Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Seventeen years ago, Klaus Mikaelson and Hayley Marshall had a daughter. When she was born a coven of witches kidnapped the youngest Mikaelson intending to kill her. The Mikaelson siblings, the newly turned hybrid Hayley, and Marcel hunted the coven down and slaughtered every single witch.

“Where is she?” Klaus had asked the last standing witch, his hand around her throat, claws slowly digging into her skin.

“Gone,” The witch managed to get out, but her voice was hard, her eyes not showing an ounce of fear despite her situation. The witch even had the audacity to smirk after her words to the hybrid.

Klaus’s face fell, all previous anger dissipating replaced by a cold emotionless look. Without another word Klaus ripped out the witch’s throat, the only sound heard was the witches body hitting the floor.

Klaus didn’t turn to face his family. He couldn’t.

Hayley collapsed to her knees. She just found out her daughter was dead. She had barely gotten to hold her before she was ripped away from her, forever. She didn’t cry, didn’t yell, didn’t do anything, she just stared barely registering the carnage in front of her like Klaus, carnage that was apparently for nothing.

Elijah wanted to comfort his brother and the woman he loved but he didn’t even know where to begin. His brother who had been working so hard to be a better man for his daughter had her taken away before he and Hayley had even gotten the chance to decide on a name. Maybe this really was his families curse for all the dark deeds they’ve done the last thousand years.

The family mourned for the youngest Mikaelson, not knowing the littlest wolf was not dead but taken.

The witch had made a deal with another, intending to kill the tribrid. What the witch didn’t know was that the person she handed the child over to had no intention of killing her.

Hope grew up and was raised by Triad. She never knew her parents, all she knew was Triad. She was always told her family gave her up because she was an abomination, a cosmic mistake. Triad taught her that she was natures loophole, she wasn’t a mistake but born for one purpose, to defeat Malivore.

They raised and trained Hope in everything so when the time came, she would be strong enough to defeat Malivore. She was their weapon, and they were gonna make sure she had the skills to accomplish their life’s mission.

Hopes room or more like cell was a concrete box, only containing a bed, a toilet that slides out of the wall, and a handful of books Triad provided her for studying so she can practice her magic even when not in training. There’s one large metal door that’s always locked unless one of the agents comes to retrieve her for training.

One day after training, when she was around 5 years old, she got angry and unleashed her magic causing the walls to shake, then she heard a voice ask, “Hello?” she shoved her bed out of the way and saw a small vent against the wall connecting to the other room.

“Hello?” Hope asked back.

“Hi,” the voiced replied again. It was the voice of a boy, probably around her age.

“Hi.”

“My names Landon.”

“I’m Hope.”

That was the first time Landon and Hope ever met. They both shifted their beds around so they could sit by their respective vents and talk with each other. They learned that they were the same age, and both have been with Triad their entire lives. A conversation through a vent was the closest thing to normalcy either of them ever had.

Late one night when they’re talking Hope whispered, “I’m a tribrid.”

“What does that mean?” Landon asked back.

“It means I’m a witch, I’m also a werewolf though my curse hasn’t been triggered yet but once I kill someone, it will be, and my blood is vampire blood, meaning when I die, I’ll turn and be a fully activated tribrid.” Hope takes a long pause. “The only one of my kind,” she whispered sadly.

“You keep saying when,” Landon finally spoke, his voice just as soft as before, acting as if he didn’t hear the girl he’s been talking to is a supernatural freak of nature. “When you kill someone. When you die. You talk like it’s inevitable.”

“It is. It’s the plan. Eventually I will kill someone, they’re training me to go on missions, it will happen. And dying is the endgame.”

“It sounds like you’ve given up.”

“No, it’s just the plan. I die and I become the tribrid, fully. Then once that happens, I can defeat Malivore. I’m the only one capable of killing him. Or so they say.”

Landon is real quiet for a long time. Hope gets concerned that maybe she scared him off, she’s about to ask him when he finally speaks, “I’m a son of Malivore.”

 Hope freezes at that. She doesn’t know what to think. The first person that’s shown her any kindness is the son of the entity she’s meant to destroy.

“I don’t know what or how or why. All I know is that a Triad agent got thrown into the pit and when she came back out, she was pregnant, with me.”

“What are their plans for you?” Hope knew why they had her; she was meant to destroy Malivore. If they wanted him gone, she didn’t know why they wanted his son.

“I guess I can’t be killed?” Landon says like it’s a question. “They tried and I came back, every time. They said I’m something called a phoenix? They aren’t sure why I exist, but if I’m related to Malivore, it can’t be good.”

“A phoenix?”

“Yep, only one of my kind,” he repeated the words she just said to him.

“A phoenix and a tribrid,” she mused.

“Guess we can be alone together.” Though she can’t see his face Hope knows Landon is smiling at this, causing her to give a small smile as well.

After a few more moments of sitting in silence Hope said, “Hey Landon?”

“Yeah?”

“I promise to always protect you.”

“And I promise to never leave you.”

In that moment two people who were destined to destroy each other formed an unbreakable bond. Despite the odds the two kids vowed to fight their fate.

Chapter Text

Landon was standing in the middle of the woods bouncing up and down and jumping at any slight creak made in the dark.

“You know you didn’t have to come with us.” Hopes voice came, breaking Landon out of his anxiety for a moment. She was in the middle of chaining up their friend Rafael.

“What? No, of course I came. I know I can’t do anything, but I like showing my support.” Landon looked up at the sky. It was a full moon tonight and there was only a few minutes left before Rafael would start to shift.

“I appreciate it man.” Rafael’s voice came. He was currently chained to a large tree, watching as Hope locked the last chain in place. “But you really don’t have to be here. I don’t want you to feel like you have to stay.” He yanked as hard as he could, testing to make sure the chains would hold, when he was satisfied, he wouldn’t escape he gave Hope a nod. She returned it and gave him a comforting rub on the shoulder before going to stand next to Landon.

“Hey, this isn’t my first time seeing this,” Landon reminded him. “I know you’re good and I know Hope is here to make sure everything stays good. I just want to be here.”

“Remember,” Hope started, “don’t fight it, it only draws out the pain.”

Raf nodded, “I know I know.” When he looked back up his eyes were glowing yellow. Hope put her hand in front of Landon slowly pushing him back. Even though he’s a phoenix and he’d come back, dying still sucked.

After another moment of silence, Rafael collapsed in pain screaming. His body twisted in a way no human body should, the cracking of his bones breaking, and reforming echoed throughout the woods. Landon couldn’t help but turn away not wanting to see his friend go through this. It’d been over a year of this since Rafael triggered his curse in the accident, but he still wasn’t used to hearing his best friend, his brother, break every bone in his body.

After a little over an hour the breaking of bones and screams stopped. Landon slowly turned around to see the now familiar black wolf standing in place of his brother.

“Hey buddy,” Landon gave him an awkward wave. Rafael quickly lunged snapping his fangs at Landon. Hope pushed Landon back a few more steps.

Rafael continued to lunge at them, yanking on the chains as hard as he could. Landon gave Hope a concerned look, “He seems more aggressive than normal.”

Hope nodded in agreement, “Maybe you should head home, I’ll stay until he turns back.”

Landon was about to argue against it when a loud clang drew their attention back to the wolf in front of them. Rafael was yanking and biting at the chains, but he quickly realized he couldn’t chew through the metal, so he started throwing himself against the tree.

“What is wrong with him? Has it ever been this bad before?” Landon asked. He’d never seen Rafael so out of control before.

“I don’t know,” Hope answered the concern in her voice obvious. “It’s always rough and sure some shifts have been better than others. Sometimes the full moon just gets to them.”

“Is there anything you can do? Calm him down somehow?”

“I can try.” Hope was about to step towards Raf when they heard another loud clang and a crash. They both froze, seeing in front of them that Rafael had managed to break the chains holding him with all his thrashing around. Hope was the first of them to recover, without taking her eyes off the wolf she whispered, “Run.”

Hope could feel Landon take off from beside her the second the words left her mouth. She had a stare down with the wolf. Raf jumped at Hope, even though he knocked her down she was still stronger and quickly knocked him off her with a yelp. She would be concerned about hurting him, but she knew he’d heal. Once Raf got back on his feet he took off in the same direction Landon ran in. Hope jumped up rushing after them.

Hope just as quickly lost track of them, she’s not as fast as Raf when he’s in his wolf form. She decided it would be best to shift so she stripped down and shifted, her shift only taking a moment unlike Raf’s which took over an hour. Once she was in her wolf form, she sniffed around for Raf’s scent, taking off at full speed as soon as she caught it.

Hope knew she was getting close when she started to hear Landon’s panting and his feet crunching against the leaves. Hope was honestly surprised how far Landon got and that he was still running, he wasn’t the most active of the bunch. She was on her way to him when she clearly heard him be hit and crash into the ground. She could hear Rafael snarl and Landon yelling his name as he was dragged through the leaves and sticks.

When Landon and Rafael finally came into Hopes line of sight, she could see Rafael standing overtop of Landon who had his hands up in surrender but was completely frozen in fear, he hadn’t even noticed Hopes presence. She could see Rafael licking his lips, the drool dripping down onto Landon’s face, she was sure if he wasn’t so terrified, he would have recoiled in disgust. Rafael let out a final snarl and was about to go in for the kill when Hope rushed them knocking Rafael off their friend and taking a protective stance over Landon.

Landon didn’t feel his best friend ripping into his throat, he opened his eyes to see a white wolf standing over him, he finally sighed in relief letting his head fall to the ground with a thud. Hope got there in time, like always. Even though he knew he would come back and knew that Raf couldn’t control it he really didn’t desire to end the night with dying by having his best friend tear out his throat.

Rafael tried to go after Landon again but Hope easily held him back. There was no way Raf stood a chance against Hope, she was the stronger of the two by far. Hope let out a warning growl, but Rafael didn’t heed it and lunged again, this time Hope sent him back smacking against a tree. Raf tried to shake the dizziness, staggering slightly as he tried to regain his footing.

“Enough,” Hopes voice came, commanding and powerful. When Rafael looked at her again, she was back to her human form, fully clothed thanks to her magic and was staring him down, her eyes blazing gold.

As much as Raf had an instinct to kill he couldn’t help but instantly bow in submission. Hope might not want a pack but out of the two of them Raf knew she was the alpha. With her gaze still on him Raf retreated, tail between his legs, until he bumped into the tree Hope had just thrown him against, whimpering as he lowered himself to the ground.

Hope let out a relieved sigh, running her fingers through her hair when she heard a twig snap behind them. She spun around to see two people staring at them. She hadn’t heard them approach, being too distracted with the situation that had just almost occurred. One of the people, a brunette-haired woman probably in her twenties was staring at the three teenagers in shock but Hope saw no signs of fear in her eyes and the other person, a blond-haired man probably in his forties was looking at them more distrusting than in shock, he also had a crossbow leveled at Hope.

“Well, shit,” Is all Hope said, more annoyed than concerned about the crossbow pointed at her.

Chapter Text

Hayley arrived in Mystic Falls, heading straight for the Salvatore Boarding School, smiling at the students running through the halls. She paused at the common room when she saw someone she recognized.

“Hey Henry,” Hayley greeted the young wolf. Henry was part of the Crescent Wolf Pack; he was one of the first kids Hayley helped bring to the school. Henry’s guardian Lisina was hesitant at first but with not many kids in the pack she eventually agreed it was a good idea for Henry to be around other wolves his age.

“Alpha,” Henry greeted.

Hayley rolled her eyes. “Henry, I’ve told you, you can call me Hayley.”

“I know, sorry. Did Lisina send you to check up on me?”

“She always wants me to check on you.” This time it was Henry’s turn to roll his eyes. Lisina was so protective of Henry. “But no, I’m just here for the day to drop off some files for more potential students.”

Henry nodded. “How is she?”

“She misses you, can’t wait till you’re back home, can’t wait till you graduate.”

“I’ll be back in like a month for break.”

“Are you joining the others for the full moon tonight?”

Henry opened his mouth but hesitated to answer. “Probably not. We get along fine but not officially being part of the pack makes things awkward sometimes. Also, Dr. Saltzman still makes us turn in the transition cells and it doesn’t help with my aggression. Being able to run free in the Bayou then coming here and locked up, it’s just too hard.”

Hayley nodded, she understood. She hated that Alaric made the wolves shift in cages, but she understood. With so many vampires and civilians close by it was way too dangerous for the wolves to run free, way too many things could go wrong. Henry was the only one at the school part of her pack, so was the only one able to control his shift.

Hayley said her goodbyes to Henry. Next time she saw him would probably be when he came back home for break. She continued to make her way to Alaric’s office. She liked Henry but she didn’t want to stick around Mystic Falls more than she had to.

She knocked on the headmaster’s door, the only indication she gave before just walking in, not waiting for a response. Alaric looked up from the papers on his desk, rolling his eyes but not saying anything, he was used to Hayley just barging into his office now.

“Good morning,” Alaric greeted.

“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Hayley responded.

“How was the drive?” Alaric asked, ignoring the fact he completely lost track of time.

“Long,” Hayley said with a smile. “How have things been here?”

Alaric let out a long sigh as he leaned back in his chair. “Same old same old. The girls are acting out more, mostly Lizzie. I know a lot of its cause they miss Caroline, the joys of having teenaged daughters.” Alaric made the comment without thinking, the second he realized what he said his eyes snapped to Hayley who has taken on a sad faraway look, she reached for her necklace twisting at it. “Hayley, I’m so sorry,” Alaric started.

Hayley quickly shook her head trying to get rid of the thoughts of her dead daughter and how she never got to experience her teenage years. She wiped at her eyes even though no tears had fallen. “It’s fine,” Hayley said. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it, and she knew Alaric didn’t mean to make her feel bad but the smile she gave this time didn't quite reach her eyes.

Alaric took the hint, deciding to move on to the whole reason Hayley was even there. “So,” he stood up clearing some space on his desk, “what do you got for me?”

“These are the ones who are most interested,” Hayley said, handing the headmaster a stack of folders with all the info on a handful of kids who could be potential students.

Hayley had been doing some recruiting for a few years now for Alaric. She was still active in the New Orleans community, so she had access to any new young supernatural’s who might want to go to the school. Since she grew up moving around a lot, she had also met many different packs while searching for answers on her family, she was still on good terms with most of them. So, she had many contacts that lead her to potential new students in America while Caroline and others seemed to handle the overseas recruiting.

Caroline had contacted her asking if she knew of any potential students and ever since then Hayley found recruiting to be a nice distraction. She was sure Klaus had probably recommended Caroline ask Hayley. She and Caroline weren’t friends, but they had become friendlier over the years. She enjoyed helping the kids. She didn’t have a family for the longest time and helping give some of these kids a community with others just like them was very satisfying.

“Lot of wolves,” Alaric commented, flipping through some of the files.

“You should expect that by now.”

Hayley got lost in her thoughts again while Alaric looked over each file. Her thoughts couldn’t help but drift back to her daughter. She wondered what her daughter would have been like as a teenager, if they would have gotten along, if they would have had one of those relationships where her daughter could tell her anything or if Hayley would have been catching her sneaking out to see some boy. Hayley smiled at the thought, Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter dating, that never would have worked out well. She knew she shouldn’t think of those things, it never ended well, the what could of beens.

Thinking of her daughter always lead to thinking about the rest of the Mikaelson’s. She hadn’t seen Klaus in years, he tended to avoid the family. Freya was still in New Orleans with Keelin. Kol and Davina moved out west but still visited every year. Rebekah and Marcel finally figured themselves out and Rebekah was able to convince Marcel to leave the city and come to New York with her. Elijah also came back at least once a year but mostly followed Klaus around, making sure his brother didn’t cause to much trouble. Her and Elijah, as much as they loved each other, she just couldn’t find it in herself to be with him after the loss of her little girl.

Alaric cleared his throat pulling Hayley out of her spiraling thoughts. When she looked back at him, she noticed him giving her a questioning look. “I’m sorry, what?” she tried to cover her voice, as if she wasn’t just thinking about her dead daughter and broken family.

“I said they all look good, hopefully we get a few more students.” Alaric smiled. He caught that Hayley was in her own world, he figured it had to do with her daughter, he never should have made that comment. “So, how long you staying?” He decided to ask.

“Just for the night, figured I would check on the house.” Hayley didn’t stay in Mystic Falls long when she came to town, it wasn’t her home, New Orleans was. Elijah bought her a house in town for when she visited, sometimes it was only a day, like now, other times she’d stay for a week to help out with some of the new wolves who hadn’t turned or were having a particularly difficult time adjusting. She knew what it was like to be alone during all that, she wouldn’t let any other kids go through the same thing if she could help it.

“Good, so you have time for a drink.” Alaric was already up grabbing his bourbon and two glasses. Hayley smiled at that, throwing herself in one of the chairs across from Alaric and grabbing the glass.

After a few drinks and laughs Hayley and Alaric heard the howls of a wolf causing each of them to stand up with a perplexed look on their faces.

“Are you sure all your wolves made it to the transition cells?” Hayley asked.

“They were all accounted for,” Alaric answered, but was now questioning himself.

Alaric started moving, Hayley right behind him. They made their way down to the transition cells and saw all the wolves accounted for.

“What the hell,” Alaric whispered.

“A new wolf?” Hayley asked. Alaric just shook his head; he hadn’t heard about any new supernatural’s being in town.

Alaric ran back to his office grabbing his crossbow then he and Hayley headed out to the woods in search of their mystery wolf.

Hayley was trying to track the wolf by scent, but it was hard with the woods so big and the wolf being unknown to her. She also kept her ears sharp and eventually picked up paws hitting the ground, she tilted her head in confusion when she caught another set of paws running.

“What?” Alaric asked seeing her confusion.

“There’s two,” is all Hayley said. Alaric looked just as confused as her now.

Alaric noticed Hayley’s eyes snap up clearly hearing something he couldn’t. “Now what?” he asked.

“Someone is being chased.” At that Hayley and Alaric took off, they couldn’t let some innocent gets torn apart by two werewolves.

Hayley and Alaric arrived just in time to see a large black wolf regaining it’s footing near a large tree.

“Enough,” they heard a voice command. Both of them then realized the voice came from a teenage girl who was staring down at the black wolf, her eyes ablaze in gold. Neither of them had time to process that the girl was clearly a wolf, but she also clearly wasn’t forced to shift like a regular werewolf was. Before they knew it the black wolf was bowing its head, submitting to the girl, whimpering as it backed up into the tree. The girl sighed not seeming to realize they were there until Alaric stepped back snapping a twig causing the girls eyes to snap to their location.

“Well, shit,” is all the girl said when she saw Hayley and Alaric. Her tone was more annoyed then concerned, even though Alaric had his crossbow trained at her.

Chapter Text

“Who the fuck are you? Robin Hood?” Hope snarked at the man holding the crossbow at her.

“Robin Hood had a bow and arrow, this,” the man held the weapon up in show, “is a crossbow.”

“Defensive,” Hope mumbled, but raised her hands in surrender.

“What are you doing out here?” the man demanded, not dropping his crossbow.

“Going for a walk with my friend.” Hopes tone made it sound like it was obvious. “What are you doing out here?” Her tone became accusatory, giving the man a creeped out look.

“Going for a walk? Really?” The man didn’t sound convinced. “With a wolf?” The man nodded to Rafael.

“That’s my dog.” Hope didn’t even hesitate to come up with the lie.

The man dropped his crossbow and glared at Hope. “That’s a wolf.” The man no longer seemed angry but annoyed.

“Okay judgy,” Hope raised her hands in surrender again. “I’m not standing here judging you and your weird Robin Hood fetish.” She gestured at him.

“It is a crossbow,” he said through gritted teeth.

Hope couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face. She was enjoying annoying this man. She should probably be more concerned about the fact these strangers stumbled onto their little supernatural group.

“Okay,” the woman with the man spoke for the first time, stepping between the man and Hope, “let’s all just calm down.”

The man complied with the woman, taking a small step back, keeping the crossbow down. Hope kept her tense stance but nodded at the woman. If they were gonna play friendly there was no reason she couldn’t. She didn’t feel like burying two bodies tonight anyway.

Landon finally managed to get up off the ground and join the little standoff Hope had going on with the mysterious strangers. He made sure to stand behind Hope in case things went south. Which with their luck things always went south.

“Look,” the woman faced Hope, her hands raised to show she wasn’t a threat, “my name is Hayley, this,” she gestured to the man, “is Alaric.”

The woman, Hayley, gave Hope a look like she was waiting for her to introduce herself but Hope just stared blankly. She wasn’t going to give these people any information, not without knowing their intentions. Hayley sighed accepting she wasn’t going to get answers from Hope.

“Why don’t you and your friends come with us?” Hayley offered.

“We don’t have a habit of leaving with strangers we meet in the woods,” Hope stated. “Especially when one points a cross bow at me.” Hope gave Alaric a pointed look.

“We can help you. You can trust us.” Hayley kept her voice calm.

“I don’t trust anyone.”

“I think you’ll want to hear us out. Please, just come with us. If you don’t like what we have to say you can leave.” Hope tilted her head in suspicion at that. Alaric looked like he wanted to object but kept his mouth shut. “I promise.”

“Why should I believe a word you say?”

Instead of answering, Hayley closed her eyes and when she opened them again, they were glowing yellow. Hope wasn’t surprised by the reveal but intrigued. She let her wolf senses take over for a second and could smell that the man was human, but Hayley, Hayley wasn’t just a werewolf.

“You’re a hybrid.” It’s a statement. Hope could smell the wolf part of Hayley, but she also got the mixture of death, of a vampire.

Hayley tried to hide her shock, but Hope could see the slight twitch in her lips and the way her body slightly tensed. Hope loosened up a bit, not letting her guard down though. “Okay, we’ll go with you.” She could feel Landon’s surprise without even looking at him. “This,” she said pointing to the wolf, “is Rafael, he’s a werewolf, obviously.” Then she turned to Landon, “And this is Landon,” she met Landon’s eyes before adding, “he’s human.”

“And you?” Hayley asked curiously.

“I’m Hope,” Is all she gave them.

Hayley just nodded. “Okay, let’s get you guys back to our school, your friend Rafael can go into one of our transition cells, then when he shifts back, we can all talk.”

“Your school?” Landon asked, speaking for the first time since the mysterious strangers found them.

“The Salvatore Boarding School,” Alaric said.

“Your private rich kid school has werewolf transition cells?”

“We’re not what you think we are,” Alaric said with a smile, as if he knew some secret.

Landon and Rafael didn’t know about the Salvatore Boarding School, they just thought it was a fancy school for rich kids. Hope however knew the school was really a school for supernatural kids. She learned of the school fairly quickly when she got to town, the minute she saw some of the kids in town she got suspicious and after a bit of research she figured it out. The school is actually one of the reasons she didn’t mind staying in this town. Having a bunch of supernatural’s in one place would help her and Landon hide. Any incidents or bursts of magic could easily be explained away with the school.

Landon gave Hope a confused look as to what Alaric could possibly mean by that but Hope just glanced at him not saying anything. Though the supernatural school could help keep them hidden it could also draw problems for them. Her and Landon didn’t need others asking around about them and discovering what Landon was. They couldn’t trust anyone, anyone could turn them into Triad, and they’d be prisoners again, or Triad could find them and if anyone were helping them Triad would have no problem killing everyone to get her and Landon back.

Hope gestured for them to lead the way. Alaric gave them an uneasy glance, he clearly didn’t trust them, but he turned and lead them back to the school anyway. Hope nodded at Rafael who still had his tail between his legs but followed alongside Hope and Landon. Hayley followed behind the group, probably to make sure none of the trio tried to run or maybe it was in case there was an incident with Rafael again.

Chapter Text

Landon and Hope were in the basement of The Salvatore Boarding School watching their friend in his wolf form as he paced around the transition cell. Landon couldn’t stop pacing back and forth. He knew Hopes eyes were on him, following his movements as she leaned against the wall, as if everything that just happened wasn’t a huge deal.

“Stop,” Hope said. Her voice was irritated but she didn’t sound worried about being in this unfamiliar place.

Landon stopped pacing for a few seconds. His eyes darted all around the room but avoided ever landing on Hope. When his eyes landed on Rafael again, he stared at his best friend for a moment. Rafael wasn’t happy about entering the cell, but he was still much calmer than he had been an hour ago when he was chasing Landon through the woods trying to rip him apart.

Despite everyone else seeming unconcerned and almost calm about being discovered or about these teachers stumbling onto a couple of unknown supernatural’s Landon was freaking out. They had always been so careful as to not get caught. He knew the lady, Hayley, was some sort of hybrid based on what Hope said so they didn’t have to worry about that for once but supernatural’s were more likely to notice things off with their story, so their lies would have to be better. If these people learned the truth about him or Hope they could turn them over to Triad and if they didn’t do that then they could lead Triad to them, to this school full of innocent kids.

Landon didn’t realize he had started pacing again until Hope spoke again, “Stop.”

“Why am I the only one panicking about this?” Landon stopped, finally spinning around to look at Hope. “You are always the one on us about keeping things on the DL. You are always the one paranoid about being found out.” Landon knew he had to choose his words carefully, they couldn’t be sure who was listing in this school.

“Just cause I’m not freaking out doesn’t mean I’m okay with the situation.” Hopes voice still had annoyance in it but there was underlining anger beginning to surface. “Trust me this isn’t the ideal situation.”

“Why did we come here?” Landon was genuinely curious. He couldn’t figure out why Hope was taking Hayley’s word that they could trust them. He knew it wasn’t because of Alaric, he was human, Hope would usually do a spell to wipe his memory of their encounter or just kill him. Whatever Hope was thinking it was because of Hayley. Hayley was a hybrid. Hope was a tribrid. If anyone could have a close understanding to what Hope felt it might be Hayley.

]“I don’t think they’re a threat,” Hope said slowly. It was like she couldn’t fully understand why she agreed to come here and was still trying to figure it out for herself. “I’m not saying we can trust them.” Hope opened her mouth to say something else but quickly closed it. She seemed at war with her own thoughts.

“You’re curious.” It’s a statement not a question. Landon knew Hope well enough to know that for a fact. Even though they are both the only ones of their kind and have always been there for each other, it’s still lonely.

Landon grew up knowing who his parents were. Even though he lived in a cell and his dad is a mud man who wants to basically destroy the world and his mom was a Triad agent who barely knew how to show motherly love, he still knew who they were. Hope on the other hand never knew her family. He knew Triad told her, her family gave her up because they thought she was an abomination, but she’s never known them, she still isn’t even sure how she came to be if she’s against nature. Triad always told her she existed to get rid of Malivore, but Landon didn’t believe that for a second. No one is born just so they can die, even if they are the only loophole to stopping a great evil.

“I am,” Hope admitted.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. I know that you like your answers.” Landon couldn’t help but smile. Growing up Hope had always been curious and wanting to learn. She studied magic like crazy until she could perfect whatever spell it was. Hope never wanted to try searching for her family but Landon knew she still wanted answers about who she was.

“Even though I am curious it won’t distract me.” Hope was very careful with her words, but Landon understood. Even though Hope wants to learn more, at the end of the day the mission comes first and at the end of the day Hope will drop everything if they have to run again.

They quickly stop talking when they hear someone coming down the steps. Hayley appeared around the corner and asked, “Will you two please follow me?” Hope pushed off the wall and silently followed Hayley while Landon trailed behind them, giving Rafael one last look.

They followed Hayley to what seemed to be the headmaster’s office. The walls were lined with books, there was a large wood desk with two chairs in front of it, then behind the desk a fancy brown leather chair with Alaric Saltzman sitting in it, he closed whatever he was working on when they stepped through the door. Behind Alaric was three large windows and underneath them a long wood cabinet that seemed to not only have books but alcohol as well. Landon wasn’t sure a headmaster having bourbon within arm’s reach in his office was appropriate.

“Thank you for joining us,” Alaric said.

“Didn’t seem like we had much of a choice,” Hope said, as she and Landon took a seat in the two chairs in front of the desk. Hayley opted to lean against the wood cabinet behind Alaric.

“I have a feeling if we tried to force you to do anything it wouldn’t work out so well.”

“You’d be right.” Landon cleared his throat, he didn’t want Hope to start anything unnecessary right now, Hope just glanced at him and rolled her eyes, but she seemed to agree.

“We just had a few questions before your friend changes back,” Hayley said, her voice kind. It seemed she agreed with Landon in wanting to keep the hostility to a minimum.

“Why are you in Mystic Falls?” Alaric asked.

“We go to school at Mystic Falls High School,” Hope said like it’s obvious.

“How long have you been here?”

“We’ve been here about a year.”

“How did you all meet?”

“Raf and I are in foster care together,” Landon said.

“Landon introduced me to Raf about a year and a half ago,” Hope added.

“How did you two meet?” Hayley asked. Hayley looked skeptical. She was probably confused as to how the mysterious supernatural knew the human before she knew the werewolf. Landon knew this was when they were gonna start having to be careful.

“Landon and I knew each other before,” Hope supplied.

“How?” Alaric asked.

“We grew up together.” Landon could tell Hope was starting to get irritated. The questions were getting too close.

“If you grew up together how did Landon meet Rafael before you?” Alaric questioned.

“We got separated.”

“Where were you two before coming here?”

“I’m not sure. Landon has been in the system for a while now. Not sure where he was being bounced around before we ran into each other again.”

“Where were you?”

“Not here.”

“You’re not really giving us anything.” Alaric’s tone was getting accusatory. He was suspicious of Landon but mostly Hope. He probably wrote Landon off the second Hope said he was human, but Hope was an unknown supernatural who wasn’t providing the answers he liked.

“I don’t have a habit of telling people my life story.” There was an edge to Hopes voice now. Landon knew if Alaric kept pushing Hope might not react so well.

“There is no record of you before coming to Mystic Falls. There’s no record of Landon before four years ago. It’s as if you, both of you, just appeared out of thin air. Landon and Rafael have a gap in their record, nothing for 6 months, until they got here a year ago. Is it a coincidence that gap happens right around the time you said you found Mr. Kirby here again?”

“It doesn’t matter where we were before. Landon got out and ended up in foster care. A year and a half ago, Landon called me, I knew he needed my help, so I came to him. Raf had just triggered his curse, Landon knew I could help.”

“Because you’re a wolf?” Alaric asked. Landon knew they saw Hopes eyes when she stopped Raf, but they didn’t fully know what she was.

Hope didn’t answer, just tilted her head. Hayley interrupted before Alaric could push further. “If Landon and Rafael are in foster care, where are you staying?” Landon heard what he might call concern in Hayley’s voice.

“I have an apartment in town,” Hope answered honestly.

“How does a seventeen-year-old live alone in an apartment? Let alone afford one?”

“First of all, I’m almost eighteen. Second, the apartment is above a gym in town, It wasn’t being used and the owner allows me to live there if I help out, open and close up, clean the equipment. Also, a bit of magical influence.” Hope smirked at that last part. Hope didn’t want to be in the system so when she decided to stay in town with Landon and Rafael, she had used her magic to make it seem like she was emancipated and used it to help influence the gym owner to letting her live in the apartment above his gym. Landon knew it was because of the magic, but he was still impressed. “I also work at the Grill.” Hayley just nodded. Landon assumed she was still suspicious but was willing to buy the answer.

“I also work at the Grill part-time.” Landon added. Everyone just turned and gave him a perplexed look. Landon realized no one cared about that information but he wanted to feel included.

“Rafael should be waking up soon,” Hayley said pushing off the cabinet. She walked to a table grabbing a pile of clothes. Landon thought she would hand him the clothes for Rafael, but she handed them to Hope instead. This caused Landon’s breath to hitch. They wanted to get Landon alone so they could see what they could get out of him without Hope present. Hope looked at Landon before getting up and grabbing the clothes from Hayley then silently left Landon with the two adults to take the clothes to their friend.

“So, Landon-” Alaric started.

“What do you think you’re gonna get out of me without Hope here?” Landon cut him off. Landon might not be as confident as Hope or Rafael, but he knew how to lie and keep their secret as well as Hope.

“Forgive me,” Alaric started again. “I just don’t understand your relationship with Hope. Rafael, I get, you met in the system, you’re brothers, but Hope, I’m at a loss.”

“She’s my best friend. We’re family.”

“Why the unwavering loyalty?”

“We’re family,” Landon said firmly. “She’s protected me my entire life. I would never betray her. Or Rafael.”

“What happened in the missing time before you guys arrived here a year ago?” Alaric asked changing subjects.

“Look, when Raf triggered his curse I panicked, I called Hope, I knew she was the best person to help him. We tried to stay but the foster home wasn’t,” Landon paused to think of the right words, “exactly stable,” Landon settled on. “It wasn’t a good place for a werewolf. Not like we wanted to stay anyway. We already thought about running. The curse just helped push us.”

“So, you guys were just running since then?” Alaric didn’t sound fully convinced.

“Yes, we got by, sleeping where we could, sometimes found a way to afford a cheap motel, just made our way around until we got picked up and brought here.”

“How didn’t Hope get caught?” Alaric questioned.

“We ran, she got away, we didn’t. We ended up here and Hope followed so we could stay close.” Landon was giving him as much of the truth as he could but still managing to give them nothing, he was good at that now. They didn’t need to know that while on the run they were also hunting monsters and looking for solutions to the Malivore problem.

“Look their history isn’t important,” Hayley said. She clearly understood this kind of loyalty on some level. Alaric shot her a glare; he really didn’t trust them. Landon couldn’t blame him but still, he runs a school for supernatural’s he should be used to secrets or people not wanting their pasts known. “Just ask what you really want to know.”

Alaric sighed but then asked, “Who did Rafael kill?”

“Excuse me?” Landon was surprised by the question.

“To trigger the curse someone would have had to die by his hand even if it was an accident. We need to know if he’s a coldblooded murderer before we offer him a spot at this school.”

“I know how the curse works,” Landon snapped.

Landon took a moment to think. Rafael didn’t do anything wrong and telling them wouldn’t reveal anything about himself or Hope. If anything, this could help Rafael, he knew Rafael felt lonely and Hope helped as much as she could, but it wasn’t the same as having other werewolves. Landon knew werewolves needed a pack; they didn’t do well on their own. If he told them the truth, then Rafael would have a chance to go here and learn more about what he is and be around other werewolves.

“Raf isn’t a killer. It was a car accident, his girlfriend Cassie, she didn’t make it. It happened a year and a half ago. Raf still hasn’t forgiven himself.”

Alaric nodded, he seemed satisfied with that answer. Landon glanced towards Hayley and saw what he could only describe as sympathy in her eyes.

“What about Hope?” Alaric asked. Landon couldn’t help but tense at that. His gaze becoming hard again as he looked back at Alaric.

“I’m not answering any questions about Hope. If you want to know anything, ask her yourself. Just so you know though Hope will have no interest in this place.” Landon knew he could say that last part with confidence. As awesome as this school seemed Hope wouldn’t be able to stand being here especially with Alaric in charge, Hope didn’t do well with rules and Alaric seemed to have a lot of those.

After that, the three of them silently waited another half an hour for Landon’s friends to return. Landon started to get anxious with the quiet. He avoided eye contact with Alaric and Hayley as best as he could which was difficult with Alaric staring daggers at him the whole time, he wasn’t sure the headmaster ever blinked. He couldn’t stop his knee from bouncing until he heard the door open and turned to see his friends walking inside.

Chapter Text

In the morning Rafael woke up in a transition cell. His eyes were still adjusting as he looked around trying to figure out where he was. “What the? Where am–” he started.

“Get up,” Hope said, tossing Rafael a change of clothes.

Rafael looked at her confused. He wanted to ask what was going on but Hope clearly didn’t want to elaborate more. Rafael quickly threw on the sweatpants and hoodie provided to him. When he was done, he informed Hope, and she turned around opening the door to his cell. Rafael looked around as he and Hope made their way through the halls of The Salvatore Boarding School.

Rafael should be more scared of their situation. Considering the last thing he remembered was his bones starting to break, a huge rush of anger, and the desire to rip someone’s throat out. Rafael had been chained up in the woods with his two best friends watching over him only to shift back and wake up on the concrete floor of a cold cell. All of this would normally freak him out but considering Hope was with him and she was acting her usual self, maybe a tad more pissed off than usual, but that could still just be Hope being Hope. Either way Hope being there and not worried eased any anxiety Rafael might usually be feeling in this kind of situation.

There was no one else walking around the school as Rafael and Hope made their way to the headmasters’ office. He just shifted back to human so he figured it must have been too early for the students to be on their way to class, if any were even awake yet.

When they entered the office Rafael saw a young woman leaning back against the cabinet lining the windows behind the desk, her arms crossed, but she didn’t look particularly mad. At the desk was a man who he assumed was the headmaster, who had his hands folded together resting his chin on them as if he were contemplating something big, as he stared intensely at Rafael’s best friend. Landon was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, he was trying not to look at the headmaster burning a hole into his head with his stare, but he couldn’t help but glance up every few seconds, his knee bouncing up and down, not stopping until the door opened and all three people turned to see Hope and Rafael entering.

Landon was about to get up and greet his friends but a quick glare from the headmaster kept him seated.

“Please, take a seat.” The man gestured to the chair next to Landon. Rafael hesitated, looking to Hope first, she gave a small nod, so Rafael sat down next to Landon while Hope opted for standing between the two with her arms crossed.

“Hello, My name is Doctor Saltzman, I am the headmaster of The Salvatore Boarding School,” the man introduced himself. Holding out his hand for Rafael. Rafael hesitantly shook the man’s hand. “You’re Rafael?”

“Yeah,” Rafael nodded. “Waithe.”

“Well Mr. Waithe, as your friends here, Mr. Kirby and,” Doctor Saltzman glanced towards Hope, “Hope.” Rafael could tell by the look he gave Hope that the headmaster didn’t trust her. Knowing Hope the feeling was most likely mutual. “Know that this,” he gestured widely around him, “isn’t just a normal boarding school. It’s a school for young supernatural’s, witches, vampires, and werewolves.” Rafael raised his eyebrows at that. He shot a glance to Hope who looked at him from the corner of her eye but didn’t say anything.

“Werewolves?” Rafael asked. Intrigued by more people like him. Hope was a wolf as well, but they weren’t a pack, not really, it was just different.

“Yes, the other wolves here have their own pack. If you’re interested, we’d like to offer you a spot at the school, you can learn more about yourself and being a werewolf.”

“You want me to come to school here?”

“If you want. It’s totally your choice. We like to offer help to new supernatural’s. Help them learn control. So, they don’t hurt anyone and so they can integrate into society, living basic human lives without worries.”

“You mean you like to keep track of them,” Hope finally spoke. There was an edge to her voice, but she continued to glare at the headmaster with her arms crossed.

The headmaster returned Hopes glare and the two were in a standoff. The tension was making Rafael uncomfortable. Hope looked relax but that’s because he knew she knew that she could rip this humans’ throat out before anyone else in the room would be able to blink. Landon was fidgeting in his chair, Rafael thought he might try and calm Hope down but the odds when that happened tended to be 50/50. Hope had a habit of snapping Landon’s neck.

“Let’s all take a breath,” the woman who was leaning against the cabinet behind the headmaster finally spoke. Hopes gaze flicked to the woman but she didn’t waver. “Ric.” The woman’s voice took a serious tone. The headmaster relented and relaxed.

“This is Hayley Marshall,” the headmaster said gesturing to the woman. “She’s my,” he glanced at her, “associate,” he apparently decided to settle on. “She is here on and off throughout the year, she mostly helps by bringing in recruits, but occasionally she stays for a few days or weeks to help with the wolves.”

“You’re a werewolf?” Rafael asked excitedly. Besides Hope he’d never met another wolf.

Hayley glanced around, hesitating to answer. She met Hopes eyes and whatever she saw seemed to sway her to answer. “Sorta, I’m a hybrid.” Rafael tilted his head at that. He had never met another hybrid besides Hope. He was about speak when he caught Hopes glare out of the corner of his eye. He decided to keep quiet. Hope didn’t like other people knowing her business. Hell, he’d known her for over a year now, Landon even longer, and he still didn’t know their full story. “I was born a werewolf but was turned into a vampire a little while ago now.” Hayley didn’t elaborate. Rafael assumed she didn’t want to go into detail considering she almost didn’t say anything to begin with.

“Wait, werewolves can be turned into vampires, making them both?” Rafael asked confused. Rafael knew Hope was special and even though Hayley wasn’t exactly like Hope he didn’t realize there were other hybrids out there.

“No,” Hayley spoke slowly. “Not just some random vampire can turn a werewolf. The only way for one of us to be turned is by Klaus Mikaelson, the original hybrid.” Hayley’s voice tensed when she said the guy’s name. Rafael just nodded, not wanting to push any further.

“Anyway, we got a bit off topic,” the headmaster said, drawing their attention back to him. “Rafael, my daughters will be here in a minute to give you a tour of the school, contemplate it, see if this is a place you might want to enroll in.”

“What about my friends?” Rafael asked looking to Hope and Landon.

The headmaster let out a deep sigh. “Mr. Kirby here is human.” Rafael didn’t react, he knew Landon was a phoenix but knew the story for anyone, but the trio was he was human. Hope probably would never have even told Rafael if he hadn’t of lost control one full moon and killed Landon. He had been freaking out when Hope explained the situation. “But it seems like he knows all about you and the supernatural,” he glanced at Hope, “and I don’t think compulsion would work out to well. So, as long as he keeps this place a secret, like I assume he’s kept your secrets, he can go back about his normal life.”

Rafael looked to Hope next. He knew Hope must have known about this school and he would ask her about it later. But Hope liked to keep things quiet and there was no way she was gonna agree to go to this school, it would draw to much attention and raise to many questions. If there was one thing Hope hated more than socializing it was questions.

“Now, Hope here.” The headmaster leaned back glaring at the girl again. “We need to talk with a little more before offering her a spot.” Rafael just nodded. He didn’t want to know what Hope had done to get on the headmasters’ bad side already. Hope just had a way of making enemies.

There was a knock at the door and before Doctor Saltzman could tell them to enter, the door was already being opened. Two girls entered, the first was a blonde, the second trailing right behind her was brunette.

“Hi, daddy!” The blonde greeted the headmaster. That answered Rafael’s question on who the girls were.

“Hi girls.” The headmaster stood up from his desk to give his daughters a quick hug. “This is Rafael,” he pointed to Rafael. “A potential new student. Please give him the tour.”

The blonde turned toward Rafael with a bright smile. “Hi, I’m Lizzie.” She held out her hand and Rafael awkwardly shook it. Lizzie seemed to be waiting for her sister to say something, but the other girl was distracted staring at Hope. When he looked at Hope he could see Hope staring back at the brunette with her ever popular smirk. Lizzie nudged her sister causing her to break out of their little staring contest and a small blush appeared at having been caught. Rafael could see this only caused Hope’s smirk to deepen. Rafael had to hold in his own smile. It was rare for Hope to be interested in someone.

“Sorry,” the brunette said bringing Rafael’s attention back to her. “I’m Josie.” She gave a shy smile but also offered her hand to Rafael. He shook it but a little less awkward than he had Lizzie’s. “We’re twins.”

“Fraternal,” Lizzie finished her sister’s sentence. “Obviously.”

“Alright Rafael why don’t you go with the girls, see the school and by the time the tour is over we should be done talking to Hope here,” Alaric said.

Rafael went to follow the girls but hesitated, looking at Landon. “Landon why don’t you go with them,” Hope said. It was as if Hope knew what Rafael was thinking which happened more than he cared to admit. “That’s okay, right?” Hope asked but Rafael knew it wasn’t really a question. Hope just wanted Landon out of the room while she talked to Doctor Saltzman and Hayley.

“Sure, that’s fine,” The headmaster said. Rafael could see the man’s jaw tense. He didn’t like how much power Hope seemed to hold but it seemed whatever he wanted to talk with Hope about was better without an audience.

“What are you?” Lizzie asked approaching Landon.

“Uh, human,” Landon said awkwardly.

Lizzie made a face and didn’t offer a handshake to Landon like she had done to Rafael. Josie was much nicer and shook Landon’s hand. Lizzie turned and marched out the door without another word quickly followed by the others. As they exited the room Rafael could see Josie sneak another glance at Hope, who had not stop staring at the other girl, before closing the door leaving the other three in her father’s office.

Chapter Text

Hope had kept mostly silent. The first time she spoke was when Alaric was trying to make it seem like it was Rafael’s choice to come to the school. She knew they couldn’t force him or anyone to attend but she also knew that if Rafael decided not to switch schools that they would monitor him. They would probably be watching Hope after this as well. Hope however never took to being watched, she didn’t like someone looking over her shoulder.

Alaric had said his daughters were gonna be down to give Rafael a tour soon and since to them Landon was human he’d have to go back to regular school. They wanted to talk with Hope a bit more though. Hope was supernatural and she knew they knew that, but they weren’t about to offer her a spot at their fancy school. Alaric didn’t trust her, which was fine, she didn’t trust him either.

A knock at the door then someone entering brought Hope out of her stare down with Alaric. When Hope turned to see who was entering, she saw a blonde followed by a brunette.

“Hi, daddy!” The blonde greeted Alaric. The brunette barely looked at anyone else as she followed behind her sister. Hope couldn’t stop staring at the brunette, she was beautiful.

Hope was so distracted by the girl she didn’t hear what was being said until the blonde introduced herself to Rafael. When she took a quick glance at the blonde, she learned to be Lizzie, she saw her giving Rafael a bright smile. The girl was clearly interested in Raf by the way she was checking him out. She was sure Rafael had no idea the girl was into him.

Hope went back to looking at the brunette. She smirked when she was realized the brunette was staring back. Lizzie elbowed her sister breaking her from her staring contest with Hope. Hope could see the light blush on the other girls’ cheeks, it made her smirk deepen.

“Sorry,” the girl apologized. “I’m Josie.” She offered her hand to Rafael who kindly took it, but her eyes kept darting back to Hope. “We’re twins.”

“Fraternal,” Lizzie finished her sister’s sentence. “Obviously.”

“Alright, Rafael why don’t you go with the girls, see the school and by the time the tour is over we should be done talking to Hope here,” Alaric said. Hope held in her eyeroll.

While the girls were taking Rafael out the door without looking Hope said, “Landon why don’t you go with them.” Landon knew most of Hopes history. They shared the majority of their history, but Landon still didn’t know everything. Hope also just didn’t want him in the room when this conversation happened. “That’s okay, right?” Alaric looked like he wanted to object but Hope held his gaze until he relented. Landon awkwardly got up and followed them out the door. Hope watched Josie until the doors were shut, she could see the other girl doing the same. Once the door shut behind them it was just Hope, Alaric, and Hayley in the headmaster’s office.

Everyone could feel the tension in the room, it was unbearable, so Hope did what she did best, antagonized the situation. Hope slouched down in the chair, making herself comfortable. She tilted her head to the side and threw on a fake tight-lipped smile directed at the headmaster. She could see Alaric’s jaw tense at her lack of respect. “So,” Hope started, “how do you want to do this?”

“I take it you’re use to thinking you’re the smartest person in the room,” Alaric said.

“It tends to happen when you run into the habit of usually being the smartest person in the room.” Hope dropped her fake smile for a condescending smirk.

“Look, I’ve lived with people with the same attitude for a while now,” Hayley said.

“Then you should be used to it,” Hope snarked. Hayley shot her a glare for the first time. Hope actually dropped her gaze at that. “Sorry.” Hope had no issue with Hayley. Hayley hadn’t done anything to annoy her yet, she’s actually been very nice.

“Based on what we saw in the woods we take it you’re the alpha,” Alaric said.

Hope shook her head. “Nope. No. Don’t call me that,” Hope said. “I’m not anyone’s alpha. Rafael is not a member of my pack. I don’t do that. A pack, it’s not my thing.”

“I thought that way once,” Hayley said. “I drifted from pack to pack, never settling down, until I ended up in New Orleans.” Hope knew Hayley was trying to connect with her. This kind of thing never worked on her, but she would let the hybrid give it a shot. “I ended up learning about my family and becoming an alpha of a pack. Never thought of myself that way but it just happened, and I have to say, I love it.”

“I appreciate you telling me this.” Hopes voice was soft, all the arrogance from before gone. “But we’re not the same. There’s a reason I don’t want a pack. I’m better off on my own, always have been.” Hope hesitated before continuing, trying to figure out the right words to say. “It’s safer that way, for everyone.”

“You’re different,” Alaric stated.

“Thanks, I like to think I’m pretty special as well.” Hope was back to her snarking self.

“You know what I mean.” Alaric wasn’t having any of Hopes snark, but she smiled anyway. “You know a lot more about this world than either of those boys you’re with. Probably know a lot more than you let others believe.”

Hope continued to smirk at Alaric. He’s been right so far so she raises her eyebrows for him to continue. She’s curious to see how much they’ve figured out. How much they think they’ve figured out.

“You’re also not like your friend.” Hayley’s voice just as soft as it had been.

“Not quite like him at least,” Alaric added.

“We saw you.” Hayley was being a lot less intense with her words than Alaric.

“What are you?” Alaric asked before Hayley could continue. She shot Alaric a glare. Clearly both have very different ideas how to handle the situation.

“We know you’re a wolf,” Hayley started again. “I saw your eyes and the way Rafael responded to you. You’re the,” Hope tilted her head curious what Hayley was gonna say, “leader.” Is what she settled on. “But you weren’t forced to shift on the full moon.”

“So, again, what are you?” Alaric was still staring her down. He was appearing calm, but Hope could tell his guard was up. He probably had a number of weapons within reach if she decided to attack, not that anything he had would truly hurt her.

“I’m Hope,” she answered honestly. “Just Hope.”

“Come on kid.” Hayley sounded tired. “You know about us, just gives us something. We aren’t going to hurt you.”

“Look, just because you’re willing to spill all your secrets doesn’t mean I am.” Hope got serious. “I told you before. I don’t trust anyone.”

“You trust Landon and Rafael,” Alaric tried to argue.

“I trust Raf because he’s been in foster care with Landon, he’s like his brother.”

“And Landon?”

“Landon is the only one I trust completely.”

“Why?” Hayley asked. She can’t help but be curious. It makes sense to them Hope is a mysterious supernatural who has clearly grown up in this world whereas Landon is human.

Hope stared Hayley down. She knew Hayley wasn’t the enemy, but she doesn’t like being questioned, especially about Landon. “We grew up together.” Is what Hope settled on telling them.

“Just ask what you really want to know,” Hope said. Hope knew what Alaric wanted to ask. She was tired of playing this game, she just wanted to get this over with.

“Who did you kill?” Alaric asked his voice serious. Hope stared him down her jaw clenched. The truth was she killed a Triad agent. It was an accident. When she was ten, she got angry and lost control, she ended up blasting the agent back, impaling him. Hope felt guilty for a while, she never meant to kill the guy, but she’s killed so many people since then and Triad is evil, it’s hard for her to blame herself anymore when she knows how cruel they all are.

“Hey, I’ve been there,” Hayley started. She was trying to sympathize with Hope. “I know accidents happen; we just want to know what happened.”

Hope glanced at Hayley and some of the tension seemed to leave Hope. Hayley gets it. Hayley understands accidents just happen when it comes to werewolves. Hope almost wants to tell her what happened, at least a version of what happened.

“I’ve stared down many killers in my life,” Alaric breaks the staring contest bringing Hopes attention back to him. “There is a look in the eyes. The look of a true killer.” Hope narrows her gaze at Alaric. She knew what he was saying.

“Alaric,” Hayley warned.

“I’ve stared down hundreds of killers now. They all have the same look. The same look as you.”

“So?” Hopes voice was now cold. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“Done denying it?”

“I’ve never denied anything.”

“You’re not answering our questions.”

“Fine,” Hope said annoyed but her voice still cold. “Yes, I’ve killed someone. The first person was an accident. I lost control.” She can see Hayley give a small sad smile at that while Alaric tenses. Hayley was focusing on the it was an accident part while Alaric was focusing on the first part. “And yeah, I’ve killed plenty of people since then. I’m a killer. I do what I need to, to survive. I do what I need to, to protect those I care for.”

“Are you going to be a problem?” Alaric asked veering topics.

“Not gonna offer me a spot in your little school?” Hope brought back her snark.

“Every supernatural is welcome here. As long as they can follow the rules. I have a feeling you’re not interested in this place though.”

 “You’d be correct. Sorry, but I don’t think there’s anything you could teach me.” Hope leaned back in the chair again. “Also, I don’t much like following rules.”

“So, I’ll ask again. Are you going to be a problem?”

“Haven’t been a problem so far.” Alaric doesn’t seem convinced by that answer. “Look,” Hope leaned forward to stare Alaric down again, “you stay out of my way, I stay out of your way. We don’t have a problem.”

Hope and Alaric were broken out of their stare down when the door to his office opened again. Hope turned to see Rafael and Landon entering with Josie and Lizzie. Josie and Lizzie quickly left the room again with a wave goodbye to their father. Hope met Josies eyes one final time before the door shut.

“So, Rafael, what did you think?” Alaric asked with a smile. “Think you might want to come here?”

“Maybe, It’s a cool place. I just need some time to think it over.” Hope saw Rafael glance towards her at that last part. Hope knew Rafael was definitely interested in the school, but he was gonna want to talk to her first before agreeing to anything. Hope couldn’t tell Rafael what to do, if he wanted to come here that was his choice, for some reason he still always wanted her thoughts on these types of things.

“If we’re done here, I think we’re gonna head out.” Hope said standing up, not waiting to be dismissed.

“Let me give you guys a ride,” Hayley said.

“No, that’s okay.” Hope tried to argue but Hayley was already up, grabbing her keys.

“It’s fine, it’s a long walk back into town anyway.”

Hope just nodded, she followed Hayley out the door, giving Landon and Rafael a nod to follow as well. They followed Hayley out to her car, Hope got in the passenger seat while Landon and Rafael took the back.

Chapter Text

Hayley dropped Rafael and Landon off at their foster parents’ house. The car ride had been pretty much silent the whole time. Hope pretended to look out the window but kept alert watching Hayley out of the corner of her eye and checking the mirror to see Landon and Raf glancing and fidgeting in their seats but not saying a word.

“See you this afternoon,” Landon said as he and Raf got out of the car. It was still early and a school day. They’d been up all night but still had to attend class. Hope only responded with a nod.

Hayley waited for the boys to enter the house before pulling away. They started driving to Hopes apartment in silence for a few minutes before Hayley spoke, “I know you have trust issues. I was very much like you when I was your age.”

Hope can’t help but let out a humorless laugh. “No one is like me,” she said.

“Maybe that’s true. I can help you if you let me.”

“What makes you think I need help?”

“I’ve seen that look before.” Hope turned to look at Hayley who holds eye contact despite her driving. “The guarded, never let anyone in, keep everyone at a distance look. You’re hiding something. I know that. I’m not sure what or why. I’m not going to ask.”

Hope tilts her head at that. She’s actually surprised Hayley isn’t pushing for answers.

“Why?”

“You won’t tell me anyway.” Hayley gives her a knowing smile and Hope can’t help but return it.

They stay silent for the rest of the car ride until they pull up to the gym. Before Hope could get out of the car Hayley spoke again. “Whatever you’re running from,” Hayley paused, “we could help you. You don’t have to carry the weight of the world alone.”

Hope looked down with a sad smile. She knew Hayley was saying this thinking Hope was just being a teenager with a rough life. Hayley had no idea how true her words were. Hope quite literally had the weight of the world on her shoulders and she did have to carry it alone. She was the only tribrid. She was the only one that could stop Malivore.

“Who says I’m running from anything?” Hope can’t help but deflect.

“This secrecy you three share, always on guard, you’re hiding from someone or something. I’ve met plenty of people who tried running and hiding from their problems. It doesn’t matter how good they are, it always catches up to them.”

“Guess it’s a good thing I’m more of a fighter.” Hope smirked.

Hope can see Hayley open her mouth to respond but closes it, tilting her head. Hope holds Hayley’s gaze. Hayley is studying her; she knows there’s a hidden meaning behind Hopes words. Technically Hayley was right, they were hiding from Triad, but Hope was a fighter at the end of the day. She didn’t run and hide from her problems, if anything she ran to them, diving headfirst into the danger. Hayley decides to give a hesitant nod, her eyes full of curiosity.

“Thank you,” Hope said breaking the silence again. “I appreciate all of this, truly. I just learned a long time ago it was safer for people not to get close to me.”

Hayley gives Hope a sad smile as Hope slipped out of the car. “Thank you for the ride,” Hope said leaning through the window before turning to walk back to her apartment.

When Hope entered the apartment she closed the door, quietly leaning against it, her eyes closed, she took a deep breath. This is the first time she’s had a second to herself since everything happened. This is the closest someone has come to learning their secret, this was dangerous for them and for everyone at the school. Hope had to calm down. Triad doesn’t know where they are and unless any unforeseen event happens, they won’t. Triad hasn’t come close to finding her or Landon since they left the facility.

When Hope opened her eyes she glanced at the clock, it was 7:30am. She had to change so she could open the gym and get to her shift at The Grill by nine. Landon and Raf would be in school until 2:30pm then they would head here to meet up with Hope after her shift. She knew they had a lot to discuss.

Hope got the gym open by eight then went back to her room to change and get some painting done before her shift. Hope had started the painting a few nights ago when she couldn’t sleep, it’s when she does most of her painting. She was using mostly blacks and grays. It was a forest, a full moon hidden behind the trees, through the trees there were dark red eyes staring back. Hope got so lost staring at the eyes she had painted she lost track of time and ended up having to rush out the door, so she wasn’t late.

The Grill wasn’t super busy during the morning, but they got the regular lunch rush, it started to feel like a normal day despite the way it started. Hope was cleaning tables when a couple of customers entered, taking a seat, when she went to greet them, she realized it was Hayley and Alaric.

“Welcome, can I start you with something to drink?” Hope threw on her customer service voice and smile.

“Just a water,” Hayley said, looking at Hope and back to the menu then did a double take settling her eyes on Hope again.

“I’ll have the same,” Alaric said. He still hadn’t noticed Hope. He didn’t look at her until his eyes darted to Hayley and noticed she was staring at their server. “Shouldn’t you be in school?”

“Shouldn’t you be at work?” Hope knew she was on the job, but she couldn’t hold back her snark, the dude just irritated her.

Hayley just sighed shooting a glare at Alaric then at Hope. “How are you able to be working now?” Hayley asked much more kindly than Alaric had.

“I graduated early.” Hope waved it off.

“Really?” Hayley asked surprised. Even Alaric seemed shocked by the statement.

“Yeah,” Hope said slowly. “I tried the whole school thing when we first got here but it just wasn’t for me. So, did the work and tests and all of that and graduated end of junior year, now here I am.”

Hope left to grab their waters after that, quickly bringing them back and placing them on the table. Hope gave them a few minutes to look over the menu before returning to take their order. The original rush had died down so there was only a few customers. Hope was leaned against the bar waiting for the food watching Hayley and Alaric out of the corner of her eye. This seemed to be more of a business lunch, Alaric had brought a few folders and they were flipping through papers as they waited for their food.

When Hope went back to the table delivering their sandwiches, she noticed the files had pictures of kids ranging from little kids to some about her age. She assumed they were files on potential students they were trying to recruit or considering recruiting.

Hayley waved goodbye as she and Alaric left, Hope gave her a nod and a shy smile. She went over to clean the table and noticed a generous tip was left; it wasn’t anything crazy, but it was more than necessary. She assumed Hayley had left it, there’s no way Alaric would do that for her.

Hope finished her shift, it was a short day, so she got off just a little after Landon and Raf were getting out of school. Hope headed back to her place, quickly changing, and showering to get rid of the food smell, she didn’t completely despise working at The Grill, but she couldn’t stand smelling like fries and burgers all day.

Hope was exiting the bathroom in a tank top and sweats, rubbing a towel through her hair when she saw her door opening. Rafael and Landon entered throwing their backpacks by the door.

“You know there’s this thing called knocking,” Hope said. She was only half kidding. That’s a lie, she wasn’t kidding at all. They’re her best friends but seriously who just entered someone else’s home without knocking, it was rude, especially when said resident wasn’t a people person and liked their alone time.

Raf and Landon froze. They looked at each other, then back at the door, then at Hope glaring at them. “Sorry,” they both said in unison dropping their heads in shame. They’ve had this conversation before, they knew to knock, then enter. Raf and Landon were two of three people who Hope didn’t mind entering without being told to, the other was Maya, she just wanted them to at least knock first, it was just common courtesy.

Landon threw himself in the chair next to the couch as Hope made her way to siting on the side of the couch furthest from Landon so Rafael could be between them.

Rafael took his seat and stared down at the floor for a solid minute, his jaw clenched, and brow furrowed. Hope and Landon, both shot each other a glance at the same time. They both knew what this was about.

“So,” Hope decides to be the one to break the silence, her voice soft, “how did you like the school?” Hope could see Rafael’s shoulders tense but when he peeked a glance at Hope, he saw no anger in her eyes and quickly deflated, leaning back, rubbing his hands down his face, letting out a frustrated groan. He turned to look at Hope fully. She could see Raf had been thinking about this since they probably left the school and clearly it was causing him a great deal of turmoil.

“I liked it,” Rafael whispers. “I really liked it.” He looked from Hope to Landon, his face apologetic.

“That’s great,” Landon said with a genuine smile. Hope knew Landon didn’t want to go to a different school than his brother, but he wanted Rafael to be happy.

“It is?” Rafael asked. He was clearly unsure if Landon meant this. Hope also knew Raf wasn’t sure how she’d feel about this whole thing. As long as Rafael was happy and going to that school didn’t cause her and Landon any problems then she was happy for him.

“You should go,” Hope said. Raf looked back at her, he couldn’t keep the surprise off his face. He kept opening and closing his mouth, but nothing was coming out. “If this is something you want, then you should go.”

“Are you sure?” Raf asked hesitantly.

“Yes,” Hope put a comforting hand on his shoulder showing she meant it. “I think it would probably be good for you. All you’ve known for the last year and a half is us.”

“Hey, I like you guys,” Rafael defended. “You’ve helped me so much since I shifted. If it weren’t for you, I probably never would have gained control.”

“I know but this would also be good for you. Being a part of a real pack, I can’t give you that. It might be nice; it might be what you’ve been looking for.” Rafael looked down. Hope knew Rafael was always looking for something missing, that he’s felt incomplete. Maybe a pack is what Rafael was missing this whole time. Wolves craved a pack, family, it was only natural to want it, somewhere to belong.

“I have always wondered what having a real pack would be like,” Rafael admitted.

“I know. Plus, you can learn all about being a werewolf and the history.”

“I mean I doubt there’s much they can tell me that you couldn’t

Hope smiled, nodding her head. “True.”

“I’m not sure about taking orders from another alpha.”

“I mean they can’t be worse than Hope,” Landon joked. Hope glared at him but then all three broke out into a laugh.

“Would you guys really be okay if I went to that school?” Hope glared at him. “Okay, I know you’d be fine, but,” Rafael turned his gaze to his brother, “would you?”

“I mean sure it would suck, but I’ll get by, and I still have Hope and it’s not like this is goodbye forever, we can still see each other all the time,” Landon said. “This school is amazing, if I could go, I would jump at the chance.” Hope dropped her gaze to the floor. Landon technically qualifies for the school, he’s supernatural, but it’s way too big of a risk. “I think that might be where you belong.”

“Okay, guess I’ll call Dr. Saltzman and tell him I accept,” Rafael said as he stood up grabbing his phone and making his way to the kitchen for a bit of privacy.

“I’m sorry,” Hope whispered looking at Landon.

“It’s okay,” Landon said. Hope didn’t need to specify what she was apologizing for; she knew Landon knew why. “Our secret, our safety, is most important. Plus, I’m a phoenix, it’s not like they know I actually exist. They probably can’t teach me anything new about myself.” Hope smiled but it was forced. She knew Landon was trying to be optimistic like always, but she also knew that even if he was the only one of his kind being around people sort of like him would be more than enough. Where Hope always desired to be alone Landon desired to belong.

Chapter Text

Rafael finished out the rest of the week at Mystic Falls High then come Saturday he moved into The Salvatore Boarding School. Hope and Landon helped of course.

“You know, this isn’t how I planned on spending my off day,” Hope complained as she sat down the last box.

“Come on,” Landon said excited, “this has been fun! This school is so cool.” He was turning in a circle gesturing to Raf’s new room.

Hope just rolled her eyes. “I know it sucks,” Raf said, dropping his final box. “I appreciate this, and I owe you.” Hope huffed, shooting him a glare. “Big time.”

“So,” Landon draws out, flopping down on Raf’s new bed. “Do we get to hang out with you for a bit or now that you’ve used us for manual labor, you’re done with us?” Landon gave a big hopeful grin.

“Nah, I think I’m good. See you guys in like a month?” Raf said. Landon’s face fell. Before Landon could react any further Hope and Raf both breakout into a laugh. “I’m kidding!” Raf sat next to Landon, playfully smacking his shoulder. “Of course, you guys can hang. I kind of want to see more of the school instead of a rather rushed tour early in the morning.”

“Well, your wish is my command,” a new voice said from the doorway. They turned to see the blonde twin, Lizzie. Hope tried to subtly glance behind Lizzie to see if she could spot the pretty brunette following behind but sadly it seemed Lizzie had come to welcome Raf alone, shocker.

“Great!” Raf said, excitedly jumping up. “Cool if my friends tag along?”

Hope could see Lizzie tense at the question, but she kept the big smile on her face. Its painfully obvious Lizzie doesn’t want her or Landon to tag along so she can have Raf all to herself. Obvious to Hope at least. Raf is too caught up in all the new to notice right now and Landon is just Landon, totally oblivious.

“Of course! The more the merrier.” Lizzie turned and marched out the door but not before shooting Hope a glare. Hope couldn’t help but smirk. Lizzie was clearly threatened by her and most likely thought Hope was some sort of competition for Raf. Hope will admit Raf is attractive but not her type, as much as she wants to say he’s only here because of Landon, she has to admit she’s come to really like the other wolf. Raf is one of her most trusted friends even if he might not believe it.

“Awesome!” Landon said, just as excited as Raf to see more of the magical school. The boys both quickly caught up with Lizzie. Hope slowly trailed behind them, sticking with the group but keeping her distance, keeping an ear out for anything mildly interesting but had no interest in hearing the school gossip.

“You guys got a pretty good tour before but it’s really something else when the other students are awake and actually doing stuff. The school is really something on its own but when you see it in action, it’s another level,” Lizzie explained, as they made their way out for the dorm halls and downstairs to the main floor.

There were a couple of classrooms with students working on what Hope assumed was school projects or just practicing spells. They passed the cafeteria where there is a crazy amount of food for the students to grab and a bunch of students just chilling and eating.

“There’s a muffin bar?” Landon asked shocked. Even Raf turned to look, mouthing a silent wow. Hope just rolled her eyes. The school had muffins, what could possibly be more news worthy than that.

“If you’re excited by that just you wait,” Lizzie said, breaking the boys from their trance. “Obviously, this is the meal hall. They always serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. In between classes or after class before dinner you can always find a few things to snack on.” Lizzie started to move on to the next stop.

As they’re making their way through the halls Rafael finally decided to ask, “What kind of classes are offered here?”

“You have your basics, Math, Science, English, History,” Lizzie answered. “Then we got the more fun ones,” Lizzie had a mischievous smile on her face. “There’s the ones everyone can take, Origins of Species, Your Bloodline and You, a few others.” Lizzie rolled her eyes. It’s clear that Lizzie obviously doesn’t care about classes as much as other things but at least she’s trying to be helpful to Raf. “Then there’s the classes offered to the specific species. I’m a witch so I take things like Healing, Chemistry of Magic, etc. You being a wolf you’ll take Intro to Lycanthropy and a few others that involve learning about the history of werewolves, packs, your powers, and controlling your anger.” Raf nodded taking in all the information. “After the tour we’ll stop by my dad’s office and get you your schedule.”

“This is the library,” Lizzie gestured around the new room they’d entered. Raf and Landon were both in awe looking at all the books. The room was lined with shelves on all sides from floor to ceiling. The shelves contained everything from spell books to various knowledge on vampires and werewolves. Hope even spotted a bunch of books on ancient monsters and other mythical creatures. Even Hope was impressed with the amount of knowledge the library contained. To everyone here all the monster stories were just that stories but to Hope it was real. This was the kind of knowledge Triad would always have Hope studying when it came to the monsters or the kind of stuff they searched for when they were on the run and being attacked.

“A lot of spell books,” Hope commented, breaking her silence she’d kept since Raf’s room.

“All earth magic based or defensive spells, some with ancient knowledge on covens and prophecies,” Lizzie said. There was something in her voice Hope couldn’t place, maybe sadness? Longing?

“No offensive magic?” Hope questioned.

Lizzie sighed. So that’s what was in her voice before. Lizzie wasn’t happy that all the spells were earth magic and defensive. “My father doesn’t believe in dark magic.”

“Not every offensive spell is dark magic, I mean if someone attacks you sometimes the only defense is attacking back.”

“Yeah, try telling that to my dad. He wants us to learn earth magic, light magic, nothing to harm people.”

Hope just hummed in response. She’s not fully surprised by the information but considering Alaric greeted Hope and her friends in the woods with a crossbow and he won’t even teach his daughters offensive magic it seemed a bit hypocritical. She’s not really sure what the point of this school was for if it wasn’t actually teaching its students how to survive in the real world. She gets the whole blending in, integrating into human society thing but assuming the world will be kind just because you are, is a naïve belief.

They left the library and made their way to another room with a bunch old artifacts. The perimeter of the room was lined with display cases, each containing a handful of objects. Getting closer to a case Hope could see there was little cards stating what the object was and giving a bit information.

“Stefan Salvatore?” Landon questioned. Hope stopped looking at some old dagger in one of the cases and brought her attention back to Landon. Hope recognized the name. While Triad had her studying spells, they also educated her on many important people in the supernatural world. The Salvatore brothers were a big part of that even though they were just basic vampires they seemed to get mixed up in a ton of weird shit. Doppelgängers, sacrifices, heretics, ghost, Hell, prison worlds, Hope couldn’t even remember everything these brothers ended up getting involved in, and it was all because of some girl.

“That’s his journal,” Lizzie answered, approaching the case with Rafael.

“Salvatore? Like this school?” Rafael asked.

“Yeah, he and his brother Damon were turned in 1864 by some bitchy vampire,” Lizzie said the last part with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Stefan married my mom and the same day ended up sacrificing his life to save the town. This use to be their house. Damon took the vampire cure so he could be with the love of his life and donated the house to my mom and dad so they could open the school. They wanted a place they could raise us where we wouldn’t have to be afraid of what we were. Where we could just be normal.” Lizzie zoned out while she was talking, Hope could see a sad smile on her face as she talked about her mom.

“Your mom and Stefan?” Hope could see Landon trying to process the information. He was clearly confused. Hope just rolled her eyes. Landon didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut sometimes.

“My mom, Caroline Forbes. Well, she’s not our birth mom but she raised us. It’s kinda complicated,” Lizzie explained, but it was clear she didn’t want to get into it.

Landon was about to open his mouth again when Hope sent him a glare making him quickly shut it and just nod. They quickly made their way out of the room so no one could bring up anymore awkward questions about the past.

The group made their way outside to one of the fields where a few students were playing a game Hope didn’t recognize. Lizzie plopped down on the bleachers with Rafael and Landon sliding down next to her.

Without taking her eyes off the field Lizzie said, “Our parents created our own version of Quidditch, we call it Wickery.”

“Wow,” Landon said impressed. Hope could tell Rafael was also intrigued with the way he watched the game.

“Alyssa Chang made a broom fly in physics once,” Lizzie added. “But then another student fell 30-feet during practice so real Quidditch remains an elusive pipe dream.”

While the three of them continued watching the game and Lizzie tried flirting with an oblivious Rafael Hope decided to slip away. She ended up making her way back inside the school. Hope still didn’t have an interest in the place but she had to admit it was impressive. If her life had been different, she probably would have loved coming to a place like this. Then again anything was more appealing than being raised by Triad.

Hope just kept walking until she realized she had ended up back in the library. She was slowly perusing the shelves checking out the titles when she noticed a cute brunette that had been missing from the blonde twin earlier out of the corner of her eye. She could see the other twin huddled over a table intently reading a book she had close to her chest and her arm draped over half the page. Hope smirked realizing the girl was clearly trying to hide something. If the girl was hiding it, then it meant it was trouble and Hope loved trouble.

Hope quietly made her way over to the other girl. There was only a handful of people in the room, so she wasn’t sure how the young witch hadn’t spotted her yet, clearly, she was to enamored with her book.

When Hope was basically standing over the other girl’s shoulder, she could see she was studying a fire spell. “Now that doesn’t look like a defensive spell,” Hope whispered just next to the girl’s ear causing the brunette to jump, slamming the book close, spinning around, the fear and panic evident in her eyes.

Hope couldn’t help but chuckle at the girl. The girl seemed to lose the fear when she realized it wasn’t her father or another teacher that had snuck up on her, but she cautiously watched as Hope leaned against the side of the table to face Josie, she even kept a guarded arm around the book and tried subtly moving it further away.

“Sorry about scaring you, I just couldn’t help it,” Hope said, giving her best puppy dog eyes. “I’m Hope,” she finally officially introduced herself to the other girl, offering her her hand.

“Josie,” Josie introduced herself hesitantly accepting the handshake.

“I don’t care about the spell, obviously,” Hope explained. It was clear Josie was still on edge and Hope just wanted to ease the other girl’s tension. “Your sister mentioned you’re only taught defensive spells. I made the comment that that didn’t seem to helpful, so if anything, I applaud you. Going behind your fathers back to learn this stuff, I approve.” Hope offered a mischievous smile.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how we’re supposed to defend ourselves in the real world if we’re ever attacked, if we’re only ever taught these defensive spells,” Josie said, slumping in the chair, the tension finally leaving her body.

Hope chuckled to herself. “I thought the exact thing when you sister mentioned the rule.”

“You were with Rafael when my dad and Hayley brought him in, right?” Hope nodded. “So,” Josies drew out clearly nervous to ask whatever she was about to, “what are you?”

“I’m Hope,” she said with a smirk.

Josie glared at the girl causing a small chuckle from Hope. “You know what I mean.”

“I’m a witch,” Hope answered easily. It’s not technically a lie. She is a witch. This was more than Hope was willing to give Alaric or Hayley but for some reason talking to Josie was easy.

“You’re not coming to the school?”

“Nah, I grew up around magic, forced to study it since I could read or talk. So, all of this would be very repetitive to me.” Hope’s head snapped up, her eyes wide realizing how that could be taken. “No offense,” she quickly said.

Now Josie chuckled. “Don’t worry, I understand.” Hope let out a sigh in relief. She didn’t usually care about offending people, but she didn’t want to offend Josie.

“Plus, I already graduated. Don’t exactly feel like coming back to school if I don’t have to.”

Hope could see the surprise on Josie’s face. “Wait, you already graduated? How old are you?”

“Seventeen, I went to Mystic Falls High when I first got to town with Raf and Landon but,” Hope paused. She remembered what it was like trying to do normal school. She hated the idea, but enrolling helped keep up a normal appearance. “It just didn’t work out for me. I decided to take the appropriate tests to graduate early.”

“Wow. What about your friends?”

Hope couldn’t help the small smile forming on her face, such a curious witch. “You ask a lot of questions considering I’m a random stranger who was just lurking about your school.”

“I wouldn’t say lurking,” Josie said, her voice teasing. “Besides you’re here with a new student and you’re a witch. You have right to roam. I’m sorry if I overstepped though.”

“You’re good. I’m not much of a people person. Landon and Raf are my family. I made friends with the sheriffs’ kids, Maya, and Ethan, other than that,” Hope shook her head and shrugged. She really wasn’t a people person. She met Maya and Ethan her first day and even though she was hesitant about them Maya kinda forced her way in and Ethan just followed. Hope was happy to have them in her life though, especially Maya.

The two girls were just staring at each other, the silence wasn’t awkward, it was surprisingly comfortable. They were broken out of their trance when someone swooshed in causing a gust of wind to blow a couple papers onto the floor.

“Jo!” The new vampire said, a bright smile on his face.

“MG,” Josie said with annoyance. She shot him a glare then nodded to Hope.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” the boy stumbled over his words. “I’m MG.” He kept his big smile, holding out his hand to Hope.

“Hope,” Hope greeted. She gave him a tight-lipped smile. MG seemed nice enough, but Hope was enjoying it just her and Josie. She also wasn’t a fan of new people, especially when they were so happy, but she would play nice, for now.

“You a new student?”

“No, just helping my friend move in.”

“Oh,” MG said in realization. “You were one of the other kids Dr. Saltzman found with Rafael. He mentioned there was three of you but only Rafael was enrolling,”

Hope could hear the silent question. MG was trying to figure out why if Alaric found three kids in the woods why only one was coming to the school. “Yeah, Rafael was interested in learning more about the whole werewolf thing. And Landon is human, so he’s not allowed to stay, as much as he loves this place.” Hope gave an affectionate eyeroll at that last part.

“Human?” MG questioned, looking at Josie confused, who just shrugged, then back to Hope. “Dr. Saltzman didn’t call me to compel anyone.”

“So that’s what you do when a human stumbles upon your secrets?”

MG quickly opened and closed his mouth trying to form a defense. “NO, no, no, no, it’s just-”

“Relax,” Hope cut him off with a laugh. “I was kidding. I get it. We all need to keep our secrets.

Josie looked at Hope curiously after her words. MG just nodded, apparently not catching the hidden meaning like Josie had.

“Landon knows all about the supernatural, we grew up together,” Hope decided to explain.

“MG, were you looking for me for a reason?” Josie asked.

“Oh, right-” MG started but was cut off.

“Josie!” Someone screamed from across the hall. All three of them turned to see the blonde twin marching up to them with Rafael and Landon in tow.

“Yes, Lizzie?” Josie asked. Josie was smiling but Hope could hear the irritation in her voice.

“You were supposed to join up with the tour.” Lizzie came to a stop at the table, hands on her hips, glaring at her sister.

“Sorry, I got caught up researching.” Hope gave a small smirk at the lie and caught a glare from Josie, but the other girl was trying to hide a smile as well. “Then I got to talking.” She gestured to Hope.

“We were wondering what happened to you,” Rafael said.

“Yeah, we looked up from the game and you were just gone,” Landon added.

“You know sports aren’t my thing,” Hope brushed them off. “I decided to wander, ended up back here. Things were much more interesting the second time around.” Hope smirked at Josie; she could see the slight blush on the girls’ cheeks as she tried ducking her head to hide it.

“Well, the tour is pretty much done. We were on our way to the headmaster’s office to get my schedule.” Rafael said slowly. He was looking between Hope and Josie with a perplexed look. Rafael wasn’t used to seeing Hope flirt let alone interact with other people, except for Maya.

Hope pushed off the desk, strolling around to the other side with the others. At her movement they started to make their way out of the library with Hope following a few paces behind. Hope turned around to give Josie a goodbye, “See you around.” Josie just nodded but couldn’t hide the smile on her face, it caused Hope to just smirk again before turning back around to catch up with the others.

After they got Rafael’s schedule they were standing in the doorway of the entrance while Landon hugged Rafael goodbye. Hope rolled her eyes. They had been hugging for over a minute now. Raf liked to pretend he was cool, but he was holding Landon just as tight. They hadn’t been separate from each other in four years, Hope got it but also, they were gonna see each other all the time, this goodbye was getting ridiculous.

Hope kicked at the pebbles on the ground and was about to turn and rip the two brothers apart so she could leave when she heard someone running towards her. When she turned to see who it was, she saw Josie approaching. When Josie saw Hope looking at her, she slowed her pace and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear looking down shyly. Hope couldn’t help the smile appear on her face. The other girl was adorable, Hope loved how shy she made her, it was cute.

“Hey,” Josie said breathless from the running.

“Hey,” Hope replied softly.

“What are they…” Josie started to ask when she noticed Landon and Rafael hugging in the doorway but trailed off.

“Ignore them, separation anxiety.”

Josie just nodded clearly not sure how to respond to that. “Anyway, we, I mean some of us,” Josie was rambling. It just made Hope silently laugh at how cute the girl was.

Josie noticed Hope smiling at her, stopping her rambling. She returned the smile and they just stared at each other for a few seconds again before Hope raised her brow in question.

“Oh, right!” Josie said remembering she had approached Hope for a reason. Josie seemed to calm herself so she could speak without the rambling. “Some of us were throwing a party tonight, I was wondering if you wanted to come?”

Hope wasn’t big on parties or crowds. She’d only been to a few, and they were all because Maya dragged her to them. The hesitation must have been evident on Hopes face because before she could answer Josie was speaking again.

“It’s fine if you can’t or don’t want to. I just wanted to offer, I liked talking to you today.” Josie blushed at the confession as if she didn’t mean to say it. “If it helps sway you, they’re using Rafael being a new student as an excuse to throw it. Landon can come too if he wants,” Josie added.

Hope had to admit she liked talking to the other girl too. She could tolerate a party for a night if it meant spending more time with Josie she guessed. “What time?”

Josie broke out into a huge grin causing Hope to smile again. “Let’s say ten?”

Hope nodded then turned to Landon and Raf. “Hey!” she yelled causing the two to break apart. “Wrap it up, you’ll see each other tonight, we’re going to the party.”

Landon smiled widely in shock but not questioning the rare occasion. He looked like a puppy who just got a new toy. He gave another quick hug to Raf before running down the steps to meet Hope.

The two started to leave, Hope turned to give Josie a wave goodbye and Josie returned it with a shy wave of her own. Hope watched Josie walk back into the school, shutting the door behind her before she turned around to continue walking back to her apartment with Landon.

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since Josie and Lizzie were woken up by their father and told to come down and give a potential new student a quick tour of the school before classes. Their father had said he and Hayley had found a young werewolf in the woods.

When Josie and Lizzie managed to finish getting ready and make their way to their fathers’ office. Lizzie, for once knocked before just barging in with Josie trailing behind her. What caught Josie’s eye wasn’t the tall muscular boy Lizzie was practically drooling over but the auburn-haired girl standing between him and another curly haired boy. Josie was surprised there was three kids here since their dad only mentioned one potential student, she guessed they weren’t supernatural and maybe just his friends.

Josie tried to subtly look at the girl but when she noticed the other girl was just outright watching her, she stared back. The girl had the most piercing blue eyes. Josie barely paid attention to the conversations going on around her, she was to entranced by the girl. She managed to remember the new wolf was named Rafael and his foster brother Landon, but he was human. Josie never got the girls name before she and Lizzie left with the boys to let their father and Hayley have a conversation with the girl, alone.

Her father was always on edge with potential new students especially werewolves or vampires because he didn’t know if they were a threat or not. Josie wasn’t sure what happened out in the woods but whatever it was had her father more tense than usual. He was playing nice in front of Rafael, but Josie could see the mistrust in his eyes whenever he looked at the other girl. That probably should have been a red flag for Josie, but it just made her more curious about the girl. Plus, Hayley didn’t seem to concerned about the girl so she was going to write it off as her father being overprotective and not the fact that Hayley was a hybrid and there’s not many things on this earth than can kill her.

After the tour was done and the trio left, Josie and Lizzie went on about their day as usual, but Josie couldn’t stop thinking about those blue eyes. She was secretly hoping that Rafael would come to the school because it probably meant she would be seeing more of the other girl. She hasn’t had an instant attraction like this since Penelope and they all knew how that turned out.

When their dad told them that Rafael had called and said he wanted to enroll Lizzie was ecstatic she hadn’t shut up about it. She was planning a party Saturday night after the boy moved in to try and get to know him better. She was constantly asking Josie what she should wear and how she should figure out If he was single. Josie humored her sister like always and nodded along. Josie’s mind was really on the hopes of seeing Rafael’s friend again.

“Do you think they’re together?” Lizzie asked, pulling Josie out of her daydreaming.

“What?” Josie asked.

