CHAPTER FIVE

"And of course I broke into the Oval Office and took a picture of myself at the window, looking all JFK." Kai's telling a story that no one asked for. "But then I was like, wait, how am I gonna get these photos developed?"

"Oh my God. Just answer the damn question." Damon cuts him off. "How are we gonna get out of this Twilight Zone?"

"I got a question for you first." He says, and Nyx groans as she sinks into the couch.

"Let me know when he gets to something relevant." She says as she lays her head on Jess' leg and closes her eyes.

"Why do you think we're stuck on a repeating loop of May 10th, 1990, doomed to relive a solar eclipse forever and ever and ever?" Kai asks Damon.

"How the hell should I know?" Damon questions and then takes another drink of his bourbon.

"Well, I heard you tell the girls this place was your own personal hell. I'm kinda curious why."

"He never shuts up." Nyx mutters. "Jess, save me from this insanity."

The blonde lightly pats her friend's head before smoothing out her hair. "There, there. Rest now." Jessica says, and Nyx chuckles.

"We found everything you asked for." Bonnie says as she and Jenna walk back into the library at the Boarding House. "Can opener, shower drain, grinding ware, jam, pocket knife, volume O of the encyclopedia, a nail, and a black marker."

"I'm thinking he's insane." Jenna says as her niece, Jess, and Damon all stand up.

"Now what?"

"Can't show you with my hands taped." Kai says, and Bonnie picks up the pocket knife.

"Bonnie..." Damon watches her as she cuts the tape.

"Thank you."

"Oh, relax. If he tries anything, I'll just kill him." Nyx says.

"I'm you're only way out." Kai says as he looks at her.

"Really? 'Cause I'm starting to think you're just an overgrown man-child who doesn't know how to shut the hell up."

"How's this pile of crap gonna get us out of here?" Jess questions as she looks through the stuff that Bonnie dumped on the coffee table.

"I'll explain as soon as Damon tells me what he did on May 10th, 1990." Kai says.

"What difference does it make?" He questions.

"Put it this way: Bonnie's magic is one part of the equation. My as-yet undisclosed knowledge is the other. Which means you four would be hitching a ride home for free. I just want to know you deserve to come along."

"Why aren't you harassing them?" He motions to the girls.

"Jenna and Jessica are the innocent ones who died an unfair death — that earns them a free ride back to humanity." Kai says.

"And what about me?" Nyx asks.

"You're the grieving mother who's been teaching the innocent how to defend themselves." He looks at her. "Plus, I don't know, I just kinda like you." He says, and the brunette smiles as she looks over at Damon.

"Rude." Damon says, directed at her smug look. She shrugs.

"So, Damon?"

He takes the pocket knife from Bonnie and pulls Kai out his chair. "Or I could just torture you until you say something useful."

"If you torture me, I'll get mad and then I won't want to help you." He says and then looks at Bonnie. "What kind​ of person needs to have that explained to them?"

"Let him go, Damon." Nyx says, and Bonnie takes the knife away from him.

"Says the crushee with a free ride." Damon says.

"Play nice." Bonnie tells him.

"Stop trying to impress the new guy."

"Why don't you just tell him your story?"

"Maybe because I don't want to talk about the worst thing I ever did, Bonnie." He says as Kai sits down on the couch and opens the jam.

"Ooh. Now I'm listening." Kai says as he scoops jam with his fingers and shovels it into his mouth.

"And I'm gonna be sick." Jess says as she turns away from him.

He eats the entire jar, and Nyx shakes her head as she sits on one of the chairs. Jenna walks over to the fireplace, and Damon pinches the bridge of his nose.

"I need to be entertained while I work." Kai — who's now laying on the couch — says as he looks at Damon. "Hell story, please."

"Remind me not to kill him." Damon says as he looks at Bonnie.

"Maybe telling him your story will take your mind off of it." The witch says with a smile.

"Who's side are you on?"

"The side where I get to go home to my babies!" Nyx yells as Jess walks back into the room.

"Oh, look. An empty jam jar. Have we made any further progress?" The blonde asks.

"That'd be a no." Jenna says, and Jess sits on Nyx's lap, her legs hanging over the arm of the chair.

"In May 1990, I was living here." Damon finally starts. "I'd come home to walk the straight and narrow."

He was working on his car with Stefan, and then his brother tormented him with animal blood in a flask. Zach was still alive then, and he had a pregnant girlfriend named Gail who lived with him at the Boarding House.

"Perfect." Damon says as he looks at Kai. "Our savior's insane and narcoleptic."

"No, no, no, I'm awake." Kai says, his eyes still closed. "Let me guess, you killed the pregnant woman."

"Shut up, Kai. You weren't listening." He says as he walks over to the chair in front of the fireplace — where they had Kai tied up.

"I was listening, in my sleep." He says as he sits up. "You were hanging out with your distant nephew, Zach, who you called Uncle Zach, because that's not confusing. Plus the pregnant lady, Gail, who had a big bull's-eye on her chest. Got it."

