𝗣𝗦𝗬𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 ✎𝙫𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝖿𝗂𝗏𝖾

Kai sits on the sofa quietly, while Bonnie, Ethan, and Damon are standing in front of the fireplace, where Damon is pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration, his eyes shut.

"I need to be entertained while I work." Kai says lying on his back on the couch, screwing open another jam jar with the can-opener. ♪ Hell story, please ♪ Kai sings.

Damon turns his head to Bonnie, not his body. "Remind me not to kill him." He growled.

"Maybe telling him your story will take your mind off of it." Bonnie said shrugging.

"Whose side are you on?" Damon asked feeling a little betrayed.

Bonnie looks Damon in the eyes. "The side where we get to go home to the people we love?"

Damon looks over at Ethan for a reaction and the teen nods along with Bonnie. "Fine." He turns to Kai. "On May 9, 1994, I was living here. I'd come home to walk the straight and narrow..."

───
Flashback - Mystic Falls, 1994

Damon's blue Camaro is outside. Damon and Stefan are shining it with rags. Damon is wearing a white tank top, looking bored. Stefan is drinking from a flask when Damon walks over to him.

"Can I have a sip of that? I'm starving." Damon asked walking around to stand next to his brother.

"Sure." Stefan agreed. Stefan hands him the flask, and Damon takes it.

Damon pulls the flask from his mouth quickly, his face pale. He looks down at it in disgust, his mouth still closed.

"It's good, right?" Stefan asked smirking over at his brother.

Damonbmakes a face and shakes his head. "Hmm-mm." He's holding the blood in his mouth even though it's disgusting, his lips contorted.

"Oh, yeah. I can't remember if that squirrel was roadkill, or one I caught in the rat trap." Stefan places his hand on his chin looking as if he was thinking.

Damon shakes his head, scrunching the side of his eyes, revolted.

"Better hope it was roadkill, though, because the rat trap was full of rat droppings." Stefan spoke. Damon looked disgusted, white as a sheet.

Stefan rubs his fingers and thumb together. "Swish your tongue around. Does it feel like hair, or is it more of a grainy pellet?"

Damon finally manages to swallow it. "Ugh––" he looks relieved to be done with it.

Stefan laughs and takes a swig of it. Zach arrives home with a paper brown bag full of food. He waves as he passes them to enter the house.

"How's it going, Zach? What's up with all the grocery trips?" Damon asked rasing a brow.

Zach, the man in question answered. "Oh, uh, one of the boarders is craving blueberry pancakes."

Zach continues his way to the house and walks up onto the front step. Damon regards his uncle while he plays with a greasy rag from cleaning his car.

"You know, maybe I should run the Salvatore boarding house." Damon says leaning back against his car. Zach walks up to the woman standing in the doorway, her belly bloated. She says "Hi" to Zach. "Take over for Zach, get in good with Gail..."

"She's on vervain. So is Zach, which means hands off." Stefan says seeing the envious look on Damon's face.
───

Present day

Kai layed on the couch snoring, interrupting Damon's story. "Perfect. Our savior's insane and narcoleptic." Damon muses from the bar, glaring at the brunette.

"No, no, no, I'm awake." Kai opened his eyes. Damon, glass of bourbon in hand, walks over to Bonnie and stands beside her. "Let me guess..." Kai sits up smoothly. "You killed the pregnant woman."

"Shut up, Kai. You weren't listening." Damon spoke getting quickly agitated with the Parker boy.

"I was listening, in my sleep. You were hanging out with your distant-nephew Zach, who you called Uncle Zach, because that's not confusing." Kai rolled his eyes. Ethan found it amusing how the other teen would be so fearless in front of a vampire. "Plus, pregnant lady Gail, who had a big bull's-eye on her chest. Got it."

Bonnie turns to Damon and asked. "Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman."

"The only reason that you're alive right now is because I thought you could get us out of here and you could help us. But you don't HAVE any answers! You're just a man-child––" Damon picks up an empty jam can and tosses it angrily. "––with jam on your fingers!"

"Okay. To get home, we'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic. It's called an Ascendant, and it looks like this, Damon––" Kai picks up a model of the Ascendant, which is round, black and red. "The last time we had it was in the Pacific Northwest—Oregon." He opens the encyclopedia to a map and sets it on the table.

"We?" Ethan asked.

"It belonged to my family. So–– Kai picks up the pocket knife and slits the tip of his finger. "––here's a little blood to get you started. Now all we need is a locator spell to pinpoint its whereabouts."

He and Damon both rise to their feet. Ethan stays seated seeing as he wouldn't be needed.

Damon looks at Bonnie. "Think you can find our ticket out of here, Bon-Bon?" He says her nickname comfortably, as if it's her true name.

"Hell. Yeah." Bonnie answered unfazed over the nickname.

"Well, seeing as things are looking up." Ethan stood up. "I'm going–"

"–nowhere." Kai demanded.