“Rafael and that girl that was with him in dad’s office?” Lizzie didn’t even know the girls name yet, but she said it with disgust. Josie hadn’t even thought that the girl and Rafael might be together or maybe the girl was with the other boy. Josie started to panic realizing her new crush might not even be available. She didn’t expect the other girl to go for her but if she were taken then it killed the illusion Josie could fantasize about.

“Oh, uh, I don’t know,” Josie said coming out of her internal spiraling, not that Lizzie had noticed.

“I’ll figure it out Saturday,” Lizzie said with confidence. Josie just rolled her eyes, she was used to this by now though, the new guys always went for Lizzie. “I wonder what she is,” Lizzie said absentmindedly.

“What makes you think she’s anything? She could be human; the other boy was.”

“Not a chance,” Lizzie stopped doing her makeup to face Josie. “Did you see how dad was acting? He wanted Rafael and the Muppet gone so he and Hayley could speak to her alone. Something else is going on.”

Josie hated to admit Lizzie had a point. Even she noticed it was a little off. “Fine, maybe she’s also supernatural. Maybe they just wanted to talk to her alone about her past, not everyone likes an audience.” Josie wasn’t sure if she was trying to defend the girl she didn’t even know, or she was just annoyed by Lizzie.

“Then why isn’t she coming to the school? Whatever was said after we left must have been bad.” Josie rolled her eyes. The only reason Lizzie was being this harsh to the girl they didn’t even know the name of was because there was the smallest possibility she might be with Rafael and ruin Lizzie’s plans to get with him.

“Maybe she doesn’t want to?” Josie offered seriously annoyed now. “Not every supernatural kid wants to come here.” Josie stormed out of the room after that, not waiting for Lizzie to respond.

When Saturday came around Josie knew Rafael would be moving in, so he was ready to start come Monday. Josie was getting breakfast with MG when she caught auburn locks out of the corner of her eye. Josie whipped her head around to see the girl carrying a couple of boxes following Rafael to his room with their other friend stumbling behind.

The girl hadn’t noticed her, so Josie decided to just go about her day like she had planned. She would try talking to her when she met up with Lizzie to give Rafael another small tour. Maybe this time Josie could officially introduce herself and just maybe learn the girl’s name.

Josie figured she had some time before she met with Lizzie, so she grabbed the spell book she had been secretly studying and headed to the library. Josie sat down at one of the desks in the back and as far off into the corner as she could get. Her dad didn’t believe in offensive magic so he never would have approved of the spell she was studying.

Josie loved offensive magic, she loved learning all different types of magic. She didn’t understand why her dad refused to teach them offensive spells when they could be used to help protect themselves and others. Josie would have her aunt Bonnie teach her a few things when she would visit but visits were few and far between as the twins got older, so she had to learn to try and teach herself those type of spells.

The spell Josie was trying to learn at the moment was a fire spell. She wasn’t sure what it was about them, but fire spells were her favorite. The last fire spell she studied she ended up using to set her ex on fire.

Josie was so into learning the spell she hadn’t noticed someone sneaking up on her until they whispered right in here ear, “Now that doesn’t look like a defensive spell.” Causing Josie to jump and throw her arm over the book trying to cover up the spell even though the person clearly saw it.

When Josie turned, she instantly relaxed seeing it was only the girl that was with Rafael. The girl she has been dying to see for days now. Josie was too caught up in having been caught learning a spell she shouldn’t that she totally forgot to panic her new crush was talking to her, alone.

Josie learned the girls name was Hope and that she practically grew up around magic and learning all these types of spells. Josie was sure the girl was miles ahead of her and everyone else at the school. She also learned Hope was seventeen, only two years older than Josie and Lizzie.

Josie was pretty sure the older girl was flirting with her, but she couldn’t help the thought that Hope was just trying to be nice. Josie was enjoying their talk when MG interrupted them. MG was her best friend so she was trying to be nice but really, she wish he would go away so she could keep talking to Hope.

Her wishes were crushed once again when her sister stormed into the library with Rafael and Landon in tow. Apparently when they stopped to watch the Wickery game going on outside Hope had wandered off from them, Josie was very much glad she did.

After they left and Hope left Josie a blushing mess, she surely didn’t care her sister was annoyed with her for never showing up for the tour. She was very much glad she forgot about meeting up with Lizzie and got to talk to Hope alone.

Hope was interesting. She had told Josie she was a witch, but it felt like there was more to it than that. The way Rafael and Landon acted around her also implied she was the leader of their little group. From Josie’s experience wolves tended to be the ones more in charge and not wanting to follow orders especially from witches.

Josie wasn’t sure why her father wasn’t a fan of Hope, but she didn’t really care. So far Hope had only been nice to Josie. Josie was even more interested in getting to know Hope more. She was curious what kind of magic the other girl knew, she seemed to agree with Josie and Lizzie in thinking they should learn offensive magic.

Before she could decide against it, Josie found herself running to the front of the school to try and catch Hope before she left. She decided to get out of her comfort zone and do something for herself, she wanted to invite Hope to the party.

Hope must have heard Josie coming cause the girl turned around to meet Josies gaze and Josie had to slow her pace, so she wasn’t completely out of breath when she tried talking to the other girl.

Before she could get to her question Josie was thrown off by seeing Landon and Rafael hugging in the doorway, they were worse than her and Lizzie. She wasn’t sure how long the brothers had known each other but clearly, they weren’t used to being apart. Hope just rolled her eyes at them and went back to ignoring them.

Josie ended up rambling about the party in her nervous excitement to ask Hope to it. She broke out of her ramble when she noticed Hope smiling at her, it wasn’t the usual smirk she had been giving her but a genuine adorable smile. Josie couldn’t help but return the smile and just stare into the other girls’ gorgeous blue eyes until Hopes raise brow in question reminded Josie, she had come to ask the girl a question.

She managed to ask, “Some of us were throwing a party tonight, I was wondering if you wanted to come?”

Hope didn’t seem to enthused by the idea. She probably got invited to parties all the time or she already had plans, a girl like that definitely wasn’t waiting around for someone to invite her to hangout last minute with a bunch of people she didn’t know.

Josie found herself rambling again, but Hope asked her what time the party was causing a smile to breakout on her face. She told Hope what time the party was and then Hope yelled at Rafael and Landon saying they’d see Raf at the party tonight.

Josie tried to contain her excitement and not skip back inside cause she knew Hope was watching her walk back into the school. However, on the inside Josie was skipping and jumping for joy.

When Josie closed the door, she still had the biggest smile on her face, she turned to head back up to her room when she turned right into Rafael who was smirking at her. “What?” she asked as innocently as possible.

Rafael just shook his head laughing. She tilted her head in confusion and was gonna ask what again before he walked away. Josie wasn’t sure what the reaction was, she was fairly certain Rafael and Hope weren’t a thing. She would wait till the party to get confirmation though. Until then she was gonna do her homework and not look at the clock every minute counting down the seconds until she saw Hope again.

When night finally fell, Josie stopped pretending to do her homework and got to work helping Lizzie get ready for the party. Lizzie wanted to look as hot and sexy as possible but as if she wasn’t trying too hard to seduce Rafael.

Once Josie got done helping Lizzie, she got ready herself. She decided to keep it casual so she would be comfortable around Hope. She wanted to get to know Hope, maybe become friends.

When the twins got to The Old Mill where the parties were always thrown, they approached the drinks and Jed happily handed them each one. Josie wasn’t a big drinker, but she decided to have one before Hope got there in hopes of calming her nerves. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous; she’s literally had one conversation with this girl.

It was getting almost half an hour past ten and Josie was on her third drink sulking on the couch. She told Hope ten and half an hour wasn’t super late, but she couldn’t help her thoughts from spiraling. Maybe Hope was just humoring Josie and didn’t actually intend on coming? Maybe Hope got a better offer? Maybe Hope came and saw Josie but then ran off with some other witch? Out of all the possibilities she knew the last was most unlikely, but she was getting tipsy and couldn’t control her irrational thoughts.

“Hey,” a soft voice came from behind Josie. She quickly turned, sloshing her drink everywhere, to see Hope standing behind her, hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, smiling. “Sorry we’re a little late.” She nodded towards Landon who was talking to Rafael. “He wanted to finish Spider-Man; not like he hasn’t seen it a hundred times.”

“Oh, it’s totally fine,” Josie said. She was hoping she was playing it cool and not coming off as desperate as she felt. “It’s Spider-Man, always gotta stay for the end, even when you know what happens.”

Hope laughed at that making Josie giggle as well. Hope had a really nice laugh, Josie found herself wanting to hear more of it. “Would you like a drink?” Josie asked standing up, wobbling only slightly from the alcohol. It might be time for her to cool it on the drinks, she wanted to come off as cool, not an embarrassing mess. She invited Hope to the party, she had to at least try and be a good host.

“Sure, I could go for one.”

Josie walked Hope over to the drinks, where Jed was still playing bartender. He nodded at Hope and gave her a cup. They drifted to one of the corners of the building so they could talk over the music but also see everyone. Josie got the feeling parties weren’t Hopes comfort zone with the way her eyes darted around the room as if a threat was gonna come any second.

“So, I know it’s only been a few hours but how’s our boy doing?” Hope asked, nodding to Rafael who was talking to Landon as well as a group of the other werewolves at the school.

“Pretty good,” Josie said looking at the boys. “He seems to be adjusting quickly. Wolves tend to adjust faster than others, probably the whole pack thing.”

“Good, Rafael is a nice guy. He’s great at getting everyone to like him.”

Josie took that as her opportunity to ask, “Are you two?” she couldn’t finish the question and ended up gesturing between Hope and Rafael.

“No,” Hope said through a fit of laughter, “god no.” when her laughing became under control she said, “We’re just friends.”

Josie was relieved to hear that and knew Lizzie would be as well.

“What about you and Landon?” Now that Josie knew Lizzie’s interest was available, she wanted to make sure hers was as well.

Hope didn’t breakout into a laugh again but smirked at Josie. “No, Landon is just a friend. He’s like family.”

Josie nodded trying act like it was casual conversation and she wasn’t fishing.

“Why the interest in my love life?” Hope asked.

“Oh, just because Lizzie was interested in Rafael,” Josie tried to play it off, it technically wasn’t a lie. “She thought you two might be together, wanted to know if you were competition.”

“Well, you can tell her I’m definitely not competition.”

“Good to know.”

“So, what about you?” Hope asked. “Seeing anyone?”

“Oh god no,” Josie sighed.

“What’s that reaction? I’m sure plenty of people are interested.” Hope smirked.

“Please, everyone here knows me and whenever we get someone new Lizzie always calls dibs.”

“Doesn’t mean she always has to get them.”

“She always does, they always go for her.”

“Well then that’s their loss cause you seem pretty amazing.”

Hope said it so nonchalantly, as if it was obvious. Josie had to turn her head to pretend to watch the party to try and cover up the blush she was sure was forming on her face.

“Nah,” Josie dismissed. “My last relationship didn’t work out so well.”

“I’m sorry.”

“She constantly said she loved me, but she still left. If someone actually loves you, they’d stay, they’d fight.” Josie didn’t mean to get so serious, but she couldn’t help it. She was so use to people leaving her she just wanted to be worth staying for someone.

“It doesn’t matter,” Josie said, trying to brush off the seriousness. “I set her on fire anyway.”

That broke the tension that was forming. Hope broke out into a laugh. Josie couldn’t help but laugh as well. “I’m not joking, burnt part of her hair off,” she added.

“Oh, I believe you,” Hope said through the laughter.

“You think I’m crazy enough to set my ex on fire?” Josie asked slightly offended. She knew at the time she was heartbroken over Penelope, but did she really come off as that unhinged? No wonder everyone left.

“Definitely,” Hope said with confidence.

“You don’t even know me. We literally had our first conversation not even twelve hours ago.”

“True,” Hope looked Josie in the eye. “But when I found you, you were trying to learn a fire spell. So, the idea you’re a slight pyromaniac who set their ex on fire isn’t exactly the most shocking thing on this Earth.”

Josie realized Hope had a point. She did have an affinity for fire. Josie couldn’t help but laugh at the whole thing.

Hope looked back to the party, giving Josie a sideway glance. “Besides, I’m sure she deserved it.”

Josie’s laugh turned into a shy smile at that. “So, you don’t think I’m crazy?”

“Well, I just met you so it might be a little soon to say for sure but,” Hope pretended to think about it giving Josie a once over. “First impressions? I’d say no.”

They spent the rest of the night like that, talking in the corner. Josie told Hope all about herself and her life and her family. Hope told her stuff too, but Josie got the feeling Hope was holding back. The one thing Josie knew for certain was that Hope worked at The Grill during the week and that she was an artist. Hope would avoid going into details about her past though just saying she and Landon grew up together.

When it got a little later and the room was mostly cleared out from people passing out, heading off to make out, or just partying more around the bonfire they eventually made their way to the couch.

“So, got any other fire spells hidden away?” Hope asked with a smirk.

Josie bit her bottom lip trying to contain her smile. Hope really was trouble.

“Maybe,” Josie whispered.

Hope raised her eyebrows. Josie knew Hope wanted a demonstration. Josie wasn’t one to do unapproved magic around so many people, but she couldn’t say no to those eyes.

 Josie rested her hand on Hopes arm. Hope knitted her brow together, but she didn’t question it. Josie concentrated and started to lightly siphon from Hope. When Hope saw Josie’s hand glowing red her eyes widened in realization.

Josie felt so much power coursing through Hope, she wasn’t sure how the other girl was in so much control. She and Lizzie had to control how much magic they took because it could be so overwhelming, but this girl had more magic than she’d ever felt in anyone before. It didn’t feel like siphoning from just any other witch, Josie was definitely even more curious what the girl was hiding.

When Josie got the tiny bit of magic she wanted, she snapped her fingers saying her spell. A little flame appeared at the snap and moved to her palm as she held it out. The little flame danced on her hand, not burning her, until it shifted taking the form of a small flower until slowly fading to ash and drifting up to the sky.

When Josie turned back to Hope the older girl was watching the ashes rise in amazement. Josie was sure Hope had done more impressive spells but the look on Hopes face still caused Josie to smile.

“I’m sorry,” Josie blurted out. Hope looked at her confused again. “For siphoning from you. I should have asked.”

Hope just laughed. “It’s fine, seriously,” she said, “I barely felt it.”

Of course, Hope barely felt it. Josie hardly took anything from the girl and considering how much power was coursing through Hope Josie was sure the only reason Hope noticed was because Josie’s hand was on her arm and started to glow red. Josie probably could take a good amount of magic before Hope truly felt anything being drained from her.

“So,” Hope drawled out. “You’re a siphoner?”

“Yeah,” Josie said hesitantly. She knew how others perceived siphoners. There were plenty of witches at the school that didn’t consider her and Lizzie true witches because they didn’t have any magic of their own but had to steal it from others. “Is that a problem?”

Hopes face scrunched up in confusion. Josie couldn’t help the small smile on her face, it was so cute. “Why would it be a problem?”

“Because” Josie rolled her head. “So many witches don’t see Lizzie and I as real witches since we don’t have power of our own. Hell, even our own coven hated siphoners.”

“Your coven?”

“The Gemini Coven.” Hope stiffened at that, but Josie didn’t think much of it in the moment.

“You’re Gemini Twins,” Hope said. It wasn’t a question. Hope didn’t even seem to be saying it to Josie but more herself. Hope wasn’t looking at Josie anymore, she was staring off into space clearly deep in thought.

“Yeah,” Josie said. “We’re the last of the Gemini Coven. The rest of the coven was all murdered by our psycho uncle before we were born apparently. He was also a siphoner.”

Josie finally noticed how tense Hope was. She saw the other girl clenching and unclenching her hand on the back of the couch. “What is it?” Josie asked concerned.

Hope blinked coming back to herself. “Nothing,” Hope said. Hope tried a reassuring smile, but Josie knew it was fake.

“Do you know something about the Gemini Coven?”

Hope started to open her mouth, but nothing came out. The other girl watched Josie for a second. Josie had no idea what Hope was looking for, but it was clear she was searching for something.

“I know of the coven,” Hope started. “I research and studied many covens growing up. It helps in learning more spells. Also helps knowing what kind of covens are out there in the world.”

Josie was searching Hopes face for any indication of a lie. Hope went from being caught off guard to composing herself again as if nothing happened in a matter of seconds. Josie didn’t think Hope was lying but something still felt off.

“That’s it?”

Hope nodded. “Yeah, I mean, don’t know much. The Gemini were super into their own beliefs, didn’t like siphoners at all. The coven seemed a little more on the intense crazy side.”

Hope smiled at Josie. Josie couldn’t help but feel like Hope was hiding more than she knew but she couldn’t figure out what could be worth keeping secret on her own coven, especially considering they were all dead. Josie decided to ignore it for now and just return Hopes smile. If there was anything serious or of importance about the Gemini, then her dad and mom would have told her and Lizzie.

Josie decided to move the conversation back to a lighter topic. Josie wasn’t as much of a secret nerd as Lizzie was, but she was still a fan. She tried to talk to Hope about movies, TV shows, and books but learned the other girl wasn’t really into all of that. Hope hadn’t had the pleasure of that stuff growing up, it was all spell books apparently. Hope has seen a few of the Marvel movies thankfully, but it was all because Landon forced them on her.

After a few hours when the party died down Hope and Josie said their goodbyes. Hope couldn’t find Landon and assumed he had decided to just crash with Rafael for the night. Josie offered Hope to crash in her and Lizzies room, but she said she didn’t want to intrude.

Hope walked Josie back to her dorm room where Lizzie was already passed out. “Goodnight,” Hope whispered.

“Night,” Josie said. They stared at each other for a few more seconds before Josie closed the door. Josie couldn’t help jumping into bed with a smile on her face. She and Hope had gotten to know each other pretty well she thought, she already couldn’t wait to see the girl again. Even if they were only ever friends, Hope seemed like a person Josie wanted to have in her life.

Josie’s sleep was short lived because a couple of hours later her dad came barging into their room.

“What?” Lizzie grumbled still half asleep.

“Did anyone new come to the party last night?” their dad repeated.

“What? Why?” Lizzie asked again, this time sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“It’s important,” their dad said. He was wide awake and had a panicked look in his eyes.

“Dad what’s wrong? What happened?” Josie asked concerned.

Their father let out a deep sigh as he ran his hand over his face. “The knife is gone.”

“What knife?” Lizzie asked confused.

“There was an old dagger in the artifacts room. Not much was known about it, just that it was old. Last night someone stole it and managed not to set off any of the alarms.”

Josie’s eyes widened at that. The only new people at the party were their new student Rafael, Landon who was human, and Hope who was a mysterious witch, who refused to give anything about her past away and who her father distrusted greatly.

Alaric noticed Josie’s wide eyes and asked, “What?” his expression going from panicked to serious.

Josie hated the idea of telling her dad about Hope and Landon because she truly believed she could trust Hope. Maybe that was the problem and why she always ended up hurt, she trusted people to easily, she always saw the good in people which left the door open for them to stab her in the back. She knew that even if she believed Hope was innocent, she still had to tell her dad Hope and Landon were at the party.

Chapter Text

Hope got back to her apartment after a pretty amazing night. She hated parties but her and Josie kept to themselves mostly in the corner, it was nice. Hope actually barely talked to Rafael or Landon and spent all her time with Josie. The girl was very intriguing.

Hope liked Josie, she was nice and kind. Hope didn’t do relationships though. She had too much responsibility. She was also basically born to sacrifice herself for the world, so she was on borrowed time anyway. Josie didn’t deserve that. Josie said so herself, everyone leaves her. Hope didn’t want to be another person who left. It was better for everyone if Hope kept her distance. No relationships. Friendship at the most.

Hope learned that Josie and Lizzie were Gemini twins. From the way Josie talked it didn’t seem like she and Lizzie knew the truth. She said her uncle killed the rest of the coven which adds up with what Hope learned of the coven. Hope would bet Alaric never told the twins about The Merge though. They were fifteen, in seven years the sisters would be forced to do The Merge and one twin would die. She might not have known Josie long and Lizzie might not even like her for some reason but already Hope didn’t want to see either die.

Hope flopped down on her bed intending to sleep the day away when Maya barged into the apartment.

“Did you see?” Maya asked, slamming the door behind her.

Hope could only groan, “Knock.”

“Not when it’s an emergency. Why are you so tired?”

Hope rolled over so she was on her back, her eyes still closed. “Because I just got back, went to a party at The Salvatore School.”

“Why did you go to a party there?” Maya questioned. “Hold up! Why did you go to a party? Wait! Why did you go to a party without me?”

“No humans allowed,” Hope opened one eye to smirk at her best friend. She saw her jaw drop; Hope couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?!” Maya screamed. “The Salvatore School is…” Maya trailed off still processing. Hope just nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Hope shrugged. “I didn’t tell Landon or Raf either. I agreed to stay in Mystic Falls because the school provided a good cover, but I thought if they knew about us then they could draw to much attention.”

“Do they know about you? Do they know about Landon? What happened? How did they find you?”

“They know about me but no specifics. They think Landon is human.” Hope gave Maya a pointed look so she would know that was the cover. “They know about Raf and that’s why he transferred there. The rest is a long story, can I tell you after some sleep?”

Maya started to nod but then shouted, “No.”

Hopes eyes shot open at the panic in the other girl’s voice. “Why not?”

“Because! I came here for a reason! Like I said when I walked in, it’s an emergency.”

Hope groaned, getting up to join Maya in the living room. “What’s wrong?”

“Look,” Maya turned on the TV. There was a news report going on about a bus that was headed out of town that spontaneously caught on fire, burning all the passengers inside. Hope could see Maya’s mom, the sheriff, in the background taping off the scene.

“What happened?” Hope asked, her tone serious. Hope was wide awake now.

“I don’t know,” Maya said in shock, eyes not leaving the TV. “Mom ran out of the house in a panic. I did some investigating, and this is why,” she gestured to the TV. “This kind of thing doesn’t just happen. Figured it might be more in your realm than moms.”

Hope continued to watch the TV. She couldn’t see much but it definitely didn’t seem to be a human cause. Maya knew the truth about Hope and the supernatural world. Maya is only human but not long after she and Hope met, she was attacked by a monster and Hope had to save her. Maya was thoroughly freaked out for a while and Hope was ready to do a memory erasing spell but decided against it after talking with Maya.

It took time but Maya became very okay with the supernatural world and was very curious about everything. She was maybe a little too into everything. She always wanted to go monster hunting with Hope. Maya was the only human Hope trusted enough to open up to. She didn’t tell her everything about her past, but Maya knew more than most people. She became a great confidant.

Maya knowing the truth also ended up being a positive in other ways, like this instance. Maya would come to Hope when her mom was working a case that seemed to be a little more than a human crime or an animal attack, she helped Hope cover the tracks of the supernatural. She also helped sway her mom off some leads to protect her while Hope tracked down the supernatural cause.

Before Hope could say anything else her phone started to ring and when she went to answer she saw it was Landon.

“Hey, what’s up?” Hope asked, half distracted by the news still.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Landon was talking fast and rambling. “I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t know. I didn’t. I swear Hope. I didn’t. One second, I was at the party and the next…” Landon trailed off.

“Landon? What’s wrong? What happened?” Hope asked now panicked. She could hear Landon breathing rapidly and it sounded like he was running.

“I didn’t mean-” Landon was cut off by a loud noise Hope couldn’t decipher.

“Landon!” Maya was looking at Hope concerned now.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know what I was doing. It wasn’t my fault.” Landon was rambling again.

“What did you do?” Hope’s voice was hesitant as she asked. She was afraid of the answer. She was afraid she knew where this was going.

“I took a knife.”

Hopes blood went cold.

“What do you mean?” Hope spoke slowly. She knew what this meant. She just had to hear the words aloud.

“There was some old dagger at the school in the artifacts room. I barely noticed it when we were being shown around but then last night I apparently wandered back into the school and took it,” Landon explained breathless. “Next thing I know I’m waking up on a bus.”

Hopes head snapped up at that. “A bus?” She asked glancing at Maya who’s eyes were wide. “The bus that has a bunch of burnt bodies on it?”

“That would be the one.” Landon’s breath was almost back to normal, and Hope couldn’t hear his feet smacking the ground, he must have found a safe spot to catch his breath.

“What happened?”

“I woke up on the bus and started to freak out and was gonna get off to come to you when a monster attacked. It clearly wants the knife. It’s still chasing me. I’m trying to find a place to lie low.” Landon sounded out of breath again. It sounded like he was on the move, just not as fast as before.

“Where are you? What kind of monster?” Hope asked. She was already moving, getting ready to run out the door any second.

“I’m in the woods. It’s-” the phone went dead.

“Landon? Landon?” Hope looked at her phone seeing she lost the call. “Shit.” She knew she had to move fast.

“What’s up? What happened?” Maya asked. Hope could hear the panic in her voice.

“I don’t know. There’s a monster after Landon. It’s what burnt up the bus.”

“What kind of monster?”

“I don’t know.” Hopes voice took on an edge. She knew it wasn’t Maya’s fault. This was just the exact scenario they’ve been trying to avoid.

“Okay, okay, what do we do?”

“I need to do a spell, see if I can find Landon.”

Hope sat on the ground, drawing a circle in chalk, and grabbing one of her spell books. Hope concentrated on thoughts of Landon and started the spell. It was taking some energy, but Hope was getting flashes of Landon running through the woods. Hope made an annoyed face. She already knew Landon was in the woods, she needed something else.

“What?” Maya asked concerned at seeing Hopes face.

“I can see him. He’s in the woods, running. I just can’t find any landmarks. I don’t know where to start.”

Hope continued to focus, she tried to hone closer in on Landon. The vision was beginning to fade so Hope threw a bit more magic into the spell. The vision finally caught up to Landon’s current location, he was in some sort of underground room, he looked scared, but he was still alive. She still didn’t have a clue as to what the monster was.

“I need to see the bus,” Hope said standing up.

Maya nodded and the two of them headed to where the crime scene was. They were sneaking around the outskirts of the crime scene, so not to be seen by Maya’s mom or any of the other cops. When they saw that none of the cops were in the bus, they decided to make their move.

“Okay, take my hand,” Hope said, holding out her hand for Maya.

“Why?” Maya questioned.

“You’re the one who always wants to come monster hunting with me. If you don’t want to investigate the bus with me, fine.” Hope was about to go on her own when Maya snatched her hand.

“Please, you’re not doing this alone. You always leave me behind and I’m sure you’ll do it again once you get what you’re looking for so I’m going to take the chance while I have it.”

Hope silently laughed at that. It was true. Once she got Landon’s scent and anything else she could find about the monster she was gonna have Maya stay behind. She knew Maya wanted to help but if Hope didn’t know what she was dealing with she couldn’t guarantee she could protect Maya. Hope wouldn’t be responsible for another friend’s death.

Hope did a spell instantly making herself and Maya invisible. They quietly snuck under the police tape and around the cops, entering the bus. The second they stepped onto the bus Maya gagged. She was clearly not use to the smell of burnt flesh. Hope’s senses were much stronger but with the amount of death and other things she’s seen, charred remains weren’t even in the top ten.

All the bodies were burnt to a crisp. Hope was sure the only way any of the people would be identified was by dental records. Everyone was still seated, that meant the attack happened quick. Whatever the monster was, was fast and strong enough to take out a couple dozen people before they could even stand. Hope was not liking the look of things. She still had no idea what the monster might be.

Under the smell of burnt flesh was something else. It was almost worse for Hope than the bodies. She was sure Maya couldn’t smell it, but it’s been a while since Hope smelt something so potent. It was dirty and rotten and a little musty. Hope knew the smell was from the monster. No monster ever smelled good but this one smelt like it hadn’t bathed in centuries.

Underneath the burning and rotten smells Hope finally picked up Landon’s scent. It was very faint compared to everything else, but it helped that Landon was terrified. His fear and anxiety made the scent stick out. With a fresh scent and knowing Landon doesn’t run fast Hope was sure she could catch up with Landon, she just hoped it was before the monster did.

After they snuck back off the bus they got back to their hiding spot where Hope dropped the invisibility spell.

“So, did you get anything?” Maya asked. She looked nauseous but she wasn’t gagging let alone throwing up. Hope was honestly impressed. Most people lost their lunch at their first body. Landon did. It was horrible.

“Yeah, whatever the monster is has a very distinct scent. I also managed to pick up Landon’s,” Hope told her.

“Great! Where to now?” Hope gave her a pointed look. Maya sighed, dropping her head but nodding. “Text me when you’re done.” Maya turned to leave but quickly spun back around pointing at Hope “We still have a lot to discuss.”

Hope knew she still owed Maya all the details on The Salvatore School, but she couldn’t help but just roll her eyes at her friend. When she saw Maya make it back to her car undetected Hope made her way to the woods where she instantly shifted to track Landon’s scent better, she was faster as a wolf anyways.

Hope had been running for a short while when she finally found the remnants of an old shack, most of it was crumbled, except for one standing wall, if you can call it that, and a cellar. Landon’s scent was the strongest there, so Hope shifted back and made her way to the cellar. Being a witch and werewolf was so useful, she never had to leave her clothes somewhere. Hope very quickly learned how to make a spell to keep her clothes as soon as she shifted back, there were a couple instances before, never again.

Hope opened the cellar doors, cautiously making her way down the creaking steps. When she got to the bottom, she saw piles and piles of random junk. Or what looked like junk. Most of the stuff was gold or silver, it was all shiny. None of it looked like it had been touched in ages, there were layers of dust coating the stuff.

There was a creak behind her, Hope spun around grabbing whoever it was and slammed them into the post holding the cellar up causing the already crumbling place to shake. Her eyes were glowing yellow but that quickly went away when she saw it was only Landon.

“What the hell?” Hope whispered yelled at him as she released him.

“First,” he started, “ow. Second, I didn’t know who it was! I’ve been running for my life!”

Hope calmed herself, taking a few deep breaths before asking, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, for now.”

“Do you still have the knife?”

“Yeah, that thing has been relentless in its pursuit though, Malivore clearly wants it.”

“Well, if it’s what we think it is that makes sense.”

“I’m sorry,” Landon said again.

“It’s not your fault,” Hope reassured him. If this really was one of the three keys to releasing Malivore, it truly wasn’t Landon’s fault. As a son of Malivore when he comes in contact with one of the keys, he’s compelled to take it, so it could be brought to the pit.

Hope was guessing this was a key since a monster was after it. Once Landon found a key it was said that it would basically alert Malivore to its location and he’d do anything to get it back. He would be sending whatever monsters he had consumed after it.

“Let’s get out of here, deal with our little monster problem, and get that dagger somewhere safe,” Hope said.

She and Landon were making their way out of the cellar when they were pushed back in by two people entering the cellar. Hope ran into Landon causing him to stumble but she was able to grab him before he fell. When they turned back around, they were face to face with an irritated looking Hayley and a pissed off Alaric, who was once again pointing a crossbow at Hopes chest.

“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Hope sighed, exhausted. They really didn’t need any more obstacles.

Before anyone could speak there was a loud roar from outside, causing the whole cellar to shake. Landon tensed knowing the danger they were in, Alaric and Hayley looked up confused not having a clue what they just walked into.

“Shit,” Hope sighed. She realized what they were dealing with. A dragon, as if thing’s couldn’t get any worse.

Chapter Text

Hayley had planned to leave Sunday morning after a good night’s sleep. She brought the files of the potential new students to Alaric like she was supposed to, and she even stayed the rest of the week after they found the three kids in the woods. Hayley hadn’t intended to stay that long but after finding the kids and Rafael accepting the invitation to come to the school, she decided to stay the week.

Hayley wasn’t sure what the deal was with the kids. She knew they were all hiding something though and whatever it was all came back to the girl, Hope. The girl was special, Hayley didn’t doubt that. When they found her, she had glowing eyes like a wolf and was commanding Rafael like an alpha would, but she wasn’t shifted. The only ones that could control the shift were hybrids, members of the Crescent pack, or if they had kyanite jewelry of some sort. Hayley didn’t see any kyanite, but it was always possible she missed it. It also didn’t explain why the girl was so secretive about what she was. If she was just a wolf there was no reason to not say so, considering Rafael was one and Hayley told them she was a hybrid.

Hayley didn’t think anything of it until she was driving the kid home and got a good look, but the girl had some of the most intense blue eyes. They looked so familiar to her, but she couldn’t place them. It was likely looking into the eyes of someone she knew.

She also found the other boy odd. Hope had said he was human, and he knew Rafael because they grew up in the system together. That made sense. She’s met plenty of humans who knew about the supernatural because of a connection to someone else. Hell, Cami was human when they met and eventually learned all about the supernatural. There was something about the way they were keeping secrets though that made Hayley think more was going on. Landon was very protective of Rafael but there was an even deeper loyalty with Hope. Whatever they were hiding she was sure it ultimately had to do with the two of them.

Hayley’s sleep was interrupted by her phone ringing early in the morning. She tried to ignore it but whoever was calling was being persistent. When she finally rolled over, groaning, to grab it she saw it was Alaric.

“What do you want?” she asked annoyed.

“I need you to get to the school now,” Alaric said, his tone serious. He didn’t even seem to catch her grumpiness, that must mean whatever it was was bad.

“Fine, give me a few.”

“Be quick.” He hung up before Hayley could reply. Whatever was going on certainly had him in a mood.

Hayley threw on her clothes and quickly sped to the school. When she got there no one was up yet, like any sane person they were sleeping in on a Sunday. She made her way through the halls and to Alaric’s office. She opted to just open the door instead of knocking, if Alaric was gonna wake her up without an information then she wasn’t gonna give the courtesy of knocking. When she stepped into the office she was halted, surprised at seeing Alaric leaning against his desk glaring down at his daughter with a disappointed headshake. Hayley quietly closed the door and slowly made her way over to them unsure of what was going on.

“What’s up?” she asked hesitantly. She looked to Josie first who met her gaze but just as quickly dropped it back down to her hands in her lap. So, she turned to Alaric, raising a brow in question.

“A knife was stolen,” Alaric said, not stopping the glare he was giving his daughter.

“Okay,” Hayley said confused. “What does that have to do with me? No offense but you losing a knife is your problem, not mine.”

Alaric turned his glare towards Hayley. “Tell her,” he ordered his daughter.

“The only new people who were at the school last night,” Josie said slowly. It was clear she didn’t want to have this conversation. “Were Rafael, Landon, and” Josie took a long pause looking anywhere but the two adults in the room, “Hope.”

So that’s why Alaric wanted her here. Alaric didn’t trust Hope from the moment they met her. Hayley for some reason was a little more trusting of the girl. Maybe it’s because she knew what growing up with no family was like. Apparently, that made anything the girl might have done her problem now, great.

“Okay, and?” Hayley asked Alaric. “Look I know they’re new but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“She’s got secrets,” Alaric said in a harsh whisper.

“Everyone has secrets.”

“She seemed really nice,” Josie spoke up. Hayley was surprised the girl seemed to be defending the other. She didn’t think they talked much, guess it was some party. “We talked. I agree she has secrets, but nothing made me think she was a bad person. She was with me the entire time.” Josie said the last part as if she had been repeating it a thousand times.

“So, there was never a point she was alone? Not after the party?” Alaric asked again.

Josie opened her mouth to defend the girl again but then quickly shut it, dropping her eyes back to the floor. “She walked me back to my dorm,” Josie whispered.

“You’re dismissed,” Alaric said not willing to look at his daughter anymore.

“But I want to help.”

“You’ve helped enough.” Without another word Josie left the room.

“That was a little harsh,” Hayley said.

“She should know better than to trust someone like that,” Alaric said, he was trying to contain his anger.

“She’s just a kid. They’re all just kids.” Hayley tried to reason with Alaric. He seemed hellbent on jumping to that Hope and maybe Landon stole the knife.

“Well, we’ve both met kids that have done a lot more than just steal a knife.”

Hayley was about to respond when Alaric got a call.

“Hello?” Alaric answered. “Yeah, Matt what’s up?” Hayley tried not to ease drop on the conversation. “What?” Alaric yelled into the phone. “We’ll be right there.” Alaric stated, hanging up.

“What?” Hayley asked. If Matt was calling it meant something serious had happened. This the same day as a knife going missing was a pretty big coincidence.

“We need to go.” Alaric wasn’t taking the time to explain, he was grabbing his keys and headed out the door expecting Hayley to follow.

“What happened?” Hayley asked again following Alaric to his truck.

“There was a bus accident.”

“I don’t see how that really pertains to us.”

“All the bodies inside were scorched to a crisp.”

Hayley had no idea how to respond to that, that was definitely more on the unnatural side. She just hopped in Alaric’s truck and allowed him to drive them to the accident site. A bus full of burnt corpses the same day as an ancient knife went missing, Hayley really hated where this seemed to be going. She didn’t get mass murder vibes from Hope or Landon though, she’s usually not that bad at miss judging people. She’s lived with the Mikaelson’s for years she was pretty good at spotting a sadistic murderer by now.

When they arrived on the scene, they could see the cops swarming the bus. Mayor Donovan approached them when they stopped where he told them to hide the truck.

“Hey,” Matt greeted Alaric. He gave Hayley an uneasy look but then nodded. Despite like everyone in his life being part of the supernatural world the guy still didn’t like anything relating to the supernatural.

“What happened?” Alaric asked.

“I have no idea. This bus apparently crashed but everyone inside is burnt beyond recognition. I have never seen anything like this before.”

“We can give it a look.”

“Thank you, just wait here until I clear the area, yeah?” They nodded and Matt ran off to come up with an excuse to get rid of the cops for a few minutes.

While they were waiting for Matt to give them the go ahead, they noticed a young girl sneaking to her car. They didn’t recognize the girl, but she was glancing towards the cops to make sure she wasn’t seen but she was also glancing towards the woods as if she knew something no one else did. Hayley pointed her out to Alaric, and they decided to confront her and see what she knew.

“Excuse me,” Alaric greeted nicely. The girl still got startled and dropped her keys, she fumbled trying to grab them, barely turning to look at Hayley and Alaric.

“Sorry, I gotta go,” she mumbled.

Hayley could hear the girl’s heartbeat; it was going crazy.

“Something wrong?”

“Well, there’s a crime scene right over there, so yeah, don’t really want to get involved.”

“What are you doing here? Kinda weird place to be hanging out.”

The girl still hadn’t turned to face them. The girl’s heart was only getting faster as she tried to come up with an explanation. Before she could though Hayley got tired of the games and spun the girl around.

“Who are you?” Hayley compelled the girl.

“Maya Machado,” the girl answered with an uneasy smile.

“Like sheriff Machado?” Alaric asked.

“She’s my mom,” the girl said.

“Why are you here?” Hayley compelled the girl again.

“My mom’s the sheriff, I overheard the call. I got curious,” Maya explained.

“Was anyone else with you?”

“Nope.”

“Why were you looking at the woods?”

“I was making sure no one saw me. My mom would be pissed if she caught me here.”

“What do you know?”

“A bus crashed, everyone inside is burnt up.”

“Do you know Hope?”

Hayley could see the girls smile faulter, but she tried to cover it. Hayley narrowed her gaze, something felt off.

“We went to school together last year,” Maya finally answered.

“You’re lying,” Hayley stated.

Maya’s smile fell, her eyes grew wide with fear. She tried reaching behind her to open the car door, but Hayley snatched her wrist. It didn’t matter how hard Maya fought she would never be able to break Hayley’s grip. When Hayley lifted Maya’s wrist she saw it, a bracelet.

“Vervain,” Hayley stated.

Maya yanked her hand again, this time Hayley released it. She squared her shoulders trying to appear confident, but Hayley could still see the slight fear in her eyes. The girl also couldn’t calm her rapid heartbeat.

“You know,” Alaric said shocked.

Maya shot him a glare but didn’t say anything.

“Tell us what you know,” Hayley demanded, flashing her wolf eyes. She wasn’t gonna hurt the girl, but she didn’t know that.

“I’m not telling you a damn thing,” Maya said, her voice unwavering. Hayley had to give the girl props. Despite how scared the girl was she didn’t seem to be backing down.

“I can make you.”

“Goodluck with that,” Maya’s voice shook, her confidence wavering slightly. “If anything happens to me Hope will come for you and my money is on her, every time.” Maya smirked.

Hayley couldn’t help but give her own smirk at the girl. Maya clearly knew a lot more than they did about Hope. Maya was never going to betray Hope, not to two strangers who basically jumped her at least.

“You can go,” Hayley said.

“What?” Alaric started to ask but Maya was already in her car and driving away. “Why did you do that?”

“She’s just a kid. She’s also the sheriff’s daughter.”

“You should have ripped that bracelet off and actually compelled her.”

“Well, I have a feeling that wouldn’t work out to well, besides, we’re here, we can find what we need on our own.”

Alaric sighed clearly unhappy with the situation, but he gestured for Hayley to lead the way. They made their way to the bus where all the cops had cleared. Hayley could smell the burnt flesh before she even stepped foot in the bus.

Stepping on the bus they saw dozens of bodies lining the seats. Each person burnt beyond recognition. None of the passengers were standing, they were all still seated, that meant whatever attacked them did it quick, they didn’t even see it coming. Underneath the burning flesh Hayley could smell the recent scent of perfume from the girl, Maya. So, she had been on the bus, and another wolf, there was a familiarity to the scent Hayley couldn’t place, she knew it was the other girl though, Hope. Underneath all that was a strong musty, dirty scent. Hayley had never smelled something so ripe before. It almost made her gag. Walking further towards the back of the bus Hayley picked up the faintest scent of fear and anxiety, it was the weakest scent compared to the girls, the bodies, and the unknown one but it was the only other scent that the bodies weren’t covering up. Someone had walked away from the crash and based on the amount of anxiety in the scent and Hopes apparent involvement Hayley would bet money it was Landon’s.

Hayley and Alaric jumped off the bus making their way out of site as the officers made their way back to the crime scene. Hayley had never been so confused, a missing knife, a bus full of burnt bodies, and Hope and Landon clearly involved in some way. She couldn’t figure out what the kids had to do with any of it. She knew there was a third party involved, she just didn’t know if the kids were running from it, working with it, or hunting it.

“So,” Alaric said. “What did you get?”

“I’m not sure,” Hayley admitted.

“You didn’t pick anything up?”

“That’s not what I said.” Hayley was offended, of course she picked something up, she’s been a hybrid for seventeen years and a werewolf longer, if anyone could pick up a scent under all the smoky burnt flesh smell it was her.

“Then what is it?” Alaric was getting irritated. Alaric being irritated was making Hayley more irritated. She did not want to be spending her day running through the woods chasing after some kids who maybe stole a knife, she wanted to be in her car on her way back to New Orleans.

“Hope and Landon were here.”

“Great, where are they headed.”

“Not so fast.”

“What now?” Alaric asked exasperated.

“Yes, Landon and Hope were here. It smelt like Landon was on the bus.”

“How is that possible?” Alaric cut her off.

“Let me finish,” Hayley snapped. “It smelt like Landon was on the bus then probably just before we arrived Hope and Maya were on the bus.”

Alaric turned his head to look at the empty spot Maya’s car had been. The girl really had known a lot more than they thought. Hayley wasn’t sure how involved Maya was, considering she was left behind, but she didn’t think Alaric should be investigating the girl. The girl was human and the sheriff’s daughter, that was the last person he needed to make an enemy of.

“There was something else.” Hayley wasn’t sure how to describe the other scent.

“What?” Alaric asked nervously, noticing Hayley’s hesitation.

“There was another scent, I have no idea what it was, but it was strong, I have never smelt something so nasty in my life. It was like whatever it came from hadn’t bathed in centuries.” Alaric gave her a knowing glance, but she shook her head. “It wasn’t like anything I’ve ever come into contact with before.”

“Guess we should prepare for anything.” He got his crossbow at the ready. “What direction did they go in?”

“This way.”

Hayley lead herself and Alaric into the woods. They were following Hopes scent which was strongest. Hope didn’t have much of a head start on them, half an hour at the most but there was no sign of her anywhere in site. Underneath Hopes scent was Landon’s, his was much more faded, he had been out in the woods a lot longer than any of the. All around was the musty rotten smell, Hayley still couldn’t place it. She wasn’t even sure she could track it, it seemed like it surrounded them.

“Does something seem off to you?” Hayley asked Alaric.

“Besides the fact that we found three kids in the woods, who are keeping secrets, one of which is a mysterious supernatural creature, and now an ancient knife we hardly know anything about is missing, and a bus full of innocent people are dead?” Alaric asked. Hayley could hear the edge in the voice. They didn’t know anything, but Alaric was still jumping to conclusions.

“Besides that.” Hayley’s tone was annoyed. “I mean, this,” she gestured around the area with her hand.

“What? Don’t you still have the scent?”

“Of course, I still have it. I have both of them. But we’re in the middle of the woods and what do you hear?”

Alaric stopped and listened for a second, then answered, “Nothing.”

“Exactly. No birds. No bugs. Nothing. So…”

“So, what’s so big and bad that it’s scared the wildlife.” Hayley nodded. Alaric tightened his grip on the crossbow.

They followed the scent for a little while longer until they came to what appeared to be an old shack, or what use to be one. There was only a partial wall barely standing and a cellar that seemed to still be intact.

Both Hope’s and Landon’s scent ended at the cellar door. Hayley used her vamp hearing and could hear two heartbeats in the cellar.

Hayley nodded to the cellar, Alaric got his crossbow ready, and Hayley opened the door. The two of them rushed down into the cellar pushing the two kids back as they were trying to leave. Landon almost fell but Hope seemed to catch him. By the time they recovered and turned back around Alaric had his crossbow pointed at Hopes chest once again.

“You got to be fucking kidding me,” Hope sighed. Their arrival seemed to be more of an irritation than a threat. Whatever Hopes concern was, it didn’t seem Hayley or Alaric made it even close to the top of her list.

Before Hayley could say anything or before Alaric could make things worse there was a loud roar like nothing Hayley had ever heard before, it was so strong it caused the entire cellar to shake. Hayley was surprised the cellar was still standing after it. She and Alaric looked up confused, they couldn’t see anything but whatever was waiting for them outside sounded big.

“Shit,” Hope sighed, it was almost a whisper. Hayley looked back at the two kids. Landon looked scared which Hayley was starting to assume was his default, but Hope looked serious, Hayley could see the wheels turning in the young girls’ eyes. Whatever was waiting outside the cellar Hope and Landon knew what it was. It seemed they had much bigger secrets than Hayley ever thought.

Chapter Text

“What the hell was that?” Hayley asked in a whisper. Hope could tell Hayley already knew she didn’t want to hear the answer to that.

“Really again with the crossbow?” Hope asked.

“Seriously, what was that?”

“I knew you were bad news,” Alaric spat. “The second you were alone in my school you decided to make your move.” Hope just rolled her eyes. She really didn’t have time for this. “What was your plan anyway? I don’t think pawn shops are into many ancient relics.”

“Okay, first,” Hope pointed at Alaric. She truly didn’t care about the crossbow; the man was even less threatening than Landon. “I didn’t steal your stupid knife. Second of all I think we got bigger priorities right now.”

“How did you know a knife was taken?”

Hope sighed, staring blankly at him. “I said I didn’t take it.”

“Oh yeah, then who did?” Alaric demanded.

Hope glared at him but his and Hayley’s eyes drifted to Landon, the only other suspect. Landon looked around the cellar awkwardly trying to not meet the adults gaze but once he did, he shyly rubbed his neck and raised his hand.

“Sorry,” Landon whispered. “If it helps, I didn’t mean to.”

“How do you not mean to steal a knife?” Alaric asked.

Landon opened his mouth to answer then closed it again, he looked to Hope for help.

Hope rolled her eyes again and said, “It’s complicated.”

“Explain it.”

Right before Hope opened her mouth again there was another loud roar from outside.

“Okay, we do not have time for this and it’s a long story. Our only priority should be defeating that thing out there.” Hope gestured to the cellar door.

“What is it?” Hayley asked again, her voice rising this time.

Hope signed again, tilting her head back, she knew she couldn’t lie to them, they were gonna find out anyway. This is why they kept a low profile, attention only brought problems.

“A dragon,” Hope finally answered.

Alaric rolled his eyes in disbelief. Hayley gave her an unamused look.

“Dragons aren’t real,” Alaric said.

“If they were, we’d know about it,” Hayley added. “Even if they weren’t around today, I live with the oldest family to still exist and trust me if dragons were real, they’d have stories.”

There was another loud roar.

“Look,” Hope said irritated. “That is a dragon. There is so much more going on here than you know or can possibly understand. The only thing that you need to know right now though is that dragons are real, they are big, they breath fire, it’s already killed dozens of people on that bus, and it’s after the knife.”

“Why would it be after the knife?” Alaric asked. He still didn’t sound convinced about any of it.

“It’s a long story.”

“Explain quickly.”

“Look,” Hayley yelled breaking the stare off Hope and Alaric had going on. “Whatever it is, dragon or not, it doesn’t matter, we need to get out of here. We need to work together. So put aside your differences until we survive this.”

“Fine,” Hope gritted out.

Alaric nodded finally dropping the crossbow.

“What do we do?” Alaric asked, glaring at Hope.

“We leave, you guys run in separate directions, make sure you’re safe, then I attack,” Hope said.

“That’s not a plan.”

“It will work. You guys distract it, when it realizes you don’t have the knife it will come back this way and I’ll be ready.”

They cautiously exited the cellar, Alaric and Hayley going first, quickly followed by Hope and Landon. The woods were silent again, Hope knew the dragon wasn’t gone though.

“Where is it?” Alaric whispered.

“I don’t know, it’s still here though,” Hope said.

They were walking around the area, everyone keeping their guard up when they heard a twig snap. Hope turned to see a disheveled woman walking out of from the shadows towards Alaric.

“Get back,” Hope said to Alaric.

Alaric ignored her. “Do you need help?” He asked the lady.

“She’s the dragon!” Hope yelled.

Alaric turned toward her confused, when he looked back at the woman her eyes were glowing red, her throat was starting to take on an orange glow as she prepared to breath fire.

Hope got to Alaric’s side in the blink of an eye, knocking him back just as the dragon let loose her fire. Hope raised her hand that was holding the knife, saying a spell to block the fire. Alaric was a jerk and she kind of hated him, but she liked Josie so far and she didn’t think letting the girl’s father be burnt alive was a good way to start a friendship, saving his life however, that seemed like a good idea.

While Hope was blocking the fire Hayley sped over to the dragon lady and using her super strength managed to throw the lady back. Hope could hear the dragons body crack against a tree from the force, but she knew that wasn’t enough, dragons weren’t that easy to kill.

“You need to get out of here,” Hope told Alaric and Hayley. “Get Landon to safety.”

“What? No! I’m not leaving you,” Landon said, spinning Hope around so she could look him in the eye.

“You need to stay safe.”

Landon and Hope continued to glare at each other until Hayley interrupted them.

“Uh, what’s happening,” Hayley asked.

Hope turned back around. “Shit.” She saw the lady fully transforming into her dragon form.

Alaric stumbled trying to get up, Hayley grabbed his arm to stabilize him. They were staring up at the newly formed dragon in the sky, their mouths agape.

“Get to the cellar,” Hope ordered. No one moved, they all just continued to stare at the creature. “Now!”

Landon turned around sprinting back to the cellar doors, flinging them open, practically jumped down the stairs. Hayley pushed Alaric to follow, she slammed the door shut behind them.

“You should get down there too,” Hope told Hayley.

“Like hell,” Hayley said.

“I know you’re a hybrid but I’m pretty sure being set on fire would still kill you.”

“I’m not letting a 17-year-old kid fight a dragon on her own.”

“Nothing I haven’t done before,” Hope muttered. She knew Hayley had heard her because she could see the hybrid give her a confused look out of the corner of her eye.

The dragon flew up into the air above the trees, she was circling back around, preparing to breath her fire again. While she had a second Hope held up the knife again, pointing it towards the dragon and started her spell. It was a very old death spell she had learned many years ago. Triad made her learn many spells like that. She had used this particular death spell a few times before, it always took a lot out of her.

Hope finished he spell just as the dragon was preparing to release her fire again. The dragon transformed back into her human form, crashing into the ground.

Hope collapsed from the amount of energy the spell had taken. She apparently had blacked out for a few second because next thing she knew Hayley was kneeling beside her.

“Hey, you, okay?” Hayley asked softly.

Hope nodded. She struggled to stand, slowly regaining her energy. Hayley ended up helping her up, so she didn’t fall back to the ground again. After a few seconds of Hayley keeping her balanced Hope was able to stand on her own.

They turned back to the now human looking dragon, panting on the ground. The death spell hadn’t killed her, but it had weakened her enough that she wouldn’t be able to transform back into a dragon right away.

Hope gripped the knife tighter and stumbled towards the woman, Hayley tried to help but Hope stepped out of her reach. Hope collapsed down next to the woman. She was eyeing the knife, a sad look in her eyes. Hope knew the dragon didn’t have a choice, that she had been prisoner for who knows how long in Malivore, and he released her only to force her to bring him the knife.

Hope grabbed the woman’s hand when she tried reaching for the knife. She kept hold of her arm lightening her grip but still keeping it firm. She looked into the dragons’ eyes, giving her a sad understanding nod.

“I’m sorry,” Hope whispered. Hope plunged the knife into the dragon’s heart, holding her arm until she saw the life leave her eyes, Hope thought she saw the slightest relief in the dragon in her last few seconds. Hope gently laid the woman back on the ground.

“We should bury her,” Hope said. She knew Hayley was still right behind her having seen and heard the whole thing. Hope knew she was gonna have a lot of explaining to do. “She deserves that at the very least."

A lot of the monsters from Malivore weren’t inherently evil, they were just being controlled by their captor. Malivore swallowed them up keeping them prisoners in darkness until he released them promising them freedom if they brought him what he wanted. The truth was Malivore would never free any of the monsters even if they did bring him all three keys. Death ended up being the best peace Hope could offer the monsters.

“I’ll find some shovels,” Hayley said her voice still soft.

Hope pulled herself back to her feet while Hayley went back to the cellar, opening the doors to let Landon and Alaric know the coast was clear.

After the four of them had buried the dragon, they stood in silence for a moment. There was a lot to take in. Hope and Landon had never been so close to their secrets being exposed and Alaric and Hayley just had their entire world changed, learning that dragons existed.

“You owe us a story,” Alaric said looking at Hope and Landon.

“It’s gonna be kind of hard to believe,” Hope said.

“Well, a dragon just tried to kill me. Until today I thought dragons were stuff of fiction. So, let’s say I have a pretty open mind right now.”

Hope and Landon shared a look, silently communicating. They knew what they had to do.

Hope nodded. “Okay.”

“Let’s go.”

Alaric turned heading back in the direction he had hid the car. Hayley stared at Hope a second longer, she seemed more curious than anything. She didn’t say anything though before turning and following Alaric. Hope rolled her eyes not looking forward to the upcoming conversation, but she and Landon followed the two adults despite every fiber of Hopes telling her to cut and run.

Chapter Text

Hayley and Alaric lead Hope and Landon back to Alaric’s office. Rafael was in the common room, he started to get up to greet his friends when his face contorted realizing something serious was going on. Hope ignored Rafael, continuing to follow Hayley and Alaric. Landon looked towards his brother giving him a small headshake.

When they entered the office Alaric abruptly stopped causing Hayley to almost bump into him. When she stepped around him, she saw Josie sitting in one of the chairs. She looked up at them as soon as she heard them. She looked at her father, her eyes still apologetic. When she noticed they weren’t alone her eyes settled on Hope. Hope wouldn’t hold eye contact with the girl. Hayley had only known the kid for less than a week and only talked to her a few times, but she never got the vibe that Hope was one to usually feel guilty. Even though she didn’t take the knife and was only trying to save her friend it was obvious she didn’t want Josie to see her like that.

Josie never believed Hope took the knife and despite the fact Alaric and Hayley had come back with Hope and Landon the girl still didn’t seem to think Hope took the knife or if she did, she didn’t care. Josie’s eyes had gone from apologetic to lighting up when she saw Hope. Alaric clearly hadn’t noticed his daughters new crush, or he’d be even more furious than he already was. Hayley hoped that she wouldn’t be around when he found out.

“What are you doing here?” Alaric asked.

“I wanted to make sure everything was okay,” Josie whispered, dropping her head to the floor.

“Everything is fine. We have some things to discuss. Privately. Please leave.”

“Dad-”

“Now, Josette.”

Out of the corner of her eye Hayley could see Hope smirk at Josie’s full name. Josie noticed the other girl’s smirk and ducked her head in embarrassment. Hayley had never seen the girls face go so red. Hayley had to control her own smile from forming, she didn’t want to embarrass the girl even more. Josie quickly shuffled out of the room brushing past Hope and sprinting down the hall. When she was gone Alaric locked the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted.

Hayley took her usual spot of leaning back against the front of Alaric’s desk while he took his chair. Landon cautiously sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk while Hope opted to stand again.

“Now, tell us what the hell is going on,” Alaric demanded. Hayley got that the man was angry but there was so much hostility coming from him. The two kids hadn’t been open so far and she didn’t think Alaric’s aggression was gonna help them open up.

“Please,” Hayley said much softer than Alaric. “We can help if you tell us what we’re up against.”

Hope scoffed letting out a hollow laugh.

“I’m sure you think you know everything, but I have fought incredible enemies before. Situations that seemed hopeless, we found a way. I’m a hybrid and I’m friends with some very powerful people.”

“I’ve killed many vampires. I was a hunter before I opened this school,” Alaric stated.

Hayley had to contain herself from rolling her eyes. She would admit Alaric was a decent hunter, but they just saw a dragon and she doubted the kids would care about his vampire hunting past.

“Congratulations,” Hopes voice dripped with sarcasm.

Hayley had seen the way Hope acted with the dragon lady. The girl knew what they were dealing with and knew how to kill it. She also knew about the knife and even though she didn’t steal it she knew Landon had and knew that the dragon was after the knife for some reason. Hayley started to think maybe the girl really did have all the answers.

“Look, you can’t help,” Hope stated. “No one can. This is our problem. Let us deal with it, it’s safer for everyone.”

“Not a chance,” Alaric said. “How about you tell us what the deal is with this knife.” Alaric gestured to the knife Hope still carried, she was twirling it around in her hand.

“It’s a key.”

“What kind of key?”

“One that helps unlock something you really do not want getting out.” Hopes eyes darkened. She was avoiding telling them any details, but Hayley could tell whatever this knife helped unlock wasn’t good. The kid didn’t seem scared by whatever it was but haunted.

“Look,” Hayley said calmly, still trying to be the voice of reason. “Whatever this is, whatever you’re into, clearly, it’s dangerous. I just saw a dragon. Something that I only ever read in fairy tales. You know what’s going on. Just tell us. The monster was after a knife at this school. If it’s really as dangerous as you said tell us so we can protect ourselves.”

“If we leave with the knife that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but you can’t fight something like this on your own.”

Hope let out another humorless laugh. “You have no idea how wrong you are about that,” she mumbled.

Hayley was the only one that heard it with her vamp hearing. She knit her eyebrows together. That was the second time Hope had said something similar.

Hope clenched her jaw; she clearly didn’t want to tell them what was really going on. Hayley didn’t want the kids facing whatever it was on their own if one of the threats was a dragon, who knew what else was out there. However, she couldn’t help but wondered if knowing the truth would bring more danger to the other students.

“We can help. We have resources. We can be allies. We know people. Isn’t that better than constantly being on the run?”

Hope looked to Landon who gave her a small nod. Hope sighed. She didn’t seem thrilled about what she was about to tell them, but it seemed she agreed to do so.

“Malivore,” Hope said. Any anger and hostility Hope was feeling seemed to go away when she started talking. “That is,” Hope paused, “who the keys unlock.”

Who. She had said who. The keys didn’t unlock something but released someone. Hayley knit her eyebrows together, she had never heard the name Malivore before. When she glanced at Alaric he seemed just as confused about the name as she was. Hayley wasn’t sure why, but she believed the kid. The girl was so hesitant to tell them anything but when she finally said the word Malivore Hayley heard a slight relief in her voice, as if the girl was tired of whatever it was, she had been fighting so long.

“Who is Malivore?” Alaric asked. His voice held no emotion. Hayley was glad he wasn’t writing them off just yet.

“He, it, whatever you want to call it, is a golem,” Hope explained. “A long-time ago monsters roamed free, a dragon was attacking villages, and just slaughtering people. So, a witch, vampire, and werewolf, came together to create Malivore to deal with their little problem. But once he did the bloodlines came back together to destroy Malivore.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t go well?”

Hope nodded. “Malivore ended up betraying his creators by allying with the humans he saved. The humans ended up freeing him, so he was able to continue roaming the earth where he consumed many other types of creatures. With all the various DNA he was consuming Malivore formed a conscious and I guess you’d say desires, I wouldn’t call them feelings. Anyway, being the only one of his kind he became lonely and wanted companionship, but he wasn’t meant to reproduce, there was only meant to be one of him. He tried creating children, but they were always flawed.”

“Eventually the bloodlines reunited knowing Malivore needed to be stopped. They used some dark magic and using three artifacts,” Hope held up the knife. “Reverted Malivore to his original state, a mud pit. The pit however kept its Malivore properties, it was still him.” She sat the knife on the desk for everyone to see.

“Okay, so how does no one know about these monsters?” Alaric asked. Hayley could hear the curiosity in his voice.

“When Malivore consumed a monster, they were wiped from existence, no one remembered them. The creatures only living on through myths and legends. And now that Malivore is a mud pit anything thrown into it is instantly wiped from existence.”

“Why does no one know about any of this?” Alaric asked. “I’ve never heard of any of this, she,” he pointed to Hayley, “lives with the original family of vampires and they know nothing of this.”

“To continue to protect the supernatural order of things Triad was formed.”

“Triad?” Alaric interrupted. “Like the intelligence organization?”

“Exactly.”

“What do they have to do with this?”

“Everything.” Hope tried to keep her tone neutral, but Hayley could hear the hatred the girl had for the organization. Whatever happened with Triad was personal. “Malivore wants to rise again, he wants to be able to create his own legacy, be immortal. He wants to rid the world of every witch, vampire, and werewolf. He sees himself as a superior being.”

“If Malivore consumed all the monsters, how was there a dragon?”

“To simplify it the knife is one of the three artifacts and once it was,” Hope took a second trying to figure out the word she wanted, “activated Malivore released the dragon to bring it to him. All the monster’s he’s consumed are under his control now. They weren’t dead but prisoner inside him. He’ll continue to release them until he gets the knife.”

“What do you have to do with this?” Alaric asked Hope.

“Let’s just say I’m special,” Hope answered. “I was raised by Triad since I was a baby. They trained me as their weapon to help fight the monsters. Triad loves their control.” Hope whispered the last part. There was definitely more to the story.

“And what do you have to do with all this?” Alaric asked Landon.

Landon looked towards Hope. He seemed to be silently asking what he should say. Hope met his stare, and they had a silent conversation. They really were close. Hayley knew a bond like that was rare, that kind of bond was unbreakable.

“My mother was an agent of Triad. I was raised there as well,” Landon said.

Hayley narrowed her gaze but didn’t say anything. It seem plausible. They said they had grown up together. If Landon was only human but his mom was an agent of Triad, it made sense how they met if Hope had been a prisoner of Triad. They would have grownup side by side. She knew they were still hiding something though. Hayley believed them but they were still being very careful with their answers.

“Look,” Hope said. “Now that the knife has been activated Malivore won’t stop sending monsters after it. It would be safer for your school if we took it. This doesn’t have to be your fight.”

“You really expect us to believe any of this?” Alaric asked. Hayley sighed. She should have known Alaric wouldn’t believe a word they said despite the questions he asked.

Alaric leaned forward grabbing the knife off the desk, turning it in his hands. “You really expect us to believe that all these monsters are real and there’s a mud pit that eats them and erases them from everyone’s memories.” Hayley tried to hide her irritation at Alaric’s clear dismissal of everything Hope said, however the way he said it did make it sound unbelievable. “And on top of that a well-known intelligence organization is actually a supernatural monster hunting agency. How stupid do you think we are?”

Hope gave a deadpanned look at Alaric. Hayley could tell the girl was trying very hard to not actually answer that.

“When said like that it does sound crazy,” Landon whispered. Hayley knew Alaric didn’t hear him, but Hope shot him a glare, he quickly shut his mouth and slumped further into the chair.

“I don’t give a shit what you believe. You saw the dragon for yourself there’s no hiding it. We told you the truth. Whether you believe it or not I truly don’t care. Just give us the knife and forget you ever saw us. Go back to running your school.” Hope gave a dismissive wave around the room.

“You aren’t getting the knife.”  Alaric’s tone was final.

“Fine,” Hope said, her gaze hard. Hayley was surprised the girl agreed so quickly. “Just know whatever happens now, whatever comes for it, is on you.” Hayley had never heard someone’s voice so cold.

Hope stood up, giving one final glare to Alaric then stormed out of the office with Landon quickly following. Hayley still had no idea what was going on, but she got the feeling Alaric had made it even worse.

After the kids left Hayley turned around to face Alaric who was already pouring himself a glass of bourbon. He offered her one, but she declined. She was still processing everything she just learned she didn’t need to add alcohol to the mix.

“Do you believe them?” Alaric asked.

“Yeah,” Hayley said.

“Really?” Alaric looked at her questioning.

“Their heart rates never indicated a lie. Now I think there’s still a lot more to the story, but I think the basics of what they said is true. Plus, having fought a dragon today was already pretty convincing.” Alaric hummed in agreement.

“But come on,” Alaric rolled his eyes. “All these myths and legends being real? A golem that eats monsters and erases memories? Come on.”

“I know it sounds crazy,” Hayley started.

“Completely unbelievable,” Alaric interrupted.

“But It seems just crazy enough that it’s probably true. I mean I don’t see how anyone could make up everything they just told us.

Alaric rolled his eyes again but didn’t say anything.

“I know you don’t believe it despite the fact a dragon almost burnt us alive, but maybe you shouldn’t have that knife.”

“Fine, if it will make you feel better, I’ll put it somewhere safe and get a couple witches to do a spell on it so no one else can take it.”

Hayley nodded accepting that that was the best she’d get from Alaric.

Alaric looked at her like he was analyzing her. “What’s with you and this girl?” he asked.

Hayley tensed at the question. She wasn’t sure why. She knew she had been acting a little more trusting to the girl than she usually would, she wasn’t sure why. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Maybe I just see a lot of myself in her.”

After that she headed back to her house, she still had a lot she needed to think through. Even though Alaric didn’t believe the story Hayley did and there was something telling her she couldn’t leave yet.

When Hayley got back to her place, she called Freya who picked up after a few rings.

“Hey,” Freya greeted. “I figured you’d be back by now.”

“Yeah, actually about that,” Hayley said. “Something came up, I’m gonna stick around for a bit.”

“How long?”

“Not sure, something is going on.”

“Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” Hayley admitted. “We met these kids in the woods and one of them is a 17-year-old girl. She’s different.”

“What do you mean different?”

“When we met her, she was commanding another werewolf and her eyes were glowing like a wolfs but she wasn’t transformed.” Hayley hesitated to say the next part but knew if anyone would know anything it would be Freya. “She also did magic.”

“What? She’s a witch and a wolf?” Freya asked shocked.

“Witch definitely. Wolf I’m not sure. The kid has secrets on top of secrets. I haven’t met someone so guarded since Klaus. There’s more.”

“There’s more?”

“Have you ever heard of Malivore?”

“No,” Freya said.

Hayley spent the next hour telling Freya everything that had happened and about everything Hope had told them. Freya was at just of a lost as they were. She hadn’t a clue about any of it. She couldn’t even explain how Hope was a witch and had at least some wolf abilities.

“Look I’ll do some research, see if I can find out anything useful. Just, be careful,” Freya said. “And call if you need help with anything."

“I will,” Hayley replied, hanging up the call. She knew there was a double meaning behind the be careful. She wanted her to be careful of the new threat but also of Hope. Hayley didn’t think Hope was a threat, but Freya was clearly worried about Hayley forming an attachment to Hope. Hope was around the age her daughter would have been. Freya clearly thought it would be a little too easy for Hayley to form an attachment to the girl. Hayley hadn’t been able to form true attachments to people since her daughter’s death though, she’s kept everyone at a distance even the Mikaelson’s, it’s the reason her and Elijah weren’t together.

Chapter Text

Once again Hope made it back to her apartment sighing as she leaned against the closed door. It had been an eventful week. She couldn’t believe all that happened. She knew it was dangerous, but they had to tell the truth, Hayley and Alaric literally helped fight a dragon, well Hayley helped.

It didn’t matter, Alaric hadn’t believed a word they said despite seeing a dragon for himself. Hayley didn’t say anything, so Hope wasn’t really sure where she stood. She didn’t know where she wanted her to stand. Help fighting Malivore would be nice, but they’d been alone for so long Hope wasn’t sure how to accept help. It was also incredibly dangerous. These people were strangers and if they joined the fight and anything happened then that would be on Hope.

They also no longer had the knife. Hope knew she could have taken it back from Alaric, but she really didn’t want to kill the man and cause even more problems. Malivore and Triad were enough to worry about. If Alaric wanted to ignore her warnings, then like she said that was on him. She wouldn’t leave a bunch of innocent people defenseless though, so when the next monster came, she would be there.

“Finally, you’re back,” Maya said. Hope sighed again. She knew the other girl would be waiting for her. Maya wasn’t one to let things go and Hope promised she would explain everything. When she opened her eyes, she saw the other girl laying at the end of her bed flipping through a magazine.

“You know some people would call this breaking and entering,” Hope said moving towards the bed.

“Good thing mom is the sheriff.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure your mom would let you stay in a cell if it was me calling.”

Maya glared at Hope, she couldn’t argue against it. “Anyway,” Maya redirected the conversation. “What happened? Everything okay?” She swung her feet over, so she was sitting at the edge of the bed.

Hope walked over to Maya, standing between her legs looking down into her eyes. Hope ran her fingers down Maya’s arm till she got to her hand then slowly intertwined their fingers.

Hope looked at Maya asking the silent question. They had hooked up plenty of times before, but it had been a while, since Maya had a girlfriend until a few months ago. Maya answered by scooting further onto the bed, pulling Hope closer.

Hope straddled Maya leaning down to kiss her, pushing her further into the mattress.

***

“We haven’t done that in a while,” Maya said. She stretched her arms but made no move to getting out of bed.

“Well, you were dating Finch not that long ago,” Hope said. She got up to throw on a shirt then moved over to stand in front of her easel with the painting of the forest and the eyes.

“Are you okay?” Maya asked softly.

Hope silently laughed to herself. Of course, Maya knew something was up. This had been their thing since they first met. They had met on Hopes first day at Mystic Falls High. They had flirted and somehow Maya had convinced Hope to go to a party that weekend. Hope had been stressed about Malivore and Triad and Landon and Rafael getting thrown into foster care again. The party ended up being a good way to let off some steam. Maya ended up finding Hope and they ended up hooking up.

They barely talked at school but found themselves hooking up occasionally whether it be at a party or just showing up to the others place late at night. Hope usually liked to shift and go for a run to relieve the stress but found sex was also a great release.

After a month of their casual fling, they ended up talking one night. Hope opened up slightly to Maya. Hope found she could figure out who she was with Maya. Who she was and it not being connected to anything supernatural. Maya was a great connection to some normalcy. They started talking and eventually became friends.

One night a monster had wandered into town and Maya got caught up in it. She saw it and it was about to kill her when Hope saved her. Hope could have erased her memory and made her forget everything and she had every intention of doing that, but Hope didn’t want to lose Maya. Maya had freaked out and Hope took her back to her place so she couldn’t tell anyone. Maya had calmed down a lot quicker than Hope ever imagined and Hope also went against her better judgement and asked Maya if she wanted to remember or if she wanted Hope to make her forget. Maya ended up choosing to remember.

Hope had told her almost everything. More than anyone else knew. She knew about the same as Rafael actually. Maya became a source for Hope to go to and talk to that wasn’t Landon. Maya also became determined to help Hope in any supernatural incidents that came along, while staying out of danger of course.

Hope and Maya knew they were better off as friends than a couple. They both knew they just didn’t work as a couple, but they were great at being best friends. It didn’t stop the occasional hookup though. Hope didn’t want attachments, but she appreciated that when she needed it, she knew Maya would always be there.

“I’m fine,” Hope sighed. “Today was just a lot. I really needed this, thank you.”

“You never have to thank me. You know I’m always here. Whether it’s to talk or to just be you’re reoccurring one night stand.”

Hope chuckled, taking her eyes off the painting and turning back to Maya.

“I think we both know you’re a little more than that,” Hope admitted.

“Damn right I’m more than that, I’m your best friend. I know you got Landon and Raf but good luck finding someone else to put up with all your shit.”

They both broke out into another laugh at that.

“So, what happened?” Maya asked again softly.

“There was a dragon,” Hope said. Maya’s eyes widened in excitement, but she stayed quiet. “We killed it. Hayley and Alaric saw it all. We told them about Malivore and Triad.”

Maya stared at Hope her mouth agape. Hope just looked at Maya expressionless. “What the fuck,” Maya whispered.

“They saw the dragon. We had to tell them the truth.”

“Since when?”

“Since,” Hope paused, “Hayley is a hybrid.

“Wow, so like you?”

 “No, not exactly. Hayley is a werewolf and a vampire. There’s been other hybrids. All the others are dead as far as I know. There’s only one me.”

“So, she’s why you told them about Malivore?”

“I don’t know. She helped.” Hope stared off out the window. “It was nice.”

“You don’t have to do everything alone,” Maya said softly. Hope could feel her standing behind her. She put a hand on Hopes shoulder giving it a comforting rub.

“I’m not sure if you know this but I’m not exactly good at accepting help.”

“Trust me I know.”

Hope huffed out a laugh. “It doesn’t matter. The headmaster didn’t believe us anyway. I mean who would.”

“I did. I mean I had to be attacked by a monster first, but I believed you. You would think after seeing a dragon and running a school for supernatural kids he would be a little more open minded.”

“That’s not even the worst of it.”

“It gets worse?”

“The reason the dragon was here was because at the school there was some old knife. Landon ended up taking the knife. Turns out said knife was one of the three keys to unlocking Malivore.”

“Shit.” Mayas eyes widened again, this time in fear. “Does that mean more will come?”

“Yes,” Hope said somberly. “They won’t stop until they get the knife.”

“What does this mean?”

“It means I will do everything so that doesn’t happen. Alaric kept the knife despite my warnings. I can’t let anyone at that school get hurt.”

Maya sighed but nodded. Hope knew Maya wanted to argue with her and tell her this wasn’t all on her. That protecting everyone from Malivore wasn’t her responsibility, but she didn’t because she knew Hope wouldn’t listen.

Malivore was Hopes problem. She was the only one that could stop him which meant his monsters and anything he did was her responsibility.

“I put up a barrier spell. If any monster steps foot on the school’s property, I’ll be alerted. The most important thing right now is protecting that knife.”

“Well, if you need help with anything you know I’m here.” Hope shot her a look. “Don’t worry, strictly research and detective purposes. I know I’m not allowed anywhere near the fight.”

“Maya,” Hope sighed.

“And I know it’s because I’m human and if I get hurt, I die. Trust me, I know. I also know you’re my fearless protector and won’t let anything hurt me.”

Hope rolled her eyes playfully.

“It’s getting late, I should go.”

After Maya left Hope went back to her painting. She had been working on it for a while and was almost done when her bracelet started to pulsate red. The boundary spell had been tripped. There was already another monster.

Hope had hoped the monsters wouldn’t be to frequent but it didn’t seem Malivore was wasting anytime. She grabbed her jacket and rushed out the door, headed for the boarding school.

When Hope got to the school, she focused her hearing, trying to find anything out of place. She had no idea what the new monster was. She was just hoping she could pick up a sound or scent that wasn’t a vampire, werewolf, or witch. Since it was late enough there shouldn’t be any students out.

Hope was about to sigh in frustration when she heard a loud growl. She quickly ran towards the sound. As she was running, she bumped full force into someone running the opposite direction. Before the other person could fall to the ground Hopes arms shot out stabilizing them.

When Hope looked to the persons face, she saw it was Josie. Hope gave a small smile at seeing the girl again. The girl had her hands latched on to Hopes arms still, she still hadn’t looked at Hope yet, her eyes were darting around and her breathing rapid.

When Josie finally seemed to calm down slightly, she looked at Hope smiling when she realized who she ran into. They kept staring at each other when Josie cleared her throat dropping Hopes arms and taking a step back.

“What are you doing out here?” Josie asked still breathless from whatever she was running from.

“Oh, I got an alert,” Hope held up her wrist showing the bracelet. “Another monster.” Hope answered.

“Wait, another,” Josies eyes went wide,” monster?”

“Yeah,” Hope said slowly. “Didn’t your dad tell you anything?”

Josie shook her head. Hope wasn’t fully surprised. Alaric was the type of person who doesn’t tell his daughters one of them is meant to kill the other when they turn twenty-two why would he tell them monsters are real.

Hope could agree it was best students not get involved with the monsters, it was much too dangerous. She however would argue Alaric should tell them about the monsters so they could protect themselves during an attack. The monsters would keep coming after the knife until they got it and until then the entire school was in danger.

“Why were you out here running for your life?” Hope asked remembering she was out there because a monster was until she ran into the brunette who had been running like her life depended on it.

“Right, right, right, I was just trying to clear my head then I ran into-”

Josie was cut off by another loud roar. They both turned to see a giant stone creature stomping towards them.

“Shit, gargoyle,” Hope whispered. Hope could see Josie give her a questioning look. Hope didn’t have time to give the run down on monsters again. “You need to run.”

Hope pushed Josie behind her, turning to fully face the gargoyle.

“Run!” Hope yelled again.

She could feel the hesitation from Josie but eventually the other girl took off.

Hope threw a couple spells at the gargoyle, but it had no effect. The creature kept stalking towards her.

Hope had never fought a gargoyle before, so she tried to prepare herself for anything when it approached her. When the gargoyle was close enough it swiped its arm, flinging Hope back, slamming her into a tree.

If it weren’t for her tribrid healing she was sure she would have broken many things. Hope stumbled to her feet throwing more spells at the gargoyle. One of the spells finally managed to push the gargoyle back, when that happened the creature stopped moving toward the school and turned to face Hope again. She kept doing the same spell, it only continued to push the monster back. There was still no damage though.

Hope had no idea what to do. She was preparing to be smacked around by the gargoyle again when it suddenly stopped. Hope paused staring at the creature. She didn’t drop her guard but wasn’t sure what was happening. The Gargoyle looked up to the sky, spread his gigantic stone wings and took off into the air.

“Huh,” Hope said. She turned around to head back to her apartment. She was going to try and do as much research on gargoyles as she could because she needed to find a way to kill that thing. When she started to head out though she noticed the sun starting to rise.

Chapter Text

Josie was walking around the woods trying to clear her head. She had been restless all day and couldn’t relax enough to sleep when night finally came. She had tried rolling around in bed for a few hours, but her mind just wouldn’t stop.

Josie knew her father still wasn’t thrilled with her, with what happened with the knife, but he was pretending everything was okay and normal in public but then he was also being extra cagey and spending a lot of time locked in his office. Josie had wanted to talk to him again, but it seemed her father had been hiding from everyone. Something had happened while her father was out. She didn’t know what but could tell it was big.

All she knew was that a knife was taken then a few hours later her dad and Hayley returned with Hope and Landon and the knife then they had a long conversation in her dad’s office which he made sure to keep secret, then after they left her dad had asked a couple witches to help with a boundary spell to seal the knife away some place in the school. He had never asked Josie or Lizzie for help in any of it. Josie wasn’t sure why their father was keeping them in the dark.

She still didn’t believe Hope had anything to do with taking the knife but her coming back to school with Landon and the knife made it clear she knew something. Josie wasn’t sure why she trusted the other girl so much already, Josie tended to see the best in people, but it felt different than that. Also, if Hope had taken the knife Josie was sure her father never would have just let her walk out of the school.

Josie got pulled out of her thoughts by a loud snap. She froze, slowly turning around, but she didn’t see anything. She picked up her pace and headed back to the school. She knew no one should be out in the woods but they lived in a dangerous world.

Josie heard another snap and picked up the pace. She was so busy focusing on looking behind her trying to figure out what was out there with her, when she heard the snap again, it hadn’t come from behind her but from right in front of her.

Josie stopped, whipping her head around only to see a giant stone creature in front of her. It towered over her. She could see wings peeking out from behind the creature but they, like the rest of it, were made out of solid stone. The monsters face seemed frozen in a terrifying snarling expression. It was now so quiet that the only thing Josie could hear was her own heart beating, if it weren’t for that Josie was sure she had stopped breathing.

The creature had long razor-sharp claws. It had its arms extended out as it slowly stalked towards Josie. Josie still hadn’t moved. She could only stare at the monster’s face. Its eyes were glowing red. It had long fangs to go with its claws. The monster was close enough that Josie could see the blood dripping from the monster’s mouth, she looked down and saw blood still coated the claws, it wasn’t even dry yet.

Before the monster could make her another victim Josie finally came back to herself and took off at a full sprint. This time she didn’t try looking behind her. Even though she couldn’t hear it she knew it wasn’t far behind.

She kept running until she ran into something full force, it felt like slamming into a brick wall. Josie didn’t realize it was a person until she was falling backwards, and two hands wrapped around her arms stabilizing her.

When Josie finally looked at who she had run into she was met with the most piercing blue eyes. She knew who she had run into, she would never forget those eyes, Hope.

Josie was struggling to catch her breath as she asked what Hope was doing out there. She wasn’t sure why Hope would be lurking about their school at night. Hope told her she got alerted to another monster and held up her wrist showing off the bracelet that had a glowing red light.

Josie was to focused on the fact the girl said another monster. That meant there had been more monsters. Then she learned that her dad had apparently known about the monsters and neglected to tell her or anyone else about them.

Josie was telling Hope about what she saw when their conversation was cut short by a piercing roar. Josie stumbled back a little as she turned to see the creature stalking towards them again.

“Shit, gargoyle,” Hope whispered. Josie shot her a confused look. Monsters were clearly not new information to Hope.

Hope flawlessly pushed Josie behind her so she was all that stood between Josie and the gargoyle. Josie wasn’t sure why, but she felt safer already, though she didn’t want the other girl getting hurt trying to protect her.

“You need to run,” Hope said. Her voice left no room for argument.

Josie hesitated a moment. She didn’t want to leave the girl to fight the creature on her own. She didn’t want to be someone who was forced to run away when things got bad. She wanted to be someone who could help and fight back when her friends needed it.

“Run!” Hope said again. Despite herself Josie knew she had to do what the other girl said.

Josie ran faster than she ever had in her life. She hated leaving the other girl, but it was clear her being there was a distraction. If Hope was too busy worrying about Josie, then she wouldn’t be able to focus on the monster. Hope had called it a gargoyle. Josie was still trying to process the fact that monsters were real and that her father apparently knew about them. She was also just a siphoner and knew she was useless in a fight.

When Josie finally made it back to the school, she burst through the doors slamming them shut behind her. She instantly ran into her father after that letting out a yelp.

“Where the hell have you been?” Her dad asked angry.

Josies eyes were wide, she kept looking from her dad back to the closed doors as if she could see through them and all the way back to Hope and the monster. “There was a…” she was panting unable to form her sentences. “There was a…”

Alaric’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. His face quickly went from angry headmaster to concerned father.

“What? What happened?” He asked much softer, resting both hands on Josies shoulders trying to calm her. “What did you see?”

Josie took a couple deep breaths before she tried speaking again. “There was a monster.”

Josie could feel Alaric tense by the way his grip on her shoulders tightened just slightly.

“Where?” He asked now serious.

“In the woods.” Josie started to get frantic again. “I was in the woods. I know I wasn’t supposed to be, but I needed to clear my head. I was in the woods when I heard a noise, and I couldn’t see anything, but I got scared so I started to head back when I saw it…” she trailed off remembering the monster towering before her.

“What did you see?”

