After two months, they were ready to put their plan in motion.

Paranoia and wonder. That had been Kai's grand scheme. To release the spell that made them invisible and silent, and begin to do subtle things that would alert Bonnie and Damon to a third presence— not necessarily a fourth.

Between listening to Kai yap about how exactly he wanted things to be done, Beatrix would tune out any noise he was making and listen to Bonnie and Damon argue. Someone might have taken them for mortal enemies, with the way they sometimes went at it.

It reminded her of being in the Mikaelson compound. The constant bickering. Being put in the middle. Having to choose sides. Sometimes it had been over the silliest of things. Other times, it was more serious.

"Klaus is furious," Beatrix noticed one evening in 1914. She lay in an armchair, writing out a few simple spells that had come to mind, which she could make more precise later.

"When is he not?" Elijah had replied. He was standing at the window, staring out at the ceiling. "Niklaus is paranoid. He knows Kol is up to something."

Beatrix shrugged. "Kol has every right to befriend the witches. It needn't make Klaus so tense."

"He knows you're in on it."

She had looked up, boredly for the most part. "And what if I am? Kol is my best friend. I stand with him."

"I suppose Niklaus expects you to support him instead. He is your sire and a previous lover."

"That was too brief for him to think I bear excessive loyalty to him," she said a bit more sternly. "Why, Elijah? Where do you stand?"

He did not look at her. "I am unaware of what you and Kol are plotting. Perhaps Niklaus is right to harbor suspicion."

"We're not going to overthrow him and destroy New Orleans," Beatrix said, rolling her eyes. She stood and went to the window beside him, placing her hand on his. "You're not... siding with him, are you?"

"I do not take sides, Itza," he whispered, turning and lifting her hand, kissing the back of it tenderly. "But you have taken back your magic. Niklaus was previously angry that you'd set it aside, and now, you won't explain why you did it. All we know is that it benefits Kol."

He placed his hands on her waist, leaning down and pressing his lips on hers. "All I ask is that you be careful. Niklaus will not hesitate to tear your heart out. Kol may be willing to urge you into risking your life, but I will not tolerate it if it puts you in imminent danger."

"Look at you, being all concerned. I'll be fine, 'Lijah. You don't have to worry."

He hadn't had to worry, not until Christmas when Klaus had been holding her beating heart in his hand, livid when he discovered what she and Kol had been trying to do. The hesitation that had befallen him when he saw her choke beneath him and begin to cry was what gave Elijah time to save her.

"Today's the day," Kai said, snapping her out of her thoughts. He looked more cheerful than ever, with a maniacal glint in his eyes. "Today we start making noise. Remember what we planned? Cast a spell so that only Bonnie hears us casually dropping something. Have her start to get paranoid. When they're distracted, I'll finish the crossword puzzle. Two fucking months of hearing her whine about not knowing what twenty-seven across is. Yellow Ledbetter— how dumb can she be?"

"Give her a break, damn it," hissed Beatrix. "We don't know what year it is out there. She might not have even been in utero on this day."

"And you were three hundred and ten on this day, whatever," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. "Feeling old yet? No, wait— your would-have-been baby daddy is way older."

Beatrix groaned. "Please stop calling Elijah that."

"You prefer I call him a b—"

She zapped him with electricity right in the forehead, and he quieted down, despite looking murderous.

Right before the eclipse, Beatrix did just as Kai said. Muttering the words under her breath, she made an invisible tunnel of sound connected to Bonnie and Kai, as he'd be the one ceremoniously dropping something. They were standing in the doorway, still invisible at the moment.

"What's a seven letter word for kill me now?" Bonnie said from the table, looking down at the newspaper in her hands.

Damon held back from looking overly annoyed. "That joke got old six weeks ago."

Bonnie let out an exasperated sigh. "And so did this crossword puzzle. Everyday for two months I've done this stupid thing and I still can't figure out twenty seven across. Old tongue twister, Eddie turned top forty?"

Damon ignored her, and deposited a plate in front of her with two pancakes and a circle of whipped cream. Bonnie raised the pencil in her hand and stabbed angrily into the pancakes. Beatrix had been wanting to eat one of them since they arrived but it was too risky. Kai would be furious.

"I hate pancakes!" Bonnie hissed. Damon held his hands up in mock surrender. "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."

This angered Bonnie. She stood, glaring at him. "You know I've been trying!"

There they went, fighting again.

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

That was the moment Kai chose. He let out a soft snicker and extracted a small glass orb he'd wrapped in tinfoil and threw it down the hall. Bonnie flinched, her jaw going slack as she turned back in the direction of the sound. "Did you hear that?"

