ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 7 •

CHAPTER 7: bitter boys

ROMA DID NOT LEAVE THE TUNNELS because as much as she despised Kai Parker, she didn't like the feeling of loneliness more. She had been alone for the past couple of years and it'd twisted her into a bitter version of herself- she didn't realise how much she missed company till Damon and Bonnie had gone and she was sitting besides a dead boy. At one point, when she remembered that her calf was bleeding, she scrambled over to the Bennett grimoire that Bonnie had left in the rush. It contained a simple healing spell that she used fairly easily, leaving nothing more than a faint scar.

It was when using the grimoire, that a brilliant idea sprung to her mind. She wasn't helpless- she had the biggest store of magic this world had ever seen, a Bennett grimoire, the ascendant and Bonnie Bennett's blood covering her hands. Give her some credit, this girl was clever. She took her blade, wiped Kai's blood away on his own t-shirt and drained a little power (since her magic that she took for robbery had dwindled after using the healing spell).

"Veni," she whispered, letting the euphoric feeling of magic take over her system. "Satis."

Now, she had to fix the ascendant. That was the hard part. Her hands were shaking slightly and she had no clue what piece went where. It was like the hardest jigsaw puzzle that she had ever done, except she was running out of time before a psychopath (who was probably going to be very angry at her) woke up. So she gave up and formed an alternate plan: she could put all the pieces of the ascendant in her bag and run away, hiding from him till the next eclipse. But getting out of the hole was another real issue- she was sure there'd be an easy way through the tunnels but she wouldn't waste her time trying to look for one. Why didn't anybody bring a goddamn ladder?

Also, if the blood on her hands dried, then she was done for- she had so many things to do at once and no idea how to do it. To her absolute delight, she had chucked the Zima bottle down here (littering is bad), which she picked up tenderly, careful not to wipe the blood on her hands away. Again, using the grimoire, she flicked through to find a spell she knew she had seen before; a blood gathering spell. With Bonnie Bennett in mind, she started the incantation.

"Venez sanguis, venez sanguis, venez sanguis la force de la bête à moi."

A certain amount of blood rose from Roma's hands, and from the blood on the tunnel floor. It was a small amount but it was enough and it concentrated into the Zima bottle. It would spill if she tried to place it in her backpack so she used her magic to lift it carefully above her head and onto the flat ground above- she could only hope that she had placed it down upright and it hadn't spilled.

Then it came to the matter of the ascendant. She had no time to fix it now (as she found out before, when she realised that it wasn't so simple to fix) so she scooped it into the front pocket of her bag, careful not to break any of the fragile pieces. She was wrong when she said that repairing the ascendant would be the hardest part- it was climbing out of this damn hole. There was no way in hell she could reach the edge of the ground, no matter how high she jumped. She was trying for a good 10 minutes before she had the bright idea to 'motus' herself (if that was possible) to gain some height to her jump.

It turns out she could, just not very well. This skill took her even longer to master, and she was trying for so long that she had to draw more magic from her blade to continue on trying. After being thrown against multiple walls, headbutting the ground and nearly snapping her own neck, Roma finally managed to lift herself high enough with a 'motus' to grip the edge of the hole. Unfortunately, the ground was crumbly and Roma continually struggled to hold on, especially with her backpack weighing her down. She tried her hardest to swing her legs up and over but to no avail, so she was left dangling for a while.

Roma realised she needed to use magic again, but didn't know whether she could hold on with one hand to allow the other to mimic the movements needed. Suddenly, before she could make a rash decision, she felt a pair hands grip her feet and pull her down, hard. She fell with such force, landing straight on her back. Her head had been knocked onto the stone ground so hard that her vision blurred and she was pretty sure she could hear her brain knocking around her skull. Kai Parker, neck unslit, entered her hazy vision and this time he was not smiling.

"Is she gone? Is Bonnie gone?" His voice was low and full of unleashed anger.

Roma attempted to get up, get away from him but the moment she lifted her head, she felt warm blood trickle down the back of it and a pain like a thousand needles stabbing her cranium. She attempted to raise her hand to use her magic but with her head pulsating like it was, it was too difficult for her to concentrate. In response to his question, she nodded slightly and let out a small murmur of indication- and the look on his face was that equal to the rage of a god, thunderstruck and full of wrath.

"FUCK!" He screamed, in a moment of weakness, pounding his fist against the tunnel wall. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!"

Roma would fear him if she could see him. She was waning in and out of consciousness, lying flat against the floor. Vulnerable.

"Do you know what you've done, you stupid bitch?" All of sudden, Kai was upon her. He hissed this maliciously, grabbing her leather jacket and almost spitting his words. "You let them leave and now, we're never getting out of this hell- fuck you!"

He pushed her backwards harshly against the cold floor again, worsening the damage to her head. A little dribble of blood left her nose and Roma knew she was dying then. She hadn't ever died before but the prospect of it had crossed her mind a couple of times. After all, who else in the world knew there was a definite chance of them resurrecting after dying (apart from Kai)? Roma had been curious but she never carried it out. Now that she was here and dying, all she could think was: oh god, it hurts.

"Although I'm pretty sure your brain is bleeding out slowly, and I hope to god that it hurts, I'm going to kill you. And when you wake up, if you wake up like I do- I'm going to kill you again. And again. And again."

He leant in close, that crazy, psychotic smile back on his face. "And I'm going to do it because I like it."

Kai lied though. He didn't kill her. Well, not at first anyway. He waited. He waited until after her first seizure and he waited so that she suffered. And he did it so that it hurt. Then, before she closed her eyes into unconsciousness, he picked up a large rock. A large, heavy rock.

He brought it down on Roma's head- again and again and again- and she felt everything. There was so much blood.

______

Death felt funny to Roma. Actually no, it didn't feel like anything at all. She doubted this is what true death would feel like but hers, hers was just a never-ending blackness accompanied with a strong uncomfortable atmosphere. Maybe this was limbo- a place for the living and the dead. It mirrored being in a deep sleep, except Roma was very, very aware that she was dead. She could not see herself. She could not see anything. But the good thing about being dead was, she could not feel pain. Her head had stopped stinging with agony and the feeling of Kai cracking open her skull- that was gone.

God, she couldn't wait to get back and put her knife in his face (again). It sucked that she couldn't kill him and he stay dead because at this boy, he deserved it. She needed to get home and leave his psychotic ass in 1994 as soon as possible. She still had Bonnie's blood, didn't she? If Kai had left her to rot in the cave then he would have used the tunnels to leave and the Zima bottle would still be left untouched in the woods. Kai thinks there's no way out so he would have no use for the ascendant anymore- she had all the tools at her disposal. Now she just needed to rise from the dead.