Incandescent

Chapter 1.1

There was a road, endless gray hills, and air so dry it felt like sandpaper in her lungs. Barefoot, she walked the double yellow lines in the center of the road like a tight rope. Where were her shoes? If she had to guess, she'd say they were with her clothes. She hadn't died in the white dress she was wearing now.

Squinting up at the broiling orange sky, she decided it was going to storm. Well, could it storm here?

She remembered the light. Bright and blinding, but not painful. It hadn't felt like anything. And then someone standing beside her, fingers intertwined with her own. She thought for a second it had been her Grams, but that wasn't possible. She'd watched the woman find her peace. Wherever her elder witch had wound up, it wasn't here. Couldn't be. Bonnie refused to imagine her Grams anywhere this desolate. This lonely.

"And the prize package for dying is—two all-expense paid trips to nowheres-ville."

Bonnie whipped around. Standing there with dark hair framing his face and the top buttons undone in his shirt, was Damon Salvatore.

She released a breath that almost sounded like a laugh and felt nothing where her heart should have been.

"It was you," she said. She remembered the hand, and now she remembered the body to which the hand had belonged. "You died, too."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

It was a bad thing. A very bad thing. But it was comforting to have someone there with her. Someone she almost trusted.

"I don't know where we are," she said for no other reason than to say something. Silence made everything feel less solid, like a fuzzy waking dreamland.

It looked like they were in the middle of a desert, but it was no desert she had ever seen on earth. There was no sunlight. No life. Just the road and sand as gray as ash.

Damon walked to the edge of the road and kicked at a sand pile. "Looks like purgatory to me."

"But wasn't the Other Side a form of purgatory? It doesn't make sense that there would be two."

"Well, Bon-Bon, if I had all of the answers, we wouldn't be here right now." His face screwed into a cynical glare. "Or I wouldn't, at least. There was never much hope for you, was there?"

With half a road worth of space between them, Bonnie couldn't reach out and slap him. She wanted to. No, there had never been any hope for her, because she had given her life countless times to save everyone else in her life. Her best friend. The boy she loved. As she thought about it, she realized she would have done it all again. Because there was no one else on the planet who would have. No one else cared as much as she did, and no one else ever could.

But she would not stand here, wherever here was, and let Damon Salvatore, of all people, make her feel any less than what she was. A hero and a rock star of a friend.

She started walking.

"Was that a sore spot?" Damon asked behind her.

She refused to respond, preferring to speculate instead. There had to be some logic to this place, something more than what she could currently see.

The road beneath her feet felt rough, but warm. She welcomed the feeling. Everything else about the place made her feel so numb. She knew for certain that death wasn't some black void of oblivion. After facing it enough times, she decided it was a transition. She had transitioned to the Other Side, and now she would transition to this new place. As scary and unfamiliar as it was.

"I don't mean to sound clingy, but if you leave me out here, it's a pretty safe bet I'll go bat-shit crazy." Damon was at her side in a second, staring at her with ice blue eyes. He still had his super-human speed, so did that mean he was still a vampire?

"Are you saying that you aren't already bat-shit crazy?"

"Nice one, Judgy." He gave a cocky half smile. "I mean, everything in the world I have ever cared about has just slipped through my fingers, but if we can't at least laugh about it then we might as well be dead." He paused and said, "Wait a minute."

Bonnie had to admit that his cavalier attitude was the only thing keeping her from curling into the fetal position right there in the road. But it was an act, she was sure. They had lost everything, and now they were stuck in this new place together. There wasn't really anything funny about that.

"So what do—?" he started and then paused like he'd heard something. Impossible, except she heard it, too. Growling? No. An engine. There was an engine coming from…behind them.

They turned to face the sound. In the distance, they could see a blur of white winding around the bend in the road.

"I guess we're not alone," she said, both relieved and terrified by what that might mean.

As the thing grew closer, they moved over to the shoulder. Out of the way just in case. The rumbling sound grew louder and seemed as powerful as thunder after being in silence for so long.

Sooner than she would have expected, the thing was within clear viewing range. It was a car, she thought, but unlike any she had ever seen. It was circular, like a hamster wheel, with one door on the side and room for maybe two people. Whoever drove the vehicle whisked by them without a glance in their direction, continuing on into what she'd originally thought was oblivion.

"Wait," Damon called, running out into the road a second too late. Bonnie thought he could have caught up to the driver if he'd wanted to, but instead he turned to her. "What the hell was that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, but we're following it."

They stood together in the road, watching the vehicle get smaller and smaller until it disappeared. She welcomed it as a good omen. It was a sign that this new world was anything but a desolate wasteland. If they could find other people, there would be someone to explain where they were and if there was even the slightest possibility that they might return to the home they'd left behind.

