❪ 𝓢𝑰𝑿 𝓕𝑬𝑬𝑻 𝓤𝑵𝑫𝑬𝑹 ❫ ⚰️ ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝚃𝚅𝙳  ⸻  ✸ 🔮⭑.ᐟ
❝ 𝖱𝖤𝖣 𝖣𝖱𝖤𝖲𝖲 ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟔𝟒. ❝ 𝖬𝖸 𝖡𝖱𝖮𝖳𝖧𝖤𝖱'𝖲 𝖪𝖤𝖤𝖯𝖤𝖱 ❞ ── .✦

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗜𝗦 in the woods doing push-ups as his phone lays on the forest floor, talking to both his niece and Caroline as they were outside of the Lockwood mansion.

"What do you mean you're not coming?" Caroline asked, "I don't need to remind you that your Miss Mystic Falls attendance record totally sucks."

"She's not wrong, Uncle Stefan." Anastasia shrugged.

The two vampires walk down the stairs, Caroline with a clipboard in her hand as they help set up for the pageant. Her phone on speaker as the two spoke with Stefan.

"Besides, you're a founding family member, by definition you have to be here."

"I don't even want to be here." Anastasia tells the blonde with a sigh.

Caroline walks over to a table where Gabby is arranging some flowers, and rearranges them the way she wants them to look before the two walk away.

"Elena and I broke up. By definition, I don't need to be anywhere." Stefan tells them.

"Did that sound as depressing to you as it was to the two of us?" Anastasia asked.

"Oh, I'm not depressed. I just want to rip into someone's artery and feed until I can't breathe anymore." Stefan says as he stops doing push ups and lays on his back on the ground.

"Well, you can't. As your sober sponsor, I am not going to let that happen. Neither is Anastasia. Try and sublimate." Caroline says.

"She said she had feelings for Damon."

Anastasia's eyes grow wide. "What?!"

"What?! She can't have feelings for Damon! He's...Damon. And you're....you're you." Caroline says, "And I'm - revolted. You know, I'm gonna talk to her. I'm going to shake some sense into her clearly diseased brain."

"I vote to rip her heart from her chest!" Anastasia exclaimed, happily.

"Yeah, well I don't know what good that'll do. Elena's right, being a vampire really has changed her." Stefan pauses, "And you aren't ripping anybody's heart from their chest."

"Dammit."

"All the more reason you need to cure her." Caroline says as Elena walks down the stairs and begins to make her way over towards the two vampires, "Look, we gotta go. Be careful. And remember, there is sublimating and then there is insanity."

"I'm going to find Jeremy and Matt, see if they need some help." Anastasia tells the blonde.

Caroline turns to her with a smirk, "You and Jeremy rode here together. What, uh, what happened last night?"

Anastasia sighs, "I slept with him."

"Anastasia Eloise Salvatore, you did not?!" Caroline hits her with the clipboard in her hands, "What the hell? What about you and Kol?"

"Look, it was a one night kind of thing. Things with Jeremy and I are not going back to the way they were." Anastasia tells him, "Especially not with this whole, him being the next hunter. He could kill me, and I don't know how he would live with himself if he did that.

"But you still love him."

"I don't know anymore."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞, 𝗜'𝗠 your best friend and I would never pick sides, but are you sure that this is what you want? Because Stefan is your soul mate." Caroline walks over to where Elena stood at one of the tables, arranging flowers.

Elena looks up at her.

"Sorry. Picking sides."

"It's not like I don't love Stefan anymore, but I can't deny that ever since I turned, my feelings for Damon have become more intense."

"Yeah, I know." Caroline says, "Stefan filled Anastasia and I in on all the gory Damon details."

"He did?" Elena looks at her, worried. "Is he okay?"

"No, he's heartbroken." Caroline tells her, "And Anastasia is clearly set on tearing your heart from your chest for in her words, "acting just like the slut with the same face as you' had done."

"Well, what was I supposed to do? Lie to him?" Elena questioned.

"No, but you weren't supposed to let Damon weasel his way into your confused newbie vampire heart."

"Well, he did and that's exactly what I am." Elena tells her, "Confused. I need to figure out what these feelings actually mean."