Damon let out a frustrated sigh. "What would I have heard, Bonnie? We're the only two people here, we were the only two people here two months ago and the only two people here now!"

"Well I swear I heard something!"

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

Bonnie gritted her teeth. "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." She snatched up her teddy bear from the table and moved to leave. Kai gripped Beatrix's hand rapidly, siphoning just enough to summon the orb back in his hand and pocket it as Bonnie stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

Kai let out a chuckle. "Good girl, Beatrix, I'm pleased." He smacked her ass and made her growl before walking over to the table. Damon had just turned up the music and was eating his own pancakes, facing the window, and sipping bourbon between bites.

Clearly, he missed someone. Very much. In the two months they'd been there, Beatrix hadn't heard them actually discuss their lives. She didn't know what year they came from. The only time they had brought up any of their friends was at 'Elena's' house. It was like they refused to talk about anything sentimental. Beatrix wondered if Elena was the girl Damon had left behind.

She wondered if Elijah had looked this forlorn when he thought she'd been killed.

Another smack on the ass had alerted her that Kai had filled in the crossword puzzle. "This is so exciting," he said, giddy like an innocent child. "I haven't felt this good since I beat my brother to death."

And there he went being morbid again. At first, Beatrix had tried to relate, but now, it was too repetitive. Besides, she had only ever explored the darkest parts of herself when doing magic, and that was fairly private since it was in her head.

When night fell, she and Kai came back downstairs, lurking in a corner to await Bonnie's reaction to the completed crossword. He seemed intent on watching the anxiety rise into her features.

"Careful, CobraKai," teased Beatrix. "Someone might think you have a thing for Bonnie."

"She's hot, but she's useless," Kai sighed. "The plan needs to be intricate because of her. If she just had her magic, this would be easier."

They watched as Bonnie stirred some beans on the stove. Beatrix was starving, both for blood and food. She and Kai had been eating mostly fruits and snacks to not have to go and use a stove elsewhere. Kai had let her drink directly from him a few times, but she wanted more. She at least would have liked to know if Bonnie's blood tasted better.

When Bonnie finished cooking, she served two bowls and set one down in front of Damon, before sitting across from him. She handed him a spoon as he unfolded his napkin, looking over his face as he cast her a small, appreciative smile. She looked worried about him. That was certainly a change.

"I miss them too, you know," she said gently.

Damon looked up, a bit surprised that she'd spoken, considering their argument earlier. He nodded, then began to eat. He paused for a second to look at the newspaper, then grinned. "Look who got twenty seven across."

Bonnie just smirked and shook her head. "I wish. twenty seven across is a rock I am pushing up an endless mountain."

Damon simply read off the newspaper. "It's an old tongue twister Eddie turned top forty, Eddie Vedder, pearl jam. Yellow Ledbetter." He set it back down, making Bonnie furrow her eyebrows.

"Here it comes," Kai said, smirking malevolently as Bonnie grasped the newspaper and looked down at it.

Her eyes widened. "Are you messing with me?" She said to Damon, her voice wavering slightly.

Damon seemed to think she was joking. "No. You messing with me?"

She pointed down at the crossword puzzle. "I didn't finish this."

Damon just shrugged. "Well, neither did I."

For a moment, Bonnie's expression was blank. She dropped her voice to a lower volume. "There's someone else here."

"And Bingo was his name-o," Kai recited, looking smug as he went to the stairs, trotting up them in intervals of three.

-

Another two months passed with Kai scheming up a nice little plot to be played with the now uncertain Bonnie and the apathetic as ever Damon. They hadn't made any other moves, at Kai's insistence that they needn't rush it. He was confident they'd get out, and he was willing to play the long game. Beatrix hated him for it, but simply went along with it. She didn't want him to be angry and leave her behind.

"Tomorrow they're going to the grocery store," Kai announced one evening as they got to their room following a trip to their old residence for food. "I listened in. We'll follow behind. Now, what I want you to do is follow them, not that far behind. You'll make the pork rinds disappear from the rack and appear here, in the room, except for one bag. Then, you'll make sure all the bourbon bottles have turned to pure vervain. Meanwhile, I'll be retrieving his car and making sure to siphon the cloaking spell from it so he'll see it. You can turn the carousel on as many times as you want, but just make sure they come outside and stay outside so I can get in the store."

"Yes, Kai," Beatrix said boredly.

It had been Kai's idea to find the car when he heard Damon talking about it one afternoon. When he'd been asleep, Beatrix had creeped into the Salvatore male's room and seeped into his mind to find the image, then transferring it to Kai. With some very complex magic, they had turned the car they'd been using into the spitting image of Damon's car. That had all been Beatrix's doing, but Kai liked to take credit. She had cloaked it so that there would be no chance that Damon would see it prior to what Kai had planned.