“I-I don’t know. Hope-”

“Hope was here?” Alaric cut her off.

“Yeah, she said she got an alert another monster showed up. I was running for my life when I ran into her. She told me to run.” Josie zoned out no longer focusing on her father, it was as if she was staring through him. “She saved me. She stayed behind to fight that thing. I just left her.” Josie collapsed to her knees.

Alaric caught his daughter not letting her fall to the floor. He helped stand her back up and knew she couldn’t stand on her own, so he let her lean most of her weight on him as they went back to his office.

“We need to go back out there. We need to help her.” Josie’s voice was almost a whisper.

“We will. I need to call Hayley first.”

Josie was sitting in her father’s office, her hands clasped together against her mouth. She was replaying everything in her mind. She knew Hope told her to run but she should have stayed and helped. She should have done more. She really was just a powerless siphon witch.

Josie wasn’t sure how long she was drowning herself in her own guilt and self-doubt but the next thing she knew Hayley was walking through the door.

“What happened?” Hayley asked. She glanced down at Josie; her eyes softened. “Are you okay?”

All Josie could do was nod. She didn’t interact with Hayley much. She knew her mom knew her from a long time ago and there was some drama, but they had since moved past that. She knew that Hayley came by once a month at most to drop off new files for recruits or bring some in herself. Hayley really cared about helping kids it seemed. She was also nice to Josie and Lizzie every time she saw them even if it was just a simple smile or wave. As she got older though Josie noticed there always seemed to be a sadness or longing in Hayley’s eyes whenever she looked at the twins.

“There’s another monster,” Alaric said.

“Hope!” Josie jumped up from the chair frantic again. “She’s still out there. She told me to run. I just left her. She stayed to fight the monster.”

“Hey,” Hayley said as softly as Josie ever heard her speak. The hybrid put both her hands on Josie’s shoulders giving her soothing rubs until she calmed down. “Now tell me what happened.”

Josie took a deep breath before answering. “I was out in the woods when a ran into a monster. I ran away and ran right into Hope. She told me to run so I did, and she stayed behind to fight the monster. She’s still out there.”

“She’s fighting some monster alone?” Hayley’s voice became accusatory, but it wasn’t directed at Josie, no, the hybrid was glaring at her father.

Josie had never seen her father scared before. Alaric swallowed a lump in his throat before speaking. “We don’t know what it is. I wasn’t about to send one of my students out there. I called you.”

“So, it’s okay for another kid to die as long as they aren’t one of your students?”

“I never said that,” Alaric defended. He was becoming irritated as well.

“Enough!” Josie shouted shocking the two adults in the room. “We have bigger issues right now. Hope is out there alone with a monster.”

Hayley nodded. Alaric let out a long exhale. “Where was the monster?” Hayley asked.

“I can show you,” Josie said.

“No. No way,” Alaric said.

“I’m going,” Josie’s tone left no room for debate. She was already headed for the door not waiting on the two adults to follow.

The trio made their way through the woods back to where Josie had left Hope and the monster. The sun had fully risen by this point.

When they made it to the clearing there was no signs of Hope or the monster.

“This is where I left them,” Josie said spinning around looking for any signs of the other girl.

“Well, they’re not here anymore. That’s good,” Hayley said.

“How is that good?”

“Well, no body means Hope is still alive.”

“How can you be so sure? You didn’t see this thing.”

“I watched her take down a dragon. Trust me, that kid wouldn’t go down easy.” Hayley had a small smile on her face as she said that last part. Josie didn’t see Hayley smile to often or if she did there was always a sadness behind it.

“This also means the monster is still out there,” Alaric said. “Let’s get back to the school. We can research, search, and try coming up with a plan.”

“What about Hope?” Josie asked concerned.

“I’m sure wherever we find the monster we’ll find Hope,” Hayley reassured. “We can talk to Rafael though, see what he knows.”

Alaric nodded agreeing to that. Josie hated the idea of just waiting around while her new friend if she’s even allowed to call her that was out there alone hunting a monster. It seemed that was a normal occurrence for Hope but Josie still worried. She also didn’t want anything to happen to the girl because she had decided to save Josie’s life. Josie would never forgive herself if she were the cause for Hope getting hurt.

When they made it back to the school they headed straight to the library. It was still early enough that no other students were awake. Josie figured Lizzie would wake up and when she didn’t see her in bed would come searching for her. Until this was figured out and she knew for sure Hope was okay Josie wasn’t going back to class and her dad would just have to deal with it.

“Okay what are we even looking for?” Hayley asked her eyes scanning the rows of books.

“Hope called it a gargoyle,” Josie said. “So, I guess anything with them?” It wasn’t much to go on but considering they knew absolutely nothing about what they were dealing with it was a pretty good start.

“Like those things they build on the top of churches and stuff?” Hayley asked skeptically.

“Yep, but it’s definitely a lot bigger than one of those.”

Alaric grabbed a stack of books, sitting them on one of the tables where Josie and Hayley took a seat.

“I’m gonna get Dorian to help out, maybe he can find more books.”

Josie and Hayley started flipping through books looking for any information on gargoyles. It was a lot harder that it seemed because until a few hours ago Josie assumed gargoyles were a myth. She wasn’t sure how they were supposed to find reliable information when all these monsters were just stories.

After a few moments, Alaric came back with Dorian in tow. She figured Dorian would be getting up soon because he was a teacher, but the man was dressed and ready for the day not as if he’d just been woken up out of bed an hour early.

After another hour or so of searching books Josie slammed another shut, sighing in frustration.

“Anything?” Hayley asked softly.

“No,” Josie groaned. “Everything just talks about gargoyles being guardians, protecting the buildings they reside on from evil spirits, not evil monsters. I can tell you that thing in the woods definitely didn’t look like a guardian to me.”

Before anyone else could speak someone burst through the doors yelling, “Where the hell have you been!?” It was Lizzie. Josie knew this would happen. Lizzie approached her sister, her hands on her hips waiting for an answer. When she noticed the other adults in the room and books all sprawled out, she asked, “What the hell is going on?”

“There’s another monster,” Josie answered. She watched her twins face go from annoyed to confused. “Yeah, monsters are a thing now. Apparently, they’re all real and dad knew and didn’t say anything.” She shot a glare at her father who just sighed but opted to not comment on it anymore.

“What. The. Fuck,” Lizzie said slowly. Josie could see the wheels turning in her sister’s head, she was still processing.

“Language,” Alaric said, not looking up from his book.

“Trust me I wouldn’t have believed it if one hadn’t attacked me this morning,” Josie said.

“Oh my god, you were attacked? Are you okay? Why were you out alone?” Lizzie fired a million questions at Josie in one breath.

“Yes, I was attacked. Yes, I’m okay. And I just wanted to clear my head,” Josie mumbled the last part. She still felt slightly bad about the whole knife thing but knowing her father kept monsters a secret from them was helping lessen the guilt. “Luckily Hope saved me.” Josie formed a shy smile at the memory. She had never been so happy to literally run into someone. She loved being so close to Hope. She was so scared but the second she met Hopes eyes it was like her fear disappeared, like she knew she was safe.

“Hope?” Lizzie asked. Josie could hear the annoyance in her sister’s voice even though she was trying to hide it. Lizzie had no reason to not like Hope since she and Rafael were just friends. She wasn’t sure when her sister would get over this little grudge.

“Yeah,” Josie answered shyly. “She seems to be a part of this. She apparently knows a lot about the monsters.”

“Sweetie, can you go see if Rafael is awake yet?” Alaric asked. “We need to ask him some questions. He might be able to enlighten us a bit.”

“Sure thing,” Lizzie said with a bright smile practically sprinting out of the library. Josie rolled her eyes. Of course, Lizzie was happy to help if it meant going to talk to Rafael.

“Maybe it is a guardian,” Hayley said. Josie turned back to the hybrid with a confused look. Hayley had continued to focus on the reading, completely ignoring Lizzie’s questioning.

“What?” Alaric asked clearly just as confused as Josie.

“The gargoyle.” Hayley looked up at Josie. “You said you found nothing about a gargoyle being evil, everything was about it being a guardian.”

“Right,” Josie said hesitantly. She still didn’t get where Hayley was going with this. “But it attacked me.”

“Yeah, but what if it’s because it is a guardian just not for us,” Hayley tried to explain.

“What do you mean?” Alaric asked.

“Malivore.” Alaric sucked in a breath as if he were catching on to what Hayley was saying. Josie was even more confused now; she had no idea what the hell Malivore was.

“Malivore?” She questioned.

“So, you’re saying the gargoyle is a guardian but because it’s controlled by Malivore it’s a guardian of Malivore?” Alaric asked ignoring his daughter’s question.

“Exactly,” Hayley said. “The dragon came for the knife, we know that. They said more would come for it.”

Alaric rolled his eyes and was about to dismiss it before Hayley continued. “What if they were right? They’ve been right so far. Assuming they’re right then the gargoyle is after the knife. The gargoyle is guarding or protecting Malivore, so it has to do his bidding meaning his goal is to return the knife to Malivore.

The only things Josie got from that conversation was that Malivore was some sort of being that apparently controlled monsters and that he wanted a knife. Josie assumed it was the knife that had been taken the other night. She had no idea what Malivore was exactly or why the knife was so special.

“If that’s the case then the gargoyle will be coming back to the school,” Alaric said. Josie didn’t usually see her father with such a serious look, but she’s seen it twice now within twenty-four hours.

“Which means everyone here is in danger,” Josie said. Her face now shared the serious worried look of her father and the hybrid.

Lizzie barged back into the library this time with Rafael right behind her. He was in hoodie and sweatpants, so Josie assumed he hadn’t actually been awake yet when Lizzie found him.

“What’s going on?” Rafael asked, his voice still raspy from sleep.

“Malivore,” Alaric said looking at Rafael.

Josie could see the wolf tense. He clearly knew what Malivore was but didn’t know that her father knew.

“Relax,” Hayley said. “We know.”

“What do you know?” Rafael asked skeptically.

So, it wasn’t just Hope with all the secrets. It seemed all three of them had secrets or shared one secret.

“Only what Hope told us.”

“What did Hope tell you?” Rafael was still cautious. He was refusing to say anything until Alaric and Hayley gave him an idea of what they knew. Josie wasn’t sure why everything was such a big secret but clearly Hope, Landon, and Rafael had a pact of some sort. The only person she was that loyal to was Lizzie.

“She told us about Malivore, the full story,” Hayley paused, “or most of the story. When we found her and Landon there was a dragon.”

“It was kind of hard for them to come up with a lie after that,” Alaric said. There was an edge in his voice. Josie really had no idea why her father disliked Hope so much.

“They also told us about Triad,” Hayley added.

Josie saw Rafael’s mouth twitch just slightly. If Josie had to guess Hope and Landon had told her father and Hayley a lot more than usual. Probably because they witnessed it and it wasn’t possible to keep the secret after that. Josie would also guess they told them so they could protect themselves and the school. If monsters were coming for the knife and her father refused to get rid of the knife for whatever reason, then they would need to know what they were up against.

“Okay,” Rafael said his tone not giving away any emotion. “It sounds like you know more than most people. So why do you need me?”

“There’s another monster,” Hayley explained. “It attacked Josie and Hope appeared and saved her and fought it off. When we got back to the area, they were both gone.”

Rafael smirked. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about Hope, she can handle herself,” Rafael said it so confidently. Josie wondered how the girl gained so much unwavering loyalty from these boys.

“We aren’t.” Hayley had a smirk on her face as well. Josie had no idea when Hope and Hayley bonded enough for the hybrid to be so confident in her. “But we were wondering if you could help us find her, maybe tell us her plan. She doesn’t have to fight this alone.”

“Look, I can call her and Landon and see what’s up, but besides that or going to her apartment, I’m not sure. If there is a monster in town then I can’t guarantee either will answer. Hope is probably out hunting it.” Rafael’s face softened, he looked sad. “I’m not really in the loop anymore,” he whispered.

“They probably just don’t want to trouble you. You have a lot going on with starting a new supernatural school,” Josie said trying to comfort the wolf.

Rafael smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Thanks. I know why they haven’t. This is meant to be a fresh start for me. If there’s a way to keep me out of the monster hunting, then they’re going to take it. Hope doesn’t like other people being involved in it. It’s just more people that can get hurt.” Rafael glanced at Hayley and Alaric as he said the last part.

“I get it,” Hayley said. “But no one should have to fight this on their own.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Rafael moved off to the side as he tried to call both Landon and Hope. When he came back over, he informed them he couldn’t get a hold of either of them. Which means he was most likely right; they were out searching for the monster.

“What now?” Josie asked.

“We can try a locator spell,” Lizzie suggested.

“Won’t work,” Rafael quickly dismissed the idea. “Hope blocks any kind spell like that on her or Landon.”

Josie tilted her head at that but didn’t say anything. The only reason someone blocked a locator spell was when they didn’t want to be found and if Hope did that for her and Landon then they really didn’t want to be found. Josie just couldn’t figure out who they could be hiding from though. Landon also being hidden raised her suspicions because sure they were like family, but Landon was human, who would want to be tracking him?

“I doesn’t matter anyway,” Hayley interrupted. “Finding them is meaningless if we don’t know how to defeat the thing.”

“I haven’t seen anything so much as mention a weakness,” Josie sighed slamming another book closed.

“I think I have a few more books in my room,” Dorian said standing up. “I’ll grab them and my laptop. If they don’t offer anything then there’s always Google.”

Rafael pulled up a seat grabbing from one of the many stacks of books. “They don’t want me in the fight that doesn’t mean I can’t be of use elsewhere,” Rafael said.

Lizzie also pulled up a seat next to Josie grabbing a book. When Josie shot her sister a questioning look Lizzie just said, “What? I want to help. Monsters, that’s a threat to us all.”

Josie rolled her eyes. She knew Lizzie was only helping because Rafael was there and probably by helping research she could also get out of classes. Josie wasn’t gonna argue it though because the more help the better.

They flipped through book after book over and over again still not finding anything. Dorian scrolled through pages and pages on his laptop. He was finding most of the same information as in the books though.

At some point Josie had dozed off, she woke up to find herself drooling on one of the books and a page stuck to her face. When she looked around, she saw Hayley had her head down on the table as well. Her sister was sprawled out in the chair with a book lying on her chest. Rafael was like her mouth wide up fast asleep drooling on a page. Dorian was cuddled up in a chair clutching a book like it was a security blanket. Then there was her father, feet propped up on the table leaning back in his chair, so the front feet were just barely off the ground, a book in hand but was hanging over the edge waiting for him to drop it to the floor.

Josie was rubbing the sleep from her eyes trying to decide if she wanted to try going up to her room for some actual sleep or continue the endless search when a loud roar ripped through the air starling everyone awake.

Josie jumped up looking around in a panic. She would never be able to forget that roar. She knew it wasn’t at the school yet, but it was close enough.

Alaric and Hayley were already on their feet ready for an attack when they realized the monster wasn’t that close yet. Josie was most surprised her father didn’t fall out of the chair when he woke up.

Rafael startled awake quickly wiping away the drool realizing what he had been doing. Lizzie also jolted awake flinging the book she was holding to the floor. Dorian was the most calm when waking up, it didn’t seem the roar did it but Lizzie’s book hitting the floor. He startled awake and lightened his grip on the book when he realized he was clutching it like it was his baby.

“What the hell was that?” Lizzie whispered.

“It’s back,” Josie answered.

“You guys lock down the school,” Alaric said already moving to the doors with Hayley close behind him. “We’ll try and stop it before it gets here.

“I’m coming with you,” Josie stated already following her father.

“No,” Alaric said, blocking Josie from following him. “Stay here where it’s safe. You, your sister, and Rafael are the only thing stopping that thing from getting into the school and getting the knife if it gets past us.”

“Lizzie and Raf can handle that just fine on their own. I’m going. You can’t stop me.” Josie shoved past her father, storming out the door headed in the direction the roar came from.

Hayley quickly caught up with Josie, her father trailing close behind. Josie had an idea of where the roar came from, but she wasn’t a vampire or werewolf, so she let Hayley lead to make sure they were going the right direction.

They heard a couple more roars but otherwise it had been silent. Josie was surprised the creature hadn’t made it to the school yet, it wasn’t exactly slow. Josie had been running as fast as she could, and the thing didn’t have trouble keeping up with her.

Hayley picked up her pace and Josie could see a concerned look on her face. Josie assumed the hybrid had heard something neither Josie nor her father could. It worried Josie. They were on school grounds, it was late, and all students were inside, there wouldn’t be any civilians around, and the only person who would be out wandering around with a monster would be Hope.

As they got closer Josie could hear the fighting. Then when they got to the small clearing, she saw it.

It seemed the gargoyle had knocked Hope back because she was pushing herself off the ground. Josie could see Hope trying to catch her breath. Josie knew Hope had a much stronger endurance than her based on what she saw earlier so she couldn’t image how long this fight had been going.

The gargoyle stood in the middle of the small clearing holding Landon up high as the boy was draped over his claws.

“Dammit.” Josie could hear Hope grumble. She peeled her eyes away from the site in front of her to look at Hope again. The girl looked annoyed and not the least bit concerned or sad that her friend, the person she said who was family, was now dead.

There was a loud thud and Josie took her eyes off Hope again to see the gargoyle had callously dropped Landon’s body to the floor. Even from the distance she could see the boy’s lifeless eyes staring back at her.

Josie didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t move. All she could do was stare back at the boy. Josie had never seen a body before let alone seen someone killed in front of her. Landon was so sweet from the short conversations she had with him. He wasn’t much older than her. She couldn’t believe his life had been ripped away so quickly.

Even though Josie was still distracted by Landon she could feel her father and Hayley beside her. She knew they both had seen plenty of people die and many of them were just kids like Landon. Josie knew the boy’s death wasn’t effecting them like it was her. She wasn’t sure why they weren’t moving.

What brought Josie out of her trance was a bright white light. Josie had to shield her eyes from the intensity. Josie tried to sneak a peek but all she could see was her father and Hayley also shielding their eyes. She also saw Hope, her hand stretched out and muttering to herself. She was doing a spell. The light was coming from Hope.

After a moment the light disappeared. Josie had to blink clearing her eyes trying to get them to adjust back to the darkness.

She looked around at her surroundings even though she was still seeing spots she saw the monster was gone. She looked to the sky and saw nothing but the stars. Her father and Hayley were rubbing their eyes taking in the surroundings again as well.

Landon’s body was still on the cold forest floor. Hope started to move, slowly approaching her friend’s body.

Hope whipped her head around staring directly and Josie then Alaric and Hayley.

“Fuck!” Hope screamed. Josie could see the other girl clenching her jaw. She ran a hand through her hair, looking up to the sky. It seemed like she was trying to calm herself down.

Josie wasn’t sure why, but Hope seemed more angry at Josie and the two adults being there than at the fact Landon was dead.

Chapter Text

When Hope got back to her apartment, she quickly called Landon. She knew it was early and he wasn’t up yet but there was a monster in town, sleep would have to wait.

“Hello,” Landon answered sleepily.

“Get here now,” Hope said, already moving to grabbing every book she owned. “There’s another monster.”

“What?” He asked alarmed. With her wolf hearing she could hear him falling out of the bed from jumping up.

“I got alerted late last night, this morning? It doesn’t matter. A monster appeared at the school again.”

“He won’t stop till he gets the knife.” Hope could hear Landon already moving and getting ready.

“We have to stop him.” Hope looked down. She hated that this was their responsibility. “We can’t let anyone at that school get hurt.”

“I know,” Landon whispered. She knew Landon felt just as responsible for Malivore as she did.

“I think it might be a gargoyle, so we at least have somewhere to start.”

“I’ll be there in twenty.”

After hanging up Hope set the stack of books on the coffee table. She also called one of her co-workers to see if they could cover her shift at The Grill. She knew she wouldn’t be getting into work. Hunting the monster was gonna be an all-day process.

She was flipping through a book when Landon burst through the door panting. He had made pretty good time. He didn’t drive so he had to ride his bike all the way to her place.

“I just realized I didn’t knock,” he said between breaths.

“As Maya reminded me, no knocking is okay during an emergency,” Hope said, not even glancing up from the book.

“So, you think it’s a gargoyle?” Landon asked, grabbing a book a plopping down on the floor, his back against the couch.

“Well, if my memory serves yes. I remember seeing a couple guards bring one in once. I overheard them say it was a gargoyle. It looked the exact same.”

“Well, good. We don’t usually have that much information. So, we’re already a step ahead,” Landon said smiling.

They flipped through the books for a few hours, jotting down notes they thought might be useful in the fight.

“Anything?” Hope asked.

Landon sighed. “Nope. I can’t find a single weakness.”

Hope sighed as well. Hunting monsters was never easy. It didn’t matter if they knew what they were fighting if they didn’t know how to stop it.

“You saw it right?” Landon asked. Hope nodded. “Well, what happened? Did you notice anything? Just because these books don’t list a weakness doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Maybe you picked up on something during your fight.”

Hope thought back to her fight with the creature. It was incredibly strong. None of her spells did any damage. She was giving it her all.

“I don’t think so, I didn’t notice anything.”

“Walk me through it.” Hope sighed giving Landon an exhausted look. “Please, just humor me.”

Hope rolled her eyes but started recounting what happened.

“I got an alert a monster was on the school grounds. I went out to check it out. I ended up running into Josie first actually.” Hope smiled at the memory of the other girl. She noticed Landon giving her a knowing smile, so she cleared her throat before continuing. “She had been running from a monster. When we heard a roar and turned to see it. It was huge, it towered over both of us, completely made of stone. Razor sharp claws and fangs. Its mouth was dripping with blood from a recent kill. It had large wings also made from stone peeking out from its back. I told Josie to run. I threw all the spells I could think of at it. Nothing happened.”

“Nothing?” Landon couldn’t hide his shock.

“It was completely unfazed. I tried so hard to just push it back and slow down its approach to the school. It just kept coming towards me. When it got close enough it swung its arm smacking me back into a tree. It’s like I was nothing to it. I finally found a spell strong enough to push the gargoyle even just slightly. That got its attention, so it started coming towards me again instead of the school. I was braced for impact again when…” Hope trailed off finally remembering.

“When?” Landon questioned completely lost. “What? What do you remember?”

Hope shot to her feet and started pacing back and forth in front of Landon.

“It looked behind me and then it spread its wings and took off.”

“What did it see?”

Hope turned to Landon, her arms still raised from her pacing, a smile started to appear on her face as she said, “The sunrise.”

Landon now had a smile matching hers.

“They’re nocturnal,” Landon said. He stood to join Hope, giving her a high five. This had been the missing piece. It wasn’t everything but it was a start.

Hope was moving again, throwing all the stuff off of the coffee table and onto the floor.

“Get the maps,” she ordered Landon, who rushed grabbing a bunch of maps.

“What are we looking for?” he asked, handing the maps to Hope watching as she shuffled for specific ones.

“Well, if it’s nocturnal and it flew off when it saw the sun starting to rise it had to go somewhere,” Hope explained, laying the maps out. “A sunrise doesn’t take too long.”

“So, it would have to of gone somewhere close,” Landon finished her thought.

“I don’t know how fast they fly so this is really just a rough estimate or guess work.”

“Hey, it’s better than sitting here reading books all day not learning anything. This is progress,” Landon reassured her. Hope nodded.

Hope laid a map of The Salvatore Boarding school grounds on the coffee table, marking the general area she faced the monster in then grabbed another map of the Mystic Falls woods, placing it over the other map.

Hope stared at it doing some rough math in her head. Then grabbed a marker and some string as she drew a large circle around the wooded area near the school.

“It’s not perfect,” Hope admitted. “It really is just guess work. This the furthest the monster to get. Assuming it’s doesn’t fly more than a hundred miles an hour.”

“That seems a little fast.”

“Well, I would rather overestimate than under.”

“Fair.” Landon moved to grab his laptop.

“What are you doing?”

“It would need to hide somewhere there’s no sunlight so I’m gonna pull up a view of the area and see where there are any caves, bridges, or other cold dark holes it could be hiding in.”

“Smart,” Hope said leaning over his shoulder to watch the screen.

Landon input the coordinates of the area the monster could travel then searched for any of the areas it could hide. After a few seconds, a handful of red dots appeared with in the green circle.

“Great job,” Hope whispered giving Landon a pat on the shoulder. “Send that to my phone and yours, yeah?”

“Got it,” Landon said, shutting his laptop and grabbing his phone. “Are we seriously going out there to hunt this thing now?”

“Would you rather wait till night when it’s active and can kill people?”

Landon opened his mouth to answer but ended up closing it and just nodding, following Hope out the door.

They made their way to the first spot. It was an old run-down bridge in the middle of the woods that went over a creek.

“Did we really have to walk all the way out here?” Landon complained. He was panting and Hope was sure she didn’t have to use to much of her super hearing to hear how fast his heart was beating.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, how would you have liked us to get here?” Hope asked but she was pretty much annoyed with him at this point.

“I don’t know… Maya? … My bike? … A bus? …Uber?” Landon listed off between breaths.

“Yeah, cause I’m sure all of those would have gone well. The only actual option would be Maya and she’s got cheer practice. Also, she doesn’t come back to life.” Hope gave him a pointed look.

“I know, I know, she can help out but not if it means potentially dying. That’s my part,” Landon mumbled the last part.

Hope stopped walking to turn and give him a glare. Landon held up his hands in surrender.

They continued on until they saw the bridge. Hope held up her hand for Landon to stop. She silently approached closer peeking under the bridge as she got closer to the edge. She gestured for Landon to follow slowly. They slid down the small hill making sure to avoid stepping in the water. Hope slowly approached the opening but once she was fulling under the bridge, she saw nothing.

“Cross this one off the list,” Hope grumbled, picking up a stone and skipping it in the water.

Landon pulled out his phone and crossed the spot off the list. “Hey, we still got four more spots to try,” he said trying to cheer Hope up.

Hope sighed. “I know, we just don’t have a lot of time and we still don’t even know how to kill it.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Landon’s voice held all the confidence. “We always do.”

Hope nodded and they marched off to their next destination.

The next destination was a bust.

Then the destination after was also a bust.

Hope looked up at the sky. “We need to find this thing,” she said. The sun was a getting lower. It was going to be dark soon.

Landon huffed and jogged to catch up with Hope. They walked for several more minutes and slowed down when they heard running water. As they approached, they saw a small waterfall pouring into a little pool that poured out into another creek. It was still light enough that they could make out a cave behind the waterfall.

“Stay behind me,” Hope whispered.

Landon didn’t bother answering opting to just give a small nod.

Hope’s eyes flicked to yellow allowing her to see in the dark of the cave while Landon clicked on his phone flashlight. The cave went a little deeper than they thought. They made their way slowly through the cave.

Hope abruptly stopped causing Landon to bump into her causing him to drop his phone. Hope internally sighed, closing her eyes, taking deep breaths. If they weren’t in a dangerous situation at the moment, she would absolutely snap her best friend’s neck.

Landon stumbled picking his phone up from the cave floor. He was wiping off the small bit of water that got on it on his pants before he stood up. As he stood backup holding the flashlight out, he froze, his flashlight shining on the reason Hope had stopped, the gargoyle was right there, luckily it was still asleep.

“Backup slowly,” Hope whispered.

Landon started backing up and just as quickly slipped, dropping his phone again, and falling with a thud. Hope closed her eyes, keeping in a groan.

She heard the scraping of rocks, her eyes snapping open only to be met with vicious red eyes staring back.

“Run!” Hope yelled, spinning around, grabbing Landon by his jacket, lifting him back to his feet only to shove him forward.

“My phone,” Landon said trying to turn around to grab it.

“Focus!” Hope pushed him again. “Run!”

They both took off rushing back out the cave.

The sound of the gargoyle’s low growls and claws scarping against the stone walls wasn’t far behind them. When they reached the mouth of the cave Hope grabbed Landon and threw them both to the side just as the gargoyle emerged, spreading its wings, and taking off to the sky.

“We found it,” Landon huffed.

“It’s headed for the school,” Hope said. She jumped to her feet, holding out her hand to Landon, yanking him up again.

“Great,” Landon mumbled, “more running.”

Hope just rolled her eyes and took off not waiting for Landon.

Hope knew Landon wasn’t as fast as her, but she couldn’t risk the gargoyle making it to the school. She couldn’t wolf out and catch up with the gargoyle though because despite her shifting being quick it would take to long for when she needed to do a spell.

Hope finally saw the gargoyle silhouette in the moonlight, she kept pace with it for a few seconds, preparing her spell on the way until she was ready. She came to a stop, aiming her hands at the gargoyle speaking her spell. A blast of wind shot out of her hands knocking the gargoyle off its path.

It didn’t stop the gargoyle though only delaying it slightly.

Hope continued following the gargoyle blasting it a few more times until she gave it one last big blast as it started to descend, knocking it off course once again into the trees.

Hope rushed to the clearing where the gargoyle landed. She could see the broken branches where the gargoyle crashed through the trees but didn’t see the gargoyle. She turned around only to be smacked back by the creature.

Hope got flung back into a tree but managed to land on her feet. She had the monster’s attention, good. She just needed to distract it long enough till she could come up with a way to kill it or until sunrise, whichever came first.

Hope blasted the monster a few more times. She didn’t know what spell would be best to defeat it, so she stuck with the only thing that had worked so far. It only allowed her to push the monster back, but it was something.

As she pushed the monster back the monster swung it’s claws at her. She managed to duck or jump over them. She really didn’t want to get hit again, it hurt even with her tribrid healing.

The next time the gargoyle swung at her she jumped, landing on its arm, and rushing up it, jumping again to give it a spinning kick to the face. The monsters face twisted to the side. Stone scraped together as it turned back facing Hope. Its face was set in an angry expression, but Hope could swear it was snarling even more, it’s eyes ablaze in red. The monster grabbed Hope by her throat flinging her back.

Hope rolled through the leaves. She laid there a moment to catch her breath. She really needed to figure out a way to kill the gargoyle. She’s fought plenty of monsters before but this one was being particularly difficult.

She jumped to her feet again when she saw the monster starting to stalk off back to the school. She threw a similar spell to the one she had been using but this one acted as more of an invisible lasso to yank the monster back towards her. At least that’s what would usually happen. The gargoyles size caused yanking to be more of a slow turning. Either way its attention was back on Hope, that’s all that mattered.

Hope squaring up to face the monster again when Landon finally appeared next to her, panting, hands on his knees, ready to collapse.

“Finally,” Hope muttered.

“You…know…I’m…not…use…to…physical activity…” Landon said between gasps.

“I’ve offered to take you running with me.”

“You run like a billion miles a day.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “It’s only 10.”

“Yeah, a billion.”

“Whatever, we don’t have time for this.”

They both turned their attention back to the monster. Landon took a couple steps back and shifted a little more behind Hope. Hope rolled her eyes.

“You got this right?”

“No, I was hoping you’d take this one.” Hope shot him a glare.

Landon had the audacity to look offended and opened his mouth to reply but seemed to think things through, shutting his mouth and just nodding his head in agreement.

“I’m gonna look for a stick or something, see if I can help,” Landon whispered, sprinting off into the woods again.

Hope closed her eyes taking a deep breath, turning back to face the gargoyle. What the fuck was a stick supposed to do against a monster literally made of stone.

As the monster started towards Hope she started to prepare the spell again. She paused looking at the gargoyle again then decided to change the spell slightly, combining it with another spell. She had an idea.

She fired her new spell. Instead of a gust of wind hitting the monster, a gust of wind honed into the shape of a blade sliced against the monster.

The spell she was trying used the same power of the wind to push the gargoyle back slightly, but she also added a spell to shape it, so it was sharp.

The wind blade hit the gargoyle square in the chest. It didn’t push the gargoyle back like it had before, but it did cause it to stop.

Hope threw the spell at it again. And again. And again.

The monster continued to move closer, pausing only for a few seconds with each hit.

One of the wind slices was a little higher than the others and caught the tip of the creature’s wing. Hope saw a small piece of the tip breakoff. She didn’t have time to processes it though before the monster was close enough, smacking her and sending her flying back again.

That hit knocked the wind out of her. Hope rolled to the side trying to control her breathing again. She saw Landon slipping out of the woods from behind the monster with a small log in his hands.

Landon rushed the monster swinging his log when he got close enough. The monster was too tall for log to hit the creatures head, so Landon ended up smacking it more on the back of its neck. The branch snapped the second it made contact with the stone.

Hope held in another eye roll. She really appreciated the initiative, but it was a log, and they were fighting a god damn gargoyle.

Unlike with Hope the gargoyle didn’t bother smacking Landon back. Instead, the creature spun around quicker than Hope realized it could move and impaled Landon on its claws.

Landon gasped for breath as the monster raised him higher sinking him further down on its claws. Landon’s blood coated the gargoyles claws and was beginning to drip down its arm. In his last few breaths Landon started spitting up blood until finally his heart stopped.

“Dammit,” Hope grumbled as she stood back up.

She knew Landon would be fine. Him dying was always an inconvenience though unless it’s part of the plan. Landon would die then she’d have to find a spot to put his body so no one would stumble upon it, it was very difficult to explain the body of a teenage boy with monster wounds, she also had to put his body in a good spot to come back so he wouldn’t burst into flames and burn everything down.

The gargoyle dropped Landon’s body to the ground and turned to face her again.

With Landon out of service she was out of time, they needed to regroup. She pulled out her failsafe, holding out her hands as she spoke the spell. A bright white like emitting from her palm.

The light emulated the intensity of the of the sun. She prepared it in case they needed to end the battle early. She hoped it would be close enough to a sunrise that the monster would flee.

Her plan worked. The monster quickly took off shooting up into the sky, fleeing back to the safety of its cave.

Hope dropped her arm when the light finally died down. Taking the moment to finally breath.

She started to move towards Landon’s body when she heard a small crunch. She whipped around ready for another fight when she saw Josie, Hayley, and Alaric standing there.

“Fuck!” Hope screamed. She ran her hand through her hair, looking up at the sky. She was trying to approach the situation calmly and not freak out. It wasn’t going well.

It didn’t matter how much of the fight they’d seen; they saw Landon’s body. There was no way she was going to be able to hide Landon coming back from them. She was going to have to tell them the truth.

Chapter Text

Hayley stood mouth agape at the scene before her like Josie and Alaric. She had just met these kids and one was already dead. Killed by a monster, which she was still trying to come to terms with were real.

Hayley could see the bond Hope and Landon had. She was perplexed as to why Hope wasn’t upset the person she considered family was dead. She had a feeling this had to do with whatever the kids were still hiding.

The trio slowly walked to the girl and the body. Despite her theories Hayley was trying to approach sympathetic. The girl could just be very good at hiding her emotions.

“We need to get rid of the body,” Alaric said, his voice raspy. Hayley shot him a quick glance. She knew he hated seeing dead kids.

Hayley turned to look at Josie as well. She wanted to make sure the young girl was okay. It’s not every day you see a monster kill a new friend. Josie’s eyes were trained on Landon’s body, filled with unshed tears. Hayley was about to reach out to comfort the girl when she was interrupted.

“Don’t bother,” Hope said, her voice void of any emotion.

“What do you mean?” Alaric asked. “That’s a dead body.”

Hayley could see Hope contain an eyeroll. “He’s not human.” Hope finally looked at them, meeting each of their stares. “He’ll be back.”

Alaric was taken aback. He looked like he wanted to say something but was to caught off guard by the information.

This time Hope did roll her eyes. “Yeah, we lied. Shocking, I know.”

Hayley wasn’t as surprised by this information. She knew they were still keeping secrets and knew that those secrets involved the two of them more than Rafael. If anything, this cleared a lot of things up for Hayley. She still didn’t know anything, but certain things were making a lot more sense with Landon not being human.

“What is he?” Hayley finally spoke.

“Can I tell you that back at the school?” Hope asked. She sounded exhausted. “It’s kind of a long story.”

Hayley nodded. Hope used a spell to levitate Landon’s body, so they didn’t have to carry it. Hayley could see Josie and Hope glance at each other when the other wasn’t looking as they made their way back to the school but neither spoke.

When they entered the main doors, they were instantly greeted by Lizzie, Rafael, and Dorian.

“Is everything okay? What happened?” Lizzie asked.

“We’re okay,” Alaric answered. “The monster is gone.” Lizzie relaxed as her father rested both hands on her shoulders in comfort. “It will be back though. We just have more time to prepare.” Lizzie nodded.

“Shit,” Rafael whispered seeing Landon’s body float in behind them. He didn’t seem surprised, so he knew the secret as well.

“Raf,” Hope spoke, “can you take his body to one of the transition cells or throw him in a tub or something?”

Rafael nodded, “Yeah, I’ll throw him in the bathtub in my room. That way he won’t completely freak when he comes back.”

“Why a bathtub?” Alaric asked.

“When he comes back, he has a habit of bursting into flames,” is all Hope supplied before continuing into the school, making her way to the library.

They all gathered around one of the tables waiting to hear what Hope had to say. Josie and Lizzie joining them. Alaric gave his daughters a look telling them to go to bed but before he could actually say it Josie interrupted.

“No,” Josie said. “We’re staying and hearing what she has to say. We deserve to know what’s going on.” Josie’s voice left no room for debate. Lizzie still didn’t know anything about what was going on, but she seemed to be backing up her sister. Alaric sighed, knowing he wouldn’t win the fight.

“So,” Hayley started, “where do you want to start?”

Hope sighed, but said, “He’s a phoenix.”

“He’s a monster,” Alaric said.

“No,” Hope snapped her eyes flashing gold glaring at Alaric. If looks could kill Hayley is sure Alaric would be dead ten times over.

Hayley saw Josie reach out to comfort Hope but hesitated to actually do it until finally deciding to rest her hand on the other girl’s shoulder. Hope looked to the young witch, her eyes still gold but the anger gone. Hayley heard the girl’s breath hitch at seeing Hopes eyes, she would have missed it if it weren’t for her hybrid hearing.

“Hey,” Josie’s voice was soft, “no one’s judging or making assumptions.” She shot a glare at her father but quickly returned to giving Hope a soft reassuring look.

Hope dropped her gaze to the table, taking a few deep breaths. When she looked up again her eyes were that familiar blue Hayley couldn’t place. Josie slowly dropped her hand back to her side.

“First of all,” Hope spoke slowly still trying to calm herself. “Not all the monsters are evil. Some were perfectly innocent creatures before being consumed by Malivore. Them coming after the knife is not in their control, Malivore is making them, it’s the only way for them to be free.”

“Second,” Hope continued. “Landon is different. He’s special.”

“Like you’re special?” Alaric snarked quietly but everyone heard him.

Hayley, Hope, and Josie, all shot him a glare. He cleared his throat, standing up straighter and silently nodded for Hope to continue.

“Landon,” Hope stopped, struggling for the words. If it wasn’t clear before then this showed just how hard it was for Hope to let people in, to help. “Landon is Malivore’s son.”

Hayley and Alaric both tensed. They only knew what Hope had told them but nothing about him seemed pleasant. His son being in the school was worrisome. Hayley remained neutral though because Hope has been fighting these monsters and Malivore for a long time and Hayley didn’t see a reason for the girl to protect Landon so strongly, not if he was ultimately evil.

“Who or what the hell is Malivore?” Josie asked throwing her hands in the air.

“Malivore is the one who’s been sending the monsters,” Hope answered honestly.

Josie looked like she was gonna ask for more details clearly not satisfied with that answer, but Alaric spoke before she could, “I’ll explain it later.” Josie held her dads gaze to make sure he knew she wouldn’t let it go.

“I thought you said his mom was an agent of Triad?” Hayley asked.

“She is or was,” Hope spoke softly her gaze flicking back down to the table. “At some point in time I guess 17 years or so ago she was thrown into Malivore. However, Malivore spit her back out, but unlike anyone else there was something different.” Hayley sucked in a breath knowing where this was going. “She was pregnant. She was wiped from everyone’s memories, but Triad had files on her, so they knew of her, so when she was thrown back out, they kept her contained until she gave birth. Then she went back to being an agent of Triad. Not like she had a choice.” Hayley could see the disgust on Hopes face as she explained it. Triad was seeming more and more like an enemy as well, maybe as much as Malivore.

“Then what happened?” Hayley asked softly.

“Well, having a son of Malivore opened so many doors for Triad. Malivore shouldn’t have been able to reproduce but he had found a way and unlike his other makeshift golem children this one appeared human, it bled when it was cut. So, Triad did what they do best.” Hope wasn’t looking at anyone in the room, but Hayley could see the anger in the girls’ eyes, she saw the way Hope gripped the back of the chair she was behind, how her claws scratched against the wood. “They ran tests and experimented. Like I said Triad likes to be in control. Eventually they tried killing him only to find after a few hours his body burst into flames, and he rose from a pile of ash. He wasn’t like Malivore at all. He was a phoenix. Triad didn’t know of a way to kill Landon permanently, so they kept him locked up, that’s when we met,” a sad smile appeared on Hopes face at the memory. “They knew he was important, but they didn’t know why Malivore created him so they kept him where they could watch him, control him. They like to plan for every outcome.”

“Why did he take the knife if that’s one of three pieces meant to release Malivore?” Alaric asked. He had lost his judgmental tone; Hayley was almost proud.

“He didn’t have a choice. When he’s close enough, Lan is drawn to the keys. He’s Malivore’s son, despite what we would like, Malivore has some sort of connection to him. When he finds a key, he kind of just gets compelled to take the key to Malivore not realizing what he’s doing. When he took the knife, he got all the way he did on the bus before he snapped out of it and called me. He has some self-awareness when he’s in that state. It’s mostly a compulsion to find the keys more than being forced to deliver them. The delivery is the monster’s job.”

“Anything else we should know about?” Alaric asked tiredly.

“Triad is just as much of a threat as Malivore. At least to me and him. If they find out where we are they will stop at nothing to get us back. And I won’t go back.” Hope said.

“We won’t let them get you,” Hayley said. She wasn’t sure where that came from, why she was so determined to protect this kid and her friend but a part of her knew she couldn’t allow anything bad to happen to this girl. Hope held Hayley’s gaze and gave a small nod but Hayley could see the girl wasn’t fully convinced.

“Okay, that’s enough for the night, everyone off to bed,” Alaric announced.

Everyone went their separate ways. Hope decided to stay the night and just crash on the spare bed in Rafael’s room. Hayley also opted to stay on the spare bed in Alaric’s office. She wanted to be close for any emergencies and didn’t see the point in going back to the house only to come right back in the morning.

“Hey,” Alaric said, stopping Hayley before he went off to his own room. “I hate to ask this, but will you stay?” Hayley opened her mouth, but Alaric continued, “It’s just these monster attacks don’t seem like they’re stopping anytime soon. I could really use a little hybrid strength.” Hayley couldn’t quite place it, but it almost looked like guilt in Alaric’s eyes.

“I was already going to,” Hayley answered softly.

“Thank you.”

Hayley nodded and closed the door to the headmaster’s office. She got on the little spare cot and tried quieting her mind so she could get a bit of sleep.

After a few hours or restless sleep with a lot of tossing and turning Hayley looked at the clock and saw it wasn’t an ungodly early hour, so she decided to just get up. If she couldn’t sleep the least, she could do was get a head start on some more research.

When she approached the library, she noticed a light still on, she furrowed her brow, she didn’t think they had left the lights on. When she got to the door, she slowly pushed it open peeking inside. She saw Hope, her head resting propped up on one arm while the other flipped through a book.

“Hey,” Hayley greeted softly not wanting to startle the girl. “How long have you been here?”

Hope looked at her then around the room as if she were looking for a clock. “When did you guys’ head to bed?” she asked.

Hayley sighed. “You need to get some sleep.”

Hope let out a quiet chuckle. “You are not the first person to tell me that today.”

That’s when Hayley noticed the mug of coffee in front of Hope. She tilted her head asking the silent question.

“Guess Josie couldn’t sleep either, she came down for a quick snack and saw I was still up. Since she couldn’t convince me to go to sleep, she opted for making me a cup of coffee.” Despite Hope trying to hide it Hayley got the shy smile on the young girls’ lips and the light blush appearing on her cheeks.

“When was the last time you slept?” Hayley asked. She knew the girl had been working even harder on the monster problem than them and it had been at least 2 days now, maybe longer since Hope had been at the party Saturday night.

Hope leaned back seeming to give it a lot of thought. That right there had already told Hayley it had been too long. “What day is it?”

“It’s now Tuesday.”

“Fri-” Hope started then stopped to think again. “Nope. Thursday. It was definitely Thursday night into Friday morning.”

Hayley crossed her arms and gave the girl a disappointed look. Four nights without any sleep was not healthy. The thought of if this is what it would have been like scolding her daughter fluttered in the back of her mind, but she refused to open that door.

Hopes eyes dropped back down to the book in front of her. “I don’t sleep,” Hope whispered, her voice strained. Hayley’s eyes quickly softened. This was the first clue showing her she truly had no idea what this kid in front of her had endured. Hayley has had her struggles with restless sleep since she lost her daughter. Besides those first few months though she hadn’t had the issue of being awake for days on end.

“How long has this been going on?” Hayley asked softly.

“My entire life.” Hope let out a humorless laugh. She still wasn’t looking at Hayley. “When I do sleep it tends not to last,” Hope admitted quietly. “There’s always a nightmare or memories, I don’t even know anymore.”

Hayley’s heart broke for the kid. The last person she met with that many demons was Klaus. Well, his entire family really but Klaus in particular had a lot of issues, still does.

Before the topic got to dark Hayley decided to change the subject. “What are you reading? Learn how we’re gonna kill our gargoyle yet?”

Hope sighed closing the book in front of her. “I was researching for a while but got sick of finding nothing, so started to browse, found this,” Hope held up the book she was flipping through. Hayley inhaled sharply when she saw the book, The Great Evil by Alaric Saltzman.

“All about Klaus Mikaelson, the original hybrid.” Hayley tried to keep her voice casual. She never agreed with Alaric writing that book. She had read through it on one of her visits. She understood Alaric’s hatred, but she had seen a different side of the original when she was pregnant. She had seen someone who loved their daughter so fiercely even before she was born, someone who would go to any lengths for his family, and someone who was utterly devasted when they lost their child.

Hayley hated Klaus for a while but after she saw him with Rebekah and Elijah and how he protected her, even if it was just because she carried his child. They eventually learned to become friends and then a family, a very dysfunctional family, but a family. After all of that Hayley could never see Klaus as The Great Evil, she knew who he truly was at heart.

Hope just hummed in response, continuing to flip through the book. “Seems a little bias to me,” Hope broke the silence. Hayley didn’t know what to say, she’d never heard anyone say that about the book. “I mean I get this dude did a lot of evil shit, not saying he’s a good guy or anything, but I mean this story is written by someone who hates him. He goes into the history of Klaus,” Hope flipped to one of the pages for context. “But even then, he lets his personal hatred bleed into the writing.” Hayley couldn’t help but smile at that, finally someone who didn’t read the book and instantly believe every word. “He mentioned this dude Mikael, kind of a dick, like worst father of the year probably, but like he doesn’t explain how Mikael influenced who Klaus became, he only talks about the actions. And most of the stuff is from not that long ago when Alaric was personally involved. I mean come on,” Hope looked at Hayley. “Also is Alaric so egotistical that he wrote and published his own book in a fancy hardcover,” Hope rolled her eyes, “to publish in his library in his own school.” Hope closed the book again. “I mean if he uses this in a history lesson, he’s really pushing his own bias opinions on these kids as facts.”

Hayley’s mouth was agape. She had never heard someone say it so perfectly before. She knew Alaric didn’t teach his own book specifically in any of the classes, Caroline wouldn’t allow it, but he definitely did mention it being in the library for any curious students.

“How do you know about hybrids?” Hayley asked snapping herself out of the shock. She had wanted to ask the girl since she was one of the only people not shocked to know about hybrids but also didn’t seem at all concerned that Hayley was one.

“Triad didn’t just make me train and study spells. They made me study everything, ancient languages long dead, curses, dark objects, I don’t even know how many different covens. If they had unique or different rituals, I was also taught the basics about those. All the different wolf packs, mainly the seven bloodlines. They wanted me to learn all about werewolves.”

“Because you are one?” Hayley hated to interrupt when the kid was explaining more about her past, but she really wanted confirmation. She knew the girl was a witch but there was lingering doubt about the wolf part because there’s never been one before.

Hope ignored her and continued, “They also taught me all about vampires and in turn the history of vampires, where they came from. I learned of the original family. I know they’re still around. I know Klaus Mikaelson is a hybrid. I learned about the hybrids and the curse his mother put on him. I don’t know much else, they didn’t go into details, it was all fact based and it was just a history lesson. I also learned about the Salvatore brothers and all the shit they dealt with. Any major event in supernatural history they taught me. Like I’ve said they like knowledge and power and control. I had to learn all of it in case it every came up in the field.”

Hayley nodded. Triad really was a threat if they knew all that, they’ve been keeping tabs on the entire supernatural community it seemed. She didn’t like an unknown entity having that much knowledge, it was dangerous.

“I knew Klaus could create other hybrids, but I didn’t know of you, I don’t know of any others. The only name I knew was Tyler Lockwood and that’s because he played such a part in the Salvatore’s and Klaus’s history. I know that most of the hybrids are dead, I don’t know how many are still around, for all I knew it was just Klaus or maybe still a hundred. If they didn’t make noise,” Hope explained, “they were insignificant to Triad and therefore me.”

Hayley didn’t know what to say so she settled on, “Klaus really isn’t that bad.” Her voice was soft as she thought back to seventeen years ago when she was with all the Mikaelson’s, they were constantly fighting and at war with others, but they were happy. “I assure you he has his moments, can be downright ruthless, but he’s also one of the most carrying people I have met when he’s with someone he loves.”

“You know him? I know you said he’s the only one that can make hybrids and considering you are one you had to of met him, but…” Hope trailed off. Hayley got it though, she talked about Klaus like she was close with him.

“Yes,” Hayley said slowly. “I know him pretty well and his family. You could almost say I’m part of the family.”

Hope just nodded. Hayley could see the curiosity in the girls’ eyes, but she didn’t push. “What time is it?” she asked completely changing the subject.

Hayley looked at her watch. “About 6:30.” Wow, they had been talking for a long time. Hayley was surprised how quickly time went by when talking to Hope. Even though the conversation topics weren’t pleasant, Hayley had to say she enjoyed it, she liked talking to Hope and getting to know her.

“Shit,” Hope shot up from her seat.

“What? What’s wrong?” Hayley asked panicking.

“I’m supposed to work at seven. I called off yesterday, I need to be there today, fuck.”

“Hey, calm down, it’s going to be okay. What time are you supposed to be off?”

“Three.”

“Okay, how about I drop you off then at three I’ll pick you up and bring you back here?”

“The Gargoyle.”

“We will continue the research while you’re at work. Then when you get back, we can research more and try and come up with a plan, you’ll still have a few hours before the sun goes down.”

Hayley could see Hope contemplate it for a moment. The girl didn’t look happy about the situation, but she nodded none the less.

Chapter Text

Josie woke up the next morning after a rather restless sleep. She couldn’t get the image of the gargoyle out of her head. Landon’s body falling to the ground, his lifeless eyes. She knew Hope said he would be back, but he still died. She couldn’t imagine what that was like. Hope had talked about it like it was a normal thing for them. She never wanted watching someone she cared about dying to become normal.

She had woken up in the middle of the night and went down to the kitchen to get a snack, hoping it would help her go back to sleep when she noticed a light on in the library. She went to check it out and saw Hope huddled over books still researching. Josie tried to convince the girl to get some sleep, but Hope was stubborn. Josie wanted to stay and keep Hope company, help out as much as she could, but she knew she needed to try and sleep. Hope insisted she was okay and that she did this kind of thing all the time, but that Josie should get some rest. Josie hated it but she listened to Hope. She did however go back to the library with a cup of coffee, if she couldn’t get Hope to sleep and she couldn’t stay up with her then it was the least she could do. Hope had given her a grateful smile when she set down the cup, it made Josie smile as well, she kept the smile until she was back in bed and remembered why Hope was even in their library to begin with.

“Hey, how are you doing?” Lizzie asked, breaking Josie out of her memories.

Josie turned to look at her sister, trying to rub the exhaustion from her eyes. All she could do was shrug. Lizzie looked more rested, but Josie knew because of their twin connection her sister felt her own restlessness. “How are you doing?” she decided to ask.

“I don’t know,” Lizzie admitted. “I’m still trying to process the whole monsters are real thing.”

Josie nodded; she was too. She was still so confused about what was going on and no one provided answers the night before, her dad promised he would though. She was going to hold him to that. She dragged herself out of bed and started to get ready for the day. She didn’t know what it would be like when they still had a monster to deal with.

Josie decided her first stop would be her dad’s office since she wanted the truth and didn’t want him trying to stall any longer. Lizzie decided to come with, wanting to know the truth as well. Lizzie was kind of thrown into the whole thing and was even more clueless than Josie. She could feel that Lizzie had wanted to talk about what happened when they finally went to bed but Josie wasn’t ready. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to feel about it all.

For once Josie was the one walking into their dad’s office without knocking. Her determination to demand answers was halted when she saw Landon standing beside the desk talking with her father. He looked exactly like he had when she first met him a few days ago. He was alive and walking around. He definitely didn’t look like he just died, he wasn’t showing any side effects of his death, it was as if nothing happened.

Her dad looked up when they entered. “Girls,” he said smiling, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“You’re alive,” Josie said to Landon ignoring her father.

Landon shifted on his feet, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah,” he said shyly.

“Are you okay?” Landon looked up at her for the first time, his eyes wide, it was like he couldn’t believe someone asked him that.

“Yeah,” he gave a small smile. “It’s nothing new.”

Josie just nodded. She couldn’t imagine what it was like for him. Landon kept shifting back and forth. She didn’t see Hope around, she figured that’s why he was so anxious.

“You girls should head to breakfast, so you aren’t late to class,” Alaric said.

“No,” Josie said remembering why she came there. “You need to tell us about Malivore.”

Josie could see Landon tense at the name. She remembered Hope said Malivore was Landon’s father when she was explaining that he was a phoenix. She had also mentioned that they were both raised by some group called Malivore. Hope said they killed Landon a bunch because he was Malivore’s son, she couldn’t imagine what they did to Hope if she was raised by the same people. She still didn’t know anything, but she was beginning to understand why Hope was so guarded and why she was so protective of Landon.

Alaric sighed but nodded. Josie and Lizzie took the two seats in front of his desk as he started to tell them everything, he knew about Malivore. Landon chimed in a few times when their dad didn’t remember certain details or if one of them asked a question, but he mainly kept quiet. This was his and Hopes big secret, even though they now knew, it was probably still hard for both of them to open up about it.

“I can’t believe it,” Lizzie whispered. Lizzie turned to look at Landon, “You’re actually slightly interesting. Kind of,” Lizzie backtracked. “You’re not human which is better, but you are just a fire chicken, I mean what’s your power, dying?”

Landon puffed out his chest and looked like he was going to defend himself when he deflated. “Yeah,” he sighed.

“So, what now? What’s the plan for the gargoyle?” Josie asked. She was still processing everything her dad just told her but knew the gargoyle was the current priority. She would have time to freakout about a memory erasing mud pit and every monster from legend being real later.

“The plan is for the two of you to go to class,” Alaric looked at his watch, “if you don’t leave now, you’ll be late.”

“What?!” Josie and Lizzie yelled at the same time.

“We can’t go to class when there’s still a monster out there,” Josie said.

“You just expect us to learn all this then do nothing?” Lizzie asked.

“No,” Josie said. “We want to help. It’s not fair for you guys and Hope to be handling this alone.”

“You can help,” Alaric started. Josie started to smile before her father continued, “With research, after class.”

“But-”

“Hope isn’t even here,” Alaric held up his hand. “She’s at work. So, while she’s at work you two will be in class and me, Landon, and Hayley will continue the research. When Hope gets back and after all your classes,” Alaric pointed at them knowingly, “you can rejoin us, understood?”

The twins nodded and left their dads office each headed to their respective classes. Josie assumed Hope was still researching, she was kind of disappointed she wasn’t there, but she understood the other girl had a job. She was curious how she juggled monster fighting, keeping their secret, and holding down a job.

Josie’s classes were agonizingly long. She didn’t even bother paying attention for the most part instead thinking about Malivore and monsters and Hope. Her mind always came back to Hope. She just kept thinking about what her life must have been like growing up in Triad. It was no wonder she only studied spell books and never had time for regular books or movies or TV. All of this new information just made Josie want to get to know Hope even more.

When her last class finally ended Josie rushed out of the room and straight to the library. She pushed open the doors to see her dad, Landon, and Dorian staring at various books but still no Hope.

Josie couldn’t help but pout. She had been thinking about the other girl all day and was really hoping to see her right when she got out of class. She threw her bag in one of the empty chairs and was about to grab a seat when the doors opened again. A smile instantly formed as she saw Hope and Hayley walkthrough.

“Hey,” she greeted shyly.

“Hey,” Hope said back returning the same soft smile. “How are you?”

“I’m good.” Josie could see Hopes eyes searching her like she was looking for anything that proved the opposite. “Really,” Josie tried to reassure.

“Okay. So, you going to help with some research?”

“Of course.”

They both laughed and moved to join the others. They ended up grabbing empty seats across from each other. They each grabbed a book and started flipping through the pages. Josie would sneak a glance at Hope every once in a while, and a few times caught the girl doing the same.

After a little over an hour of searching through books nobody had found anything yet and everyone was getting frustrated. Josie slammed another book closed, slumping back in her chair. She could see Hopes jaw clenched as she flipped through her book with one hand while she spun a pen around her fingers in the other.

“You knew it was a gargoyle,” Josie said breaking the silence. It made everyone stop their reading and glance at her.

“Hmm?” Hope hummed; she was still trying to focus on her book.

“When I ran into,” Josie leaned forward. Hope closed her book to look at Josie fully. “When you saw the monster, you knew it was a gargoyle.”

“Yeah, I saw one once. When I was little, I was being escorted back to my cell and saw some of the Triad guards bringing one in. Overheard them call it a gargoyle.”

“Well how did they beat it?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t kill it. They captured it.”

“Why?” Lizzie asked. She and MG had joined the group shortly after Hayley and Hope got back. Lizzie had found MG and filled him in on what was going on.

“They would capture monsters to throw into Malivore, their whole thing is protecting the supernatural world, keeping it secret. At the facility they held us, they would sometimes bring monsters back for…” Hope trailed off clearly thinking about her time in Triad. “Experiments and torture. They liked to see if there was anything from the monsters, they could use to create weapons or whatever the hell else they were trying to develop.”

“What about the spell you used?” Landon chimed in. “That did damage.”

“It didn’t do shit,” Hope groaned in frustration. “It pushed it back and annoyed it enough to focus on us not the knife.

Hope drops her head to the table, running her fingers through her hair when she instantly snapped back up not looking at anyone in particular.

Josie was going to ask if everything was okay before Landon spoke, “That’s your realization face.”

“At the end of the fight I switched up the spells. I combined the wind spell with another to make the wind sharper. At one point it hit the little pointy tip on its wings, it broke a piece off.”

“Pointy tip on its wings?” Alaric questioned.

“I’m not a fucking expert in gargoyle anatomy,” Hope snapped.

“Would have been nice to know this a few hours ago,” Landon mumbled.

Hopes glare snapped from Josie’s dad to Landon. Landon froze seeming to realize he had said that aloud. “I’m sorry, I got a little distracted when someone went and got themselves killed. Again.”

Landon kept his mouth shut after that.

“Okay, so what the hell does any of this mean?” Lizzie asked. “Breaking off a tiny piece of the stone monster doesn’t exactly tell us how to kill it.”

Josie glared at her sister. She knew she was right, but this was still more than they had a day ago or even an hour ago.

“Okay maybe we’re going about this wrong,” Landon said as he stood up beginning to pace.

“What do you mean?” Josie asked.

“Maybe,” Landon sounded hesitant, “we should be looking at this as breaking a rock not killing a monster?”

“Okay,” MG said slowly, he didn’t seem convinced like everyone else at the table, but he seemed to be the only one willing to play along. “How do you break a rock?”

Josie knit her eyebrows together. She wasn’t sure where they were going with this. Everyone else looked just as confused. She assumed they were in the same boat as her, which was wondering if they were actually supposed to answer that. She could see where Landon was coming from, sure the gargoyle was a monster, but it was also all stone from everything they’ve read and from what they’ve seen.

Hope seemed to be one of the only ones deep in thought before she looked at MG then Landon and said, “Pressure.” Now it was Hopes turn to stand up but unlike Landon she wasn’t pacing. “If you hit it hard enough and consistent enough.”

“In the same spot,” Landon continued her thought.

“Eventually it’ll crumble,” Hope finished.

Josie didn’t know what to say. She was so stunned seeing them work together. She was still new to the whole monster fighting thing, she hadn’t actually fought a monster yet just ran from one but seeing Hope and Landon work together really showed how long they had been at it. This was normal for them.

“Do you know a spell?” Landon asked.

Hope just smirked giving him a knowing smile.

“Alright, let’s come up with a plan. It’s almost sundown.”

They came up with a plan. Rafael and MG would stay back at the school to be the last line of defense in case their plan didn’t work, and the gargoyle got past them, they knew they couldn’t let it get the knife. Dorian and Landon would also stay behind, they were calling them back up for Rafael and MG but really Dorian was human and could die and Hope didn’t want Landon near the monster since it already killed him, and she didn’t trust the monsters around Malivore’s son. Josie, Lizzie, Hope, Hayley, and the twin’s dad would be outside waiting to attack the monster.

Josie argued with her dad about being out there and in the fight. Lizzie joined in and he couldn’t argue against both of them especially since Hayley and Hope were both going to be there as well. Hope had a lot more experience killing monsters so if they were safe with anyone it was with her and Hayley was a hybrid, she wouldn’t go down easy in a fight. Josie tried arguing that her dad should stay back since he was only human, but he opted to ignore her saying he was their father and if anyone were going to be outside defending the school it would be him. Josie just rolled her eyes. She thought her dad just wanted to try being the hero, maybe add monster slayer to his resume.

“What are you going to do with that?” Josie heard Hope ask. She turned to see Hope was talking to her dad asking him about his crossbow. Josie had to keep in a groan. She knew her dad was an experienced vampire hunter and was skilled with his crossbow, but it was still so embarrassing for her when she would see him carry it around.

“We need to be prepared in case you guys can’t handle it.”

“Yeah, because I’m sure that if three witches and a hybrid can’t take down a gargoyle your little wood sticks with a point end will do the trick.”

Hope had a point. Josie held in a groan again. Lizzie didn’t try hiding her embarrassment as much, Josie could hear her sister sigh, she was refusing to look at their father. Hayley also seemed to be refusing to acknowledge the conversation going on, but Josie could swear she saw a ghost of a smile on the hybrid’s face.

They were interrupted by a loud roar.

“Here we go,” Hope mumbled.

The gargoyle dropped down in front of them. It sat posed crouching down, it’s wings almost encasing it. No one moved yet. Josie held her breath. This was the first time she was seeing the monster this close since the night it almost got her. She tried to calm her heart rate. She needed to. She wouldn’t let this thing scare her anymore.

The gargoyle slowly stood up, the stone scraping against each other with every movement. It’s face still frozen in the snarl, there was no blood dripping from its mouth this time though.

The first person to move was Hayley, she sped towards the creature gripping onto its arm intending to fling it but the second her hand touched its arm, without sparing her a glance the monster smacked her back with its other arm.

Her father shot one of his arrows at it. The arrow bounced off the creatures’ shoulder snapping in half. The gargoyle didn’t even flinch, it just groaned. Josie would bet money it was annoyed and didn’t consider her father a threat in the slightest.

Alaric loaded another arrow and fired again.

He repeated the task a few more times.

Despite the gargoyle not being affected by the arrows it still turned its attention towards Josie’s father. It seemed to want to get rid of the nuisance even if he wasn’t a threat.

“Hope,” Josie whispered, her voice faltering slightly. She knew they had a plan, but she didn’t want to see her father die. Josie could only see Hope out of the corner of her eye, but she could swear she saw the other girl roll her eyes.

Before the gargoyle could even begin to take a step to her dad Josie heard Hope whispering a spell. The gargoyle slowly turned its attention to them. It was moving much slower than before. Hope kept saying her spell, she was deep in concentration not breaking her line of sight from the gargoyle. She kept it going until the gargoyle came to a full stop.

It had worked. Hopes spell had frozen the gargoyle in place. At least for the moment. They knew the gargoyle was powerful and weren’t sure how long the spell would last so they had to act fast.

“Take my hand.” Hope ordered.

Josie and Lizzie each grabbed one of Hopes hands. Josie tried to ignore the butterflies in her stomach at holding Hopes hand, it wasn’t the time. Lizzie was more reluctant to grab Hopes hand, but she did, knowing it was needed to handle the situation.

“Siphon whatever you need,” Hope continued. Josie wanted to argue, she knew siphoning could take a lot out of someone and with her and her sister siphoning from the same source it would be a lot, but she kept her mouth shut. Hope didn’t seem concerned in the slightest and Josie had felt the girl’s power, if anyone could handle two people siphoning from her at the same time it was Hope. “Just repeat after me.” The twins nodded.

Hope began the spell with Josie and Lizzie following shortly until all three were in sync. Hope had taught them the spell before when they were going over the plan, but it was a new spell and different than anything they had done before. At first Josie was afraid her and Lizzie wouldn’t be able to keep up, but Hope spoke slowly enough until they were at the same pace.

They focused their spell on the monster in front of them. The creature remained frozen, but Josie could see it begin to shake and with each thrust of the spell it shook more. The gargoyle finally burst raining down small chunks of stone around them.

Chapter Text

Hope walked over to Hayley, helping her up. “You, okay?” She asked.

“Yeah,” Hayley said, brushing the dirt off herself. “That thing packs a punch. How did you handle getting hit?” Hayley was looking at Hope curiously. Hope knew they knew she was more than she was, but she still wasn’t about to tell them exactly what she was. Knowing about Malivore and Triad and even Landon was one thing but knowing Hope was a tribrid was another, it was dangerous.

“Well, I usually try to avoid getting hit.”

Hayley narrowed her eyes at Hope but didn’t say anything else. Hope learned quickly that even though she has all the same questions as Alaric, Hayley knew when to drop things because she could see Hope wouldn’t be open.

They all made their way back inside and Landon, Rafael, and MG met them.

“Did it work?” MG asked.

“Of course, it worked,” Lizzie answered. Hope rolled her eyes. She didn’t know Lizzie hardly at all but somehow that was the exact response she would expect the girl to give.

They all went back to the library to clean up and debrief.

“That was kind of fun,” Lizzie said. Everyone was putting away books while she was walking around still buzzing about fighting the gargoyle. “When’s the next monster attack?”

“Hopefully not for a while,” Alaric mumbled. He shot Hope a questioning look though.

“They’ll show up randomly. There’s no telling when something will come or what it will be. Malivore has been around for a long time, he’s absorbed hundreds if not thousands of creatures.”

The room got quiet after that. They really had no clue what they were getting involved in. To them fighting monsters was like fairy tales and their childhood fantasies coming true. They still hadn’t grasped the true danger of everything yet. Hope needed them to know. Monster hunting wasn’t fun. It was dangerous and she’d seen many experienced agents die doing the job. She could only imagine the kind of carnage that would happen with a bunch of inexperienced students and a wannabe hunter joining the fight.

“Mind if we talk for a moment?” Hope asked Alaric and Hayley.

“Sure, let’s go to my office,” Alaric said. “Please, finish cleaning up then head to your rooms.”

Alaric and Hayley walked out of the library with Hope following when Landon made a move to follow as well but Hope stopped him. “I’ll meet you back here after, yeah?”

Landon just nodded and went back to helping the others put away the books while Hope followed the adults to Alaric’s office.

“Look, thanks for the help,” Hope started speaking the second they stepped foot in the office, not waiting for anyone to sit down. “But what we’re dealing with isn’t your problem. I can’t ask anyone else to risk themselves for this.”

“You aren’t,” Hayley cut her off. “We’re volunteering to help you guys.”

“But you shouldn’t,” Hope snapped. She needed them to understand. She needed them to know if they got involved then they would most likely end up dead. That was her curse, Hope only got people killed.

“This is more than any one person can handle especially a couple of 17-year-olds.”

“I have been trained for this my entire life. You all haven’t. I’ve watched teams of experienced Triad agents get slaughtered by some of these monsters.”

“Were they human?” Alaric asked. Hope didn’t say anything, she just glared at the man. “Exactly. I know I’m only human, but I’ve proven to be somewhat useful in the past. Plus, we have a hybrid here and other witches, vampires, and werewolves.”

“You’re willing to let your students die in a war that was never even theirs?”

“No, my priority is protecting my students,” Alaric said.

“Then give me the knife,” Hope tried again. “No one will be in any danger if you just hand it over.”

“What about you?” Hayley asked. “We give you the knife and you and Landon just spend the rest of your lives running?”

Hope didn’t say anything. That was the plan. Run as long as they could until they could figure out a way to defeat Malivore without anyone sacrificing themselves.

“That’s not a life. We want to help. We know what’s out there now. We can’t just sit back knowing you guys are out in this fight and do nothing. I know I can’t.” She glanced at Alaric.

“Neither can I. Even if I could, my daughters would never allow it. I don’t want them fighting. I don’t want them risking their lives, but I know if we don’t agree to work together, they will go behind my back to help anyway. This way everyone is more likely to walk away alive.”

“Keeping the knife is dangerous.”

“We have it locked up. There is spell after spell on top of it,” Alaric said. “This is probably the safest place for the knife.”

Hope huffed. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like any of it. It was seeming impossible to convince these people to not do something stupid and reckless.

“Wasn’t it nice working with a team?” Hayley asked. Hope stayed silent. The truth was, it was nice, it was really nice. “We aren’t going to walk away from this, we might as well work together. We’ll be stronger together.”

Hope could see why Hayley was an alpha. She was good at it. She was also right. They were stronger together. As much as Hope liked going at things lone wolf style and didn’t want to put everyone in danger she had to admit they made a good team. One of the only reasons they defeated the gargoyle was because they worked together. Hope had done that spell before but the reason it worked so well was because this last time she did it with Josie and Lizzie.

“Fine,” Hope said through gritted teeth.

“How did you know about the monster?” Alaric questioned moving on to the next topic.

Hope held up her wrist showing off her wristband. “I spelled it. When a monster crosses into town it lights up green. When a monster steps onto the school grounds it lights up red.”

“Clever,” Hayley said.

“Could you set something like that up for us?” Alaric asked.

“Of course,” Hope agreed.

“I know you don’t really like this idea,” Hayley started. “But I really do think this will be best.”

Hoped sighed. “I know. I just…” Hope looked down thinking. “I’m not use to this,” she said slowly. “Working together. Letting people in. It’s going to take some getting used to.”

Hayley nodded seeming to understand. “Well, because we’re now partners in this fight you are free to come and go as you, please.”

“Wait a minute-” Alaric started but was cut off with a sharp glare from Hayley.

“You may use any resources at the school. We’ll help search for any solutions on Malivore. We have contacts all over the world. I’m sure we can find something.”

Hope nodded. She honestly hoped Hayley was right. Hope didn’t want to die sacrificing herself to Malivore but it’s what she always figured would happen. She and Landon had been searching for another solution since they escaped Triad. Hope knew it was pointless, but Landon insisted, it was the only thing Hope couldn’t argue with him on, he refused to let her die because of some stupid loophole.

“Now,” Hayley said. “About your friend, the sheriff’s daughter.” Hayley tilted her head giving her a questioning look.

Hope sighed, “Maya.” After their hookup they had talked and while Hope told her everything that happened Maya had also told her about her interaction with the hybrid and headmaster. “What about her?”

“She knows,” Alaric said. His arms were crossed, and he was giving what Hope could only describe as a disappointed dad look.

“First of all, before this,” Hope gestured between herself and them, “she only knew about me, Landon, and Raf. Even if I hadn’t of told her about our interaction, she would have figured out a lot on her own with the way you guys came at her.”

“Her knowing is dangerous,” Alaric said, still irritated.

“Maya won’t talk,” Hope said with confidence. “I trust her.”

“I believe you,” Hayley said. Both Hope and Alaric looked at her in shock. “I saw her loyalty when we talked to her. She knew about our world and yet she didn’t betray you when I had her cornered. Takes a lot of guts.”

Alaric sighed; he clearly wasn’t happy that Hayley sided with Hope. He didn’t like that someone out of his circle knew about his school and their world. He was going to have to deal with it because Hope trusted Maya a hell of a lot more than she’d ever trust Alaric.

“What about Landon?” Hope decided to ask and shift the conversation to something she actually wanted to discuss.

“What about him?” Alaric asked.

“He’s a phoenix. Technically he qualifies for your little school. Are you going to offer him a spot?”

“Would you try and stop it if I did?”

“Of course not,” Hope said, hurt that someone would even suggest that. “I want Landon to be happy. I know he’s not right now. I know coming here he could be. He could be with Raf, he could be around others with magic. No one else is like him but he wouldn’t be alone in the same way.”

“So, why the question?”

“You know our story.” Hope paused for a second. “Well, most of our story. Landon is a son of Malivore. The knife and the other two artifacts call out to him when he’s near them for the first time. Malivore wants him and the artifacts. If he comes here, I need to know you’ll protect him.” Hope held eye contact with Alaric so he would know she was serious. “I’ll be right here whenever he needs me but if I can’t get here in time, I need to know you will.”

“We will protect Landon the same as any other student. If Malivore is truly after him just as much as the knife, then coming here he’ll be safer than anywhere else in the world. You have your spell around the school to alert you about monsters. We also have a variety of spells set up. We won’t let anything happen to him.”

Hope nodded accepting that answer. She might not like Alaric, but she agreed that there didn’t seem to be anywhere safer. At the school Landon could be around people similar to him and still be with Rafael. He could learn more about himself and Malivore and just magic in general. She knew how excited he was when they first got to the school. This was possibly the one chance he had at feeling like he actually belonged somewhere.

Plus, if they were now working together then Hope would be around just as much as she was before. Also coming to hang out with both Landon and Rafael and not just because of a monster gave Hope even more of an excuse to see Josie. That was definitely an upside to the whole situation.

When their conversation was over the trio made their way back to the library. Everyone had cleared out besides Rafael, Landon, and Josie. Alaric and Hayley went over to talk to Landon while Hope stood off in the corner waiting for them to finish.

“Hey,” Josie said shyly approaching Hope.

“Hey,” Hope replied just as softly.

“So, this is your thing, monster hunting?”

Hope let out a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I guess it is. Um, I just,” Hope stumbled over her words. “I just wanted to apologize.”

Josie tilted her head in confusion. “What for? I know I’m still new to all this but from what I understand the monsters aren’t your fault.”

“Debatable, but not that, I’m sorry about the knife. I didn’t know what it was.”

“Hey,” Josie said softly, her hand shooting out and grabbing Hopes. Hope stiffened at the contact. She wasn’t used to it. Josie’s hand felt nice in her though, very soft. “I never believed you took the knife.”

Hope furrowed her eyebrows. She didn’t understand, how could Josie not have suspected her? “Really?” She asked disbelieving it.

“Yeah, I know my dad doesn’t,” she paused, clearly trying to come up with a nice word, her thumb gently rubbing Hopes hand. “Trust easily but I’m not him. We talked all night and maybe I’m just naïve and trust to easily which is all probably true, but I never got the vibe you were bad.”

Hope couldn’t help but smile at Josie’s words. How she wished they were true. Hope didn’t take the knife. Hope liked to think she had her own sense of honor. She wasn’t unnecessarily cruel, but if someone hurt someone she loved, she would raise hell. When it came to protecting someone she cared for, there wasn’t a line Hope wouldn’t cross.

The truth was, Hope was a monster. She had done so many horrible things in her short seventeen years of life. She couldn’t even fully blame Triad or Malivore. Some of the things Hope had done had been all her. She had a darkness in her. She knew it. It wouldn’t take long for the others to learn of it. With them involved in the fight it was only a matter of time before they saw Hope for what she truly was.

Landon had told Hope countless times that she wasn’t a monster and had a good heart. She usually ignored him though. Hearing something similar from Josie though made Hope almost believe the other girl. She truly wished Josie were right.

“Looks like you’ll be seeing a lot more of me,” Hope said changing the subject.

“Good,” Josie said, giving Hope a soft smile, she couldn’t help but return one as well.

“Come on,” Hayley said breaking them out of the staring contest they seemed to be having. “I’ll give you guys a ride home.”

Hope opened her mouth to turn down the offer when Hayley cut her off. “Don’t even, It’s on the way.” Hope shut her mouth and just nodded.

Hope, Hayley, and Landon made their way to Hayley’s car.

“Can we go get my phone tomorrow?” Landon asked. Hope just rolled her eyes. “I mean it might still work.” Landon sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than her.

Chapter Text

Hope and Landon were making their way back to the cave where they had found the gargoyle. After Landon was done with school, he had met Hope at The Grill and begged her to go look for his phone until she agreed. So that’s what they were doing. After a long day’s work, she was walking through the woods again for a cellphone that may or may not be broken.

“So…” Landon drew out. He kept glancing at Hope but wouldn’t look her in the eye.

“Yes?” Hope asked. She had a feeling she knew what he wanted to talk about.

“The Salvatore school. A school for the young & gifted.” He was dragging it on. Hope tried not to roll her eyes. She knew he had a process. She just wished he would get to it already. “A secret school for supernatural kids.”

Hope stopped walking to look at Landon. Just because she wasn’t going to interrupt him didn’t mean she wasn’t going to try and nudge him along.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. They continued walking. “Alaric offered me a spot.”

Hope didn’t need wolf hearing to hear Landon’s heart beating rapidly in his chest. He had his hands shoved in his pockets; his eyes glued to the ground.

Hope relented and decided to put him out of his misery. “I know.”

“What?” Hope couldn’t help but chuckle. Landon’s voice always went a little higher when he was surprised.

“I know,” she said again slower. “We talked about it when I went off with Alaric and Hayley.”

“So, you’d be okay with it? If I went to the school?” He asked still hesitant. “It’s fine if you aren’t,” he added quickly. “I get it. I do. You know what, never mind, it was a stupid idea anyway.”

“Lan,” she said softly. “It’s okay. I know you want to go. I know you want to be with Raf again.”

“But-”

Hope cut him off, “They know the truth. Or most of it. We’ve agreed to work together. For now, at least. You’ll be safe at the school. I’ll always be around.”

“Okay,” Landon said nodding. He couldn’t contain the small smile that appeared on his face. Hope couldn’t help but smile also. She knew there was still a ton of risks, but she wanted Landon to be happy. She was glad this oddly would give him some sense of normalcy.

They finally reached the cave they had found the gargoyle in. Even though the gargoyle was gone Hope still entered the cave first. They moved through the cave, Hope using her phone as a light until they finally spotted Landon’s phone.

Landon rushed forward, picking up his phone. “Dammit, it’s cracked,” he sighed.

“Well, what did you expect?”

He hit the button and it lit up. “Hey, it still works!”

“Great,” Hope said uninterested. “Let’s go.”

They started making their way back to Hopes apartment. They were going to hangout the day anyway. Landon was just going to have to call and let Alaric know he wanted to come to the school.

“So,” Landon started again. His tone wasn’t as hesitant as it was the first time. Hope knit her eyebrows. She wasn’t sure what else Landon wanted to discuss. “Josie,” he continued slowly.

“What about her?” Hope tried to sound casual.

“She’s super nice. Seems really cool. I mean the way she helped with the gargoyle was awesome.”

“Yeah, sure, she seems cool, I guess.” Hope kicked a rock. She was trying very hard to seem uninterested in the brunette.

“She’s also pretty cute.” Hope tensed at the words but kept walking ahead of Landon, refusing to turn and look at him. “Maybe with me actually going to the school I’ll have a shot. Might work up the courage and ask her out.” With that Hope spun around glaring at him.

Landon threw up his hands in defense. He let out a small chuckle. “I’m kidding,” he explained. He slowly dropped his hands even though Hope was still glaring at him. “I just wanted to get a reaction out of you. I know you like her,’

Hope huffed and turned to continue walking. Landon jogged to catch up with her and continued talking, “I also know you’d never admit it. Why not ask her out? It’s obvious she likes you too. Raf agrees.” Hope glared at him again. “Not that we talk about your dating life,” He added quickly. Hope heard the slight fear in his voice. The boys knew she hated when they talked about her romantic life with her and with each other.

“Look, just because I think she’s cute,” Hope said slowly. “Doesn’t mean anything is going to happen. I will work with them. I will be her friend. But that’s it.”

“Why?” Landon asked exasperated. They had had this argument before, but he still insisted on bringing it up. “You deserve to try and be happy, have some sort of normal life. Besides me and Raf the only connection you have is your weird relationship with Maya.”

“It’s not weird,” Hope defended. “We’re friends.”

“Friends don’t sleep together. You refuse to date each other for some reason I can’t understand.”

“Because we’re friends! We don’t like each other like that. Is Maya hot? Yes. Do I want to date her? No. Just no, we don’t work that way. We’re friends, it would be weird.”

“How is that weird but sleeping together isn’t?”

“It’s just sex. We’re friends but have a casual fling going on when one of us needs it.”

“That’s weird. Friends don’t just sleep together and it not mean anything. You don’t see me and Raf wanting to have casual sex.”

Hope looked at him curiously. Landon’s mouth hung open; he froze as his brain rebooted realizing what he just said.

“I’m just saying,” he said more awkwardly. “How can you guys be friends but sleep together. How do feelings not get involved? How do the lines not blur?”

“Because it’s just our relationship. We hooked up before ever becoming friends. We’ve done it a few times since. I mean it’s not like it’s a weekly occurrence. She and I are just friends. When she was dating Finch, we never hooked up. When she was sad and needed a rebound sure I was there for her. When I need a release and I can’t run she’s there. We care about each other, but we know the love isn’t anything more than friendship. Look if you and Raf want to hookup I’m sure I’ll find it a little weird but hey you do you, no judgement.”

“I don’t want to hook up with Raf! I was using it as an example to show how weird it would be.”

Hope broke out into a laugh. She loved messing with him. She knew he was only doing this because he cared but he just made it so easy to mess with him. She knew he never understood her and Maya’s relationship. But it was true her and Maya were best at being friends. They were there for each other when the other needed it. When Maya first started dating Finch she would come over and tell Hope all about it and even though it was annoying it was never weird and there was never any jealousy. Hope only ever wanted Maya to be happy and Maya wanted the same for Hope. She wasn’t sure how many times Maya tried to set her up with someone. She just didn’t do relationships. Relationships lead to feelings and feelings meant pain when she inevitably lost them.

When they got back to her apartment Landon flopped down on the couch, turning on the TV. Hope curled up on the chair grabbing her sketch book. That was how they usually hung out. Landon would put on some show or movie and talk to Hope occasionally, she would try to acknowledge him, but she most just drew in her sketch book.

She flipped through all the pages, her eyes skimming over all the monsters. She started doing it when she was younger, in a way it helped her cope. She would draw every monster she came in contact with. It also helped for the future; she didn’t know how many times they’d flip through one of her sketch books when they recognized a monster.

She needed to add the dragon lady and the gargoyle to her collection. She hadn’t gotten a chance to draw one since they both appeared so quickly, and she had gotten home so late the night before. She didn’t sleep once again but she finally finished her painting of the forest with the eyes staring back at her.

“Don’t forget to call Alaric,” Hope reminded Landon, not glancing up from her sketch book.

Landon groaned. “Can I use your phone?” He asked.

“So, us trekking out to the cave in the middle of nowhere for your phone was pointless?” she glanced at him for a second but went back to her sketching.

Landon sighed but pull his phone out and called Alaric. Hope didn’t pay attention to the conversation until Landon spoke again, “He said I could move in Saturday.”

“Great,” Hopes voice dripped with sarcasm, “another off day helping a friend move.”

“Well, lucky for you I don’t have a lot of stuff. One of the plus sides to living out of a backpack for over a year.”