Side by side, they began to walk. Bonnie barefoot and looking like a bedraggled angel with her white dress and messy hair. Damon dressed the same as he always was looking like a shadow of his former self as he squinted into the wind.

Chapter 1.2

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves," Damon sang, obviously trying to be annoying. "And this is how it goes."

"Shut up."

They had been walking for hours. Maybe. It could have been minutes. Days? She wasn't sure how she was supposed to tell. One stretch of road looked eerily similar to the next. The sky hadn't changed. And there hadn't even been another of the weird vehicles to give them the slightest bit of hope.

"Maybe it was a mirage," she said, trying to fight the urge to give up and failing miserably. "Maybe it was just wishful thinking."

"I don't think so. If I could conjure up an image as real as that dork-mobile, I would be picturing my dear sweet Elena." He closed his eyes like he could actually see her.

Something about that statement made Bonnie cringe. Probably because she had been trying so hard to block out all thoughts of Elena and the others. It would have been easy to sit there and imagine Jeremy, wondering if he was too upset. He was perpetually cursed with dead girlfriends, and she hoped her death wouldn't cause him much pain. It felt like knives in her chest just to think about it.

"This is the weirdest thing ever," she said, changing the subject to the unbearable heat. "I'm not thirsty, but what I want more than anything right now is water."

Just like that, the ground dropped from beneath their feet. The air thinned, and they were splashing around in an ocean of churning gray water.

Bonnie sank. The icy temperature made her shiver as she clawed for what she thought was the surface. No matter how hard she kicked, she didn't feel any closer to her goal. Her lungs constricted. Chest tightened. She couldn't see her own hands in front of her face. A force tugged at her. Although she couldn't tell in what direction, she knew it was taking her somewhere she didn't want to go.

The burning in her chest became too much. Her mouth opened without her consent, gasping for air and choking down water. This couldn't be happening. She couldn't be dying again.

Then there was a hand around her arm. The touch felt no better than ice, but she melted into it, allowing it to drag her away from the frozen darkness.

Her head broke the surface. She coughed and gagged, blinking water out of her eyes and taking in the monochromatic setting. The water and the sky were nearly the same shade of gray. She could hardly tell where one ended and the other began.

An arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her afloat.

"Damon?" she gasped.

"Yeah, it's me."

His chest rose and fell against her arm as he breathed. They bobbed there in open water, Bonnie shivering. Her teeth chattering. It was odd to her that everything in this none life felt as real as anything she'd experienced in the life she left behind.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Haven't the slightest," he said, sounding out of breath, "but whatever it was, I wish it would un-happen."

She felt herself shrinking closer to him as her feet kicked away at nothing, and she wished it, too. That whatever had happened could un-happen. The sad empty road didn't seem so sad and empty anymore.

And then they were there. Back on the road. Sopping wet and slathered to the hot asphalt. Shock sent Bonnie into another fit of coughs. Damon patted her back as she choked up the last bit of water. He looked as confused as she felt.

They'd been on the road. Then they were drowning. Now, they were on the road again. It didn't make sense, and she couldn't help but wonder if any of it was real, but the pain in her chest when she'd been drowning felt as real and vivid as anything.

"I hate this place," she said, her breathing slowly returning to normal.

"Maybe you're not supposed to like it." Damon closed his eyes and laid back, right there on the asphalt with his fingers laced behind his head. "Maybe this is Hell. Did you ever think about that?"

She honestly hadn't. Hell wasn't a place for someone like her. Someone who had always done everything she could for everyone else. It wouldn't have been fair for her to die saving the world, only to wind up being tormented for all of eternity.

Then again, when was life ever fair?

Damon opened an eye to peek when she didn't respond and then pulled up onto a stiff arm after seeing the look on her face.

"You're really scared of that, aren't you?" he asked, searching her eyes with that intense gaze of his.

"What?"

"The chance that this might really be Hell. That there might not be a place in the clouds for the good ones. Not even for the likes of you."

She pushed her soggy hair back from her face and crossed her arms over her knees.

"Yes, Damon. I am terrified of the thought of spending forever and ever in Hell with no one to keep me company but you."

He could be so infuriating sometimes. That was why they had never been that close when they were alive. Because he couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Because he knew exactly how to push people's buttons and he enjoyed it.

Well, that and the fact that he was a certified serial killer. He had tried to kill her once and succeeded a second time, but she didn't really blame him for the showdown with Klaus.

"You shouldn't be," he said. "Terrified, I mean. If anyone deserves pearly gates and a golden digestive track [This is an allusion to Paradise Lost. I figure people might not get it, but a 170+ year-old vampire probably would have read PL at some point, so it's in there], it's gotta be you."

She turned her head to look at him, eyebrows furrowed. Their faces were so close she could make out black flecks in his irises.

"That almost sounded like a compliment," she said.