She wished that she could have done the planning. There was no reason for this to be so intricate. She would have liked to introduce herself formally. To befriend Damon and Bonnie. To teach her properly how to reignite her magic. To enjoy Damon's pancakes and see if he'd talk to her about the memories clearly plaguing him. She had seen more than just his car in his mind— she'd seen that he, as cruel as he seemed, had a soft spot for one person only. It touched her that he held onto the memory of her so firmly. Elena was a lucky girl.

Beatrix thought they probably could have been out of there already if she was in charge, but no, Kai wanted to plan every move like it was a game of chess. Everything would probably go wrong anyway.

"Tell me I'm a genius," Kai demanded as he lay onto the bed. Beatrix gave him a cheeky grin and remained silent, crawling under the covers.

"Trixter, I don't hear anything," he chimed after he didn't hear her voice for five minutes.

"A three year old could have come up with the same plan."

Kai opened his mouth to insult her, but closed it up again. "You know what," he said after a brief silence, "I'm going to choose not to slaughter you."

"Yi-fucking-pee for me, I guess."

"You're no fun, Beatrix. Live a little. We're about to introduce ourselves to our companions and we get to kill them if they don't cooperate!"

Lately, the whole 'killing' part wasn't really doing much for her. "Yeah, sure," she said, turning away from him like she always did. She didn't want him staring at her while she tried to fall asleep.

"You should be more excited to get out. You're going to see your hunk of an Original again."

"What is with your Elijah obsession?" She snapped. "You ask me about him all the time. I already showed you a memory of him, I already told you countless stories. One might think you're attracted to him."

In one swift move, he had grasped her neck and snapped it.

He was asleep when she woke up, and she purposely kicked him off the bed.

Anger. Annoyance. Lust. It was practically all the same thing to Kai. For some reason he tolerated her. He always was annoyed or angry with comments she'd make. But when he didn't kill her, he used it to fuel his drive and they'd just end up taking it out on each other. Stress relieving, mind numbing, making them forget whatever was bothering them.

That night, Beatrix missed Elijah's touch a bit more. She craved the feeling of his coarse palm over her arm as he kissed her shoulder and pulled her closer. The scrape of his stubble over her neck. The strong grip he used to pull her out of an altercation with either his brother or another enemy. The intoxicating scent that came when he kissed her forehead and she got a full whiff of his cologne. She missed how he'd take his time running his fingers over every inch of her body, making her quiver and whimper beneath him.

She supposed she must have been talking in her sleep, because in the morning, Kai was staring intently her way, as if he had blackmail to use against her.

"What's got you all smiley?" She said suspiciously as she put on the nicest non-dress outfit she had.

"Oh, nothing. Just meeting the others today."

She gazed boredly at the plain t-shirt and jeans he's thrown on. His sneakers were dirty. "You're going to make a glorious first impression."

"Your outfit is practically asking for a compliment. I don't fish for things like that."

"Why would anyone ever compliment you?" She muttered as she curled her hair with one delicate wave of her finger.

He ignored her comment. "So, what exactly were you and Elijah doing in your dream?" He asked, making her cheeks redden. "I really doubt you were gardening or eating..."

"None of your business. Focus on your little scheme like a proper boy."

"Why, you don't want to get into details because you—"

She sped forward and flipped him onto the floor, yanking his hands behind her back and kneeling on his thighs. "I'd hate to do this part of the plan without you," she snapped. "Considering how you won't shut up about it. Don't test me, Malachai."

"Call me that again and you'll be the one in pain," he sneered back, trying to push her off.

She stepped away on her own, kicking him hard in the side before returning to fix her hair.

When they heard Damon and Bonnie head out, they parted ways. Kai went to retrieve the car, and Beatrix followed not too far behind the pair. Today, they hadn't bickered much. They'd been fairly quiet after last night's revelation. Damon didn't seem to believe that someone else could possibly be there with them. He was wrong, of course.

Beatrix found them when they already had a shopping cart, and were steadily filling it with supplies. She moved a few aisles down and reached the pork rinds— stupid things they were, Kai's favorite snack. He used to munch on them directly in Beatrix's ear about... four years ago, perhaps. Eventually, he'd grown bored that she stopped reacting. He had no idea she'd cast a spell to tune him out.

She refrained from listening into Damon and Bonnie's conversation for a bit, making the whole row of pork rinds disappear, minus one bag. That one, she cast a different spell on so that it would be waiting in the car for Kai when he got to it. She then went back toward Damon and Bonnie, walking close to them, and watching them silently fighting over who got to push the cart. Typical.

"We need strawberries," Bonnie said once she allowed Damon to push the cart. Damon nodded his head. "Eggs, milk, and ooh— candles." She picked one off a shelf and placed it in the cart.

