Devil in Disguise (Kai Parker)

Chapter Eighteen: How she found out

‘Why don’t you just use magic to heal yourself?’ Meg glanced at the witch as she grimaced and put a hand to her stomach for the fifth time.

Bonnie shook her head. ‘Want to preserve my magic. Kai’s already taken a lot; I’ll need what’s left when he comes looking for us.’

‘Here.’ she took a piece of gear and slid it into the decrepit Ascendant. There was a pause, in which the only noises was the slight scratch of cogs being forced back into place and Bonnie’s laboured breathing. Then Meg said, ‘I hope Damon’s OK.’

‘Why wouldn’t he be?’ Bonnie jerked her head up quickly. ‘If Kai wasn’t telling the truth about how to get outta here…’

‘No, no, he was!’ she interjected hurriedly. ‘The Gemini Coven always said that’s how they can get the prisoners out, if they have need of them or something. But I’ve never actually seen it happen. I don’t know if that looks right, or wrong, or whatever…’ she trailed off, before adding, ‘That bit goes there, see?’

‘Mhm.’ Bonnie clicked it into place. A thick silence descended around them, awkward and uncomfortable before Bonnie shattered it. ‘He’s fine.’ she said firmly. ‘He’ll be with Elena, and Stefan. He’s fine.’

‘Elena’s the doppelganger girl, yes? And Stefan is Damon’s brother?’

‘Exactly.’

‘D’you have any siblings?’ Meg asked, somewhat out of the blue.

‘No. My mother ran off, and my dad never found anyone else. It was usually just me and Grams.’ she looked at her out the corner of her eye, almost challengingly. ‘You?’

‘I’ve no idea what my mother got up to after I left.’ she said promptly. ‘Doubt she found anyone else, though. She was pretty torn up after my dad left her… and after he died.’

‘After you killed him?’

There was a ringing silence after her sharp comment. Meg swallowed, and nodded. ‘Yes. After I killed him. I was only nine. My magic was too powerful, and I couldn’t control it… any of it. I choked him. Made him swerve off the road as he left and into a lamppost.’

‘You keep saying things like that.’ Bonnie said finally. ‘What is actually wrong with your magic?’

Meg gave a grim smile. ‘Everything.’

***

12.27 AM, 1st February, 1980

‘Could just be an example of mood swings, a personality disorder, a selective sociopathic manifestation…’ the doctor listed from behind his desk, reading monotonously from the sheet in front of him. ‘But it seems so erratic, and she keeps complaining of pains in her stomach, which may just be her subconscious, but… either way, we’re talking deep psychological issues. Are there any problems at home that may have caused this? I know it’s impertinent, but I’d like you to be honest.’

There was a pause that spoke a million words. ‘I see…’ trailed off the doctor, and the woman gripped her little girl’s hand tighter.

They were in some sort of study. The girl, young and looking blankly into the distance, was sitting in between her parents on a sickly yellow chair. She had just been subjected to a number of personality tests, IQ tests, memory tests and reaction tests, and was now drained. Something kept moving inside her, like bile rising in her throat, and she couldn’t bear to talk lest she let it out.

‘Her selective memory may be behind a lot of this. Does anyone tease you about your memory at school, child?’ the doctor looked at the child in what he clearly thought was a soothing pose.