anne

06 | The Gang: part one

TVD - S5 E15 

• ____________ •

After a haunting and aggravating dream sequence that disturbed Anne's sleep all throughout the night, she decided she needed to go for a walk, or a run, just something to give her mind focus.

She wriggled out of Henry's embrace and went to the bathroom, staring at her face in the mirror, struggling with the feeling her dream left her with; like the more she tried to reach for clarity, the longer her arm stretched, the further away clarity would become. It was infuriating. Thankfully, her phone started ringing. She went back into the bedroom to the bedside table and answered it.

"What's up?"

"Anne," It was Charles,"Hey, so I did some digging, and I found the next diary. She hid it well, at the end of the last chapter she includes a hint about the location of the next diary. I found the first one in her drawers a few days ago, and I read the last page of that book and took a photo of it before I gave it to you. I looked at it last night, and she said some riddle about where to find this one, which I found in the cupboard of the broom closet this morning."

Anne nodded, processing that there would now be a 'riddle' element in this case, "And did you read any of this new one?"

"No, I haven't yet, I don't think I want to. Maybe I could go through it with you when you get back from your work trip?"

"Well," Anne carefully addressed, "I'm caught up in my work here right now, when I get back to Seattle." She could hear shuffling on the other end. She assumed he was packing the girl's lunches and making them breakfast.

"Okay, um... how long do you think it will take?"

"I'm not sure," she answered honestly, slumping a bit. "There's a lot of trial and error and random shit to figure out." Anne furrowed her eyebrows, genuinely trying to think about how long it would take to help Damon if she could. "To be honest, it could take a week, maybe even two. I will try my best to finish as soon as I can so I can help out. I will read the first diary you gave me tonight, I'll see if I can find anything that sticks out."

"Thanks, Anne. It truly means a lot."

"It's my job," Anne smiled, about to speak again but she heard Caroline, his daughter, yelling in the kitchen something about hair-ties and smarties. "Tell Care and Cassie I say hi."

"Will do, I have to go help the little rascal find a hair-tie now, but thanks, Anne."

"No problem Charles."

Both Charles and Caroline said goodbye to Anne, and she grinned while replying, "Bye Bye!"

Anne hung up the phone and sunk her head in her hands dramatically. What she needed right now was coffee, and she needed it desperately. She wrote Henry a note to book himself into that motel room he got and occupy his time doing whatever he felt like doing while she worked here. That way she wouldn't have to babysit him, and she could actually be productive.

She heard Stefan in the kitchen, so she got changed into some plain blue jeans and black long-sleeve turtleneck, put on some sneakers and went downstairs.

"Morning," She greeted him, watching as he made himself some toast. "Do you guys have coffee here?"

Stefan winced slightly, "We do, but our machine is broken."

Anne feigned deep hurt, "That fucking sucks."

"Yeah," he agreed, buttering his toast, "I could've made you the signature Salvatore coffee as a thank you."