It wasn't the end. Not for everyone else, just her. If Elena was the one they left behind—scratch that: it wouldn't ever be a plausible scenario.
But Caroline wouldn't be bitter—she wouldn't—because she decided to distract the newest set of witches who had it out for the Salvatores. She took on this one to give the others a chance to live. Maybe find the happiness they should have. If she died for her friends' futures, it wasn't such a bad way to go out. It wouldn't be a waste.
After all, this had to beat death by helping her friends piss off this week's Big Bad. So it was a good reason to die. But if she didn't, if she managed to scrape by with an escape, maybe she'd consider agreeing with a thought that was working its way to the front of her mind.
A small town life wouldn't be satisfy her. Oh she would always remember her small town days, small town dreams, small town plans. But they wouldn't be enough. But maybe she wouldn't get to find out, never get the chance to. But she'd try to because that's what a Forbes does.
So maybe, if Caroline could make it out of this last sacrifice for her friends, she'd change up and make selfish decisions, tour castles and eat some weird nasty foods. She'd get out of this small town deathtrap and backpack across a few continents. Find a few old friends, run into some old enemies, probably make more of each. And if she happened to visit New Orleans in a few decades, it would totally be for Mardi Gras…and no other reason. At all. But even if it wasn't, it would be no one's business but her own.
So Caroline would try. At the very least, she wouldn't go down without a nasty fight, and if the witches thought otherwise, well, underestimating an opponent can mean destruction. And it would. It would have to. She wouldn't give up because she was Caroline Forbes and she was going to live.
Hi guys! I'm pretty old-hat to the writing world, but I'm sorta starting out with the whole publishing-what-I-write part. So I'll just leave this here and hope for some feedback.