Landon left early that night because even though he had a few days, he wanted to make sure he had all his stuff together for when he moved to The Salvatore school.

Hope looked down at her drawing. After she finished her sketches of the gargoyle and dragon, she had started drawing Josie without realizing. She liked it. It was a simple portfolio piece, but she could already capture so many of the brunettes’ small details from memory even though they’d only known each other a few days.

Hope couldn’t believe how the other girl had taken over her mind. She’d found people attractive before, but this was the first time she’d ever had an actual crush.  Hope knew she couldn’t act on it though. It was safer for Josie if they were only ever friends. It was safer if Hope would just steal the knife and leave but Hope wanted to stay. She wasn’t sure what was anchoring her to the town. Part of her didn’t want to run from Josie as insane as it sounded but another part of her didn’t want to leave because of the connection she felt to Hayley. Hope knew she was being selfish, but this was something she couldn’t bring herself to be selfless on. If they needed to run, she would do it in a heartbeat but until then she wanted to stay, she wanted to fight to stay as long as she could.

Hope knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep once again, so she decided to do something she had been meaning to do for a few days now. Hope went into to her room and pried up one of the floorboards. She kept a lot of her spell books and magic items or ingredients she might need out in the open in case of emergencies but the few items that she didn’t use often or that contained to many powerful spells she kept hidden.

She pulled out one of the older leatherbound books. It was one of the few books she had taken when she left Triad. She didn’t fully know why but something told her it might come in handy in the future. She flipped to the page she wanted, handwritten at the top “The Merge” she had read it before and remembered most of it, but it had been a few years.

Hope wanted to tackle it again. Before when she read it, she was just studying the information. Now she had a mission, she was searching for anything about The Merge, any loophole she could find. There had to be something, there was always a loophole. She could never sleep and when she needed a break from the Malivore of it all researching The Merge would be her escape.

She grabbed herself a little pocket-sized notebook. She used them for information on monsters and other research they did. She had a few filled with quick facts and weaknesses and information they learned. They were a lot easier to carry around than a giant book, but she had one of those as well she added to when she could. This notebook was empty though and she would use it for all the information she discovered about The Merge she thought might be relevant or helpful for finding a solution in the future.

Chapter Text

It had been over a week since the last monster attack. Hope was starting to become paranoid to say the least. The first two monster attacks barely had a day’s gap between them. They literally defeated the dragon then that night the gargoyle appeared. The fact that there hadn’t been anything for over a week was concerning.

Landon transferred to The Salvatore school and the current week had been his first there. He had a couple standard high school classes then a couple of others involving the supernatural world. His class list was a little different since he wasn’t actually a witch, vampire, or werewolf and they didn’t know enough about phoenixes to dedicate a whole class to him, but he seemed to be enjoying it.

Hope hadn’t been to the school all week because she pulled a few doubles so she was opening and closing at The Grill all week so she could have her normal weekend plus Friday off.

Despite the off-day Hope didn’t sleep in. She opened the gym and started her workout before anyone started to come in. She tried to workout everyday either early in the morning or late at night after the gym was closed. It was easier when people weren’t around. It could be a little noticeable Hope was a little more than human.

Hope was in the middle of doing some one-armed pullups when the bell rang indicating someone had entered the gym. Hope quickly looked to see who it was, preparing to drop to the ground when she saw it was only Maya.

“Wow,” Maya said as she approached. Hope did a few more before dropping to her feet once Maya got in front of her. “I sometimes forget how hot you are.” Hope just scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Seriously, I’ve never dated another girl with abs like yours. I think you ruined other relationships for me, you just set the bar to high.”

“What ever will you do?” Hope snarked.

“Easiest choice would be to just date you, but you are way too emotionally unavailable for me.” Hope shot her a glare. Maya just smiled. “Kidding. Sorta.” She mumbled the last part.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for school or something?”

“Yes, but I wanted to talk to you beforehand.”

“Why?” Hope asked hesitantly. Maya had that look in her eye, she was up to something. Hope hated that look. That look usually meant they would end up in some sort of trouble. Last time they had ended up cuffed and brought down to the station.

“So, I’m not sure where this falls on your whole emergency scale but Sasha is missing.”

Hope stared and Maya expectantly just blinking a few times. Maya stared back waiting for Hopes reaction. Hope sighed, since Maya clearly wasn’t going to just tell her she asked, “Who the fuck is Sasha?”

Maya opened and closed her mouth a few times. “Are you serious?”

Hope just nodded confused, she had no idea who the hell Sasha was. She also wasn’t sure why she was supposed to care that she was missing.

“She’s one of Dana’s friends.” Maya kept looking at her like it was obvious and she was waiting for Hope to realize it.

“Whatever,” Hope dismissed. She still had no idea who the girl was. “Why does this matter to me?”

“She wasn’t at school yesterday and no one’s seen her since.”

“You said she’s Dana’s friend maybe she just partied a little too hard and crashed somewhere. Maybe she found a new hookup. I don’t know. I don’t see why you’re telling me this.”

“Ugh,” Maya sighed. “Dana has no idea where she is. If any of that happened Dana would know. Can you please just come to the school with me and investigate?”

It was Hopes turn to sigh. “You know I graduated early because the whole school thing wasn’t for me, right?”

“This could be another monster,” Maya tried to reason.

“My bracelet hasn’t indicated another monster is in town.”

“Please!” Maya begged. Hope rolled her eyes. She knew the girl wasn’t going to let it go.

“Fine,” she groaned. “Can I at least change and shower first?”

“Fine but meet me at the school.”

So that’s what Hope did. She showered and changed quickly then went to meet Maya at the high school. Maya was hiding around the back of the school when Hope found her.

“You know your mom’s going to kill you when she finds out you ditched,” Hope said as she snuck up behind Maya.

“Don’t do that,” Maya hissed, smacking Hope on the arm. Hope just laughed. “Also, she’s not going to find out.”

Hope gave her friend an unconvinced look. “Maya, your mom is the sheriff. She’s going to find out.”

“No, she won’t.”

Hope decided to drop it. Sheriff Machado was going to find out and Maya was going to have to deal with it when it happened. Hope was just going to look forward to saying I told you so.

The bell rang indicating everyone should be in class so Hope and Maya silently slipped through the doors. They made their way through the hallways until Maya came to a stop at a locker. Maya pressed her ear to the locker and got to work spinning the lock until it clicked.

She looked at Hope smiling, and she swung the locker door open. “Impressive,” Hope said.

“That didn’t sound like you were impressed.”

“Maybe it would have been a little more impressive if it wasn’t a school locker.”

“Whatever.” Maya got to work digging through the locker.

“What are you even doing?”

“Looking for this,” Maya said pulling out a gym shirt. “It’s Sasha’s.” She held it out for Hope. “I figured you could use your Scooby sniffer to track her.”

Hope let out a growl. It wasn’t too deep but deep enough to let Maya know she wasn’t happy.

“Don’t be like that. Sasha could be in danger. Now sniff her dirty laundry.” She tossed Hope the gym shirt.

Hope sighed, she really hated being friends with Maya sometimes. She was about to take a whiff of the shirt when they heard doors open. They quickly ran, ducking down the nearest hallway. They kept close to the wall, and they listened for who else was wandering around.

Hope tilted her head when she caught a scent she recognized, vanilla. “Josie?” Hope asked as she peeked her head around the corner.

Josie looked in her direction smiling when her eyes finally landed on Hope. “What are you doing here?” She asked.

“What are you doing here?” Hoped asked back, as she came out from around the corner and approached Josie.

“We heard there was a missing student and some weirdness going on. Dad sent a couple of us to investigate.” Hope nodded. “I would have called you, but I don’t have your number. We also didn’t want to bother you if it turned out to be nothing. You probably have much better things to do than waste your time running down theories without any real leads.”

“You’d think,” Hope said, she shot Maya a glare out of the side of her eye as she slowly approached them. “We’re here actually for the same reason.”

“Oh,” Josie said tensing a little as she saw Maya. “I’m Josie,” she gave a friendly smile.

“Maya,” Maya introduced herself. Hope could see Maya’s eyes darting between her and Josie, but she was too busy staring at Josie to pay it much mind. Josie seemed to be the same, staring back at Hope after she introduced herself.

“Would you like my number?” Hope asked. “So, you can contact me if anything happens,” she added. Hope thought she was playing it cool, but she saw Maya tilt her head giving Hope a look like she just figured something out.

“Yes!” Josie said quickly. Josie dropped her head; she ran her fingers through her hair trying to coverup the blush that Hope could see was forming.

Hope smirked. “Here,” she held out her phone for Josie. Josie shyly took the phone and entered her number. When she handed the phone back to Hope, Hope quickly shot a quick text to Josie, so the other girl had her number as well.

“So, I was about to track Sasha by scent,” Hope said slowly. “Want to join?” She gave Josie a mischievous smile.

Josie ducked her head again, brushing some hair behind her ear before smiling and saying, “Sounds fun.”

Hope took a good whiff of the shirt, closing her eyes so she could only focus on the scent. “Got it,” she whispered.

The scent ended up leading them into the woods behind the school. Hope could feel Maya buzzing with excitement while Josie stayed close to the group but kept mostly silent. They had only been walking further into the woods for a few minutes before Hope came to a sudden stop.

Maya put her hand on Hopes shoulder to stop herself from running into her completely. “What’s up?” she asked confused.

“It ends here,” Hope said just as confused.

“What do you mean? You lost it?”

Hope glared at her. “I didn’t lose anything. It just stops.”

“Well, then where is she? There’s nothing around here.” Maya turned in a circle gesturing around them. It was a fairly open area with the trees spread a good distance apart.

“How is that possible?” Josie finally spoke. She didn’t sound accusatory like Maya, just confused like Hope. Hope appreciated that. Her tracking abilities were second to none. She was offended Maya though she would lose such a simple scent.

“It’s not,” Hope said. She was still trying to wrap her head around it. If she wasn’t convinced something was up before, she was now. There was definitely something amiss. “She would have had to of just vanished.”

“People don’t just up and disappear Hope,” Maya said. Hope held back a growl; she knew her friend meant well.

“Just,” Hope said annoyed, “spread out. Search for any indication something might have happened. Or that something else might have been here.”

They walked around the woods not going to far from where the scent stopped. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. There was no blood. There was no loose dirt from where someone might have buried a body. There was nothing. Hope had never seen anything like it. There was always a trace of someone. If someone went missing, there was always a small clue as to what happened to them. No one just stopped existing.

“Hey,” Maya called. “Is this something?” Hope turned to see Maya crouched down looking at something near a tree. She and Josie made their way over.

When they got closer Hope could see a whiteish almost transparent sap or goo against the bottom of the tree trunk.

“What is it?” Maya asked.

“I have no idea,” Hope answered. It didn’t look overly supernatural, but it definitely didn’t look normal.

“Do you think this is Sasha?” Maya whispered. Her mouth hanging open at the possibility.

“No?”

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“It’s not Sasha,” Hope said again. “I don’t think,” she said quietly. Hope didn’t think the goo was Sasha, but she had also seen so much weird shit in her life she wouldn’t rule out the possibility.

Maya reached out with her hand but Hope quickly slapped it before the other girl could touch the mysterious goo. “Don’t touch it,” she said like it was obvious.

Maya held up her hands as an apology. Hope rolled her eyes; she couldn’t imagine where the girl would be without her. That was exactly why Hope didn’t let her do any investigating on her own.

“Do you have any ideas?” Hope asked Josie.

Josie shook her head, answering, “No. I’ve never seen anything like it, but to be fair I’m kinda new to all this monster investigating stuff.”

Hope smiled. “You’re doing great.” Her voice was a lot softer than it had been.

“Thanks,” Josie gave a small smile.

“So,” Maya interrupted awkwardly. “What are we supposed to do with the weird goo?”

Hope looked at it again then her head snapped up, she turned giving Josie a questioning look.

“What?” Josie asked.

“Do you guys have a way of running tests to see what it is?” Hope asked. “Even if it’s only to find out what it’s made from.”

“Yeah,” Josie answered getting where Hope was going. “I can take a sample back to the school and have Emma help run some tests on it.”

“Oh!” Maya gasped startling Hope and Josie. They turned to see Maya had thrown her bag on the ground and was digging through it. She finally found was she was looking for, pulling out a sandwich container, holding it up in success.

Hope gave her a perplexed look as Maya took out the sandwich, putting it in her mouth to hold as she cleared the crumbs from the container than handed it to Hope. Maya smiled, proud of her solution. Hope couldn’t help but laugh and give a friendly eye roll. They were putting mysterious goo in a sandwich container to magically test, totally normal.

Hope grabbed a small stick and scraped a good amount of goo into the container before sealing it with the lid again. She handed the container to Josie. “Can you run this back to your school to test?” she asked. “Something is clearly going on. I don’t want to leave here yet. I’m still not sure why Sasha’s scent disappeared.”

“Yeah,” Josie said nodding. “I’ll call you when we know anything.

Hope nodded. She watched as Josie ran out of the woods, back to the school so she could head back to Salvatore. When Hope turned back around to continue moving Maya was smirking at her.

“What?” Hope said crossing her arms.

“You like her!” Maya practically screamed.

Hope rolled her eyes. “No, I don’t. She’s a new friend. Shut up.”

Maya’s mouth dropped open even more. She was bouncing up and down. “You really like her! Oh my god! Hopey has a crush,” she squealed the last part.

“I barely know her. She’s cute, I’ll give you that. She’s also incredibly nice.” Hope got a distant look in her eyes as she thought about the brunette and a small smile appeared on her face.

Maya let out another high-pitched squeal bringing Hope out of her thoughts.

Hope rolled her eyes and cleared her throat. “It doesn’t matter,” she insisted. “Nothing is going to happen. I have Malivore to worry about.”

“Oh, come on!” Maya slapped Hope on the arm. “She’s totally into you! Why not just try? What’s the worse than can happen?”

“She could die,” Hope snapped. “And it would be my fault. Just another death to add to the long list of people I couldn’t save.”

Maya’s face fell, she got serious, taking a step closer to Hope. She rested a comforting hand on Hopes shoulder as she made sure to stare Hope directly in the eye. “Or you could be happy,” she said softly.

“Don’t we have a missing person to find?” Hope asked avoiding going further into the topic. She did like Josie, but she knew it was better if she didn’t even try to be something more than friends. She knew it would never work out; it could only end in pain for everyone involved.

Maya sighed but nodded, she knew when to drop a topic. They continued walking through the woods searching for anymore weird goo or anything else out of the ordinary.

They were a good distance into the woods and away from the school or anything else in town when Hopes phone rang. She pulled it out to see Josie’s name popped up.

“Hey,” Hope answered softly. “What’s up?”

“We got the results back,” Josie said. She sounded serious but not to panicked.

“Already?” Hope figured they’d be quick, but it felt like Josie had just left.

“Yeah.” Hope could hear Josie shuffling around on the other end. “Turns out the mysterious substance wasn’t that mysterious.”

“What is it?” Hope knit her eyebrows together. Maya tilted her head giving Hope the same look.

“It’s from a spider.”

“A spider?” Hope was even more confused. Maya couldn’t hear Josie’s end of the phone call, but she wrinkled her nose when Hope said spider.

“Yeah, it’s a mix between venom and liquid spider silk.”

“Venom, you say?” Hope asked but it wasn’t really a question. She was giving Maya a ‘I told you so’ look.

Maya rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine, you were right,” Maya sighed. “Thank you for not letting me touch the spider venom.”

Hope just rolled her eyes and went back to listening to Josie.

“The good news,” Josie started.

“There’s good news?” Hope interrupted.

Hope could hear Josie hesitate before answering. “Sort of? I mean I guess it’s good news? The venom isn’t fatal to humans.”

“Great!” Hope said relieved. “What does it do then?”

“It paralyzes its prey… So, it can bring it back to its layer and eat them…”

Hope open and closed her mouth a few times. In a way it was good news. It didn’t kill the prey but it paralyzed them so it could kill them later. Still not good.

“There’s more,” Josie started again.

“There’s more?” Hope asked. She already knew she didn’t want to hear what was next.

“The amount we found would indicate it’s from a much bigger spider than what actually exists.”

“Which means it is a monster,” Hope confirmed. She doubted it when Maya first came to her but the further, they investigated, the more she knew it was true, there was another monster. “Well how the hell did it get past my barrier without me being notified?”

“What do you want to do?”

“We need to find this thing. It’s clearly already taken people. Let’s just hope we find it before it’s actually killed anyone.”

“Holy shit,” Maya whispered. Hope realized the other girl had come to a sudden stop. “Sasha.”

“Sasha?” Josie asked. Hope guessed she had heard Maya.

Hope looked up to where Maya was looking. She saw Sasha standing with her back to them a few feet ahead. The girl was standing but didn’t move a muscle. Hope knew something was wrong.

“Something isn’t right,” Hope said. She grabbed Maya’s arm to stop her from approaching Sasha. “I’m going to have to call you back,” Hope said to Josie.

“Be careful,” Josie said before Hope hung up the phone.

Hope took a step forward making sure she was in front of Maya. Sasha tilted her head at the sound of Hopes foot crunching a stick. Sasha slowly turned to face them, but her eyes weren’t her own, they were completely black.

Hope tensed seeing the other girl like that. She took a step back, putting a defensive hand out in front of Maya. Maya also took a step back. Hope didn’t turn to face her but could hear her friend’s breath hitch at seeing Sasha’s eyes and could hear her heartrate spike,

Sasha’s face twisted, taking on a sinister smile. She was fully facing them when her neck snapped to the side at a hard angle. Hope could swear she heard the bones break. Next the girls’ arms twisted and bent, snapping backwards at odd angles. Not even a werewolves bones broke that way when they were in transition. All Hope could do was stare in horror. Lastly the girls’ legs snapped, one bent back facing the opposite direction.

Sasha’s entire body shuddered after it was done snapping out of shape until her skin ripped open and a giant Arachne slipped out. Sasha’s skin slid of the spider’s body onto the floor, as if she were just a meat suit and not a living human a day ago.

Hopes eyes were wide. She just stared at the scene in front of her. “Run,” she managed to get out in an urgent whisper.

Hope knew Maya was in shock of what she just witnessed but luckily, she didn’t need to be told twice before taking off back in the direction they had come.

Hope was right behind Maya, making sure to stay a good pace behind Maya so she could throw some spells at the Arachne, in hopes of distracting it or possibly killing it.

Hope glanced behind her to get a visual each time she fired a spell. The spider was scurrying and jumping from tree to tree, avoiding every one of Hopes attacks. In her last attack Hope threw at the spider it jumped to a tree again, but this time it shot its web fluid, hitting Hope before she could dodge it.

Hope crashed to the ground instantly feeling the paralysis get to work. The spider jumped to the ground as it made a slow approach towards Hope.

Maya stopped to turn back towards Hope when she got hit but Hope shook her head. Maya needed to get to safety. Maya hesitated for a second, but Hope knew that Maya knew she was better off running. Before Maya could turn to take off again, she was also hit by the spider’s web fluid causing her to fall to the ground, the paralysis hitting her quicker than Hope since she was human.

The spider shot a string of web at Hope, latching on to her to drag her away. Hope still had just enough movement that she was able to reach the string of web with her hand and say a quick spell. A line of fire came from her hand, shooting up the string of web, burning it until it hit the Arachne. The spider scurried back in pain.

It didn’t bother trying to take Hope again. It shot it’s string of web at Maya, quickly dragging her away. Hope struggled to move but couldn’t. She needed to save Maya.

With her slight mobility, Hope wiggled her fingers into her pocked, grabbing her phone between two fingers and sliding it out. Hope had to glance down at her phone at an odd angle but made a few quick taps, just hoping she called who she meant to.

Hope didn’t know how long she laid there on the forest floor. She kept trying to wiggle her fingers hoping more movement would come. Until eventually she felt a gush of wind signaling someone had arrived.

“Oh my god,” Hope heard Hayley whisper. Hope would smile with relief if she could. Her call had worked. She had never been more glad Hayley had given her her number.

Hayley knelt down next to Hope so she could see her. She put a comforting had on Hopes shoulder, giving her a small nod letting her know it would be okay.

“Emma said the paralytic wears off in half an hour to an hour,” Hayley said. “Do you think you can move at all yet?”

Hope grunted as she tried to lift herself off the ground. It took a lot of effort, but she managed to roll onto her side. “Yeah,” Hope said through gritted teeth. “But I’m going to need help.”

Hayley threw one of Hopes arms around her neck then stood up, helping pull Hope to her feet. She was very wobbly and could pretty much only shuffle her feet, so Hope had to lean on Hayley. Hayley was practically dragging Hope to the car.

When they got to the car Hayley gently slid Hope into the passenger seat then got on the driver’s side. Hope was getting more and more movement back. She could hold herself up but still struggled with leg and arm movements.

“Thank you,” Hope said.

“It’s no problem,” Hayley said. “It’s why I gave you, my number.”

They started the drive back to the boarding school. Hope closed her eyes and sighed. She really needed to start moving again. That thing had taken Maya and she didn’t know how long it would keep her alive. Sasha had been missing a day and she was already dead. Hope wasn’t even sure when Sasha had officially died since the spider was using her body as a meat suit.

“What happened?” Hayley finally asked.

“We were attacked. We had just stumbled onto Sasha when Josie called. The spider seems to be able to take the form of its victims. I think that’s why I lost the scent; it was because Sasha was killed or taken over or whatever at the edge of town so once she was gone her scent no longer existed. It’s also why my bracelet probably didn’t alert me. It probably didn’t clock the monster because the way the monster got into town was using Sasha’s body. It looked like Sasha until her skin started melting off and revealed the spider.”

Hayley scrunched up her nose, glanced at Hope, not taking her eyes off the road for too long.

“We tried to run, but it hit Maya and she went down and before I could react it hit me. It shot its web at me to drag me away, but I still had some movement in my hand so did a fire spell. I guess it doesn’t like prey that can fight back so it left me but took her. I have to get her back.”

“We will,” Hayley reassured. “We only had one conversation. If you’d even call it that. But that girl’s a fighter. A lot stronger than I originally gave her credit for.”

When they arrived back at the school Hope was able to walk again. She made her way to the library where she was told they were supposed to be doing research while Hayley went off to find Alaric.

The second she stepped through the door she was engulfed in a hug. Hope stumbled back a little still feeling the effects of the paralysis.

“Thank god you’re okay,” Landon’s voice came. “I heard you were in trouble.” He finally stepped back, releasing Hope, giving her a quick once over to make sure she wasn’t hurt. “You’re, okay?”

“Yeah. I got hit but the paralysis has mostly worn off,” Hope assured him. “It has Maya though.”

Landon’s face fell. He was tense like there was something he wasn’t telling her. Like there was something else wrong.

“What?” she asked hesitantly.

“Raf is missing,” he said slowly. Before Hope could respond he continued, “we split up to search for him. I came back after finding him but…”

“What?” Hope asked concerned now.

“Josie never returned.”

“What did you just say?” Another voice came. Hope turned to see Lizzie storming into the room. Landon tensed up at the other girl’s presence. She couldn’t blame him, Lizzie just found out her sister was missing, and that Landon knew.

“She went to help search for Raf, but she hasn’t come back, and no one’s seen her. I’ve looked all over but I haven’t found either of them.”

“Okay,” Hope took charge. “Landon go get Hayley, tell her what’s going on.” He nodded. “I’m going to search for them. I don’t have a good feeling about this, but I have a feeling that we’ll find all our missing friends together.”

Hope made her way back out of the school with Lizzie right behind her.

“I don’t care what you say. She’s my sister and I’m going to help,” Lizzie said, leaving no room for argument.

“Okay,” Hope said. She was honestly impressed with how determined Lizzie was to save her sister.

“So do you have a way to find them or are we just going to be walking around in circles?” Lizzie asked as they made their way behind the school and headed towards the woods.

“I know Raf’s scent very well. I also know my friend Maya’s well. So, I’m just following the scent. I’m sure they’ll be in the same place.”

“And what about when we get there? What if they’re paralyzed? What if the Arachne is there?”

“We’ll figure it out when we get there, what’s most important right now is finding them and making sure they’re still alive.

They made their way through the woods until they came to the Old Mill.

“Holy shit,” Lizzie gasped, causing Hope to look up. The run-down building was covered in a giant spider web.

“Guess, we know where they are.”

“Let’s get in there.”

Hope and Lizzie stepped through the front door. It was eerily quiet; Hope focused her hearing and could hear erratic breathing and heart beats.

“They’re all here,” she said, her eyes still closed. She heard something land on the floor then skittering around. Her eyes shot open. “We have to go.”

Hope and Lizzie rushed into the room Hope had heard the noise coming from. In front of them was Maya, Josie, and Rafael all tangled in the spider’s web. The spider was right in front of Josie who had her face turned. It was like she was trying to sink as far back into the web as she could to get away from the creature.

Hope quickly grabbed Lizzie’s hand. Lizzie gave a nod showing she knew exactly what Hope was thinking. Together they reached their hands out, flinging the spider back against the wall.

Chapter Text

Josie ran as fast as she could back to the school. She quickly found Lizzie, Landon, and Kaleb.

“We got to go,” she said panting as she approached the group.

“We haven’t found anything yet,” Lizzie whined.

“Damn, girl, where have you been?” Kaleb asked, taking in her out of breath state.

Josie took a few deep breaths to try and get it almost normal. “I was out in the woods.”

“This is no time for exploring Josie!” Lizzie yelled. “We have to prove ourselves to dad.”

Josie suppressed a groan, closing her eyes to stop the eyeroll. “I ran into Hope,” she started to explain. Lizzie scoffed. Josie glared at her. Lizzie rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut after that.

“Hopes here?” Landon asked confused, he looked around as if expecting to see her.

“Yeah, she was with Maya?”

“Of course,” Landon said it like it explained everything.

Josie really wanted to know what the deal was with Hope and Maya. They seemed close. At the party Hope didn’t mention she was in a relationship; she also didn’t say she was single. All she really confirmed was that she wasn’t with Rafael or Landon. Josie really should have dug deeper. It wasn’t the time for that though. Josie had more important things to do than think about her new crush potentially having a very attractive girlfriend.

“Anyway,” Josie said, getting back to the real issue. “We tracked Sasha’s scent to the woods and right where the scent stopped, we found this,” Josie held up the container of goo. “So, we need to get back to the school and test it.”

Lizzie sighed but nodded in agreement. Josie figured Lizzie was only fine with it because it meant leaving their rivals school and they weren’t going back empty handed.

They got back to Salvatore and Josie immediately found Emma so she could help her run the tests. Josie was decent at testing unknown subjects, but she still had only taken a few classes, Emma was the most experienced witch at the school.

Emma set up everything they needed and began the spell.

“How long should it take?” Josie asked.

“It depends,” Emma answered. “Something simple and everyday like salt, it would notify us instantly, but something unknown and potentially from a monster, it could take a while.”

Josie sighed. She hated waiting especially when Hope was out there looking for a missing student and not knowing what she was up against. It could be nothing. Hope said she never got notified about a monster but in the off chance a monster got through then they needed to know.

Emma had to go back to work, but Josie elected to stay and wait for the results. It made her feel somewhat useful. She had been lounging in the chair for a little while when the alarm signaling the results were ready went off, just as Emma returned with her dad and Hayley in tow.

Josie got up, grabbing the results. She read them but knit her eyebrows together. She had no idea what she was staring at. She handed them to Emma. “What is it?” She asked.

“It’s,” Emma paused, confusion all over her face, “liquified spider silk.”

Everyone was even more confused after that. “There’s something else,” Emma continued.

“What?” Hayley asked.

Emma ran around the desk, flipping open her laptop. She was looking at the results as she searched for whatever it was, she was looking for.

“It looks like there’s also some venom mixed in,” she said.

“Venom?” Josie asked concerned.

“I need to do more tests.”

Josie tried to wait patiently while Emma ran her tests. She was trying to not have her mind go to the worst-case scenario. It wasn’t helping that Hayley and her dad looked just as concerned.

“Okay,” Emma said, reading over the results of the new tests she ran. It went quicker since she was only testing what the venom did not what it was. “We’re in luck. It looks like the venom isn’t fatal. It seems it acts as a paralytic.”

“That makes sense,” Josie’s dad finally spoke. “Some spiders paralyze their prey before eating them.”

Josies eyes went wide. She was glad the venom didn’t kill but it still left a person vulnerable if they were hit by it and could potentially lead to them being eaten by a spider.

“I have great concerns about the amount of this you brought back,” Emma said, holding up the container that still had a significant amount of the substance in it.

“That was barely anything, compared to what we found,” Josie said.

“That’s what I was worried about. This is much much more than what any normal, average spider can secrete.”

“Which means our spider is a lot bigger,” Alaric said.

“Another monster,” Hayley supplied.

“I got to call Hope,” Josie said.

She pulled out her phone and called Hope. She answered after the first ring. Josie informed her about what they found. They were talking about how Hope wanted to proceed when Josie barely heard the other girl, Maya’s, voice. It was hard to decipher but Josie could swear Maya had just said Sasha.

“Sasha?” Josie asked to double check. That had been the missing student they were looking for. Josie saw her dad give her a questioning look.

“Something isn’t right,” Hope said. Josie could tell she was distracted by whatever was happening on her end. “I’m going to have to call you back.”

“Be careful,” Josie said before Hope hung up.

“What was that?” Hayley asked.

“I don’t know. I think they might have found Sasha?” Josie said. “But Hope said something didn’t feel right.”

“Can you come up with an antidote or something for the paralysis the venom causes?” Alaric asked.

“I’m not sure it’s needed; it doesn’t seem like it lasts that long. At least not on supernatural’s. Probably a little longer on humans,” Emma said. “I’ll run some tests though.”

“I’m going to get to work researching giant spiders I guess,” Alaric said. “See if I can find out what it might be, see if we need to worry about any more surprises.”

“Did you notice anything else out in the woods?” Hayley asked.

“When Hope was tracking the scent we came to a sudden stop,” Josie said. Hayley tilted her head. “Hope said the scent just stopped. Like it didn’t exist anymore. We found the spider goo not too far from there.”

Hayley looked deep in thought. Her face still looked like she was confused. She was struggling to understand something.

“What?” Josie asked.

“You said the scent just stopped,” Hayley said.

“Yeah, Hope was very adamant she didn’t lose it. It was just ended right in that spot.”

“That shouldn’t happen,” Hayley explained. “Even if someone died. There would still be something of them.”

“That’s what Hope said, but we’re not exactly dealing with normal anymore.”

Hayley nodded. All their lives had become so much crazier since meeting Hope and Landon only two weeks ago. Everything they thought they knew and considered normal had been changed and they were shown how little they actually knew about their own world.

Before they could continue talking more Hayley’s phone rang. She pulled it out and when she saw who was calling, she knit her eyebrows together but answered immediately.

“Hello,” she said. Hayley paused, taking the phone away from here ear to look at the screen again, then brought it back to her ear. “Hello?” she said again. Hayley started to move, Josie following behind. “If you can hear me, I’m coming.” Hayley hung up the phone.

“What was that?” Josie asked. She knew that if Hayley was concerned it probably wasn’t good.

“That was Hope,” she said, as they made their way to where Emma was working.

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know, there was no answer.” Josie’s eyes widened. Hayley saw Josie’s expression and quickly added, “I heard a heartbeat though, so she’s alive.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Josie didn’t understand why Hayley wasn’t running to her car.

Hayley opened the door to the room they were headed. Josie finally took in her surroundings and realized they were in one of the labs. It was the lab Emma had gone to.

“What’s going on?” Emma asked as they entered.

“Do you know anything more about the venom?” Hayley asked getting right to it.

Josie realized why Hayley wasn’t already leaving. If Hope called but there was no answer that meant there was a chance she ran into the monster. She could be in trouble. Hope could more than handle herself but if she got hit with the spider venom then even, she would need help.

“I was right it doesn’t last on supernatural’s long. The stronger the supernatural the less amount of time they’re affected,” Emma said. “It looks like it lasts thirty minutes to an hour.”

“That was quick,” Josie said.

“It helps that we have a sample of it. Also, we have spiders similar to this so having a bit of research already helps,” Emma explained.

Josie went to follow Hayley out the door, but Hayley quickly turned, putting a hand on her shoulder halting her. “Nope,” she said.

“But Hope needs help,” Josie whined.

“And I will help her. You need to stay here. Help figure out how to stop this thing.”

Josie sighed, reluctantly nodding. She knew there was no arguing with Hayley. She slumped down in a chair as Hayley left.

Josie was flipping through books trying to figure out how to kill a giant spider or get an idea on what kind of giant spider it could be. She finally found a chapter and after reading a bit she determined it was an Arachne. Josie was still reading about it when Landon burst through the doors.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Have you seen Raf? Landon asked.

“No.”

“I haven’t been able to find him since we got back. No one’s seen him.”

“Grab the others, we’ll search for him.”

Landon nodded, running out the door to grab the others. Josie made her wait out of the school. She knew it was a bad idea to go off alone, but Rafael could be in danger, and she couldn’t let anything happen to her friends.

Josie was walking the school grounds near the woods when she finally spotted Rafael.

“Raf!” she screamed as she ran to him. He was on the ground not moving.

Before she could get close enough, she saw the spider goo on the ground. It was near and it had attacked Rafael. Josie was completely powerless. She hadn’t charged up before running out of the school and she didn’t have anything near her to siphon from.

Before Josie could come up with a plan the spider shot her with its venom. She crashed to the ground, just a few feet away from Rafael, unable to move.

“Josie,” a harsh whisper came. Josie rolled her head to the side, trying to remember what happened. “Josie.” Josie realized it was Rafael saying her name. She slowly opened her eyes, her eyes quickly widened in fear when she remembered what happened.

She figured she must have blacked out because she was no longer paralyzed on the ground but though she was no longer paralyzed she was wrapped up in the spiders’ web, still unable to move.

Josie looked to her left and saw Rafael in the same position as her. Their mouths were free so they could speak but their hands and legs were completely covered. Despite how hard she struggled she couldn’t break free from the webbing.

When Josie looked to her right, she saw Maya also captured and stuck in the web across the room. That’s when Josie realized where they were. They were in the Old Mill. The spider had made its nest right in their backyard and they never realized it.

“Are you guys, okay?” Maya asked.

“Yeah,” Rafael responded. “How’d you get here?”

“I was out in the woods with Hope when we got attacked.”

“Is Hope, okay?” Josie asked. Last she knew Hope was in trouble and Hayley went after her. She had no idea what had happened to the girl.

Maya tried hiding a smile before answering, “Yeah. She got hit as well but she had enough movement left that when the spider tried to drag her away, she said a spell. The monster left her, but she was still paralyzed so she couldn’t do anything as it grabbed me.”

Josie nodded. She was relieved Hope was okay.

“So,” Maya said again. “I have the excuse of only being human. Either of you have a way out of this?”

Rafael struggled against the webbing but nothing. “No,” he sighed. “I might be stronger, but I still can’t break free from this stuff.”

“What about you?” Maya asked looking to Josie.

“No,” Josie said, dropping her head. “I’m a siphon witch. I don’t have any magic of my own.”

“Well, shit.”

Josie tried struggling but if Rafael couldn’t break free, she knew she wouldn’t be able to either. She wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t even a proper witch, if she were, she could probably have all three of them out of there in no time.

They resigned to just waiting for help to arrive. All three of them knew that Hope would find them. Hope always seemed to show up just in time. Josie wished she were stronger, like Hope, she hated that she was so useless. She couldn’t even save herself, let alone her friends.

There was a loud creak heard throughout the mill. Everyone froze. They all knew what it was before they saw it. When they looked up, they saw the spider had finally returned home to eat her prey. Despite how useless it was all three of them struggled against the webbing as the giant Arachne made its way down to them.

Josie finally got a good look at the spider. It looked like it was almost half the size of the room they were in. It was all black and hairy, not fuzzy like a tarantula though. It had beaty red eyes. Josies eyes widened, she realized it was close enough for her to see the color of its eyes.

The Arachne was down on the ground with them, and it was standing right in front of Josie. She tried to back up, pressing herself as far into the webbing as she could get. The spider kept approaching her, she could see it opening its mouth to show its fangs. Josie never imagined that this was how she’d die. She wanted to go out epically not by a fucking spider.

Josie turned her head just as the spider was practically on top of her. She felt a gush of wind whoosh past her and no longer felt the Arachne’s presence in front of her. She heard a loud crash and finally turned her head again, opening her eyes. She saw the spider had been thrown against the other side of the wall.

Josie whipped her head around to the entrance of the Old Mill and saw her sister and Hope, hands clasped and still outstretched from throwing the spider. Josie sighed in relief; she couldn’t help but smile at seeing their friends had actually managed to make it on time.

Lizzie ran to cut Rafael out of the webbing while Hope cut her down. After Josie could manage detangling herself the rest of the way Hope ran over to Maya. Once she got Maya out of the web they regrouped.

“Get back to the school,” Hope said, looking at Maya.

Maya opened her mouth like she was about to argue but with a glance over Hopes shoulder she shut her mouth and took off out the door. When they turned to look where Maya had looked, they saw the Arachne regaining itself.

“Go,” Hope said again, this time looking at Rafael.

“But-”

“Go!” Hope cut him off. Rafael dropped his head almost on instinct and ran out the door, following Maya.

“Please, tell me you have a plan,” Josie said.

“Always,” Hope said with her famous smirk.

Josie rolled her eyes but couldn’t help the light blush she knew was certainly forming on her cheeks.

“Take my had,” Hope ordered.

“Again,” Lizzie groaned.

Josie shot her sister a glare but Hope just ignored her. Despite her complaining Lizzie grabbed Hopes hand while Josie quickly snatched her other.

“Repeat after me.”

Hope began the spell with Josie and Lizzie following behind her. It wasn’t a difficult spell, so they were speaking in unison quickly. The spider had time to regain its footing but not enough time to step closer before the spell they were saying caused it to explode.

Yellowish orange goo from the inside of the Arachne coated the entire room of the Old Mill including the three girls.

Josie had never been more disgusted, but she was just glad it was over. She was never going to look at a spider the same way again, she already wasn’t the biggest fan of them.

“You couldn’t have chosen a spell a little less disgusting?” Lizzie asked as she flicked a giant clump of goo off her.

“It worked,” is all Hope said.

They stepped out of the Old Mill together to see Alaric with his crossbow, Hayley, Landon, Rafael, and Maya.

“Are you guys, okay?” Hayley asked.

They all nodded.

Maya approached Hope. “I would give you a hug but you kind of reek,” she said.

Hope scoffed but there was a small smile on her lips. “Are you sure? It’s only spider guts,” Hope replied.

“I need a shower,” Lizzie said, stalking off back to the school. Josie took that to mean Lizzie would be getting to shower first.

“You can use the one in my room,” her father said.

“You can also use one of the ones at the school,” Hayley said to Hope. “I’m sure Rafael and Landon won’t mind.” They both nodded quickly. “Because you are not getting in my car like that.”

Hope smiled again, nodding. They all made their way back to the school. Josie wanted to shower quickly so she could be done before Hayley took Hope and Maya home. She wanted to talk to Hope about something.

The shower was the most amazing thing in the world to her. Even though she was completely spotless after scrubbing like crazy she still couldn’t help but feel dirty from the spider guts. She may never truly feel clean again after that.

Josie made her way to Rafael and Landon’s room. The door was slightly ajar, so she pushed it a little before peeking inside. The boys were nowhere in sight. Josie could still hear the water running though so she knew Hope hadn’t left yet. She decided to sit on one of the beds and wait.

Josie couldn’t help but think about the day’s events. Rafael had been taken and even though Josie had found him she wasn’t strong enough to do anything about it. She wasn’t good enough. She didn’t even have her own magic. She was a sad excuse for a witch. Even though Hope had been attacked as well and even though she couldn’t stop Maya from being taken the first time, she was still strong enough to save herself.

Josie was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear the shower stop until the creak of a door opening got her attention. She looked, quickly jumping off the bed. She saw Hope coming out of the bathroom. She was still running a towel through her hair, but she was in some basic grey sweatpants and a blue zip up hoodie. Both were obviously too big for her, clearly one of the boys leant her their clothes, but Hope somehow managed to make it work.

“Hey,” Hope said not able to keep the surprise out of her voice, clearly not expecting to see Josie waiting for her. She had a soft smile on her lips though.

“Hey,” Josie said just as softly. “Sorry, I just, I didn’t mean to barge in, I just, I wanted to talk to you. I would have knocked but the door was open and Raf and Landon weren’t here, so I decided to wait. Sorry.” She was rambling again, but it stopped when she heard Hope chuckle.

“God, you’re adorable,” Hope whispered. Josie froze at that. She couldn’t believe what she just heard. There was no way Hope had just called her adorable. Josie tried to turn away to hide her blush. “So, what’s up? You said you wanted to talk?”

She cleared her throat, shaking her head to clear her mind. There was a reason she was waiting for Hope. She wanted to talk to her without the others around. “I want you to teach me offensive magic,” she answered.

Hope tilted her head at that. She clearly wasn’t expecting Josie to ask her that. “Your father won’t like that,” was her reply.

“I don’t care. We need to know how to defend ourselves. If monsters are going to be a reoccurring thing, we need to know how to fight them. I couldn’t do anything today. I was defenseless against that monster. I couldn’t save myself or Rafael. I want to be able to protect the people I care about. I don’t want to be the one always having to get rescued.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Josie asked. She was glad Hope was saying yes but she was expecting the other girl to take a bit more convincing.

“Yes, okay, I’ll do it.”

“Really?”

Hope laughed at that. “Yes,” she said again. “Like I said Alaric won’t be happy but I’m going to be honest I don’t care what your dad thinks. I also agree with you. But so, you don’t get in trouble with your dad and so that he doesn’t like forbid me from ever seeing you again we’ll have to do it in secret.”

“Yes! Yes, of course,” Josie said quickly. She couldn’t contain her excitement. She had the biggest smile on her face, and she couldn’t help but grab Hope pulling her into a quick hug. “Oh my god,” she said letting go of Hope, stepping back to where she originally was. “I’m so sorry. I’m a hugger. You don’t seem like the hugging type. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Hope was still smiling. She didn’t seem uncomfortable or mad about the hug, but she seemed awkward like she wasn’t used to hugs.

“When do you want to do this?” Josie asked, changing the subject.

“Tomorrow? Whenever works for you. We just need to do it when you don’t have class or me work. I also know a place we can practice so we shouldn’t have to worry about someone seeing us.”

“Okay, yeah tomorrow works. It’s Saturday so no one will question me not being around.”

“Great, meet at my place by nine?” Hope asked.

“Bright and early great,” Josie sighed.

Hope shot her a glare. Josie knew she couldn’t complain. She was asking for a big favor and Hope was willing to do it. She was going to learn offensive magic. She was also going to get to spend more time with Hope, that, was enough to sacrifice sleeping in on a Saturday.

“I’ll be there,” she said. Hope nodded. She ripped a piece of paper out of one of the boys’ notebooks and scribbled her address on it for Josie.

Hope walked Josie back to her dorm. “See you tomorrow,” Hope said, leaning against the doorframe.

“Tomorrow,” Josie said back. She had a shy smile on her face, as she closed the door.

Chapter Text

Josie snuck out of the school early so she would be able to get to Hope’s place on time. She couldn’t drive and couldn’t ask anyone to take her to town without raising suspicion so that left her with walking.

It was Saturday so Josie not being around wouldn’t raise to many questions. No one should be looking for her. She also got Landon and Rafael to help cover for her. They didn’t know exactly what was going on, but they knew she was meeting Hope and that she needed to keep it secret from her father. She didn’t think Lizzie would be a problem but because of how her twin had been acting towards Hope she didn’t want to waste time arguing so she told them to hide it from her as well.

Josie was in town making her way to the address Hope had written down. When her phone indicated she had arrived at her destination she looked up to see a gym. She knit her eyebrows together. For a second, she thought she might have typed the address in wrong but then through the window she saw Hope talking to a man.

When Hope noticed Josie outside she waved and gave a small smile. She seemed to end the conversation with the man she was talking to and came out to greet Josie a moment later.

“Hey,” Hope greeted.

“Hey,” Josie responded, returning Hopes smile. “Is this where we’re practicing?” Josie was confused, she thought practicing magic at a gym in town seemed a little weird.

“No, of course not. I got a spot I think will be perfect. It’s just in the middle of nowhere so, figured we’d meet at my place.”

“You live at a gym?” Josie questioned.

“Yeah, sort of. There’s an apartment above it. The owner,” Hope nodded back to the man she was talking to inside who was currently at the desk going over some papers, “gave me a nice deal. He’s letting me live in the apartment as long as I open the gym, clean the equipment, and some other things to help out.”

“Oh, that’s awesome.”

“Yeah, working at The Grill allows me to pay him some rent.”

“I’m surprised you don’t just use magic.” It slipped out; Josie didn’t mean to say that. “I’m so sorry,” she added quickly.

“Don’t worry about it. I will admit there is a bit of magical influence at work but he’s a good guy, I don’t feel right about not giving him anything.”

Josie nodded. “So, where are we training?”

Hope smirked. Josie had a feeling she might regret this decision, just slightly. “Follow me,” is all Hope said.

They walked for what felt like forever to Josie. Hope also didn’t drive so they had to walk to wherever she was taking them. If Josie was learning anything it was that she clearly needed to work out more or find someone with a car.

“Okay, we’re here,” Hope announced, finally coming to a stop.

Josie was breathing heavily but was trying not to show it because Hope didn’t seem to be even the slightest bit winded. If Hopes smirk was anything to go by then Josie was doing a terrible job at hiding how out of breath she was.

“Where is here?” Josie asked, looking around.

“The Lockwood cellar on the old Lockwood estate.”

“Why?” Josie knew of the place, but she had never been there before.

“It’s abandon,” Hope explained. “It’s also far enough away that no one will find us here. I usually bring Raf here during the full moon. The only reason we weren’t here last time was because they got home late, and we didn’t have time to make it out here because the full moon. So, we had to settle with just going to the woods. Which is when we got caught.”

“Well, I know you aren’t happy by that situation but if it wasn’t for it then we never would have met,” Josie said. She was walking around looking at the area before turning to stare back at Hope. “So, I’m happy it happened.”

Hope smiled at Josie’s words. “I’m happy about that too,” she said softly.

“My mom told me about this place,” Josie mentioned, walking around the area again. “She used to come here with Tyler Lockwood and help with his transition.”

“She sounds amazing. I don’t know many vampires that would get in close quarters with a werewolf.”

Josie couldn’t help but chuckle. It was true, she’s never met a vampire who wanted to spend the night with a werewolf during their transition. She knew her mom and Tyler had dated but it was still amazing how fearless her mom was when it came to helping her friends.

“She really is,” Josie agreed. Her smile fell, she couldn’t help but think about how much she missed her mom. It had been a while since they’d seen her, she was always traveling, she hadn’t been home in a while and if she did come home, it was a couple days at most then she was off again. “She’s the best.”

“I figured we’d work out here for now. We can use the cellar if we need it, but we shouldn’t with what we’re doing today. You ready?” Hope asked. Her voice was soft.

“Yeah,” Josie said changing her mood immediately. She truly was excited to be learning offensive magic and to be spending time with Hope.

The first thing Hope taught Josie was the spell she used to fight the gargoyle. It was just a simple wind spell, but Hope showed her how she added another spell to change it and make it more for combat. Josie wasn’t used to combining spells like that, so she was already thrilled to be learning something new.

Hope made a couple makeshift targets for Josie to practice on. The first few tries of throwing the wind slice weren’t good. She missed the target by a lot. Hope was super patient with her though and never got frustrated. She just encouraged Josie and gave her tips to help her better focus and aim the spell.

Josie tried again and this time the wind slice whooshed through the air slashing the makeshift wood dummy in half. Josie jumped up and down not able to contain her excitement. She knew it probably wasn’t very impressive to Hope but she couldn’t help but be excited after missing so many times. However, when she turned to Hope she saw the other girl had just as big of a smile.

“That was great!” Hope praised.

Josie blushed; she shook her head. “It was nothing,” she said trying to tone down her excitement. She figured Hope was just trying to humor her.

“Hey, this was great.” Hope reassured her. “You’re doing excellent. This is day one of training, we haven’t been out here very long, and you’ve already managed to memorize a totally new spell that’s really two spells combined, and you’ve managed to aim it properly after a few tries. You’re incredible.”

Josie wanted to deny it again, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that with the way Hope was looking at her. “Come on, I mean sure it’s great, but a wood dummy isn’t like taking on a full-on gargoyle.”

“True, but last time I checked this spell didn’t do a whole when going against something stone. In other situations, against other monsters this will be lethal.”

“I guess.”

“Hey, stop underselling yourself. You’re doing great and you’re going to kick serious ass next time we fight a monster.”

Josie laughed at that causing Hope to join in. She liked hearing Hopes laugh. She liked seeing Hope so carefree and not stressing over monsters or saving people or keeping some huge secret. Josie always did well in school but hearing someone like Hope saying how great she was doing was a nice change. She wasn’t used to someone with so much power complimenting her. Her and Lizzie didn’t get many compliments when it came to power simply because they were siphoners.

“Let’s run this spell a few more times before moving onto something else, yeah?”

Josie nodded then got back into position. She faced her next target and began the spell. Once again, she hit it dead center. Then proceeded to do the same with the other targets set up.

“Maybe with more practice I’ll be able to aim it well enough that I can hit a smaller target,” Josie said.

“That’s definitely something we should practice. If you manage to figure it out before me maybe, you’ll be teaching me.”

Josie gave a small smile at the thought. She couldn’t imagine perfecting a part of a spell before Hope enough that she was teaching it to the other girl. There was no way she was that talented.

“Got any fire spells we’ll be practicing?” Josie asked innocently.

Hope just laughed. “You really are a little pyromaniac, aren’t you?”

“Hey, fire is a very useful in combat,” Josie defended, crossing her arms, pouting.

Hope smiled at Josie’s reaction. “I got a few I can teach you.” Josie’s eyes lit up; she dropped her arms in anticipation. “But not today.” Josie frowned but would hold Hope to it to teach her more fire spells.

“Fine, what’s next?”

Hope taught her a few more spells using the wind. It seemed Hope was sticking with an air theme for their first lesson. As much as Josie loved fire she couldn’t complain, all the element spells were fun to learn, and Hope was teaching her some pretty cool ones with the wind. Some of them weren’t even that dangerous unless the user intended to use them for harm, she wasn’t sure why her dad wouldn’t let them be taught at the school.

After a few hours of practicing Josie had learned so many cool things she could do with the wind and air. One of them being creating small tornadoes. The hard part was controlling it, so it didn’t get to big and then controlling it when it dispersed. She still hadn’t quite gotten full control of her tornadoes yet before they called it a day. There was only one time where Hope had to interfere when Josie’s tornado started to get to big and out of control. The other girl remained calm and easily got rid of the tornado before it could become a danger.

Josie was surprised when Hope didn’t scold her or yell at her after that. All Hope did was let out a small chuckle and say that it was okay, and it would take time. That spell in particular was difficult and took a while to truly master. Any spell involving controlling an element that way required a lot of practice and concentration.

They made their way back into town and Josie was thoroughly exhausted. She hadn’t done so much walking and magic practicing ever. It took a lot out of her. Part of her wanted to go back home and just collapse into bed the rest of the weekend. The other part of her didn’t want to go home yet and just wanted to hang out with Hope. Training was fun but she still wanted to be friends with the other girl.

“Hey,” Hope said hesitantly, she was rubbing her hand on the back of her neck. If Josie didn’t know any better, she’d say Hope was nervous, but Hope didn’t seem like the type of person to get nervous. She was the type of person to stare down a dragon and not blink. “Are you hungry? We could go to the Grill and get something?”

Josie contained herself from literally jumping up and down and settled for s sweet smile. “Sure,” she said.

Hope returned her smile, and they made their way to the Grill. They walked in a comfortable silence just enjoying the day and each other’s presence. Josie couldn’t believe how comfortable she was around someone she’d known for only a couple of weeks.

When they entered the Grill Hope nodded to one of her co-workers and gestured to an area, when her co-worker nodded back Hope lead Josie to a table.

“So, what’s it like working here?” Josie asked as she slid into the booth, Hope slipping into the other side.

“Eh, it’s customer service,” Hope answered.

“I’m sure you love it, being the people person, you are.”

“Oh, you know it, what gave it away?”

Josie laughed at Hopes sarcasm. Hope joining in with a soft laugh of her own. Hope had smiled at or laughed with Josie plenty of times, but Josie knew that wasn’t the normal for Hope. She didn’t get how Hope could seem so relaxed and open when she was still so guarded and mysterious.

Hopes co-worker came by to take their order. They both ordered waters and Hope ordered a burger and fries while Josie went for a veggie wrap. They also ordered shakes, Josie stuck with her classic strawberry while Hope ordered what was apparently her usual, a peanut butter blaster with whip cream on the bottom. When Josie gave her, a questioning look at the unusual order Hope just shrugged. Josie couldn’t help the small smile that formed, she was really enjoying learning the little things about Hope.

While they ate their food, they made casual conversation. Josie got a much better idea of how little TV Hope watched and how few movies she’d seen. Josie knew Hope wasn’t into that stuff, she learned that at the party when they talked but the girl had never seen Harry Potter. Josie was going to make it her mission to get the older girl to watch all the Harry Potter movies.

When the waitress brought the check Josie started to take out her wallet, but Hope waved her off. Josie shook her head, insisting she pay for herself. Before she could argue more though Hope handed her card to the waitress and when she walked away Hope turned back to smile innocently at Josie. Josie just glared at the girl.

“I could have paid for myself,” Josie said again.

“I know,” Hope said. “But you did great today and let’s just say this is a congratulations on a first day well done and an apology on my bad teaching.”

Despite her annoyance with Hope and the paying Josie couldn’t help but smile at that. “You’re a pretty good teacher if I do say so myself.”

“Helps when the student is already a natural.”

Even after the girl brought Hope’s card back, they sat and talked a little longer. The day was still pretty early, and Josie didn’t want it to end. She didn’t want to go back to the school just yet. She knew she would see Hope again but it was going to be at least a week before they were alone again, and it was going be for another training session. Before it ended though Josie knew she had to ask about something she had been wondering.

“So,” Josie drawled out, playing with the straw in her empty glass. “Maya seems nice.” Josie’s eyes shot to Hope real quick for a reaction then just a quickly went back to concentrating on her straw.

“She is,” Hope said softly. “She was one of the first people I met when I got here.” Josie could tell Hope really cared about the other girl with the way she spoke. She also clearly trusted the other girl considering she was human and knew about the supernatural which was surprising considering how hard Hope tried to keep everything secret from them. She couldn’t figure out if they were more than friends though. “She’s a great friend,” Hope continued.

Josie’s eyes snapped up to look at Hope at that. The other girl was smirking. Josie really wasn’t as subtle as she thought. She figured she might as well just outright ask what she wanted to know.

“So, you two aren’t?” Josie vaguely tried gesturing to indicate what she meant.

Hope laughed at Josie’s attempts at asking her if she and Maya were dating. “No, we’re just friends,” Hope assured. “Very good friends. But just friends.”

Josie was trying to think of something else, anything else, to keep the conversation going. When the conversation was over, she knew they would leave and then she would be on her way back to Salvatore.

“Would you want to come back to my place?” Hope asked.

Josie’s eyes widened. She just stared at Hope, mouth slightly agape. She couldn’t form any words. She wasn’t even sure what was going through her mind. Hope was inviting her back to her place. Sure, she wanted to go but she wasn’t sure the context of the question. She couldn’t figure out why Hope wanted her to come back to her place.

“To hangout!” Hope said quickly “I mean would you like to come over to hang out?” she said slower. “Today’s been fun. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any plans and I enjoy talking to you and so if you don’t have any plans and would also like to continue this then we could go back to my place,” Hope rambled. “To hang out.”

Josie couldn’t contain her smile. Hope was so cool and confident but seeing her flustered was adorable. Josie knew she was one to ramble so she couldn’t judge when someone else did it especially when she wasn’t doing much better in the situation, but hearing Hope ramble was so cute.

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Josie finally answered, putting the other girl out of her misery.

“Great.”

They left the restaurant and headed over to Hopes place. Her apartment wasn’t too far from the Grill. It was actually only a few minutes away. That made it very convenient for Hope when she had to work. She didn’t have to worry about driving to get there on time or finding some other sort of transportation, she could just walk.

Instead of entering through the gym like Josie thought they would Hope took them around the side of the building. There was a small set of stairs that lead to a door. Josie followed Hope up the stairs then Hope pulled out a key unlocking the door. They weren’t in her apartment yet but a small hallway. Hope lead her down the hallway, finally stopping at another door. Hope opened the door, stepping aside to allow Josie to enter first.

When Josie stepped over the threshold that was Hopes apartment, she couldn’t help but take it all in. It was small but it was all Hope. It was like she was getting a look into Hopes mind. Seeing things that she would never learn just through conversation. She was seeing all the little details that made Hope Hope.

There was stuff scattered throughout the apartment but somehow Hope was also a minimalist. It was like she had the basic necessities of furniture and appliances but then everything else was all magic. There was grimoires, scrolls, candles, crystals, and other magical objects spread throughout the apartment. To anyone else it would probably look disorganized and chaotic but looking close enough Josie could see an order to the madness. Most of the spell books out in the open looked like basic spell books with maybe some offensive spells in them. Josie knew Hope dabbled in the darker arts, so she was sure she had her more dangerous materials hidden somewhere. Even in her own home Hope was still guarded.

The most personal things in the apartment was Hopes art. There was brushes, colored, pencils, charcoal, sketch pads, and canvases all over the place. She had what Josie assumed was her finished work leaning against the wall and in the corner next to the TV.

“You can look,” Hopes voice came, breaking Josie out of her trance. She hadn’t realized she was staring at the stack of canvases.

Josie made her way over to the canvases and started to flip through them. The majority of them were dark in color, so much black mixed with red or blue. It was intense. Josie could only imagine what was going through Hopes head when she painted them. Josie knew Hope was an artist, but she didn’t realize how good the older girl was.

“These are amazing,” she whispered.

“Thank you,” Hope said just as softly.

Josie didn’t have to look at Hope to know she was standing off to the side staring at Josie. She was watching her. Josie didn’t feel like she was being watched in a bad way. More like Hope was curious at seeing Josie walk around her place, probably trying to decipher what was going on in Josie’s mind.

Josie made her way over to the coffee table where there was a couple sketch books lying atop it.

“May I?” Josie asked, pointing to the sketchbook on top. Hope nodded and Josie grabbed the sketchbook, slowly starting to flip through it.

The sketches inside were not what Josie would have guessed. It was filled with pages and pages of monsters. Each page had its own monster, and every page had a different monster. They were so detailed. There were some Josie recognized from fiction but others she had no idea what they were. When Josie finally got to the last page with a sketch, she saw the gargoyle. That’s when she realized what the book was.

“Is this?” Josie tried to ask; she knew but she needed to hear Hope say it. Hope only nodded. “And these are all ones you’ve seen?”

Hope nodded again. “All ones I’ve encountered.” Josie closed the book; meeting Hopes gaze for the first time since entering the apartment. “Any monster I’ve faced, I draw it.”

“Wow, you’ve really been doing this a while.” Josie already knew that, but she didn’t fully realize how long Hope had actually been fighting monsters.

“Triad liked to start me young.” Hope let out a humorless laugh. Her gaze got distant for a second after she said Triad, but she quickly came back to herself.

Josie was still learning everything, and she knew Hope still had plenty of secrets, but she couldn’t imagine what Triad had done to her. She was curious but she knew better than to ask. They were nowhere near close enough for that kind of talking yet, but she hoped one day Hope would trust her enough to confide in her. Whatever Triad did she knew it wasn’t good. She only got bits and pieces based on the way Hope and Landon talked or acted when talking about them, but she already knew Triad were the real monsters.

Josie decided to try changing the subject. “What’s in this one?” Josie picked up the sketch book that was under the monster one. She was hoping it wasn’t also filled with monsters. She didn’t want to cause Hope any pain by talking about the evil company that held her captive her entire life.

“Not that one!” Hope shouted, but Josie was already flipping through.

It was better than monsters. There was just a bunch of more normal sketches, nature, people, animals. There was a lot of portfolio pieces. A handful of Landon, Rafael, Maya, and some boy. Josie figured the boy was from around town because one of the sketches had him and Maya together. When Josie got to the last page, she saw herself.

She looked back up at Hope to see the other girls face redder than she ever imagined it could go and Hope wouldn’t even look at her, her eyes glancing all around the room, looking anywhere but at Josie.

“Wow,” is all Josie could say. She didn’t realize anyone could capture her that way. She never had someone draw her before.

“Sorry,” Hope said. She rubbed the back of her neck, still refusing to look at Josie. “I needed a break after adding to my monster collection and I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

“It’s amazing.”

Hope finally looked at Josie at that. “I mean it’s nothing really. I just drew what I saw.”

“No one’s ever done that to me before. This is what I was wearing at the party. You did this after only spending time with me once?”

Hope blushed again but answered, “You’re impossible to forget.”

It was Josie’s turn to blush. “I love it,” she whispered.

“You can have it.”

“No, no, I couldn’t.” Josie did love the drawing, but she didn’t want Hope to feel like she had to give it to her.

“Seriously, think of it as a gift. Plus, I can always draw another. You’re very inspiring.”

Josie looked away trying to hide her smile. No one had ever said anything like that to her, not even Penelope when they were dating.

“Thank you.”

Josie made her way through the rest of Hopes apartment. Since it was so small the only room left was Hopes bedroom. It was the same as the rest of the apartment, there was a bed then books on magic, myths, legends, and monsters scattered about.

“What’s this?” Josie asked walking around to see the canvas that currently sat on the easel.

“Just a little something I was finishing up.”

“Wow.” It was dark like the other paintings, all blacks, and grays. The only color coming from the two red eyes staring through the trees of the forest.

“Eyes of a wolf?” Josie questioned. She had been wanting to ask Hope something for a while and the painting seemed like it might be the icebreaker she needed.

Hope smirked. “I like wolves,” she answered.

“Is that because you are one?” Josie was hesitant to ask but she had seen the girls’ eyes, she wanted to know what she was. She knew Hope was a witch, she’d seen her do magic, she even helped her, but she also saw her eyes flash gold and she saw the way Rafael seemed to follow her lead above everyone else’s.

Josie thought Hope might be mad at her question or close herself off and kick Josie out but when Josie looked at Hope again, she saw Hope was still just smirking at her. When Josie looked her in the eyes for a moment Hope just shrugged.

“How is that possible? I’ve never heard of a werewolf and a witch.”

“I’m not really sure,” Hope answered honestly. “I only know what Triad told me.”

“Obviously you’re a full witch, I’ve witnessed that myself. Are you a full werewolf? Can you shift? Did you have to trigger the curse? Were you born this way? Did Triad…” Josie trailed off not wanting to finish the rest of that question. She hoped to god that Hope wasn’t part wolf because Triad had experimented on her.

“Always so full of questions,” Hope sighed.

Josie dropped her gaze. She needed to learn when to shut her mouth. No matter what she was curious about, it didn’t mean everyone wanted to answer all her questions. Some people liked their privacy and Hope didn’t seem like the biggest on sharing.

“Sorry, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, obviously.” Josie mumbled still not wanting to look at Hope.

When she finally did look at Hope she saw no hostility or any indication she had offended Hope. Hope was only looking at her with what Josie could only describe as a fond smile with the hints of a smirk.

“Yes, I am a full wolf. I did have to trigger my curse. I can shift. However, and I’m only telling you this cause I feel like you’ll ask anyway, I can control the change unlike normal wolves.”

“So that’s why you didn’t need the transition cell.”

Hope nodded. “We were out in the woods cause I was helping Raf with the shift. Landon and Raf found each other in foster care but when Raf triggered his curse Landon realized what he was and called me. I escaped Triad and came to them. It’s been a year a half, but I’ve been trying to get Raf to learn a little more control and just make the transition easier. He makes it difficult though.”

Josie laughed at that. She had only known the trio for about 2-weeks but in those 2-weeks Rafael had made it very clear where he stood. Jed had been trying to get him to submit and join the pack, but Rafael had brushed him off at every chance. Josie knew Jed was getting irritated. No wolf refused to join the pack. It was only a matter of time before someone snapped and it would most likely be Jed. Josie didn’t want to be near when it happened though. She’d seen Jed and the other wolves fight plenty of times, but she didn’t want to see Jed and Rafael go at it. She had no idea who would come out on top if that happened.

“How’d you trigger it?” Josie’s eyes widened as she realized what she just asked. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Hope said quietly. “How about we save that kind of talk for later. I’d rather get to know you a little better before I make you think less of me.” Hope let out a hollow laugh.

“I don’t think that’s possible.” Hope shrugged. Josie knew Hope didn’t believe her. “There’s nothing in your past that could make me think less of you.”

“I highly doubt that.” It came out as a whisper, if they weren’t standing right next to each other in the same room Josie is sure she would have missed it. Before Josie could argue against the claim again, Hope continued, “So, do you like art? What do you enjoy?”

Josie knew Hope was trying to change the topic to something lighter. As much as Josie wanted to continue the previous discussion, she wouldn’t question the change. They barely knew each other, they were nowhere near close enough for deep talks like that, so Josie would just have to wait until they were.

“I am definitely not an artist,” Josie said, smiling. Hope returned her smile, the mood instantly lightened. “Not like you at least.” Josie turned to look back at the painting on the easel. “You really are incredible.” Hope smirked and Josie rolled her eyes. She really didn’t need to stroke Hopes ego. “But I like to sing.”

“Yeah? Play any instruments or just sing?”

“I know how to play the piano but I’m quite fond of the ukulele.”

Hope tilted her head but gave her that same soft smile she’d been giving her. Josie knew the ukulele was a more unique instrument, but she loved it.

“That’s really cool.”

“I’ve also dabbled at writing. I’m not fully sure on the songs, they’re mostly for fun, but I really like it.”

“Well maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to hear you play sometime.”

They spent the rest of the day sitting in Hopes apartment just talking about things they liked again. It was mostly Josie talking about music or books but Hope also went of tangents about art. The other girl really didn’t like abstract art. Josie found she could listen to Hope talk about art for hours. So, they did until it got too late, and Josie had to head back to school.

Josie left Hopes with the hope that every Saturday after their magic lessons would be like that. She enjoyed spending time with Hope just the two of them. Hope gave Josie her undivided attention and responded like she actually listened and care about what Josie said, even if it was just about something as stupid a meaningless as her favorite color.

Chapter Text

Hope made her way through the familiar white hallways, escorted by her two guards, like always. They opened a door, pushing her into the plain white room. Everything about the room was white, the whole place really, it was all completely devoid of color. The only things in the room were small silver cameras.

She knew the guards were still outside the door even if she couldn’t see them, they were always there. She stepped into the middle of the room and waited. She had been doing the same thing for years now. She wondered what the lesson was for the day, which witch was going to be teaching her.

The white room was the only room she was allowed to practice magic in. She was given spell books to study in her free time as they called it, but she was only ever allowed to actually do magic in the white room. Any other time they made her wear a magic nullifying bracelet. Hope hated it, it felt restricting, like it was holding her back. The only time she ever felt free was when the bracelet was off, when she felt the magic thrumming through her, she felt invincible.

One of the reasons for the bracelet was to help her control her magic. Even though she had been practicing since before she could walk, she still struggled with control even at 10-years-old. The other reason was that they didn’t trust her. Hope knew Triad didn’t trust her. She was more powerful than all of them and they needed to control her.

When the other door opened a witch stepped in. Hope never knew her name, none of them had names, they just had prison numbers. The only reason Hope had a name was because one of the Triad agents that took care of her named her that. It didn’t stop some agents referring to her as a number, or The Tribrid, a mistake, an abomination. The only reason Landon had a name was because of Seylah, otherwise everyone was just a number, they were all disposable.

Hope followed the witches lead and sat in front of her in the middle of the room. She had trained with this witch a few times. She always seemed nice, but she wasn’t very talkative. The witch didn’t treat her cruelly, like some did because of what she was, but she wasn’t warm either, she was always silent unless speaking to Hope about their lesson.

The witch removed Hopes bracelet, Hope felt herself come alive, like she was breathing for the first time in days. The witch started off with the basics of the spell they would be doing. She did the spell to show Hope how to do it. It was creating small gusts of wind to change the airflow or move objects.

They practiced spells involving the elements a lot. One of the elements would always be near so they were some of the most useful spells, they were also great in combat. Every elemental spell she was taught could be used for survival, whether it was lighting a small fire to keep warm or setting one to burn down a village, pulling water from a plant so to not die of dehydration or to create waves to pull someone under.

“You’re very good,” the witch spoke. It was the first time she had spoken to Hope the entire lesson, it was the first time she spoke to Hope not related to the lesson. She was whispering. She glanced towards the cameras every once in a while. They were always watched; Hope didn’t understand what made that day any different.

“They fear you,” she whispered in Hopes ear as they stood up. “You could destroy them all, if you’d allow it.”

“I’m a mistake,” Hope whispered back. “I shouldn’t even exist.”

“No.” Her voice wasn’t harsh but firm. “You are so much more than that.”

Hope was about to say something when the guards charged into the room.

“Remember,” the witch whispered, looking into Hopes eyes. “You decide who you want to be. You control your story.” With that the witch turned around using her magic to fling the guards back.

Hope didn’t have time to process what was happening. The witch had taken out all the guards and more were storming in, their guns drawn.

Hope watched as the guards swarmed the witch. They were trying to get a magic nullifying bracelet on her. Every time one hit her with their gun or tried to stun her, she seemed ready, she was blocking and flinging them back as if they were nothing.

Hope felt rough hands grab onto her shoulders and start to drag her back. Hope didn’t realize her magic nullifying bracelet was still off until the room started to shake, and the lights flickered.

 Everyone froze looking around the room then to Hope. There was a shift in the atmosphere. The grip of the guard holding Hope loosened. No one moved.

While everyone was frozen the witch took the opportunity to throw back some guards again. That snapped everyone out of their daze.

The guards continued to beat the witch until another guard stepped into the room. Hope didn’t have to turn to look at him, she knew who it was. He was a particularly cruel guard; she’d know his footsteps anywhere.

He pulled out a little black box from the clip on his belt and pressed the button.

The guards halted their movements, stepping back as the witch shook violently. Her hand shooting to her neck, where the pain seemed to be coming from. She collapsed. Her body spasming for a few seconds on the floor. Until it finally stopped and all that was left was the witches lifeless eyes looking into Hopes.

Hope fell out of the guard’s grasp, crashing to her knees, letting out a wave of magic. The magic sent everyone else in the room flying backwards. The room continued to shake. Hope let out another wave of magic. Lights burst; sparks rained down on them. The ceiling caved in. Walls crumbled.

The agent who had killed the witch. The agent who always made sure to cause Hope as much pain as possible. That agent managed to pull himself to his feet and make his way over to where Hope was still kneeling on the ground.

Hope was trying to reign in her magic. She knew she needed to gain control, or she’d bring the whole building down on them, which wouldn’t necessarily be a negative but there were innocents in the building so she couldn’t risk it.

The agent stood before Hope, but she didn’t meet his eyes. The agent flipped the gun in his hand and struck her with the butt of it. Hope fell to the floor, the hit distracting her enough to calm the magic inside her slightly.

He hit her again, this time near her mouth. She could taste the blood pooling in her mouth from her split lip.

The witches’ words rang in her head. She controlled her story. She could decide how this all played out. They were afraid of her. She could destroy them all. She had the power, she just needed to be willing to use it.

The agent brought the gun down again on her. His hits were getting harder. Despite the slight dizziness she felt from the last hit, Hope spit out some of the blood in her mouth on the shiny white floor. She looked up at the agent, whatever he saw in her eye gave him pause before bringing the gun down on her again.

She smiled at his hesitation, his weakness. She imagined it was a rather devilish grin with her blood coated mouth. The agent seemed to regain his composure, hardening his gaze again, there was still hesitation as he flexed his fingers gripping the gun.

Before he could move Hope held out her arms, letting out a piercing scream as she let out the biggest wave of magic yet. The agent flew back, his body getting impaled by one of the metal rods from a piece of ceiling that had fallen. He gurgled, joking on his own blood as he struggled for breath for a second before it all stopped, his head slumping to the side. He was dead. Hope had killed him.

Hope fell forward, sticking her arms out to brace herself. She could feel her eyes had changed; they were yellow. She had triggered her curse. She really had just taken the life of someone. Hope didn’t know how to process that. She wasn’t sad if anything she felt satisfaction at taking her tormentors life.

No. Not this one.

Hope tilted her head. She thought she had heard something. Almost as if there was a whisper.

Before she could think about it any further, she was being grabbed again. This time she didn’t have time to react before a needle was being shoved into her neck, then everything went black.

When Hope woke up again, she wasn’t in her room. She was lying on the ground in a different white cell, this one had nothing in it. There was one giant steel door. Her head was pounding, she tried to blink the blurriness from her eyes. They had injected her with something, probably some concoction of wolfsbane and vervain they made up.

“Welcome back,” a voice from a speaker came. She vaguely recognized it. She never met the man, but she’d heard his voice plenty of times. He was one of the scientists who always helped run tests. They always called it ‘research,’ Hope wouldn’t call anything they do research, strapping someone to a table even if they were a monster and running thousands of tests on them to see what they could take wasn’t research.

“The full moon is in a few days,” he said, always monotoned. “You will be staying in there until your transition.”

“I thought I could control my transition,” Hope said, finding her voice for the first time since she woke up.

“The first one isn’t optional. After that you’ll be able to control the shift. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you.”

A shiver ran up Hopes spine. They were telling the truth. They would teach her to control the shift. They would have her study the packs. They would have her work with other wolves. They would also push her to her limits. She had activated another part of herself. They would try pushing her to see how strong she was, how fast, how far her power went now, just like they did with her magic.

The next few days passed quickly. Hope never left the room. She never saw anyone. Someone would slip a water bottle and an apple through the door twice a day and that’s the closest she came to interacting with someone. Hope ate when she had to but otherwise spent the days curled up in a ball on the floor. The only reason she knew it was the day of the full moon was because she could feel the pull of it.

“It’s almost time,” the scientists voice crackled through the speaker.

A few minutes later Hope jerked forward feeling her ankle break.

Her arm snapped.

She screamed in pain as the other arm twisted in another direction.

She felt her gums ripping as her canines took form.

Her breathing was becoming ragged.

The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt.

She took a few deep breaths then focused on the pain. She let it all in. She let it consume her.

She found the best way to deal with the pain was just to accept it. Fighting only ever made it worse, it dragged it out.

So, she didn’t fight it.

She welcomed it.

A few moments later the pain stopped.

She had fully shifted. Once she embraced the pain the change was almost instant.

Hope paced the room. She hated to be so confined.

She started throwing herself against the door.

Even though the door was metal and held wolves during their shift before after slamming her body into the door a few times it finally burst open.

She took off down the hall the second that she could.

She didn’t know where she was going, she had never been outside the facility before, she had never been outside her cell unless it was with an armed guard.

She made her way through the building, bursting through a door that said exit. Just as her paws hit the grass, she felt a large zap in her neck.

She yelped in pain as she got zapped again, losing her footing, and crashing to the ground.

There was another long zap before everything went black again.

Still not it.

When Hope woke up again, she was in what she assumed was another plain white room. It wasn’t her room, and she busted the door on the last one, so she figured it was a new room. She was once again lying on the ground this time however when she stood up, she realized she had a collar on.

Hope brought her hands to the collar. It was a large metal collar, just tight enough that she had room to move her head. She couldn’t feel any buttons, it was completely smooth. She went to curl her fingers under the collar, to try and rip it off, but the second her fingers went between her neck and the collar she felt large shock come from the collar and extend through her body. She collapsed to her knees again, growling in pain.

She pressed her palms to the cold white floor, her claws were out, scraping along the nice clean tile. When she lifted her head, her eyes were glowing yellow, she also felt her canines poking out of her gums. Her panting was ragged as she tried to regain control of herself.

“There will be none of that,” the scientist from early spoke over the speaker.

Hope didn’t say anything, just let out a snarl.

“This will be part of your new training,” the scientist continued. “You will be wearing this collar until you learn to control your wolf. You will do as we say when we say it. You will turn when we tell you to turn. If we say to turn five times in a row, then you will do that.

Hope growled. She wasn’t going to be their puppet.

“If you disobey us,” he pressed the button, shocking her again. “That happens. Nothing like a couple thousand volts to keep you in check.”

“And what if I just decide to rip this thing off and kill you?” Hope finally spoke. She almost never spoke to the scientist, but it was an unusual occasion.

“You seem to care for the boy,” he said. Hope knit her eyebrows together, she wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “We’ve killed him a bunch and he just won’t stay dead.”

Hope let out a loud warning growl.

The scientist ignored her and continued, “We will stop with the killing.” Hope paused, looking up at the camera questioningly. Triad was never one haggle. When Triad wanted something, they just took it, not caring about the casualties. “If you don’t resist, we will stop killing him.” Hope waited for him to continue, there had to be more, there was always something else. “However,” he spoke again. “If you do not obey us, we will not only kill him but make it as agonizing as we can. He doesn’t heal, not like you, more like a human. All he does is come back to life after he dies. We can drag a death out for days.”

Hope bared her teeth, swallowing the growl she was about to release again.

“So, do we have a deal?” the scientist asked. At least he made it seem like a question. They both knew Hope didn’t have a choice. She would never let Landon go through that just to save herself.

Hope didn’t say a word, instead just grunted and dropped her hands from around the collar. She stepped back into the middle of the room, her arms resting at her side as she awaited her orders.

“Good,” he said lastly. Hope may have never seen the man in person, but she would bet he was smiling when he said that. “Let’s begin.”

They ran through drill after drill.

They would test her strength, her speed, her reflexes. They were seeing where she was at in terms of a regular wolf. Apparently, she was off the charts. Whenever she beat a record, they would just push her harder, have her lift more, have her run longer, make the obstacle course more difficult for her to dodge things.

They would have her fight other wolves, then started upgrading her to monsters. Each one she beat they upgraded her to a stronger and more dangerous one.

A group of guards, five or more, would enter the room and would beat her. At first it started with punching and kicking, then even they upgraded to hitting her with wood staffs, then they upgraded again to metal shock batons.

They would do that until she learned control. She wasn’t allowed to shift when they beat her. If she started to shift the doctor would shock her until she stopped, then they would beat her harder. It went on usually until she passed out.

It took weeks if not months, she isn’t really sure how much time because it all became such a blur before she could take the beatings without shifting in the slightest. If she showed her wolf eyes it was because she was in control and chose to, it wasn’t a defense out of anger anymore.

They tested her healing ability. They tested to see just how far they could beat her or injure her without killing her.

They tested how long it took her to heal from various stab wounds. From a normal knife to a sword, to enchanted magical objects.

They tested how long it took her to heal after being shot. They once again used a variety of bullets and shot them out of a variety of guns.

They strapped her to a metal slab and shocked her, turning the dial up a notch to see how far it could go before her heart stopped.

They broke various bones to see how long it took her to heal.

They compared her healing to that of a normal werewolf and also to that of a vampire. They found that she healed much faster than a werewolf and because of her vampire blood even though her vampire side wasn’t activated she still healed just as fast as they would, some wounds she healed even quicker from if the weapon used to injure her was wood.

They tried to break her. They did everything they could to push her to her limit.

She refused to let that happen though. She channeled her hatred for all of them to help endure the pain. She channeled it to make her stronger. She let it make her stronger, she let her anger build because one day she was going to kill them all.

None of this. What is it going to take?

She heard it again. It was definitely a whisper. It was still a disembodied voice. She couldn’t make it out. It felt different than the rest, it wasn’t clear like when anyone else spoke.

Before she could think on it more everything was fading to black.

When she woke up again, she was no longer in a white room. She was in what seemed to be a warehouse. Hope was on the walkway of the second floor. When she looked around, she saw a few rooms with lab equipment but no people.

Hope walked to the railing and peered down to the first floor. In the center of the ground was a giant mud pit.

Malivore

“Malivore,” Hope whispered. He was literally just a giant mud puddle, which was what everyone was so afraid of. That was Triads biggest asset. A puddle of mud.

“Or as I like to call him, dear old dad,” A voice came from behind her.

Hope turned to see Ryan Clarke standing there, Malivore’s other son, Landon’s older brother.

Hope looked at Clarke curiously. He joined her at the railing, looking down at his father. Hope couldn’t take her eyes off him. It was like he was the key, a missing puzzle piece.

Clarke glanced at her having noticed her studying him. He chuckled awkwardly like he tended to do.

“He can’t rise,” Clarke said.

Hope ignored him. She just kept staring at him. She was missing something. She knew she was missing something.

“The knife is safe right?” Clarke asked.

That snapped Hope out of her thoughts, she asked, “What?”

“We can’t let him get the knife. If he does, he could rise. Then it’s game over.”

“Something’s not right,” Hope whispered to herself. She furrowed her brow, looking to the ground. It wasn’t right. She just didn’t know why.

“You still have it right?” Clarke asked again. “Maybe we should get it, make sure it’s safe.”

Hopes eyes snapped back up to Clarke, this time with realization.

“I’ve never had this conversation with you. I’ve never been in this room with you,” she continued to whisper as the pieces fell into place. She knew what was going.

“Where’s the knife Hope?” Clarke asked, the awkwardness had left his body, his posture stiffened, his gaze bored into her.

“This isn’t real,” Hope said louder.

“Where is the knife!” the voice came out of Clarke’s mouth, but it wasn’t Clarkes voice. It was the voice from before, the disembodied one she had been hearing.

“This isn’t real,” Hope said to herself again. “I need to wake up.”

Clarke grabbed onto Hopes shoulders, his eyes had become black. Hope pushed the nightmare Clarke away from her. She grabbed her left wrist, snapping it with as much strength as she could.

Hope shot up in her bed, panting and gripping her wrist, she was dripping with sweat. She sat there, closing her eyes which she knew were glowing yellow, so she could focus on her breathing which after a couple minutes of deep breaths had become less ragged.

They had been fighting monsters the last few weeks. It was usually only one a week, usually they weren’t too difficult to handle, and it was a quick cleanup but this one was clearly different. They had fallen into a pattern Hope would work, the others would attend class, they’d fight a monster every now and then, and Hope would train Josie in offensive magic once a week, which was her favorite time of the week.

She slid off the bed, flexing her wrist slightly. It was still sore, but it had already mostly healed. There was a new monster in town. One that could enter peoples dreams while they slept and seemed could make them relive past memories or create new ones. The one with Clarke had never happened, that was something the monster created, but everything else, that was her life.

Hope grabbed a small map and did a quick spell to see who else the monster might be targeting. It was a very dangerous monster and whoever its other victims were, she had to make sure to get to them, it was hard for her to even come to the conclusion that she was in a dream, then there was the struggle of waking herself up. She hated doing it but breaking her wrist, causing her to experience an intense pain was the only sure way she knew would definitely wake someone up, especially if they were being affected by the dream demon.

On the map she saw the glow of multiple yellow dots surrounding The Salvatore school. Which wasn’t a surprise. The monster could sense other supernatural’s, it made sense it would seek out the place with the most of them. She also noticed a yellow dot away from the school and closer to town, not too far from her actually. She figured that had to be Hayley, she was the only other supernatural in town that wasn’t at the school.

Hope threw on her shoes and rushed out the door, her first destination being Hayley’s. She didn’t want Hayley to suffer to long under the monster’s influence. Plus, if she got to Hayley first then the hybrid could give her a ride to Salvatore, and she wouldn’t have to run the whole way.

Chapter Text

Hayley was in the compound resting. It had been a rough few days,’ they had just defeated Dahlia, but it had come at a cost, many lives were lost, mostly wolves. She was already struggling with leading the pack, all those deaths would only make things more uneasy going forward. Pack members had died because of her, because of her daughter.