"I know it's been awhile," Damon began, "but you couldn't do magic as an anchor, so I'm curious what momentary lapse reason makes you think you can do it now?"

"You know, when all this started, you sucked at making pancakes but now they're somewhat edible," retorted Bonnie. "Milk." Damon stopped and opened one of the fridges and extracted a carton of milk on command.

"There's no reason to be Peter Pessimist," continued Bonnie, stopping in front of a rack of glasses and tried some on. "We have proof we're not alone."

Damon grimaced. "First of all. Don't nickname, that's my thing." He walked over to her and put on a pair of glasses himself. "And this proof— this mysteriously filled in crossword, could very easily have been you."

Bonnie shot him an exasperated look and leaned onto the cart. "I didn't. Fill. It. In."

Damn, she sounded mad. Damon just rolled his eyes. "No. you don't know you filled it in. You also don't know that you talk in your sleep. Eggs."

Bonnie grabbed the eggs, then turned back to him, a stern look on her face. "What are you saying? Are you saying I sleep crossword?"

He yanked off the glasses he'd put on. "I'm saying it makes more sense than the alternative."

This roused a suspicious glare from Bonnie, who removed her own glasses and put both pairs back on the rack. "I get what you're doing," she announced.

"What am I doing?" Damon asked.

"You refuse to have hope that you'll see Elena again so you don't have to be disappointed."

They were now in the aisle where Beatrix had removed the pork rinds. Now was the time for the next part. She reached into her pocket and felt for the three quarters she had prepared. She looked out the window and saw Kai standing at the door, holding the bag of pork rinds.

"I refuse to have hope because there's nothing to hope for," Damon was saying as Beatrix began to make her way to Kai.

"Pork rinds," she heard Bonnie say suddenly. There it was. She sped the rest of the way to Kai, but didn't stop in front of him. She knelt in front of the carousel and pushed a quarter in, waiting a few seconds before pressing the button. Kai smirked down at her, opening the bag of pork rinds. "Good girl," he said as the melody rang out, and the carousel began to move. "Keep them outside for a bit. Whenever one of them comes back, follow them."

She saluted him half-heartedly as he strode into the store, still invisible, as Bonnie and Damon ran outside.

Bonnie looked quite satisfied to see the carousel. "Hmm, you hear that, Damon? That's what hope sounds like."

"Yeah, right." Damon knelt down in front of the switch box, popping it open, and making the music stop. "It's gotta be a short, faulty wiring, something."

"Or someone put a quarter in it and turned it on," suggested Bonnie.

"You know, I'm a little confused with all this misplaced hope," grunted Damon. "All right, Let's just say there's someone here. How do you know we're gonna get out?"

"Well, you say that this is your hell right? If there's someone else here, that means it's not your hell, and if it's not your hell that means Grams put us here, and if Grams put us here there's a way out."

Beatrix wished she had been stuck in here with Bonnie instead of Kai. She at least tried to be optimistic. Damon and Kai were similar in their pessimism.

Damon raised his eyebrows. "That's a hell of a logic knot you've tied for yourself."

Bonnie seemed pleased. "Thank you. So now that we have properly placed our hope, let's play a game. When we get out, what's the first thing you're gonna tell Elena?"

Damon leaned closer to her, pretending to think before smirking wickedly. "'Sorry I killed Bonnie. But she was the most annoying person in the world." He started to walk into the parking lot, looking more exasperated. "She wouldn't shut up. She just kept talking. I mean, it's a wonder I made it as long as I did, but here's the thing, I think it's better this way because she didn't have magic, and she was pretty much useless."

Beatrix and Bonnie followed closely behind him. He walked right past his car and didn't notice it, but thankfully, Bonnie did. "Damon," she said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"What?" he said, turning around.

Bonnie pointed at the car. "I don't know, you still think I'm useless."

A look of understanding and pure joy dawned on Damon's face. He looked down at the license plate number. Of course, Beatrix had made sure to get that absolutely correct. "That's my car," he breathed. "That's my car!"

He moved forward and went into the driver's seat, turning it on and putting his hands on the steering wheel. Beatrix found herself smiling when he started pretending to drive the car, listening to the low hum of the engine in the background.

After about five minutes, however, Bonnie looked a bit impatient. "How much longer are we gonna listen—"

Damon silenced her immediately. "Shh.... This sound is the opposite sound of your voice, and I so enjoy it."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "How did it even get here, Damon? Did you leave it here in 1994?"

"I don't know, Bonnie. It was eighteen years ago. Had a lot going on that day."

Beatrix nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Kai. "Eighteen years, huh?" he mused. "So, it's 2012 out there."