"Excuse me, I'm a little lost." Shane walks over to the two, "I'm here to interview contestants."

"You're Professor Shane." Elena says as she and Caroline look at each other.

"Yeah, that's right. Professor by day; pageant judge by other day." Shane says, "In spite of being absurdly unqualified, I'm apparently awarding a scholarship."

"Uh, inside by the parlor." Caroline tells him.

Shane points up to the house, "Right in there?"

"Mhm."

"Alright, I'll just follow the scent of hairspray and world domination."

Caroline laughs quietly as Shane walks away.

Elena turns to look back at the blonde, "He's the one who told Damon how to break the hunter's curse."

"He's also the one that has Bonnie so obsessed with practicing magic that she bailed on pageant prep." Caroline said.

"And now he's judging Miss Mystic Falls?" Elena asked. Caroline raised an eyebrow, "Jack of all trade or kinda creepy?"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗦𝗢, 𝗬𝗢𝗨𝗥 sister is making me be here date." Matt tells Jeremy as the two are taking boxes from the back of Matt's pickup, "Think I'll have to do that weird dance thing?"

"I'm pretty sure that's just for the contestants." Jeremy says as Anastasia walks over to the two of them.

"We heard that you're April's escort." Anastasia spoke up, hands resting on her hips, "How did that happen?"

Jeremy looked down at her for a second, "Well, she needed a date and apparently Matt was taken."

Matt grins with a laugh as he grabs one of the kegs in the back of his truck and tries to lift it up, but it's too heavy for him to do. "Okay, let's just take these in and we'll come back for the kegs."

"No, wait." Jeremy jumps onto the bed of the truck, "You want to see something cool?"

Jeremy picks up one keg in each hand as if they weigh nothing, jumping down from the bed of the truck and placing the kegs on the ground.

Matt looks at him with a mix of being impressed and worried. "How did you just do that?"

"Ever since I was awoken as a hunter, I've had all this energy, like all the time."

"Jer, I think you need to talk to someone about this." Matt tells him, "I mean, look, what happened to Connor, okay. A byproduct of this energy is that you're gonna want to kill vampires and you happen to live with one."

"Matty has a point, Jer." Anastasia says, a frown on her lips.

"Hey, I would never hurt my sister." Jeremy tells them, "Or you, for that matter." He starts to walk away, "I'll be fine."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗟 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗦 ups two dresses, one red and the other blue, waiting on the three girls standing before her to pick out the one that she should wear.

"Blue." Both Caroline and Elena say in sync.

"Anastasia is the only one here that could ever actually pull off the color red." Caroline says, sending the Salvatore girl a playful wink.

"Really?" April asked, "The blue seems a little safe."

"Safe is good when it comes to the judges." Elena tells her.

"She's right. Gracie Lockwood had a three-foot slit her year and practically got laughed off the court." Caroline says.

Elena smiles with a laugh.

"She got my vote." Damon says as he walks into the room.

Caroline throws something towards the vampire as Anastasia crosses her arms over her chest, still pissed off at her father, "Get out, lurker!"

"Ouch." Damon says sarcastically as Caroline walks over to him, "Where's Professor Shane?"

"Check the judges' table." Caroline says as she starts to close the door on him, but Damon puts his hand up and pushes it back open.

Damon looks to April, "Red on, definitely."

Caroline stops in the middle of the room, midway between Elena and Damon, arms crossed over her chest, "We've already agreed that the red one is a little bit too showy. And that Anastasia can only pull off the color." She glances at Elena and the hybrid.

"It's a pageant. That's the whole point." Damon tells her.

"Did you win Miss Mystic last year?" The blonde has her hands on her hips, "No, I don't think you did."

"Neither did Elena and she wore blue."

"Nobody cares what you think, dad."

"I care." April speaks up.

"See? April cares. Red, right, Elena?"

Caroline and Anastasia look over at the newly turned vampire, both with glares on their faces.

Elena looks over at April, "The red is pretty."

"And my work here is done." Damon says with a smirk before he leaves the room.

"Uh, what happened to thirty seconds ago when you hated the red one?" Anastasia asked, "What happened to 'safe is good'?"

