𝗣𝗦𝗬𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗖 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘𝗥 ✎𝙫𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨

𝖢𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗍𝗐𝗈

A song is playing on the radio, Damon is flipping pancakes while dancing and mouthing the song. He has a bottle of bourbon in his hand and he is chugging it as he cooks. Ethan sat at the table watching the man, well mostly the food.

Bonnie is stepping into the house, a teddybear in her hand, along with a book. She hears the music, smells the food and smiles a bit. Damon is taking a large gulp of bourbon as she enters the kitchen and clears her throat. Damon stops dancing, clearing his throat in the process.

"I didn't know you cooked." Bonnie brows furrowed as she stares at the vampire.

"I don't." Damon says as he turns back to the pancakes. "How'd you sleep? Me. . . not good. My 1994 mattress was very lumpy. Whatcha got there?" Bonnie looks down at the items in her hand.

"Oh, Ms. Cuddles, I lost her when I was nine. But I went into my house last night and... here she was." She waggles her bear.

"Is that Grams grimore?" Ethan asked coming up beside his sister to take the brown spell book from her hands.

"Yeah."

Damon walks over to the radio, with bourbon in his hand. "Yeah, well I found this. Drank it last year when Ric died." He removes the CD that was playing.

"So we're in this snapshot of another time, or. . . something." Bonnie said clearly unsure about where they were. Damon twists the CD rack with his hand covering his eyes. He picks one. "Everything that existed in 1994, still exists."

"For better, or for worse?" Damon asks. He kisses the CD in his hand before putting it into the radio. He turns the radio on and the music begins to play, but Bonnie hurries to click it off.

Ethan sits at the table flipping through the grimore for a spell to get them out while Bonnie and Damon bicker.

Suddenly, the sky darkens like before. They look up in surprise. Ethan is looking in the window and sees the eclipse. "Wait- when did you guys sit down?"

"You've got to be kidding me. Bonnie, look at the date on that paper." Damon ignored Ethan's question and handed Bonnie the newspaper.

"It says, May 10th, 1994. It's the same day as yesterday." Bonnie looks down to read the paper. They all exchange looks. "We're living the same day all over again."

"Well that proves it, we're in hell. Our own personal, custom-built hell. And you're both in it with me." Damon raises his bourbon. "Bottoms up." He drinks.

───

It's been a couple months still stuck in the dimensional world and the Damon, Bonnie and Ethan were getting really sick of reliving the same day over and over.

The eclipse is still in the sky, but it moves out of the way to reveal a bright sun. Inside, Damon is behind the counter, flipping pancakes. Bonnie seated at the table with the newspaper.

Ethan trudged into the kitchen/dining room with Grams grimore clutched in-between his chest and arms. "Hey." He takes a seat beside Bonnie and lays his head on her shoulder.

"Morning, E. Pancakes?" Damon asked. Ethan nodded.

Damon puts two pancakes on a plate and circles it with whipped cream. He places it in front of Bonnie, who grabs her pencil and stabs angrily at her breakfast. "I hate pancakes!"

"Whoa." Ethan moves from his sister shoulder to sit up on his own.

"Whoa, don't take it out on the pancakes. Those pancakes, like myself, are waiting for you to be witchy to get us the hell out of here." Bonnie stands abruptly. "You know I've been trying!"

"And failing. Further evidence, we're in hell. Not only am I stuck with you, I'm stuck with the useless version of you."

Bonnie is appalled slack-jawed and she opens her mouth to say something but closes it again. "Did you hear that?"

"You hear it too?" Ethan looks at his sister. "I've been hearing strange noises last night, like someone was clawing at my door. I ignored it because I thought I was hallucinating from lack of sleep."

"What would I have heard, Bonnie? We're the only three people here, we were the only three people here two months ago and the only three people here now!" Damon says flustrated.

"Well I swear I heard something!" Bonnie argued.

"Maybe it's the sound of existential despair. I hear that's what hell sounds like."

"You know what? You think we're trapped in your hell? I have to spend everyday on repeat with the person I like least on this earth-! Maybe we're trapped in mine." Bonnie snatches her teddy bear and leaves angrily.

"Well great you just pissed off our only hope to leaving this hell hole." Ethan throws up his hands and stands up from his seat.

"Where are you going?" Damon asks.

"Back to bed." Ethan answers before heading out of the kitchen and back upstairs to his room.

───

It's night time, and Ethan is standing behind the stove where Damon usually stands. Preparing dinner seeing as Damon wasn't in the mood to cook.

He mixed some beans in a pot, with the help of Bonnie and makes three bowls of it.

Damon sits at the table silent looking into space, when Bonnie walks over and places his bowl in front of him.

Ethan turns off the stove and takes his bowl and sits it besides Damon, his usual spot as Bonnie sits across from Damon.

Damon unfolds his napkin, and Bonnie hands him a spoon. He smiles at her as a "thank you", and begins to eat.

Damon looks down at his food, Ethan and Bonnie looks up at him, there is understanding and concern in their eyes as they watches him.

"If it taste bad it's all Bonnie's fault." Ethan says quick to throw his sister under the bus.

"I miss them too, you know." Bonnie says referring to Elena, Caroline and the gang.

Damon looks up in surprise, and nods in agreement. Bonnie looks back at her food and begins to eat.

"Wait that's what the staring was for- you know what I'll just eat silently." Ethan quietly continues to eat.

Damon grabs the newspaper on the table and stares at it. "Look who got 27 across." He said impressed by Bonnie's accomplishment.

"I wish, 27 across is a rock I am pushing up an endless mountain." Bonnie smirked.

"It's an old tongue twister Eddie turned top 40, Eddie Vedder, pearl jam. Yellow Ledbetter." Damon sits the newspaper down. And Bonnie looks confused.

She the grabs the newspaper and looks at the puzzle, 27 across is filled in: 'Yellow Ledbetter'.

Bonnie, looks up at Damon. "Are you messing with me?"

"No, you messing with me?" Damon asked in a joking manner.

"I didn't finish this." Bonnie says talking about the complete crossword puzzle.

"Well, neither did I." Damon and Bonnie turn to Ethan, who was silently eating.

"What?" The boy asked looking at the two.

"Did you finish the crossword puzzle?" Bonnie asked her brother, showing him the paper.

"I didn't do it, I've been sleeping all day." The boy tells the two.

"There's someone else here with us." Still seated at the table, they look around suspiciously.