anne

12 | Snap

TVD - S5 E17 - Middle Act

• ____________ •

Once Caroline received a stressful phone call in the hospital about Stefan, she updated Enzo and Anne about where they need to go. Caroline got into the driver's seat, and Anne sat in the passengers, leaving Enzo exiled to the back again—almost routinely. After driving through many, many 'Peachtree Drives', they finally arrived at their destination.

"6643 Peachtree Drive. And I am thoroughly underwhelmed by its appearance." Anne said while getting out of the car, following the other two walking towards the house. Anne inspected the overgrown weeds and the cracked pathway, growing a dreading feeling.

"It's a miracle we found the place. Every other street in this blasted city is Peachtree." Enzo remarked as they walked up to the dusty porch, he too seemed to be unsatisfied by the house's exterior.

Caroline peered at the mail in a slot beside the door, "These look old."

"Yeah, like four months old." Anne remarked, looking at their expired dates. Enzo knocked on the door, then tried to jiggle the knob open in hopes it was unlocked, but it wasn't.

"Seventy years in a cage... You'd think I'd learn to pick a lock by now." He snapped the doorknob off, and the door quietly creaked opened to reveal intricate, winding lines of white and black salt and blood covering the floor, all leading to a candlelit room at the end with a woman kneeling in it.

"Red hair. That's her... She's a witch." Caroline spoke, she walked forward to try and enter the house but a protection spell blocked her, so she bounced back slightly, "And she must own the house."

"Not for long," Enzo replied, throwing the door knob at the woman's forehead, smack bang in the middle, and as she fell to the ground all the candles in the house went out.

"Why did you do that?" Caroline exclaimed, "She was our only lead!" 

Anne said, "How else were we gonna get inside?"

Caroline threw her hands in the air and stormed inside the house, inspecting the dead Witch.

"She was in a bloody trance," Enzo defended, "Unable to answer questions. I don't see why you're mad. I was only doing what's necessary to save your friend because you won't."

Caroline spun around to face him, "You don't think that I'm up for this?"

"'This' being the cold-blooded murder of an innocent man?"

Anne pulled herself out of their bickering and walked around the house, looking for something but she didn't know what. in the background she could still hear their conversation. 

"I'm sorry, is this all supposed to be easy? You barely know me, so let me reintroduce myself. Hi, my name is Caroline Forbes, and I am a good vampire, and I don't just go around killing people!"

Anne zoned out, following an invisible rope leading her to the door of the basement. 

"Hey, guys?" She called out, interrupted their spat. "Can you hear that?"

Enzo smirked, "The telltale heart."

They all shared a look and Anne kicked open the door, peering into the darkness. "Smells horrible," She commented as they appeared behind her, all walking down the stairs into the basement. It was there that they saw the doppelgänger laying in a low makeshift bed attached to a life support tube; He appeared to be in a comatose state.

Enzo piped up with confusion, "Why would a witch go to such lengths to keep a man alive and off the grid for four months?" Caroline frowned in thought, then, as if a lightbulb went off, she perked up and turned to the other two.

"Four months ago, Silas died." Caroline saw that Anne and Enzo were confused, so she explained, "The original Stefan-gänger."

"Ah." Anne replied emptily, this information wasted on her. 

"He's a dead ringer, all right." Enzo said, "Or rather, soon to be dead."

Caroline got closer to the Stefan clone, bending down and waving her head over his head. "Tom? Tom? Tom Avery?" Her voice got more and more unsure.

Enzo noticed, saying "Caroline, let me do this. Just walk away now, go upstairs..."

"No, no, no" she argued, "I'm the one who made the deal. This is on me, no matter what."

"Or maybe you just can't stand the thought of putting Stefan's life into anyone's hands but your own." 

Caroline sighed, slowly managing to put her hands around Tom's throat. Life suddenly pushed Tom to sit upright and gasp, making Caroline jump back in surprise. 

"What's happening?" Tom asked frantically, "Who are you people?" 

Enzo smirked slightly, sarcastically replying, "We're angels mate, come to deliver you to the sweet hereafter." 

Caroline rolled her eyes and tended to Tom immediately, beginning to compel Tom. "Calm down. You can trust me."

Anne understood Caroline was just trying to be as kind as she could about killing this clueless man. Even so, she had to warn her, "Bonding with him will only make it harder on you."

Caroline angrily replied through gritted teeth, "Let me do this my way." So Anne raised her eyebrows and gestured for her to continue, Enzo and her shared a look of uncertainty then turned to watch the scene play out.

"I'm your friend, and you mean the world to me. Do you trust me?"

Tom was compelled to believe this, but that was enough for Caroline to feel less guilty about what she was going to do. He looked at her with a curious frown, "Of course."

"Good. Now, I promise, you won't feel a thing."

Anne had seen this happen before, she knew the guilt never goes away, so she braced herself for Caroline to face impact. However, she should've braced herself for impact as Caroline surprised the two concerned vampires by speeding and snapping their necks.

::: ::: :::

Being that Anne was a more powerful vampire, she found herself waking up first. She turned her head to see Enzo laying dead to her left, so she groaned and let her eyes adjust to the light of the sunset. Sitting up, she clicked her neck and jumped to her feet, walking to Tom's empty stretcher bed and shaking her head thinking about Caroline's actions.

Curious about the dead witch upstairs, Anne wandered back up and peeped around the house. She was careful not to leave any fingerprints, careful not to leave a trace of evidence that could be linked to her—not that she was in the system. Company conduct was to be a legal ghost, which was second nature for Anne.

That was part of why she loved her line of work so much; Anne could use all her heightened sense, all her supernatural skills, all her instinctive talents in a way that helped people and satisfied her Vampire urge to hunt. It gave her purpose. She especially liked to challenge herself to solve cases without her Vampire powers, but there were some cases that required the other side of her, the brutal side, the side she'd worked so hard to bury every single day. 

Anne was determined to keep that side of her hidden, to be used only in the most desperate of times. She didn't have a family to protect, or a group of people to do her bidding like Klaus had, or even friends. It was just Anne. When things got messy, she was left to clean it up. So it was better to be clean and quick with her work.

Now that Caroline had snapped her neck, she decided this little side mission would be finishing very quickly. So, when she heard Enzo's heartbeat start up again, she went to his side and woke him up.

He was not happy.

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