Bonnie looks up at Damon. "Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman."

"Oh, that's totally what happened. Why else would today be his personal hell?"

"It's kinda obvious." Nyx says as Damon looks at her and Jessica. Jess is curled up with her head on Nyx's shoulder, and Nyx's head is resting against Jess'. Both of their eyes are closed. "I remember Zach. I don't remember him having a girlfriend or a wife, and if his then girlfriend was pregnant, that makes the baby born the same year as my brother. Zach was the only Salvatore in town before Stefan and Damon showed up."

"Thank you for your excellent skills in deduction, Nycole." Damon says sarcastically.

"You're welcome."

"Now shut up." He tells her and then kneels down in front of Kai, though the coffee table is still between them.

"Oh, here we go." Kai looks back at him, away from Nyx and Jess.

"The only reason that you're alive right now is because I thought you could get us out and you could help us, but you don't have any answers." His voice raises as he gets angry. "You're just a man-child with jam on your fingers."

"Okay. To get home, we'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic." He says, and they all look back at him. "It's called an ascendant. And it looks like this, Damon."

Jenna walks up beside Bonnie, and they look at the replica that he made using the stuff that he sent them to get. Jess and Nyx are still in the chair, but they're now looking at Kai as well.

"The last time we had it was in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon." He opens the encyclopedia.

"We?" Bonnie asks.

"Yeah. It belonged to my family. So, here's a little blood to get you started." He picks up the pocket knife and cuts his finger. "Now, all we need is a locator spell to pinpoint its whereabouts."

"Think you can find our ticket out of here, Bon Bon?" Damon asks as he and Kai stand up.

"Hell yeah." She says, and Jess stands up, followed quickly by Nyx.

Bonnie has a hard time with the locator spell, so Damon annoys her, Kai flirts with all three of the younger girls, Bonnie succeeds at the spell, and they discover that Kai's more annoying than he originally seemed. He had the ascendant the whole time, he was apparently just testing Bonnie.

"Pack your bags. We're going home." Kai says, and Nyx and Jess smile as they look at each other.

—

"You're wandering around like a crazy man, why?" Damon questions as the five of them watch Kai in the front yard.

"I'm looking for the exact right spot." He says as they cross the grass, stepping over all of the paper airplanes. "We need to find where the power of the eclipse is focused."

"You know, you could've just showed us the ascendant to begin with." Bonnie tells him.

"Yeah, but I wanted to feel your hand on my chest." He says and then looks at Nyx. "How do I trick you next?"

"Not gonna happen, buddy." The vampire shakes her head.

"Something's not right about him." Bonnie whispers.

"You three just aren't used to guys hitting on you." Damon says.

"You know, I can't wait to get out of here and talk to somebody else."

"Talk to me." Jess says as she links her arm with Bonnie's. The witch smiles at her.

"I can't wait to get out of here and hold my babies." Nyx says, and Bonnie reaches over and pulls her to them.

"Can we just have a few lasting seconds of peace while this idiot uses that thing to get the stars to align?" Damon asks.

They're oblivious to Jenna, who's looking at a newspaper article behind them. She found it in one of the paper airplanes in the grass.

"Hey, crazy. What's up with the nature walk?" Nyx questions as the three girls follow Kai.

"I used the ascendant to figure out where we need to be standing during the eclipse."

"Great." Damon says, following close behind them. "Let's do some magic and get the hell out of here."

"Oregon." Jenna mutters, and the two vampires turn around to look at her.

"What?"

"I've read this a thousand times. There's something in here about Oregon." Her voice is low, so they all slow down.

"What about it?" He asks as he looks at the paper in her hand.

"You know how Kai said he had all those brothers and sisters?" She asks, and they all stop walking.

"Mhm."

"Family Massacred in Portland." She reads the headline. "The only one missing was the oldest boy. A twenty-two-year-old named Malachi."

"Who names a kid Malachi?" Kai asks as he turns to face them. They didn't know that he was listening to them. "It's like they expected me to be evil."

"These kids were murdered." Jenna says, and Bonnie takes the paper so she can look at the article.

"Hello? Not everyone died." He argues as they all look at him. "I had a soft spot for one of my sisters." He starts walking toward them. "'Cause otherwise I would've cut her lungs out, not just her spleen."

"What?" Bonnie looks up at him as Nyx moves Jess behind her.

"You can survive without a spleen." He reasons, not seeing the problem here.

"Something tells me you're not speaking hypothetically." Damon says, and Kai moves closer to Bonnie so he can see the article.

"Look," he points to pictures of the kids in the article. "These two, I, uh, hung off the stairwell railing. Then I put a hunting knife in her abdomen. And him, I drowned in the pool. But he kept fighting me. And I was, like, I saved you for last, you ungrateful little... Anyway, that was that." He says and then walks away from them.

