Chapter Text
“Caroline!” Sheriff Liz Forbes shouted as she walked through the woods that surrounded Mystic Falls. She held her flashlight up, allowing it to glow in the shadows. Her eyes darted in the darkness for any sign that Caroline was still alive. Her deputies followed and spread out; searching. There was a search party scheduled for the following day, but Liz could not wait. She needed to be out in the woods; searching.
Caroline was her daughter and she had been missing for a week. The mere thought of her daughter gone ate at her and she needed to find her. She was no fool. Scoring the woods meant that the town expected to find a body; not someone alive, but she could not accept that. Liz could not believe that her daughter was dead. Caroline was a fighter and whatever happened to her, she would find a way to save herself. Liz had faith in that. She raised her daughter to fight and not sit down and accept her fate. Caroline always had a choice.
“Caroline!” Liz heard one of the deputies’ yell. They continued to walk through the woods, hearing the breaking of the twigs beneath their feet and the rustle of leaves and the slight summer breeze flowed overhead. Mud, a byproduct of the massive storm that rolled through hours earlier, splashed on her boots as she pushed on. A thousand thoughts were running through Liz’s mind about her daughter. She had known something was wrong five days ago when Caroline did not show for their weekly lunch at the Grill.
Liz contacted Caroline’s employment in Richmond, and they reported that she had not been there in two days. She went to her daughter’s house, noticing that nothing was out of place. Her car was in the driveway and her purse still sitting on the front seat. Caroline’s dog had not been fed or outside. Caroline had no children, but that dog Liz had bought her when she first moved into that house was the closest thing to a child she had. Caroline would not abandon it by simply not coming home.
Something was wrong.
The entire town searched but came up with nothing. No one had seen or heard from Caroline. It was as though she had vanished without a trace and that struck a fear inside Liz that she never felt before. It caused her to do something she had not done since she was a little girl, being forced to attend church by her overly religious parents.
She prayed.
They walked farther and farther into the woods, shouting Caroline’s name in hopes that it would stir something. It was fruitless. Liz knew that. She knew that her deputies were humoring her, placating her because she needed to do something. She could no longer sit back and wait as the hours ticked by and her daughter was out there somewhere. Caroline was alive and she could feel it. If her daughter was dead, she would know. She would have to know.
“Caroline!” Liz shouted again, her voice echoing off the trees and into the dark voice. The sound of rushing water reached her. They were getting close to the Falls and Liz knew that with the storm that passed through earlier, the rapids would be harsh. They would have to double back, knowing that they would not safely be able to cross at this time of night. She closed her eyes and sighed; accepting that they were not going to find anything and that it was time for them to pack it in for the night.
“Sheriff! We found something!” At the sound of one of her deputies, Liz took off like a bat out of hell. She ran towards the shouting, not caring that it was dark or that she could potentially hurt herself. This was Caroline. It was all about Caroline. When she reached a small clearing right beside the falls, she saw several of her deputies surrounding something; blocking something from her view. When a flashlight hit the right angles, all she saw was a hand and wisps of blonde hair.
“No! No no no no! Please no!” Liz cried, her knees giving out. Matt Donovan, a deputy who had been on the force for almost three years caught her. He held her close; pulling her to her feet but would not let her run to the body.
“It’s not her. Caroline is not here!” Matt’s voice reasoned with her. Liz turned to look at him, his voice pulling her from her despair. She was confused and looked back at the body. One of the deputies shined the flashlight directly on the face of the woman and to Liz’s relief, it wasn’t Caroline.
“Sheriff, there are more.” Matt added.
“What?”
“There are four bodies.” Liz pulled herself from Matt’s arms and went to look at the fresh body. Her eyes moved along the side of the falls and realized that this body wasn’t the only one unearthed. Four bodies in total, all in different stages of decomposition had been unearthed by the raging storm earlier in the day.
Liz realized in that moment a few things. The first was that Caroline was not among the bodies. The second was that whatever was happening in Mystic Falls went far beyond a simple case of a missing woman. The third realization was that she was not going to be able to solve this on her own. If she wanted Caroline back alive, she was going to need help.
A day and half later and one-hundred miles away, a picture of Caroline hung on a cork board in the middle of the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C. Her bright blue eyes and dancing smile mocked the two agents who started at it.
“Pack a bag. We’re going to Mystic Falls.”