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2012
We stood in the living room, and I'd be lying if I said my stomach wasn't turning. My doubts had lingered, especially since the events that occurred with the mausoleum.
"Walkman, pager..." Kai gathered things into a bag, which was hilarious to watch from my view. He had no idea what was out there, and it showed.
"Why the pager?" I leaned against the arch entrance in the main room, crossing my arms. He stopped, staring at me with confusion.
"My digits? I'm never giving those up."
"Hmm, okay," I thought for a moment, trying to continue a somewhat normal conversation, "My first stop is definitely going to be the mystic grill." I had forgotten how good just regular food used to be, and the craving for blood sat in the pit of my stomach. I would never admit that aloud, because it made me sound... so primal.
"My first stop is Portland." We both remained silent, but he had this sense of confidence that almost intoxicated the entire room. So sure that you would be willing to bet on him, even though realistically the odds were far away from him.
I only nodded to him in acknowledgement, waiting for him to walk towards the door. Which he does, before turning once again toward me. "Are you ready?" he sounded more determined than ever, reading me with the deep stare of his eyes.
I looked up into his eyes, trying to read the tone of nothingness that was in there, "Yes."
"Perfect," he smirked to himself and pulled the door open, letting me warily walk out first.
Soon, we stood inside the deep opening of a cave. The coolness chilled me to the bone, but I put my hands into his anyway. I stared at our hands, nervousness racking my system.
My gaze shifted towards the rock, back to our hands and finally landed onto Kai's, who was looking right at me.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" I had maybe asked this a hundred times but I was worried, to be fair. He sucked his teeth, "Of course it's going to work, Amber."
He began to siphon from me, causing discomfort to shoot throughout my body as I shakily stood before him. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath in before beginning the spell.
I couldn't really focus on anything, but I knew I felt scared. Unsure what was really ahead of me, I tried to find some sort of distraction. So, I resorted to the person in front of me: Kai.
He seemed to be using a lot of power, as a bit of sweat laid on his forehead and his eyebrows were pulled together. Time passed, his chant began to sound more desperate. My chest felt heavy, and I really just missed the feeling of being. His hands tightened with mine and I could feel my breath almost stop for a moment in fear.
"It's not working," he finally admitted in a breathless tone, "Why the hell isn't it working?!" He pulled his hands away from my grasp roughly, like if I were garbage. He was angry, not surprised.
He grabbed the grimoire we had decided to take with us and threw it at the wall of the cave, creating a dense thud amidst his rage.
He stayed quiet for a moment, the gears within him turned and he looked back at me, "Again." He moved forward in front of me, and grabbed my hands. Instead this time, I pulled away, upset with the entire situation.
"Kai, no. This was a waste, let's go back," I picked my bag up and walked before noticing he wasn't following, "Are you not coming?"
"I spent eighteen years here. While everyone in my family got to live, have fun, be around other people, I was here," his chest was rigid with tension, "This has to work."
I didn't know what to say. I didn't spend eighteen years here, so everything I said wasn't enough for him. I had a feeling that anything I said would anger him, so I said nothing at all.
I put my face into the palm of my hand, sighed and walked away. I had no knowledge of this spell or experience with it, plus I was basically dead. No magic whatsoever.
"Why are you leaving?" I remained unchanged in my direction towards the boarding house, not bothering to acknowledge his tantrum. "Did you not want to get out too?!"
I finally turned to him, sending him a glare and dropping my bag in anger. "Yeah, I did. But you," I walked up to him, pointing my finger against his chest, "kept me here. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not of much use and neither are you. We're stuck here with no idea on what went wrong. Stop acting like a child and let's go back. It's not like we don't have an eternity to figure it out." I took my finger back, going back to grab my bag and continuing my walk.
"I could kill you. Right here, right now." He was suddenly right back in front of me. His face was barely inches away from mine, and I could feel his breath brush against my lips.
I scoffed, "Do it, it's not like I won't come back."
To say he was enraged was an understatement, because he was absolutely furious. The rest of the walk was silent but very much loud, as Kai ignored my presence.
Like clockwork, we went our separate ways once we arrived at the house and I locked my door.
-
It had been nearly a week, since we had talked. I had come to the acceptance with the fact that I might never leave this hellhole, so I settled with making breakfast. A small step of adaptation to my new circumstances, instead of wallowing in sorrow.
Kai had spent most of his time rarely coming out of the study room of the boarding house, only appearing when he needed to shower or eat. His silence was unexpected, but it was good to have some peace.
However, I couldn't help but feel that his absence made the prison world much more difficult. I realized this when the fridge at the Salvatore house ran out of essentials and I had to stop at a random store. I also realized it when I went for a drive around town with no particular plan in mind. Basic things became so much more complicated accompanied with emptiness. Even in these moments, Kai's incessant comments wouldn't be uninvited.
On cue, Kai walked into the kitchen and studied the fridge. He seemed to have noticed the appearance of new things along the shelves. I didn't move to speak first, knowing he wouldn't do so as well. So we continued our competition of quietness, which was alongside the slamming of things.
I threw the pan into the sink, not worried about the clattering sound that echoed from it. Then he slammed the fridge, turning around to make a sandwich on the counter. So, this was how it had been for seven days.
"It's been seven days. What's your deal?" I broke the silence, even though I had promised myself not to. But I just could not fathom the thought of making a grudge against the only other person in this world that I could be in forever.
He didn't talk to me or even look at me, continuing to make his sandwich.
"Whatever," I walked away, hearing the front door slam shut.
— Author's Note
Hello! I really hope you've enjoyed and I apologize for not really commenting much throughout each chapter. Things will get much better but I'd rather keep it at a realistic progression than push a messy, fast-paced plot.
