a drink of water. What she found there was Damon, sitting at the table, staring deeply at his drink. She decided to say nothing and filled her glass wordlessly, not feeling obliged to speak to the man. She was about to leave when Damon spoke so quietly, that with one more footstep, she wouldn't have heard it.

"What's your name?"

She hesitated, then realised that it wouldn't make her seem very trustworthy if she refrained from giving her name. "Roma."

"Roma. What was she like, Elena? How was she?"

Roma didn't know whether it was right to tell him that Elena seemed unbothered about the disappearance and supposed death of her boyfriend and best friend. She also didn't think it was right to lie to his face.

"She was okay. Caroline said she was happy. That she was coping."

A sad smile flitted across Damon's face and it was hard to tell if Roma had said the right thing or not.

"She's wonderful, isn't she?"

Roma hadn't been able to tell from the thirty seconds that they had spoken for. However, she seemed decent, a good first impression as any to Roma.

"She was kind and pretty," Roma said honestly, to which Damon nodded in agreement. He rose from table, drink in hand, to return to his room.

"I'm going home to her soon," he let a small smile come across his face for the stranger, showing his appreciation.

He left shortly and Roma let out a breath, glad the more threatening of those in the prison world had begun to warm to her. She took her drink with her and slipped out of the front entrance, placing a rock between the door so it wouldn't shut. She sat on the doorstep of the Salvatore boarding home, looking up at a sky filled with stars. She hasn't seen one like this for a long time, mostly because she had been travelling through big cities with lots of light pollution. Here, there was no-one and all the cities were empty but the night was full.

She was sat like this for a while, cross-legged and her head leant back onto the bricks. Her eyelids were getting heavy and her body tired.

"Can you shut the door? I'm getting cold."

Kai's sudden request surprised Roma so much that she slammed her head back into the wall whilst she scrambled up. She kicked the rock away and shut the door behind her (slightly louder than she needed to do so, to show her anger). She glared angrily at the boy who was sprawled over the couch, wide awake.

"Why aren't you asleep? In a bed?" She hissed, trying to keep her voice low so that she wouldn't wake the others- if they were sleeping.