Chapter 4 ━━ New Face

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Lorna, Damon and Bonnie are still outside the Bell's store when Bonnie speaks.

"It was behind the pickup."

"No. It was in the front." Damon argues.

"Are you sure?" Bonnie asks.

"Yes. Absolutely I'm sure. It was right there." Damon says and they notice a tarp flying in the wind.

"It was a tarp. We saw a tarp." Damon says.

Suddenly the horse carousel turns on and music starts playing. 

"And that... that is on a timer. That turned on by itself." Damon adds.

"But your car." Lorna asks him.

"I left it here in '94." Damon points out.

"And the crossword?" Bonnie asks.

"You filled it out, Bonnie. Which means we're alone in my own hell with no Grams escape hatch. We're never getting out." Damon says dramatically.

"Do you believe me, Lori?" Bonnie turns to the blonde.

"Yes, I do, Bon." Lorna nods. 

"I do not." Damon raises his hand.

That makes Bonnie frustrated making her look at Damon with a dead glare. "Give me your ring."

"What?" Damon asks.

"Give me your ring." Bonnie takes his hand and tries to snatch it while Damon resists. "All I've heard you say is that you have no hope and that this is your hell, so if it's so bad, why don't you just end it?" 

Damon pushes her back. 

"Hope is the only thing keeping me going, Damon, so if you're really done, if you have none, then be done because this isn't helping." She leaves.

"Why can't you keep your cocky mouth shut at least for a few minutes?" Lorna shakes her head and crosses her hands giving Damon a look.

Later on, Damon and Lorna walk inside the Bell's store since they couldn't find Bonnie. They come to the wine section of the store and Damon picks up a bottle. 

"Want a glass of bourbon to celebrate another day of this hell?" Damon asks the blonde.

Lorna opens her mouth to speak, but suddenly they hear a sound nearby. Damon keeps the bottle back and they go ahead and see a man lounged on a chair munching pork rinds.

"Rough day, huh, Damon? Sorry. Manners." A stranger guy with dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes who have a look like he's in his early twenties questions with a grin. 

His eyes land on the blonde. "Hello to you too, gorgeous." 

"I'm Kai. Nice to meet you both. Pork rind?" He asks as Damon and Lorna just stare at him, weirdly shocked.

Kai is still sitting on the chair and munching on pork rinds and Damon is standing close, clearly irritated.

Lorna is leaning into the wall watching both of them. Especially this handsome stranger. He has that James Dean daydream look in his eyes.

Wow. Didn't she just quote Taylor Swift?

"That is gonna have to stop." Damon says, making her pull out of my daydream.

"Oh, you think this is annoying? Hmm. Try listening to you and Bonnie bicker every 5 minutes." Kai states.

"I'm so surprised by how you handle them, Lorna." He smiles at her. His smile. That's another story for another time.

"So you've been following us." Lorna asks him.

"Of course I have. You three are the closest thing I have a to a TV. I mean, you're no 'Baywatch', but...Remember 'Baywatch'?" Kai asks Damon.

"No, I do not." Damon replies in a rough voice.

"Oh. Oh, man, you got to watch it. You like lifeguards, like..." He trails off and looks at the blonde. "Hot ones?" 

For some reason, that makes her blush. God! She needs to stop this.

"This has been a monumentally bad day in a sea of bad days, so I'm gonna need to know who you are, what you're doing here, and how it relates to me, or I'm gonna rip your throat out." Damon warns him.

"Temper's gonna get you in trouble, Damon. It's already driven Bonnie away how many times? Oh, oh, oh, wait. I know. 13." Kai says with a goofy grin.

"You think my temper's bad with her? I like her. You not so much." Damon superspeeds and holds him up by his collar.

"Ok. Ok. Sorry. Seriously. I'm just kind of rusty on the face-to-face type human interactions." Kai raises his hands in defence.

"Damon, put him down." Lorna demands.

Damon drops him down, but keeps his straight face still. "Answers now."

"Maybe you should have a drink. That usually calms you down." Kai suggests.

"Thanks." Damon nods.

"Then makes you angry, then sad, then calm again. It's a weird cycle, and look, if you really want to know the reason I'm following you, it's because I want to kill you." Kai's smile fades at the end.

