Chapter Four: I Fell Down the Rabbit Hole

Song Inspiration: "Daydreaming" by Radiohead

Bonnie materialized into what felt like a hazy rose petal dream.

Everything holds a slight blur, a dream-like quality laced with nostalgia.

Grams sits in a field of wildflowers with her back turned to the young witch, her warm coffee brown skin almost gilded under the sky of watercolors. Bonnie's never seen a place like this before, she's not even sure where exactly here is. Her heart leaps at the sight of seeing Grams again and her body vibrates with happiness. She always thought it would be a long time before she ever got to see her again.

Just as the feeling starts to subside, the older woman turns to her. Eyes gouged, blood running from the torn sockets, her lips a swollen blue like a corpse that's sat out for too long. The smell of decayed flesh and dirt slips past her nose and Bonnie screams.

The peach sky leaks to gray and black. The wildflowers surrounding her grow in reverse, dying around her as well as the trees, sun, and earth. Grams deprecates with it, her once vibrant body withering away, and the silent scream and glint of horror in her eyes sending a hollow chill down Bonnie's spine.

She's stuck in a fishbowl of draining color, losing water fast. There's little she can do to quench the bile rising in her throat and the the urge to run.

The echoed sound of Gram's voice gets caught in the wind.

"Don't trust them, Bonnie."

The scenery morphs into a plain white room with no doors or windows. Bonnie trips over herself in a circle, spanning the empty room with a look of confusion and the remnants of tears coating her lashes.

"Hello, is anyone here?" She questions in a normal voice, however to her surprise, her words echo off the invisible walls. Her voice rings in her ears on replay, the sound making her claw at her head to rid herself of the noise.

"Bonnie…. Bonnie." A voice eerily similar to herself caresses her ear as if someone had whispered it from directly beside her. Like someone is watching her far too closely. The thought makes her tremble in unparalleled fear, the kind of fear that hits you like a bucket of cold ice water, taking you off guard.

The young witch shudders at the sinister feeling that crawls up her arms. The voice had been hers but different somehow. Something felt off, the slight edge that carried the notes of her voice dripping in insidiousness and even a touch of salacious charm.

She turns around and a body length mirror stands stock still on the other side of the room that hadn't been there before. Porcelain in its beauty, it stares at her with a presence that draws her in. Bonnie takes cautious steps towards the mirror and stands timidly in front of her reflection.

What she wasn't prepared for was the figure staring back at her.

"Who are you?" Bonnie's voice trembles in disbelief.

The entity snickers ominously with green eyes that rival her own and a carbon copy of her angular face, "Welcome to Hell, Bon Bon."

Stefan cradles Bonnie in his arms while he leans against her bed waiting for her to wake up. A rustling of leaves outside draws his attention and the window slips open.

The vampire growls in warning, saliva dripping from his fangs as he stands over Bonnie, hoping it sends a message to the intruder to leave before things took a turn for the worst. Once the angry haze of emotions dims, Stefan recognizes the expensive Calvin Klein cologne as soon as the man in question crosses the threshold.

"Damon," He eyes wearily with a hint of apprehension that elicits a cautious tremor in his fingers. The more aware he is of his brother, he becomes more mindful of Bonnie's blood dried to his hands from when he'd gotten it on him before she passed out. The bronze-haired vampire's face is set in contempt, a grim line seeping into the crevices of his face that resembles stone more than skin. Hard-browed as ever, broody in only the way Stefan could muster, he assesses Damon like a threat, "How did you get in here?"

Damon's half-smile seems to deepen at Stefan's thinly-veiled line of questioning. He takes a patronizing step forward, "Are you asking if Bonnie has invited me in before?" His asks tauntingly, piercing blue eyes cool as ice with a tinge of humor, "Be careful little brother," He tsks with animated glee at Stefan's discomfort, "Your humanity is showing. With you being Klaus' bitch, I'm sure that won't go over well with him." He transfers his gaze to Bonnie, "But maybe that's not what you care about."

Stefan fixes his visage into a mask of cool indifference, "And what would you know about humanity, brother?" He chides darkly with a chuckle, completely bypassing his observation, "Humanity and claiming the title of the town's newly reformed psychopath doesn't cease to exist in the name of Elena Gilbert." He runs his finger down the lapple of Damon's leather jacket mockingly, "Bonnie isn't Elena. She'd never see you as someone worthy of her respect, definitely not someone she'd willingly invite into her home." He remarks sharply. "Plus, Klaus and I are on equal playing field, call it more like allies. I know you don't have many of those because you double cross anyone foolish enough to trust you, but I can handle Klaus."

"You're even dumber than you look or really drunk off blood lust if you even remotely trust Klaus." He looks at Stefan adamantly with a stubborn hint of concern, "You're advocating for Bonnie to do the same with how reckless you're being. You're going to get her hurt right along with you." He seethes vehemently.

The cogs in Stefan's brain begin to turn and he can't help but laugh, "You're not here because of Elena, are you Damon? You're here because of Bonnie. Because you know that you can't belittle her and bully her into helping you anymore."

"Don't psychoanalyze me, brother."

Stefan's smile widens.

"You're needy, Damon. And you ache for validation at every turn, but you're not going to get it from Bonnie and you're not going to get some sick satisfaction from trying to make me tick." Stefan smiles charmingly, his blunt, white teeth barely concealing his razor sharp fangs that dance at the edge of his gums. He breaths cool air into the dark-haired vampire's face with no evidence of remorse in his next words, "You're nothing, brother."

