…

The Rh'a are coming. With her ear pressed against the frozen ground, Bonnie can feel more than hear them pounding the forest floor. They are still far away, but that will change soon. She gets to her feet and pulls her coat up a bit so it's off the ground. Risking a quick look behind her, she checks for any strays she might not have picked up on before, then she grabs her bag, slings it around her shoulder, making sure that the herbs she was out here to collect are all in there, stowed away safely. Then she dashes away, the trees around her becoming a blur as she picks up speed, her movements shaking the snow off of the lower hanging branches, a cool mist dampening her cold face as she keeps running and running until her lungs are burning, her legs cramping up.

Soon, the sound of the approaching monsters grows louder, too quickly, and she tries to get her brain to work, come up with a plan. The house is still too far away, she would never make it in time… She should have never gone out alone, but - she didn't exactly have a choice.

Suddenly, the air around her shivers ominously, her heart beating too fast as she realizes it can only mean one thing: a vampire. What kind of awful luck she has today…

Before she has much of a chance to keep running, or try to hide, try to do anything, really, she suddenly feels herself being pushed against a large moss-covered tree, a hand coming up over her face, over her mouth, keeping her from yelling, an arm across her neck and chest pinning her against the tree. Glaring at the one who trapped her, she tries to wiggle out from under him, but he is too strong, and she can't use her magic… Crap.

"Shh," he makes, shaking his head, a wide hood casting dark shadows across his features so she can't even see his face, yet somehow he feels familiar. Does she know him?

Her anger only grows as he tightens his grip on her, his relentless hand still over her mouth, his arm still shoving her hard against the rough bark of the tree, making her back protest. She tries to free herself by kicking him, making him grit his too white teeth in pain, yet he doesn't loosen his grip, just keeps her in place.

A few seconds later - she is still busy kicking him, glaring at his faceless hood - an avalanche of sound comes racing toward them, a wall of snowy dust swallowing them as the Rh'a run past, so fast, so wild that Bonnie's heart beats all the way up to her throat, her chest threatening to explode. If the beasts notice them after all, they'll both be dead, the witch and the vampire.

Closing her eyes, she succumbs, accepts that she is trapped for now, and a long breath escapes her in a shudder. How she hates this dystopian horror, how she wishes it had never come to this…

Tiny frozen crystals pelt against her skin, peppering her attacker's (protector's?) dark clothes that are too light for this weather until he almost looks as white as the snowy forest surrounding them, and through it all she keeps glaring at him.

When the dust finally begins to settle again, the noise from the Rh'a subsiding into the distance, she feels his grip on her loosen, and her anger is back instantly. There is no doubt in her that he didn't just save her out of the goodness of his heart.

Slapping him away as he tries to retreat, she tears at the hood he's hiding behind.

"If you think you can have my blood now, vampire, because you 'helped' me," she air-quotes, "you're mistaken. I didn't ask for your help. I don't need it. And now get lost, or I'll use my magic-" Abruptly, she breaks off, gasping as the hood comes off, revealing none other than… "Enzo?"

"Hello, love." There's a half smile playing around his mouth, but it's not quite reaching his impenetrable dark eyes, and Bonnie swallows around a sudden lump in her throat, her hand forgotten still clinging to the hood she pulled off of him.

She hasn't seen him in over half a year, since she saved him from oblivion and brought him back to the world of the living, since the Other Side collapsed and instead of just imploding, tore down the veil to other dimensions, creating this living hell they've all been stuck in ever since. She hasn't seen him since then, doesn't know what he's been through, just like he doesn't know what she's been through, maybe doesn't even know that Damon…

"Don't worry, I'm not here for your blood," he now says, interrupting her thoughts at the right time, and she gives an involuntary shiver as he pulls away completely, eyeing her with a strange expression. "Besides," he adds, a smirk appearing on his features, "we both know you can't use your magic anymore." He leans in too closely, his warm breath caressing her cold cheeks as he gently taps the collar around her neck, making her snarl at him. But then he adds with a soft whisper and what looks like genuine sadness, "I'm glad you're alive, Bonnie Bennett; and I'm sorry they got you..."

Her anger and fight dissipate a little at his words and she sighs.

"I don't even know who sucks more, the Rh'a or the non-supernatural," she allows, earning herself a smile from him as he tilts his head.

"Didn't think I'd ever hear you speak like that."

She sniffs, rubbing her too cold nose. "Yeah well, things have changed."

"Indeed they have..."

There's so much unspoken in their conversation, and she finds herself breaking out in an involuntary grin. He is really here, isn't he? The first familiar face in such a long time, and it's Enzo friggin' St. John.

"Anyway," he says, "just didn't want them to get any more of us. I'll let you get on your way now." With one last look at her, a gentle touch to her chin, he steps away, turning to leave, and for some reason it makes her insides tingle strangely.

Her brow creases into a frown. "Really?" she wonders out loud, "you're just going to leave like that? No accusations, no questions? I brought on the apocalypse and you're just going to let me go? Am I supposed to believe you mellowed out that much? Whatever happened to your anger at the world?"

She can hear his soft scoff before he turns to look at her again. "Don't flatter yourself, love. You did not bring this on. You were the anchor, sure. But this," he makes a wide gesture encompassing the desolation around them, "is not your fault. It happened. And yes, it sucks. But it's still better than oblivion…"

He gives a funny little wave as he walks away, leaving her to puff out plumes of foggy air. Her features crumble a bit, and she rolls her eyes at herself, cursing under her breath. After months and months of barely any decent contact with anyone, he has words for her that almost border on kindness and she doesn't want him to go. The lump in her throat grows as she fights down a sob.

"Enzo," she calls out, gathering her too long coat up to go after him, but before she can take more than a few steps, a snarl reaches her ears and she freezes, her gaze meeting that of… one of them. Her throat closes, her heart thudding too loudly, too violently.

Is this it? Is this how it's going to end, how she'll die?