Damon who already has taken a swig of the bourbon suddenly coughs it out. His skin around the mouth starts burning.

"Vervain in your bourbon. Who didn't see that one coming?" Kai smirks.

"What the hell?!" Lorna yells as she superspeed to Kai and try to grab his collar. But at the same time, he splashes a bottle of bourbon at her. She drops herself on the floor, screaming in pain as the bourbon which contains vervain hit her.

"Who buys patio furniture from a grocery store? I mean, somebody must. Otherwise, it... it wouldn't be here-" He picks up a beach umbrella and breaks its wooden end into two. "But now I'm a little unfamiliar with vampires, but from what I've gathered, a stake in the heart should do it, right?"

Damon forwards his hand but Kai stabs his hand, resulting him to scream in pain. "Aah!"

"Stop!" Lorna yells as she tries to get up with the help of the table beside her.

"You can always fight dirty, Damon. Like that time you, Lorna and Bonnie played monopoly and you stole from the bank. Not cool." Kai states.

"That was cheating, Damon!" Lorna glares at Damon for a moment forgetting the situation around her.

Damon manages to free his hand and stands up, his glare is straight glued to the annoying guy in front of him. "I'm gonna rip your head off."

Lorna superspeeds to them to snap Kai's neck.

"No. You're not." Kai smashes all the bottles on the shelf and the liquid from it burns Damon's skin and he falls to the floor again, dragging the blonde along with him. "I didn't know which bottle you'd take, so I vervained them all." 

He raises his hand to stab Damon. 

"Stay away from him." Bonnie suddenly appears.

"The useless one is here. Thank God. I've watched you try to do magic for months now. What are you gonna do, fail at me? It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for you." Kai smirks.

Bonnie looks at the blonde and Damon, who look back at her. She then looks at a candle on a side shelf and it lights up. Damon is relieved and Lorna smile victoriously, while Bonnie is happily surprised.

"Uh-oh." Kai pouts.

"Run." Bonnie yells, making Damon super speeds out as Lorna stands behind Bonnie with a smirk. "Phesmatos Incendia."

Fire lights up in front of Kai, who raises his hands up. "Ok. Ok. Ok."

"Giving up so soon? I'm embarrassed for you." Bonnie says.

Suddenly, Damon knocks him off from behind. "Sorry I called you the most annoying person in the world. I hadn't met him yet." 

Bonnie smiles.

The trio later find themselves in the Salvatore boarding house looking at Kai who is tied to a chair as he slowly regains consciousness.

"You're awake. Good. Now for the Q&A portion of the evening." Damon announces.

"Let me guess. I answer right, I get a pork rind. Wrong, I get a poker." Kai asks.

"What? No, no, no. These are for me. You just get the poker." Damon says.

"Yeah. You don't have to do that." Kai replies.

"No?" Damon asks.

"We're on the same team." Kai states.

"Really? Do you always try and kill your teammates?" Lorna asks.

Kai smiles at her and replies. "The important thing is that either you or Bonnie have your magic back. It worked on Bonnie." He explains.

Her magic?

Damon, Bonnie and Lorna look at each other.

"What, you... you didn't really think I'd kill Damon, did you? Heh heh. In what universe does that make sense? Who would kill 1/4 of our population? I'm not a monster." Kai shrugs.

"I knew if Lorna doesn't succeed, Bonnie would show up. She always comes back, all 13 times, and I knew with the right motivation at least she'd be able to access her magic, although I-I did get a little worried with all Bonnie's bickering that Damon's life wouldn't be enough motivation." He continues, where Damon and Bonnie look on unamused

"-but turns out it was. I guess that's just how you two show your love." Kai adds.

"So you did all that just to make sure I would have my magic?" Bonnie asks.

"Of course I did. Because your magic is the key to getting the hell out of here." Kai explains where now Damon and Bonnie look on, clearly affected by the revelation.

"Wait! Why did you expect me to access my magic? I'm a vampire. Vampires can't do magic." Lorna states.

"I think you still have your magic inside you. You just need to try to access it as Bonnie did." He explains.