Chapter Text
Bonnie Bennett is 29 years old when she officially dies.
For the billionth time of course.
It isn’t some supernatural world ending threat or spirits forbid a hungry vampire, no it’s a simple bullet from a 357 Magnum Revolver that accidentally goes off whilst an imbecile robs the store of the little old lady that lives round the corner.
It hits her square in the forehead but she thinks this is just her physical body dying- her soul died long ago in a shitty little town filled with even shittier people.
She bleeds out, the corners of her mouth uncannily lifted, as the sirens ring in her ears but all she thinks is ‘God please let this be over.’
She should’ve known.
She should’ve known that whatever was out there only laughed at her feeble prayers because she didn’t end up in Hell (she’d destroyed and obliterated that place long ago), she ended up in a place worse than eternal torture ten-fold.
Bonnie opens her eyes to scratchy bed-sheets and cheap vanilla perfume that brings her right back to 18 summers in Mystic Falls.
Death to Bonnie used to be like a thousand searing kisses from the boy she’d met in a shallow pool at 12, innocent and chaste.
This time around, it’s forceful clashing of teeth but the subtle taste of honey still manages to bleed through onto her tongue- it’s enough to tell her that she’s alive, her heart is pounding and her blood remains rushing through her veins like water in a canal.
Anger wells in her as the year 2009 looks up at her from grainy pixels on her old phone; life has been nothing but cruel and unkind to her and now, something out there that hadn’t dared to show its face had brought her back to relive all the tragedies of the Bennett life.
An unearthly scream (a chorus of the rage of Bennett’s who demand retribution for all the cruelties bestowed upon them) rips its way from her throat, her vanity smashing into a thousand glittering pieces.
“I didn’t ask for this! You can’t do this to me, not again!”
Stinging tears blur her vision and for a second, she thinks that she’s able to see the magic exuding off of her in waves. It lashes out wildly at the glass shards of her favourite mirror and lifts them until they’re spinning erratically enough to render a person to a smear of flesh and blood.
Lightbulbs burst overhead, shards of glass finds itself embedded in her skin and it’s enough to snap her out of her magic fuelled frenzy.
“Not again.” She croaks but a small, darker part of her thrives with the prospect of simply running away this time or perhaps killing everything supernatural that looked her way.
To let her power relish in the warm blood of beasts who brought strife and unimaginable agonies to her life.
She forces herself to stand, hissing slightly as glass digs into her feet. With a wave of her hand, the mirror and light bulbs are reassembled and for the first time since her death she gets a glimpse at herself.
Her hair falls by her face in delicate curls, from beneath these coils her eyes gleam with unadulterated power worth more than a hundred measly old witches.
A hundred- or even a thousand- witches couldn’t have ravaged and annihilated the embodiment of Hell or destroyed dimension after dimension and all beasts that went bump in the night like she did.
Bonnie shakes the thoughts out of her head and takes a moment to breath, relishing the cold air that encompasses her lungs. A glint of steely determination settles in the bright verdant irises of her eyes- this time round, it would go her way.
It doesn’t take long for her to figure out when in her past she landed as she looks through her old messages on her painfully small phone.
Elena’s (simply a human doppelgänger now, not the vampiric bitch who in her anger attempted to rip out the throat of Bonnie) texts speak of a crash and Caroline being in the hospital.
Guilt wells up in Bonnie, she’d never truly been able to forgive herself for being so awful to Caroline when she turned all those years ago. Her mind was just muddled from all the vampires who’d crashed into town and took her grandmother away long before her time.
The sun is jarringly bright and it’s rays scatter around Bonnie’s room, it’s a beautiful day the day her best friend dies. Her house is silent but a comforting silent for she’d be more shocked at laughter or even hushed whispers in her house- it was something she despised her family for, leaving her alone and burying their sorrows in work or other families.
Gram’s room is still untouched, the faint smell of sage and the vanilla perfume she used to douse herself with still lingers in the air. Bonnie tries not to burst into tears as she rummages through the box of things her grandmother used to keep for her class.