Elena looks at her two friends with a glazed look over her eyes before shaking her head and turning to April, "Whichever one you want to wear, April."

Caroline watches her best friend walk out of the room before looking at Anastasia in confusion, "What just happened?"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝙒𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙀 𝘼𝙍𝙀 you?"

Anastasia holds a confused look on her face, "The Lockwood's...where I've been for the last two days."

"Good. Come to the cellar, and make sure you bring Jeremy." Stefan tells her before hanging up.

"What the hell?" She pulls the phone away, grabbing Jeremy by the arm as he walks by her, "Come on. Stefan wants us at the Cellar."

"For what?"

"Hell, I don't know."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗝𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗬 𝗔𝗡𝗗 Anastasia walk down the steps of the old Lockwood cellar, stopping in the doorway and looking at Stefan as he head towards the too.

"What am I doing here?" Jeremy asked the vampire.

"What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" Anastasia asked, throwing her hands up into the air.

Stefan looks at the hunter, "You have the chance to make your sister human again. You interested?"

"You have no idea."

"Actually, I do." Stefan says, leading the way into the cell and the two follow him to see some long haired guy chained up.

"Um...who the hell is he?" Anastasia points at him.

"Oh, it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that you're a vampire hunter and he's a vampire." Stefan tells the Gilbert boy, pulling out a knife. "Well, almost."

"Uncle Stefan!" The green eyed girl yelps as he grabs Jeremy's wrist and cuts it.

Jeremy yells out in pain as Stefan drags him by the wrist over to the guy, making him drink the blood. After a few seconds, Stefan releases him and Jeremy backs away. The guys eyes now have dark veins under them.

Stefan pulls out a wooden stake and holds it out for Jeremy to take.

"Was this all so I could stake him?" Jeremy asked.

"You think I want to do this, Jeremy? Look at me, I hate this, I don't want to do this. But your sister isn't supposed to be a vampire and we need to help her. Now, he's a murderer and he will gladly kill again, so do it, Jeremy. Kill him."

Stefan forces the stake into Jeremy's hand and walks over to the murderer. He breaks the chains from the ground and picks them up, holding the murderer by the chairs like a horse before slowly walking him over towards Jeremy.

"Stefan, what are you doing?! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I wonder about that all of the time." Anastasia mumbles under her breath.

"Do it, Jeremy or I will rip the chains off for real! Do it!"

Jeremy thrust the stake into the murderer's heart. Stefan drops the chairs to the floor as the guy keels over and Jeremy begins to stab the stake through the murderer's back over and over again.

"Alright, enough! He's dead." Stefan tells him.

Jeremy breaths hard as he rips the stake out of the murderer's back, staring at Stefan before shifting his eyes over to Anastasia, who had a flash of fear swimming through her eyes as she looks up at her ex-boyfriend.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗛𝗘𝗬, 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧'𝗦 with the last minute escort change? Where is Jeremy?" Caroline asked as she walks up to Elena who is on the phone, "And have you seen Stacie anywhere?"

"I'm calling Jeremy right now." Elena tells her, "Haven't seen Stacie. He's not picking up."

Damon walks up to them, "Do the math. Emo teen, open bar, it's fine."

"Matt said that Jeremy's been having nightmares about killing vampires and he's been hiding it from me."

Caroline looks surprised and worried as Damon just shrugs it off.

"Relax, I'm sure he's fine." Damon says, "They're probably together somewhere."

"I don't know. I have a bad feeling."

"If I'm not worried, you shouldn't be worried. Let it go. I'll go look for him." Damon says.

"Okay."

"Okay, you go home, I'm gonna start asking around here." Caroline tells her as Damon walked off.

"Maybe Damon's right. Maybe he grabbed a bottle from the bar and snuck off to the woods." Elena says.

"No, Damon is never right. Damon is sneaky and manipulative and rude, but he's never right." Caroline says, "How can you not see that?"

"I don't know, but why do I think that you won't hesitate to tell me?"

"Fine, friend-tervention" Caroline says, "I think your so-called "feelings" for Damon are really starting to cloud your judgement and I don't like it. And the thought of you two together really makes me want to barf."