Freya had warned them about Dahlia. That she would take Hope because she was a first born Mikaelson witch. Dahlia wanted power. She took Freya and raised her to control her power, but she also used her as a source for power. There was no doubt she would come after their daughter when she was born, once born, being a tribrid would make her the most powerful supernatural creature in the world.

They had tried preparing for Dahlia’s return, but she caught them off guard. She had somehow managed to return before their baby was even born. Apparently, she could sense the child’s arrival approaching and returned so she could be there to take the baby as soon as she was born.

Dahlia had kidnapped Hayley and planned on just keeping her prisoner until the child was born, then she was going to kill Hayley so no one would interfere with her taking the child. Dahlia took care of Hayley so she wouldn’t get hurt but she kept her chained up. Hayley didn’t know what Dahlia was planning exactly, she only saw the witch pacing back and forth and gathering supplies for her plan. She knew it was for the Mikaelson’s though, she saw the white oak stake.

Dahlia dragged Hayley out to where she would enact her plan, chaining her up again. Hayley saw Freya had also been captured and was chained up. Dahlia had intended to kill Freya. Dahlia had already been unlinked from Freya and once the baby was born, she would have no use for Freya, she would have no use for any other witch with that strong of a magic source by her side.

When the Mikaelson’s arrived Dahlia quickly subdued them, exploding the white oak dagger turning it to ash and spreading it so that Klaus, Elijah, and Rebekah each inhaled it, burning them from the inside.

Dahlia was about to kill Freya when she got distracted by Esther returning. Esther talking to her sister distracted her long enough for Freya to break free and throw the shackles on Dahlia. Freya managed to do a spell and remove the white oak ash from her siblings, saving them.

While Esther continued to talk Dahlia down Klaus managed to grab a dagger, stabbing Dahlia threw his mother, killing them both.

Elijah rushed to Hayley, ripping the chains off her. They embraced, relieved that the threat was finally over.

Close. Not it though.

Hayley knit her eyebrows; she could swear she heard the whispers of a disembodied voice. She was about to question it when she was interrupted by Elijah asking her something.

“What?” she asked quietly.

“Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” Elijah asked again, stepping back to give Hayley a once over to make sure there was no injuries.

Hayley shook her head and Elijah pulled her close once again. Hayley looked over and saw Rebekah checking on Freya. When she met eyes with Klaus, she could see him ask the silent question. Hayley nodded telling him she was okay, Klaus’s shoulders seemed to finally relax as he nodded back, relieved.

Everything had faded black and that’s when she woke back up at the compound, remembering it all.

She knew her baby was to be born any day based on what Dahlia had said. She wasn’t sure she was ready for it; she didn’t believe she was ready to be a mother. She never had a stable childhood growing up, she wanted her daughter’s life to be different, she was worried she wouldn’t be able to provide it though.

She knew her baby girl would be loved though. The Mikaelson’s were a lot of things but there was one thing consistent in all of them and that’s that they loved fiercely and that they would do anything to protect someone they cared about. But they had enemies, they had a thousand years’ worth of enemies. Hayley didn’t want her daughter’s life to be all bloodshed.

Even though the threat had ended things were still tense at the compound. Klaus and Marcel were at a temporary truce for the moment, but Hayley wasn’t sure how long it would last. They knew that people still wanted their child dead, she was a threat to the natural order of things. Her life would always be in danger.

Hayley made her way through the compound when she was attacked from behind. She felt a sharp pain in her head as she collapsed. Before she hit the ground, she felt someone catch her. When she started to regain consciousness, she was being dragged into the church.

Being attacked had induced labor. Hayley screamed as the witches lifted her onto the altar to deliver the baby. They told her that once the child was born, they were taking her and going to sacrifice her.

Getting closer.

Klaus burst through the doors, but the witches got him too, pinning him up against the wall so he couldn’t stop what was about to happen.

Hayley gave birth to their little girl and the witches allowed her to hold her for the first time. Despite being pinned against the wall and in a horrible situation Hayley had never seen so much love in Klaus’s eyes when he looked upon their daughter for the first time.

Hayley had only held her for what felt like a second before they were taking her away. She saw one of the witches bring out a knife and swipe it across her baby’s hand, dripping the blood into a goblet.

Before Hayley could react or do anything her throat was being slit. The last thing she heard before she died was one of the witches say, “Fascinating, even as a newborn she has healing…her blood could do so much.” Then everything went black.

When Hayley woke up again, she looked around frantic. She was alone. Klaus was gone and so were all the witches. And so was her daughter.

She rolled herself off the altar, slowly pulling herself to her feet. Everything was so bright, it was like she could hear everything, and there was an intense burning in the back of her throat.

That’s when she remembered, someone had slit her throat. She had died. She was in transition. The only explanation was her daughter.

She stumbled forward, trying to keep herself right side up. She found the goblet the witch had dripped some of her baby’s blood in. They hadn’t done anything with it or at least not all of it. From what she could remember it just seemed like the witch was curious of her little girl’s power, wanted to see her healing abilities.

She hated the idea but knew she had to do it. She brought the goblet to her lips and drank, completing her transition.

She made her way back to the compound where the Mikaelson’s were shocked to see her alive. They determined the same thing she did because she had died after just having her daughter, she was able to come back. She told them how she completed her transition.

As much as she wanted to go storming around the French Quarter slaughtering any witch who might know where her daughter was, she waited, impatiently, for Freya to do her spell and locate the coven. Once Freya located the coven Hayley, Marcel, and the Mikaelson siblings all headed out.

When they got to the cemetery, they instantly started killing witches. Hayley doesn’t know how many witches’ throats and hearts she ripped out. By the end of it, all the witches were dead but one and they were all drenched in blood.

She watched as Klaus questioned the last witch but the second, she said their daughter was gone everything went silent. Hayley didn’t hear Klaus rip out her throat or hear her body hit the ground, she only collapsed to her knees.

When they were searching the remnants of what happened, looking for any sign of their daughter and what happened to her they stumbled upon the charred remains of a baby.

At that Hayley collapsed again, this time into Elijah’s arms as she wailed. Rebekah also turned, burying her face into Marcel. Klaus stared and the remains, before turning and taking off without so much as a word to anyone.

There it is.

Everything went black after that. For days Hayley didn’t leave her room. She didn’t speak to anyone. At one point she got up, rushed out of the compound without saying anything to anyone and ran to the Bayou, shifting as soon as her feet touched the land.

The one plus side to being a hybrid was that she could shift whenever she wanted. She spent days as a wolf. She ran around the Bayou, howling in agony every night.

While she was running through the woods she came upon a puddle of mud, it made her pause and give it a second look. There was something familiar about it. Like she should know something.

Hayley was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a twig snap, she quickly turned her head to the noise. The next thing she knew when she was facing the direction the noise had come, she was in her human form, fully clothed. Something didn’t feel right, she couldn’t place what.

Where is it?

She heard the voice again. It didn’t sound like someone she knew but she felt like she should recognize it, in some way.

Hayley!

Another voice came. She knew she recognized it. Unlike the first voice it wasn’t disembodied but it sounded muffled, like someone was speaking to her from under water.

Hayley! You need to fight it.

The voice sounded like a girl. She didn’t know why she knew it though.

Where is the knife?

Hayley’s eyes snapped up at that. “Knife?” she questioned, more to herself. She knew she was supposed to know something, she just couldn’t figure out what.

Hayley heard a branch snap again. This time when she looked toward the sound, she saw Elijah stepping out of the shadows.

“Elijah?” she questioned again. She wasn’t surprised to see him, it made sense he would want to check on her. Even though he looked like Elijah and walked like him and was wearing an expensive suit Hayley couldn’t help but feel something was off.

“There you are,” Elijah’s voice came. “We were worried about you.”

“I’m fine, I just needed to run.” She tried shaking the uneasiness.

Elijah stepped closer so he was standing right in front of her. “Where’s the knife Hayley?”

Hayley knit her eyebrows together as she stared into Elijah’s eyes. She would have missed it if she weren’t staring directly into his eyes, but Elijah’s eyes shifted to an empty blackness then just as quickly shifted back.

Hayley stepped back out of Elijah’s reach. “You aren’t Elijah,” she whispered.

The fake Elijah’s expression fell, his eyes instantly shifting to the empty black color again.

“Where is the knife, Hayley?” Elijah’s voice came, it was slightly distorted, Hayley knew he wasn’t real.

Hayley!

That’s when she heard the other voice again, the girl, Hope. It was Hopes voice that’s why she recognized it. None of it was real. Everything happening was all in her head. Clearly there was a monster involved, forcing them to relive the worst moments in their life to try and get them to tell it where the knife was.

I need you to wake up!

She felt a sharp pain shoot through her arm and next thing she knew Hayley was jumping out of her bed. Her hand that wasn’t broke shot out, grabbing the person standing beside the bed by the throat and sped them across the room, slamming them into the wall. She didn’t use enough strength to push the person through the wall, but the wall did crack as soon as their body hit it.

Hayley was breathing heavy, her eyes glowing yellow as she stared into another pair of yellow eyes. The person against the wall had a steady heartbeat despite Hayley having her hand around their throat. The person closed their eyes and when they opened them again, they were no longer glowing yellow but a familiar blue.

Hayley wasn’t sure why but when she stared into the blue eyes she calmed. She released her grip around the person’s neck and slowly stepped back realizing the person she was holding against the wall was Hope.

Hayley ran her hands through her hair. It had been a dream. It was all a dream. None of it had been real.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s not your fault,” Hope said she was still watching her warily. “You good?”

Hayley nodded. Based on the look Hope gave her she didn’t believe her. Hayley was lying anyway. She wasn’t good. She was barely keeping it together. The dream had felt so real, it was like living the day of losing her daughter all over again.

“Right, there’s a dream demon or something after the knife,” Hope explained. “We need to get to the school; it’s going after some of them as well.”

Hayley nodded. She couldn’t stop seeing it. It was as if it had just happened once again. It took her seventeen years to get to where she was, and it was as if she reverted back to that day. She hadn’t been okay since then, but she had managed to go on, she had managed to focus on other things, she had managed to try and keep living, in some ways at least.

“Hayley.” Hopes voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Hope was watching her, waiting to see if she snapped, or broke down, or show any sign she wasn’t okay. “Are you sure you’re good?”

Hayley nodded; she turned wiping the tears that had started to form in her eyes. She looked back at Hope and nodded again. “Let’s go,” she said, her voice hollow of an emotion. “If that thing is attacking anyone at the school, we have to stop it.”

Hope hesitantly nodded but made her way out the door. Hayley took a few deep breaths before she followed.

Chapter Text

Landon was drowning. He lost count how many times he had done it that day. They had been killing him for years now, it was the most consistent thing in his life besides Hope. That day’s theme seemed to be drowning. He hated drowning. Drowning was more drawn out than the other ones. On the days he died he always hoped for a quick death, they were less painful. Even though he resurrected, and the pain was completely gone, until he died, he suffered, and he still remembered.

They had a device set up where they would cuff his legs and hands together. The chains were then connected to a machine that would lift him up till he was upside down then lowered into a tank of water. The tank was clear so he could see the scientist studying their computers to see how his body reacted when he died. He could see them just watch as he thrashed around and struggled for air even though it was no use.

He died again, and again, and again.

They didn’t stop until it was late, or he assumed it was late, they didn’t really allow him out in the sunlight. He and Hope learned they had a system for when they came and got them or when they fed them, that’s how they would tell time.

The next day the theme was monsters. They had a large room set up; it was more like an arena. Landon knew they used it for Hope to fight monsters, they tested her in combat and the best way to test her was throwing her up against the opponent.

For Landon however the arena was just another place to die. When he was brought there it just meant more pain. They would throw him in the middle of the arena and then open up the gate releasing a monster. Landon didn’t have any powers that he knew of besides resurrecting so he couldn’t fight back, not that they ever gave him any weapons anyway, all he was able to do was to stand his ground and allow himself to be killed or run around in circles, delaying the inevitable.

They always used different monsters. The monster deaths didn’t happen often and when they did, they only did a handful at a time. Landon knew they had hundreds of monsters, but their supply wasn’t endless, they didn’t want to burn through all their monsters in one session. They needed to draw it out as long as they could.

The scientist would sit up in their little box peering down at the arena watching as Landon was impaled, ripped apart, and sometimes eaten. They just sat up there, watching it all. They had cameras in the arena so they could get close ups and rewatch it to study his resurrecting.

Landon waited, shaking, the hair on the back of his neck standing tall, until the alarm sounded indicating the door was about to open, releasing the monster. Even though it was normal for him, the arena was probably his least favorite place. Getting killed by monsters was the worst way to die for him. He never knew what monster it would be and how he would go, there was no escape, no one ever came. Not even his mother tried to stop them.

The gate slowly rose. Landon saw giant black paws as big as his head first, aligned with claws digging into the dirt. The monster started to step into the arena the second the door was above its head or heads because apparently it had three. Landon stumbled back, falling to the dirt; it was a large 3-headed black dog. Slobber dripped to the ground from the middle head as it snarled, licking its lips.

The left and right heads tried snapping at each other, trying to reach the other over the middle head. The middle head snapped at each of the other heads, giving them both a deep growl. The two heads dropped in submission.

Landon tried to quietly pull himself back to his feet. He thought he was quiet enough, but his leg scraped against the dirt and all three heads of the monster snapped to his direction, three pairs of glowing red eyes baring into his soul. Landon froze, he held his breath, the only thing he heard was his beating heart, he could barely acknowledge the panting of the monster.

Landon shot to his feet, taking off in the opposite direction of the monster just as the creature kicked with its back foot, readying to charge. There was nowhere to run, Landon knew that’s how it always was. He didn’t have super strength to force the door open or to bust through the wall, there was nothing he could do, besides run in a circle.

He didn’t get very far; he hadn’t even made it to the wall before the 3-headed dog was on him. It went for his ankles first, tripping him, dragging him back to the center of the arena. He flipped himself over, kicking at the dog, trying to get free. He had his arms up trying to block the snapping of their jaws and the swiping of its claws.

Landon screamed in agony. One head latched onto his leg while another onto his arm. The middle head gnawed on his side. Their teeth ripped and tore into his flesh. He didn’t blackout but he couldn’t focus on anything but the pain. He gargled as he started to joke on his own blood. One of the heads dug into his neck finally ending his suffering. The monster released his body, letting it flop to the ground.

Hmm. Not even close.

When Landon resurrected again, he was back in his cell. He curled up into a ball and pressed himself as far as he could into the far corner of the room. And he waited. He waited until the next day when they would come and just do it all over again.

However, when the next day came no one came to get him. The only time someone stopped by his cell was to drop off some food. No soldier. No scientist. No experiments. No one came. Landon didn’t know what to think, it was unusual. He didn’t let his guard down though, not dying every day was nice, but something was wrong. He knew something was wrong. Hope hadn’t returned to her cell yet. Sometimes they kept her a longer than him, but she’d never been gone for two full days.

A few more days went by and still no one came to get him. He hadn’t had his daily torturing since the 3-headed dog. He was happy about it but Hope still hadn’t returned. He wasn’t stupid he knew the fact that he wasn’t being killed daily anymore and the fact that Hope wasn’t back in her cell were connected. He hated what that meant though. He didn’t want to know what they were doing to her that made them stop killing him.

Landon was pacing back and forth in his cell. It had been a couple more days almost a week total. Still no death and torture for him and still no Hope. They wouldn’t kill her, they couldn’t kill her, he knew that, but he couldn’t stop the thoughts from invading his mind.

His pacing stopped when he heard the cell door to Hopes room open, someone get tossed inside, then the door close again. He scurried to the vent connecting their two rooms then whispered, “Hope?”

“Yeah,” she answered, her voice seemed gravellier than usual.

“What happened?”

There was no answer for a minute then she finally said, “I triggered my curse.” It was so quiet that Landon would have missed it if they both hadn’t been right next to the vent.

“What?” his faced paled. He knew what that meant. Hope had always told him it would happen, but he never imagined it happening so soon.

“There was an incident. It was an accident.” Is all she provided. “Sorta.”

“Hope-”

“Have they killed you recently?” Hope cut him off.

“No, they stopped doing that a few days ago,” he answered honestly.

“Good.”

“What did you do?”

“I’m keeping my promise.”

“No, I don’t want you sacrificing anything for me.”

“It’s already done.”

“Hope.” Landon’s voice broke. He hated that his best friend, his family, was suffering just so he wouldn’t have to die repeatedly.

“It’s fine, I can handle it,” Hope said her voice hard and unwavering.

Landon didn’t say anything else the rest of the night, he knew Hope didn’t want to talk. He lifted his hand resting it on the vent. He wished a wall wasn’t separating them, he just wanted to comfort his favorite person.

When Landon woke up again it was a few years later. Triad hadn’t been actively killing him and torturing him like they had since the 3-headed dog, since Hope somehow got them to stop. He still didn’t know how she did that and what it cost her. He tried to get her to tell him, but she wouldn’t budge, even after a few years later she still wouldn’t tell him the details to the deal. Landon knew one thing for certain about it though, that it cost Hope a lot more than she ever let on.

Landon was out in the world with Hope and his mom Seylah, they were all on a mission together. Seylah was the agent in charge, Hope was the secret weapon, and Landon was basically their human metal detector.

Landon didn’t usually go on missions, but they sent him out because they were looking for the keys that kept Malivore locked up. Triad didn’t want to unleash Malivore but they wanted the keys so they could lock them up, so they would always know where they were. They wanted to be the only ones that could unleash Malivore or keep him locked up.

If Triad got word, there was a magic artifact around they would sometimes send Landon out in the field with a team so he could detect it. He was ordered to not touch it though because they didn’t want him to activate it and have Malivore constantly seeking it. They developed a box to keep the artifacts in incase they did find one to make sure it was protected, and it wouldn’t be tracked by monsters.

They had a small team with them, only a handful of agents. They were sent to a swamp. There Landon had found one of the keys for the first time, it was a dagger. It called out to him, and he was about to grab it before Hope slapped his hand away. He backed away from it so he wouldn’t accidentally touch it while Hope took it and handed it off to one of the agents who placed it in the special box. Landon wasn’t sure how they developed it and he didn’t fully understand magic but when the dagger was in the box, he could no longer feel the pull to it.

They also found a swamp monster along with the dagger. The swamp monster was green, covered in vines and moss. It hid in the water and attacked the agents as soon as they stepped foot in the swamp, wrapping them up in vines and pulling them under.

Hope had managed say a spell and distract the swamp monster long enough for Seylah and the agents left to shoot the monster with their tranquilizer guns, neutralizing the creature. They loaded up the monster and transported it back to headquarters with them.

Landon was hanging back at the front of headquarters with Hope. He had never been to headquarters before; he knew it was very important to Triad. He knew it’s where Malivore was because it’s where they took all the monsters to toss them into the pit. He had never seen the pit though. Triad didn’t want Landon near his father and Landon didn’t want to be anywhere near him either, even the front of the building was to close for comfort in his opinion.

They heard shouting and gun fire come from the back of the building. Landon looked toward the doors the agents and his mom had taken the swamp monster through. Hope stepped in front of him already getting into a defensive position.

In the blink of an eye a large vine burst through the doors with an impaled agent at the tip of it. Another shot out smacking Hope across the room, slamming her into the wall. Landon was about to run over and check on Hope but once the vine hit her in moved back to Landon, wrapping around his ankle. It yanked him forward, he fell back, reaching for anything to grab as it pulled him towards the doors.

When he was yanked through the doors, he was in a giant open room that looked more like a warehouse. He managed to latch onto the metal grate of the walkway that went around the room. The monster yanked again, and Landon lost his grip, he flew under the guardrail, landing on the bottom floor with a thud. He flipped over and could see the monster’s attention was on his mother and the other agents who were shooting him. They weren’t tranquilizer darts though, they were using live rounds, anything they could do stop him. There were vines covering the place, all having impaled agents, killing them instantly.

Despite the creature’s attention being elsewhere it didn’t stop him from starting to pull Landon again, towards the mud pit. Landon reached out but there was nothing for him to grab onto. Before he got too close to the pit though the vine attached to Landon was set on fire, instantly turning it to ash, the monster howled in pain, spinning around to glare at whoever attacked him. Hope flipped over the railing from the walkway, gracefully landing on the bottom floor with everyone else. She landed perfectly so she was the only thing standing between the monster and Landon.

The monster tried wrapping one of its vines around Hopes foot put she jumped out of the way, backflipping behind Landon. The creature shot out another vine, wrapping around Landon’s ankle once again. Before it could pull him forward again, Hope looped her arms around Landon’s holding him in place. Hope was strong but because there was nothing for her to grip onto or nowhere for her to put her foot to keep them in place when the monster yanked hard, she started to slide forward with Landon.

They were getting closer to the pit when Seylah seemingly came out of nowhere taking a machete to the vine. Despite the swamp monster being a supernatural creature, the blade sliced through the vine like it was nothing. The creature hollered in pain again as it slowly regrew its vine. Hope pulled Landon back away from the pit as quickly as she could. The creature reached out with its vine once again, but Seylah rushed the monster, tackling it into the pit of Malivore, therefore throwing herself in, along with the monster.

“Noooo!” Landon shouted. He surged forward, reaching out for his mother but Hope held him back. Seylah had never been the best mother, she hardly showed him any kind of affection, but she was his mom, and she had just sacrificed herself for him.

Not enough.

Hope held him tight as he sobbed into her shoulder. He wasn’t sure how long he cried. He heard Hope say something, but he missed it. He tried slowing down his breathing so it was at a more normal pace so he could ask, “What?” his voice broke, still filled with grief.

“You need to go,” Hope repeated. She was looking at him determined but he could see the sympathy behind her eyes.

“What?” he asked again. He didn’t understand what she meant. He couldn’t go. He had nowhere to go. Triad was their home, they only had each other. He couldn’t go.

“You have to go,” she said again softer.

“Why? What do you mean? Why? I can’t, we can’t just run.”

“Not we. You.”

“No.” he shook himself loose from her grasp. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t believe she was telling him they had to split up. “I’m not leaving you. If we run, we run together. No. You stay, I stay.”

“Please,” she begged. “You need to go. I don’t want to stay but I can buy you time. I can protect you. I can make sure they don’t look for you.”

“No!”

“You need to go!” she shouted back. “After what just happened,” she gestured to the destruction and death around them. “We can’t risk you going back. Who knows what they’ll do to you. You’ll be safer from Triad, from Malivore, but only if you leave.”

Landon looked at her defeated. He knew she was right, but he didn’t want to go without her. They already hurt her so much, she already suffered so much so he wouldn’t have to. He didn’t know how he was supposed to just walk away knowing she’d be punished.

“I don’t know how to do this without you,” he whispered.

Hope stepped closer, pulling Landon into a hug, then releasing slightly only to rest her forehead against him. “You’ll be fine,” she said quietly. “I’ll always be with you. This is what’s best. I’ll be fine. And if you ever need me, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.” Landon nodded, accepting this had to be done.

 Hope pulled away first. She slid one of two wristbands off her wrist, taking Landon’s hand in her own and sliding it onto his wrist. He knit his eyebrows at the bracelet but before he could voice his question Hope spoke.

“It’s spelled.” Landon nodded. “Don’t take it off. As long as you wear it Triad won’t be able to track you no matter what you do.” He nodded again, wiping the tears that started to fall again from his eyes. “And if you press this,” she pointed to the stone on the wristband, “it will send a signal to me,” she gestured to the matching wristband she was wearing. “It will let me know you need me, and I’ll come running. No matter what.”

They gave each one last hug before Landon took off. He was just a kid and had no idea where to go but he ran. After he ran, he ended up not seeing Hope until almost 4-years later, after he called her when he ran into some trouble, and she came just like she had promised.

When Landon opened his eyes again, he back in the warehouse that was Triad headquarters, where the Malivore pit was. He was standing right next to the Malivore pit, he took a few steps back for fear of falling in. The room was similar and different to when he was last there. It all looked the same but there were no people, it hadn’t looked like anyone had been there in ages, it also seemed like every corner of the room was darker than normal, like there was a cloud hanging over the whole room.

Landon started to slowly walk around the room, looking around. It was cold and empty feeling. Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t place what, but he knew something wasn’t right, something was off. When he turned back around, he was face to face with Hope.

“Holy shit,” Landon gasped, bringing a hand to his pounding heart. “You scared the hell out of me. Don’t do that.”

“Sorry,” Hope said. Hope was watching Landon like she was studying him. He could see her out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn’t focus on her, he knew something was wrong and he was trying to figure out what. He felt like if he looked hard enough, he would spot it. “You, okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Landon said slowly. “Does anything feel weird to you?”

“I mean we’re in Triad headquarters standing a few feet away from a mud pit who erases people’s memories of whatever is thrown into it, who also happens to be your father. It would be weird if something didn’t feel weird.”

Landon let out an awkward chuckle. “Guess you’re right. I just can’t help but feel like something is off.”

“Where’s the knife?” Hope asked casually.

Landon stopped looked around the room to turn and stare at Hope. “What?”

“Where’s the knife? It’s dangerous to not have it.”

Landon nodded but he was watching Hope a lot closer. Something was definitely wrong.

“It would be safer if I had it. We can’t risk a monster getting the knife.”

“Right,” Landon said taking a step back. “Who are you?”

“What are you talking about? It’s me, it’s Hope, you’re best friend.”

“No, you’re not Hope” Landon knew for a fact the person standing before him wasn’t his best friend, who or whatever it was may be wearing her face, but it wasn’t Hope. “Hope wouldn’t have to ask me for the knife. So again, who are you?” Landon took what he thought was a threatening step forward.

The fake Hope lost her smile, her face twisting into something dark, her eyes becoming black. “Where is the knife?” a demonic sounding voice came out of Hopes mouth.

“I’ll never tell you.”

Within the blink of an eye fake Hope had Landon pinned against the wall with a dagger pointed at his chest.

“This isn’t real,” Landon said his eyes wide as he looked around in realization.

“I thought you already figured that out?” Fake Hope asked.

“I knew you weren’t Hope. That was obvious. But this,” he gestured around them, “this isn’t real. I haven’t been back here since the day I ran away. This is all in my head. Which means I’m dreaming. And I need to wake up.”

Landon grabbed fake Hopes hand that was holding the knife and pressed it fully into his chest, piercing his heart. The second his body hit the ground Landon shot up in his bed gasping for breath. It had worked, he managed to wake himself up.

His eyes darted around the room to make sure he was actually awake. His eyes met Hopes who was in his room, standing over him with a knife pointed at his chest. Landon got flashbacks to the nightmare he was just in and shuffled away as fast as he could, pressing himself against the headboard.

“What the hell!” he shouted.

Hope dropped the knife, sighing. “You weren’t waking up,” she said like that explained everything.

“So, you were going to kill me?”

“I broke my wrist to wake myself up. Did the same with Hayley. You weren’t waking up and you don’t have super healing like us so figured the next best choice was to just make you resurrect.”

Landon looked at her offended. “You couldn’t have tried, I don’t know, Hey Landon wake up?”

“It wasn’t working!” Hope yelled, clearly annoyed. “How’d you manage to wake yourself up?” Hope asked more calmly.

Landon opened his mouth to answer before closing it, realizing the way he woke himself up was the exact way Hope was about to try. “It doesn’t matter,” Landon said quickly. Hope narrowed her eyes at him. “Clearly, we have a monster problem. That should be our priority.”

Hope kept her narrow stare at Landon for a moment longer before huffing, dropping the topic. “Fine, Hayley went to wake Alaric, let’s wake Raf, then Josie, then we can figure out how to defeat this thing.”

Landon, nodded, sliding off the bed. He and Hope moved over to Rafael’s bed. He could see his best friends’ eyes darting back and forth under closed eyelids. Raf was clearly trapped in a nightmare like he had been and based on what he saw he could guess what Raf was reliving.

Chapter Text

Rafael was driving his girlfriend back home after a night out. They were arguing. Rafael had gotten up to use the bathroom before they left and when he came back, he saw some guy flirting with Cassie. He knew Cassie would never cheat on him, but it still made him angry. He tried giving her the silent treatment when they left but she kept asking what was wrong and he snapped.

He wasn’t sure how long they had been arguing. He knew it couldn’t have been long because they didn’t live to far from where they went out at. The longer they argued though the more Rafael’s anger grew, the more he got angry the harder he pressed down on the pedal, the faster he drove. He didn’t even realize it had started raining before he took a turn to tight, and they slid. Rafael tried slamming on the breaks, turning the wheel to regain control but it was too late. The car screeched as it slid sideways into a tree. Making everything go black.

When Rafael came to his head was pounding, vision still blurry. Rafael put a hand to his head, it stung, and he quickly brought his hand back down, seeing it covered in blood. He coughed, grabbing the seatbelt to try and loosen it a little but it had him pinned. He looked to his right to see Cassie slumped over in her seat.

“Cass,” Rafael rasped out. When she didn’t respond he tried reaching over to her, but the seatbelt held him back. “Cass,” he tried again. “Cassie,” he said more urgent. Before he could try reaching out to her again, he started coughing again, when it finally subsided, he looked over at Cassie one more time before his eyes slowly closed.

When he came to again, he was no longer in the car but a hospital bed. He blinked the sleep from his eyes as he pulled himself up into a sitting position. He groaned at his sore muscles, rubbing his hand on his chest where the seatbelt surely left a mark. He looked around to see Landon curled up half hanging off the chair sleeping beside the hospital bed.

Rafael started coughing again. He reached for the water beside the bed. His throat was incredibly dry. He didn’t know how long he had been out. He needed to know where Cassie was, if she was okay. His coughing seemed to wake Landon up.

“Hey,” Landon sat up, instantly rolling off the chair to come stand by his bedside. “You’re awake.”

“Where’s Cassie?” Rafael asked before anything. “Is she okay?”

Landon’s face fell. He opened and closed his mouth a few times looking for the words.

“Is Cassie, okay?” Rafael asked again, his voice rising with concern.

“Raf.” He could hear the sympathy in Landon’s voice. Landon didn’t say anything, he just shook his head.

“No.” Rafael shook his head. “No.”

“Raf,” Landon said softly.

“No!”

Landon took a step back at his friend’s voice.

“No,” his voice broke. “No.”

“I’m sorry,” Landon whispered, stepping closer again.

“No.” Rafael tried throwing the blanks off himself, to standup.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Landon grabbed Rafael’s arms stopping his movements.

Rafael looked at him with tear filled eyes. Landon looked at him a moment before pulling him into a hug. Rafael wrapped his arms around Landon, crushing him. He buried his face in his brother’s shoulder, letting it all out.

Just a little more.

The next couple of weeks after the accident Rafael felt himself getting angry more easily, even over the smallest things he would snap at others. He would catch Landon watching him like he knew what was going on with him even though Rafael himself didn’t know what was going on. He would be fine one minute but then someone would say something or bump into him and he would want to slam them against the wall.

Rafael was at a party he dragged Landon to. He had been going out to every party anyone at school was throwing, it was the only way to help him forget about Cassie, forget the guilt, forget he was the reason she was dead.

Rafael had a few to many drinks and he was stumbling through the woods. He could hear Landon calling out from behind him, but he didn’t stop. Landon managed to catch up to him and tried throwing Rafael’s arm around his shoulder to help stabilize him, but Rafael pushed him off. He stumbled forward, crashing to the ground. Landon tried to help him up, but he pushed him off again. He tried to stand up on his own but the second he got to his feet his ankle snapped, sending him right back to the ground, screaming in agony.

When Rafael looked up, he was staring at Landon, but his eyesight was different, it was sharper, he thought he could see a yellow outline at the edge of his sight.

“Holy shit,” Landon whispered. “We need to get you out of here.” Landon was moving quickly. Grabbing Rafael, helping him to his feet as best as he could, throwing one arm around his shoulder, wrapping his arm around Rafael’s waste to help stabilize him.

Rafael wasn’t sure how Landon was dragging him through the woods. Landon wasn’t exactly the strongest person in town, he didn’t really workout, at all. Somehow Landon was managing to drag him through the woods though at night, while Rafael was pretty much deadweight. Rafael was trying to help as best as he could, but he didn’t have the use of one foot and all he could do was focus on the pain of his bones breaking.

The next thing he knew was he was being eased to the ground. When he was lying on the ground he rolled over in pain as his body twisted and snapped in ways no body should. He was pretty sure his arm was bent in an unnatural direction. He felt blood dripping from his mouth as his teeth elongated, tearing through his gums.

“It’s going to be okay buddy,” he heard Landon say, though it was muffled. “I’m going to get you help.”

Rafael’s body bent in half as it felt like his back snapped, then he quickly jolted forward as it snapped again. He dropped his hand in front of his face, looking to grip anything. When he opened his eyes, he saw his hand wasn’t normal, long claws were in place where his fingernails usually were.

His arm snapped back in the opposite direction. He looked up at Landon, through the tears and blurry vision. He saw Landon looking at his wrist and what seemed like a small glowing blue light coming from his wrist band. That was the last thing he remembered seeing before everything went black.

When Rafael opened his eyes again, he had to blink a few times to get his eyes to adjust to the dimly lit room. He rolled over, he didn’t know where he was, it was cold and dark, and he was lying on concrete. He remembered being at a party and drinking but couldn’t remember anything after that, it was all fuzzy.

When he continued to look around, he saw a metal door, like to a cage. In front of the door though is what made his heart stop. Lying in front of the door was Landon’s dead body, his lifeless eyes staring right back at Rafael. There was still dry blood from where Landon’s throat had been ripped out.

It all came crashing back to him. He was at the party when his bones started to break. Landon had dragged him away somewhere, he assumed where he currently was. He had hazy memories of bones breaking, and snapping, and rearranging themselves. He remembered seeing through a different set of eyes. He remembered seeing Landon as prey, he remembered Landon struggling to open the gate but not being quick enough. He remembered ripping and tearing into his best friend’s throat.

Rafael sat up, curling in on himself, making himself as small as he could. He rubbed his hands through his hair. He couldn’t believe it, first he got his girlfriend killed then he was apparently some kind of freaky monster and killed the guy that had been like a brother the last few years. He was alone. Everyone he loved was dead and it was all his fault.

There.

“He’ll be okay,” a female voice came, Rafael didn’t recognize it.

He looked up to see an auburn-haired girl around his age standing on the other side of the gate.

“What?” he asked, his voice gravelly from not having any water in over 24-hours. “Who are you?”

“A friend of Landon’s. There’s a lot to discuss. So first how about you put on some clothes?” the girl asked. She tossed a pair of sweatpants and a shirt at Rafael. That’s when he realized he was completely naked. He grabbed the clothes quickly. The girl turned around to give him some privacy but despite that Rafael still turned around so she wouldn’t see anything and threw on the clothes as quickly as possible.

The girl stared at Rafael in silence. Neither of them saying anything. The girl was actually more glaring than staring, she had her arms crossed and her eyes didn’t leave Rafael. He wasn’t sure if she even blinked. Rafael tried to be just as intimidating and stare at her, but it was like her gaze saw into his soul, he couldn’t help but look away. He switched back and forth between glancing at the girl and staring at Landon’s body.

He saw Landon’s body become encased in what Rafael could only describe as what looked like coal, a shell that fire charred the outer layer of. Then seconds later the shell that was around Landon turned to ash revealing and fully alive Landon. He sat up, coughing up some of the ash. He looked just as he did the day before, if anyone else had seen him they would have no idea he had just been lying on the floor with his throat ripped out.

“What the hell,” Rafael whispered. He stared wide eyed at his friend, the friend who had just been dead, the friend he had just killed.

“Guess we have a lot to talk about,” is all Landon said, awkwardly smiling at Rafael.

“Took you long enough,” the girl said.

Landon’s head snapped around to look at the person the voice came from. “You’re hear.” Rafael had never heard such relief come out of someone’s voice. Landon stood up faster than he ever thought he could move, rushing across the room and crashing into the girl, wrapping her in a tight hug.

Landon had introduced Rafael to his friend, Hope. He told him how he and the girl knew each other. He went onto explain that he was a phoenix so when he died, he resurrected. When Rafael was thoroughly freaked out, he started to ask what the hell he was and what happened the night before. Landon was hesitant to answer so Hope stepped in. She explained that he was a werewolf and that meant that his family was descended from werewolves. The reason he didn’t know was probably because he was in the foster system and the reason he didn’t shift until last night was because to trigger the curse, he has to cause the death of another person.

That’s when he realized it was Cassie. He had been the one driving the car. He had been the one that caused the crash that killed her. So according to the werewolf curse he killed her therefore he triggered the curse. And last night had been the first full moon since the crash so it was the first time he shifted.

Hope explained that every full moon he would be forced to turn and though she could help him it would be pretty much like how his first time was. Once a month he would be forced to lock himself away, so he didn’t hurt anyone else while every bone in his body broke and rearranged itself for hours. He was cursed for the rest of his life all because he killed his girlfriend. Even though everyone said it was an accident Rafael didn’t see it that way and couldn’t help but think he deserved the curse. He almost didn’t think the agony of what he went through last night was enough to make up for what he did, even if he’d experience it once a month for the rest of his life, it would never feel like enough. He deserved worse.

Rafael closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he was no longer in the cell. He was in the woods, and it was nighttime again. He spun around looking for Hope and Landon. He was alone. He didn’t think he passed out. He looked down feeling himself, he sighed at being fully clothed still. However, he couldn’t help but tilt his head, he was clothed but they weren’t the same clothes Hope had tossed him.

He saw a small pool of mud at the edge of the woods. He tilted his head; he had never seen it before but there was something familiar about it. He felt like he should recognize it. He was trying to figure out why a puddle of mud seemed so important when a voice brought him out of his thoughts.

“Hey Raf,” a soft voice came from behind him. He tensed. He knew that voice. He knew that voice very well. But it couldn’t be her, that was impossible. “What, not even going to look at me?”

He slowly turned to look at who the voice was coming from. His breath caught in his mouth; his heart stopped. It was her, Cassie, she was there in front of him.

“Cassie?” he asked in disbelief, tears already starting to fill his eyes again.

She rolled her eyes playfully. “Of course, silly, who else would it be?”

“How-how is this possible?”

“You’re a werewolf, you know about the supernatural now, you should know anything is possible.”

He turned fully to face her. She didn’t move from where she was, but she stood there smiling. The same smile she had given to him every day for almost a year. It was as if no time had passed, it was as if the bad thing didn’t happen, it was as if it was just another day in their lives. He stared at her a moment before letting go and just running to her, instantly encompassing her in a bone crushing hug.

“I’m so sorry,” he sobbed into her neck. “I miss you so much.”

“I know, I know.” Cassie rubbed comforting circles on Rafael’s back.

Rafael pulled away to look at her again, just taking her in. He couldn’t believe she was standing there in front of him completely okay.

“I know you didn’t mean to kill me,” Cassie started. Rafael’s face contorted in pain at her words. “But you can still help me.”

“How?” Rafael asked quickly. “I’ll do anything. Just tell me what I need to do. How can I help?”

“Where is the knife?”

Rafael paused, taking a step back from her. “What?”

“The knife, where is it? I need the knife.”

“Why? The knife is dangerous.”

“I won’t be able to find peace until I get the knife.”

Rafael looked at Cassie with so much pain in his eyes. He knew he couldn’t give up the knife. The knife was a key to unlocking Malivore and that couldn’t happen. He would be risking Landon and Hope and the entire world if he gave up the knife.

“Come on Raf, you said you wanted to help.”

“I-I-I can’t.” Rafael took a step back again. “It’s too dangerous. That knife can do way to much harm.”

“You’re the reason I’m dead.” Cassie’s voice took on a darker tone, her voice no longer the sweet and caring one he had come to fall in love with. “The least you can do is give me a knife so I can be at peace in death.”

“I’m truly sorry for that,” Rafael plead. “I will never forgive myself for what I did to you.”

“Then help me with this. Come on Raf.” Cassie stepped forward, reaching for Rafael’s hand to intertwine their fingers. “Don’t you want me to be at peace?”

“Of course, I do.”

“Then please baby, tell me where the knife is. Help save me.”

Cassie was looking up at him with wide eyes, he could see them sparkling with unshed tears. It was all his fault she was dead and because of that she was stuck, waiting to find peace. He hated himself even more for that. He couldn’t let her stay waiting any longer, Cassie deserved to be able to find peace. Rafael nodded. He knew it was wrong, but he needed to help her. She looked up him with a grateful smile.

Yes.

Rafael opened his mouth to tell her where the knife was when he closed it thinking he heard a voice. It was just barely above a whisper, but he could swear he heard something. He shook the thought off and started to open his mouth again when he felt a sharp pain in his jaw.

He stumbled back, raising a hand to his jaw. Then he felt it again. And again.

That third time seemed to do the trick because Rafael shot up from his bed, gasping for air. He sat there panting for a moment before he realized the pain in his jaw was real and brought his hand back to rubbing it, trying to ease the pain.

“What the hell?” he asked.

“We needed to wake you up,” Hopes voice came from beside his bed. Rafael looked over to see Hope and Landon standing by the bedside.

“So, you punched me?”

“At least she didn’t try killing you,” Landon mumbled.

Rafael tilted his head at that but decided not to question it.

“Look, I had to break my own wrist, so it was either do that to you or punch you in the face. Which would you have preferred?”

Okay he had to admit he would prefer the punching. He had super healing, but it wasn’t as quick as Hopes or a vampire’s so his arm would have been out of commission for a few days at least if Hope had broken his wrist. Instead of admitting that, Rafael just grumbled.

“Great,” Hope said, moving towards the door. “We clearly have a monster problem, so get up. We need to figure out how to kill this thing and I need to go wake Josie.”

Rafael slid out of the bed, following Hope and Landon out the door. They had a monster to deal with it. He needed to shake his feelings from the nightmare because he needed to focus on stopping the monster, he couldn’t be distracted and risk his friends getting hurt because of it.

Chapter Text

Josie woke up to the sound of something scratching against the wood floors. She looked over to see Lizzie still sleeping. She thought she had just imagined things and was going to trying to go back to sleep when she heard it again. Something loud scratching against the floors, heading towards their room.

“Lizzie,” Josie whispered. Lizzie didn’t move, she was still sleeping soundly. “Lizzie,” she whispered again more harshly. Lizzie made a face and groaned but didn’t open her eyes. Josie threw a pillow at her twin finally causing her to wake up, giving Josie an annoyed look. The annoyed look was quickly replaced by fear when Lizzie heard the scratching against the floor as well.

“What’s that?” Lizzie asked, her voice shaky.

“I don’t know.”

Josie got out of bed and crawled into Lizzie’s. They grabbed the phone off the side of the table and called their dad. Their dad answered and they told them what was happening and that their mom wasn’t there. He told them to hide and that he would be there soon.

Josie and Lizzie slipped out of the bed and tiptoed to the bedroom door. Josie turned the knob, opening it just enough to peek out. She didn’t see anyone, so she and Lizzie slid out of the room.

When they were out in the hallway, they heard the scraping against the floor again. It sounded like the person was still downstairs, but they were slowly making their way to the stairs. The twins made their way to the hiding spot and when they passed the top of the stairs Josie heard a male voice she didn’t recognize talking on the phone.

They made it to the hiding spot, sliding the hidden panel out of the way to crawl in and then quietly slid it back. Unless you knew it was there it was impossible to notice that part of the wall moved and that there was a secret room behind it.

Josie and Lizzie stayed together, curled up hugging each other until their dad came to rescue them. They could hear the man finally make it to the stairs as he stomped up the steps and as whatever he was dragging against the floors bounced off each step, making a loud bang in the quiet house each time.

All the noise stopped when the man reached the top of the steps. Josie only knew he was on the same floor as them now was because once he got up there, he let out a loud sigh. Josie heard his footsteps get quieter as he made his way down to the opposite end of the hall, she assumed to their bedroom.

As he went down the hall, she heard the dragging of the item against the floor again. She heard the bedroom door creak open. There was nothing for a moment again then she heard a loud crash, then another loud crash. She felt Lizzie tense beside her just as she shuddered with each crash, the twins gripping each other tighter.

They heard him make his way back into the hallway, walking closer to the direction they were in. He was humming what sounded like a lullaby. “Josie? Lizzie?” the man called out in a playful tone.

Both twins tensed again at their names. They didn’t know the man, they had never met him before, they’d never even heard his voice before then but yet he knew who they were. Their mom had been there to tuck them in, but they hadn’t seen or heard from her since, they knew she never would just leave them.

There was a small air vent in the hidden room so they could peek out of the holes and see a little bit into the hallway. Josie leaned away from Lizzie slightly to peek out of the vent, she saw the man’s boots come to a stop right by the vent. Her breath caught in her throat at him being so close. The man let out a sigh again, he also dropped the item he had been holding to the ground. He had an axe, that was what he had been dragging across the floor and had been using to smash stuff with. If she had any doubt before that was gone now, she knew the man intended to kill them.

Lizzie and Josie held their breath as the man stood right in front of the hiding spot, the only thing separating the twins from him being a wall. He stood there for another minute before turning around and walking back down the stairs.

The girls continued to hold each other, not moving from the spot even though they hadn’t heard the man In a while. They didn’t move until the secret panel opened again. They tensed looking up at the person with fear until they realized it was their mom and dad.

“Are you girls, okay?” their mom asked softly as she helped them out of the secret room.

Both girls nodded as they were scooped up by both their parents into a big hug. Even though Josie knew they were safe since their parents were there, she still hugged them back just as tight as they were holding her. She didn’t want them to leave again, she didn’t want the man to come back.

“It’s okay,” their dad whispered, not releasing them from the hug in the slightest. “Everything is okay, you’re safe now. The bad man is gone.”

No, there’s something though.

When Josie opened her eyes again, she was no longer being held by her parents and she was no longer a child, she was her fifteen-year-old self and she was standing alone in the woods, just like she had been on the night of the gargoyle attack.

She was turning in a circle trying to place herself and what direction she should head when she stopped looking deep into the darkness of the woods. She could see her breath in the air, she didn’t hear a sound but her own breathing. Then deep in the darkness she saw large glowing red eyes then heard a deep primal growl that she could feel shake through her body.

She turned around and ran, crashing through the woods as fast as she could, not daring to look back. It wasn’t a gargoyle, she knew that, she didn’t know what it was, but it was big. She kept running through the darkness only coming to a stop when she heard screams. She changed course and ran towards the screams. She couldn’t make out who the screams were coming from but there was multiple, and something was telling her she had to go to them.

When she got to the clearing where the screams were coming from, they came to a stop. She slowly approached the clearly, watching out for any signs of the monster. She pushed some branches aside finally stepping into the clearing. She stumbled back, bringing her hand to her mouth at the site. Everyone was dead. Rafael, Landon, Jed, Kaleb, MG, Hayley, her dad. Tears filled her eyes at the sight.

The only thing stopping her from crumbling to the ground was she heard a cough from one of the bodies. She turned to see Lizzie, on the ground and bleeding but still breathing. Josie ran to her sister, sliding on the ground so she could bring Lizzie’s head into her lap.

“Jo?” Lizzie rasped out while coughing up blood.

“Lizzie,” Josie whispered. “Oh my god, what happened?”

“J-J-Jo.”

“I’m here, I’m right here.”

“Where were you?” Lizzie whispered. Josie would have missed it if she wasn’t so close.

She pulled her sister closer, and her breathing became more ragged until she finally took her last breath. Josie only gripped her sister tighter; she couldn’t believe she was gone. She couldn’t believe they were all gone. Everyone she cared about was dead and she wasn’t around. She didn’t do anything to save them.

Come on. Right there.

Off to the side Josie saw what looked to be a mud pit. She just stared at it. She felt like there was something she should know, something she should remember. She got the feeling there was something familiar about the mud pit like she’s seen it before, or she should know what it is. It was like seeing pictures of the Grand Canyon then seeing it in person and not recognizing it. Josie couldn’t dwell on it too much though, her mind kept going back to all her dead friends.

“Josie,” a voice came from the other side of the clearing. From tear filled eyes Josie looked up and saw Hope stumbling out of the woods.

“Hope,” Josie couldn’t keep the relief out of her voice.

“You’re okay,” Hope said as she got closer to Josie. “What happened?” she asked as she looked around at the carnage surrounding them.

“I don’t know,” Josie answered, gently moving Lizzie’s head off her lap before she stood up to meet Hope.

“Where were you?” Hope voice was accusatory.

Josie was taken aback. She actually physically stepped back from Hopes words. She had never heard that tone from Hope directed at her. That tone was only ever directed to her dad, or Landon, or Rafael.

“I-I-I was in the woods. I saw the monster,” Josie tried defending herself. “I ran and then I heard the screams. When I got here, I saw this,” she gestured around them.

“You ran.” Hopes voice stern again.

Josie didn’t know why Hope was acting that way. She knew Hope was serious about Malivore, but she never blamed anyone besides herself when something went wrong and definitely never faulted them for running. Hope was the kind of person that would prefer if her friends ran away, she could be the one to deal with the problem and be the one to make the sacrifice if necessary.

“I didn’t have any magic.” Hope rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything.

Her friends were dead because of her because she wasn’t a real witch. If she knew how to fight, she could have been there for them. She could have fought the monster back when she first fought it before it ever found her friends. It was all her fault and Hope knew it.

“Where’s the knife?”

“What?” Josie had the blink a few times to try and comprehend what Hope was asking her.

“Where’s the knife?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Come on Josie,” Hopes voice took on an angry tone. “Where’s the knife? Everyone is dead, it can’t stay here.”

“This isn’t right,” Josie whispered to herself. Something wasn’t right, something was wrong.

“Everyone is dead because you couldn’t protect them.” When Josie looked up Hopes eyes had changed from their gorgeous blue to a dark soulless black. “You can still do something right though, just give me the knife.”

Josie stepped back. Something was wrong. None of it was right. That wasn’t Hope.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Where is the knife!” Hope yelled but her voice was no longer Hopes voice, it was demonic and disorient, it was filled with anger.

Josie

Josie looked up to the sky, she heard something, it was but a whisper.

Josie

She heard it again. She tilted her head, she knew that voice, she recognized it. She felt a warmth like everything was going to be okay. She just couldn’t place the voice.

Josie. This isn’t real.

She was hearing the voice more clearly each time it spoke. It wasn’t real. That’s what was wrong. None of it was real. She looked back to Hope standing in front of her. She should have known that Hope would never have acted that way, the thing in front of her wasn’t Hope. It was an illusion, a trick, a monster trying to get in her head to get the knife.

I need you to wake up

Josie’s eyes snapped back up to the sky. Hope. It was Hope. Hope had found a way to contact her to help get her out of the nightmare. Hope was there like always. Josie couldn’t help but smile.

Wake up. Please.

The words became a whisper again as Josie’s eyes snapped open, her body shooting up in bed. She looked around, gasping for breath. Her eyes quickly landed on Hope who was sitting on the side of her bed, her hands resting on Josie’s arms in comfort. Josie couldn’t miss the look of relief and small smile on Hopes face when the other girl saw her awake.

“So, you plan to kill me to get me to wake up and you punch Raf in the face, but Josie just gets you magically communicating with her in her mind,” Landon’s voice came. Josie peeked around Hope to see Landon standing in the doorway. She knit her eyebrows at his comment, she had no idea what was going on.

Hope stopped smiling to turn and glare at Landon. “You resurrect,” Hope said annoyed, as if she’d said it hundred times. “Josie doesn’t. She also doesn’t have super healing.”

Landon shut up after that, leaning back further into the door with a pout.

“Are you okay?” Hope asked softly when she turned back to Josie.

“Didn’t ask if I was okay,” Landon mumbled but Hope ignored him.

Josie nodded; she didn’t trust her voice. She knew none of it was real, but it still felt like it was. Whatever monster they were dealing with clearly knew how to get into their heads and how to get to them.

“Okay.” Hope nodded but was still looking at Josie with concern. “We’re all meeting in the library, we need to know how to defeat this thing quickly, we don’t want anyone else falling under its influence.”

Josie nodded again, she slid out of bed and went to sit by Lizzie’s side. She knew they had a monster to fight but she had to wake her sister before anything so she wouldn’t be suffering like she was.

Chapter Text

Everyone gathered in the library, it was becoming their go to meeting spot when there was a monster. When Hope, Josie, Landon, and Lizzie entered they already saw Rafael, Hayley, and Alaric standing around the table. Rafael nodded to the group, but everyone was kind of in a somber mood. Which to be fair made sense since they all just got out of reliving their worst nightmares.

Hope took in everyone in the room. They had a monster to deal with but if they were all to messed up over the nightmares, they experienced then they would be of no use. They could actually do more harm than good. She didn’t know what anyone else experienced but depending on how close the monster got to breaking them then they could still be vulnerable, they could be a liability.

Landon was the least of her worries. He was quieter than usual and hung towards the back of the group while they made their way there and he was standing a little to the side of the group his arms hugging himself, but his face was more determined than lost, otherwise there wasn’t any red flags coming from him. Like Hope he was also the only one to woke himself up and didn’t need her help. So, whatever he experienced he figured out it wasn’t real and found a way to break the hold. She knew they would have to talk after though, if she experienced her time in Triad, she assumed he experienced something similar.

Rafael was standing around the table, his eyes darting around their surroundings every few seconds as if he were watching for an attack or for someone to appear out of nowhere. He had his arms crossed over his chest but unlike Landon he wasn’t trying to make himself smaller, he was being defensive, she could even see him puffing his chest out slightly. Despite the front he was trying to put up she could see the way his leg bounced, the way his hand gripped tighter around his bicep, the way his jaw was clenched shut. His eyes might have been looking all around the room but there was a distance to his stare like he wasn’t full realizing the room had other people in it. He was someone Hope would have to keep an eye on, Raf also had happened to be the hardest one to wake up.

Next to Rafael was Alaric who was in a very similar stance to her friend. She sent Hayley to wake him up, so she wasn’t sure how hard it was. Alaric had dark circles around his eyes, he was staring down at the table, but Hope could tell he wasn’t actually looking at it, he was thinking about whatever it was he saw in his nightmare. She was definitely going to have to keep an eye on him, she didn’t need him going all trigger happy with his stupid crossbow.

On the other side of Alaric was Hayley. Her eyes were wide, but she wasn’t focusing on anything specifically she was definitely lost in her own mind and whatever she saw during her dreams. She had one arm crossed around her stomach, hugging herself. The other was propped up and she was biting at her nails. Hope had never seen Hayley so erratic which sure she had only known all of them for about a month, but Hayley barely flinched when she saw a dragon for the first time. Whatever the dream demon showed her got to her. Hope wasn’t too concerned with Hayley losing it on them because even though she attacked Hope when she woke her up, she seemed to snap out of it, and she could focus enough to drive them to the school and help wake the others.

Josie and Lizzie both had very similar stances. They were standing very close to each other. Lizzie had her arms wrapped around one of Josie’s and was holding onto her like she was afraid she’d disappeared. Hope was definitely concerned by whatever Lizzie saw to have that reaction. Josie held Lizzie back with her free arms, sending comforting rubs up and down her sisters’ arms. Josie looked so lost in thoughts and memories, Hope wasn’t sure how she was still managing to try and comfort her sister, it was like she was doing it out of instinct. Josie otherwise had an emotionless face, it had Hope concerned but Josie seemed determined to get rid of the monster which she could work with.

The doors to the library burst opened causing everyone to snap out of whatever trance they were in and look at the doors. It wasn’t the monster though. It was just the vampire Hope had come to learn as Kaleb dragging in Josie’s friend MG.

“Oh my god MG,” Lizzie said concerned. She let go of her sister to go help Kaleb with MG, but MG yanked back from Lizzie’s touch. Lizzie took the hint and didn’t reach out to him again. Hope could tell it pained the blonde, but she obviously didn’t want to hurt her friend any more than he was already suffering.

“What happened?” Josie asked, standing by her sister again. Josie looked like she also wanted to help MG, but she didn’t even try based on the way he reacted to Lizzie.

“Your freaky dream demon is what happened!” Kaleb shouted. Josie took a step back from the volume of her schoolmate’s voice. Kaleb didn’t seem hostile he just seemed rattled otherwise Hope would have been on him, flinging him back into one of the bookcases.

“I was getting a late-night snack when y’all started running around waking each other up cause of some monster that attacks us in our sleep. Thanks for only waking your friends though.” Kaleb glared at Hope.

“Priorities,” Hope said calmly though she tilted her head daring Kaleb to keep coming at her. “The monster is only after the knife, therefore anyone with actual knowledge are the only one’s worth wasting the time to wake. Everyone else is safer if we get rid of this thing quickly.”

Instead of arguing back Kaleb held up his hands in surrender. “Anyway,” he said more calmly. “After I learned what was happening, I said I would wake the others while you guys did your thing. I got Jed and he was going to help wake any others who seemed like they were being affected too. When I got back to our room, I saw my boy thrashing around and did what it took to wake him. He’s been like this,” Kalen gestured to MG, “since.”

“Keep an eye on him,” Hope said, watching MG more closely. He was shaking and wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze. “We don’t need to worry about him and the monster.”

“Take him to a transition cell,” Alaric said. Hope flicked her gaze over to the headmaster; he was still off from his dreams, but he seemed more focused. She could tell that even though he had no idea what exactly MG saw he had an idea or at the very least he had an idea what exactly could go wrong if MG lashed out.

“Doc?” Kaleb asked confused.

“It will be safer for everyone. Even MG. We both know he’d never forgive himself if he hurt anyone.”

Kaleb clenched his jaw but didn’t argue. He scooped his friend up, dragging him back out of the room.

“Okay,” Hope said snapping everyone’s attention to her. “Now, what do we know?”

“There’s a monster that attacks in our dreams?” Lizzie answered not able to keep the sarcasm from her voice.

Hope knew Lizzie had just come out of a nightmare like the rest of them, so she swallowed the growl she wanted to release, taking a deep breath.

“What do we know?” Hope said again. “Clearly it attacks us in our sleep but what is its thing, what does it do, how did it attack each of us exactly? If we know how it attacks, we can know what to search for and figure out how to kill it.”

Everyone was silent. No one was meeting each other’s eyes; they were all glued to the floor.

Hope sighed, calming herself again before starting, “We don’t have tell each other what exactly we saw. I’ll go first, my nightmares were all memories.” Hope saw Josie’s eyes flick to her. Hope found comfort in Josie but she couldn’t look at the other girl. If she did, she was worried the other girl would see just how broken she actually was. “Each memory was a turning point in my life. Something bad that happened but changed everything, moments where I might be considered at my lowest. However,” Hope knit her eyebrows together thinking back to the nightmares she experienced. It wasn’t as bad for her as the others because she was used to the pain, she already didn’t sleep and suffered through her own memories haunting her when she did, this monster provided nothing new. “The last nightmare, it wasn’t a memory. It was in a place I knew and there was someone there that I knew but it had never happened.”

“Same with me,” Landon spoke up his voice gravelly before he cleared his throat. “The first nightmares were memories, like you said, the turning points, the low points, some of them. That last one though, none of it was real. It was a place I knew and...” he trailed off.

“What?”

Landon swallowed again before continuing, “The monster took the form of someone I trusted, it took the form of you. It was like it was trying to weaken me, break me enough so that it could take the form of someone I trusted, and I’d give up the location of the knife.”

“Same,” Josie’s voice came, Hope almost missed it because she spoke so quietly. She wasn’t meeting anyone’s gaze still. “The first one was a memory, I think, I was young. The other one though it wasn’t real, it felt real though, something happened.” She was avoiding saying any details about what exactly happened, Hope realized. “Something bad. I was frantic, to put it lightly then you,” Josie’s eyes met Hopes. “Came out of the woods and it seemed like a normal conversation we’d have but I knew it wasn’t you because of the way you were acting, and I knew you’d never act that way. I knew something was wrong and I was able to hear you and wake up.”

“Same,” Hayley’s voice came next. “All the same, used memories first to wear me down then tried to take the form of someone I know to get me to give over the knife.”

Everyone else nodded in agreement. So even though they all experienced radically different things everything they experienced was based on some of the darkest moments in their lives.

“So, this creature can use our own memories, making us relive whatever horribleness we’ve experienced but also use enough fragments from our memories to create something new that is realistic enough that we wouldn’t question it,” Hope summarized. “Okay, let’s narrow our search to any creature related to dreams.”

They all nodded again, everyone going to separate shelves to pick-out books or grab a laptop to search the web.

“We can also cross off anything that doesn’t use memories against its victims.”

They spent next couple of hours flipping through books. They were mostly crossing creatures off their list which was helpful knowing what it wasn’t, they still had no clue what it was.

“What about this?” Josie asked breaking Hope out of her trance of staring at the words on a page, she wasn’t even sure she was processing the words fully, they needed to be quick, so she was mostly skimming for key words.

Hope got up and went to lean over Josie’s shoulder so she could read what she saw. She had been flipping through an old looking book on Greek mythology. The page she was on had Oneiroi at the top, underneath a quick description of the creature, and to the right a picture of the creature. The picture looked more like a picture of a rough drawing. It was hard to see details the monster was covered in shadows, it looked like maybe it had wings? Further down on the page the text continued, saying that a Oneiroi was from Greek mythology and that it entered people’s dreams, controlling, and manipulating them. The book went on to say that it was said the creature could take the form of another and were used to give false messages to people from the gods.

“I think we have a winner,” Hope said, turning the book so the others could read it. “It enters dreams, manipulates them, and can take the form of anyone.”

“So how do we kill it?” Hayley asked.

Landon grabbed the book, quickly skimming the page. “It says the creature isn’t of our realm. It exists on another plane which is why it can only interact with victims in their dream state.”

“Which is why I wasn’t alerted about a new monster, if the monster is only on the dream plane, then it technically never crossed the towns boarder, my spells don’t cover other planes of existence.”

“Well, I’m curious as to why this damn thing made an environment to try and get me to trip into a mud puddle,” Lizzie asked, it sounded rhetorical and like she was just trying to rant but Hopes eyes snapped to her.

“What did you say?”

“In one of my dreams I was running, I tripped and got covered in mud, there was a mud puddle right there. I almost fell in; sure, I was in the woods, but it felt…” Lizzie paused searching for the right word. “Off.” She shuddered. “I don’t know what it was about it. It felt like-”

“You should recognize it?” Josie finished for her twin.

Hope looked at Josie with raised eyebrows.

Josie ducked her head, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “I saw one too,” she said quietly, quickly glancing at Hope.

“Me too,” Rafael said.

“Me too,” Hayley added. “I was also running and only saw it for a second but for some reason it gave me pause.

Hope and Landon both looked at each other, they nodded in agreement. “Malivore,” they said simultaneously.

“It was in mine as well,” Landon added. “I’ve actually seen him, so I was in the place he’s located, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Same,” Hope said. She and Landon seemed to share similar nightmares in that case, they both had at least one nightmare at the Triad facility that held Malivore.

“Why would we all see a puddle of mud as a representation of Malivore?” Lizzie asked. “I’ve never seen it, so why would the creature try showing it to me in a nightmare?”

Hope shrugged. She really had no clues as to why everyone would see some sort of representation of Malivore. She knew her and Landon knew what Malivore actually looked like, and they both had trauma relating to the building Malivore is in if not relating to Malivore directly in Landon’s case. She couldn’t figure out why the monster would insert Malivore into everyone else’s nightmares though.

“It also says,” Alaric spoke up, he was now the one reading from the book. “That the creature uses its prey’s greatest fears or painful memories to break them down, to weaken them to a state they can be more easily influenced. Which is what we thought. It showed us our fears or some of the worst stuff in our pasts to try and weaken our minds so that when it approached us as a familiar face we’d willingly give over the knife.”

“So how are we supposed to fight this thing?” Rafael asked. “I don’t exactly have a desire to go back to sleep with this thing on the loose, it was hard enough to break free from its spell. The only reason I did was because you woke me up.”

“Also, in a dream state we won’t be together,” Josie added. “We’d all be alone, and we wouldn’t be able to guarantee who the monster would go after, we’d all have to be prepared.”

“How do you even kill something in another plane?” Hayley asked.

“You don’t,” Hope said. “The dream plane is this monster’s domain. It’s where it’s the strongest, it’s why we’re all so affected by it, why it was so hard to break its grip. We would need to bring it here,” Hope gestured around them, “into our plane of existence to have a chance.”

“Couldn’t that be more dangerous?” Alaric asked.

Hope hesitated before speaking. “Maybe? I’m not sure. If we get it on this plane, it will be weaker, it will need to jump back into someone else’s dreams to be at full power again.”

“But if we bring it here then it’ll have access to the knife without any of our help.”

Hope nodded, that was true. “True, but it doesn’t know where it is yet, at least not exactly.”

“She’s right,” Landon nodded, getting where Hope was going. “In my dream it kept asking where the knife was, it kept asking me to hand it over. I assume it was the same for everyone?” Landon looked around as everyone nodded. “So, it knows we have it, but it doesn’t know where it is.”

“And with the spells in place it still won’t be able to just walk up and take it,” Alaric said.

“So, that’s the plan. One of us goes to sleep and draws the monster in then they figure out how to bring the monster to this realm and we kick ass,” Landon laid out the plan.

“Who’s going to be the one to enter this dream state again?” Lizzie asked. “It’s not like the experience was a picnic. Also, how will whoever know what they’re supposed to do?”

“I’ll do it,” Hope said before anyone else could speak. “I’ll know it’s a dream because we know about the monster now. Before I didn’t know, it was just a normal nightmare before something was off.”

“And how do you intend to bring our guest to this world?”

“I have an idea,” Hope muttered. She wasn’t sure it would work but she had a plan. “When I go to sleep, I need you guys to be ready cause I don’t know how long it will take and I don’t know how quick to waking up I’ll be.”

“We can do this in the gym,” Alaric suggested. “More room to fight it, assuming when you bring it back it will appear where you are.”

Hope nodded. The others went about their business, gathering weapons, supplies, and anything else they might need for the fight.

Before Josie could walk out the door though Hope reached out grabbing her hand, “Hey, wait,” she said softly. When Josie turned to look at her Hope quickly let go of her hand. “Sorry,” she muttered.

“It’s okay,” Josie said softly, her smile holding the same softness despite the current situation. “What’s up?”

“I need you to put me to sleep.”

Josie tilted her head. “What?”

“I have enough trouble sleeping as it is. So, I need someone to do a sleep spell and you’re kinda the only one I trust here to do that.”

Hope wouldn’t meet Josie’s gaze. She knew there was nothing to be embarrassed about, but she couldn’t help it. She hated admitting that nightmares plagued her. She hated that she was the most powerful creature in the world, but she was kept awake by her own memories.

“Hey,” Josie said in an even softer tone than before. She reached out taking Hopes hand in her again. “It’s okay,” she reassured. “Thank you for trusting me with this.”

Hope smiled at that. She gave Josie a grateful nod then proceeded to follow her out of the hallway, their hands still intertwined.

When they got to the gym the others were already there and Hope laid down on a mat that they placed on the floor. Josie knelt down next to her, preparing to do the spell when Hope was ready. After a few moments, the others gathered around them, each holding their own weapon.

“You ready?” Josie asked.

Hope just nodded. She looked at Landon one last time, he gave her a reassuring nod now. Josie started the spell and Hope quickly started drifting off to sleep, she could feel Josie’s hands that were helping prop up her head gently lower it to the mat, then everything fully became black.

Hope opened her eyes, and she was once again inside the Triad warehouse that contained Malivore. Hope glanced around the place, like before the building was completely empty, it was just her and the mud pit.

Hope sighed looking around the building. She wondered how long the monster would take to show up. Clearly it wasn’t trying to get her to relive more tragic memories, it could probably sense it wouldn’t work, but it still created the same scene of the Triad warehouse.

When she turned back around, she was face to face with Clarke again.

“Finally,” she sighed.

“Hope,” Clarke said, giving his usual awkward smile. “We need to get the knife,”

“Okay, can we not with this bullshit,” Hope gestured to nightmare Clarke. “I’m completely awake.” She paused thinking about what she just said. “You know what I mean. So,” she got serious again, taking a step closer to Clarke. “How about we stop playing this game and you show me your true face.”

Nightmare Clarke smirked, his eyes turning black. “I knew you were strong; you and the boy were the only ones able to break free of my grip on your own. I knew something was wrong when I sensed you again, but I had to come.” He stepped back, gesturing around them, “None of these other people can give me the knife. Also, I quite like this body,” he gestured down to himself. “I saw him a lot in your memories, you have a lot of hatred for him.”

“Yeah well, he’s kinda a dick. I don’t care about killing you in this form, I just figured we should both just be who we were here.”

“I can’t decide whether you’re brave or stupid. I was distracted, I spread myself between all of you, but now you can have my full attention. It might take a few tries, usually does, but if I dig deep enough, I always find the right memory.” He said stepping closer to Hope. “They always break.”

“I don’t,” Hope said, taking another step closer to him. Clarke or nightmare Clarke was taller than her but even though monster was taking his form he still didn’t hold himself high. Hopes confidence never wavered, where for some reason she could sense the monsters did. She was in his realm, where he was strongest and yet he still didn’t hold himself as if he were the one in control.

“I see can make you relive your biggest regrets,” he whispered. He still thought he had the power. “How about a couple months before your escape?” he asked with a knowing smirk.

Hope clenched her jaw. She knew there was potential for that to be used against her.

“I will use your deepest fears against you.”

“You’re very good at what you do.” Hope gave him credit, she couldn’t help it, he was very good at finding what it takes to cause people pain. She took a step back so she could pace. “However, I know something you don’t. You probably don’t even realize you do it.”

“And what’s that?” he asked, he didn’t sound like he actually believed her. It was more like he was humoring her, seeing how long she would draw this out.

“We had a little team meeting, if you will,” Hope said, turning to slowly approach him again. “We got to talking and learned that in all of our nightmares, though they were all different there was one common denominator,” Hope glanced to the mud pit to the left of them, then back at fake Clarke, “Malivore.”

Fake Clarke swallowed, moving to adjust his tie and smooth out his shirt, something the real Clarke would do. He didn’t say anything though.

Hope smirked, continuing to slowly walk towards him, walking around him like a predator stalking its prey.

“Landon and I are the only ones that have ever seen Malivore though. Everyone else knows he’s a mud pit but they don’t know what he looks like, not exactly. It’s weird that they all had a version of a mud pit in their nightmares though.”

Fake Clarke stiffened, still not saying a word. Hope stopped walking circles around him, coming to stop directly in front of him again.

“This,” Hope pointed to Malivore, “isn’t my fear. It’s yours.”

Before the monster could react in anyway Hope gripped the nightmare Clarke by the shoulders, jumping into Malivore, bringing the monster with her.

Everything went black.

Hope shot up, gasping for breath. Her eyes darted around the room; she was still in the gym. Josie had an arm resting on her shoulder trying to calm her down.

“Did it work?” Josie asked.

“I would say that’s a yes,” Landon’s voice came.

Everyone turned to where Landon was looking. There on the other side of the gym a tall muscular monster, as black as night was standing. Its face like a demon, horns on top of its head and on the side of its face, its eyes also just pure darkness almost liquid like, torn up batwings on its back.

Alaric raised his crossbow, shooting a few arrows at the monster. They hit the creature dead center, but they just bounced right off.

Rafael tried rushing the monster, but it quickly smacked him aside, sending him flying across the room.

Lizzie threw a couple spells at it but again they did nothing. Every spell bounced off it. Every weapon broke as soon as it made contact.

Hayley was facing off with the creature, she was taking the same approach as Rafael but unlike him she was dodging the monsters’ attacks.

Josie had to help Hope to her feet. Hope was awake but she was still feeling the effects of the sleep spell. She tried to walk over to join the fight, but Josie had an iron grip on her, holding her back.

Hayley swiped her claws at it when she got an opening. Her claws scraped across its chest. Hope could see the claw marks on the monster, but it didn’t look like it had done any actual damage.

“Its body is like some type of armor,” Hayley yelled as she dodged another hit.

“Did the book mention any weaknesses?” Hope asked, looking over to Landon.

“Uh,” Landon groaned, sliding across the floor to where to book was. He was supposed to be spending the time while Hope was in the dream state searching for ways to kill it. “Its entire body is armor,” he said, reading over the pages.

“No shit, she just said that!” Lizzie yelled.

“It looks like the only soft parts of the monster are the wings.”

“I don’t think that’s going to help,” Hope said.

Landon skimmed the book, his eye quickly running over the page.

“The eyes!” Landon shouted. “Go for the eyes!”

Hayley did a backflip, just barely dodging another swipe from the monster. When she landed, she picked up the two halves of one of Alaric’s broken arrows. She crouched down, jumping when the monster swiped again, so she went over its arm and stabbed each of the broken pieces of arrow into the eyes of the monster. She kicked off the monster’s chest doing another back flip.

The monster stumbled back at the force of Hayley’s kick. It started to reach up for the arrow pieces in its eyes but quickly collapsed to its knees. Before it’s body could fully fall forward, hitting the floor it evaporated into a cloud of black smoke.

Everyone sighed in relief of the monster finally being defeated, of the nightmares ending. Unlike all the other times they defeated a monster though no one celebrated. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the floor. Even though the monster was dead, they were all still being haunted by what they had to endure because of it.

Chapter Text

It had been almost another week since the Oneiroi attacked and everyone was still reeling from what they saw. Hope had texted with Josie and Rafael a little, but it was just basic checking in with each other, Hope couldn’t blame them she wasn’t going out of her way to reach out either. The person she heard most from was Landon, it was easier talking to him since he already knew everything she went through, and she also knew what he had gone through. Even though she hadn’t been to the school since that day Landon kept her up to date on everyone and how they were dealing.

Hayley hadn’t been back to the school either since that night, Landon said he didn’t think she had even talked to Alaric. He had overheard Alaric a few times in his office, and it seemed like he had tried calling Hayley a few times but was only getting her voicemail. Hope knew Hayley was still in town. She also knew that though she was keeping it all internal Hayley was in a lot more pain than the others. Hayley gave Hope a ride back home that night, but the car ride had been silent, Hope didn’t try making conversation, she just stared out the window. She noticed Hayley’s eyes never left the road in front of them and she had a tight grip on the wheel, Hope was honestly surprised she didn’t break it. Hayley managed to say goodnight when she dropped Hope off after Hope thanked her for the ride, but she hadn’t seen the hybrid since. The only reason Hope knew Hayley was still in town was because every night she heard a wolf let out an agonizing howl and since Hayley was the only other one who could control her shift Hope knew it was her.

Rafael was also taking everything pretty hard. Hope had gotten bits and pieces of what his nightmares involved but since she hadn’t had a full conversation with him, she didn’t know what his nightmares fully entailed. Unlike the others though he wasn’t closing himself off and keeping to himself, no, he was acting more aggressive and arguing back more. Landon told her that Raf had argued back with a handful of teachers and when Doctor Saltzman tried to diffuse the situation, he had argued with him as well. Landon mentioned he tried talking to Raf but even if it was just about something as simple as homework or which movie to watch Rafael snapped at him most of the time. Rafael was already butting heads with the alpha at school, Jed, but things had apparently gotten worse. There hadn’t been any actual fights breakout, but Landon seemed to think things were reaching a boiling point. Which was why Hope was headed to the school. Landon wanted her to come over to see if Raf would be more open with her and see if she could get him to chillout just a little.

And Josie seemed to be dealing okay but it was hard for Landon to tell. Based on the texts Josie was sending her Hope wasn’t surprised, she wasn’t fully withdrawing herself from Hope, but she wasn’t being her usual self and asking her a bunch of questions or just trying to make conversation with her like they usually did. Landon said she had smiled at him or waved to him in the halls, but she never went up and talked to him or Raf. He also said that she didn’t seem to be hanging out with her sister or MG or any of their friends, she was just keeping to herself.

Landon told her that Alaric had made it mandatory for all students affected by the monster to speak with Emma for a couple sessions, she was a witch and a teacher at the school but also the student’s councilor and acted as a therapist for a lot of the students. Landon told her how he had actually been talking to her during his sessions and it was helping. He never had anyone to talk to about what he went through in Triad and with her he actually could, he didn’t have to talk around the supernatural stuff. He knew the others were going to their sessions because they had to and when Raf tried skipping out on his Alaric hunted him down and made him go, he didn’t know if any of them were actually talking to Emma about what they went through though, he was pretty sure Rafael wasn’t but couldn’t say for on Josie or anyone else.

Landon had tried convincing Hope to come talk to Emma since she seemed to really know her stuff and it wasn’t every day they found a psychologist that was well versed in the supernatural world. He kept trying to tell her that Emma would be more than happy to help, she really cared about her students and even though Hope wasn’t a student he knew she would be okay with Hope seeing her. Hope however, though she was grateful, denied the suggestion. Hope decided to deal with her issues the same way she always had, throwing herself into work. If she kept her mind occupied with work or another project, then she wouldn’t have time to focus on her own trauma. Hope knew it wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with stuff, but it worked for her. She had been picking up every extra shift she could at The Grill, when she wasn’t at work, she focused on researched Malivore and monsters, and when she hit a wall with that, she threw herself into research on The Merge, she had found a few more spell books or history books on witch families that mentioned the Gemini Coven and had been going through them, adding all the notes she could to her little notebook.

Hope made her way through the halls of The Salvatore School, searching for Rafael. She found him in the dining hall. It looked like another wolf had bumped into him and now they were both up in each other’s face, eyes glowing yellow. Jed pushed the other wolf back, so he was the one facing off with Rafael. Rafael let out a low growl, Hope could see him flex his fingers before forming a fist, he was going to hit the schools alpha and start a little war with the entire pack. Hope rolled her eyes, if he did that, she’d be obligated to help him, and she just didn’t want to deal with petty drama at the moment.

“Raf!” she called to him. Her tone was friendly, but she knew he heard the underlying command. She saw the way his jaw clenched when she said his name. He wanted to hit Jed, but he was struggling to go against her silent command. When Rafael finally flicked his gaze to her, she continued, “Let’s go.”

Rafael stared Jed down for another second before letting out a huff, closing his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he opened them again his eyes were back to normal and he turned to follow Hope, not looking back towards Jed. Hope was glad the alpha had enough common sense to drop it when Rafael walked away because she had no desire to kick his ass at the moment.

Hope lead them to the gym which was completely empty. She wasn’t surprised by that. The students were done with classes for the day, so they were all hanging out in the dining hall or with their friends somewhere else.

“Did Landon call you?” Rafael finally asked.

“Yes,” Hope answered honestly. There was no point in lying to him.

“So, what, you’re here to get me to talk about my feelings?” he asked crossing his arms.

Hope turned to glare at him. “When have I ever been a feelings person?”

Rafael thought for a moment then nodded in agreement, dropping his arms. “So, why are you here?”

“Well, I did come to check on you but like I said I’m not the feelings person. If you want to talk about your feelings, you have that teacher you’re supposed to be seeing.” Rafael rolled his eyes, but Hope continued before he could say anything. “Or you have Landon. I might not know how to talk feelings and emotions, but I do know how to release anger.” Hope smirked tossing him a bow staff.

“I don’t think Miss. Tig would say this is healthy.”

“Oh, so you’re talking to her?”

Rafael clenched his jaw then swung the staff without warning. Hope smirked, instantly blocking his attack. She didn’t do feelings, they made her uncomfortable, but she did know how to get Raf to open up, even if he didn’t realize it.

He swung again.

She blocked him again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Hope decided to stop playing the defensive and after Rafael’s next attack, she blocked it in a way that allowed her to twist the weapon out of his hand, flinging it across the room.

Rafael huffed; his jaw still clenched.

“Come on,” Hope taunted. She bounced on her feet, flipping the two smaller wood staffs she had in her hands.

Raf shot her a glare as he silently went and grabbed his weapon again.

Raf attacked again, finally thinking through his moves instead of just charging in with anger.

Hope still blocked all of his attacks but he blocked hers as well.

Rafael had managed to get Hopes weapons out of her hands when they got close again and she blocked one of his attacks, using the same move she used on him to throw his staff to the side.

Despite Rafael getting rid of her weapons, Hope managed to duck at his next swing and take the opportunity to flip him onto his back.

“Again?” Hope asked as she held out her hand for him.

Rafael sighed but gave a light chuckle, taking her hand, allowing her to yank him back to his feet.

“As much as I love getting my ass kicked by you, I think I’m done for the day,” Rafael said, still trying to even out his breathing.

Hope rolled her eyes. Rafael was the closest she could get to a decent sparring match but even with him being a wolf she still had to hold back significantly. Even without having her vampire side activated Hope still found it hard to find someone who could match her.

When Triad would put Hope against a monster, she hated to admit it, but she got excited. The vampires and wolves were too easy. The monsters offered a challenge. Some not as much as others but there were a few that provided a good fight, she honestly enjoyed it half the time. It was probably pretty messed up how much Hope loved a fight, but it was the best way for her to feel things, even if it was only pain or anger.

“You know I am here for you,” Hope said, glancing as Rafael, “right?”

“I know,” Rafael admitted softly. “It’s just…”

“I know. And,” Hope said slowly. “I know this it kinda hypocritical coming from me but maybe talking to that teacher would be good, she might be able to offer healthier ways to deal. I’m certainly not the go to person for dealing with trauma.”

Rafael laughed at that. “I don’t know, you seem to have a good head on your shoulder. All you’ve been through, then these nightmares; you and Lan are the only ones handling it well.”

At that it was Hopes turn to laugh. “Raf, I don’t sleep ninety percent of the time, when I do it’s a few hours filled with nightmares. I throw myself into training,” she gestured around the gym. “Or I throw myself into research. I’m not good at dealing with this stuff Raf, I’m just so use to it, it doesn’t phase me. That’s not a good thing. Being,” Hope shook her head thinking of the word, “numb to all the pain and darkness, it’s not something you should ever want.”

Rafael’s gaze fell to the floor, nodding. “It’s just hard, opening up to people. You’re a wolf, you get it.”

“You got wolves here; I know I’m not social so I’m not a good judge of people, but that Jed guy doesn’t seem like a total dick. I walked in on you two about to rip each other apart but I would bet you started it.”

Rafael didn’t say anything, choosing to keep his eyes glued to the floor. Hope knew she was right.

“I don’t like taking orders from people.”

“You take orders from me.”

“Have you ever tried arguing with you?” Rafael looked at her in disbelief. “I could try arguing with you all I want but at the end of it we both know you’ll just do what you want.”

Hope shrugged; it was true. When one or both of the boys tried to argue against one of her plans unless they provided some relevant information, she usually just ignored them and went along with it anyway. She never forced them to follow along, but they somehow did anyway.

“I should get going, I got one of those sessions with Miss. Tig,” Rafael sighed. “Maybe I’ll do some talking.”

“Well, if it doesn’t work and you want to release some of that anger still,” Hope held her arms up wide. “I’m always down for kicking your ass.”

“Thank you.”

“Anytime.”

After Rafael left to go to his session Hope decided to walk around the school a bit. She was going to see if she could find Josie or Landon. She was hoping to run into Josie, she wanted to make sure the girl was okay, Hope had no idea what she experienced and just wanted to see her in person.

“I just can’t stop thinking about it.” Hope picked up a conversation as she was walking. She recognized the voice but couldn’t place it right away.

“I killed her, I killed my sister.” Hope tensed. Lizzie. Lizzie was the one the voice belong to. “I just don’t understand why the monster would show me that. I would never hurt Jo.”

“I know sweety,” Alaric’s voice came. “It was just a nightmare. It wasn’t real. Josie is fine. You are fine. You’re both okay. Now why don’t you go get some homework done.”

Alaric opened the door to his office, letting Lizzie out. Hope tried to act casual as if she wasn’t just ease dropping.

Once Lizzie was gone Hope couldn’t help but openly glare at Alaric.

“What?” Alaric snapped.

“You should tell them,” is all Hope said.

Alaric tensed. “Tell them what?” he tried playing dumb.

“That Lizzie’s nightmare wasn’t exactly just a nightmare.”

Alaric grabbed Hope by the arm yanking her into his office. He turned one of the items on his bookshelf. Hope assumed it was some kind of silencing spell so no one could hear the conversation they were about to have.

“What do you know?” Alaric demanded.