"Yeah, well I'd suggest you get your hearing checked, but I doubt we'll be running into a physician any time soon."

He flashed to his feet and bent to offer her his hand. She stared at it for a moment. He was still wearing his daylight ring and it made her think of home. All of the people they might never see again. If the spell had gone any differently the night they'd died, she could have been stuck here with someone else. She remembered what she'd said to him.

I'm sure there are a million other people we'd rather be with right now.

And he'd responded with, A couple thousand at most.

As she put her hand in his, she thought for a moment that she could see that list of thousands shrinking.

Chapter 1.3

Bonnie wasn't going to say anything. She refused to. Even though the blurry darkness on the horizon still had yet to disappear. In fact, it was getting bigger. More distinct. If she could let herself believe it, the darkness was more than just a shadow. It was the outline of a city.

She was scared that the second she mentioned it, it would disappear and there would be nothing all over again. No shadows. No darkness. No nothing.

After walking beside Damon for so long, the thought of seeing someone other than him put a happy thrill in her chest where her heart had once been. People meant answers, and answers were all she could hope for.

"You see it, too. Don't you?" Damon asked, his words short and somehow broken.

The weakness in his voice concerned her. Since she'd woken up in this place, she'd been battling with the wind and low oxygen levels. Strange that the dead would need to breathe. Her muscles ached only half as much as her lungs, but she'd thought Damon was impervious to all of that. Vampire superhuman strength and what not.

She looked at him for the first time in what might have been hours, just to make sure he was okay. He met her gaze and gave a quick smile, small and mocking.

She looked away.

"Yes, I see it. I just didn't want to jinx it."

"It's still there." He stopped for a moment. "No harm done."

"For now. It looks about a million miles away."

"Twenty-two, actually. Twenty-five tops."

"So what do we do?"

She hated this. Feeling helpless. While she may have needed saving once or twice in her life, she had at least been able to come up with a plan and stick to it. For better or for worse. But she felt so out of place here. Unsure of where even her next step might lead her. Walking one moment, drowning the next. How could anyone plan under those circumstances?

"Unless you know the number of a taxi service," he said, "it looks like we're going to have to walk."

"Do you think you can make it that far?" she asked, certain that her legs and her lungs wouldn't last.

"No."

The simple answer fueled her anxiety. Snarky Damon was a comforting Damon. Serious Damon was terrifying.

Hot wind kicked up and almost bowled them over. Her hair and dress had mostly dried, and they fluttered around her.

"I'm starting to think that detour through the ocean wasn't all that bad," Damon said. "Which is worse? Pulling a Titanic and freezing to death like good old Leo Dicaprio or choking to death on toxic air?"

She didn't have an answer. They couldn't die, she knew. They were already dead. But she figured they could still get close to death without the dying part.

"Too bad whoever runs this place can't give us a happy medium," she mused. "Like keep the road but maybe add a little rain."

Thunder grumbled in the distance. A bolt of lightning cracked across the smog-orange sky and Bonnie's hand darted instinctively for Damon's, the same way it had the night they died. She was starting to think it had a mind of its own.

"You're not afraid of a little thunder, are you?" he asked.

Biting her lip, she dropped his hand and took a step away just as the first rain drops plopped onto the asphalt.

"What?" She tilted her head back as rain came crashing down around them, so loud it sounded like they were in the middle of a waterfall. It fell in sheets that created steam on the asphalt and began turning the sand hills into mud.

The rain made little work of her dress, and she was soaking wet for the second time. This time, she didn't mind it.

Damon squinted at her through the rapids. "You did this," he said.

She shook her head, no. She hadn't done anything half as powerful as creating rain, not since she'd lost her magic. It had to be a coincidence.

"It's either you or Ashton Kutcher waiting to jump out and tell us we've been punk'd, and it's not the last one because I killed Ashton Kutcher."

"You did not," she yelled over the rain and tried not to laugh.

"Probably not. Can't say I didn't try, but it was dark, and I'd had a few shots…bottles…of bourbon." He smiled at her and shook the water out of his hair. "This was all you."

Maybe he was right. Hadn't she said something about water before they'd found themselves in the ocean? And she'd been wishing for the road right before they'd poofed back. If she could make that stuff happen, why couldn't she….?

She closed her eyes, feeling cool water pooling around her feet, the dress clinging to her tired body. Then she thought about the city, the one on the horizon that was both a mystery and the biggest clue they had found yet about the new world.

"What are you do—?"

Damon didn't finish his question. When she opened her eyes, they were standing in the rain in the middle of the road, but there were no more gray hills. Instead, there were gray buildings, clustered together and scraping at the sky.

They had traveled miles in under a second, and although she didn't see another soul, she couldn't squash the exhilaration that came from knowing that she had made it happen.

"This was all me," she said, an old smile creeping across her face.

Damon only nodded before starting a slow clap in her honor.