Klaus walks over and stands next to Caroline. "Easy, love, you're making a scene."

"Wow, Caroline, thank you for making this very difficult time so much easier." Elena says before walking away, leaving Caroline with a blank look on her face.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗗𝗔𝗠𝗢𝗡 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗦 in the house on the phone with Stefan, "Please don't tell me that you've roped Jeremy into a world of crazy."

"I had no choice. Elena needs the cure." Stefan says.

"Oh right, so you can turn her back into the girl that is still in love with you." Damon said to his brother.

"You know, I get why you wouldn't want to believe it, Damon, but she isn't herself anymore." Stefan stated.

"Of course you would think that. Leave it alone, Stefan."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗦 up the phone, looking over at Jeremy who is examining his arm, the mark beginning to spread as Anastasia stands around with a bored expression on her face. "How far did that mark grow?"

Jeremy doesn't answer.

"Show me on this drawing." Stefan pulls out a drawing of Connor's mark.

Jeremy turns around, "Sorry, Stefan, but I can't trust you."

"How far is it, Jeremy?"

"I said I can't."

"Answer me or I will make you answer me." Stefan demanded.

"I am not telling you anything."

Stefan grabs Jeremy by the arm, compelling him, "What does the mark look like?"

Suddenly, Jeremy stakes Stefan in the stomach causing the vampire to yell in pain.

"Jeremy!" Anastasia gasps in shock right before the hunter spins around and stakes her through the chest, just a centimeter to where her heart would've been.

"I guess I can't be compelled anymore." Jeremy says before grabbing the duffel bag and walking out of the cellar.

Stefan falls down to the ground right next to his niece's body, clutching the stake still in his stomach, "An -- Anastasia."

Anastasia breathes heavily, feeling the stake scraping against the side of her heart as she lets a lone tear trickle down her face.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗝𝗘𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗬 𝗦𝗜𝗧𝗦 in an empty room as he pushes a stake into the palm of his hands until blood begins to seep from it just as Elena walks into the room, and the hunter takes the stake away from his hand.

"Hey, where have you been?" Elena asked her brother before seeing the stake in his hand, "What are you doing with that?" He stands up, "Put it down."

"Connor was right. All I can think about is killing vampires." He tells her.

"You're nothing like Connor."

"I want to believe that. And I know I don't want to hurt you, but everything inside of me is telling me to drive this stake through your heart." Jeremy tells his sister.

"Why would you say that? It's me, Jeremy."

"And you're a vampire."

"Yeah, but I'm your sister." She gently grabs his wrist, "Jer, I would never do anything to hurt you."

Elena suddenly smells the blood on his hand. She turns it over and sees it, veins start crawling towards her eyes.

"No." Jeremy looks at her.

She looks up at him and the veins start going away as she backs up. "Get -- get it away from me."

Elena turns around and Jeremy strides towards her with a stake in his hand. She turns around quickly, grabbing his wrist and throwing him to the ground. Realizing what she had just done, she walks over to him and kneels down next to him as she shakes him.

"Jer, Jer, hey, Jer, wake up. Jer, please wake up."

She continues to shake him in a moment of panic when suddenly his eyes come open and he stakes Elena in the side of her neck with the hidden arm cuff stake.

Elena gasps and clutches her neck as Jeremy kneels in front of her and raises the stake to finish her off when Matt walks into the room.

"Jeremy!"

"Get out of here, Matt."

"Jeremy, you don't want to do this, okay." Matt tells him, "That's your sister! It's just a stupid mark on your arm."

"Shut up, Matt!"

"Jeremy, look at me!" Matt yells, "I'm human and I'm telling you not to hurt her.

Jeremy hesitates for a moment, but looks like he's still going to stake Elena when he's pushed up against the wall by Anastasia. "Stacie.....,"

"Get him out of here, Matt!" Anastasia pushes him towards Matt, who grabs him and the two of them leave before she leaves herself.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗡𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗦𝗜𝗔 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 down the stairs, fresh out of the shower with sweatpants and a band t-shirt that most likely belonged to Dylan and stopped at the bottom as she takes in the sight of Elena standing there with her luggage.