“I know about The Merge. I know that based on every conversation I’ve had with Josie and based on what you just told Lizzie that they have no idea. How can you not tell them?”

“We’re looking for a solution. There’s no need to worry them.”

“It will only be worse if they find out on their own.”

“They won’t.”

“The monster clearly sensed it. Why else would it give Lizzie that type of nightmare?”

“She won’t look into it.” Alaric took a step forward like he was trying to be threatening. Hope just looked at him with a deadpanned unimpressed expression. “And no one is going to tell them.”

“Don’t worry,” Hope gritted out. “I won’t say anything. Only because that’s something they deserve to hear from their parents not someone they just met.”

Hope stormed out, slamming the door before Alaric could say anything else. She knew he didn’t like her. She knew he was attacked by the monster as well and was dealing with it by drinking based on the smell of his breath. But she also knew Josie deserved to know.

Hope was about to go find something to punch when she turned right into Josie.

“Hey,” she said, smiling at the brunette, her anger completely disappearing.

“What was that about?” Josie asked with a pout. “Did my dad do something?”

“Oh, that,” Hope waved it off. “It was nothing. I mean when do him and I ever have a pleasant interaction.”

Josie stared at Hope for a second, then finally nodded but her pout remained.

“You, okay? What’s up?” Hope asked.

“I was wondering…” Josie trailed off. She kept looking at her shoes, not meeting Hopes eyes. Hope didn’t know why she was so nervous. This was the girl that asked her to teach her offensive magic. Hope couldn’t begin to guess what she wanted to ask her that would make her so nervous.

“Hey,” Hope said softly, reaching for Josie’s hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. “You know you can ask me anything.”

Josie bit her lip, nodding. Hope could see the tint of pink on the other girls’ cheeks. It only made her smile more.

“I just,” Josie started to trail off again. “I just, I saw you and Rafael in the gym. And I know you’re really good at fighting. I also know you already have so much going on. And you’re already going out of your way to help me out.” Hope knew she was avoiding saying teaching her offensive magic. Josie was also rambling. Hope really enjoyed when Josie rambled, it was adorable.

“Jo,” Hope broke Josie out of her rambling.

Josie took a deep breath trying to regain her focus.

“As I was saying,” she started again. “I saw you and Rafael training. I was wondering if you would teach me?”

Hope knit her eyebrows at that. “You want to learn to fight? Like hand to hand or weapons?”

“It’s fine if you don’t want to,” Josie quickly said, shaking her head. “It was a stupid idea. Why would you want to waste your time doing something like that.”

“Hey, no, it’s not stupid,” Hope reassured her. “I just didn’t know you had any interest in learning to fight like that.”

“I don’t always have magic. I’m tired of feeling defenseless. I want to learn to fight.”

“Okay, of course I’ll teach you. Though you know this means we’ll be doing a lot of physical activity?”

Josie sighed, “I know.”

Hope laughed at that. “Come on, I promise I’ll make it fun.”

“Are you sure? I feel like I’m asking a lot from you.”

“Seriously it’s fine. Honestly, it sounds fun. And I enjoy spending time with you.” Hope knew she was the one now blushing at her confession. “Want to meet Sunday? Or what day works best for you? And do you want this or be an early morning thing or a late at night thing? I figured we could use the gym so we can do it before it opens or after close. We don’t have to, but I think it will offer more privacy.”

Hope stopped talking when she realized Josie was smiling at her. She couldn’t help but smile as well, she was the one rambling now.

“How about early Sundays?” Josie offered. “That way I won’t be too tired for our other thing.” Hope smirked at that. “I can’t believe I’m giving up my only days of sleeping in for you.”

Hopes smirk deepened as she said, “Don’t worry, I’m worth it.”

Josie lightly shoved Hopes shoulder at that. “See you Saturday?”

“And Sunday.”

Josie rolled her eyes and slowly backed away from Hope, giving her a small wave goodbye. Which Hope returned.

Chapter Text

Josie threw on her hoodie and slipped out of the school without waking anyone up. It was 5am on a Sunday so everyone was asleep. She told Hope early on Sundays for their new training session, she didn’t realize early meant early. They had just seen each other the day before and had another decent session of offensive magic. It had actually been a rather simple session, Josie felt like Hope wasn’t pushing it too hard for some reason, but she also didn’t complain about it.

Ever since the Oneiroi attack Josie hadn’t been feeling it, she hadn’t been up for much of anything. She had barely talked to her sister or MG or really anyone. Lizzie tried getting her to open up or she went on one of her tangents and Josie would only just hum or nod in acknowledgement. Josie wasn’t sure why she was taking the nightmares so hard. Hers for the most part were all something the monster created but seeing her friends all dead and not being the one to save them did something, it felt to like to real of a possibility.

Josie had been walking through the halls the other day when she heard people in the gym. She peeked her head in and saw Rafael and Hope going at it. They were sparring and it didn’t seem like Rafael was holding back. Hope was dodging and attacking with such ease, spending so much time on the defensive, not bothering to attack. She made it look easy. Rafael was giving it his all and Hope was just playing with him. He was panting and dripping with sweat while Hope hadn’t even broken a sweat.

Josie wanted to ask Hope to train her. She knew she could ask anyone else, MG, Kaleb, Rafael, hell her dad, but she wanted to ask Hope. Hope was the best fighter out of all of them by far. Hope knew what they were up against. If anyone could train Josie best in the future fights to come it was Hope. Plus, Josie wanted to spend more time with her. She was the only person she had really been talking to even though she knew her texts had been a little short, Hope was still the only one she was actively communicating with daily. Hope just put her at ease, even if they weren’t in the same room.

Josie had been working herself up to approach Hope and ask her to train her when she saw the other girl storming out of her dad’s office, slamming the door. Josie had been standing right there and hadn’t heard anything coming from the office. From the look of Hope it looked like her and her dad had been arguing which she surely would have heard out in the hall. Josie narrowed her eyes; her dad had a silencing spell up. She knew he had one practically built in for privacy, but it was curious he put it up when he and Hope were arguing. When she asked Hope what that was all about, she dismissed it saying it was nothing. Josie trusted Hope, she knew Hope was good but, in that moment, she knew she was keeping something from her, and her dad knew about it as well.

When Josie finally made it to Hopes apartment, she saw the lights in the gym already turned on, so she just entered through the front door. Hope had music blasting throughout the place. Josie started looking around for Hope, she finally spotted her off to the side doing pullups.

Josie knew Hope was in good shape. Most werewolves were, she basically grew up fighting and training, she could hold her own against anything, she went for daily runs, and she lived above a gym. However, seeing her in person, wow. She was wearing a sports bra and some workout leggings. Josie could see all of Hopes muscles and her abs, of course the girl she had a crush on looked like some Greek warrior goddess.

“Oh, hey,” Hope breathed out, snapping Josie out of her staring. She got lucky; it didn’t seem like Hope noticed she was ogling her.

“Hey!” Josie greeted, internally cringing at her overly cheerfulness. “I barely dragged myself out of bed this morning and you’re here already doing a workout.”

Hope dropped down to her feet, grabbing a hoodie that was lying on the ground next to a water bottle. Josie would be disappointed about losing the view of Hopes abs, but she was grateful to no longer have the distraction. The day was meant for training and becoming stronger, not drooling over the girl she had a major crush on and was falling for more and more every day.

Hope waved Josie’s comment off. “This is just my warmup, it’s nothing.”

“This is nothing? I’m sorry, maybe to you and to anyone else into physical activity this is nothing but for someone who doesn’t do this,” Josie gestured around the gym, “this is not nothing. This is like A LOT.”

Hope chuckled. “Well, I’ve already gone for my run but if you wanted to get one in as a warm-up, I still got a few miles in me.” Hope took a drink of her water. “Had to cut mine short,” she smirked.

“What do you consider cutting it short?” Cutting it short for Hope was not the same as cutting it short for someone like Josie and Josie knew that. For Hope cutting it short was like running fifteen miles instead of eighteen. For Josie or any normal person cutting it short would be like doing a mile instead of three.

Hope just smirked at Josie. That confirmed it, Hope was insane.

“You know, I think we can skip the cardio for the day?” Josie suggested. “I think I can work on that on my own and maybe we could just work on like the fighting stuff?”

“Okay,” Hope said, not losing her smile. “I will get you to come running with me one day though.”

Josie rolled her eyes. She wanted to argue that Hope would never make that happen, but she had a feeling that wasn’t the case. She was just going to take the win for the moment and roll with it.

“So,” Josie bounced up and down on her toes, “what’s first? Teach me how to throw a bunch? Do a kick?”

“Okay calm down,” Hope said holding up her hands, laughing at Josie’s excitement “How about we start off small, run a few drills, just a bit of basics?”

“I thought you said you’d make this fun?”

“I think we need to work to see where you’re at and build up some technique before you just jump in the ring?” Josie pouted, hoping Hope would change her mind. “It would be easier to teach you punches and kicks on a bag then if we are sparring. Wouldn’t it be more fun to know how to do that stuff then try sparring with me?” Josie sighed but begrudgingly nodded. She hated it but it made sense.

Hope rolled her eyes. “If you do well and there’s enough time maybe we can grab some gloves and mitts and you can throw a few punches that way.”

Josie looked at Hope through her eyelashes, blinking a few times, her pout still completely noticeable.

Hope rolled her eyes again, sighing. “And I’ll buy you breakfast after.”

“At the Grill?”

“I mean it is where I work but your choice. Anywhere in town. You just got to survive my lessons for the morning.” Hope smiled. It wasn’t her smirk, but it wasn’t her sweet smile either. It was her arrogant cocky smile. Josie hated that smile, though she still found it attractive.

“Fine,” Josie grumbled.

“Alright let’s start with a basic warmup, just some sit-ups and pullups.”

“Okay, I know you just made that look super easy,” Josie pointed to the pullup bar. “And you can probably do that one handed.” Josie tried to ignore Hopes smirk. “But don’t expect much from me. My dad never really seemed to think physical education was necessary.”

“Wow, my judgement of Alaric only grows.”

Josie did ten sit-ups and managed to do a couple pullups before Hope finally put her out of her misery and told her they could move on. She did however mention they were going to develop Josie’s muscle more, so she’d be able to do pullups no problem.

They worked on weights for a little while. Hope taking her through a few different drills. The weights she was using were only like 10lbs but after all the lifting and squatting and lifting they felt like 50lbs. Hope then made her get on the treadmill for about fifteen minutes despite agreeing to not do any cardio.

“All right how about a short break?” Hope asked, tossing Josie a water bottle.

Josie nodded, panting, not trusting she could actually get words out. She wasn’t sure how, but she managed to catch the water bottle.

“You good?” Hope asked, holding back a grin.

Josie nodded as she gulped down her water.

“Okay, enjoy the break, 10-15 minutes. Cause next we are actually going to be doing some punching and kicking.”

Josie collapsed onto one of the mats, not even trying to hide her heavy breathing. She raised her arm to give Hope a thumbs up. She didn’t see her face, but she heard Hope let out a laugh.

Josie was surprised how comfortable a mat was on a gym floor when she was exhausted. She could have fallen asleep there. At least she could have if Hope hadn’t of interrupted her nap.

“Alright, let’s go,” Hope said breaking Josie out of her rest. Josie sighed, then finally opened her eyes to see Hope standing over her with a small smile, holding out her hand.

Josie sighed but grabbed Hopes hand allowing the other girl to help her to her feet.

“The gym opens in an hour. We’ll be done then and then-”

“You buy me breakfast,” Josie cuts her off.

“Anything your heart desires.”

“That’s good cause after what you’ve put me through my heart and stomach will desire a lot.”

Hope rolled her eyes with an amused smile. “Come on.” She tossed Josie a pair of kickboxing gloves.

They approached a punching bag and Hope stood on the other side of it to hold it while Josie threw punches. Hope called out punches and a few kicks for Josie to do. When Josie made a mistake Hope would kindly correct her and tell her what she should do to get more power behind the kick or punch. She would also correct Josie’s stance when needed.

They did that for a while and Hope gave her a few more drills to run through. Josie wasn’t sure how she was doing but she felt she was doing pretty okay since Hope wasn’t correcting her too much, that or Hope was just being nice. Sadly, they didn’t get to be in the ring before 8 o’clock rolled around but Hope said next time they definitely would.

“Cool if I shower before breakfast?” Josie asked as Hope packed up the stuff they had been using.

“Yeah of course, but you can use mine. It’s slightly nicer than the ones down here.”

“Okay,” Josie couldn’t help the blush on her cheeks at the idea of using Hopes shower. “Thanks.”

They went up to Hopes apartment, where Hope showed Josie the shower and said she could use her shampoo, soap, and whatever else she needed.

Josie tried to make the shower as quick as possible. She didn’t want to make Hope wait too long on her. She was also starving. Hope really knew how to give her a workout that made her need food after.

When Josie got out of the shower and changed, she walked into the living room and saw Hope completely in her own world sketching. Josie stood in the doorway just watching the other girl, she hated to interrupt her.

“Hey,” Hope said softly, looking back towards Josie.

“Hey, what are you working on?” Josie asked. “Or is it a secret?”

Hope laughed as Josie came fully into the living room. She did a couple of quick movements on the paper then turned it to show Josie. Josie couldn’t help the way her mouth opened and closed. The sketch was of Josie, which wasn’t a surprise considering Josie knew Hope already did a sketch of her. Unlike the first one though which was just a simple profile piece this one showed Josie from the morning in her workout gear, in the middle of punching the bag.

“Wow,” is all Josie managed to get out. “You made me look amazing.”

“I just draw what I see. This is all you. You ready?”

“Yeah, where are we going?”

“I don’t know. You get to pick, remember?”

Josie smiled at that. She kind of forgot she was meant to choose where they were eating. “Right, there’s a little café not far from here, that good?”

“Sounds perfect.”

They made their way to the café which luckily wasn’t too far from Hopes place because it involved more walking. Josie loved walking with Hope, she really enjoyed the time together. However, she was thinking she needed to make getting her license and then a car her priority because all the walking would surely be the death of her.

When they ordered Josie got a simple strawberry smoothie and an omelet. Hope however got a coffee loaded with sugar and a stack of waffles drenched in syrup, whipped cream, and who knew how much more sugar.

Josie was watching Hope pour another packet of sugar into her coffee when she finally decided to ask, “You always drink your coffee like that?” Josie was honestly concerned with the amount of sugar the girl was consuming. She also didn’t understand how someone so physically fit could eat like that.

Hope looked down at her cup, her brow furrowed. Josie couldn’t help but giggle, she truly didn’t see anything wrong with how she was drinking her coffee.

“That’s so much sugar!” Josie exclaimed through her laughter. “You’ll be up all night.”

“Well, I don’t sleep anyway.”

“I’m sorry,” Josie whispered. She knew Hope didn’t sleep well. She learned that when they were fighting the gargoyle.

“It’s okay,” Hope whispered, a sad smile on her lips. “I had issues sleeping long before this stupid nightmare monster.”

“I still don’t get how you can eat all that crap and look like you,” Josie said trying to shift the mood back to something light.

It worked; Hope laughed. “The perks of having a werewolf metabolism.”

“Lucky,” Josie grumbled. That caused Hope to smirk.

“So,” Hope hesitated, taking a sip of her coffee. “You wanna hang out for a bit?” Josie could see Hope hide a smirk behind her coffee cup, “Or are you to tired?”

“I would love to hangout,” Josie answered, not bother hiding her smile. “Though if I fall asleep on your couch you can’t blame me.”

After they finished up breakfast, they made their way back to Hopes apartment. They both made themselves comfortable on the couch with Josie grabbing the remote and putting on the first Harry Potter.

“Seriously?” Hoped asked.

“Yes seriously. I told you I would make you watch all of them and it just so happens that we have the whole day.”

“Before we do that,” Hope reached over to pause the movie. “I know you already answered this, but I feel like there’s more to it. So, why are we doing this?”

“Doing what?” Josie tried to play dumb.

“Why all the training? Why all the wanting to know offensive spells and now wanting to know hand to hand? I know you said you wanted to be able to protect your friends, but it feels like there’s more to this.”

“Look, I know I’m just a siphoner, I have no magic of my own and am basically useless otherwise in a fight. I want to stop being seen as useless. As someone who isn’t a true witch. I want to be someone who can fight back, who’s not just a damsel waiting to be saved.”

“You’re kidding right?” Josie looked at her confused. “I would never call you useless. You’re probably one of the most powerful people I know.”

“You’re just saying that to humor me.”

“I’ve never been accused of that, now brutally honest and blunt, that’s another story. That’s not my style. Why do you think siphoners are so feared and hated?” Josie didn’t answer. “It’s because of what they know you can do. You may not have magic of your own, but you can take it from anything or anyone magical. Others only fear and hate the strong.” Josie smiled at that. “You and your sister look non-threatening because of this so you’re always underestimated which is why you have an advantage most others won’t.”

“What advantage? I don’t see how not having magic is an advantage.”

“Because you don’t have to rely on magic always. If someone nullifies magic, then most witches will be powerless because they won’t know what to do without magic. You and Lizzie live your lives without constantly having magic at your fingertips. Also, if we’re ever captured for instance if they throw all their magic cancelling crap at me and keep me or whoever locked up and are focusing on me not being able to use my powers, they might underestimate you and might not take the necessary precautions, meaning you’d be able to get the upper hand.”

“None of that matters if I can’t fight,” Josie grumbled.

“Which we are working on. When I’m done with you, you’ll be able to kick anyone’s ass. You’ll be so good you’ll forget you could’ve siphoned magic and defeat the bad guy that way.”

Josie smiled at that. She appreciated Hopes confidence in her. Hope had her believing that was actually a possibility. She loved the idea of it. Fighting the bad guy and not having to rely on magic not because she didn’t have it but because she didn’t even need it to win the fight.

“Now, play the movie. Show me what the big deal is,” Hope said, gesturing to the screen.

Josie smiled again at that, grabbing a blanket near the couch, and snuggling as far into the cushions as she could get. She saw Hope silently laugh at her movements, but Hope was doing something similar as well. When they were all comfortable Josie grabbed the remote and hit play.

Chapter Text

Josie ran through the woods. She couldn’t help but get Déjà vu. The last time she was running for her life through the woods was when she was being chased by the gargoyle. This time however she was not being chased by a gargoyle but one of her friends or it might not be one of her friends, she wasn’t really sure, it was one of the werewolves. She was hoping it wasn’t a friend because if they killed her that would be awkward. Then again, she didn’t think getting killed by some random student was all that great either. Not that she wanted to die at all, that was definitely not on her agenda but the odds of her out running a werewolf were low.

Josie would have been surprised the wolf hadn’t caught up with her, but she was pretty sure it was just playing with her. Werewolves hunted down vampires, vampires were fast, and they usually couldn’t outrun a werewolf. There was no way Josie was running faster than a werewolf. She was its prey, and it was just waiting for the right moment to attack.

Because Josie was just that lucky, her foot ended up getting tangled in a branch and she came crashing down. She managed to brace herself, so she wasn’t hurt but her shoe was still caught up in the branch. She was trying to kick herself free when a large black wolf stepped out of the shadows, drool dripping from its mouth as it snarled at her.

Josie froze. She spent the last month or so fighting monster, and this was how she was going to die. She was going to die being eaten by a fellow student. God she was really wishing Hope would just magically appear to save her like before. She was doing great in her offensive magic training but that wasn’t of much use when she didn’t have magic currently. She also only had a few lessons in fighting which she was certain she could throw a decent punch or kick now, but she wasn’t sure what that would do against a wolf. She tried to remember back to any of the werewolf classes, maybe werewolves were like sharks and she could punch it in the nose?

Josie didn’t have time to think if punching a werewolf in the nose was an actual viable solution because another werewolf jumped over her, placing itself between her and the black wolf. The new wolf had a gorgeous white coat. The white wolf glanced back at Josie and her breath caught again. The wolf was truly gorgeous, even its glowing yellow eyes were pretty. Josie knew she should be scared of being in the presence of two werewolves under a full moon alone, but she wasn’t. She was still terrified of what might happen with the black wolf but under the gaze of the white one she felt no danger, she only felt protected.

The white wolf shifted its gaze back to the black wolf in front of it. It snapped its jaws, snarling. The black wolf snarled and snapped back, but the white wolf held its ground. The white wolf let out a deep growl, Josie could swear she felt the vibrations of it through her whole body. The black wolf lowered its head to the floor in submission and turn and ran back in the direction they had been running away from, its tail tucked firmly between its legs. Josie had never seen one of the wolves acts like that, the only wolf that could make another react that way was the wolfs alpha, but she knew the white wolf wasn’t Jed. Josie had never seen any of the student’s wolf forms so she didn’t know who was who but she knew it wasn’t Jed, none of the students at the school had that kind of control over their wolf, not even Jed.

Josie slowly pulled herself back up to her feet, brushing off the dirt on her hands and jeans. She didn’t feel threatened with the white wolf, but she didn’t exactly think it would be a good idea to turn her back on it. Considering none of the wolves at the school could control their change there was only two people the white wolf could be, Hayley, or…

“Hope,” she let out in a breath as she saw the girl standing before her as she shifted back.

“We got to stop meeting like this,” Hope smirked, turning to face Josie. “You already have my attention. There’s no need for getting into life threatening situations.”

“Why aren’t you naked?” Josie closed her eyes, mentally face palming. She just said that out loud.

“My goodness Josette you move fast.” Josie couldn’t help the blush that was surely on her face at Hope calling her Josette. “Do you say that to all your friends? I mean what would your father think?”

“Shut up,” Josie said as calmly as she could, trying to keep what little dignity she had left. “You know what I mean.”

Hope stood there smirking at Josie before finally putting her out of her misery. “I’m a witch. I learned pretty early that it’s not a lot of fun running around naked.” Hope paused thinking another moment. “And it’s really inconvenient in the middle of battle.”

“That’s very clever.”

“Thank you, one of the first spells I ever created.”

“And thank you for the save. Again.”

“Yeah, well couldn’t let Raf hurt you. I like you, so I would then have to kill him. Then Landon would be upset with me. And you know that’s just too much drama.”

Josie rolled her eyes but couldn’t stop the small laugh Hope got out of her. She saw Hope smile when Josie’s laugh slipped out.

“What are you doing here? Not that I’m not thrilled but there’s no way you knew this would happen.”

“You’re right, I’m good but not that good.” Hope held up her wrist showing the bracelet glowing red.

“Another monster. Great.”

Hope hummed in agreement.

“So, care to show where our runaway escaped from so I can then escort you back to your room?”

“How chivalrous of you,” Josie joked. “I would be honored.”

“Lead the way,” Hope did a small bow, gesturing forward with one hand. She had a small smirk playing at her lips. “Josette.”

Josie threw a glare back at her over her shoulder, there was no true anger in it though. It just made Hopes smirk deepen.

They walked back in the direction of the school in a comfortable silence. Despite the fact that she was just almost killed by Rafael and the fact that there was apparently another monster in town Josie was very calm. She didn’t feel like she had just been running for her life. She felt like she was just a girl, on a moonlit walk with her crush.

“So, did you find anything?” Josie nodded to Hopes glowing bracelet, breaking the silence.

“Not yet,” Hope sighed. I made it to the campus but then pretty much heard you and Raf so shifted my priorities. You didn’t see anything did you?”

“Thankfully not this time,” Josie sighed in relief. “It was just a friend trying to kill me not a monster.”

“Is that a step up?”

Josie shrugged. “I mean I’d rather take my chances against Rafael than a gargoyle.”

Hope nodded. “You vs Raf.” Hope seemed to be in deep thought thinking about the pairing. “My money’s on you.” she winked at Josie. Josie had to duck her head to the side to hide her blush again. She knew it was dark but Hope had night vision.

“What’s the plan for the monster?”

“Wait and see what happens?”

Josie couldn’t help but look at Hope in disbelief.

“I might patrol the area after walking you back to your dorm. We know it’s in town but until it starts making noise, I’m not really sure how to find it. This is thing could be big like the dragon or it could be some tiny little insect.”

“I wish there was a way for your spell to also just tell us what kind of monster it was.”

Hope chuckled at that. “Yeah, as if my life would be that easy.”

They finally made it back to the school where Rafael had escaped from. He was down in the basement with all the other werewolves who were luckily still locked up in their transition cells. Rafael somehow managed to bust out of his cell and made it outside through the cellar door. Hope didn’t bother going down to try and get Rafael in the cell again since no one would be going down there until the morning anyway and the door that lead to the school was completely sealed. Josie helped Hope close the cellar doors and then watched as Hope added a spell to the doors so they couldn’t be opened.

They made their way back in the school, walking in silence once again. Hope quietly came to a stop in front of Josie’s dorm. Josie didn’t open the door yet because she knew Lizzie was in there sleeping and she wanted to have a moment with Hope before she went to sleep.

“So, will you be back tomorrow?” Josie asked, biting her lip. She loved their weekend training sessions but the only other time she really got to see Hope was when a monster showed up and they were always too busy worried about not dying or worried about making sure other people didn’t die. She just wanted some normal alone time with Hope.

“You know,” Hope said, bobbing her head as she thought about her response. “I’ll do a quick lap, see what I see and then just crash in Landon and Raf’s room. Not like Rafael is using his bed right now.”

“Are you actually going to sleep?” Josie crossed her arms giving her a knowing look.

“I promise I’ll behave,” Hope held up her hands in defense. “I’ll probably just go through some of their stuff, maybe see if Lan has any good books besides comics. And Lord of the Rings.”

“You’ve never read Lord of the Rings?”

“Have you?”

Josie opened and closed her mouth a few times. No, she hadn’t. She’d seen the movies but that was it. And she had only seen the movies because of Lizzie. Lizzie would deny it to her grave, but she loved Lord of the Rings, she had every book, even multiple editions of the series.

“Look, I tried, it was just so…”

“Boring,” they both said at the same time, causing both of them to breakout in laughter. They both quickly tried to quiet down, remembering that it was late, and the rest of the school was sleeping.

“Night,” Josie whispered.

“Night,” Hope whispered back.

Josie opened the door, stepping into the room backwards. She and Hope held eye contact for another moment just smiling at each other before Josie slowly closed the door.

When Josie woke up in the morning, she quickly got ready. It was a school day but because of the full moon it was more of a half day. Her dad made the school day after a full moon a half day, so the wolves had time to adjust to the shift and had time to get ready for the day. The only reason Josie was getting ready quickly was because Hope was there.

She walked down to the cafeteria, seeing Hope already sitting with Landon. She looked over to her sister who rolled her eyes but otherwise kept her mouth shut as she gestured for Josie to lead the way.

“Hey,” Josie said, smiling brightly.

“Hey,” Hope said, returning a smile. She then shifted her gaze to Lizzie. “Lizzie,” she said in greeting, keeping it respectful.

Lizzie only hummed, giving a tight-lipped smile. Josie internally groaned. She wasn’t going to say anything though because that was the closest, she was going to get to Lizzie being civil with Hope.

“For someone out of school you sure hang around a school a lot,” Lizzie said as she stabbed her pancakes. Josie sighed, so much for her being civil.

“Well maybe I just missed your lovely personality,” Hope snarked back.

“Jo said we got a new monster problem. So, what you just gonna sniff around while we’re in class?”

“Well not much I can do without knowing what it is. I could just lounge around and wait for someone to die?”

“That’s not very superhero of you.”

“I’m not a superhero.”

Josie wouldn’t think anything of it if anyone else had said that. Hope said it so casually, as if she was brushing the comment off. The thing was Josie knew Hope though, or at least she thought she knew Hope pretty well. Hope wasn’t just brushing off Lizzie’s comment in a snarky fun way, she actually didn’t believe she was a hero.

They continued on with breakfast, just having casual conversation. Lizzie throwing snarky comments at Landon and occasionally Hope. Hope would dish them back just as much or ignore her completely. Landon kind of just took it. Josie and Hope were having a small conversation about nothing important, just talking about books they liked since they had had the Lord of the Rings conversation the night before. Landon and Lizzie were in the middle of an argument about Batman. Josie was trying to ignore them; she thinks the argument was about which version of Batman was the best, she didn’t particularly care, unless Hope wanted to talk about Batman then she’d be all in.

They were all brought out of their conversations by shouting in the hallway. Everyone in the cafeteria looked towards the doorway but saw nothing. They only heard the shouting, then a scuffle, and what sounded like two people throwing each other against the wall. Josie couldn’t make out what was being shouted but it sounded like two guys.

Before she knew it Hope was shooting out of her seat and out of the hallway. Landon was quickly behind her. Josie sighed, Hope wasn’t one to get involved in petty teenage problems, which could only mean this problem involved Rafael.

When they got to the hallway, they saw Rafael and Jed at each other’s throats, their eyes glowing yellow. The rest of the pack and a few other students gathered around, circling the duo. The two boys had an iron grip on each other, throwing each other back and forth into the wall. The paintings lining the wall were either tilted and barely hanging or were on the ground.

Without any hesitation Hope forced herself through the crowd, grabbing Jed by the collar of his shirt and throwing him back into the wall one handed. With her other hand she shoved Rafael into the other wall. Hope then stepped in the middle of the two boys, turning to face Rafael as he pushed himself off the wall. Josie held her breath as Rafael approached the girl, but he didn’t move further, his eyes were still yellow, and he was still breathing heavy, but he didn’t make a move to go against Hope. He stood there staring her down until he dropped his gaze to the ground.

Josie heard a growl to the right and turned to see Jed pushing himself off the wall as well. Josie opened her mouth to warn Hope but before she could even let out a breath Hope whipped around facing Jed. She again with one hand shoved Jed back into the wall. Quicker than the first time Jed was back on his feet, towering over Hope. Despite being shorter Hope took a step forward, daring him to make a move. Hope radiated power, that one step forward was more threatening than anything any of the other wolves had ever done.

Jed puffed out his chest, still breathing heavily. He made no move to attack though. His jaw was clenched tight, if she had super hearing Josie would probably have been able to hear the grinding of his teeth. Hope just stared Jed down the entire time, unblinking. Eventually Jed took a step back in surrender. He didn’t bow down to her, but he did drop his gaze to the floor, all the other wolves following suit. Hope didn’t break her stare down at Jed until he and the other wolves dispersed. Josie assumed they were on their way to the gym, that’s where they usually hung out especially to let off steam.

Hope turned back, glancing at Rafael. “You good?” her voice held an edge to it and Josie could swear there was a hint of annoyance.

Rafael nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I had that handled,” he snapped.

Josie tensed again. She wasn’t sure if Rafael meant to snap, or he was still on edge from the confrontation with Jed. Hope wasn’t about it though cause she quickly snapped her full attention to him, her eyes flashing yellow again. Rafael quickly dropped his head again, mumbling out what sounded like a sorry.

Hope rolled her shoulders, finally relaxing from what had just occurred.

“So, does this mean you’re the alpha now?” Lizzie asked, completely unfazed by everything apparently.

“No,” is all Hope responded.

“Really? Cause it kinda looked like Jed just submitted to you.”

Lizzie had a point; Josie had never seen Jed act that way with any other wolf. She had seen the other wolves, the members of his pack act that way but she had never seen Jed backdown like that. He didn’t bow like the new wolves did when they joined the pack, but he did drop his gaze.

“Let’s just say despite the situation Jed was smart enough to stand down. He doesn’t want to lose the alpha title. I have no interest in being an alpha, so he was smart enough to surrender a losing battle.”

“Whatever the case, I may not like you,” Josie glared at her sister, but she continued as if she didn’t notice, “but seeing someone put Jed in his place was awesome. Seriously even I have to admit that was badass.”

Hope smirked at Lizzie’s words. She finally seemed back to being relaxed like she had been before she had to step in. Without another word Lizzie turned and went back to the cafeteria.

“I think she’s warming up to me,” Hope commented to Josie.

Josie just rolled her eyes. She was about to suggest they go back and finish up their breakfast, maybe get a little more talking in before she had to head off to class but then MG came bursting through the doors and zipping down the hallway to where they were still standing.

“Good you’re here,” MG said looking at Hope. “You need to see this.”

Josie, Hope, Rafael, and Landon all followed MG to what he wanted to show them. He ended up bringing them to the cellar doors that lead to the werewolf transition cells. The same cellar doors Rafael had busted out of, and Josie and Hope had closed and spelled shut again.

Hope bent down getting a closer look at the cellar doors. On the doors were giant scratch marks. Scratch marks that hadn’t been there the night before. Hope ran her fingers over some of the slashes, they were too big to be from any sort of werewolf. Whatever did it had been trying to get in, the only reason it seemed it couldn’t, was because of the spell Hope had placed on the doors.

“Looks like this is gonna be a fun one,” Josie mumbled. Another monster with giant claws, fantastic.

Chapter Text

“What were you and Jed fighting about?” Hope asked. They had moved back into the school and were standing around the library discussing what to do about the new monster before everyone had to go to class.

“Really that’s what you want to talk about right now?” Rafael asked.

Hope looked at him expectantly. She really hated repeating herself. She knew Rafael was having a hard morning but if he kept it up, she was going to be the one kicking his ass.

Rafael sighed then finally answered, “Last night wasn’t a good night for me,” he started slowly.

“That’s an understatement,” Lizzie mumbled under her breath. Hope shot her a glare and surprisingly Lizzie kept her mouth shut after that.

“I don’t know what it was,” Rafael continued. “I started freaking out and somehow, I escaped. I wasn’t myself. I’m sorry,” he directed at Josie. “When you got me back in the cellar it wasn’t much better. It wasn’t just me though. A lot of the wolves were freaking out, pacing back and forth. Then at some point during the night we heard it.”

“Heard what?” Hope asked.

“I don’t know. Slashing, scratching, I don’t know. Something was trying to get in through the cellar doors I had busted out of.”

“But it couldn’t because of the spell I put on to keep you in.”

“Yeah, I guess. It went on for a little while then by the time it was for us to shift back it was gone. We had changed and were making our way to the cafeteria when Jed jumped me. He was pissed that I freaked out and it was causing the others to panic. But he was freaked out too!” Rafael tried defending himself. “I could see it in his eyes. He had no idea what was on the other side of that door either.”

“Okay, go finish getting ready,” Hope dismissed him. It looked like Rafael wanted to argue but he knew better. After he left Hope turned to Josie and said, “We need to talk to Jed.”

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Landon said. “I’m gonna checkup on Raf.”

Hope went with Josie and Lizzie to talk to Jed after that. They found him in the gym with the rest of his pack. Jed was sparring with one of the wolves while the others were either hitting the bag, sparring, or lifting weights.

“We need to talk,” Hope announced as soon as they stepped foot in the room.

Jed flipped over the wolf he was sparring with, then turned and started stomping towards them. Hope rolled her eyes; she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with petty alpha bullshit.

“You keep interfering with pack business. You need to stop. Or else,” Jed gritted out, letting the threat hang in the air.

If Hope had the time, she would’ve laughed at the little display of power he was trying to give off. It was actually more sad than funny. She honestly found it pathetic.

“I wouldn’t challenge me,” Hope whispered calmly. She knew the rest of the pack could hear her words, but she was at least trying to spare Jed a little dignity. “I have no interest in a pack. And certainly not yours.” She glanced around at the other wolves, they only had basic control, for a school that said they trained the supernatural they certainly didn’t do a good job. They wouldn’t stand a chance against a real threat.

Jed let out a warning growl.

Before he could open his mouth Hope cut him off, “Watch it!” she flashed her eyes once. “I don’t want to have to embarrass you in front of all your little friends.”

“You think you’re so much better,” Jed started.

He made a move to grab her but in the blink of an eye Hope once again grabbed him by the shirt one handed, flipped him over, slamming him into the ground. Hope could feel the wind get knocked out of him as he gasped for breath, with her hand pushing firmly on his chest. She wasn’t pushing hard enough to kill him but just a bit more pressure and ribs would start to crack.

Hope could feel the tension in the room. She stole a glance towards Josie and Lizzie. For a brief second it crossed her mind that she might have taken things too far and she might have scared Josie with such a display. However, when she met Josie’s eyes, she saw no fear. She saw no worry at all. Not towards her at least. Josie’s eyes were darting around the rest of the room, to the other wolves. Hope flicked her gaze around the room but quickly determined the others wouldn’t be a problem, not that they’d be an actual threat if they tried anything, she could tear them all apart blind folded. Despite their lack of discipline, the other wolves seemed smart enough to know if they made a move against Hope their alpha would be in danger.

Hope bent down close to Jed to whisper in his ear, this time quiet enough so the others wouldn’t hear. “You reek of fear. It’s practically nauseating. If it wasn’t for the fact that the rest of your pack was the same, they would probably also smell it on you. Now,” Hope whispered calmly, still gritting her teeth though, “how about I let you up and then you nicely answer my questions about what has you so spooked?” lastly, she gave him an unfriendly tight-lipped smile.

Jed slowly nodded. Hope loosened her grip on his chest just slightly.

“Everyone clear out,” Jed ordered.

The pack hesitated for a moment but then quickly ran out of the gym not needing to be ordered a second time. After the last one was out of the room Hope let Jed up completely.

“I don’t know,” Jed answered Hopes previous question.

Hope took a step toward him. Jed instantly stepped back, raising his hands in surrender.

“I don’t know, truly. It was a normal full moon,” Jed explained. “Then Rafael started to freak. That’s sort of normal but there was something else. A feeling. I can’t explain. I just got the sudden rush of terror. Like I was being watched. Like there was danger.”

“What could possibly hurt you?” Lizzie asked. “Hell, I mean your kind is the only true predator to vampires.”

“I don’t know. I just know that I felt like I was the one being hunted, and I couldn’t even see whatever it was.”

“I mean there’s been monsters. Plenty of the things we’ve fought so far could take out a werewolf,” Josie chimed in. Hope wasn’t sure if Josie actually believed Jed, or she was just trying not to dismiss the boy.

“It wasn’t like that,” Jed replied, shaking his head. “None of the monsters have made us respond this way. And it was only the wolves.”

“I didn’t feel anything,” Hope added. It was true. She was at the school the entire night and she hadn’t felt a single thing, nothing like what Jed or Rafael had described. She thought to herself that it might be because of her tribrid nature, that even though she was a wolf whatever this creature was didn’t trigger a fear in her because she was also more.

“Well, you weren’t shifted,” Jed offered as a possible explanation. “Or maybe because you’re also a witch. I don’t know. All I know is that all of us down in that cellar felt it and it got stronger when whatever that thing out there is started trying to break in. We good?”

Hope nodded. She believed him. Jed was very convincing. It also helped that his heartbeat didn’t waver like he was lying and the fear coming off him was real.

“Be careful,” Hope added as Jed walked towards the doors. “If this thing is after werewolves, then you and your pack need to be on guard.”

Jed nodded, then left the gym.

“So, our new monster hunts werewolves?” Lizzie asked. “What could even do that?”

“I don’t know,” Hope admitted. “And it might not be after just werewolves, maybe they were just the most vulnerable. Look,” Hope looked at her watch. “I need to get to work, I’ll be back by the time you guys are done with class. I’ll try doing some recon while there, until then inform you father and be on the lookout. I don’t know if this thing is only interested in werewolves or if it’s even nocturnal.”

“We’ll be careful,” Josie said. “You be careful as well.” Josie gave Hope a pointed look.

Hope couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face. She liked that Josie was worried about her. Hope was the most powerful creature in the world, not that Josie knew that, but the fact that even with what she did know she was still worried about Hope. The only other person who ever worried about her safety was Landon, Hope certainly didn’t worry about her own safety, or so Landon had pointed out, multiple times.

Hope left the school, shifting so she could get to town faster. She had a short mid shift which was why she didn’t mind staying the night and spending some more time in the morning talking with Josie. She had made it back to her apartment with just enough time to change into her uniform and get to The Grill right on time.

She had been at work for a couple hours and was currently wiping the counter. It hadn’t been too busy for the middle of the day during a weekday, just a small lunch rush. Hope was keeping an ear out for anything weird, but everyone’s conversation seemed normal.

“Hey,” Maya greeted as she walked up to the counter. “It’s been a minute.”

“What are you doing here? Ditching again?” Hope asked with a smirk.

Maya rolled her eyes. “I wish. Teacher in-service day. And I’m still grounded for last time.”

“I told you she’d find out.”

Maya just rolled her eyes again.

“So how are you here if you’re grounded?”

“Mom wanted lunch. It’s not her day off so she dragged me to the station with her. Now she’s making me do a lunch run with her.”

“Hello Hope,” sheriff Machado’s voice came.

“Sheriff,” Hope nodded in greeting.

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Mac?”

“You’re on duty I was just trying to be respectful.

“Why can’t some of that rub off on my daughter? This one,” she shot a glare to her daughter, “is still grounded from ditching school a few weeks ago.”

“I’m so sorry about her,” Hope responded as if Maya wasn’t standing right there. “I tried to warn her that ditching was a bad idea, and you’d find out. She just doesn’t listen.”

“You are such a good influence. If only she’d pick some of that up.”

“What can I say sheriff, I’m not a miracle worker, my abilities only extend so far.”

“I’m standing right here!” Maya shouted.

Hope smirked at Maya, trying to contain a laugh. “What can I get for you guys today?”

Hope took their order; they were ordering for the two of them and the rest of the station apparently. Hope put their order in and told them it would be about twenty minutes. While they were waiting sheriff Machado wandered off to the bathroom while Maya stuck around to bother Hope.

After her mom left for the bathroom Maya quickly turned around to face Hope again. Then whispered, “So, you will not believe what I found.”

Hope rolled her eyes but entertained her. “What?”

“Well, since I’ve been forced to be prisoner at the station all day.” Hope rolled her eyes. Which Maya either ignored or didn’t even notice because she continued anyway. “I’ve been listening to reports and going through police files.”

“See this is why your mom thinks you should take after me a little.”

Maya glared at her but otherwise continued to ignore her. “Anyway, there’s been a lot of the same reports today but it’s not the normal usual fun stuff, break in, robbery, murder.”

Hope gave her friend a concerned look. “How common is any of that in Mystic Falls?”

Maya opened her mouth but paused thinking about it. “Okay not at all.” Maya actually sounded disappointed by that. This was why Hope was always concerned about her. It was also why Hope would never let Maya do anything on her own.

“Whatever,” Maya continued again. “But, anyway, there’s been a lot of complaints about missing dogs.”

Hopes eyes snapped up to Maya’s at that. Missing dogs the same night as werewolves losing it was way too much of a coincidence.

“What?” she asked, her full attention on Maya now.

“Oh, so now you’re interested.”

“Maya.” Hopes tone held a warning.

“What happened?”

“Last night was a full moon. I got alerted there was a new monster and when I went to the school, I ended up saving Josie from Rafael.”

“Aww,” Maya’s eyes softened, her tone becoming almost giddy. “Look at you saving your girl.”

“She’s not my girl,” Hope glared at her. “She’s just a friend.”

“Right,” Maya didn’t sound convinced. “One day I’m going to get you to do some girl talk.”

“I’d rather be staked.”

Maya rolled her eyes. “You’re no fun. Anyway, back to what happened.”

“Like I said, it was a full moon. Rafael lost it and got out. We got him back in the cell but when we went back in the morning, we saw scratches on the cellar door. Then after talking with Raf and the school’s alpha,” Hope rolled her eyes at that. “We learned something freaked the wolves out. They didn’t know what, but something scared them.”

“And you think whatever that was is what’s causing the missing dogs?”

“I mean,” Hope shrugged. “Any other information? Anyone hear or see anything?”

“Well, no one saw anything. Trust me if someone saw a giant monster running about, we’d have heard about it. But nothing. There’s literally nothing.”

Hope leaned over the counter to whisper, “Can you get me one of the files?”

“And my mom thinks you’re a good influence.”

“I’m a great influence. You just need to learn to not get caught,” Hope smiled sweetly. “So?”

Maya glared at her. “Yeah, I can get one to you. Meet me behind the station after your shift.”

“Thank you, love you.”

“Hate you,” Maya snarked.

Hope scoffed. “Please.”

Maya rolled her eyes. She looked like she wanted to continue but then her mother came back. They stood there silently for a few minutes, making light conversation when Hope wasn’t busy helping other customers.

When their food was finally ready Hope grabbed the bag, handing it to sheriff Machado.

“It was great seeing you Hope, you know you’re always welcomed at the house,” Mac said.

“Thank you, have a great day sheriff,” Hope replied with a smile.

Hope kept her smile and waved to them again as they walked out the door. She really liked sheriff Mac. Mac was like a real mom, she loved Ethan and Maya unconditionally, they were a true family. At least it’s what Hope imagined a real family to be like. She had Landon and she was fine with that, that was all she needed but that didn’t stop her and Landon from ever talking about what a normal life would be like, not that she’d ever have a normal life. She was a tribrid even if she had been raised by her parents, even if they had wanted her, she was never destined to have a normal life. Normal was overrated anyway.

Hope never looked for her family. She never cared to. If they didn’t want her, she didn’t want them. Triad never told her who they were, she wasn’t even fully sure how she existed. Maybe one parent was a witch and the other a wolf and another witch did a spell to make her part vampire. She had no idea; all she knew was that she was a mistake. She wasn’t meant to live. She was meant to die. Triad loved rubbing it in that her family gave her up, that they willingly gave her to Triad. She wasn’t sure if it was true or not, Triad loved to lie, loved to cause pain. Maybe it was true. Maybe her family did want her, and Triad killed them. It didn’t matter because if her family was still alive and they wanted her, why wouldn’t they have come for her? That only left the two options, they were dead, or they were like everyone else and thought her a mistake.

After Hope finished her shift, she quickly changed than ran to the police station, sending a quick text to let Maya know she was out back. After a few minutes Maya slipped out the backdoor, pulling two folders out from under her hoodie.

“Okay,” Maya whispered. “I could only grab you one file. They’re all the same though so whatever is in there is basically what the others say as well. I also pulled this one,” she held up the second folder.

“Why that one?” Hope asked, taking the folders from her.

“Because this one,” Maya opened the file to show her. “Is just of a cayote, found on the side of the road. It looks like it was ripped apart. I don’t think mom will be looking for this one, she kinda tossed it to the side thinking it was most likely an animal attack. That being said,” Maya made sure to give Hope a pointed look. “I will need these back. Preferably today. I would rather not be grounded for the rest of my life. Actually, I’m pretty sure this is breaking some sort of law.”

“Don’t worry,” Hope said, her attention on skimming the file. “I’d break you out.”

“Damn right you would. So how are you going to repay me?” Maya smiled innocently.

“What do you want?” Hope looked at her suspiciously. Maya always knew what she wanted before asking.

“Well,” Maya said nonchalantly, “maybe, you could, I don’t know, ask out Josie and then tell me all about the date? Or! We could just have a girl’s days and talk about your feelings!”

Hope looked at her horrified. “Can’t I just like pay you? Kill someone for you? Literally anything else.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Thank you,” Hope said as a goodbye.

“Oh wait,” Maya said reaching into her pocket. “This is a list of the other locations of the missing dogs.” She handed Hope a piece of paper with a list of several addresses. “Let me know what happens and don’t die.” Maya closed the door going back into the station.

Hope made her way back to the school just as everyone was getting out of class. She made her way to the library where Josie and Lizzie were already waiting. In the corner leaning against one of the tables was Jed. Hope tilted her head in question at him.

“If this thing is coming after my pack I want to know. I want to help,” Jed said. Even though his tone wasn’t unfriendly Hope could see him clenching his jaw.

“Okay, let’s do this thing,” came MG’s voice as he vamped into the room.

Hope glared at him in annoyance.

“Look you guys keep doing your superhero thing and I want in,” MG explained.

“This isn’t a game,” Hope said, unamused. She realized that might of come out a little harsh, but she needed him to know. They still didn’t seem to get that they could all die.

“I get that,” MG said, losing his smile and his voice becoming serious. “I really do want to help. If this thing is interested in wolves, then maybe having a vamp to help out could be useful.”

“Fine. Research only unless I say otherwise.”

MG clapped his hands, bouncing up and down. “Great!” He opened his arms as if he was about to hug Hope, but she quickly tilted her head glaring at him, she would have flashed her wolf eyes at him, but she thought that might be a tad bit excessive. He quickly dropped his hands and stepped back, clearing his throat. “Thank you, I’d be happy to help in anyway,” he said calmly.

“Where’s Landon and Raf?”

“Rafael was kind of on edge all day,” Josie said slowly. It seemed like she was trying to be nice.

“He’s in the gym,” Jed said. “Seems like he still needs to work off some of that anxiety from this morning. I got the other wolves there as well.” Hope raised her eyebrows at that. “Don’t worry I told them to leave him alone. They’re all together though. I believe your friend was with him as well. Had on a pair of mitts, seemed like he was going to help with some boxing.”

Hopes eyes widened. That wasn’t going to end well. Oh well, they were safe and out of the way.

“Yeah, my thoughts as well,” Jed said at seeing Hopes reaction. “Your boy doesn’t seem the most active of the bunch.”

“Yeah, I’ve tried working on that, but it just never goes well.”

“How was work?” Josie asked changing the subject.

“Surprisingly enlightening,” Hope answered.

Josie tilted her head at that. Hope took out the files Maya had given her and tossed them down on the table for the others to see them.

“Did you steal from the police?” Lizzie asked, grabbing one of the files.

“Borrowed,” Hope corrected. “And technically an acquaintance lent them to me, I didn’t steal anything.”

“Maya?” Josie questioned.

Hope nodded. “Yeah, she and her mom came in at lunch time. While sheriff Machado was away Maya told me about some interesting calls the station has been getting.”

“Interesting how?”

“Apparently there’s been a lot of missing dogs last night into this morning.”

“Dogs?” Lizzie questioned.

“Yeah,” Hope answered. “Considering this monster is interested in wolves, a bunch of dogs going missing the same night is kinda a major red flag.”

“Any leads?” Jed asked, joining the others at the table.

“This is all we got,” Hope pointed to the two files. “Maya said all the files on the missing dogs read pretty much the same. She also gave me this,” Hope sat down the paper with the list of other addresses. “It’s got the locations of where the other dogs went missing. Then the other file is someone who found the body of a cayote.”

“How is that anything?” Lizzie asked disgusted from looking at the pictures in the file.

“Because these are all canines,” Jed answered. Hope nodded in agreement. “Werewolves, missing dogs, a dead cayote, all of these are canine related.”

“So, this thing isn’t just interested in werewolves,” Josie spoke. “It’ll go after anything canine related.”

“Seems that way,” Hope said. “Jo can you and Lizzie research, see if you can find anything this might be?”

“Yeah of course,” Josie nodded. Lizzie seemed more reluctant but nodded as well.

“You said you wanted to help, right?” Hope directed at Jed.

“Yeah, anything you need.”

“Do you think you can grab another wolf? We need to check out these locations, if me, you, and another wolf do it we can cover all the locations, maybe pick something up.”

“Yeah of course, I’ll grab one of my best guys.”

“MG, can you grab another vampire? I want one of you to go with Jed and the other to go with the other wolf. This thing is interested in werewolves, and we don’t know if that stops when they’re not shift. They might need the extra protection.”

“Yeah, I’ll grab Kaleb.”

“Great, I’ll take the cayote.” Hope ripped the paper with the other locations into threes, Jed and the other wolf would each have three locations to investigate. Hope took the last along with the cayote. “If you find out anything, call me, we’ll meet backup here in a few hours.”

Everyone nodded and got to work. Hope headed out to where the body of the cayote was found. Hope found the spot where the body was found. The corpse was still there since it was just an animal, and it wasn’t on a main path. The photos in the file didn’t do the actual scene justice, the creature had been ripped apart.

“Shit,” Hope whispered to herself.

She knelt down getting a closer look at the scene. There was hardly anything left of the creature, it was honestly a surprise anyone had been able to tell it use to be a cayote. It looked as if it had been slashed open by something with rather large claws and then whatever it was took a chunk out of its neck. It was definitely missing some pieces, meaning something had been eating it but didn’t finish its meal.

Hope sniffed around, there was a slightly familiar scent, but it was hard to decipher with the corpse close by. The death and the regular scent of the cayote were mixing with the other scent and it was all too similar to separate. Hope also walked the area, looking for prints, or anything to give away what they might be after but there was nothing. Leaves covered the ground, and the ground was to dry, nothing had left a print.

Hope made her way to the next location of one of the missing dogs. It was someone’s house. It didn’t seem like anyone was home, but Hope was still being careful with her sneaking. There was once again no evidence of any monster, not prints, no fur, no mysterious goo, nothing. Hope walked the property finally finding a collar. She picked it up, bringing it to her nose to get a good whiff. She got the dogs scent, obviously, but there was something else. It was the same as the one by the cayote corpse but stronger without the other interfering scents. She didn’t recognize it, but it was canine, it almost smelled like a werewolf. It was very similar to werewolf but not quite werewolf.

Hope placed the collar back on the ground, deciding to make her way back to the school. She hadn’t heard from the others, but it was probably close to the time for them regrouping anyway. She didn’t expect the others to find much more than her, she was hoping Josie and Lizzie got an idea of what monster they were dealing with though.

When she made it back to the school Josie and Lizzie were still combing through books, each had their laptop up googling various monsters as well. Kaleb was also sitting in one of the chairs, his feet propped up on the table. It didn’t look like Jed and Mg were back yet though.

“What did you find?” Hope asked as she entered the room.

“Absolutely nothing,” Lizzie sighed, closing a book. “It’s hard when we’re working on such vague information.”

“She’s right,” Josie sighed as well. “Everything we find seems to be shapeshifter related. Things that seem like werewolves just by different names, but looking into each of them more, they’re just not what we’re after.”

“What about you?” Hope nodded to Kaleb. “Where’s the other wolf?”

“Went back to the rest of the pack,” Kaleb answered. “And we didn’t find anything. Like it was weird how little we found. I saw nothing and neither did he.”

“Same with me. There was just nothing. That cayote though, it was torn apart. Something different attacked it. The claw marks were too big to be a normal werewolf though. However, there was a scent.”

“Yeah, my guy said the same thing. All I got was wet dog smell.” Kaleb looked at Hope, realizing what he just said. “No offense.”

Hope only responded with a glare.

“But he said he got something. He said it smelled like a werewolf, but it wasn’t quite right.”

“Yeah, I picked up the same thing. It was hard to decipher around the cayote but when I checked out the other missing dog, I picked it up. There was that familiarity of it being another wolf, but it wasn’t a werewolf, it was different.”

“I picked up the same thing,” Jed announced as he and MG entered the room. “There was nothing else but there was a scent. The same kind of scent you were describing.”

“Okay, let’s refine the search. You guys might have been a lot closer than you thought. Search for something part wolf that’s been known to hunt canines.”

Everyone grabbed a book or a laptop and got to work. Hope was actually surprised Jed and Kaleb stuck around for the research portion of the job. Jed was kind of an ass, but he definitely seemed to care about his pack, she could respect that. Kaleb was definitely a surprise though. He didn’t seem overly interested in any of it but if he was willing to help, she’d take it.

“Hey,” Landon greeted as he and Rafael entered the library. “I didn’t know you were here. You find anything?”

“A little bit, we’ve done some investigating and now we’re on research mode,” Hope answered.

“You’re letting him help?” Rafael demanded, directing his anger towards Jed.

“I needed help investigating the sites and he volunteered,” Hope answered.

“Why didn’t you come get me?”

“You are in no state to help me. Get over yourself, this is bigger than the petty little drama you have going on.” Hopes voice was more annoyed than angry but she knew her tone left no room for argument.

“I got something!” Josie shouted interrupting whatever else Rafael might say.

“What?” Hope asked, moving around the table leaning over Josie’s shoulder to look at her laptop screen.

“This,” Josie pointed to her screen, “it says it’s a Shunka Warakin which basically translates to carries off dogs.”

“That sounds like our beast,” Jed commented.

“It looks like you guys were right it’s supposed to be part wolf, very werewolf like actually but some have also described it as having a similar look to a hyena.”

“So, it’s a werewolf hyena?” Kaleb asked. “Y’all are into the weirdest shit,” he mumbled under his breath.

“It’s not quite a werewolf and if it is part hyena that would explain why it smells similar to a werewolf but also different,” Hope said. “What else does it say?”

“It’s nocturnal, which explains why it’s not roaming around right now,” Josie continued. “It says it also use to carry off the family dog.”

“Which explains all our missing dogs,” Lizzie added.

“I got it,” Jed said, coming over with a book open to a page on the creature. “It looks like it’s a giant werewolf but has some hyena attributes like you described. It seems like it did use to attack dogs like you said but evolved to bigger prey.”

“Werewolves,” Hope filled in. “It makes sense. If this is a Malivore monster it makes sense why he would send it after the wolves, the dogs were probably just a snack when it couldn’t get into the cellar.”

“Eww,” Lizzie whispered.

“But if it’s after werewolves we should be good now, right?” Josie asked. “I mean the full moon was last night, meaning no one will be shifted. So, it won’t be after anyone, right?”

Hopes eyes widened in realization. “Except there’s still a wolf out there.” Hope saw Josie give her a questioning look. “Hayley,” she explained. “She’s been shifted ever since the nightmare monster. She’s still out there. I got to go.”

Hope was already making her way to the door. She didn’t have a plan. She had no idea how to kill the thing, but she knew she couldn’t let it hurt Hayley. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew she couldn’t let anything happen to Hayley.

“Wow, wait,” Josie said, jumping up to stand in her path. “What’s your plan? This thing hunts werewolves.”

“Then I’ll make myself bait,” Hope answered. She really hadn’t thought it through, but it didn’t seem like a terrible plan, at least not if it meant saving Hayley. “If I shift, I can get it to come after me instead of Hayley. She maybe a hybrid but she has no idea this thing’s out there. I can’t let her get hurt. You guys come up with a plan to kill it, preferably before it kills me.” Hope tried a small smile, but Josie didn’t laugh at the joke.

“I’ll go with you,” Rafael said, moving to follow.

“No,” Hope said. “Just because you won’t be shifted doesn’t mean it still won’t go after you. Besides if you’re not shifted you won’t be as strong. You need to stay here.”

Rafael clenched his jaw but didn’t argue back. Hope could tell he wanted too though.

“This isn’t up for debate,” Hope said. She held Rafael’s gaze until he finally nodded. “You’re also staying behind,” Hope directed towards Jed.

“Understood,” Jed agreed without argument. “I’ll let the pack know, we’ll keep ourselves inside. No one will leave the building come nightfall.”

Hope nodded and moved to leave again only to see Josie still standing in her way. “I need to do this,” Hope whispered.

Josie held her gaze for a moment before reluctantly nodding. “Then I guess we better be ready,” Josie said. “Just don’t die before I figure out a way to save you.”

Hope smiled at that. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she whispered. Hope gazed into Josie’s eyes for another second before stepping past her, making her way out of the school. As soon as she made it to the woods, she shifted, hoping to pick up Hayley’s scent.

Chapter Text

Hayley ran through the woods, her paws splashing in muddy puddles, in the moonlight. It was a full moon. She hadn’t been running during a full moon in she couldn’t even remember how long. It wasn’t like previous times though. After they defeated the Oneiroi Hayley had dropped Hope off and as soon as she got home, she just shifted, she had been shifted ever since, she hadn’t changed back once. She knew it was dangerous, that she could lose herself to the wolf, but she didn’t care. She had lost her daughter again. After seventeen years of grief and mourning she was basically back at square one.

Hayley didn’t know how long it had been. It had to of at least been a week, probably more. Time didn’t seem to exist when she was in wolf form. She spent her days and nights running around the woods, staying clear of the school. She knew she wouldn’t hurt any of the students, but she didn’t want someone seeing her and trying to get her to shift back. She needed the time, just like she did seventeen years ago. Occasionally she found a cave to sleep in, but she only slept after running herself to exhaustion. She also hunted, tearing, and ripping apart any animal she came across. She knew it was brutal, that that was her animalistic side coming out but again she didn’t care, she felt the slightest amount of satisfaction in hunting.

The night was different than the others though. There was a shift in the air. Hayley couldn’t place what it was, but she felt it. The hair along her back seemed to standup the slightest. It was as if there was a threat circling her, but she couldn’t see it, or smell it. It was just a feeling. Hayley kept her guard up through the night but otherwise didn’t think much of it. Hell, if it was some sort of monster, she dared it to come after her, she could use the thrill of killing something that could actually pose a threat.

At one point during the night, she heard scratching. Like something was slashing against metal, trying to breakout, or in. She didn’t investigate though. She wasn’t going to go looking for trouble, it would have to come find her itself. She would only interfere if it sounded like someone was being attacked.

An attack never came though. She heard slashing, she heard whimpers, but there was never any screams. Maybe that was a bad thing. Maybe Hayley should be more concerned with what was out in the woods with her. Maybe she should be more concerned with her own safety. But she wasn’t. At one point during the night, she heard a howl. It didn’t sound like a werewolf. She tilted her head at that. It sounded almost like a wolf, but it was different, there was a deepness, a primal predatory hunger about it. Hayley was a fighter, a survivor, but every instinct she had told her to run away from that, wherever that growl had come from she ran the opposite direction.

In the morning, Hayley woke up in the small cave she had found. She stretched as she stepped outside the cave. She hadn’t run herself to exhaustion like usual but whatever was out in the woods with her the night before, her instinct told her to rest. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was like some ancient wolf instinct of hers kicked in telling her to avoid whatever it was. She hated thinking about it, but she knew that for some reason her only chance at survival through the night was to run and hide.

Even though she didn’t think the new threat had already been taken care of she didn’t have the same feeling as the night. She didn’t feel hunted and like she was being watched. She didn’t feel like some monster’s prey. She felt normal, well as normal as she had been feeling. Even though she wasn’t going back to the school and wasn’t going to investigate whatever it was a little voice in the back of her head told her the fact that she felt threatened at night and not during the day was important. She would use the daytime to, as Klaus would probably put it mope around and at night, she would stay hidden as best as she could until the threat was neutralized.

Even though she hadn’t really cared about anything, her survival instinct kicking in and telling her to run and hide got her mind off the nightmares she experienced and the guilt she had been feeling over her daughter’s death. But it was morning again so there was nothing stopping her from getting back to her wallowing.

Hayley trotted around the woods the rest of the day. Killing small animals here and there when she got hungry. She didn’t go to crazy like she had been, for some reason she felt like she needed to be prepared. She could be sad all day but there was something deep inside telling her she needed to be prepared. She wasn’t sure what for, but she knew she needed to be in fighting shape if the time came. She found a small creek where she was able to get a drink of water. Time really flew when she was in wolf form, the sun was already starting to set.

Hayley stopped her drinking to raise her head, looking across the creek into the woods. It seemed darker than usual. Hayley wasn’t one to be afraid of the dark, but she was getting that feeling again. The feeling telling her to flee, to turn and run the other direction. A deep growl roared from the blackness of the woods. It made all of Hayley’s fur stand. Her body went rigid. She stared out into the darkness a second longer, searching, for anything, any movement. There was nothing. She knew it was there though. In a flash Hayley spun around, taking off back in the direction she originally came.

Hayley ran.

Hayley ran like she had never run before. She was so focused on running she didn’t see the monster come at her from the side, slamming into her, sending her flying across the forest. Hayley didn’t feel injured, but she stumbled to stand on her feet again. She took a defensive stance, knowing her only option was to stand her ground against the monster.

The monster seemed to be part werewolf and part something else. It was much larger than any normal werewolf, it walked on its hind legs, its body was large, even though it seemed to be hunched over, down it’s spine it had fur sticking up like a hyena. Hayley stared into its glowing red eyes, never before had she felt like the prey instead of the predator until that moment. Its yellow teeth were coated in fresh blood, its canine teeth hung out over its bottom lip, slobber constantly dripping from its mouth.

Hayley charged the monster, jumping straight at it. It effortlessly smacked her back, sending her once again flying across the forest, this time into a tree. It snarled, licking its lips, as it slowly turned to stalk towards her.

Hayley struggled to stand again, the first time she tried she collapsed back to the ground. She stood up again, slower, making sure each paw was firmly planted before she was fully up. She shook her head, trying to clear the haziness in her head. Hayley wasn’t sure how to beat the monster, she wasn’t even sure if she could, this thing seemed designed specifically to hunt werewolves. That didn’t mean she would go down easy though. Hayley lost her daughter and still found a way to keep going. Despite all the pain and loss and suffering there was always a reason to keep going. This monster wasn’t any different, if this monster was going to be Hayley’s end, then she wasn’t going to make it easy for the creature, she was going to go down fighting.

She took a defensive stance again but before she could act a flash of white shot out from the side of her vision, jumping onto the monster, latching onto its neck. It was wolf. A white wolf. Hope. It was Hope, that’s the only other wolf it could be. Hayley could also sense it, smell it, it was Hope. There was no denying it anymore, Hope was a wolf and witch hybrid. Hayley could see the girl digging into the monster’s neck, trying to hold on as it whipped its head back and forth, swinging its arms trying to get her off.

The monster eventually flung Hope off, sending her crashing to the ground. As if on reflex though the second she hit the ground Hope rolled over and was already in fighting position again, snarling and showing her teeth at the creature in front of them. Hope snapped at the creature, not launching herself at it again but seeming to try to keep its attention on her instead of Hayley. The monster in turn was focused on Hope, it slashed and charged at her every time she got close. It missed her every time though, luckily for Hope she was smaller and quicker than the monster.

The monster seemed to figure out Hopes pattern of attack because in her next move instead of missing like usual the monster hit Hope, smacking her back. Not enough to send her flying like it had with Hayley, just enough to cause a yelp and flip her on her back. The monster turned its attention back to Hayley in the split-second Hope was down.

Hayley readied her stance, waiting for an attack. She had been studying the monsters moves while Hope fought it. She didn’t know how to beat it. It was incredibly strong; its entire body was muscle. The only sensitive spot seemed to be its neck. Hope had latched onto that and there was blood dripping down from the teeth marks, but it didn’t seem to do much more than puncture the skin, it certainly didn’t deter the monster at all.

The monster slashed and Hayley dodged. She turned to attack but just like with Hope the monster seemed to be ready, as soon as she lunged for it, it smacked her back, sending her sliding across the ground. The creature was about to slash her, Hayley was sure it would be the end, it was finally time, she was going to die, she couldn’t help the small thought that flickered through her mind that maybe she’d finally get to see her daughter again. Just as quickly as the thought came though it went because before she knew it the monster wasn’t slashing through Hayley but Hope.

Hope had managed to pick herself up and move so she could throw herself in front of Hayley, taking the hit meant for her. As soon as the claws slashed through her flesh Hayley heard the girl yelp out in pain. The monster kept its claws in Hope, as is it dragged her forward. Hope yelping in pain each time, trying to kick her legs trying to get any kind of traction to get out of the monster’s grip. It was no use though. When Hope was close enough to the monster it lifted her, it’s claws still deep into the girl’s flesh, then for the last time it flung her, her back hit the tree, with one last yelp. Hayley could have sworn she heard a crack, she wasn’t sure if it came from the tree or Hopes bones. The girl almost lifelessly flopped to the ground, the only reason Hayley knew Hope wasn’t dead was because as soon as her body hit the ground she shifted back into her human form, rolling over in pain. The pain had finally been too much if it had forced a shift. She was also fully clothed, Hayley assumed it was some sort of spell, for a split second she wondered if Hope could do something similar for her.

Hayley wasn’t sure what took over her, but she no longer cared about her own safety. Not in a she had a death wish kind of way but in a way, she couldn’t let anything happen to Hope kind of way. She wasn’t sure where it came from, she could only describe it as a natural instinct telling her to protect the girl. Hayley shot over to where Hope landed within a second, taking a protective stance over the girl, snarling as the monster seemed to be gearing up for another attack.

Something whizzed through the air, impaling itself in the monster’s side. It was an arrow. Hayley whipped her head to the side expecting to see Alaric thinking maybe his crossbow finally came in handy but no. It wasn’t Alaric standing at the edge of the clearing, it was Josie with her fathers’ crossbow and Landon standing a few steps behind her. The monster turned to the new arrivals, roaring louder than it had any other time.

Josie fired a few more arrows, each embedding themselves into the creature but otherwise doing no damage, not even slowing it down as it stomped towards them. Hayley knew she should do something; she should help them but something deep inside her didn’t allow her to leave Hopes side. She couldn’t back down from her protective stance over the girl until the threat was neutralized.

“Aim for something soft!” Landon shouted in a panic.

“Like what?” Josie yelled back, clearly annoyed.

“I don’t know, the eyes?”

“I never fired this thing before,” Josie shot a glare towards Landon. “We’re lucky I’m even hitting the thing.”

The monster swiped at the two kids, luckily both reacted quick enough to duck out of the way. While Josie rolled herself to the side into some bushes, Landon rolled himself forward, bringing him closer to the monster. The monster took a step back, looking down to see Landon squatting right under its feet practically. The monster raised its head, letting out a deep roar again. That was its mistake though, Landon took the opportunity to shoot to his feet, gripping one of the arrows that had fallen to the ground in his hand, bring it up and shoving it straight through the bottom of the creature’s mouth. Hayley was honestly surprised with the amount of force Landon was able to use.

The monster stumbled back. Hayley wasn’t letting up her protective stance quite yet though. The monster tried stepping forward, as if it was going to attack Landon again but it only made it two steps before it collapsed to the ground with a thud. It was only then that Hayley let her guard down and moved a few steps away from Hope, shifting back to her human form for the first time in she didn’t know how long.

“Oh my god Hope!” Josie yelled, sprinting across the clearing, ignoring the dead monster before her.

Landon rushing right behind her to join them, handing Hayley a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, “Of course, the one time I do something awesome when slaying a monster and Hope is to injured to see it,” he mumbled.

Josie shot a glare at him, if looks could kill, Josie’s told her that she wanted to set the boy on fire. She didn’t say a word though, she just shoved the crossbow into his chest causing him to grunt. Hayley knew Josie was worried about Hope, the two had become quite close since they met. Despite his comment, Hayley also knew Landon cared for Hope, he cared for her more than anyone else, she could see the worry in his eyes as he stared down at his friend. Hope was shivering from the pain, There was three giant gashes from the claw marks on her left side. Landon gripped the crossbow tighter, probably trying to hide how much his hands were shaking.

“We need to get her back to the school,” Hayley stated. It was the first time she had spoken out loud since the nightmare monster attack. Hayley gently picked up Hope in her arms and carried her back to the school, closely followed by the other two students. Josie hovered as close as she could to Hope without getting in the way, Hayley caught the younger girl glancing at the girl in her arms every few seconds like she was worried if she looked away too long, she’d disappear.

Once they got to the school Hayley no longer waited on the two students with her, she sped through the front doors and to the infirmary. She startled the nurse that was working the nightshift. Hayley laid Hope down in the closest bed.

“Help her,” she ordered. Her alpha voice came out a twinge, she hadn’t meant it to, it just happened.

Hayley started to unzip Hopes hoodie to get a better look at the wound when, “I’m fine,” Hope gasped out. Her breathing was ragged, though her being conscious and able to form words was a good sign.

“Like hell you are,” Josie’s voice came from across the room. Her and Landon had finally made it to the infirmary as well.

“I didn’t die,” Hopes voice was lighter, she even tried for a small smile. Josie however didn’t seem to find it cute, she just pouted at the girl. “Seriously,” Hope tried again. “I’m fine.”

“I know I’ve seen you survive a lot, but this is really gnarly. Seriously I don’t know how your guts aren’t like pouring out of you right now, those scratches are deep,” Landon chimed in.

“So, you killed the monster,” Hope changed the subject, smirking at Landon.

Landon broke out into a grin, seeming to completely forget he was worried about his best friend just a moment ago. “I did!” he squealed. “I think this proves that you should take me on missions more often.”

“I always take you on missions.”

“Yeah, but maybe now I could play a more active role besides just the researcher,” Landon tried to bargain. “Or besides the bait,” he added under his breath but if the slight puff of air Hope let out it seemed she had heard it as well as Hayley.

“That doesn’t seem as fun, but we can discuss.”

“That usually means no,” Landon slumped his shoulders.

Hayley couldn’t help but smile at that, silently holding in a laugh. Hope didn’t bother holding in her laugh, she let it out then quickly winced in pain.

“You need help,” Hayley cut in before Hope could change the subject again.

“I’m fine,” Hope tried again. The slightest shift to the side though had her wincing in pain again.

“Clearly.”

Hope rolled her eyes, snapping her eyes to Hayley. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, trying to suppress a groan from the quick movement. “I’m healing,” Hope explained softly. Hayley didn’t think the fight had left Hope because she was trying to get them to relent but because she was so exhausted. “I can feel it, this monster was meant to hunt werewolves, it’s probably just taking longer.”

“That’s even more reason to be looked at!” Josie shouted, exasperated.

“I will be fine by tomorrow,” Hope reassured Josie, ignoring everyone else in the room. “I promise.”

Josie didn’t seem convinced but nodded anyway. “At least let the nurse patch you up.”

Though Josie had said it nicely it was clear it wasn’t a request. Hope didn’t seem keen on arguing about it just quickly nodding, allowing the nurse to come over to her bedside and start wrapping the scratch marks in bandages. By the time she was done applying the bandages, half of Hopes stomach and back were covered.

“Now, I got to go,” Hope stated, slowly getting up, zipping her hood back up, wincing with each movement.

“What!” Josie shrieked. “You’re not going anywhere,” her voice changed to authoritative.

“I have work tomorrow.”

“You can’t work.”

“I have to. I’ll be fine. It seems I’ll for once have no trouble sleeping, so I’ll wake up and be healed and be perfectly fine for work. I need to go home though, it’s closer and I don’t know if shifting in the morning to get there on time would be wise.” Hope was trying to use logic, Hayley had to admit it was a good tactic.

“Fine,” Josie said through gritted teeth. “But! I will be stopping by the Grill tomorrow to make sure you are okay.”

“Okay,” Hope said easily with a smile. Hayley didn’t think Hope usually liked people fussing over her and checking up on her, but Josie seemed to be the exception.

“Come on,” Hayley said, wrapping an arm around Hope to help her stand. “I’ll give you a ride.”

“Is your car even here?” Hope asked.

Hayley paused thinking back then said, “We’ll borrow one from Alaric.”

Hayley helped Hope slide into the car then made her way to the girl’s apartment. When they got to the gym Hayley got out to help Hope.

“You really don’t need to help, you should go. It’s only right upstairs,” Hope insisted.

“I don’t think Josie would forgive me if she came by tomorrow only to find out you fell down the stairs because you could barely walk.”

Hope sighed but didn’t say anything. Hayley was going to have to make note of that, if she said Josie wouldn’t be happy about something then Hope was more likely to submit to the idea.

Hayley carefully helped her up the stairs and allowed the girl to lean on her as she dug for her keys. When Hope got the door opened Hayley helped her inside. She was impressed with the place. It was very simple, and the only non-magic related personal items in the place seemed to be various paintings.

It was a small place so Hayley made her way through the living room straight into the bedroom with Hope, gently leaning down so Hope could sit herself on the bed.

“Nice place,” Hayley said.

“Thanks,” Hope replied.

“Are you an artist?” Hayley asked looking at some of the canvas’s sitting around the room.

“Yeah, it relaxes me,” Hope sighed out as she sunk into the bed. “It helps me deal with things.”

Hayley hummed. “They’re incredible.” She wasn’t much for art. The only real experience she had with it was when Klaus painted but even then, she mostly ignored it, just catching glimpses of his paintings here and there. He was the same though, he always leaned into his painting when he was feeling particularly emotional, usually angry. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how many canvases she had heard broken or thrown across the room when Klaus got into one of his moods. She loved to tease him about his work but at the end of the day she had to admit he definitely had a talent for it. It was also one of his best if not his best coping mechanism so she kind of had to encourage it.

“Thank you for the ride,” Hopes voice came, breaking Hayley out of her thoughts. When she looked back at Hope, she saw the girl buried in her blanket, her eyes already closed. “And for helping me inside.”

“It was the least I could do,” Hayley said.

Hayley turned to leave, wanting Hope to get as much rest as she could but she paused in the doorway. “Why did you do it?” she whispered. She knew Hope heard her.

Hope opened her eyes to give her a questioning look.

“You not only came after me when you learned the monster was on the loose but when it was about to attack me you jumped in the way. You wouldn’t be hurt if you had just let it get me,” Hayley explained. She kept going over it and she couldn’t figure out why Hope would risk her life for hers.

“I don’t want anyone else dying because of Malivore,” Hope answered simply. There was a long pause, Hayley didn’t think Hope would provide anything more than that, so she started to turn to go again when Hope spoke up. “I didn’t want you hurt. I don’t want anyone getting hurt because of these monsters. When I saw it going after you, I knew it would kill you. I-I just couldn’t let that happen.”

“Thank you, just don’t make a habit of it,” she raised a pointed finger at Hope causing the girl to let out a small laugh.

“I kind of promised Josie, I wouldn’t get myself killed so I guess you guys win.”

It was Hayley’s turn to smile at that. “Speaking of Josie, I will come by the Grill as well to check up on you, make sure you’re actually healing properly.”

Hope rolled her eyes but seemed to accept that she wouldn’t be able to argue against it. The girl had people that cared about her now, besides Landon and Rafael, so she was going have to deal with them worrying about her and checking up on her.

“Get some rest,” Hayley whispered.

Hope closed her eyes again, pressing herself further into her mattress. “Thanks,” she whispered. “Goodnight.”

“Night,” Hayley whispered back, finally leaving the apartment.

Chapter Text

“I’m free!” Maya shouted as she flung the door to Hopes apartment open.

Hope groaned. The peace and quiet was nice while it lasted. She flicked her eyes up so she could glare at Maya over her canvas. “Knock,” is all she said.

“Come on!” Maya spun around the room, her arms wide. “I’ve been grounded for like a month.”

“I told you not to ditch.”

Maya ignored her. “We haven’t gotten to see each other in forever.”

“I saw you like two weeks ago.”

“That doesn’t count!” Maya stopped her spinning to point a finger at Hope. Hope held up her hands in defense, though she couldn’t stop the small smile on her lips. “I was with mom, and I had to spend my free time with her at the station and you used my suffering to help you solve a monster problem.” Hope rolled her eyes. “Without me!”

“Maya.”

“Good news is,” Maya returned her voice to a more normal tone. “I know how you can make it up to me.” She smiled sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

Hope suppressed a groan. She knew that look. That was the look Maya gave her when she wanted Hope to go socialize. God, she wished her friend was still grounded.

“My imprisonment ended just in time,” Maya continued. Hope once again rolled her eyes. “Because this week is homecoming.”

“Oh god,” Hope groaned, she couldn’t hold it in again. “You’re not going to make me be your date, are you?”

Maya sighed, rolling her eyes. “Please, I’ve had a date for weeks. Also, I gave up trying to get you to those things a long time ago. I know you don’t like dances, or dressing up, or-”

“People,” Hope continued for her, cutting off her friend. “Socializing-”

“Yes,” it was Maya’s turn to cut off Hope. “You don’t like anything fun. I get it.”

“So, what do you want?”

“I just want you to come to the homecoming game with me.”

Hope groaned again, finally setting down her paintbrush.

“Come on,” Maya whined, clasping her hands together to beg. “Don’t think of it as doing this for me, think of it as going to support Ethan.” Hope sighed. “You haven’t seen him in a while.”

“I’ve been a little busy.” Maya knew exactly why Hope hadn’t been around, she’d been working and if she wasn’t working, she was fighting monsters. She didn’t have time to socialize.

“So, this would be the perfect time to take a break. Please?”

Hope bobbed her head back and forth in thought, finally releasing a groan. “Fine.” Maya jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “But only to support Ethan.”

“Great!” Maya turned to head back out the door. She stopped in the doorway, turning her head back slightly to look at Hope. “Also, there’s a bonfire after the game, bye!” she closed the door before Hope could refuse.

Hope let out a growl. Maya always did that. She hated parties, and teenagers, especially drunk teenagers, really, she just hated people, and having to socialize, and now Maya was making her go to something with all those things. Hope was glad there wasn’t a monster running around at the moment because there was a good enough chance, she’d kill someone on her own.

Hope picked back up her paintbrush. She needed to focus on her painting, which would make her happy, until she had to go be miserable. She stared at the painting, contemplating where she wanted to put the next stroke. This painting was of a beach, but it wasn’t bright and sunny and happy like most people would think when they thought of a beach, no this painting was dark. The sand was a darker brown, the water was rough, the waves viciously crashing to the shore, and the sky showed a storm brewing, the dark clouds rolling in before the rain let loose.

After she finished her painting Hope decided to send a quick text to Landon and Rafael to see if they wanted to go to the football game or bonfire, maybe make the night a little more bearable.

Hope had just set her phone down when Landon texted back saying they’d both be there. Landon seemed oddly excited about the idea. Landon didn’t have many friends at the school, the entire football team bullied him, and he wasn’t athletic, but for some reason he loved going to those types of events. Hope didn’t get it; he would get so excited about the small stuff like this. Hope never asked him directly but she assumed it had to do with their childhood and that though she hated these experiences he saw them as something normal. He would also always tell her how these types of events always played a big part if not the main part in a cheesy teen movie.

Hope spent the rest of the day sketching more monsters. Her sketch book was getting full, she only had a few pages left, she was going to have to start a new one soon and add this one to the stack of filled ones. After she sketched the monsters she grabbed her larger monster book, adding all the monster they had dealt with up to that point to it. It was a large leather-bound book. Hope had started when they first went on the run, she would do a little sketch of the monster somewhere on the page, the name of the monster scribbled at the top then she’d fill the page with information on the monster, its powers, its weaknesses, anything that would be beneficial to someone in the future, just in case.

After Hope finished with all that she picked up a book Josie had suggested to her and even let her borrow, it was called The Martian. Hope had to admit she was enjoying it so far. Josie had also mentioned there was a movie of it as well and once Hope finished, she was going to make her watch it. That might have been the main motivation for Hope reading the book, even though it wasn’t her thing she really enjoyed her Harry Potter movie marathon with Josie, and she wanted them to continue that.

Hope read until she heard Maya honk, letting her know she was outside. Hope could easily walk to the school for the game but since Maya was forcing her to go then she was forcing her to drive them there. When they pulled into the parking lot it was already filled with students, teachers, parents, and what felt like the entire town walking about. They had little concession stands set up for drinks, popcorn, and cotton candy.

“Hey!” Ethan called as Hope and Maya made their way to all the stuff, jogging over to meet them

“Hey,” Hope said, smiling. She opened her arms to hug Ethan when she saw him doing it. She wasn’t a hugger, but Ethan was one of the few exceptions, she also had to admit he gave great hugs.

“Where have you been? I miss you.”

“Come on, it’s not like you haven’t also been crazy busy.”

“Okay, fair but still you need to come over more.”

“I promise. Now, what’s up?”

“I got a full ride to Whitmore college,” Ethan said casually. Hope could see him trying hold in his smile.

“What!” she yelled. “Oh my god, that’s amazing!” she even brought him in for another hug. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” Ethan shyly scratched the back of his head. “I’m still keeping my options open though. Not sure if I want to stay that close to home or maybe shoot for something a little further.”

“Well, whatever you decide, I’m sure you’ll kickass there no matter what.”

“Damn right I will.”

“Hey, go get me a drink,” Maya said, slapping her brother on the shoulder.

“Why can’t you?” Ethan started.

“Go,” Maya cut him off, handing him some cash.

Ethan dramatically sighed but otherwise didn’t argue, he just took the cash and went to go stand in line.

“Hey!” Landon called as he made his way over to them.

Hope was surprised that it wasn’t just Rafael with Landon. They had brought Josie, Lizzie, and MG as well.

“Hey,” Hope greeted surprised. Her eyes didn’t leave Josie’s though.

“Hey,” Josie said, her hands stuffed in her hoodie. “Sorry, Landon invited us. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course.” Hope could see Maya smirking at her from the side but ignored her. “Kinda surprised you guys would want to come since they’re sort of your rivals.”

“Ugh, they would be if we were actually allowed to compete in this stuff,” Lizzie grumbled. “I just came because I heard there was a bonfire after and I’m looking to party with people I don’t have to see every day.”

