Love and Loss (The Fun Gilbert Book 3)

Chapter 23-Prison World Blues (Part 2)

Jessica's P.O.V.

When I make it back to the boarding house, I hear Bonnie tell Damon, "No. 'Cause you're punishing yourself. You call this place your hell, and it means you feel remorse. That makes you different from Kai. Maybe there is hope for you," she finishes playfully and I laugh, making them look at me and I look at Bonnie.

"Look, I'd say I'm sorry for what I said but I wouldn't mean it, because I can't. I had to split my emotions and we decided winning over Esther required more. Not to mention that she has to be around Nik and can't let him know. I get to be around you guys. For all I know, she's completely alone so she should get the emotions."

"Did you have a point?" She questions.

"Oh, right. I won't apologize but I do want to make you understand, if you'll let me help you."  I look at both of them this time and they nod nervously as I touch their temples, projecting the images of Kai's childhood. Him being locked in his room while they celebrated his birthday with his twin, his father's abuse, his father and siblings calling him an abomination, his twin trying to be nice until he accidentally siphoned her, the guilt he felt and the depression from the treatment, and the day he was meant to merge with Josette only for his father to say that no abomination would lead the coven and knocking him out before locking him in his room, which he escaped from and killed everyone that had ever caused him pain. I pull back and they look at me in shock.

"What the hell was that?" Damon demands and I frown.

"His childhood. Bonnie, you were so quick to condemn him but it's not his fault," I try but she shakes her head.

"He made a choice," she counters and I try to think about how to explain it when it hits me.

"Frankenstein," I say and Damon frowns in confusion, and Bonnie sighs.

"Jessica-" she begins but Damon cuts her off.

"What am I missing?"

I turn to him and explain. "When we were in 7th grade, we had to read Frankenstein. I've never been particularly good with understanding emotions, but it was fine because Care was always there to explain but the week we read the scene with his monster, Caroline got mono. I sat in between Care and Bonnie and when the monster was explaining why he wanted a companion, I didn't understand. I said that he acted monstrously after they assumed he was a monster and that's what confirmed it."

"But I told her that she was wrong. I said that they would've treated him like a monster regardless because he looked like a monster. It's not fair but that's how ignorant people act."

"So I looked at her and I said, so monsters aren't born, they are made."

"And I told her that was the point of the book," Bonnie finishes as I turn to her with pleading eyes.

"Please Bonnie. You don't know what it's like to feel like a freak, but you've seen what abuse does. It creates monsters. Nik was a nice person who loved his siblings and art. He was nervous and terrified that he wasn't good enough and then he watches his bother get torn apart and his abusive father kill the girl he loved and had to hide that he brought her back with magic he shouldn't have had, only for her to erase herself from his memory.

"Then he had to suffer having a part of him ripped away. I saw you struggle with the fear that you would never get your magic back, imagine how Kai would feel already knowing that he can't generate his own and then, as though that isn't bad enough, he has to suffer the psychological abuse of his sibling and father coupled with the physical abuse from his father. He isn't a monster, Bonnie, he's a victim that acted out."

Bonnie scrutinizes me for a few minutes before looking at me with a determined look. "Do you truly believe that he can be saved or are you doing this because he reminds you of Klaus?" I smile, knowing that I've convinced her.