At the very bottom is a delicate and dainty silver ring, a deep lapis lazuli stone indented in the middle of it. Caroline would’ve loved this even if she wasn’t a vampire, she thinks to herself.
She squares her shoulders and makes her way over to the hospital but not before picking up a bar of chocolate and a special bracelet of hers that would help to somewhat curb the bloodlust Caroline was destined to feel.
Bonnie stands outisde the door, knocking once but receiving no reply and so she knocks again.
“Hello?” Caroline’s voice is strangled as Bonnie gently asks her to open the door.
“I can’t, I don’t want you to see me like this Bonnie.” She’s sobbing now and with each wail, Bonnie feels another nail dig into her heart. She pushes open the door to find Caroline slumped over a bag of blood, the offending liquid smeared all over her face inky slightly deterred by tears.
The young witch closes the door behind her, slightly in awe of the dark veins that cascade down Caroline’s face.
“Go away!” She pushes herself towards the wall to get way from any slips of sunlight and from her friend who is steadily approaching her like one would a terrified animal.
“You’re not going to hurt me Care.” The blonde doesn’t look convinced of this, turning her face away from the delicious and salivatingly sweet smell that Bonnie exudes.
Did the girl always smell so sweet and good?
“I’m a monster Bonnie, I’m literally drinking blood and I like it!” Bonnie of Old might’ve agreed with the notion that vampires were monsters but the term monster meant so many things but it never, ever meant Caroline.
She snorts slightly, the newly turned vampire looking up at her somewhat quizzically.
“You, a monster? Caroline, I watched you cry over Mufasa dying in Lion King three times. I don’t think that you of all people can be classified as a monster.”
A soft giggle falls from her lips at this, one that makes Bonnie preen but also pause as the ring and bracelet begin to burn a hole in her pocket.
“Everything hurts, it’s too bright and the sun burns. Why does it burn?” The witch lets out a sigh and sits at the end of the hospital bed, not knowing what to say as Caroline pushes herself further away from her friend.
It scares how, how much she just wants to tear into the girls throat.
“There’s a lot to tell you Care.” Bonnie tries to tell her transitioning friend as much as she can without giving her any future knowledge and by the end of it all, the girls fangs are poking out at her bottom lip.
She looks as though she’s going to cry again before sharply inhaling.
“So not only are you a witch but I was killed by Elena’s doppelgänger ancestor with vampire blood inside me and now I’m a vampire?” Bonnie nods and it’s enough to make Caroline sniffle a little. The witch jumps abruptly before pulling out her ring and bracelet, Caroline furrowing her brows in confusion.
“No offence Bonnie but I don’t think some pretty jewellery is enough to change the fact that I’m dead.” A small laugh escapes the witch as she shakes her head softly, coils and curls tickling her face.
“No this is a daylight ring, a special ring that has to be enchanted by a witch. It makes sunlight not burn as much.” Caroline is silent for a second before graciously taking the ring and slipping it onto her finger.
“How did you know I’d need this?” Skepticism and something akin to suspicion flashes across the Forbes face but Bonnie already saw this coming,
Caroline was incredibly perceptive, the ‘dumb blonde’ that everyone thought she was- it was merely an act.
“Witches can sometimes have…prophetic dreams depending on the strength of our connection to magic. It’s a rare ability but it runs in my bloodline.” That seems to sate the girl’s curiosity as she also reaches for the bracelet.
“Put it on, it’ll help with the bloodlust. But you’re doing a great job regardless, guess it comes with being a control freak.”
Caroline scoffs and playfully shoves the witch who has to stop herself from toppling over to the floor.
“Sorry!” She covers her mouth with her hand but Bonnie can see the corners of her mouth lifting.
“Being a vampire, it’s not all bad though. You’ve got enhanced senses, you don’t age or have to deal with periods anymore. And you have super speed, you’re literally a walking superhero.”
The vampire hums positively at this, reclining in her hospital bed as she muses what superhero she’d be.
“I think I’d be Wonder Woman, she’s sexy and powerful and super duper strong.” Bonnie hums in agreement.