“Your highness,” Ethan said coming back to the group, handing Maya her drink.

“Thanks,” Maya smiled sweetly.

“Hey,” Ethan turned to greet the new people in their group. He knew Landon and Rafael, but he had never met the other three. “I’m Ethan.” He smiled, giving the Salvatore students a friendly wave.

“Hey! I’m MG,” MG instantly matched Ethan’s energy.

“I’m Lizzie,” Lizzie introduced herself to Ethan, pushing MG out of the way, putting on the friendliest smile Hope had ever seen from the girl. “We’re friends of Hopes from Salvatore.” Hope tilted her head at that, she never thought she’d hear those words from Lizzie’s mouth, even if she were only saying it to flirt with Ethan.

“Really? How’d that happen?” Ethan asked, taking a light jab at Hope.

“I’m Josie,” Josie greeted quietly, giving a little wave.

“Josie?” Ethan said giving Hope a knowing look.

“Yes?” Josie looked slightly concerned that Ethan seemed to know her name.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Ethan shot Hope another smirk. Maya had clearly told him about Hopes crush on the girl, but he was smart enough not to say anything about it, at least not in front of others, unlike Maya.

“My sister,” Lizzie cut in again. “We’re twins. Fraternal, obviously.”

“It’s great to meet all of you. Well, I have to head to the field, hope you enjoy the game and hope I get the chance to know you all better at the bonfire.” His eyes lingered on Lizzie while he said the last part. Seemed that Lizzie’s new crush was reciprocated.

After they talked for a few minutes, they made their way to the bleachers finding good seats for all of them for the game. Hope didn’t care about football; she usually didn’t pay attention when Maya dragged her to games. This time was better though since she had Josie next to her. She and Josie made small conversation as the game went on. Occasionally Maya would grab Hope by the arm, yanking her to her feet to help cheer when the team scored or when Ethan made a great play. Lizzie seemed to be just as enthusiastic in cheering Ethan on.

After the game was over everyone made their way into the woods to where the bon fire was going on. Even though the game had just ended the party was already in full swing by the time they got there. Everyone had a lot to celebrate considering they won in a landslide. Everyone cheered and raised their cups as each football player arrived at the party.

Hope was sitting on a log by the fire, doing her usual brooding when Maya came over and sat on the stump next to her.

“See, I told you tonight would be fun,” Maya said, bumping Hopes shoulder. When Hope turned her attention to Maya, she nodded her head across the fire pit where Josie was standing talking to Ethan and Lizzie.

“Yeah, whatever,” Hope mumbled, suppressing her smile.

“Have fun,” Maya whispered into her ear as she got up to leave. Hope was confused by the sudden exit until she realized Josie was making her way over, taking the spot Maya had just vacated.

“This is fun,” Josie said, smiling, looking around at all the students having fun.

“Yeah, fun,” Hope agreed though she knew she didn’t sound convinced.

“I know you don’t like this type of stuff and even though we have parties at the school, and they are fun this is just so normal. It’s nice to take a step back sometimes and experience something a normal non supernatural kid would.”

“Okay, yeah, I can agree to that. Though I still find sitting home alone with my sketchpad or a book much more exciting.”

Josie broke out into a laugh at that, causing Hope to join in as well. They spent the rest of the night like that, sitting on the logs next to the fire, sipping some beer from a cup, just talking. Hope got so lost in talking to Josie she didn’t even pay attention to where the others were. That was until Maya came up to her wobbling, unable to standup straight.

Hope sighed wrapping an arm around Maya. She called over to Ethan telling him she was taking Maya with her. The others besides Ethan decided to join her. She agreed to let all of them crash at her place since they all had either been drinking or it was just such a long walk back to Salvatore. They all piled into Maya’s car, Hope driving since she and Josie were the only ones still sober.

They made their way into Hopes apartment, Hope threw Maya on the couch, the girl totally out of it, arm hanging off the side and mouth partially open already drooling. She let Josie and Lizzie take the bed. She got the boys a couple blankets and pillows but could only offer them the floor though they didn’t seem to mind. Hope opted for the chair; she wasn’t going to get much sleep if any anyway. Before she settled down though she grabbed Maya’s phone quickly sending a text to the girl’s mom saying she was staying at Hopes. It was their system, if Maya drank too much she would crash at Hopes and Hope would send a text from Maya’s phone so her mom would never suspect a thing. Hope didn’t think sheriff Machado was that clueless, but Maya didn’t seem to agree.

Hope managed to doze off for a little bit, she wasn’t sure how long because next thing she knew she was being woken up by a phone ringing. Hope blinked her eyes open, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She looked over to see Maya’s phone ringing on the coffee table. She was going to get it to see who it was but despite being half asleep still her friend managed to reach over and grab the phone answering with a sleepy hello.

Hope closed her eyes intending to try and nap for a little longer when she was once again broken out of it by again Maya who let out a loud, “What!” at that Hope sprang up from the chair looking at her friend concerned. Maya was no longer lying with her head buried in the couch cushion but was sitting up right with a frantic look in her eyes.

Everyone else in the apartment was also woken up by Maya’s scream. The boys were trying to detangle themselves from their blankets on the floor. Josie was standing in the doorway between the living room and bedroom, she was rubbing sleep from her eyes and looked tired but didn’t look to annoyed her sleep had been interrupted she looked more concerned for Maya.

“Okay, I’m on my way,” Maya said as she stood up searching around the room.

“What’s wrong?” Hope asked after Maya hung up.

“I don’t know.” Maya was frantically looking around the place, pacing.

“Hey, hey,” Hope said stepping in Maya’s path, grabbing her gently by the shoulders to make her pause and actually take a breath. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Maya said more calmly. “That was Ethan. He woke up in the woods, I guess he just passed out there after the party. I could barely understand him he wasn’t making any sense he said there was blood everywhere.”

“Okay, let’s go, but I’m driving.” Hope grabbed the keys off the coffee table, there was no way she was letting Maya drive when she was that frantic.

“We’ll come too,” Josie said. “Just in case.”

They all made their way back to Maya’s car after a moment of Josie dragging Lizzie out of bed and telling her what was wrong. The blonde was clearly grumpy but as soon as she heard someone might be hurt and that someone might be Ethan, she was much more motivated.

Hope parked as close as she could to the edge of the woods then they all got out and made their way back to where the party was. When they got back to the spot it seemed everyone had cleared out, there was still beer bottles and cups lying in the leaves, even the fire was put out and was no longer hot, so it hadn’t been put out recently.

“Ethan!” Maya shouted, turning around the area, looking for her brother. “Ethan!”

“Maya!” Ethan’s shout came, he came running from the opposite direction.

“Oh my god, what happened?” Maya reached out to keep her brother stable. Ethan was covered in blood. It didn’t seem like it was his though. At least not most of it, he did have a cut on his head though like he was hit, or he fell.

“It-it-it-it,” Ethan couldn’t get out his words, he was talking so fast. “It came out of nowhere. It killed him. He’s dead. He-he-he-I-I-I didn’t know what to do.”

“Hope!” Rafael called. Hope turned to see where Rafael had gone, she went to follow his voice, leaving Maya to calm down the panicking Ethan.

When Hope found him, she saw Rafael was standing over a body. The body looked to be of a student, based on the letterman jacket it looked to be one of the football players. Hope wasn’t sure which one though since the head seemed to be missing.

“Oh my god,” Josie’s voice came. “Do we have another monster or just a murderer?”

“I haven’t been notified of anything,” Hope said, looking down at her bracelet.

“You weren’t notified about the spider either.”

“True and sadly, I don’t think we’re lucky enough that this is the work of a normal everyday killer.”

“I never thought I’d ask this and it’s even worse that I’m not even surprised I have to ask it but, where’s the head?” Landon asked.

“Good question,” Hope answered.

“Hope!” Maya called.

Hope and the others ran back over to where Maya was with Ethan. Lizzie standing not far behind her, concern for the boy all over her face. Ethan was still freaking out.

“What happened?” Maya whispered into Hopes ear as she stood up and pulled her to the side.

“There’s a body,” Hope whispered back. “Looks like a football player.”

“Oh my god.” Maya looked back at Ethan. “I need to call my mom.” Maya moved to dig her phone out of her pocket.

“Wait.”

“Hope, I get this is probably supernatural but that is a dead kid. I need to call my mom.”

“I know, I know, it’s just the head is missing.” That caused Maya to pause. “I know we need to tell your mom, but we also need to do our own investigating. I need to get a look at the body before she arrives, we need to come up with a story, and we need to know what Ethan saw.”

“Ethan,” she whispered, she looked back at him again, realizing her brother might have actually had an encounter with the monster.

“We need to know what he saw, and we can’t let him tell your mom.”

“Okay, what do we do?”

“MG,” Hope looked back to the boy who had been standing a few feet away from the group unmoving. “Can you compel Ethan? See if you can get him to calm down and tell us what happened?”

MG seemed hesitant but nodded. He stepped forward towards Ethan, but his eyes weren’t on Ethan exactly, they were on the cut on his head. Hope saw it coming right before it happened. Veins formed underneath his eyes, he started to speed towards Ethan, but Hope was quicker. She jumped into his path and flung him back. As soon as he landed on the ground though he was back up and speeding towards Ethan again. This time Hope didn’t hesitate, instead of flinging him back Hope held out her arm to stop MG and as soon as he came to a stop, she snapped his neck.

“What the hell!” Lizzie shrieked, as she ran over to MG.

“What happened?” Josie asked, running back to the group, seeing her friend lying on the ground.

“Your psycho girlfriend just snapped his neck!”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Josie defended, a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. Hope had to fight a smile; it wasn’t the time for that.

“He was about to attack Ethan,” Hope explained. “I didn’t realize he had issues with blood.”

“He doesn’t,” Lizzie stated.

“I would believe you if that,” Hope gestured to MG, “hadn’t just happened.”

“I’m going to take him back to the school,” Rafael said, approaching the group, picking MG up, flinging him over his shoulder.

“You sure you’re good carrying him all the way back there?”

“Yeah, it’s fine, he’s pretty light.”

Hope pulled out her phone to call the only other person she knew who could help, Hayley. Hayley answered after just a few rings and Hope only had to say she needed her help before the hybrid was on the way, she didn’t even have to tell her what happened.

Hayley ran up concern all over her face when she took in the scene before her. “What happened?” she asked.

“There’s a body over there,” Hope pointed in the direction they found the body. “Ethan here saw something; we don’t know what. I was hoping you could help him tell us?”

Hayley nodded, she bent down next to Ethan, Maya stepping out of her way but not moving to far from Ethan. “Ethan, is it?” Hayley asked kindly. Ethan nodded slowly. “Mind telling me what happened here?” Hayley compelled him.

Ethan stopped trembling, his moves becoming robotic as he spoke, “The party had ended, everyone had passed out somewhere or went home. I was going to head home myself but decided to relieve myself first.” Lizzie scrunched her nose up at that. “I heard something, it sounded like a horse galloping. I was super drunk, but I still thought it was weird, I mean we aren’t even by a farm.” Hope could see Maya close her eyes, suppressing a sigh. “I heard a scream.” Ethan’s eyes glazed over.

“What happened?” Hayley pressed again.

“I wanted to help. I went to see if I could help,” Ethan continued. He wasn’t looking at anyone he was basically looking through them. “I ran to where I heard the scream and saw it,” Ethan trailed off again.

“What was it?”

“It was a man,” Ethan said slowly. “On a horse. He looked weird; he was wearing some sort of uniform. He had an axe. I got there just in time to see him swing it, taking his head clean off. I didn’t save him. I didn’t do anything. I was scared. I don’t even know who is dead.”

Hope glanced around at the others. They all shared the same concern. Someone riding around on a horse beheading people was definitely not good.

“That wasn’t the weirdest part though,” Ethan continued. “The man on the horse, he didn’t have a head.”

If they didn’t all already know the legend, then Landon’s squeal would have confirmed it. Hope shot him a glare. He quickly brought his hands to his mouth, but Hope could see him still buzzing with excitement.

“Hayley,” Hope said. When Hayley looked at her, she shot her eyes to Ethan asking the silent question. Hayley nodded.

“Ethan, look at me,” Hayley spoke again. When Ethan did, she compelled him, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw here, forget about it. When the police question you tell them the party ended, tell them you heard a scream, tell them when you went to check it out you saw the body of your friend, but you couldn’t see the killer, tell them you tried to run away but you tripped and hit your head, that’s how you got the cut. When you woke up you couldn’t really remember what happened, so you called your sister, that’s when they discovered the body.”

When Ethan nodded and repeated it back to Hayley showing the compulsion worked, she left so she wouldn’t be around when the sheriff arrived. She told them after they talked to the sheriff to come straight to the school so they could get started with their investigation.

While Maya called her mom to tell her the story they agreed upon, Hope decided to investigate the body some more before the police came and messed up the crime scene. She knew they knew how to do their job and sheriff Macho was a great sheriff but when the human authorities got involved in something supernatural, they always messed something up. Hope walked around the body. The kid had no defensive wounds, he probably didn’t even see it coming. Even the cut on his neck was perfect.

“It looks like whatever our horseman used to cut off the head he did it in one swoop,” Hope said. She was speaking more to herself than anyone else, but she knew Josie was watching her investigate the body. “It also looks like the blade was heated. The cut is so perfect, but it also looks like the wound was cauterized as it was cut, like the blade heats up. I mean look at this.” Hope moved around the area, walking in a circle, looking around. “There’s no blood. If someone had just come up swinging a sword even if they took the head in one movement, there would be so much blood.”

“And yet there’s nothing,” Josie said, noticing the same thing as Hope.

They would have continued investigating further but they heard the sirens, indicating the sheriff had arrived. They moved away from the body and back to the group. They didn’t want the police to rush over and think they were messing with the body or something. It was bad enough they had to be called in the first place. Hope hated having to cover up a monster attack while also dealing with the authorities.

After sheriff Mac arrived, she secured the scene, taping everything off, not just where the body was found but also where they had been partying. She quickly checked up on Ethan as the other officers started to work the scene. While the body was being loaded up for the coroner and while the officers finished processing the scene sheriff Machado questioned everyone in the group. Everyone told their own version of the way things went down. Since she knew none of them would leave town the sheriff let them go about their day and just told them not to leave town.

“I can’t believe it!” Landon squealed as they entered the library. “The headless horseman! Do you know how exciting this is?”

“Well, a student is dead, so…” Hope said.

“Okay, sure that’s not good. But the headless horseman is a classic!” Landon was pacing back and forth, practically vibrating with excitement. “This is one of the coolest monsters we’ve dealt with.”

“We haven’t seen anything with our own eyes, maybe this isn’t the headless horseman.”

“Ethan said he saw a headless soldier riding on a horse. The headless horseman is a headless soldier who rides around on a horse beheading people. And what happened last night?” Hope didn’t answer, she just stared blankly at Landon. “Someone lost their head!”

“Let’s assume this is the headless horseman,” Josie said. “What do we know?”

“A lot,” Hayley said, coming in with a stack of books. “Or nothing at all. It’s hard to tell. There’s so many stories about the headless horseman we don’t know which one is true.”

“If any of them,” Hope mumbled. “None could be true. There could be bits and pieces of the truth spread throughout multiple stories. So, everyone grab a book, do the research like usual, write down notes and then we’ll compare notes, see if there’s a common thread.”

“Where are you going?” Josie asked when she noticed Hope about to leave the library.

“I was going to look for Raf, check on MG,” Hope explained.

Josie knit her eyebrows at that but didn’t question it further. She nodded, turning to start her own research. Hope took one last look at the room before she left, Hayley, Landon, Lizzie, Josie, and Maya all had books or laptops out already searching up whatever they could.

When Hope got to the cell, she saw Rafael standing guard. She told him their theory and to go help with the research. Rafael didn’t seem happy about letting Hope stay alone with MG even though he was behind bars, and he didn’t stand a chance against her, but he accepted her orders and left without argument.

“I’m sorry,” MG mumbled. He was sitting in the far corner of the cell, back pressed against the wall and head shoved in his hands.

“Wanna tell me what happened?” Hope asked softly. She had a theory, but she wanted to hear from MG himself.

“I can’t handle human blood,” MG said quietly. “When I first turned, I sort of lost it, went on a frenzy. If it weren’t for Dr. Saltzman, I wouldn’t be able to control myself.”

“It doesn’t seem like you can control yourself at all. No offense.”

“Yeah, I guess drinking animal blood helps but it doesn’t exactly help when I’m around someone who’s actually bleeding.”

“Is this something I need to worry about?” Hope cut right to the point. She liked MG from the few interactions they had but he could have killed Ethan.

MG opened his mouth to answer but hesitated for a moment. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “It’s always been there but it’s been worse since the nightmares.”

“You were pretty messed up that night.” Hopes voice was softer, she knew this was a delicate situation with MG. “We all were but you were totally out of it.”

“I…” MG looked down; he was clearly ashamed about whatever happened in his nightmare.

“I won’t judge.”

“I killed them,” he let out in a breath. “I killed all of them, Josie, Lizzie, all of my friends. I relived my first kill. I just couldn’t stop drinking blood…”

“I can help you if you want,” Hope offered.

“What do you know about vampires?”

Hope had to hold in her smirk. She knew a lot about vampires. Even though she hadn’t triggered that side of hers she knew everything there was to know.

“I’ve dealt with my fair share of vampires,” she settled on. It wasn’t a lie, and it was better than saying she understood vampire hunger well enough because she killed so many when in Triad.

“You really think you can help?”

“If there’s one thing, I’m good at its control. Hayley would probably also be happy to help. She’s got the hunger but also the temper of a wolf, seems like the perfect teacher.

“Okay.” MG nodded. “Thank you Hope.”

“No problem. So, think you can handle being out or do you want to stay locked up for a bit?”

“I think if I grab a blood bag, I’ll be good. I want to help, even if it’s just research.”

“Great because it looks like we got the headless horseman on our hands.”

At that MG shot up from the corner he was seated in, racing to the cell door. He had a huge smile on his face, his eyes bright like a kid in a candy store. Great she had another Landon on her hands.

“Really?” MG couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice.

Hope rolled her eyes, opening the cell door. “Yes, you and Landon can fangirl over it later. First, we need to know how to defeat it before anyone else dies.”      

“Right, right, right,” MG said quickly. “I’m on it.” He sped out of the room; it sounded like he went right to the kitchen for a blood bag. When Hope got back to the library MG was already seated next to Lizzie with a book cracked open and sucking on a blood bag.

Hope joined the table, opting to sit next to Josie. Everyone was hard at work reading and writing down notes. Landon and MG were both scribbling in their notebooks, smiles plastered on their faces. As annoying as it was, she was glad Landon had someone to get excited with when certain monsters popped up. Her and Rafael always just looked at him concerned when he’d ramble, or they would ignore him.

After about an hour of researching Hope decided it was time to check in with everyone. “So, what do we got?”

“A lot,” Maya said.

“And nothing,” Rafael added.

“So, it seems like most stories are consistent in that the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier who lost his head during a battle,” Landon said, flipping through the notes. “He also may be nocturnal? It’s pretty consistent that he appears at night.”

“Then things become slightly less consistent,” MG took over. “There’s two versions of the story. Either the headless horseman rides around carrying his head, or he is out searching for a new one, hence the beheading.”

“How do we stop it?” Hope asked.

“We have no idea,” Lizzie sighed, slamming a book closed. “There is literally nothing on this thing, no weaknesses.”

They were interrupted from discussing further when Maya’s phone rang. She stepped away to answer it. Hope could have eased dropped and she wanted to, but she didn’t want to violate Maya’s privacy like that. If it were important Maya would share on her own.

“Everything okay?” Hope asked when Maya came back to the table.

“Yeah, that was just my mom,” she answered. “Ethan went to the hospital, got the cut patched up and he’s going to be okay.”

“Has he said anything?”

“No, the compulsion seems to be working. There’s something else though. Another body was found. A farmer at the edge of town. Apparently, he was killed the night before but since the farm was so out of the way he was just found.”

“No head?”

“No head. And I know the rule is two is a coincidence and three a pattern, but mom isn’t really following that rule. I guess two beheadings within two days in a small town mean it’s not a coincidence.”

“I need to see the body."

Maya sighed. “Of course, you do.”

“Can you get me in or not?”

“Of course, but it will have to be tonight. There is way too many eyes during the day, especially on this.”

“I also want to see the crime scene.”

“Mom was just up there. She was about to leave to go pick up Ethan. So, the place should be clear.”

“Let’s go.” Hope shot to her feet. “Hayley, could you drive us?”

“Yeah,” Hayley answered.

“Raf, MG, Lizzie could you continue with the research? We need a way to beat this thing.”

“Ugh, why do I have to stay out of the action?” Lizzie whined.

“There won’t be any action, hopefully. I want two of the people with knowledge on this stuff to be researching,” Hope explained. “Which is also why I want Landon and Josie to come with us, split up the team.”

“Well, why can’t I come with, and Josie stay behind with the books?”

“Because I said so.”

Before Lizzie could say anything more MG interrupted. “Hey, come on, it’ll be fun,” he tried to convince Lizzie. “We haven’t spent much time together recently. I know that’s on me, but I miss this.”

“Fine,” Lizzie mumbled, slumping in the chair. Hope knew Lizzie wanted to join but there was a hint of a smile on her face, so she didn’t think the other twin was to upset about staying behind.

The group left, heading to the farm. When they got there, they parked out of the way. There was a cop car at the entrance but otherwise the place had been cleared. They snuck through the fields and into the barn.

“You know the police have already been here. Any evidence is probably gone,” Maya commented.

“Well as great of a cop your mom is she’s investigating this as a murder, not supernatural,” Hope said.

“What are we looking for?” Josie asked.

“Anything out of the ordinary. Anything that can explain where this thing comes from. There has to be a reason I wasn’t notified of its presence.”

“Look at all this,” Landon said, spinning around to look at the barn. “All this equipment. I know I want this to be the headless horseman more than anyone but maybe this was just an accident. Farm equipment, seems rather dangerous.”

“Look at this,” Hayley called over, ignoring Landon’s comments.

The others gathered around Hayley to see what she was looking at. Hope crouched down next to her to see Hayley was looking at a couple of hoof prints.

“That’s interesting,” Hope commented.

“Not really,” Maya said. “This is a farm.”

Hope glanced over her shoulder at her friend, shooting her a glare.

“I’m just saying,” she mumbled.

“Do you smell that?” Hayley asked.

“Yeah,” Hope said. She did smell it. It wasn’t the hoof print that was interesting, it was the smell.

“What smell?” Maya asked.

“A smokey burning type smell,” Hayley explained. “It’s faint but it’s there.”

“And look at this,” Hope said. “Around the hoof print, it’s slight charred.”

“I’m no expert but it also doesn’t smell like this is just gun powder.”

“No,” Hope agreed. “There’s definitely gun powder but not recent? It smells old.”

“Like how a cannon fired in the 1700s might smell?” Landon questioned.

Hope shrugged. What they were dealing with was lining up more and more with headless horseman stories. She couldn’t be a hundred percent on the smell though, she wasn’t around in the 1700s so she couldn’t really say if the smell was from a canon or not.

“This doesn’t make sense,” Maya said. “There’s nothing here. Noting to indicate someone was murdered. There should be evidence of a struggle. And there’s nothing. Nothing is out of place.”

“It’s like his attacker came out of nowhere,” Josie said, putting together Maya’s thoughts.

“Just like Ethan said.”

They continued to search the barn a little while longer. When they found nothing more, they decided to head back to the school to see if the others were having more luck.

“Did you find anything?” Hope asked as they entered the library.

“No,” Rafael said. “Not really.”

“Nothing states a specific weakness,” MG said. “The closest I’ve been able to find is when the horseman is looking for his head if he finds it, he goes away.”

“And considering his head has been lost for over two hundred years I highly doubt we’re that lucky,” Lizzie said.

“I’m going to go with Maya to the morgue tonight. Until then let’s keep looking,” Hope said.

Everyone nodded then went back to their seats. They all kept pouring over books, papers, and whatever they could find on the internet until it was time for Maya and Hope to head to the morgue.       

It was just past midnight when Hope and Maya left for the morgue. Maya said the doctor always worked late so after midnight was the safest time to go. It was also the only guarantee she had her mom wouldn’t just pop by. She had been getting updates from Ethan so knew her mom got home in time to make the two of them dinner and she hadn’t left again.

Maya swiped the keycard she had stolen at some point in the past. They slipped through the doors. Maya went through the filing cabinet to find the file on the farmer and the file on the student while Hope went over to the cold lockers to get a look at the body.

“Got it,” Maya called. She came over just as Hope found the correct locker.

The body was exactly like the football players. No other damage to the body besides the missing head. The head was taken clean off in one swoop and looked as though it had cauterized the wound as it cut through the flesh.

“Looks like the coroner had the same thoughts as you,” Maya said. “Look at this,” she pointed to the file on the farmer. “the head was taken off by one swing of a sharp blade that seemed to be hot enough to cauterize the wound as it made the cut.” She pointed to the student’s file. “It says the same thing here.”

“So, definitely dealing with the same monster.”

While Hope pushed the body back in the locker and made sure it looked like it had never been disturbed while Maya put the files back where she found them. They peeked their heads out the door and into the hallway to make sure it was still clear then made their way back to the school.

“What did you find?” Josie asked as they entered the library where everyone was still seated.

“The death was the same,” Hope said. “The exact same. Everything was the same.”

“Great!” Lizzie said with a smile. Everyone turned to her with concerned and questioning looks. “What? Same killer is a good thing. If the death was different, we’d have two things to worry about.”

“Any ideas on how to track this thing? A farm, then a bonfire in the woods, those don’t exactly share a lot in common,” Hope decided to ask, ignoring Lizzie’s comment.

“No, we don’t even know how it’s appearing,” MG said.

“We have a problem,” Maya interrupted.

“What?” Hope asked.

“Ethan just texted. He said Connor and some of the other players are forming a search party. They want revenge on whoever killed their teammate.”

“Idiot,” Hope said under her breath. “Is Ethan with them?”

“No, he’s still at home.”

“Let’s go.”

“Ugh,” Landon groaned dramatically. “Does this mean I have to help save Connor?”

“We could let him die?” Hope offered. She really didn’t care. Connor’s life truly didn’t matter to her. She didn’t like him. She really did not care whether he lived or died. As long as it wasn’t an inconvenience for her.

“No,” Landon whined. “Then I’ll have to feel guilty and that’s worse.”

The group made their way out the door. Landon pouting and dragging his feet the entire way to the car.

They made their way to where the bonfire was. That was the last place Connor had seen his teammate alive and seemed the most logical place he’d go.

“Split up, keep an eye out for Connor, any of the other players, or our monster. Stay within eye distance of at least one other person,” Hope said.

The group spread out, walking the grounds. They were all able to see the person next to them. Those who didn’t have night vision carried flashlights or their phones to see. The moonlight provided a good amount of light, but it was still pretty dark. Hope and the twins would have done a spell but considering there was civilians wandering they couldn’t risk it.

Hope tilted her head. Out of nowhere she started to hear galloping.

“Do you hear that?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Hayley answered.

“Does anyone else hear that?” Lizzie yelled.

“Yeah,” Hope called out. “It’s out here, everyone regroup!”

Everyone rushed back together, joining Hope where she was. Ahead of them what was once a clearing slowly got overtaken in fog. Through the fog there was a shadow of a man on a horse. As the figure exited the fog Hope saw that it was in fact the headless horseman. Riding on a pitch-black horse with glowing red eyes was a headless soldier, wearing a red coat. The soldier reached towards its back pulling out an axe.

“Get down!” Hope yelled as the soldier rode towards them.

Everyone dove to the side just as the soldier rode past them. The soldier swung his axe once but didn’t come close to hitting anyone. He rode right past them. Hope flipped over to see the horseman making a sharp turn to face them again.

As the soldier rode toward them once again, Connor ran into its path. Connor turned just in time to see the soldier swing his axe, taking his head clean off. As the soldier raised the axe Hope could see the blade glow orange as if it was being heated up. That explained the cauterization. The blade heated itself up hot enough before it struck to cauterize the wound as it made the cut.

Hope hadn’t even had time to blink let alone react before Connor’s head was taken off. His body collapsed to the ground instantly. His head however flew through the air until it landed with a thud then continued to roll until it was next to Landon.

“Oh my god!” Landon shrieked, scurrying back away from the head as quick as Hope had ever seen him move. He was moving so quickly he slipped a few times as he tried to get back up.

“Holy shit,” Lizzie said.

The horseman didn’t disappear after Connor’s death though. He rode forward turning around again to face the group.

“Maya,” Hope said, not taking her eyes off the horseman, “get out of here.”

“What?” Maya started to argue.

“MG.”

MG took that as his cue. He grabbed Maya and sped off back to the car.

“What’s the plan?” Josie asked.

“Try and stay alive,” Hope answered. She knew that wasn’t the best plan but that was really all she could come up with. She had no idea how to beat it and as far as they could find it had no weaknesses.

The horseman rode towards them again. Josie took the opportunity to say a spell. Hope didn’t know what spell until she saw a ray of fire shoot from the brunettes’ hands. The fire shot out creating a wall of fire between them and the horseman. The horse bucked but didn’t run through the fire. Josie shot another fire spell at him this time hitting the horseman square in the chest. The fire had no effect on the horseman though, it didn’t even burn his clothes.

“What do we do?” Hope yelled to Landon.

“I don’t know!” He yelled back. “Everything said horseman either carried his head with him or was searching for a new one.”

“Well, he doesn’t seem too interested in the new head he could have,” Lizzie said, pointing to Connors head.

“So, he’s carrying his head on him somewhere?” Josie asked.

“Okay, new plan,” Hope said. She had no idea if it would work but it was the only thing she could think of. “Find the head.”

Once the fire died down the horseman ran at them again, swinging his axe at Hope. Hope bent backwards, the axe just missing her.

“The bag!” Lizzie shouted, pointing at the horseman.

“What?” Hope asked.

“There’s a bag on the side of the horse, that could have the head.”

As the horseman ran towards Hope again Rafael climbed a tree, pushing himself off it and tackling the horseman off his horse. The horse bucked again, allowing Lizzie the opportunity to run up and get the bag. She looked like she was trying not to throw up as she gagged but she got the bag off and tossed it to Landon.

Landon caught the bag, though he juggled it a little, almost dropping it. Landon also made a gagging face as he held the bag.

“Oh god,” he said, while silently gagging. “Why is it still warm?”

“Landon!” Hope yelled. She looked towards him for half a second before she had to turn her attention back to the headless horseman. He tossed Rafael off him, swinging his axe down. Rafael recovered just in time to scoot back and see the axe hit the ground only inches from him. Rafael scurried away after that, before the soldier could swing his axe again.

The horseman faced Hope again. He stalked towards her. Based on his walk and his grip of the axe he seemed angry, though it was hard for Hope to tell since he didn’t have a head. He swung his axe at her again. She once again bent back, the axe just missing her.

She swiftly turned around facing he soldier just as he lifted the axe again. The axe came down towards Hope, this time she didn’t duck though. She reached out grabbing the handle of the axe with both hands. She used all her strength to keep the axe from hitting her. The soldier was strong though, strong enough to keep enough pressure on the axe that Hope fell to her knees trying to keep it away from her.

Hayley took the opportunity of the horseman being distracted to rush him, tackling him away from Hope. Hope didn’t loosen her grip on the axe, but Hayley hit the soldier with enough force that he let go of the axe.

The horseman tossed Hayley off him just like he had done to Rafael. He turned to face Hope again noticing her holding his axe. The fact that she had his axe, and he didn’t, didn’t seem to deter him though. He stomped towards her again. This time without his axe he was defenseless. Hope took the opportunity and swung the axe into his side. The axe embedded itself into the side of the soldier. Despite the fact that it actually left a mark on the soldier, there was still no blood. Hope kicked the soldier off the axe, sending him stumbling back.

“Hope!” Landon called out. She turned to face him. “Destroy the head!”

Hope nodded. Landon tossed the bag that contained the horseman’s head towards her. As the bag got closer Hope swung the axe, slicing through the head as it came towards her.

The two halves of the head fell to the ground, a second later they burst into black smoke. Hope turned to see the horse fade into smoke as well. When she turned to face the soldier again, she saw him fall back but before his body hit the ground he too turned to smoke.

The axe that belong to the horseman though never faded; it was still in Hopes hands. Hope spun the axe in her hands. She liked it. She appreciated a good souvenir when it came to the monsters. At least when that souvenir was a weapon.

“Hey, can I have that?” Landon asked, pointing to the axe.

“Hell no,” Hope said quickly, bringing the axe closer to her. “When you defeat a monster with its own weapon you get dibs on the weapon.”

“How’d you know that would work?” Hayley asked as she and the others grouped up again.

“I didn’t,” Landon said. “But since the horseman carried his head with him, I figured that maybe if we destroyed his head, we’d destroy him.”

“Nice work. Guess we got to call the sheriff now.” Hayley gestured to Connors body. Hope had actually forgotten about that.

“You prepared for what you have to do?” Hope asked the hybrid.

Hayley nodded. She didn’t seem thrilled by the idea, but it was clear she knew it had to be done. They had to call the sheriff because they couldn’t explain why Connor suddenly just disappeared, but Hayley was going to have to use her compulsion to explain his death away. She was also going to have to use it on the other football player and the farmer. They couldn’t let anyone figuring out what actually happened, so they had to come up with a good enough lie to satisfy the investigation.

“Got a story in mind?” Hayley asked.

“Well,” Hope said. “Like Landon said, farming equipment is quite dangerous.”

After they called the sheriff and Hayley did her compulsion with the stories, they agreed on she made sure that them being involved or anywhere near any of the crime scenes was forgotten, besides the one Ethan was involved in since he called Maya originally and it helped sell the story better.

Chapter Text

Hope was out in the middle of the woods with MG trying to help him control his bloodlust. Josie had wanted to come to help but MG objected and when Josie tried to convince Hope she quickly denied the twin. Hope knew the girl wanted to be there and help her friend, but Hope didn’t fully know what she was dealing with and since he acted the way he did with Ethan Hope wasn’t taking any chances. So, she brought Landon along.

Landon had human blood so if he were cut it would trigger MG but unlike Josie when MG killed Landon he would just come back to life. Landon wasn’t super thrilled by the idea of basically volunteering to be killed repeatedly but he knew it was to help out a friend.

Hayley agreed to help out, like Hope thought she would, but she was going to be meeting them a little later. She said she needed to pick up some supplies. Hope wasn’t exactly sure what that meant but she let Hayley know where they were going to be conducting the training. Hope had the weekend off and they had planned on camping out all weekend to help MG.

“Okay, let’s just get right into it,” Hope said. She walked over to Landon, taking out a knife and slicing his hand before he could even realize what was happening.

The second the blood was spilt MG’s head snapped up getting a good whiff of the air. He sped toward the two of them, flinging Hope back away from Landon. Hope was caught off guard by how quickly MG reacted, but she managed to catch herself, landing on her feet as she slid across the leaves. She looked up to see MG drinking from Landon’s hand.

“Okay buddy that’s enough,” Landon said, wincing at the pain.

MG ignored Landon, sucking a few more seconds on the hand.

“MG!” Landon yelled again.

MG finally released his hand but not to stop drinking. He kept the grip on Landon’s arm with one hand then with the other bent his head to the side, sinking his teeth into his neck. He released Landon’s arm to grab him by the shoulders and pull him closer. Landon’s arms flailed about, he tried pushing and punching at MG, but it was no use. Landon may be a phoenix, but he was no match for a vampire, or really any supernatural creature.

Landon’s arms slowly dropped to the side as his head drooped down, the life finally leaving his body. MG pushed Landon away, his body flopping to the ground. MG hadn’t turned around yet, but Hope could see him huffing.

Hope knew she could have saved Landon from dying. She very easily could have rushed them as soon as MG started drinking from Landon’s hand, but she didn’t. She wanted to see how MG acted. She needed to see how he attacked, what the blood did to him, what feeding from a living person did to him. She got her answer. And it was going to be a lot of work. She already knew they wouldn’t get him under control in one weekend, it was going to be a long process.

MG finally turned towards Hope. His eyes were still red and the veins still showing from under them. He wiped at the blood on his mouth with his sleeve but all it did was smear it even more. MG was certainly a messy eater as it was, the blood wasn’t just all over his mouth but all down his shirt as well.

Hope tilted her head as MG took a step as if he were going to go after her next. Hope was genuinely curious if he’d make the move, she couldn’t help the small smile that formed on her face. Maybe the weekend wasn’t going to be all bad after all, maybe she would actually get to have some fun.

MG sped to her but when he got close enough Hope punched him in the chest. Not hard enough to go through and rip out his heart but she did hear the cracking of bones. The sound caused another small smile. MG stumbled back, his hand going to his chest where she hit him. He coughed up some blood, his or Landon’s Hope didn’t know, maybe a bit of both. MG still had the hunger look in his eyes, he was going to try rushing her again but before he could Hope moved toward him, snapping his neck.

Right after MGs body hit the ground, Hopes phone started to ring. When she looked to see who it was, a smile spread across her face, this time it was a shy one and not one for the thrill of violence.

“Hey,” Hope said answering.

“Hey!” Josie replied. Hope could hear the other girls smile.

“Miss me already? It hasn’t even been a day.”

“Of course, I miss you.” Hopes smile got wider. She couldn’t help the silent chuckle she tried to contain at the silence of the line. “I mean I miss all of you!” Josie said quickly. “Anyway, how’s it going?”

“I mean we kind of just go here, it hasn’t even been an hour,” Hope kicked a rock, glancing at the two boys’ bodies. “I’m sorry about not being able to do our training sessions this weekend, I’ll make it up to you.”

“I know you will.”

Hope smirked at that. “Guess I’ll just have to double up the sessions next week, maybe meet up earlier?”

“Uhh,” Josie drew out, “I was thinking more like a movie marathon?”

Hope rolled her eyes. She knew that’s where the conversation was going. Josie kept trying to show Hope movies or TV shows she missed out on, trying to make up for her lost childhood as Josie liked to say. Hope liked to point out that she was friends with Landon if she really wanted to experience those things, she’d pay attention when he spoke. Josie then pointed out that watching movies with her was more fun than it was with Landon. Hope couldn’t argue with that.

“Fine,” Hope sighed. “What am I in for?”

“How about a Marvel movie marathon? We can start from the very beginning!” Hope could hear the excitement in the girl’s voice.

Hope couldn’t help but groan though. “Isn’t there like twenty of those or something?”

Instead of getting a reply Hope only heard laughter. Hope tried but couldn’t seem to interrupt the girl. Josie laughed for a good minute before finally calming down.

“Are you done?” Hope finally asked when Josie seemed to be pausing for a breath.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Josie said, hints of the laughter coming out again. “Just, twenty! It’s so funny. There’s so many more than that.”

Hope groaned again. “Sounds like it would take a lot longer than a weekend to get through.”

“Oh, it will,” Josie admitted, back to being serious. “I’m thinking we’ll get through a good portion of them next week and then just continue with it the following weeks until we’re all caught up.”

“Great,” Hope grumbled.

“Oh! And there’s TV series as well.”

“Seriously?”

“Have fun this weekend.” Josie ignored her question. “And try not to hurt my best friend.” Hopes eyes slid towards MG’s body. “I kind of like having him around.”

“I promise he will come back to you alive.”

“I don’t like the way that sounded.”

“Bye, try to have fun this weekend and not worry too much,” Hope said quickly.

“Hope-”

Hope quickly hung up after she said her goodbye, she heard Josie say her name but did not want to get into the fact that they hadn’t even been gone an hour and MG and Landon were both technically dead at the moment. Sure, they were both going to heal or resurrect but she just didn’t want to get into explaining her process to Josie. She also thought the girl would probably yell at her and she didn’t want that.

Hope decided to call Hayley after that. Hayley needed to be updated on what they were dealing with before she arrived.

“Hey, going that well?” Hayley asked as a greeting.

Hope let out a small laugh. “Well,” she said, bending down to look at Landon’s body. “Landon’s dead.”

“Already?”

“And I snapped MG’s neck.”

The line was silent for a moment before Hayley spoke again. “Really?”

“Yeah, turns out this is going to be more work than I thought. I cut Lan’s hand and the second the blood started MG charged. No matter what Landon said or how hard he hit him MG didn’t release him until he was drained. Then he turned on me.”

Hope looked closer at the neck wound on Landon. She pushed his head to the side. MG didn’t tear through the neck like she heard Stefan Salvatore would do when he had his humanity off, but the bite was brutal. It wasn’t just a feeding and something he was trying to cover up or had the intention of stopping and compelling. The bite was messy and there was a chunk missing from Landon’s neck. He might not kill the same way as Stefan, but MG was surely a ripper like him.

“It seems MG is a ripper,” Hope said, informing Hayley of her theory.

She could hear Hayley sigh on the other end.

“Why do I feel like that’s not surprising?” Hope asked.

“Because it’s not,” Hayley admitted. “I didn’t know beforehand. I would have told you. But Alaric always seemed to be wary of MG being around blood.”

“So, Alaric knew exactly what MG is and failed to mention it. Typical,” she mumbled the last part.

“Look, I’m on my way now. I got what I needed, and I don’t like you being up there alone doing this.”

“I mean so far there’s only two bodies up here and neither are me.”

“I know you can handle yourself. But for my own sanity, just be careful. I’m on my way.”

Hope heard Hayley’s car door close. She relented, “Yeah, okay.” She knew there was no arguing with Hayley on this, it didn’t seem like something she would waver on.

Hope decided to do some sketching while she waited for Hayley. It wasn’t like there was much else for her to do. She was in the middle of the woods and the two people currently with her were currently dead, so she was kind of limited in her entertainment.

Hope was completely lost in her sketching. She had been adding to her monster sketches. She hadn’t even heard Hayley approaching until the she felt her hand on her shoulder.

“Those are incredible,” Hayley said looking over Hopes shoulder at the sketches.

“Thanks,” Hope said.

“Those the monsters?”

“Yeah, I draw them after we face one. I like to keep notes of what we deal with and how just in case we see another again. Then this,” Hope held up her sketch book. “Is for me, drawing them is kind of like my own form of therapy I guess.”

Hayley looked over at the two boys still dead on the ground. “They’re still out?”

“Yep.” Hope closed her sketch book, pulling herself to her feet. “So, what did you get?”

“Well, picked up some chains and other things to help restrain him if it becomes necessary. And I got this,” Hayley opened the duffle bag she brought with her revealing blood bags.

“Blood bags?” Hope asked picking one up. It looked like it had come from the local hospital.

“Yeah, Alaric doesn’t let the students have human blood so even though some think it is they’re all drinking animal blood.”

“So, MG was taught on animal blood meaning when he gets a taste of the real thing-”

“He loses it.”

“What about Josie’s mom, isn’t she a vampire? How could she allow this?”

“Caroline probably wouldn’t. She doesn’t drink animal blood and I know she knows how hard it is for some vampires to gain control. Stefan was a ripper and she witnessed that a few times. I think Caroline just isn’t around to stop Alaric from forcing this.”

“Wow seems like he really wants to help the students,” Hope mumbled.

They were broken out of their conversation by MG jumping up, gasping for breath. MG rubbed his neck a few times then groaned and moved his hand to his chest.

“What happened?” he asked.

“You killed Landon,” Hope said, pointing to the other boy’s body. “Then you tried to kill me, so I punched you in the chest then snapped your neck.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay, its’s why we’re here.”

“Here drink this,” Hayley said, tossing MG a blood bag.

MG caught it, cautiously bringing it to his mouth. He started to drink, taking only a few sips before stopping.

“Now this one.” Hayley tossed him another blood bag.

He gave her a confused look but still caught the blood bag and brought it to his mouth just like he had with the other one. Unlike the first one though the second his lips touched the bag he started to squeeze it, trying to get as much blood out as he could.

Before he could drain the bag Hayley stepped in, speeding towards him, ripping the bag from his hand, and pushing him away when he tried to reach for it again. MG struggled against her arm for a few seconds before finally regaining control.

Hayley kept her hand on MG’s chest, keeping him an arm’s length distance from the blood bag. Even though he was more in control, he was still breathing heavily, and it didn’t seem Hayley was taking chances, even if it was only a blood bag.

“What happened?” MG asked, his voice strained.

“The first bag I gave you was the blood from school, animal blood,” Hayley explained. She ignored MG’s shocked expression. “The second was blood I picked up from the hospital today, human blood.”

“The blood at school is animal, not human?” MG asked, still in disbelief.

Hayley nodded. “You’ve been raised and trained on animal blood. Which is why you have absolutely no control when it comes to human blood. This is going to take a while, a lot longer than a simple weekend, but I think I can help you.”

“Yeah, I don’t care what it takes or however long it takes. I can’t lose it like that again. I might hurt someone. I can’t even imagine hurting someone like Josie or Lizzie, I’d never forgive myself if one day everything is fine then one of them gets a paper cut around me and I end up draining them dry.”

“I contacted Caroline, see if she had any suggestions. She told me how Elena helped Stefan learn control. He still wasn’t perfect, but he stopped going full on ripper when he drank human blood.”

MG nodded. “What do I have to do?”

“Take it slow. Considering how this just went down I’m thinking maybe we start out with exposure. Like cut someone again and just work on you not trying to kill them.”

MG sighed. It was a small thing. MG said he knew it wouldn’t be a quick thing, but it didn’t seem he realized how slow going it could be.

“Once you stop trying to kill someone over just a small drop of blood then we can work on getting you to control your drinking.”

A little while after their conversation Landon finally resurrected.

“Welcome back,” Hope said, barely sparing him a glance. Instead, she was focused on watching Hayley work with MG.

“I’m pretty sure I remember you fully being able to stop him,” Landon said, resurrected for less than ten seconds and he was already annoyed.

“I needed to see what we were dealing with.”

“How many times will I die this weekend?”

Hope didn’t answer, she just glanced at him again.

Landon sighed. “Great. I guess as long as it helps MG.”

They helped train MG the rest of the day. Hayley actually did more of the training than Hope, Hope felt more like an observer. Which she was fine with. Hayley was more experienced with the stuff, so she had no problem with letting her do her thing. They made it through the rest of the day without Landon dying again. There was a couple close calls but Hope actually stopped MG before he could kill Landon. They already knew what they were dealing with, and she didn’t have the patience to wait for Landon to resurrect every single time he was killed.

When it finally became night, and they stopped their training, MG and Landon decided to call it a night early and went to sleep in one of the tents. Apparently dying and almost killing your friend multiple times took a lot out of you. Hope opted to stay awake by the fire. She and Hayley would be sharing a tent but since Hope didn’t sleep anyway, she didn’t feel the need to lay in the tent and potentially keep Hayley awake with her restlessness.

Hope was using the fire as her light as she got to work in her sketch book again. She had had the other two recent monsters already done and was working on the headless horseman at the moment. As difficult as he was to kill, she had to admit she loved sketching him, he had so much detail. She was almost done with her sketch when she felt someone sit down on the log next to her. She didn’t need to look up to know it was Hayley.

“Can’t sleep?” Hope asked. “Not big on camping?”

“I’ll have you know I’ve spent my fair share of time camping,” Hayley said in mock offense. “I basically grew up in the mountains when I ran away from foster care. Then I found my family was part of a pack in New Orleans so when I’m not helping Alaric or out recruiting, I spend most of my time in the bayou.”

“Sounds nice. When I escaped and found Landon and Raf, we spent most of our times moving around the woods, searching for answers. We usually camped out; it was cheaper. Though occasionally we found an unoccupied cabin to break into.”

“Sounds rough.”

“Eh, it is what it is. We made it work.”

“So, Mystic Falls is the first real home you’ve had?”

Hope opened her mouth, but words didn’t come out. She had to take a minute to think of her answer. “Home in the sense it’s the first place I made friends and enrolled in school and tried to have a life.”

Hope didn’t look at Hayley, but she could feel her eyes on her. Hope could only stare at the fire as she continued, “Home as in home though, no, it’s not home. I’m not really sure what home is supposed to feel like. The only time I’ve felt like myself and like I belonged was with Landon.”

“Well home isn’t always a place. I live in New Orleans.” Hayley cleared her throat, averting her eyes from Hope and to the fire. “But it hasn’t felt like home in a long time. My family suffered a loss.” Hope could see Hayley swallow, she seemed to be holding back tears. “It fractured us, home hasn’t been the same since. I don’t think it will until the family is back together.” Hayley got quiet for a minute, staring at the fire but clearly in her head reliving whatever pain it was she suffered. “And that will never happen.”

“I’m sorry,” Hope whispered. She knew it wasn’t enough, but it was all she could offer.

“Sorry for getting all real there.” Hayley wiped at her eyes even though her tears had never fallen. “Lately it’s all just been fresh.”

“Is that what you saw, in your nightmare?”

Hayley’s jaw clenched. She didn’t look at Hope, just kept staring at the fire. She didn’t react in anyway really.

“I’m sorry,” Hope said quickly. “It’s none of my business. It’s not like I’ve told anyone about what I saw. I’m sorry. It’s just,” Hope looked up to the sky, it was clear, so the stars were visible, she always found peace looking up at the stars. “I have a feeling that even though we all experienced nightmares, you suffered worse than any of us.”

“Let’s just say,” Hayley spoke softly, it was practically a whisper. “I relived the worst day of my life. I never got over it, but I thought I learned how to move on. It’s kind of just thrown me back a bit.” Hayley stood up, wiping her eyes again. “I’m going to try and get some sleep, you should as well.” Hayley made her way back to the tent.

“I’m sorry,” Hope whispered again before Hayley entered the tent. She knew she had heard her. Hope didn’t turn around, but she knew Hayley hadn’t gone in the tent yet.

“It’s not your fault,” Hayley whispered back, then entered the tent.

Hope gave a sad smile. Despite what Hayley said she couldn’t help but blame herself. If it weren’t for her the monsters wouldn’t be attacking and Hayley and the others wouldn’t be suffering. If she had just run when Landon took the knife then no one else would be getting hurt, if she had just stayed in Triad maybe Landon would still be safe, maybe everyone would be safer.

Hope looked at her watch, she got up from her the log and made her way to the shared tent with Hayley. She might as well listen to her and try and get some sleep, they were all going to be waking up in a few hours anyway.

Hope was shortly woken up by a rustling outside the tent. She went to check it out, scanning the perimeter of the campsite. She saw nothing. She heard the rustling behind her and when she turned there was still nothing. She made her way closer to the woods, following the sound of the rustling.

“Help,” a voice came, it sounded further away.

Hopes head snapped in the direction the voice had come. It sounded like a woman. She thought they were the only ones out there, but it was possible someone else was camping, despite all the “animal” attacks there seemed to be a lot of people camping in Mystic Falls. She looked back at the campsite one more time before ultimately deciding to follow the voice. It wasn’t the smartest idea, but she was a tribrid, there wasn’t exactly anything scarier than her in the woods.

Hope kept following the voice, every time she paused the voice spoke again. It sounded the same distance as it did the first time. No matter how deep she went into the woods it didn’t seem she was getting any closer to the voice. The voice spoke again when Hope just stopped. She couldn’t see the campsite anymore and all around her was just trees and more trees. Her instincts were telling her to go back to the others.

Something darted between the trees in the shadows. Hope didn’t catch what. It was a white blur passing by in a matter of seconds. Hope was about to go towards it and see what was out there when she heard a scream. It wasn’t a woman’s scream though, it was Landon’s. Hope turned on her heel and took off in the direction the scream had come.

She switched from following the sound to following Landon’s scent. She wasn’t sure why but based on what she just experienced she wasn’t fully sure she could trust what she was hearing.

When she found Landon, he was lying on the ground like he had been knocked down, or knowing Landon he tripped, she saw Hayley seeming to have just arrived as well. Landon was not at the campsite, but he didn’t seem to have wandered super far from it. At least he didn’t wander as far as she had. When she turned to see what Landon was looking at, she saw nothing. She looked back at Landon then noticed his eyes were staring directly in front of him but up further. She looked up, following his line of site and saw it, a body, hanging from a tree.

“What the hell is going on?” Hayley asked. “I was sleeping until I heard someone scream.”

“Where the hell were you?” Landon shouted, stumbling to his feet, turning toward Hope, ignoring Hayley’s question.

“I thought I heard something; I was checking it out,” Hope explained. “What are you doing out here?”

“I thought I heard you scream.”

“I don’t scream.”

“Okay,” Hayley said stepping between the two. “Something is clearly going on.”

“Where’s MG?” Hope asked.

“I don’t know,” Landon answered. “When I got up, he was already gone. I figured he got up to use the bathroom or walk around or something. I don’t know, I was more focused on looking for you.” Landon gestured at Hope. “I swear I heard your voice.”

“I believe you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that thing I was checking out, I heard movement in the woods but then I heard someone asking for help. Every time I moved towards the voice though it just sounded further and further away.”

“Another monster?”

“Possibly, we’re outside of town, it’s possible it hasn’t set off the bracelet. But before anything we need to find MG.”

Hayley’s eyes snapped forward.

“What?” Hope asked.

“I smell blood,” Hayley answered.

“Well, there is a body strung up in the trees that looks like it was, to put it lightly, mutilated.”

“A lot more blood than that,” Hayley mumbled as she moved in the direction the smell was coming from.

Hope and Landon followed behind Hayley, they came to another clearing, another campsite. There was three tents set up and a fire pit. A few of the tents were shredded and there was blood everywhere. Hope didn’t see any bodies though.

All three of their eyes shot to the other side of the clearing when they heard something coming towards them. Hope and Hayley had their wolf eyes flashing, ready to attack, and Landon was standing behind them. It wasn’t a monster coming out of the woods though, or a civilian, it was MG, covered in blood.

“I know how this looks,” MG said slowly, hands raised in surrender. “It’s not what you think.”

“Yeah?” Hope asked, sarcasm dripping into her voice.

“I didn’t kill anyone.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.”

Hope rolled her eyes.

“I mean it,” MG said again, the desperation evident in his voice. “I woke up and I heard some noises. I went to check it out and the camp site was already like this. I was going to come back to you guys, but I heard someone scream, I ran to it. I found a girl on the ground bleeding. I went to help her when something knocked me on my feet. When I got up again, she was still there but when I got to her body, she was already dead.”

“Show us,” Hayley said. She gave a look saying to just go with it, they didn’t need any unnecessary fighting at the moment.

MG lead them the way he had come but when they arrived where he claimed to have seen the girl there was nothing. The ground was disturbed, there had clearly been a struggle of some kind but there was no body. There was blood though. Landon held his flashlight up towards the trees looking around.

“What are you doing?” Hope asked.

“Well, the dude back there was strung up,” was all Landon said.

Hope rolled her eyes. “Where’s this body?”

“I-I-I don’t know!” MG said, he looked all around the area, searching for what he had seen. “She was right here. She was dead.” He gestured to the spot he claimed to have found the body.

Hope was done talking, she walked over to MG and punched him, knocking him out. Maybe he didn’t kill anyone or maybe he did. Maybe there was an unknown monster out there with them. They had no idea but if there was even the slightest chance MG did go all ripper then they couldn’t take the chance. He had to be contained.

Hayley didn’t question Hopes decision, she just sighed. She helped carry MG’s body back to the campsite. She also helped wrap him to a tree with the chains she brought while Hope held him up. His head slumped to the side still knocked out but otherwise he was fine.

Hope pulled out her phone, dialing the only person she could think of.

“Hello,” came a sleepy voice. Hope smiled at it. Josie really wasn’t a morning person, but she always answered.

“Hey, we have a problem,” Hope said, getting right to the point.

“What? What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Josie sounded fully awake after that.

“A couple campers were killed.”

“Oh my god,” Josie whispered. “Was it…”

“I don’t know,” Hope answered honestly. “Either that or there’s a monster out here. I don’t even know how many are dead.”

“What do you need me to do?”

“I-I don’t know.” Hope sighed. “Sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s okay, keep me updated, yeah?”

“Yeah, night.”

“Night.”

Hope hung up and walked back over to Hayley and Landon.

“What’s the plan?” Landon asked.

“The sun will be up soon, let’s head back to the site, investigate what might have happened.”

“I’ll go with you,” Hayley said. “Landon stay here and watch MG.”

Hope and Hayley made their way back to the other campsite. The sun was just starting to come up as they walked around investigating the scene. There were blood splatters throughout the camp, there was stuff knocked over and clear signs of a struggle. The tents and sleeping bags had deep scratches throughout. It was definitely overkill if it was MG.

“How didn’t we hear this?” Hayley asked. “We aren’t that far from where we are at. I mean I get how they wouldn’t hear us, but you and I should have heard an attack.”

“Yeah,” Hope said, crouching down trying to see if there were any prints. “That’s weird. I mean I heard someone yelling for help and maybe it was one of the campers but maybe not. I don’t know, something wasn’t right about the whole thing.”           

“And around the same time Landon thought he heard you scream. Maybe it was a distraction? Lure us away and then whatever attacks the campers?”

“That means whatever this is, is incredibly fast or there’s multiples.”

“And if there is multiples they work as a team.”

“Is it bad I’m kind of hoping MG just lost it?” Hope mumbled.

Hayley nodded her head. As horrible as it sounded if MG did kill the campers, it would be a lot easier to deal with than whatever it might actually be.

“Let’s go check out that body in the tree.”

When they got to the body up in the tree, they were able to get a better look at it in the daylight. It wasn’t strung up by anything, it was just impaled on one of the branches a good amount of the way up.

“So, is this thing tall? Did it throw the body? Did it climb up the tree to have a snack for later?” Hayley wondered aloud.

“Either way I’m not liking it. All besides the it’s really tall one indicate this thing is strong, I mean could you do that?” Hope asked, point up to the body.

“I think that’s a little much, even for me.”

“So, should I just climb up there and toss him down?”

“I’m not sure how you’d get up there.”

Instead of replying Hope just started climbing. She swung and jumped from branch to branch making her way up the tree effortlessly. Finally, she swung up high enough to gracefully land on the branch impaling the body. She looked down at Hayley to see the hybrid staring up at her mouth agape.

“Okay, stand back,” Hope called down.

She wrapped her legs around the branch to make sure she didn’t fall and pushed the body off the branch. Even with her strength it was a little difficult. It was hard to get a good angle but also the branch was deep, whatever did this to the camper, really made sure he wasn’t going anywhere. She finally got the body off the branch, and it fell to the ground with a loud thud. Hope nodded pretty proud of herself.

“Now, just careful coming down,” Hayley said, not looking up at Hope but at the body that was now on the ground.

Hope flipped over the branch she was sitting on and dropped to the ground, landing in a crouching position but still on her feet.

“That was like 30-feet,” was all Hayley said.

“What do we got?” Hope asked, making her way over to Hayley and the body.

“Similar to the campsite. This guy was completely shredded. I can’t think of a single animal that can do this.”

“Oh god,” Hope said, covering her nose for a second. “Do you smell that? It’s like death.”

“Well, it is a dead body.”

“No, you know what I mean. This is like been dead for a long-time type of smell.”

“Yeah,” Hayley sighed. “He’s way to fresh to be smelling this bad already.”

Hope got down closer to exam the slashes across the camper. “These don’t look like normal slash marks.”

Hayley bent down next to her to get a better look. “You’re right. Yes, he has slashes, but these ones across his stomach are different. They’re almost perfect, like the flesh was peeled off him, in strips.”

“I have a feeling I’m not going to like this.”

“Let’s head back, MG is probably a wake by now.”

They made their way back to the campsite. MG was awake like Hayley thought. While Hayley went to talk to him Hope decided to call Josie again.

“Hey,” Josie answered, much more awake than the first time.

“Hey,” Hope said. “Did I wake you again?”

“As if I was able to go back to sleep after your call.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, hey, it’s fine. What’s up?”

“I definitely think we’re dealing with a monster.”

“Thank god,” Josie let out in a breath. “What do you got?”

Hope relayed all the information she could to Josie. She told her about the voices they heard, the campsite, the strips of flesh missing, and the smell.

“Got it, I’ll let you know what we find,” Josie said, ending the call.

Hope went over to join the others. “Alright, Josie is on it. I think we should go back to where he said he saw the girl. See if we pick up anything with light. Maybe there’s a trail or something.”

Hayley nodded. They left MG chained to the tree still just in case. Hope gave Landon the key in case he needed it, or something happened but warned him only if it was necessary. Just because they were most likely dealing with a monster or multiples didn’t mean MG wasn’t still a threat.

Hope and Hayley made it to the spot MG had said he found the girl. It wasn’t much different in the day. When Hope bent down to get a look at where the body was said to have been and where there was the biggest disturbance in the land, she saw drag marks.

“Hey, it looks like something dragged her away,” Hope said.

“And she was alive,” Hayley said, seeing the same thing. “At least for a moment if these scratch marks are any indication. Those aren’t from our monster, they’re from someone clawing for their life.

Hope and Hayley followed the drag marks as far as they could before they disappeared. Hope looked around at their surroundings. If the drag marks ended, then there was a chance the body was left close by or maybe the monster’s hiding spot was close by.

“There,” Hope said, pointing to a cave on the side of a mountain.

“Think this is a good idea?” Hayley asked as they approached the mouth of the cave.

“Probably not.”

They stepped into the cave and were instantly hit with the same smell from the body just ten times stronger. Hope had to blink a few times; the smell was making her eyes water. If it was a question before it wasn’t anymore, the smell was rotting flesh. The campers hadn’t even been dead 24-hours, Hope wasn’t sure what was causing such a rancid smell.

They made their way further into the cave. Both of them had their mouths and noses covered. Hope finally stopped when she kicked something on the cave floor. She looked down to see a body of a girl, most likely the same girl MG had seen.

Hope got down next to the girl. She had the same wounds as the guy hanging from the tree. She lifted up the girl’s shirt slightly to reveal her stomach. The same marks were on the girl. Whatever the monster was peeled away strips of her flesh.

Hope heard a whisper at the back of the cave. When she looked up, she couldn’t see anything. The cave still went deeper though. She glanced at Hayley to see her looking in the same spot, clearly having heard the voice. They heard it again, a small voice asking for help, just like Hope had heard in the woods. Instead of walking towards the voice though Hope took a step back. Hayley grabbed her and pulled her back, making sure they made their way out of the cave and not further in. Hope didn’t need Hayley’s encouragement to leave, she didn’t want to face whatever was down there in such close quarters especially when she had no idea what it was.

They made their way back to their campsite to see not only Landon and MG but Josie as well.

“What are you doing here?” Hope asked. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy to see Josie, she was, but her being there was concerning.

“We think we know what you’re dealing with,” Josie answered. “I tried calling but you didn’t pick up, I got worried.”

“Guess the cave didn’t have service.”

“What did you find?” Landon asked, coming to stand by them, leaving MG alone, chained to the tree.

“We found your dead girl,” Hope answered, looking towards MG.

“She died the same way as our camper in the tree,” Hayley added.

“There was also something else.” Hope knit her eyebrows thinking back to the cave. “I heard it again, the voice. It was whispering for help, again.”

“Like it was trying to draw us further into the cave.”

“That matches with what we think it is,” Josie chimed in. Hope tilted her head in question. “We think it’s a wendigo.”

“A wendigo?” MG asked. They all turned to look at the boy still chained to a tree. Despite his predicament he smiled and tried to wave.

“Yeah.” The group turned their attention back to Josie. “They’re nocturnal, said to live in the mountains, they’re tall, fast, strong, like insanely so, and they eat human flesh.”

“Yep, that quite literally checks all the boxes of what we found,” Hope said.

“There’s more.” Hope sighed but nodded for Josie to continue. “They used to be human.”

“How?” Landon asked.

“Legend says they were human until they ate human flesh.”

“Oh god,” Landon whispered. “Cannibals. We’re dealing with fucking cannibals.”

“Calm down,” Hope said.

“No! I will not calm down. I am not being eaten again!”

“Again?” MG and Josie asked at the same time.

“How do we kill this thing?” Hope asked, ignoring their question.

“I don’t know,” Josie answered. “We hadn’t found that yet.”

“Okay, until we know how to kill it, we stick together,” Hayley said. “No one leaves the camp. This thing impaled a guy over 30-feet in a tree, it’s killed who knows how many campers.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “Also, unchain MG, it’s safe to assume he’s clear.”

Landon went over to unchain MG. Then joined the others around the campfire they still had going. Hope sat next to Josie on one log, MG and Landon took another log, and Hayley sat across from them. They tried to keep the mood lighthearted listening to MG and Landon talk about superheroes and movies, but it was a little difficult with knowing there was a cannibalistic monster out there.

Shortly after night fell the conversation died down. They knew what was coming.

A small whisper of help came from the darkness in the woods. MG shined his flashlight in the direction, but they saw nothing. Hope and Josie spun around quickly, hearing it behind them. They all started spinning back and forth, not knowing what direction to face.

“Where is it?” Landon shouted.

“It’s moving too fast,” MG said. “It’s like it’s everywhere.”

Then Hope heard it. She heard the voice behind her like before, but she also heard it from across the way.

“There’s multiple,” Hayley said, coming to the same conclusion.

“Circle formation,” Hope ordered. “We need to cover all directions.

They all circled up. Hayley had her eyes glowing, ready for a fight, MG was bouncing up and down but otherwise seemed ready, Landon had a stick, Hope was once again not sure how a stick would be useful to them and Hope grabbed Josie’s hand allowing her to siphon so she could be all charged up.

A phone started ringing, breaking everyone out of their trance slightly. Hope looked around until she saw Josie reaching into her pocket.

“Hello,” Josie whispered harshly. “Lizzie this isn’t really a good time.” She didn’t hang up though, she nodded along to whatever her sister was telling her. Hope could have eased dropped but she thought that would be rude. “Love you, bye.” Josie hung up, slipping the phone back into her pocket.

Hope raised her eyebrows in question.

“Fire,” Josie said. “Fire is how we kill it. Lizzie also said these things could be solo hunters but liked working together, similar to a pack.”

“Fire,” Hope said.

“Fire.”

“Good thing we have an expert in that department,” she whispered so only Josie would hear, smirking. She caught Josie trying to hide her smile.

Something shot out of the woods in a blur. They heard MG scream, when they turned to him, they saw him on the ground, clutching his stomach. Hope ran over to him, when she moved his hand, she saw the wendigo had sliced him in the stomach. MG swallowed a few more screams, shaking from the pain until the wound healed.

Hope caught movement out of the side of her eye, a white blur. Hope left MG’s side, grabbing a log from the fire and jumping in front of Josie, holding the torch she now carried in front of her. The white blur came to a sudden stop at the sight of the flame.

Hopes eyes widened, she could feel Josie take a step back. The wendigo was pale, practically white, it was tall and skinny, but she could see the muscles. Hope understood at that moment how one of those creatures could fling a grown man 30-feet into the air, impaling him on a tree. The head was smooth, it’s eyes wide and black, the teeth razor sharp, Hope imagined perfect for tearing into human flesh.

The creature shrieked at them; its eyes didn’t leave the fire. While it was distracted Hope did a spell, flinging the creature back into a tree. It recovered almost instantly, flipping itself over so it was crawling on all fours, screeching again. Hope tossed the torch where the monster was, it threw it self-back, standing up on its two legs again. Before It could back away from the fire Hope did another spell, controlling the fire from the torch, expanding it up until it completely engulfed the creature.

The creature stumbled around, swinging its arms, screeching as it tried to get away from the fire. It took a few steps towards them. The entire group stepped back, keeping their focus on the monster in case they still needed to attack. It’s stumbling slowed, until the screams finally died, collapsing to the ground. As soon as its body hit the ground the fire died, just leaving the singed corpse.

While they were distracted by the burning of the body the other wendigo shot out of the woods, snatching Landon, and dragging him into the darkness.

“Landon!” Hope screamed. She took off after him, not caring that she was leaving the fire and everyone else behind.

“Hope!” Hayley shouted after her.

She chased after the monster until it crossed a threshold, lighting up the sky in a blinding white light. Hope slid to a stop, sticking to the shadows, using her arm to block the light. The others chasing after her came to a stop a few steps behind. When Josie moved to go forward, Hope held at her arm blocking her path.

There were several lights scattered on the ground, forming a circle. Bright enough to light the area as if it were day. The monster not knowing the difference between the lights and sunlight, dropped Landon, holding up its hands to block the light, its head spinning around, searching for darkness to escape back to.

“Light it up!” a male voice shouted from the trees.

Seconds later shots were fired. Bullets bounced off the creature. It dropped its arms and screeched at its attackers. Landon took the opportunity and ran, running in a crouch position, covering his head as the bullets flew through the air.

“Who are these guys?” MG whispered.

“Triad,” Hope and Landon said at the same time. Landon’s voice held fear while Hopes was more somber.

The soldiers stopped their firing as two agents moved forward, locking a collar around the creature. It screeched and flung its arms, throwing the soldiers across the sky effortlessly. One soldier crashed to the ground with a groan while the other was flung into a tree killing him instantly.

“Contain it!” The same soldier ordered.

More soldier moved forward, one grabbed the pole connected to the collar while the others locked up its arms and legs. The cuffs on the legs had just enough space for it to take small steps. The person holding the pole connected to the collar kept in place while the other backed away, allowing the other soldiers to come forward zapping it with their electric batons. The same kind they use to torture Hope with.

They tried pushing the monster towards a metal box. A containment box, they used them to capture monsters and bring them back to the base. Their goals weren’t always to kill the monster, usually they were to capture them, sometimes to toss them back into Malivore, most of the time to bring them back to the lab and study them. Hope didn’t want to try imagining what Triad would do if they started to experiment on the wendigo.

The wendigo freaked out again, breaking the restraints on its wrists, then ripping off the ones on its ankles. It spun around gripping the pole the agent was holding, ripping it towards itself. When the soldier got in arms reach it shoved its claws into the man’s chest, lifting him high above his head.

It dropped the soldiers’ body, speeding over to it and giving another slice down the man’s chest and stomach. It shoved its entire face into the ripped flesh and began eating. The soldiers had started firing upon it again which the creature ignore, continuing on with its meal. When the soldiers stopped firing the monster looked up, blood and flesh dripping from its mouth. The creature let out a loud screech again, holding its arms out wide as it was about to attack.

“Eliminate it,” the same soldier commanded, speaking lowly, Hope only heard because of her wolf hearing.

Multiple agents threw Molotov cocktails at the creature. The first one hit right in front of the monster, causing it to back up, then the others followed, encircling the monster in a ring of fire. Finally, one of the cocktails smashed against its back, the creature howled in pain, turning to face the direction it had come. Another Molotov was thrown, nailing the creature in the chest. The monster flailed around just like the other had until it finally collapsed dead. They agents moved in; guns still drawn as they put the rest of the fire out.

When they confirmed it was dead the other agents moved in. They brought a board to lift the body and take it back to Triad. Just because it was dead didn’t mean Triad wouldn’t still be researching it. As a group of agents loaded it on to the board another scraped samplings off into a tube.

“We need to go,” Hope whispered, slowly backing up, pushing the others to follow.

A branch cracked under someone’s foot. All the agents whipped around, training their lights and guns on the group. Everyone froze, Hope wasn’t even sure she could hear any of them breathing. The agent in charge stepped out of the shadows. Hope could see his smirk in the light as he looked at her and Landon.

“Well, well, well,” he said, “if it isn’t my lucky day. The escapees. Get them.”

“MG make sure Landon gets out of here,” Hope said, not bothering to look at them. She didn’t hear any movement, so she flicked a glance behind her. “Go!”

She heard the start of Landon’s protest before MG picked him up and sped off. As long as Landon got away everything was fine. The agents started to circle the others. Hope rushed them, knocking them all to the ground as they approached.

“You need to run,” Hope said to Josie.

“No!” Josie said. “I’m not going to leave you.”

“Go! Please,” Hope begged.

The agents were moving again but Hayley was fighting them off, she tossed them around like they were nothing. Multiple agents crowded around her, zapping her with their batons. Despite her being a hybrid, she could only take so much. Those batons were specially designed to neutralize werewolves and vampires, there was a high possibility there level went high enough to take down a hybrid.

“Go!” Hope said one more time, pleading with her to leave. Landon was safe now all she needed was to know Josie was safe. Josie opened her mouth to argue again but nothing came out. She stared into Hopes eyes another moment before nodding, taking off in the direction MG had run.

When Hope turned back to face the agents she saw them still shocking Hayley, there was one agent injecting her with some sort of needle, odds were it was vervain or wolfsbane, most likely both. Triad didn’t have need for both often, but Hope knew they kept doses of a mixture of both, they used them on her plenty of times.

Hope rushed forward flinging the agents off of Hayley. When she got all the agents off her, she threw Hayley’s arm around her neck and ran her to a tree where she would be out of the fight. She gently laid her against the tree, Hayley was still conscious but just barely. They had definitely injected her with wolfsbane and vervain.

Hope heard the agents cock their guns. Her eyes shot to them, seeing several of them aiming at her. She ran forward, grabbing the first agents’ gun before he ever had the chance to fire, ripping it out of his hand and whipping it across his head. She did the same to a few other agents. She stopped in front of one, ripping it out of his hand and snapping it in half, Hope took the side with the barrel and threw it at the agent across the way, impaling him in the neck.

There was only a handful of agents left. Hope stood in the middle waiting for them to approach her. She allowed them to try in hand-to-hand combat but only for a second before easily turning them around and snapping their neck. She ripped out a couple of their throats, leaving them on the ground, choking on their own blood.

When she got to the last agent, the agent in charge, she took her time. He tried firing at her, but she easily ripped the shot gun from his hands, tossing it against a tree. He pulled out a pistol and tried firing at her again. She smirked before once again taking it from his hand and whipping it across his face, not hard enough to kill him like the other guys though. He stumbled back, wiping the blood from his mouth before pulling a knife.

He went at her again, slashing the knife. He missed every time. When she finally got done playing with him, on his last slash she stopped his arm mid swing, holding it as she used her other hands to grab him by the shirt and slam him to the ground. She squeezed his wrist until she heard it snap, causing him to drop the knife. She put pressure on his chest, pushing harder and harder, listening to his ribs crack, until he started to cough up blood.

“More will come,” the agent gurgled out, coughing up more blood.

“Then I guess I’ll have to make my message clear,” Hope said coldly.

Hope lessened the pressure on the agent’s chest just slightly, allowing him to gasp for the breath he could now take. His breathing was erratic, he was struggling to calm down, considering his ribs were broken. Hope looked at him for another second.

“How disappointing,” she whispered. He was considered one of Triads tops agents and yet he got beat without her even breaking a sweat, it was pathetic.

Hope brought her hand back down on his chest fast with as much force as she could. She heard his bones snap. She stared him in the eye, seeing the life leave as soon as she hit his chest, the dribble of blood still spilling out of his mouth. She smiled, letting out a dark chuckle.

She stood up, wiping her hands on her pants. She heard someone gasp, she snapped her head towards the noise and saw Josie, standing there at the edge of the trees. She was staring mouth agape at the scene before her, Hope the only one left standing, surrounded by bodies of people she had killed. Standing before the body of a man whose death she had dragged out, just for her pure enjoyment.

“I thought I told you to run,” Hope said, monotone. Josie just saw her as the monster she truly was, she was a monster again.

“I was,” Josie started, her voice catching. “I was worried about you.”

“I told you I wasn’t the hero,” Hope said bitterly, the self-hatred slipping into her voice. She kept her gaze hard as she looked at Josie before taking off in a blink, refusing to stick around and see the shock leave Josie’s face and be replaced with hatred and fear everyone eventually felt when it came to her existence.

Chapter Text

Josie woke up to her alarm blaring. She had another restless sleep. She hadn’t slept well in over a week, not since that night. She pulled herself out of bed, throwing on clothes and doing her hair so she looked presentable enough but not really caring otherwise. She hated having to go to class, she couldn’t focus on anything. No matter what time of day, no matter whether she was awake or asleep her mind always went back to one thing, Hope.

She had run away like Hope had told her to. She knew Triad was dangerous based on everything Hope and Landon had said about them, based on how they acted when talking about Triad. That was also why she turned around. She ran back to the fight because she couldn’t stand the thought of Triad getting Hope again, she knew how much they had hurt her, and she wouldn’t let that happen again.

When she got back to Hope and Hayley, she saw Hayley out of it lying against a tree and Hope fighting. If she could even call it fighting, it was hardly a fight. It was more like Hope playing a game, a game she knew she would win. She toyed with the agents before killing them. She honestly looked slightly bored as she did it. Josie knew Hope was good but none of the soldiers ever got a shot off before Hope got to them. She just made her way through the team, slaughtering each and every one of them.

When Hope got to the last agent, she couldn’t hear what she was saying to him, but she saw it all. She saw her allow him to pull a gun then a knife. She saw her allow him to try fighting even though he ultimately would fail. Hope flipped him over, pinning him to the ground, keeping her hand on his chest, just like she had done with Jed. Unlike with Jed though Hope didn’t let up, she kept adding pressure to the agent. She watched as she released her hand just enough to let the man speak, after he was done, she said something to him before pushing her hand back into his chest with even more force. She may not have heard the conversation that occurred, but she certainly heard the breaking of the guy’s bones.

Josie couldn’t help the gasp leave her lips as Hope stood up, getting a full view of the carnage surrounding the other girl, who didn’t even have a scratch on her. Hope whipped her head around staring at Josie. Josie could barely speak when Hope spoke to her. Hope’s eyes held no remorse for what she had done. Josie could tell the girl was trying to keep up an emotionless façade though, not because of the dead bodies though, she didn’t think Hope felt any guilt killing those men.

The last words Hope said to her was telling her she wasn’t a hero and then took off. Josie hadn’t seen Hope since. Josie had called and texted and had done everything short of going to the girl’s place. Hope was ignoring her. Josie even tried talking to Landon and Rafael, but they couldn’t tell her anything. Landon had clearly been in contact with her because he told Josie to give her time, that she’d come around, but Rafael hadn’t spoken to her at all. She tried fishing for answers with Hayley, but the hybrid wasn’t budging. Josie wasn’t sure if Hayley had talked to Hope at all or not, either way she wasn’t giving anything away, she told her the same thing as Landon, just give her time.

The only solid info she got was that the bodies were taken care of. Josie didn’t know how, and she didn’t really question it. She didn’t hear anything about a bunch of bodies being discovered so she figured Hope buried them or got rid of them in some way. Josie knew the Triad agent’s bodies were definitely gone and it wouldn’t be good for the sheriff to have found them. She also figured the campers bodies were gotten rid of as well since she heard no reports and the way they died would have definitely raised suspicion. Part of her was curious but the other part of her really didn’t want to know how Hope got rid of all the evidence.

Josie knew why Hope was avoiding her. The thing was Hope didn’t need to avoid her. Josie didn’t see her any differently. Was she a little caught off guard by seeing Hope smile at killing the agent? Of course she was, but that didn’t mean anything. Triad tortured her if anyone had the right to enjoy killing them it was Hope. She already knew Hope had questionable morals, but she wasn’t a bad person. Considering how Hope was raised Josie would argue Hope turned out pretty well. She just needed to talk with Hope. She needed to make sure Hope knew nothing had changed.

The only good news from the last week was that there hadn’t been anymore monster attacks. That was one less thing for Josie to not have to pretend to focus on. The lack of a new monster did raise her suspicions though. Whenever her mind drifted from Hope to the monsters, she started theorizing about why there was no new monster, which always circled back to Hope because there was only three possible answers. One there was a new monster, but Hope has been keeping it secret or quickly took care of it without causing a scene, two something very bad was about to happen and Malivore was waiting to send whatever new horror he had come up with, or three there wasn’t a new monster because the old one wasn’t gone yet.

Josie made her way to breakfast, grabbing a seat at their usual table. Landon was the only one there at the moment. Landon nodded and whispered morning, Josie did the same then Landon went back to his cereal. Even though he had talked to Hope Josie got the feeling Hope wasn’t talking as much to him as she usually did. He was also still on edge, always looking over his shoulder for Triad. Hope killed an entire team of agents, there was certainly going to be consequences for that and all they could do was wait.

“Do you-”

“Hope still hasn’t said anything to me,” Landon cut her off. “A lot happened. I know Hope, she’ll talk to you eventually.”

“No,” Josie said, shaking her head. “It’s not about that.” Yes, she wanted to speak to Hope but Landon had said that to her a hundred times now, she’s stopped asking him for updates. “Do you know of any new monsters?”

Landon tilted his head, clearly thinking about it. “No, there’s been nothing since that night.”

“So, Hope hasn’t gotten any notifications? She’s not out there fighting them on her own to avoid me?”

A small smile spread across Landon’s face, and he let out a light chuckle. It made Josie smile as well, Landon had a way of lightening the mood in almost any situation and it was nice to see him smile again, he hadn’t since that night.

“No,” Landon said, still with the small smile. “Trust me, that’s a very Hope thing to do but she still would have mentioned something. There’s been nothing.” His eyebrows knit in confusion, finally coming to the same conclusion as Josie, no new monster was weird.

“Any chance there was more than two wendigos?”

“Shit,” Landon whispered. “We need to find out.”

Before Josie could speak the bell rang. She rolled her eyes and Landon sighed.

“Guess we’ll pick this up after class?” Josie asked as they made their way into the hall and to their first class of the day.

“Yeah, I’ll message Hope again, see if she’s heard anything.”

Josie wasn’t sure if the day went by fast or slow. Once again, she got to class and got completely lost in her mind, thinking about Hope. She moved through her classes like a reflex, knowing where she needed to go next but not knowing what was being talked about. When she finally got Hope to talk to her again, she’d have to convince the girl to help her study since surely her grades would be suffering after the past week, she really hoped she wasn’t given any surprise tests.

When the final bell rang Josie grabbed her stuff and sprinted out the door before anyone else was even out of their seats. She rushed to the library and saw Landon wasn’t there yet. She didn’t have to wait too long before Landon burst through the doors, panting.

“Did you hear anything?” Josie asked.

Landon held up his finger. He was breathing heavy trying to get it back to normal. Josie knew Landon wasn’t active but all he did was run from his last class. She was finally understanding why Hope wouldn’t train him.

“Nothing from Hope,” he said, still gasping.

“Really?” Josie was honestly surprised by that. If anyone would know if something were still running around the woods it would be Hope, she was always the first to know.

“Well, I wasn’t able to get a hold of her.” Josie raised her eyebrows at that. “She’s probably just at work. Until then let’s do this the old fashion way.”

Landon sat down at one of the desks, pulling out his laptop. Josie sighed but leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. He went to the most recent news for the town, scrolling past all the unimportant stuff and town events. Her mother was always a big part of all the town events, Josie wasn’t sure how, there were so many.

They did pass an article from the previous week talking about a group of missing campers. Josie knew it was the campers that died but according to the article there was no leads. The cops went out to the spot they had been, and the campsite was gone, there was only evidence of their stay from the fire pit. It seemed they were assuming they just left and weren’t back home yet or something since there was no evidence of a struggle. They finally got to a news article from two days prior.

“Look at this,” Landon said, clicking on the article.

It took them to an article with a video. When Landon hit play it showed sheriff Machado on camera outside of the sheriff station. She was talking to a news reporter about a body found in the woods. She didn’t say the details of the crime but there was a body of a girl found in the woods not too far from the campsite they had been staying at. The sheriff was calling it some sort of animal attack based on the wounds, she also mentioned that the girl was camping with her boyfriend, and he still hadn’t been found.

“I don’t think we need Maya to get us the medical files to know this is another wendigo,” Josie said.

“Yeah, guess there was another.”

“How do we know it’s not two or three more?”

“We don’t,” Landon sighed. “I think it’s only one though. We killed one then Triad showed up and killed a second. I think there was a third and it was smart enough to run away.”

“Great, what do we do?”

“This is usually a Hope thing. We know how to kill it now and we know it’s nocturnal. We don’t have any kind of powers.” Landon stopped speaking as Josie glared at him from that comment. “I mean we don’t have any tracking powers. Unless you can do a spell to locate it?”

“No,” Josie sighed. “I would need something of its and even if I could track it, we probably shouldn’t go after it alone.”