Damon's stony expression experiences a hairline-crack and a flash of hurt dims the amusement that was once there before. Maybe he hasn't considered how much him and Elena's betrayal has altered his brother, or maybe he didn't care enough to stop himself from doing it regardless of the consequences. Maybe his own selfishness had once again caused an irreversible rift between him and Stefan. As the thought hits him, the sadness in the pit of his stomach deepens but he hides it, his thought process occurring in only the matter of seconds, undetectable to the human eye. But Stefan had seen it. And maybe he felt something resembling sorrow for the relationship he was sure wasn't salvageable.

Stefan looks down at the daylight ring on Damon's finger, "You probably won't be needing that anymore."

Damon eyes him, confused.

Stefan shrugs, "You know, with the way you'll sulk and go crawl back up Elena's ass for comfort, I'm sure you'll go deep enough that the sun won't shine there." He smirks crudely, "You should be safe. No sense weighing yourself down with that pesky family heirloom. You and I both know family doesn't mean much to you."

Damon stares back hard.

Bonnie stirs from the spot Stefan had left her to lie down. He turns back to Damon, "Leave before she sees you. I don't want to do this with you in front of her. She deserves better than to be in the middle of our baggage."

Damon recovers from the emotional bruise Stefan left on his dead heart and saves face the best way he can, "Was that us dabbling in our emotional baggage, Stef?" He questions with crossed arms, leaning guarded against the window.

Green eyes meet blue with a heavy look, "You're more transparent than you think, Damon. As much as you like to pride yourself in only giving a damn about Elena, I know that deep down you care about Bonnie." He pauses and pulls at the hair at the nape of his neck, "That's why you're here. To mend fences. Somewhere in you, you can't stand the thought of her hating you." He looks at Damon with the weight of the last 100 years on his shoulders, "But make no mistake, brother, I'm not sharing Bonnie's friendship with you. Not her."

He turns to gaze at a vulnerable Bonnie laid sprawled on the floor with a feeling of surrender making his muscles slacken, his jaw to loosen, and his eyes to soften to a seafoam green, "She's- important to me, Damon. Just leave, please."

Damon senses the sincerity in Stefan's tone and decides to grant him this one mercy, exiting through the window silently, but not before glancing back at Bonnie's heart-shaped face and Stefan's eyes that seem to have shifted in weight. Those eyes no longer hold a candle for Elena, that much was obvious, even if Stefan wasn't quite as aware of the dynamic change as Damon was having just witnessed the cloud that had left this brother's eyes the moment he looked at Bonnie.

"Bonnie will be good for him," he decides. With that last thought and a repertoire of new questions brewing underneath the surface, Damon leaves Stefan to take care of the little witch.

Worried green eyes pull her out of sleep, "Stefan," She groans through the dull throbbing in her head and the pain in her neck. Flakey, dried blood cakes underneath her fingernails upon inspection before she meets his eyes, "What happened?"

"You don't remember?" He questions slowly, trying to draw the information out of her without overwhelming her. He smooths her hair with his rough hands and tucks her head underneath his chin, "You really scared me, Bon." He mumbles in a low whisper.

Bonnie turns in his arms and sits Indian style, knees brushing his in a timid hello. She holds her bottom lip hostage between her teeth, "I don't remember it, Stef. Just the feeling—- it was so cold and dark and eerie." She shudders under the nonexistent chill that licks up her spine, "I felt like I was in Hell. That's all I can locate… the feeling of it all."

Stefan runs his fingers down her temple and circles it around to cradle her neck in his hand and coaxed her to look at him. She obliged naturally with her jade eyes capturing his own through her long, dark lashes.

They're so close their noses could bump again, a hair breath between an almost and an action. She remembers the first time it happened in a situation similar to this, under the tempered off-orange hue of her obsolete bathroom. He seems to be remembering that moment too by the crinkle in the corner of his eyes and the way he smiles lazily at her blush. His smile stretches when he hears her heart skip a beat. Damn him for being so handsome.

She chuckles nervously.

His dimples disarm her.

They're fighting to look anywhere but each other. A losing battle headed down a downward slope. Their eyes meet again and there's a—- click. An interchanging of something. Something subtle, yet pronounced at the same time.

Bonnie's ears burn red hot and Stefan moves impossibly closer, his breath cool and comforting against her cheek.

She hopes he initiates it. Something, anything. She's just not really sure what it she's hoping for.

Stefan slips tantalizing promises into the shell of her ear, "You don't have to be afraid of anything. I'm going to protect you." He says soothingly with a softness that settles like butterflies in her stomach. "That's what friends are for, right?" He smiles lightly but with worry still evident in his eyes as he looks her over and brushes wild curls out of her face.

Bonnie's own smile forms, "You're starting to grow on me, Salvatore."

Stefan's eyes pierce her, "It's a start." He states as a preamble, almost to the point where it seems like he's not going to say anything else. But then he does.

"I am in every way overwhelming and unfathomably undeserving" he looks at her earnestly with a type of intimacy she can't quite put her finger on, "But I can't tell you what you mean to me, how you've already helped me so much." He looks at her heavily, as if the words will glisten in his eyes, "I'll never let you feel overlooked again."

And there she is, stuck. Glued to her spot with her insides in a knot, caught in time between uneven breaths and his beautiful dark green eyes.

Author's Note: Hey guys! I know I haven't updated in a while and this was rather short but I've been overwhelmed with school and haven't had time to really write much. But I have a little time this week so hopefully this will hold y'all over until the next chapter. Leave some love in my review box 3