“I think I’d be a Halliwell instead, maybe I’d fall for some hot demon king.” Caroline sits up at this, rambling about how romantic it would be- a modern day, supernatural Romeo and Juliet.
The two rekindle their flitting friendship but as the day stretches, more and more memories begin to filter into Caroline’s mind. A sweet voice slithering into her ear telling her she’ll love it before she feels the pierce of canines ripping into her, over and over again.
With a pained gasp, the vampire grabs her head.
“I remember it- Damon, he-he hurt me.” Bonnie’s eyes grow frigid and icy as she steps off the bed and outstretches a hand to Caroline.
“Then we hurt him back, you’re powerful now and angry.”
Damon doesn’t see it coming, one minute he’s walking around in the hallway as the carnival music echoes in the hall and the next, he’s thrown to the ground like a rag doll.
The vampire groans, not expecting to see Caroline standing above him or the veins that ripple beneath her eyes. He definitely doesn’t expect to see Bonnie, the vampire hating witch, stood beside her now-vampire friend with a proud smirk stretched on her face.
“You fed on me, abused me, erased my memories.” She grits her teeth before grabbing him by his shirt and throwing him against the lockers, pain rippling through his back.
“Katherine has a message: game on.” Bonnie chuckles as the two walk off, leaving the man on the floor and to wallow in his pain.
“Wanna play some carnival games?” Caroline nods as the two play obviously rigged games but it’s fun which is something the pair of them hadn’t had in ages.
Caroline for once isn’t worried about appearances or Matt who is obviously still hung on Elena (his eyes would always drag themselves to the brown-haired girl, Caroline didn’t want to ignore it anymore) and Bonnie isn’t worried about the next big bad they want her to subdue.
After smashing bottles and doing a little bit of drinking, the pair decide to call it a night.
“I miss this y’know, you and me hanging out. Ever since Elena’s got a boyfriend, everything is Stefan this or Damon this.” The blonde stills as the scent of blood reaches her, it makes her mouth water and her fangs instinctively pop out.
There’s a boy wiping his bloody nose and for a second, Caroline thinks she might just go over there and tear out his jugular before a warm hand slips into hers. It grounds her and is enough time for the boy to slip away, Bonnie releasing a thankful breath.
“See, you did it. You didn’t hurt him Care.”
“I didn’t hurt him.” She repeats, giddiness seeping into her tone.
“But you were going to.” It’s Damon and Bonnie doesn’t even try to hide the annoyed groan that slips out like a reflex.
“But she didn’t, can’t say the same for you though Damon considering all you do is hurt innocent people.” She snarks, the look of shock in his eyes is something that she relishes in. Damon was a dick, even though he did grow as a person.
He scoffs at her.
“Don’t you witches hate all vampires Judgy?” She rolls her eyes even though part of what he’s saying is true, she did used to hate practically all vampires.
“No, just the ones who are dicks.” The ‘like you’ goes unsaid.
“Right but we all know the only way to help us all is to get rid of her.” He points to Caroline who’s standing behind her friend, a snarl on her face. The witch raises her chin defiantly and for a second, he swear he can see Emily in her eyes.
“I’d like to see you try, just give me a reason to set your ass on fire.” Something dangerous lingers in her eyes and suddenly Damon’s hand that clasps the stake begins to burn, his skin welts as he drops the stake with a pained gasp.
The wooden weapon rolls on the floor and flys to Bonnie’s palm before she turns it to ash. Stefan and Elena find themselves gazing on the scene of Caroline, her sharp fangs retracting as she walks past Damon and roughly collides her shoulder with his.
“Do me a favour Damon and don’t try to kill Caroline or anyone I care about again. I can make your life very, very painful.” It’s not a threat, he knows a promise when he hears one and speeds off into the woods.
The two girls laugh on their way home, Bonnie can’t help but think that perhaps her being back here was a blessing in disguise.
She had the reins on her own life for once, she could live and not just be the weapon against whatever creatures went bump in the night.
That night, she dreams of bloodstained teeth and multiple pairs of large soft hands that hold her like a cherished idol.