"You just killed your whole family?" Nyx questions as she stares after him in disbelief.

"Coven, to be precise." He corrects, looking through something on the ascendant. Then he turns back to them. "Oh, you know, a family of witches."

"You made Bonnie jump through hoops when you're a witch?" Jess questions, and he nods.

"Sort of, yeah. No powers, obviously. Oh, and of course... The Gemini coven did not take it too well when they heard what I did in Portland. That's why they banished me here." He tells them.

"This place is a prison." Bonnie says as she looks at her friends. "They created it for you."

"This isn't your hell, Damon." Kai says as it starts to get dark around them. "It's mine."

Bonnie shakes her head and turns around, heading straight back for the house. The girls immediately follow after her, with Damon close behind them.

"Where are you guys going?" He questions.

"We're not letting Kai out of here, okay? He just said he's a serial killer." She says as she walks through the doorway.

"I don't care. I want to get out of here."

"How can you not care?" Nyx questions as she turns to look at him.

"Maybe because of all the horrible things he's done." Bonnie says. "Maybe because killing a bunch of kids isn't a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman. Am I wrong?" She asks as she takes a step closer to him.

Damon turns around and walks away from them. He tells them the end of the story. He wanted his ring back from Stefan, who'd taken it from him earlier in the day. Stefan gave it back, Damon listed all the reasons that he was going to hold true to his promise of an eternity of misery, and then he killed Gail in front of Zach before taking off.

"Ouch." Kai says. He's behind them, still listening to everything. "Poor nephew-uncle Zach."

"Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby. But he couldn't cover up all the murders. The Founder's Council was restarted, and Stefan took off. He left Mystic Falls for about fifteen years, we both did." Damon says as he walks over to the girls. "And then when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldn't look at him without remembering how I ruined everything. So, it was a nice relief when I got to kill him." He says, and the girls look at him incredulously. "Okay, can we go back now?"

"Oh, come on, Bonnie." Kai says. "You want to go home to your friends. I want to go back and give the rest of the Gemini coven an excruciating death. Win-win. Not to mention the added bonus of reuniting a mother with her twins."

"Look, I know this guy isn't a model citizen, but I gotta get the hell out of here. I have to get back to Stefan. Nyx and Jenna have their family. Jess has a boyfriend to reunite with." Damon's pleading with her.

"I'm sorry, Damon." Bonnie says.

"Sorry doesn't work for me." Kai goes to grab Bonnie, but Damon quickly pins him to the wall on the other side of the room as Nyx pulls the witch to her.

"Hey. We might be having a bit of a disagreement, but don't ever lay a hand on her." Damon tells him, and Kai looks out the open front door.

"Kind of a non-issue now. Missed today's eclipse. Raincheck for tomorrow?" He asks.

"No." Bonnie walks past them and goes out the front door. Jenna quickly follows after her, and Nyx and Jess look at each other.

—

"We had our asses handed to us by a psychopath." Nyx says as she plops down on Damon's bed next to him and looks up at the ceiling. "I don't like that mind thing where he makes us feel like our heads are about to explode."

"Yeah, not fun." He agrees. "Why are you in here? I thought you hated me now."

"Because you killed Gail?" She shakes her head. "That's not who you are anymore. I was wrong about you before. You obviously can change because you did."

"So... About what Kai said yesterday." He says, and she nods.

"Yeah, I saw that one coming." She smirks. "I admit that our relationship has changed since we got here, but—"

"You don't want to jeopardize our friendship by sleeping together." He nods as he turns his head to look at her. "Believe it or not, I actually agree with you. And not just because there's only six people in our world, and it could get awkward."

"Really?" She looks at him. "After almost three years of...whatever has been running through that twisted head of yours, you don't think that we should try to do or be anything more than friends?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I like where we're at, and I don't want to push it. Besides, even after that whole year on the other side, you and I both you're still in love with Dean."

She smiles as she looks back up at the ceiling. "I remember, you know — that I met you the night of the accident." She says, and he nods.

"You had just gotten into a fight with Tyler."

"And you told me the kind of love I wanted: a love that consumes me, filled with passion and adventure, even a little danger." A soft laugh leaves her lips. "I had all of that, and I almost threw it away multiple times because I was afraid of so many things. He convinced me that I was stronger than I thought I was. And we were together, and we were happy...and then I lost it all anyway."

"We'll get out of here, and then you can find the twins." He tells her. "You can have a piece of your life with him back."

"I know." She nods. "But missing him and living a life without him is still gonna be the hardest thing that I ever do. And I'll have to do it forever." She wipes tears from her face, remembering her conversation with Marcel.

"At least you'll still have me, your best friend." He says, and she smiles.

"You know, I actually like the sound of that."

"I'm gonna pretend that the actually part of that wasn't incredibly offensive." He says, and she chuckles. "You'll be alright, Nyx. I know it."