Stefan walks out of the parlor and he and Elena look at each other.

"I can't stay at home anymore." Elena tell the vampires.

Stefan nodded, "Pick a room. I'll crash somewhere else." He begins to walk out the door but stops short and turns his head to look over at his niece, "You staying or going?"

Anastasia turns her head to look at her father and Elena, a scoff leaving her lips as she's quick to walk out the door ahead of her uncle, leaving Elena and Damon watching the two of them leave.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗦 a shot for himself, Caroline and his niece as they all sat in Caroline's living room, talking to one another. "Elena's right. I just -- I need to let go."

"No, you're right, Stefan. It's not pretty and it's not easy, but you can't give up on her." Caroline tells him.

"Caroline, she looked me in the eye and she told me to move on."

"She's lost. Okay, you and her, epic. Her and Damon, ugh, God. There's something wrong with her."

"Of course there's something wrong with her." Anastasia rolls her eyes, "She's related to fucking Katherine."

Caroline playfully shoves her before turning back to Stefan, "Just promise me you won't stop looking for the cure."

"Klaus won't let us even if we wanted to." Stefan places his shot glass down before pouring himself another one.

"Why does he care? He doesn't even want it." Caroline says.

"He wants to keep Elena human so that he can make more hybrids."

Caroline sits back in her chair, relaxing. "He's gonna need them Tyler's almost got all of them unsired."

"Oh, my God." Anastasia sits up abruptly, scaring both Caroline and Stefan, "Oh, my God. How come I didn't fucking realize it sooner?!"

Stefan holds his arms out in a gesture for her to explain what she was freaking out for, "What? Anastasia, what is it?"

Caroline gasps, standing up along with Anastasia, pointing at her both girls exclaim, "Oh, my God!" at the same time.

"Can you two please stop saying "Oh, my God" and tell me what the hell the two of you have cooked up?" Stefan looks between his niece and Caroline.

"I was trying to figure out understand why Klaus was so intrigued by Damon and Elena. He said I would figure it out." Caroline tells them, "This is what he was talking about."

"Holy shit."

"What are the two of you talking about?"

"Think about it, Uncle Stefan." Anastasia says, "Every time Elena's had a problem, Dad's been the magic solution."

"Today, Elena was worried about Jeremy. Who swoops in and tells her to relax?" Caroline asked before answering her own question, "Damon. And she listens."

Stefan looks between the two in confusion.

"When April was trying to figure out what dress to wear, we all suggested the blue one. Elena hated the red one." Anastasia says, "Dad comes in, says the red is better and Elena suddenly doesn't hate the red one anymore."

"When Elena started feeling, who said that she could only drink blood straight from the vein?" Caroline asked.

Stefan begins to understand the blonde and his niece, "Damon."

"And when she tried to drink from animals?"

"She couldn't keep it down."

"Blood bags?" Anastasia questioned.

"Same thing."

"Name one vampire in the history of vampires who couldn't drink blood from a blood bag, 'cause I sure as hell don't know any." Anastasia puts her hands on her hips. "Dad said she couldn't, so she couldn't."

"Damon says kill Connor and she kills Connor." Stefan said.

"What if it's possible? Damon's blood made her a vampire, right?"

Stefan looks up at them.

"It's rare, but it happens. What if this is one of those times?" Caroline asked as she sits back down and Anastasia flops down into her uncle's lap, letting him wrap her into a tight hug. "What if this is really happening?"

"Elena's sired to Damon."

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘💫
Guys, I really hate to say this but....
WE'VE ONLY GOT 5 CHAPTERS LEFT
OF THIS BOOK BEFORE THE EPILOGUE!

I'm not ready to end Anastasia's
story line because she's one of my
favorite characters that I've been
writing, and this is also the book that
I've been writing the longest, and I'm
really sad to see it ended.

BUT, there is going to be a sequel that
I'm super excited to begin working on
when this one ends. I mean, did you
really think I was going to leave you
guys wondering about her marriage with Kai?

Which brings me to my next point, when the sequel does come out; do we want to bring Jeremy back as her love interest? Kol? Or do we want to see the story of her and Kai, while letting the 2 fall in love all over again?