Her eyes opened slowly, and her body felt heavy. Her vision was blurry, and someone was wrapping bandaging around her ankle….
The face she saw when she opened her eyes was one that filled her with both relief and dread.
"Kurt…" She croaked.
"Shhh….you're heavily sedated. I had to give you something for the pain so I could wrap your ankle. It's going to be fine." He gently spoke to her.
"Help…me…" She whispers. "She'll….kill me…."
"Completely delirious, the poor thing." Wanda spoke softly, almost sympathetic. Almost.
Anna Marie's pulse sped up. Despite her mental fog, she knew that she needed Kurt to leave the castle immediately.
"I apologize for intruding….I had some important matters to discuss with Anna Marie, and had just arrived when I heard her…" Kurt politely explained.
"You arrived just in time." Pietro seemed to be genuinely relieved that Anna Marie was okay for now.
"If you'll excuse me, I need a moment alone with my patient." Kurt explained.
"But of course." Wanda beckoned Pietro to follow her to the kitchen.
Once he was certain they were both out of earshot, he leaned down and whispered to Anna Marie. "You're in danger. We need to leave. Now."
"Pietro….he's been married before." She tried to tell him.
"I know. There's other things too. Your father….he had Neena Thurman do an investigation." He pulled two documents from his pocket, both incriminating in multiple ways. One was a birth certificate for a child, a stillborn. The father listed was Pietro Eisenhardt, while the mother….was Wanda.
The other was a newspaper from 15 years ago. The death of Freiherr Max Eisenhardt had been front page news, due to the nature of his death.
"The authorities….they found him bludgeoned to death in the bathtub, and the only two people home at the time were his children. No one wanted to believe…."
Anna Marie froze. Wanda's words from a few days prior rang in her ears.
He drank a lot, and accidentally drowned in the tub one night.
Her face went white as she realized that Wanda had killed Max all those years ago.
"We need to get you out of here." Kurt stated.
He started to pull her to her feet, helping her stand, when he cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground, Anna Marie falling with him. She whipped her head around in time to see Wanda cleaning the knife she had just stabbed Kurt with as he staggered to his feet, clutching his arm as it bled.
"You will not be going anywhere." She stated simply, and held out the knife, towards Pietro, who was hesitant as he took it from her.
"Pietro, stop!" Anna Marie pleaded.
"Shut up." Wanda pulled her to her feet and set her back in the chair. "And watch."
Pietro slowly came towards Kurt, who stared him down.
"I have to do it, otherwise she will." Pietro stated.
Anna Marie, tears in her eyes, could only watch in horror as her husband walked closer to her childhood friend.
"You're a doctor. Show me where." Pietro spoke to Kurt, who nodded, knowing there was no way out of this.
He gestured to a place on his abdomen, one that would not be fatal.
Pietro made quick work, stabbing him as Kurt cried out in pain, and Anna Marie struggled against Wanda as she cried out.
"You're monsters. Both of you!"
Wanda chuckled. "Funny. That's exactly what Father said when he died."
Anna Marie was furious. "You killed him."
"He found out about our little secret. That Pietro and I were…in love. He was going to send me off to a convent, lock me away. He had to be dealt with."
Pietro was dragging an injured Kurt away, and Anna Marie struggled once more.
"Let go of me!"
"There is nothing you can do to save him. He will bleed out and die, just as James Darkholme did."
Anna Marie saw red. "You…..you killed my father?!"
Wanda laughed. "What, did you think it was a coincidence-" Her words were cut off as Anna Marie slapped her, knocking her backwards and giving Anna Marie time to run for the front door. Wanda screamed and followed after her, the former of the two running into the red snow, the storm outside making it difficult to see.
She felt a strong chill, and not from the cold. The machines that Pietro had been working on, they started to move on their own, working in sync.
Max. She could feel his anger. He was furious.
She ran towards the machines, just as she heard Wanda and Pietro arguing.
"Wanda, please, you have to stop this-"
"She knows everything Pietro! Do you really think we can go back now?"
"Please…it doesn't have to be this way! We can still make this work. She doesn't want me, remember?"
"Are you suggesting we let her live? Let her keep fucking our Father's ghost?"
"If it means no one else dies, then yes!"
"...you care about her."
"...Wanda, please-"
A scream filled the air, and she heard the sound of metal meeting flesh, and Pietro's painful cry. She heard the sound of a body hitting the ground, and when she looked, she saw Pietro with a knife sticking out of his eye, lodged into his skull, his eyes open as his body lay still, blood mixing with the red snow.