Annalise: Neither Sanctuary nor Salvation, part 2

Well, that went downhill.

content warning: cannibalism, gun violence, murder, mutilation, violence toward and murder of children, bird fetuses THERE ARE LOTS OF WARNINGS OKAY

Colin drives back to the hardware store with Billy. It's closed today, and he's robbing the cash register when he hears a tapping on the window. It's Quentin Drake. Colin pulls a gun on Quentin and tries to rob him of what's in the briefcase. Quentin sets some jewelry and cash aside, but suggests that Colin might be interested in some of the odder items. He offers Colin a jar with a pickled bird fetus, which he claims is a fetus. He tells Colin that if Billy eats it, then it will bring the life back into Billy's eyes. Billy seems possessed by desire at the sight of the bird fetus. Billy eats the entire fetus, and he seems momentarily suffused by a red glow, before his pre-death appearance is restored.

Colin shoots Quentin. Quentin only laughs and pulls the bullet out of his chest. Colin grabs the briefcase and he and Billy make a run for it.

Georgia hides under the porch of the old house for a few hours, until she hears a familiar humming outside the door. It's Quentin (who looks perfectly fine now, though there's a black stain and a hole in his shirt). He offers to sell her some rope that she recognizes from the hardware store -- if someone is killed with this rope, no magic and no tricks involved, then the curse will end. She refuses to trust him and runs for the door -- only to trip over the rope, which has appeared in the doorway, and see Billy and Colin inside the house, with the open briefcase and its merchandise spread out.

Billy is surprised to see her and greets her. Colin is suspicious and pulls a gun on her, while she tries to explain why she's in this house without revealing the mob after her or that she was responsible for Billy's death. (Georgia is not a great liar, but fortunately, Colin is not very observant.)

Things escalate when she overhears Billy whispering to Colin: "I'm hungry. Can I eat her?" Georgia tries to run for it, but Billy chases after her. She realizes that he's still cursed and tries to strangle him with the rope but fails, and Colin shoots her. He gets Billy to tie her up with Quentin's rope.

The sound of the gunfire brings the cops, who call for Colin to come out. Colin tries to negotiate with the town's cops, using Georgia (who is going into shock) as a hostage. He's just convinced the cops to let them leave when Billy's hunger gets the better of him. Billy reaches toward Georgia's gunshot wound and starts ripping off pieces of her to eat.

The cops raise their guns again, witnessing this cannibalism/assault. Colin, realizing that taking a hostage isn't going to work if they EAT the hostage, nudges the door and commands Billy to run for the car in the back, using Georgia as a hostage (without eating her). Then, he takes some strange, silver-grey bullets from the briefcase (conveniently the right bullets for his gun), and as Billy makes a run for it with Georgia, Colin holds up his gun to shoot.

He doesn't realize until it's too late that his mother Lorna had come up to speak with him on behalf of the cops. He shoots her dead and then massacres the other cops, his aim preternaturally accurate and fast. Colin's secret is that he fantasizes about murder (even of his mother), and that in this moment, he feels good. But as he aims for the last cop, the bullet jams in the gun. The deputy shoots him dead.

Billy gets Georgia to the car, but he's stopped by the neighbors, the Evans. The Evans rescue and untie Billy, only to realize that the hostage is Georgia, who they think is a witch She tries to appeal to their history with her mother, to no avil. As they reach for her, she panics and taps into her power, grabbing them and freezing them from the inside out. (She flips two traits here: Eager to Please to Not Gonna Take Your Shit, and Afraid of Men to Men Are Afraid of Me).

Drunk on death magic, she commands Billy to follow her. They're going back to the house. She guesses that Quentin will be there -- or at least, that he'll come back for his briefcase. Before they go, she eats the ghosts of the Evans and uses that power to heal her wounds.

When they reach the house, she sends Billy ahead to scout, and he reports that the cops are still in the house and the salesman is hanging around outside. She commands Billy to lead the cops away so that she can confront Quentin and agrees to let him eat. As he leads the cops away and the sound of screaming comes from outside, she heads in to confront the salesman.

As Georgia uses her power, ice creeps up from Quentin's feet to cover him, but she's getting tired and he has power of his own to resist her with. Desperate for more, she drains the ghosts of those who have died around the house, and when that isn't enough, she begins draining the power from the magical items in his briefcase. For the first time, Quentin loses his temper.

As she reaches for more power, her hand brushes against a mirror, which drains her of all of her power. Quentin calls a knife into his hands and approaches her. She may have ruined his merchandise, but fortunately, a witch's tongue has power...

In the Aftermath, Billy is feeding on the cops he's killed when Quentin emerges from the house, no worse for wear. Billy finds himself helpless to resist as Quentin shrinks him and places him within the briefcase, promising that he'll become full-sized once they reach their next destination...
With Lorna and Colin dead and Billy's body missing, Colin's other siblings are sent to orphanages outside of Sanctuary. They bury Colin in the same plot Billy was buried in, since they can't afford a new one.

They find Georgia's mutilated body hanging from the rafters of the house the next day. Her tongue and every other part of her that might have magical value have been cut off. Her death drives her father even deeper into alcoholism and there are rumors he's haunted by her ghost, until one day, he snaps on the way to the liquor store and murders someone.

It was the first incident among many, as violence continued to haunt Sanctuary for generations to come.