A few hours passed and they just focused on doing homework. When it got late enough Landon checked his phone, his brow was furrowed from whatever he saw.

“Hope?” Josie asked. She knew the girl worked a lot but her not responding to Landon for so long was weird.

“Still no answer.” Landon’s jaw clenched, he was worried about his friend and there was probably a thousand things going through his mind. “I’m sure she’s fine, she’ll text me when she can.”

They did homework and studied for a little while longer before Landon finally closed his book and went back to his room. It was just after midnight and a weekday, so they had been the only ones in the library. They had decided to call it a night and Josie had packed up her stuff along with Landon but unlike him she had no intention of going back to her room. She was going to go monster hunting.

Monster hunting was probably not the right choice of words, it was more like Hope hunting. Hope always responded especially to Landon and especially when things were so on edge for them. There was no way Hope was ignoring Landon’s text when Triad had just been in town. Hope probably couldn’t respond because she probably didn’t have cell service just like she didn’t have service when she and Hayley went to the cave. Hope had to know there was still another monster out there especially after her best friend’s mom, the sheriff, found another body killed the exact same way.

Josie didn’t have anything of the monsters to track it, and technically she couldn’t track Hope because of her blocking spells because of Triad. She did have Hopes number though which meant she could track her that way and wherever Hope was, was also where the monster would be. She just hoped that she’d find Hope first. She didn’t want to run into a wendigo alone. In case she did run into the wendigo first though Josie decided to charge up, she was not going to get stuck walking through the woods alone again without any magic. Two times was more than enough, and she refused to let it happen again.

Josie moved through the woods using her phone as a flashlight and trying to track Hopes phone. Since they were in the middle of the woods, she wasn’t getting the best signal, it just gave her the general area, which happened to be close to where they originally ran into the creatures. Josie pulled her hoodie closer, it was chilly, or maybe she was just on edge. Every little sound made her jump and look in that direction. She wasn’t hearing whispering voices, so she was going to put that down as a plus.

The tracking app lost signal eventually so Josie decided to make her own way. She seemed to have a habit for running into trouble while she was alone in the woods. Just like Hope had a habit of always appearing out of nowhere and saving her from whatever big scary thing was chasing her. It wasn’t the best plan considering the monster that was out there with her was incredibly fast and strong and ate human flesh, but it was kind of the only plan she had.

Josie sighed in frustration. She had been out walking around for over an hour and nothing. The one time she actually wanted something to try and kill her so Hope could come and save her so she could then yell at Hope for ignoring her and nothing was happening. She wondered if starting a small fire would draw Hopes attention.

That thought was abruptly cut off when she heard a loud screech ahead of her. She couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face, there was a monster in the woods. She should probably be happy the monster interrupted her from considering becoming an arsonist. She ran towards the screeching, mentally telling herself she could totally handle what she was about to stumble upon.

Josie ran full speed in the direction the screech came from. She kept running until she slid to a stop, balancing herself before she could fall. Standing before her was Hope but she wasn’t looking at Josie, she was looked around the trees. Hope sent a blast of fire at one tree setting it ablaze, there was another loud screech from across the fire. That’s when Josie noticed it, the wendigo was in the trees, jumping from tree to tree, she didn’t see it until the fire illuminated it.

Hope sent another blast at the tree the creature was in, but it quickly jumped to the next before it could be hit. Right after jumping to safety, it jumped to the ground, speeding across the way, knocking Hope off her feet. Hope just as quickly recovered and was on her feet in a fighting stance ready to face the monster. The wendigo stood before her tall, lean, sunken black eyes, razor sharp teeth, and claws swiping at her.

Hope dodged every attack from the monster she was just waiting for an opening to where she could use her spell again. The monster swiped and Hope was about to attack but Josie stepped in. She did one of her favorite fire spells, a wave of fire shot out of her hand, engulfing the wendigo. Like the other two before, it wailed and flailed about, before finally collapsing dead.

Hope said a spell, causing storm clouds to roll above the two trees she had set on fire, letting the rain fall before the fire could spread. To say Josie was impressed was an understatement. She and Hope had gone over many elemental spells, but she had never done anything with controlling the weather, not even in school. She knew it took a lot of power, some witches also frowned upon it, saying controlling nature was, well against nature.

“What are you doing here?” Hope asked. Josie could tell she was trying to be emotionless again, close herself off.

“I was looking for you,” Josie answered honestly.

“It’s dangerous in the woods, monsters always lurking.”

“Yeah, the lack of a new monster had me and Landon suspecting there was still one out there. Was this the last one?”

“Yes, I haven’t found any evidence indicating there was more than three. This wasn’t the monster I was referring to though.”

“No. Okay, you need stop with that right now,” Josie snapped. Apparently as much as she missed Hope she was also incredibly pissed off at her.

Hope took a step back at Josie’s tone, clearly not having expected the girl to yell at her. She opened her mouth to say something, but Josie wasn’t done yet.

“I have been trying to get a hold of you for over a week. You’ve been ignoring me, and I don’t know why.” Hope went to open her mouth again, but Josie continued on. “Actually, I do know why. It’s just a stupid reason. Get over yourself. You aren’t the bad guy. You aren’t some monster that needs to stay away from me and everyone.”

“Did you not see what I did?” Hope snapped, emotion finally dripping into her voice. “I slaughtered that team of agents.”

“There was no other way, they would have come after you and Landon,” Josie tried to reason. She just needed Hope to see she didn’t do anything wrong.

“I enjoyed it,” Hope said without sympathy. A smirk appearing on her face but not the flirty smirk she always gave Josie, a vicious unforgiving smirk. “I killed them to protect Landon but also because I wanted to. I killed them because I got pleasure in taking their lives.”

Josie swallowed, thinking about what she was about to say. “Considering everything they did you, no one can blame you for that. No one can hold it against you.”

“Your father would. Doesn’t matter what my reasons are or what my history is, that night proved everything he’s been saying about me. I’m dangerous.”

“My father is a hypocrite!” Josie yelled. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “You’re right, you are dangerous.” Even though those were Hopes words she had a hurt expression as Josie saying them. “But you’re also kind and good. You have no reason to be, but you are. You were cruel to the ones who hurt you and hurt others, but you aren’t to innocent people.”

“I’ve hurt people before,” Hope whispered.

“I know you don’t see yourself as a hero, but I promise you, you aren’t the villain. And you’re my hero,” Josie’s voice got small on the last part, she avoided eye contact and moved her hair to cover her reddening cheeks. “You’ve saved my life and so much more, to many times to count already.”

“Thank you, I don’t believe you, but thank you,” Hopes voice was back to being sweet and sincere, the same voice Josie had come to know.

“I know, don’t worry I’ll keep reminding you.”

“May I walk you back to the school?”

“Well, it is the least you could do, I came out here for you, I saved your life, and last time you kind of just left,” Josie joked.

“Yeah, I’m sorry about that,” Hope said through her laughter.

“It’s okay, guess you’ll just have to make it up to me. You also owe me a couple training sessions.”

“Guess I got my work cut out for me.”

Hope smiled as she gestured for Josie to lead the way. Josie happily obliged. Hope soon followed into step beside her. Josie knew Hope wasn’t still completely at ease with what happened, but she was no longer avoiding Josie, so it was a start. Josie was happy despite everything that happened the past week she and Hope were still able to fall into a comfortable silence walking back to the school.

Chapter Text

Hope was at work, helping out behind the grill and running orders out to the tables. It was close to the holidays, so everyone was off school and taking off work. So of course, The Mystic Grill was understaffed and completely slammed. Hope didn’t really get the big deal with Christmas, to her it was just any other day. Though maybe she only felt that way about holidays because she never actually celebrated any and she was raised in a secret facility that barely told her what day it was let alone did anything to celebrate holidays.

Hope had just taken a couple plates to a table when her bracelet started to glow red. She rolled her eyes, quickly covering the bracelet with her sleeve so no one else saw it glowing. She stepped out into the alley, telling her co-workers she just needed five. When she saw no one else was around she pulled out her phone and called Josie.

“Hey,” Josie answer after only a few rings. Hope could tell Josie was smiling but felt like things were still off between them, despite what Josie had said but maybe Hope was just looking for issues where there was none.

“Hey,” Hope said awkwardly.

“What’s up? Not that I mind calling just to talk.”

“I wish,” Hope chuckled awkwardly. She really needed to get over this. Josie told her everything was fine between them, she needed to stop waiting around for Josie to suddenly start hating her. “I got an alert, there’s another monster.”

“Perfect timing,” Josie groaned.

“I have no idea what. I’m at work right now, just keep an eye out, yeah?”

“Yeah, we will, you to. Are you coming over after your shift?” Josie asked that slowly, sounding just as awkward as Hope now.

“Sure, if you want,” Hope rambled, “I can, you know if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d like that. I actually have something to talk to you about.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t worry,” Josie laughed lightly. “I’ll talk to you when I see you. You should probably get back to work, bye.”

“Bye,” Hope whispered. Now instead of worrying about what potential monster was running around town Hopes mind was consumed by what Josie wanted to talk to her about.

Hope was friends with Maya, she knew that if a girl said they needed to talk it usually wasn’t good. Though that usually had to do with when the two people were in a relationship which she and Josie weren’t. Josie also told her not to worry. Still Hope was worried. Josie saw her kill a bunch of Triad agents and even though she said it changed nothing Hope knew the truth. The truth was even if Josie believed it when she said it, one day she would wake up and realize Hope was a monster, she’d realize she’d be better off without her in her life.

Hope went back to work, trying to focus on the tasks in the moment and not downward spiral. Hope was an expert at avoiding her feelings. So that’s what she was going to do. She wasn’t going to think about Josie and the potential end to their friendship, she was just going to work.

It was only an hour later when things started to go weird, to say the least. The grill started to spark, then the microwave, the lights in the dining area flickered. To be safe they had everyone evacuate, when everyone was out a few of the light bulbs burst and the microwave exploded. Hope reacted quickly, grabbing the fire extinguisher, and putting out the microwave. When she got outside with everyone else, she saw the streetlights flickering as well.

They closed the Grill and sent everyone home for the day. Hope was making her way to the Salvatore school when she had to jump out of the way of a speeding car. The car swerved and crashed right into a shop. Hope rushed over, helping the person out of the car, he was barely conscious.

“Hey, you okay?” Hope asked the man.

The man blinked a few times, trying to stay away. “I-I-I-I-it came out of nowhere,” He whispered in rambles. “Little elves, they did this. Like little alligators.” Then the man slipped into unconsciousness.

“Okay, just rest buddy.” Hope patted the man on the shoulder. She fought monsters for a living and yet, she thought what he just said was delusional rambling. She took off, continuing back to the school. She couldn’t get caught up answering questions by the police.

When she made it to the school, she saw they were having just as many issues as the town was. The lights were flickering, and everyone was running around putting out fires or other dysfunctional technology. She walked into the kitchen, seeing all the stoves smoking, Hayley taking a fire extinguisher to them, and Alaric running around unplugging anything else electrical.

“What’s up?” Hope asked.

Alaric turned to respond but there was a small explosion from another room, and he quickly ran out, grabbing another fire extinguisher on the way out.

Once Hayley got all the flames out, she turned to face Hope and said, “Alaric called that weird things were happening. I didn’t expect to spend my day fighting fires.”

“Yeah, well the same stuff started happening at the Grill and in town when I was on my way here.”

“Safe to assume this is another monster.”

Hope nodded.

“Great, what are we dealing with?” Hayley asked, as her and Hope made their way into the hall.

“Good question,” Lizzie’s voice came. “I just got done using my hair straightener and wanted to wait to pack it before we leave but it sparked and now this,” Lizzie held up a crispy melted hair straightener.”

“You’re leaving?” Hope asked. She knew she should focus on all the electronics going haywire, but she was too busy focusing on the fact Lizzie didn’t say I but we.

“Yeah,” Josie said, catching up to where they had been standing. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“You guy are leaving?” Hope asked again, trying to keep her voice neutral.

“Yeah, we’re going to France to visit our mom for the holidays. We’ll be back after the new year.”

“Wow, that’s great.” Hope smiled. She truly was happy for Josie; she’d just got used to seeing the girl every week and was going to miss her. “I know how much you miss her.”

“Thanks, I didn’t want to just up and leave without telling you.”

“Can you two flirt later!” Lizzie interrupted. “What is this monster that destroyed my straightener?”

Hope glared at Lizzie while Josie ducked her head to hide her blush.

“When I was on my way here a car crashed into a building,” Hope started, otherwise ignoring Lizzie.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Josie asked, gripping Hopes arm.

Hope couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on her face. Even though she was standing in front of Josie completely fine and even though she had super healing, the siphoner was still worried about her. “Yeah, all good.”

“The point?” Lizzie asked, swinging her melted straightener around.

Hope swallowed a growl but didn’t bother containing her eye roll. “I pulled him out of the car, and he was rambling. He kept saying he saw little elves and they looked like alligators.”

“Great,” Lizzie deadpanned. “We’re looking for tiny lizards that make technology go haywire.”

“Let’s just search for what this could be.”

They all made their way to the library; the lights were flickering, and books were flying off the shelf. Then everything suddenly stopped.

“Hey,” Landon said entering the library not long after. He had just enough time to duck as one last book came flying off the shelf, missing Landon and smacking Rafael in the face who had been right behind him.

“Fuck!” Rafael brought a hand to his face, he got lucky it was a rather large book and his nose wasn’t bleeding. “Dude.” Rafael smacked Landon on the arm. “What the hell?!”

“Ow!” Landon rubbed his arm. “I guess that answers my question on whether you guys have noticed anything weird going on.”

“Yeah,” Hope said. “We were just about to search for what it could be. All we have to go off of is all the weirdness and a witness who said they looked like little alligators.”

They were going through books or scrolling through their laptops. It had become second nature at that point, they all just knew what to do and they all had their own spots in where they sat or who they sat by. Hope was usually always next to or right across from Josie. Lizzie always sat next to her sister and Rafael or MG depending on which one was helping. Hayley usually sat at the head of the table near Hope and Landon always sat next to Hope.

They had been pouring over different creatures for over an hour with the occasional flicker of lights or small explosion in the distance. They had found multiple reptilian like creatures but they were all too big to be what the man had described. They had even looked up elves and various types of elves and even though they were small and sometimes green like the man had described none looked like reptiles, they were all humanoid.

Hopes phone went off and she looked to see it was from Maya. She had messaged Maya earlier about all the weirdness in town. She knew sheriff Machado would be getting calls like crazy and since it seemed Malivore related she needed Maya to do her thing and be her inside man. She pulled out her laptop to get a better look at the email Maya had sent. When she opened it, she saw a sketch of what Hope could only describe as a little alligator like creature.

The creature was standing on two legs and was humanoid like. It had pointy ears and tiny sharp claws. Hope could see why the man from the car accident had called it an elf. It could be an elf, if elves were small humanoid looking reptile creatures with claws, fangs, big yellow eyes, and scales. It was like if a human an elf and an alligator were squished together to make one creature.

“Hey,” Hope announced. “Maya sent over a copy of a sketch. Guess the guy from the crash sat down with a sketch artist. Based on this I don’t think the sheriff will be taking it to seriously.”

Landon leaned over to glance at the photo then looked away but quickly did a double take. He jumped up from his seat, flipping his chair back. He let out the most high pitch squeal Hope had ever heard from him. He was holding his fist to his mouth trying to cover the smile that was spread across his face.

He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out just another squeal. He did a little hop and spun around in a circle. Hope rolled her eyes and turned the laptop around so the others could see the sketch. Landon was clearly excited by something. It was the most excited she had seen him about a creature in a while. He got pretty hyped with the headless horseman but this one was next level excitement.

“I guess your crash victim wasn’t completely crazy,” Lizzie comment.

“What is that?” Hayley asked.

Landon squealed again. He looked like he was going to speak but once again no words came out. He just motioned and grasped with his hands, biting his lip. He was practically vibrating with how he was jumping up and down.

“What is your deal Frodo?” Lizzie snapped.

“Do you guys seriously not know what this is?” Landon squealed in high pitched excitement. “Come on!” he gestured to the sketch on the computer.

“Landon!” Hope snapped.

“Come on!” was his only response. “You don’t recognize it?” Hope gave him an annoyed questioning look. “Lizzie,” he direction his gaze to her. “You must know what this is, come on!”

Lizzie took a closer look at the sketch. She stared at it for a few seconds before straightening her head in realization. “Holy shit,” she whispered. “It looks exactly like-”

“A gremlin!” Landon squealed, jumping in the air. “It’s a gremlin! We’re dealing with gremlins!”

“What are gremlins?” Hayley asked still confused.

“Gremlins are these little creatures that attack people and cause a bunch of havoc. They like to just mess around and have fun with technology.”

“And how do you know so much about them?”

Landon’s jaw dropped as he turned to face Hayley. “You’ve never seen gremlins?” Hayley just raised her eyebrows. “It’s just a cinematic classic!”

“It’s good but I’m not sure I would say it’s a cinematic classic,” Lizzie commented.

“It’s literally one of the best Christmas movies!” Landon defended. “It’s my favorite, I rewatch every year.” Landon turned to Hope, “I showed it to you once.”

Hope just shrugged. She vaguely remembered the movie. She knew Landon watched the same movies certain times of years and there were certain ones he got extremely excited about. Landon just loved so many movies it was hard to keep track of them all. It was even harder to keep track considering whenever he showed them to her, she usually stopped paying attention and ended up grabbing her sketch book.

“So how do we kill them?” Hayley asked.

“In the movie they used sunlight.”

“And does that work in real life?”

Landon opened his mouth but then quickly closed it and dropped his head.

“Also, how many are there?” Josie questioned. “Didn’t they reproduce like crazy in the movie and if they’re at the school and in town that implies there’s multiples.”

“You guys are making this a lot less fun,” Landon mumbled.

“What do we do?”

“Let’s try and capture one,” Hope said slowly. “If we catch one maybe we can study it.” Landon flicked his eyes to hers. “Not like that,” she reassured him. “I think I have an idea.”

Hopes phone started to ring. When she looked, she saw it was Maya.

“Hey, what’s up?” she answered.

“You need to get to the school now,” Maya demanded, not even bothering to say hello.

“What why?”

There was banging and scratching against what sounded like something metal in the background. Hope also thought she heard Maya gasp.

“Just get here. I have one of your little freaks locked in the freezer.”

Before Hope could ask any more questions Maya hung up.

“I need to get to the high school, right now,” Hope said already getting up to head out.

“I’ll drive you,” Hayley said.

“Do you need backup?”  Josie asked.

“I think we’ll be good,” Hope answered. “Maya said she has one locked in the freezer. You guys stick around here, see if there’s any weaknesses you know about. Also grab MG and anyone else who is willing to help, search the school to see if you can find any of these things.”

Everyone nodded and went their separate ways.

As Hope and Hayley made their way to the school Hope noticed a black van, windows tinted, sitting on the side of the street. Hope tensed up, staring in the side mirror as they drove past until the van was out of sight.

“You good?” Hayley asked.

“There’s a van back there,” Hope said, still stealing glances in the mirror. “Black, tinted windows.”

“Aren’t you being a little paranoid? Vans are pretty common.”

“Is it really paranoia when you have an entire agency after you?”

Hopes eyes darted back and forth between the mirrors. She caught Hayley glancing at her.

“God, you’re more paranoid than Klaus,” Hayley mumbled under her breath.

“Did he have a bunch of enemies trying to kill him?” Hope snarked.

Hayley opened her mouth to respond but quickly shut it and let out a sigh.

“Exactly,” Hope gave her a pointed look. “You ever think maybe all you guys weren’t paranoid enough and he was the one that was a perfect amount of paranoid?”

“Look, I’m sure everything is fine.”

“I killed an entire team of Triad agents. They aren’t just going to let that go.”

“If they are back,” Hayley made sure to look Hope in the eye with each word, “then we’ll deal with it, together.”

Hope nodded but wasn’t convinced. She killed an entire team of Triad agents it was only a matter of time before more came. She was surprised it hadn’t happened yet. And when they came, she and Landon needed to be prepared to run or there would be death.

They finally got to the high school. Hayley parked and turned to Hope before she could get out. “I promised you I wouldn’t let them take you again.” Hayley’s eyes were unwavering, Hope knew she was telling the truth. “I meant that. If they come back, I won’t let them take you or Landon. I will protect you.”

“Why?” Hope breathed out. She trusted Hayley. She trusted Josie. They had all been such a help ever since they found out about the monsters and Malivore. She still just couldn’t figure out why. “Why do you care?”

Hope didn’t know what happened to her in the past, but she could see all the pain and sadness in Hayley’s eyes. Hope was kind of an expert in pain and suffering. She could see if someone were experiencing it from a mile away. Hayley had been hurting for a long time. She got hints of it when they first met but whatever the nightmare monster did made it seem fresh and new. She wondered what happened in Hayley’s life that hurt her so much that she’d be willing to help out a kid she just met, make sacrifices she shouldn’t have to.

“I think Maya needs us,” Hayley said avoiding the question. “We should get in there.”

They made their way into the school and found Maya in the back of the kitchen, by the freezer. She was holding a pan in a defensive position, kind of like she was getting ready to swing a baseball bat. She wasn’t facing the entrance though she was facing the freezer, ready to fight off whatever she captured in there.

“Hey-”

Hope was cut off by Maya spinning around, swinging the pan right at her head. Before the pan could connect though Hope raised her arm, blocking the swing, spinning her wrist so she could grab Maya’s arm, twisting it until she dropped the pan.

“Ow,” Maya yelled, pulling her arm back away from Hope. “Why’d you do that?”

“Why did you try and hit me?” Hope asked, the irritation evident in her voice.

“I didn’t know who it was!”

“You called me!”

“But for all I knew it was another one of those things,” Maya tried to defend herself, pointing toward the freezer.

“How’d you capture it?” Hayley asked, trying to shift the conversation to the matter at hand.

“Oh, that, that was nothing,” Maya dismissed, her voice becoming slightly higher and lighter. “I was walking around when I heard a noise, something was messing with the stove. When I opened the door, I saw this little creature and it jumped out at me. I managed to dodge it, but I ran towards the freezers, and I opened the door. It started to chase me, and I grabbed a pan and when It jumped at me I kind of just whacked it into the freezer,” Maya explained, twirling her hair. Hope shot her a questioning look.

“Impressive.”

Hope mouthed ‘what the fuck’ and Maya slapped her, mouthing ‘shut up’.

“Wait,” Hope said, forgetting about the weirdness she just witnessed with Maya. “What were you doing here? It’s winter break.”

“Oh, that, yeah,” Maya was avoiding looking anywhere but Hope. “I was just checking the place out.”

Hope honestly wasn’t surprised, she really should have seen it coming. “What did I tell you about going out on your own,” she couldn’t keep the anger out of her voice.

“I didn’t know it was a monster.”

Hope gave her an unamused look.

“At what point in time has there been a monster that hasn’t been homicidal!”

“I’m sorry, okay? I know!”

“Don’t investigate without me,” Hope snapped. “You die and you don’t come back.”

“I said I know. Can you save the lecture for later.”

Hayley put a hand on Hopes shoulder, pulling her back a little. Hope took the opportunity to take a few deep breaths. Shew knew Maya meant well. Maya only ever wanted to help. Maya just seemed to forget sometimes that she was only human. Maya knew Hope would save her, but she also seemed to forget that if Hope wasn’t there or if she didn’t tell Hope where she was going and what she was doing then Hope couldn’t be there to save her. Hopes paranoia might have been making her slightly overprotective at the moment but also Maya should know better not to go monster hunting alone.

“Stand back,” Hope said as softly as she could manage.

Maya seemed to understand how badly she messed up because she moved to stand behind Hope without any argument. She did grab her pan before moving, getting in the same defensive position as before. Hayley moved toward the freezer door, resting her hand on the handle until Hope gave her the signal. Hope prepared herself for whatever might come out of the freezer, nodding for Hayley to open the door.

Hayley slowly opened the door, revealing the freezer. Nothing came out. They waited a few seconds and there was still no movement. Hope crept forward, slowly entering the freezer, Hayley only a few steps behind her.

In the middle of the freezer stood a little reptilian like creature. It seemed that the cold temperature of the freezer was enough to stop the creature. Hope could still hear its tiny heart beating, so it was still alive. Hope took out a small syringe and inserted it into the gremlin, getting a sample of its blood. When she got the syringe filled, she slipped the sample into her pocket.

Hope was about to come up with a way to transport the creature back to Salvatore when the thin layer of ice covering it started to crack. The door to the freezer being open must have allowed the temperature to warm up enough that the monster was starting to thaw. The claws got free first allowing it to burst out the rest of the way. Seeing it up close definitely reminded Hope of the movie Landon had been talking about.

The monster shook off the remaining flurries on it and jumped forward to attack. Hope being beside it wasn’t in the line of attack, but Hayley and Maya were. Surprisingly it wasn’t Hayley who reacted first to the creature, she did move, grabbing Maya out of the way as well but Maya swung her pan again, whacking the gremlin and sending it flying into the back wall of the freezer.

The hit didn’t kill it. The gremlin quickly recovered, only stumbling slightly from the dizziness. It started to charge towards them again, doing some sort of growling scream as it moved. Before it could get close to them though Hope did a spell, she seemed to have been using a lot lately, fire shot out of her hand, instantly wrapping around the gremlin, barbecuing the little critter.

“Oh, that does not smell good,” Maya commented. When Hope looked back, she saw her nose wrinkled and shaking her head.

“Did you expect it to smell good?” Hope asked, giving her friend a concerned look. Hayley was giving Maya the same look.

“Well, I mean, the reports I read described it like a little humanoid type alligator. Since you just decided to make the little guy extra crispy, I thought maybe he might smell a little gator like.”

Hope silently stared at her friend for a few seconds, not saying a word, just slowly blinking. Hope couldn’t figure out where she went wrong in her life to get her to where she was in that moment. Clearly, she did something horrible.

“What?” Maya asked.

Hope just continued to stare at her friend. She sighed and shook her head. Then walked past Maya without another word.

“Let’s get back to the school,” Hope said, making her way out of the school towards Hayley’s car.

“Can I come?” Maya asked hesitantly but her voice hopeful.

Hope sighed but nodded. She opened the door slipping into the passenger seat. Maya jumped in the back and Hayley the driver side.

Hayley sped their way back to the school. The town didn’t seem to be going crazy anymore but there also wasn’t a ton of people on the streets as there was earlier. Hope was glad the insanity had seemed to of left the town. It wasn’t easy to hunt monsters with a bunch of humans around. The downside was that it most likely meant the creatures were all at the school or they were hiding, and they wouldn’t be back out until it was darker.

When they made their way into the school there were still some flickering lights and some smoke alarms going off. When they walked in, they saw Josie and Landon standing in the common room.

“Hey,” Josie greeted, walking up to Hope. “Did you capture it like you wanted?”

“Not exactly,” Hope said. “Ended up having to kill it but I got-”

Hope was cut off by a knock at the door. Her breath caught. She tilted her head allowing herself to listen as Hayley answered the door.

“Hello,” Hayley asked as she opened the door.

“Hi,” a man greeted. “Miss Marshall.”

Hopes head snapped up. Josie was looking at her with concern, but she ignored it. She grabbed Landon and threw him up against the wall. Before he could question her, she brought a finger to her lips, telling him to be quiet.

“How do you know my name?”

“I’m agent Carter, I work for Triad Industries.”

Hope felt Landon tense beside her, his breath catching. He looked to Hope in question. She put her hand on his shoulder, trying to calm his trembling.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” Hayley’s tone was harder, gone was the friendliness she had when answering the door.

“We’re in town because we’ve been alerted to some issues, we tend to specialize in.”

“I won’t ask again,” venom poured into each word. “How do you know who I am? And what does an intelligence organization want with a boarding school?”

“Forgive me,” the man chuckled awkwardly. “Triad isn’t just an intelligence organization. We deal with special issues. The same way this is a school for special kids.”

Hope heard Hayley let out a small growl. She was trying to contain it, if someone didn’t have super hearing, they probably wouldn’t have been able to detect it.

“We don’t want any trouble,” the man tried to reassure. He was a condescending prick like all the other Triad agents. “We’re just here to help. We know about you and the school. We have for a while. We use our skills and power to help the community, make sure things you wouldn’t want getting out, stay secret.”

“Why have I never heard of you?” Hayley questioned, the anger evident in her voice. “I’ve been around a while and know people who’ve been around much much longer, no one has ever mentioned you.”

“Like I said, we value discretion. We protect those not in the know from you, but we also protect you from things you couldn’t imagine.”

“What are you doing here?”

“We’ve gotten interesting reports coming out of this town, but nothing ever became loud enough to raise any flags. Not too long ago we sent a team of agents to check out the situation, they never came back.”

“Maybe your agents got in over their head,” Hayley snarled. “We’ve been dealing with these little issues as they pop up. Without any help from you. So, please leave.”

“You’ve been fighting off the monsters?” the man scoffed. “There was a fried corpse of a monster found at the high school, you did that?”

“No,” another voice came. “I did.” It was Josie’s voice. Hope looked around the room to see Josie had left and was now in the hallway with Hayley. “Had no idea what it was but when it tried to attack, I lit it up.” Hope couldn’t hold back her smile; she just knew Josie was giving her best innocent little smirk.

“You killed the monster?”

“Yeah, I mean when they’ve appeared we’ve just done our best to fight them off.”

The man hummed in acknowledgment. “Luck you, they aren’t usually so easy to kill. Any idea why they started to appear?”

“Aren’t you the monster expert?” Hayley threw the question back at the agent. “They just started showing up. We’ve been dealing with it as they appeared. Like you said we appreciate our secrets. Don’t need them drawing attention to the school.”

The man hummed again. “There’s a boy and a girl, about 17-years-old. The boy has curly dark hair, the girl long reddish-brown hair. Sound familiar?”

“I mean that could literally be anyone,” Hayley deadpanned. “There’s literally a boarding school and a high school in this town. Do you have any idea how many 17-year-olds there are?”

“These ones are special. They’d stand out.”

Hayley sighed. Hope was sure she had also rolled her eyes. “If they are as special as you say, considering the students we have here I’m sure we would have noticed two kids like that.”

The man hummed once again. “Any idea what happened to our team from a few weeks ago? It’s not every day a team goes out and doesn’t come back.”

Hayley inhaled in thought, then shook her head. “No, you’re the first agent I’ve ever met. Didn’t know anything about Triad till you walked up here. We’ve had some pretty dangerous monsters, maybe your men weren’t as qualified as you thought. A few weeks ago, you said?” Hayley waited for the man to nod before continuing. “We had a few what turned out to be wendigos out in the woods. Was a team effort to defeat them.”

“I also set some of them on fire,” Josie chimed in. Almost to eagerly but Hope couldn’t help but smile, she actually had to suppress a laugh.

“So, to summarize,” Hayley said. “We have no idea what happened to your team. We haven’t seen the kids you’re looking for. And we have no idea why the monsters are here. Goodbye.”

“Of course,” the man said. “You’ve seemed to be handling yourselves so far. We won’t worry about the town again. Thank you for your time.”

Hope listened as the man walked back to his car and listened until he pulled away. Hayley stood at the door watching him leave and as soon as he pulled away, she closed the door. Hope wasn’t sure if he could be seen but there was a second heartbeat in the van.

Hayley and Josie came back into the room, looking at Hope and Landon pressed up against the wall. Landon let out a shaky breath when he realized the agent was gone.

“That was close,” Josie said. “Are you guys, okay?”

Hope nodded, though hesitant. “Yeah, we knew they’d be back.”

“I know what you’ve told us about them,” Hayley started. “I just didn’t expect them to be so bold as to come to the school directly.”

“Triad knows how much power they have. They’re not worried about knocking on your door because they’re so arrogant that if you went against them, they could wipe you out.”

“Do you think they know?”

“No,” Hope shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. If they had proof of Landon or I being here, they would have sent a lot more than two agents. I know they’re searching for us, with the monsters and them being defeated they probably just suspected. Thank you.”

“I told you, I got your back,” Hayley reassured.

They made their way back to the library to meet up with the others and go over what they found out. Hope and Josie hung back a few steps.

“So,” Josie said slowly, a smile tugging at her lips. “You set it on fire?”

Hope let out the laugh she had been holding in. “Well, I might not be sure on if sunlight is a weakness, but I can confirm that fire definitely works.”

“Good to know.”

“I thought you might like that.”

Josie hummed in agreement. “Oh,” she turned grasping Hopes arm. “I almost forgot; we captured one. We didn’t know if we should kill it or not, so it’s locked up.”

“Great, I got what I needed so if you want to do the honors.”

They entered the library to see Lizzie and MG watching over one of the gremlins they had contained. Josie quickly walked over to it and set it ablaze. Hayley gave her a slightly concerned look but Hope just smiled. That girl really loved fire.

“Did you get what you wanted?” Lizzie asked.

“Yeah, can someone get me a map?” Hope asked.

MG vamp sped out of the room, quickly vamping back in with a map. “I assume you wanted one of Mystic Falls?” he asked.

“Yeah.”

Hope laid the map out flat on the table. She pulled out the vial of blood she had taken from the creature, injecting a few droplets onto the map. She quickly started muttering a spell. It was similar to a tracking spell. It wasn’t meant to find one specific person but meant for finding those with similar blood. If it were a person’s blood the spell would show where their relatives were on the map. Since it was monster blood Hope hoped it would show where similar monsters were on the map. After a moment of focusing on the spell Hope opened her eyes to see the drop of blood break apart forming three smaller drops and slowly move across the map.

“Wow,” Josie whispered, looking over Hopes shoulder at the map.

“Looks like there’s three more of those things,” Hope said.

“Impressive,” Lizzie admitted.

Before Hope could speak coming up with a plan to find the other three gremlins one the blood droplets burst, indicating one of the monsters had been destroyed.

Rafael ran in the room a moment later, panting. “I found one of those things,” he said between breaths. “I kind of killed it.” He looked back towards the door he had just come through. “I hope that was okay.”

“Yeah, we were just about to go hunting,” Hope said.

“Great! That thing was going nuts in the kitchen,” Rafael started to ramble. “I opened the fridge and there it was, it jumped on me trying to scratch my face off. I held it away and managed to throw it across the room. It landed in the oven, and I ran over there and slammed the door closed. I didn’t know what to do so I just turned the oven up on full blast. It took a minute, and the thing was going crazy rattling around in there then there was a small explosion and a spalt sound. I turned off the oven and opened the door to give it a little peek and…” Rafael got a haunted look in his eyes. “and we need a new oven,” he whispered.

Everyone wrinkled their nose. Lizzie brought her hand to her throat as if she were holding back from getting sick. Hope just shrugged, one last gremlin to deal with.

“Aww, I missed it,” Landon mumbled, kicking at the floor.

“Anyway,” Hope redirected the conversation back to what was important, ignoring Landon. “There’s still two out there. Let’s split up. It looks like there’s still one around the school.” Hope pointed to one of the droplets on the map. “So, you guys take that one, split up and search. Hayley and I will take the one here,” Hope pointed to the other droplet out in the middle of the woods.

Hope had an uneasy feeling. All the gremlins were found inside. They were all hidden away when they were found, somewhere dark. It was looking like the not liking sunlight thing was seeming more probable. The gremlin out in the middle of the woods while it was daylight was concerning. There were dark places it could hide out until nighttime, but it was so far away from the rest of its kind. The fact that there were Triad agents walking around didn’t help.

The groups split up, with everyone headed off to different parts of the school where the gremlin might be hiding, and Hope and Hayley headed off into the woods. Hope and Hayley silently walked through the woods. Hayley came to a sudden stop, delicately placing her hand on Hopes arm to get her to stop as well.

“Something doesn’t feel right,” Hayley whispered. “Be on guard.”

Hope nodded and they continued forward. Hope didn’t need to be told to be on guard, she was always on guard. It was nice to have Hayley say it though. It just helped confirm that Hope wasn’t being overly paranoid. Not that Hope ever thought she was being overly paranoid. Hope considered herself a reasonably amount of paranoid all the time.

Their steps slowed down as they approached a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a small metal box. It looked like it had a door, but it was all metal besides a few small holes cut out in the sides. Hope could see the box shaking and hear a creature rattling around in it. As soon as Hope and Hayley got close enough though the box started to spark and violently shake. The creature inside screeched until it all stopped. The box remained closed but there was no longer any sound coming from it, there was a burning smell though.

“I knew you were lying,” a man’s voice came. The man stepped out from behind a tree. It was the same man that had been at the school talking to Hayley. The Triad agent.

“You have a lot of people looking for you,” the agent directed at Hope. “Where’s your friend?”

“You’ll never get him,” Hope growled, flashing her wolf eyes.

“Don’t make this more difficult than it has to be Hope.”

“Clearly you guys didn’t get the message when I killed your entire team.” Hopes voice was like ice. “I’ll make sure there’s no debate this time.”

An arrow zipped through the air impaling itself in Hopes leg, bringing her to her knees. She gritted her teeth at the pain. She pulled the arrow out but there was still a searing burning sensation. The arrow had been dipped in wolfsbane mixed with vervain. Just as Hop started to try and bring herself back to her feet another arrow impaled itself into her shoulder. She ripped it out, seething with rage.

The second agent whose heart had heard in the van jumped down from one of the trees. He made his way to stand by the other agent. He was larger than the other agent, clearly a field operator, he wore a sadistic smirk on his face and kept his crossbow drawn.

“Give us the girl,” the agent directed at Hayley. “Then give us the boy. You can go back to your normal life. No monsters. No surprise agents appearing out of nowhere. No one has to get hurt. You can go back to life before you knew any of this.”

Hayley looked at Hope then at the agents then back at Hope. Hope and her held eye contact for a moment. Hope didn’t think Hayley would betray her, but it was hard to focus on anything but the pain, wolfsbane and vervain hurt like a bitch. Even with her tribrid nature and enhanced healing it was taking a moment to heal.

Before Hope could blink Hayley was no longer standing next to her. She sped forward to the two agents, flinging the one who had been talking off to the side and ripping out the heart of the one who had shot Hope. Hope had dragged herself back up to her feet just as the agent’s body hit the ground, still gripping onto his crossbow. Hayley turned to face the other agent who was still pulling himself to his feet but before she could make a move on him Hope grabbed one of the arrows, she had ripped out of herself and was on him.

The agent tried to stand but Hope shoved the broken arrow into his knee, keeping him down. He yelled in pain. She took out the arrow and shoved it into his shoulder next. He reached up grabbing her arm that still held the arrow. He didn’t have enough strength to push her hand off. The second he tried she twisted the arrow causing him to yell again.

“Now,” Hope whispered, her voice deadly calm. “How about you listen to me now?” she gave him a sweet smile. “Yeah?” she nodded her head until he nodded along with her. “Good. So, I’m not going to kill you. Like I said I don’t think my message was received last time.” Hope twisted the arrow again; the agent gritted his teeth trying to not scream again. “This time, you’re going to deliver my message. You are going to scurry on back to Triad and tell them Mystic Falls is off limits. You’re going to tell them that monsters were appearing occasionally like they did with some places but there was nothing out of the ordinary. You’re going to tell them that the Salvatore school has been taking care of the monsters and they don’t know anything about Malivore or Triad. They just think they’re randomly appearing. If they ask about me or Landon? You don’t know anything. Do you understand what I just said?”

The agent didn’t nod. Hope twisted the arrow, pushing it further into his flesh. “I said,” she said through gritted teeth. “Do you understand?” the agent finally gave a small nod. “Good,” she whispered, her voice going back to being softer. “If Triad appears in this town again or comes after Landon and I, I will find you.” Hope looked him in the eye as she said the words. “I will kill you. In a horrible way. But before I do that, I will hunt down everyone you care about and kill them. Don’t worry though,” Hope pulled the arrow out of the agent. “I’ll make sure they know it was because of you.”

Hope stood up, pushing the agent back towards the ground. He brought his hand to the wound on his shoulder. Hope stabbed him twice and both wounds were bleeding, but he wouldn’t bleed out. He had plenty of time to make it back to whatever little safe house they created and patch himself up before he made his way back to Triad.

“Are you okay?” Hayley asked as Hope made her way back over to her and they turned to head back to the school.

“Yep,” Hope said. “Already all healed up.” Hope rolled her shoulder to show off it was back to full movement.

Hayley nodded and they continued to walk in silence. Hope risked a glance out the side of her eye at Hayley. She didn’t see any judgement on what just happened. Hayley literally just watched her torture a man and didn’t make a comment on it. She wasn’t looking at her like she was some kind of crazed monster, some villain that needed to be stopped.

“Thank you,” Hope said as they approached the school. Hayley tilted her head in question. “Killing that Triad agent. I know you’re probably not a stranger to killing but you just killed someone to protect me. You killed a Triad agent and now you risk them coming after you. So, thank you.”

“I know I’ve said it multiple times today,” Hayley started. “But when I told you I would protect you, I meant it. I won’t just keep yours and Landon’s secret and not sell you out to Triad. I will also do whatever it takes to protect you from them. If they ignore your threat again and come back, they won’t even get the chance to put their hands on you before they’re lying-in pools of their own blood.”

When they got inside the school, they went their separate ways. Hayley went off to find Alaric and see if he needed help fixing any of the damage the gremlins had done. Hope made her way back to the library where she only saw Josie, who was packing up their stuff and putting the books they had grabbed back on the shelves.

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Josie asked rushing up to Hope when she noticed the blood and torn shirt.

“Yeah, all good,” Hope waved her off. “Already healed. How about here, did you guys find our last gremlin?”

Josie sighed, “Yep, was down in the basement. Landon tried convincing us to let it live but I just set it on fire.”

Hope laughed at that. “So,” she said slowly, flipping through one of the books still on the table to avoid looking at Josie. “When do you leave?”

Josie’s face fell. “Tomorrow morning. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. It wasn’t always planned. We thought we were going to spend break here but they surprised us.”

“No of course I get it. Go have fun in France and spend time with your mom,” Hope tried to reassure Josie that everything was fine. “When do you get back?”

“After New Year’s.”

“That’s only like 2-weeks. Just take lots of pictures and promise to tell me all about it when you get back.”

“Of course.” Josie was back to having her bright smile. “Try not cause to much trouble while I’m gone. And try not to get severely injured either.”

“Me?” Hope pointed at herself. “I would never.”

Josie rolled her eyes, playfully shoving Hope. They stood there for a moment just smiling at each other. Hope was going to turn to leave but Josie wrapped her in a hug. Hope tensed for a second but hesitantly reciprocated it. She wasn’t used to hugging people. Maya hugged her a few times but the only person she initiated a hug with before was Landon. Josie gave nice hug though.

“See you in 2-weeks,” Josie whispered into her ear.

“I’ll be here to welcome you back,” Hope whispered back. She felt Josie smile. They let the hug go on for another moment before finally parting.

Chapter Text

Hope was once again at work. Without Josie around and with the holidays she was able to pick up a lot of hours. Landon was even back to working with her. She hadn’t worked with him as much since he started at Salvatore. He got to stay on the schedule, but he was working short shifts and mostly on weekends and it wasn’t even every week. She also didn’t work most weekends which had been taken over by training Josie in combat and offensive magic.

Josie still had over a week of her vacation left. She had only been gone a few days but had already sent Hope probably a hundred pictures. They still texted every night and even had a few calls. Josie called her one night telling her about the day she had of running around Paris with her mom and sister, eating, shopping, and seeing all the sights as she got ready for a new day of stuff. After her rambling about her day, she seemed to realize there was a time difference so even though she was up and getting ready it was rather late for Hope. Hope assured her she didn’t wake her up and she had been up painting anyway then proceeded to ask what they had planned for the day.

Hope went to go take the order of whoever just walked in the door but when she got to the table, she saw it was Hayley. She was so in her head she asked what she could get her and everything before even looking up. She didn’t know it was Hayley until she spoke, ordering her drink.

“Hey,” Hope said, shaking herself out of her daze. “What are you doing here? I’m honestly surprised you’re sticking around town, figured you’d be off like everyone else.”

“Actually, I am,” Hayley said. “That’s why I’m here. I’m headed home for a few days but wanted to talk to you.”

“Oh?”

“What time are you off?”

“Not for another three hours.”

“Okay, I’ll wait.”

“No, seriously you don’t have to. I can come meet you when I’m done.” Hope hated the idea of someone waiting on her. She didn’t like being an inconvenience to others, it’s one of the reasons she usually didn’t ask for a ride from people, unless it was Maya, but even that took a while.

“It’s no problem,” Hayley assured. “I’ll eat then the remaining time I’ll just have coffee, just make sure to keep it coming.”

Hope laughed at that, nodding. “Will do.”

“I also have my laptop so will be getting some work done anyway.”

Hope nodded and went to put Hayley’s order in. They were still super busy with it being so close to Christmas, so Hope didn’t have time to go and talk to Hayley except for when she was refilling her coffee. Even then she didn’t really have time to speak to her. All the running around and fulfilling orders made the remainder of Hopes shift go quick.

When Hope was all done, she met Hayley at her table. “All done?” Hayley asked. Hope nodded. “Come on.” Hayley slid out of the booth and made her way to the door with Hope right beside her.

“Uh oh,” Hope commented, smiling nervously. “This is a conversation we can’t have around others?”

“It’s not bad. I promise.”

Hope sighed but nodded, continuing to follow Hayley. They didn’t really talk as they walked. It was a comfortable silence though. They walked until they were out of town and hit the woods. They continued until they couldn’t see any signs of Mystic Falls behind them.

“So,” Hayley started hesitantly. “I’ve been wanting to talk to about this since the Shunka Warakin, but you were hurt, then it was the headless horseman, then the wendigos, then killing those Triad agents then-”

“The gremlins,” Hope finished for her. “Yeah, it’s been a busy few weeks.”

Hayley laughed at that. “Yeah, it was hard finding a break between all the chaos. But I wanted to talk to you about this before I left town.”

“I have a feeling I know where this is going but I’ll ask anyway. What’s up?”

“You’re a werewolf.” It was a statement, not a question. Hope just smiled. She never tried to hide that fact, not really, she just never came out to directly say it. At least not to anyone besides Josie.

“You kind of already knew that.”

“True but never got any actual confirmation from you and never had any solid proof until that night.”

“So, what do you want to know?”

“You’re a werewolf.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re a witch.”

“Yes.”

“How? How is that possible? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I mean it’s-”

“A against nature?” Hopes head twitched. She knew Hayley didn’t mean to offend; she was just used to hearing what a mistake she was. “I mean there’s always a loophole, right?”

Hayley didn’t say anything.

“I mean there’s vampire, werewolves, and witches. Nature, and I use that loosely says you can only be one. However, if you’re not a typical witch but a siphoner you can be both witch and vampire. Then because of Klaus Mikaelson being born a werewolf because he was turned a vampire before he triggered his curse or some other magical bullshit it allowed him to become the first hybrid. Then that allowed him to make his own hybrids. Of course, if we really get into what is against nature then technically everything besides witches are. I mean witches are born with magic, they’re natural. Witches created the werewolf curse though. And a witch was the one who created the first vampires.”

“I see your point,” Hayley said slowly. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“I know. I’ve just kind of been hearing what a mistake I was my entire life.”

“You are not a mistake.” Hope was caught off guard by how sure Hayley sounded. There was no room for debate in her statement. “I still don’t fully understand how you can be both wolf and witch though.”

“I don’t know,” Hope answered honestly. “I really don’t. Triad told me my family didn’t want me because I was against nature, that I was an abomination. I don’t know if one of my parents was a witch and the other a wolf and some magical loophole allowed them to have a kid that was both or if a witch placed a curse on me or my parents that made me both. I really don’t know.”

“Is that why Triad wanted you?”

“What can I say Triad likes unique toys to collect. Weapons they can use. What better weapon than a witch who’s also a wolf with control over their shift.”

“You’re not a weapon.”

“Yeah, can’t believe that one.” Hope let out a humorless laugh. “All I’ve ever been is a weapon. I was literally trained to be the best. Had to have the best control over my wolf and my magic. Had to be the best at spells. Be the best at fighting. My entire life has been to fight Malivore and his monsters.”

“That may have been your life before, but it doesn’t have to be your entire life. I’ve seen you do some of the most incredible things in my entire life. You are incredible at all the things you mentioned, probably are the best. That’s not all you are though.” Hayley gave Hope a soft smile. “You might not like the typical normal human teen things most people your age do.”

Hope let out a breath, she couldn’t help but laugh. Hayley really had been paying attention to her. She did not like the normal stuff people her age did.

“The happiest I’ve seen you has been when you tolerate Maya and her weird investigating obsessions.” Hope smiled at that nodding. “Or with Landon and Rafael.”

“They’re all people I don’t have to hide from. I can just relax,” Hope admitted.

“But the happiest I’ve seen you and the most normal it seems like you feel is when you’re with Josie,” Hayley said her name with a knowing smirk.

Hope huffed out a laugh trying to hide her blush. If Hayley could tell how she felt about Josie, then she really was doing terrible at hiding it. Not that she was trying to hide it, she actually liked openly flirting with Josie, she enjoyed seeing her try and hide her blush.

“She makes things so easy,” Hope whispered. “I told her things I would never tell someone so quickly. She just makes it so easy to open up to.”

“That’s rare,” Hayley said softly. She seemed to be thinking about something or someone. “You going to do something about it?”

Hope let out a groan. “Oh my god, you sound like Maya. I do like her but it’s better for us to remain friends.”

It was Hayley’s turn to let out a groan. “I understand why you think that. I truly do. You are allowed to want something for yourself though. Sometimes it’s okay to be selfish.”

Hope nodded. They continued their walk deeper into the woods silently for a few minutes. The closest Hope had come to being selfish was staying in town as soon as Hayley and Alaric found them. She would leave in a second though if it meant protecting everyone and Landon though. If she let herself truly be selfish and go after Josie though then she wouldn’t leave. If she tried to actually have a real relationship with someone then they would only be in danger. Stopping Malivore was her life’s mission. Saving Landon was all she knew. If she tried to be with Josie and it developed into something, she wasn’t sure her priorities would stay the same.

“What do you know of your family?” Hayley asked, breaking the comfortable silence.

“Nothing,” Hope sighed, kicking a rock in her path. “Triad told me I was a mistake and against nature and shouldn’t exist. They said my family didn’t want me and gave me to Triad. They thought it was a way to get rid of me. Triad had other ideas though,” she said the last words bitterly.

“Have you ever tried to find them?”

“No,” Hope snapped harshly. “I’m sorry.” She took a second to focus on her breathing and try to unclench her jaw slightly. “They didn’t want me. Why should I want anything to do with them?”

“You said Triad is all about control,” Hayley spoke to her with the same care she had been. She didn’t even acknowledge Hope had snapped at her. “How do you know they didn’t lie to you? How can you be sure they haven’t been manipulating you since the beginning to help keep you inline?”

“Of course, I’ve thought about that.” Hope huffed, looking around at the surroundings. Her eyes drifted to the trees and the sky until ultimately falling back to the ground. “The thing is though either what Triad told me is true and they never wanted me and would rather me be dead or maybe by some small chance they did want me. If that was the case though then they’re dead. They’re either dead or they didn’t want me. There’s no other option. I mean if they were alive and wanted anything to do with me, they would have looked for me. But no one ever came.” Hope swallowed, trying to hold back the tears she knew started to form.

Hayley opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out, she started to reach out with her hand but stopped before she actually touched Hope.

“What I said was true I want nothing to do with people who never wanted anything to do with me,” Hope said, her voice harder than it had been before. “There’s no point in asking questions when you know the answers are only going to lead to pain.”

“I get that,” Hayley said softly. When Hope looked Hayley in the eye she saw she really did get it. “When I was younger nothing stopped me from searching for answers on my family. I hoped I would find something good, but I knew the odds weren’t there. It didn’t stop me though. I can understand not wanting to dig into though. If you ever do though, I would be more than I happy to help.”

“Thank you,” Hopes voice came out gravellier than it had been. She cleared her throat. “I appreciate it. I wouldn’t hold my breath, but I really appreciate it.”

They turned around and made their way back to town. They had talked about everything Hayley had seemed to want to talk about. Hayley didn’t bother trying to fill the walk back with casual conversation. Despite all they talked about the walk wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable, it still managed to be comfortable and kind of relaxing. Hope didn’t like talking about the stuff she and Hayley did. The only person she really talked to about it with was Landon and it was rare. Sometimes Landon would push, and she would shut him down. Hayley was different though; it was easier to open up to her. Hope just felt like what Hayley said way back when they first met was true, she didn’t judge.

“So how long are you going to be gone?” Hope decided to ask when they made it back to the Grill where Hayley’s car still was.

“Only a few days, I’ll be back before Christmas,” Hayley answered.

“Really?” Hope couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice. “Figured you’d want to spend the day with whoever it was.”

Hayley sighed, there was a sadness in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Hope had seen it a few times. She usually saw it when they got a little close to Hayley’s past or her family. It was most prominent after the nightmare monster.

“The holidays aren’t easy for us,” she whispered. “Some of us still get together close to the holiday but don’t stick around for the actual day. We like to pretend it makes it easier.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. What about you?”

Hope actually laughed at that. “Yeah, can’t say Christmas has ever been a thing for me.”

“Right.” Hayley nodded her head. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Hope laughed it off. “I never really got the big deal. Now to be fair I don’t know what I’m missing but it never bothered me. When I caught up with Landon again, we’d do something small, usually just hangout and watch whatever movies he picked out. He was always more into it than me.”

“Well, being with the people you care about is all that matters. Alaric tends to throw something together at the school for the students who don’t go home for the break. If you want to join, I’m sure it’ll be fun.”

“Thanks, maybe. Sheriff Machado did invite me to Christmas Eve dinner. I might join. They did last year but it didn’t feel right, it felt weird since I hadn’t known Maya that long.”

“Well, whatever you decide, have fun. See you when I get back.”

“See you. Thanks again.”

While Hayley got in her car and drove off Hope went back to her apartment. She checked her phone and grabbed her sketch pad, flopping down on the couch. She hadn’t looked at her phone since she got off work. She had several texts from Josie. She scrolled through the texts which were mostly of sights around France and whatever food and pastries she was eating. Hope sat and replied to each one. She picked up her sketch pad and got to drawing the rest of the day while she waited to hear from Josie again.

That’s how she spent the next few days texting Josie, sketching, and working. She talked to Landon a few times but hadn’t seen him since the gremlins. He was having a movie marathon with MG, Raf, and a few other people he made friends with. He asked her to join but she declined. Movies were never her thing. She did agree to come by on Christmas day though since she knew it was important to him.

It was Christmas Eve and Maya had managed to convince Hope to join her family for dinner. Hope tried to not impose but Maya insisted she wasn’t and that they all wanted her there. She guilt tripped her into it by saying she hadn’t been over in a while. She brought up how Hope hadn’t seen Mac besides when she came by to pick up lunch and the last time, she saw Ethan was when the headless horseman attacked, and they ended up needing to compel him. So, Hope was getting ready for dinner.

Hope got to Maya’s and was instantly pulled into the house. They didn’t go super crazy with the decorations, but they had a few strands of lights strung up, enough to light up the yard. Inside they had the traditional green tree strung with white lights and homemade ornaments. There were stockings lining the stare case, each of their names embroidered on one. Even the dining room table had a nice white tablecloth on it, candles already lit as a center piece, and plates and silverware already placed. Hope never did Christmas but this seemed like how it was supposed to be, family and friends gathering together. It seemed so normal; Hope had to appreciate it.

“Hey!” Ethan yelled from the kitchen. He grabbed something from the counter and his mom smacked his hand before he ran into the living room to where Hope and Maya were. “Glad you joined us this year.” Ethan had a bright smile the entire time. They didn’t go crazy dressing up, but everyone was pretty much wearing black pants and some version of red or green. Ethan had a nice red sweater. “Cookie?” he offered.

Hope laughed, taking the cookie. Of course, that’s what Ethan stole from the kitchen and why his mom had slapped his hand away.

“Welcome Hope!” Mac called from the kitchen. She glanced back but was too busy focusing on making dinner.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Hope said.

“You’re always welcomed.”

“Hey, care to toss it around with me?” Ethan asked, spinning a football in his hands.

“Aren’t you sick of football?” Hope asked but gesturing for him to toss it to her.

“Well, this isn’t a game.” Ethan tossed the ball which Hope easily caught. “This is just fun. You know got to keep the arm loose, be ready to prove I still deserve that scholarship when we get back to it.”

“You don’t need to prove anything E, you got that scholarship because you’re amazing.” She tossed the ball back to him, nodding her head towards the door to take it outside. “And I’m sure you’ll get plenty of others.”

Ethan followed her outside. They each went to separate ends of the front yard and started tossing the ball back and forth.

“You know you should really try out for the team,” Ethan said, as he caught the ball.

Hope stepped back a bit to catch Ethan’s next throw. “Please, I couldn’t take your spotlight like that.”

He laughed but nodded. He was about to throw it again when Maya popped her head out the door saying dinner was ready.

They ran back in the house joining Mac and Maya at the dining table. Ethan sat next to his mom, Hope sat across from Ethan and next to Maya. Mac didn’t go crazy with the cooking but there was certainly to be plenty for leftovers. She had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, and a few other sides. Hope didn’t get homecooked meals often, pretty much only when she ate at the Machado’s. Even though Hope lived on her own she still kind of only knew how to make the basics. Luckily for her though sheriff Mac was an amazing cook.

“So,” Ethan drawled out, giving Hope a mischievous smile. Hope narrowed her eyes at him. “What’s the deal with you and Josie?”

Hope rolled her eyes. Ethan wasn’t one to talk about stuff like that out in the open but when it came to just them, he would be as relentless as Maya in trying to get info out of her.

Before Hope could answer though Mac spoke, “Who’s Josie?”

“Just Hopes girlfriend,” Maya said, her mouth full of mashed potatoes.

Mac gave one look to her daughter and sighed before turning her attention to Hope with raised eyebrows.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Hope clarified, shooting Maya a glare.

“But you want her to be.”

Hope kicked her friend under the table. Maya yelped, smacking her knee against the table. Mac looked at her daughter concerned while Ethan just chuckled at them.

“Josie is just a friend,” Hope said again.

“But you like her,” Ethan stated. Unlike Maya he actually swallowed his food before speaking. “Come on, I saw you at the game and then at the bonfire. You were inseparable.”

Hope sighed. “Fine, yes I like her.”

“And she definitely likes you,” Maya added.

“Things are good between us. I don’t want to mess up our friendship.”

Maya rolled her eyes because she knew that was just an excuse. Hope just was scared of getting to close to someone.

“Well,” Mac started. “If you like her and she feels the same why not give it a shot? You and Maya’s thing somehow works out.”

Maya started choking on her mashed potatoes, Ethan burst out laughing, and Hope closed her eyes and sighed.

“You know about that?” Maya whispered to her mom.

“Of course, I know. I am the sheriff after all. I always hoped you’d go from casual to serious, but I’ve given up on that don’t worry.”

“Sorry,” Hope said to Mac. “I just don’t think I’m good enough for your daughter, she can do so much better.”

“No, she can’t.”

Maya’s mouth dropped in offense. Ethan and Hope both broke out into a laugh at that.

“Hey!” Maya shouted.

“I’m sorry dear, you know I love you, but you don’t have the best taste when it comes to relationships.”

Maya dropped her head no longer having an argument. It was true Maya didn’t have the best taste when it came to relationships.

“Here,” Mac offered her daughter a cookie.

Maya took the cookie, mumbling a thank you. They went back to eating and casual conversation after making fun of Maya deciding to give her a break for the night.

After dinner Hope was convinced to stick around a little longer to watch a movie. She threw herself down on the couch next to Maya while Ethan jumped in the chair, cuddling up with a blanket.

“What are we watching?” Hope asked. Stealing some popcorn from Maya.

“Elf,” Maya answered, slapping Hopes hand away from the bowl.

“The best Christmas movie,” Ethan added.

“I think Landon would disagree,” Hope said. “But his heart kind of belongs to Gremlins this time of year.” Maya shared a knowing smile with Hope.

“Already watched that one,” Ethan said, already glued to the TV. “Love it and maybe a close second but for me Elf is the go-to.”

After the movie was over Hope left but not before Mac gave her a couple containers full of leftovers. Leftovers weren’t always the best but somehow Macs always seemed to hold up even more than a day later. By the time Hope got home, into her apartment, put the leftovers in the fridge she looked at the clock to see it was midnight. Hope didn’t even get out of the kitchen before her phone started ringing, she looked to see it was Josie.

“Hey,” Hope answered softly, a small smile on her face.

“Hey,” Josie replied just as softly. It sounded like she was whispering.

“Why are you up? Isn’t it like 6am there?”

“I know, I just wanted to be the first to officially say Merry Christmas.” Josie laughed lightly. “So, Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.”

“So, how was your day?”

Hope dropped down on to her couch, lying down so she was comfortable and started telling Josie about her day. She told her all about dinner and everything. Even though they had been texting she even told her some things from the last couple of days. Josie told her all about her day and then they got into what each of them was doing for Christmas day. Hope wasn’t sure how, but they ended up keeping the conversation going for a few hours until it was well past late Hopes time and Josie’s time was a more normal time to be awake.

Chapter Text

Hayley made the drive back to New Orleans right after her talk with Hope. It was a long drive, so she knew she needed to get on the road. She just couldn’t put off the conversation with Hope longer than she had. She didn’t realize how deep the conversation would be for herself or for Hope. She knew she was going to be talking to Hope about being a witch/werewolf hybrid, but she didn’t realize the doors she would be opening.

She knew Hope had suffered. She’d seen it in the way Hope acted, she heard it in her voice when she talked. She knew how bad Triad hurt her. She didn’t realize how much damage they had done until their conversation though. The girl really thought of herself as a mistake. Triad tore her down making her think the only thing she was good for was to be a weapon.

Her family either didn’t want her or Triad lied to her her entire life, and they killed them. That’s what Hope told her, and Hayley believed her. She couldn’t not believe her because if the girl’s family was alive, she didn’t understand how they couldn’t want her. She’d only known Hope for a few months put she’d seen so much; the girl was incredible. She really admired that despite everything Hope had been through that she still chose to protect people.

She knew if Hopes family was still alive then it most likely meant they had given her to Triad willingly. She couldn’t believe that though. She couldn’t believe parents would ever willingly give up their child. When she first found out about the baby she did try and get rid of it but then she couldn’t do it. She ended up wanting to give it a good life, a life she never got. She fell in love with her daughter before she was ever born, and she knew despite all his flaws Klaus felt the same. Before she could give her daughter that good life though she was taken away from her. That loss was the worst thing in her life, and she couldn’t imagine parents choosing to let go of their child. What she told Hope was true, she would help her find her family if she wanted but Hayley would only do it if Hope actually wanted it.

Hayley stopped at the bayou first to visit the pack. She was greeted by almost everyone as she approached the cabin. When she got to the cabin, she took a minute to take it all in. She had only been gone a few months, her trip to Mystic Falls was meant to be quick until Hope and Landon and all the monsters. The cabin didn’t look completely run down just lived in, she knew members of the pack still used it and took care of it, when she wasn’t around. When she was in town, she lived in it, but she never had it in her to do much with it and make it into something that felt like a home she kind of just used it to sleep in. The Mikaelson compound still felt the most like home to her and she did sleep there a few nights if it was a quick trip, or she was helping Freya with something but for the most part even though it was home it was too painful to stay there.

Hayley stood on the porch looking out at the dock and the water, everything was so peaceful. There was even a gentle breeze coming off the water. All the leaves had fallen so some of the kids were running and playing in them. She took in the rest of the woods, the trees. Mystic Falls had woods which she had been seeing plenty of lately, but nothing compared to the bayou.

Most of the adult pack members were gathered around the fire pit. One of the wolves had the grill going and was making food for everyone, there was something special about smelling burgers and hot dogs fresh on a grill. As she stared out, looking over her pack she saw Lisina approaching her.

“Welcome back,” Lisina said softly.

“It’s good to be back,” Hayley said honestly.

“I assume this is a short visit?” It was worded like a question, but Hayley knew it wasn’t. “Henry told me things have been,” Lisina shot her a small smirk, “interesting at Salvatore.”

Hayley watched as Henry ran out of the woods with some of the younger kids behind him. All of them getting in line at the grill for food. He was laughing and seemed to be joking around with some of the kids. He had a hard time at Salvatore with the other wolves so seeing that he had only been back home a week and was already smiling more brought a small smile to Hayley’s face.

“Interesting,” Hayley repeated. “Yeah, that’s a word for it.”

“The things the boy has told,” Lisina shook her head. “It seems unbelievable.”

“I can assure you whatever he’s told you is probably true. To be honest I’ve been living it and I still can’t believe it.”

“Do I need to be concerned?”

Hayley opened her mouth but then hesitated on her words. “I’m not leaving there until this mess is taken care of.” Hayley turned to look her in the eyes so Lisina would know she’s serious. “As long as I am there, I won’t let anything happen to him.”

Lisina hummed. “He mentioned some people, a new wolf.”

“Yes, Rafael, Alaric and I found him in the woods. He hasn’t exactly been accepting pack life at the school, but he seems like a good kid.”

“He also mentioned he had a friend, a weird boy, who’s a phoenix?”

“Yeah, that is also accurate. He’s a good kid, he’s had a rough life. He’s just been looking for somewhere he belongs. So far that seems to be Salvatore.

Lisina hummed again. Hayley narrowed her eyes at the woman. She knew what she really wanted to ask about or more accurately who.

“He also mentioned a girl,” Lisina’s voice remained neutral, but her jaw clenched slightly.

“Yeah, we met her the same night as the other two,” Hayley tried to keep her tone neutral as well. “She’s a good kid.”

“He said she’s a witch and a werewolf?” Lisina tilted her head, her eyes searching Hayley’s face for a reaction.

Hayley narrowed her gaze, staring Lisina in the eye. “She’s a good kid.” Her voice left no room for debate. “Have a good day, I have to head to the compound then I’m back at Mystic Falls.” Lisina nodded, knowing the discussion was over.

As Hayley got in her car to head to the compound she thought about Hope. Even though Lisina didn’t say anything directly and Hayley didn’t allow her to question further Lisina’s hesitation at even thinking Hope was a hybrid of some sort was exactly why Hope thought of herself as a mistake. It’s why it was so easy for Triad to convince her she was never meant to exist. No matter what Hope did, anyone who found out she wasn’t just a witch or not just a wolf ran the chance of judging her, of hating her before ever actually getting to know her.

Klaus was the most power creature in the world or at least he was before Marcel became the beast, but Klaus still thought of himself as the most powerful. Despite all his power though and despite being of the original family, vampires, witches, and werewolves all looked down on him because of his hybrid status. Hayley didn’t necessarily choose to become a hybrid but even still vampires didn’t see her as one of them and plenty of wolves didn’t see her the same anymore. Her pack learned to accept her as the alpha after some time and she would bet Jackson had more to do with it than anything but even after seventeen years of being their alpha there were still some members who looked at her sideways or hesitated when they were dealing with a problem involving the vampires. Each faction had their own hatred towards each other, the only thing all of them agreed on seemed to be the dislike of hybrids.

Before Hayley knew it, she was pulling up to the compound. She closed her eyes and sighed, trying to mentally prepare for what she was about to walk into. The whole family wasn’t going to be there, she only knew about herself, Freya, Keelin, Rebekah, and Marcel. Klaus was a definite no. Sometimes Elijah made a surprise visit, but he was usually too busy following Klaus, and he knew how hard it was for Hayley to be around him, it was hard for him as well, they both quietly seemed to agree it was easier to stay apart. Kol and Davina always were random with their visits, but she thought last she heard from them was Kol taking Davina on some epic romantic getaway to a country he hadn’t managed to show her yet.

Hayley made her way into the compound, her bag slung over her shoulder. As soon as she stepped foot into the place, she saw a flash of blonde hair and was instantly engulfed in a hug. The smile that appeared on Hayley’s face was completely natural. It had been a while since she had seen Rebekah, so she didn’t mind the bone crushing hug.

“Darling why don’t you let the rest of us have a turn,” Marcel’s voice came from behind Rebekah. He laughed lightly as he helped gently pry Rebekah off Hayley.

When Rebekah finally detached from Hayley and backed away enough, Marcel slipped between them and pulled Hayley into a hug. His was just as fierce as Rebekah’s just a little gentler and shorter. Keelin came running out of the kitchen, still wearing her apron, and pulled Hayley into a hug next. Freya came down the stairs, a soft smile on her face as she looked down at them. She made her way over to the group and gave Hayley a small hug. Hayley and Freya saw each other the most and Hayley talked to Freya more than anyone, so their hug was short and sweet.

“Glad you could make it,” Freya said.

“Of course,” Hayley said. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

“I was worried you’d call and say you were too busy in Mystic Falls,” Rebekah said, wrinkling her noise at the town.

“Yeah,” Marcel said. “Heard you’ve been helping out at the school? Heard they’re having a bit of a monster problem?” He gave her a disbelieving look.

“Yeah,” Hayley laughed out. “You kind of have to see it to believe it but it’s as crazy as it sounds.”

“Well, they’re lucky to have your help. If you ever need some extra muscle, you know where to find me.” Marcel gave her a wink.

Hayley rolled her eyes. Marcel might not have been biologically Klaus’s kid, but he raised him and even though they had their issues for a long time, Marcel definitely took after Klaus in many ways. Some of those qualities being cocky and arrogant. It was deserved though; Marcel was an incredible fighter. After he became the beast, he also became even more powerful than Klaus. Someone like him really would be useful in fighting the monsters.

“Are you sure your stay there only has to do with monsters and not those kids you stumbled upon in the woods?” Rebekah asked.

The tension in the room became obvious after that. Marcel turned away to avoid looking at Hayley or Rebekah. Keelin also turned away, pretending to look at the decorations. Hayley sent a glare to Freya who at least looked guilty, she mouthed ‘sorry’. Hayley tried to calm her irritation when she turned her attention back to Rebekah who was looking at her expectantly, eyebrows raised.

“They’re involved in the whole monster problem,” is what Hayley settled on saying.

“So why are you making it your problem? You don’t owe these kids anything.”

“I know,” Hayley rolled her eyes. “I just promised them I would help. I just-”

“Just what?” Rebekah didn’t even let her finish her thought. “It’s about the girl, right?” Rebekah’s glare was accusing.

Hayley didn’t bother hiding her sigh and eye roll. She sent a glare towards Freya again but saw Freya was looking at her sister questioningly.

“How did you know about that? I never mentioned a girl.” Freya accused.

“That’s not important,” Rebekah snapped, avoiding the question. “This is about Hayley avoiding the question.”

Hayley turned her glare onto Rebekah. “I’m not avoiding anything. Yes, it partially has to do with the girl.”

“Partially?”

“I want to help all three of them, but I connected with her. I promised her she didn’t have to do this alone. She’s special.”

Rebekah scoffed.

“Rebekah,” Hayley warned.

Before Rebekah could push more Marcel stepped in. “Babe,” he said standing in front of Rebekah. “How about we tone it down and just enjoy the time together, yeah? We see each other a few times a year if that. How about for once we don’t cause a fight?”

Rebekah glared at her fiancé before nodding. “Hayley,” she said calmly. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” Hayley replied, she couldn’t keep the bite out of her voice quite yet.

“Great!” Marcel clasped his hands. “What’s for dinner? You know how I love your cooking, Keelin.”

Keelin showed Marcel to the kitchen so he could get a few taste tests in before dinner. Rebekah following behind. Hayley stayed in the entry way for a few seconds with Freya. Freya watched Hayley for a moment before slowly approaching her.

“I’m sorry,” Freya said again. “You asked me what I knew about Malivore, and I ended up asking one day when they called. I never-”

“I know,” Hayley cut her off, her voice softer than before. “I understand. I should have known Rebekah would be on me about it. Even if you didn’t give her details, she has her ways.”

Freya swung her arm around Hayley and lead her to the kitchen with the others. The food was almost ready, so they all helped out by setting the table and carrying the food in. Once they were eating the tension had completely left the room and they were all passing servings and joking around. Rebekah barely took a breath as she went on and on about her and Marcel’s lives in New York. She was living a lovely lavish lifestyle and Marcel was enjoying finally getting to freely be with her though he did take a few vampires under his wing in the city. He wasn’t trying to recreate his empire like he had in New Orleans, but he was trying to help them out.

After dinner Marcel took Rebekah on a late-night romantic walk, telling the others not to wait up for them. Keelin went to bed early because despite the holidays she had to work in the morning. She had apparently been pulling a few double shifts at the hospital to get the time she did have off, but she had to work a shift one of the days while Hayley was in town.

Hayley was sitting on a bench on the balcony overlooking the city. She just took in the view, all the lights and the music despite it being so late. She heard a knock on the side of the balcony door and when she turned, she saw it was Freya. Hayley turned to look back at the city as Freya stepped onto the balcony, sitting in the spot next to Hayley.

“So,” Freya started softly, “how are things going?”

Hayley sighed, setting down her mug of tea. “It’s been okay.”

“And how are they really going?”

Hayley couldn’t help the small laugh she gave. Freya knew her so well. All the Mikaelson’s did really, and she knew them just as well. It was both good and bad. Knowing each other so well meant that no one would let anyone slide when they were clearly dealing with something.

“It hasn’t been bad. It also hasn’t been easy. Especially recently.” Hayley’s voice grew distant as she thought back to all the recent monsters all the way back to the nightmare one.

“What happened?”

“There was a monster that attacked using nightmares.” Hayley heard Freya suck in a breath but otherwise didn’t interrupt her. “It made us relive some of the worst moments in our lives. Its goal was to cause us as much pain as possible so it could manipulate one of us into giving it the knife. I’m sure you can guess what my nightmare was.” Hayley gave a hollow smile.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not sure,” Hayley admitted. “It was like experiencing it all over again. I lost her all over again. I reverted back to how I was when it happened, I shifted and didn’t turn back for a couple weeks.” Hayley wiped at the tears she didn’t realize had begun to fall. “I didn’t care about anything. There was a monster that ate werewolves.” Freya raised her eyebrows, her mouth dropping open. “Something told me to run away but when I knew it found me, I didn’t care what happened. I either I was going to get a satisfying kill and release some of my anger or I was going to die. I didn’t care which.”

“Considering you’re here right now and not in wolf form I assume something happened. What was it?”

Hayley knew Freya had a hundred questions, but she wasn’t asking them, she was just letting Hayley get her feelings out. Freya was the only one Hayley could be that open with. The only one besides Elijah at least, but he wasn’t around.

“Hope,” Hayley admitted in a whisper.

“The girl you found in the woods?” There was no accusation like there had been Rebekah, she was just asking to confirm it was the same girl

“Yeah, she was shifted and jumped on the thing to protect me.” Hayley thought back to the moment, she still couldn’t believe the kid had rushed out into the woods when that thing was out there just to save her. “She fought the thing but when it was about to get me, she took the hit.”

“Wow,” Freya breathed out.

“She’s okay now but she’s stubborn as hell.” Hayley smiled to herself remembering trying to get her to stay in the infirmary. “Had to basically beg her to let them wrap the wound and then allow me to drive her home.”

“She sounds tough.”

“She is. She really is. Freya this kid has been through hell. Her and the boy she was with they’ve been through so much. I can’t even begin to truly imagine it.”

“These were the two raised by Triad? The boy is a phoenix, and the girl is definitely a witch/werewolf hybrid?”

“Yeah, the boy, Landon, he’s a phoenix and apparently Malivore’s son.” Freya gave her a concerned look. “But he’s not evil!” Hayley quickly reassured her. “I don’t really know what the bigger plan is for him. I’m sure Malivore has one based on the way he’s sent monsters after the knife and Landon’s connection to the keys.”

“And Hope?”

“I didn’t get official confirmation she was definitely a wolf as well as a witch until the night she saved me. Then it was monster after monster on top of the Triad incident, so I didn’t get to discuss it with her until right before I left.”

“I’ve never heard of a werewolf/witch hybrid.”

“I know, me either. She isn’t really sure how she came to be. She’s sure her parents either willingly gave her up or they did want her and Triad killed them. She doesn’t really believe the latter.”

“Has she looked into her family? If you get me some of her blood, I can do a spell.”

“No and she doesn’t want to. I appreciate that though, it means a lot that you’d do that when you’ve never met her. I offered to help but considering the two options are abandonment or dead she said she was better off not knowing. I want to respect that.” Hayley ran a hand through her hair. “I can relate to her so much but not on that. Nothing got in my way when I was searching for answers on my parents.”

“Everyone’s different.”

“Yeah.” Hayley looked down at her cup of tea which had surely gotten cold by that point. “She sees herself as a mistake. Triad raised her to believe that no one wanted her and that she was only good for fighting monsters.” Hayley turned to look Freya in the eyes, seeing the pain she was feeling mirrored in the oldest Mikaelson’s face. “She hates herself. I’ve never met someone so young with so much self-hatred.”

“Triad really did a number on her,” Freya whispered, her voice sad.

“This kid has never known love or a normal life. The person she’s closest to is Landon. The way they are with each other I could only compare it to how you guys are with each other. For years they were all each other had. Now, I’m pretty sure Mystic Falls is the closest she’s been to a normal life, and she still can’t let herself have it.” Hayley let out a deep sigh. “How am I supposed to help someone who doesn’t think they’re worth it?”

Freya let out a sigh deep in thought. “It’s not easy. It’s not a quick fix. Despite everything we’ve been through Niklaus still sometimes thinks he can’t rely on us. He knows we’re family and we’re always there for each other despite everything, but he still goes through phases where he’s just waiting to be abandoned. You just have to keep showing them you won’t do that. Just have to keep being there for them.”

“This kid is good Freya. She’s had a horrible life. I’m honestly surprise Triad never broke her. She’s so strong. She deserves to have a life where she can be free and not constantly looking over her shoulder.”

“Is there more to this than just helping some kid with a rough childhood?” Freya asked hesitantly. She was watching Hayley like she was waiting for her to shut down or snap at her like she had at Rebekah.

“I don’t know.”

“Hayley,” Freya said softly.

“I know what I lost can never be replaced. This is not that. It’s not. I just know what it’s like to have no one. I won’t bother lying to you, I know I’m already attached to her. I can’t abandon her now. I have to see this through.”

Freya sighed. “Okay, I know I can’t stop you. I don’t want to start anything either because I can’t lose any more family. So, I am here for you whatever you need. Just-Just be careful. I know you want to save her but from what you told me about her and the monsters and Triad. There’s a chance-”

“I know,” Hayley cut her off, swallowing, trying to not let her tears fall. “I know. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen though.” Hayley looked at Freya with a determined look. She couldn’t save her daughter but there was no way she was letting anything happen to Hope. The kid deserved to be free. She deserved to finally be selfish and not have to worry about people dying because of it.

“Okay, goodnight, I’ll see you in the morning.” Freya got up and moved to head back inside.

“Freya?” the Mikaelson stopped in the doorway to turn back to Hayley. “Thank you. I might not have liked everything you said but I needed this.”

“Of course, you’re family, I’m always here for you.”

With that Freya left Hayley alone on the balcony to go back to her wife. Hayley stared at the city for a few more minutes before tossing her cold tea over the side of the balcony and heading in. It had been a long day and she had driven straight from Mystic Falls. She didn’t realize how tired she was until she got in bed. She was glad for her exhaustion because she was pretty sure that was the only thing that would keep her asleep.

When Hayley woke up in the morning, she was mostly well rested, exhaustion sometimes did wonders. When she looked at her phone, she saw it was late morning, but it wasn’t past noon, so she was going to take it as a win. When she went downstairs, she noticed no one was around. She knew Keelin was already at work, but she wasn’t sure about the others. She popped her head in the kitchen and made herself a fresh cup of coffee, then she noticed Rebekah sitting at one of the tables outside.

“Where is everyone?” Hayley asked, still rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Keelin is at work, Freya went to the market for more food,” Rebekah said, setting down the magazine she had been reading. “And Marcel is catching up with old friends.”

“Look, I’m sorry about yesterday.”

“Don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry. I shouldn’t judge when I haven’t been there and don’t know the full story.” Hayley was taken aback; it was rare for Rebekah to apologize. “I just worry about you. I’m sure this kid, kids,” Rebekah gave her a teasing smirk. “Really are special and they’re lucky to have someone like you who cares. I just want you to be careful.”

“I know and I am. Freya’s told me the same thing.”

“Good, at least my dearest sister is still reasonable.”

Hayley scoffed rolling her eyes.

Hayley watched at Rebekah went back to reading her magazine. The magazine wasn’t what caught her eye though. No, what caught her eye was the way Rebekah was subconsciously twisting her engagement ring around her finger.

“You’re allowed to set a date you know,” Hayley said softly.

Rebekah’s finger froze. She held out her hand looking at the engagement ring with sad eyes, letting out a sigh. “I know. I know I should probably just pick a date and get it over with.” Rebekah frowned at the thought. “I just can’t. I can’t, knowing not everyone would be there. I know all of you would, Kol and Davina, and even Elijah would but-”

“Not Klaus,” Hayley finished for her, understanding.

Rebekah looked down at her ring twisting it again. “I just can’t imagine my wedding without him. He’s out there and knowing he wouldn’t be there is just too much. I need Nik there; I need my brother.” There were unshed tears in Rebekah’s eyes.

“I know.”

“I hate it because I know Marcel wants to get married. He’s been so patient with me though. He hasn’t pressured me once.”

“Because he understands. He might not need Klaus there like you need him but I’m sure he wants him there. He gets it. That man would wait another thousand years if that’s what it took to finally be married to you.” That caused Rebekah to let out a small laugh and give a little nod, she knew it was true. Marcel would wait forever for her.

The next few days went by quickly and a little less depressing than they had started off. Hayley hung out with Rebekah and Freya the most. Rebekah dragged her around town to a few shops since it had been almost a year since she had been there, and she needed a shopping buddy. Rebekah said Marcel had great taste, but he just didn’t enjoy it the same. Hayley nodded, going along with it, really, she wasn’t sure how she was supposed to be much better. Hayley didn’t mind dressing up if the occasion called for it, but she wasn’t one of those girls that enjoyed shopping.

On Christmas Eve they all sat down for a nice big Christmas dinner together. The dinner Hayley’s first night back was great, but the Christmas dinner was next level. Keelin, Freya, and everyone helped cook or run and get groceries. They did everything as a family. They spent all day cooking and making everything from scratch. Some food was thrown. Rebekah pretended to be upset about being covered in flour, only to turn around and throw a bunch in Marcel’s face.

Hayley took the time to really appreciate the day. After dinner she knew she’d be hitting the road again for Mystic Falls. The good moments in New Orleans like the one they were having making dinner really made Hayley miss the place and everyone together. She could only imagine how exciting dinner would have become if the others had been there.

After the food was finally cooked, they brought everything out, setting it in the middle of the long dining room table. They were just about to sit down and dig in when they heard the front door open. They all simultaneously turned to see Kol, wearing a Santa hat, and Davina walking in. Kol already had his arms open wide for the hugs before anyone could even begin to think to run up to them. Once everyone processed that they were actually there they all ran from the table to greet them.

Rebekah hugged her brother. “Why didn’t you tell us you were coming?” she asked, slapping him in the back of the head.

“Wanted to surprise you,” Kol said.

“What about your trip?”  Marcel asked, hugging Davina.

“We’re going to head back the day after next,” Davina answered. “We missed you guys though.”

Hayley gave Davina a hug then Kol pulled her into one next. He kept his arm wrapped around her so he could lean in and whisper, “A little birdy told me you were getting into some trouble without me.”

Hayley laughed, rolling her eyes. She pushed his arm off her so she could smack him on the shoulder.

“Oh yeah you’d love it,” Hayley said.

“Great! I’ll swing by after our trip.”

“Not happening. I have enough problems there; I don’t need you causing even more.”

Kol brought his hand to his heart in feign offense. “Fine.” Kol pouted. “Though if you come into possession of any fun dark objects do call.” Kol smirked, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes.

“Well…” Hayley said slowly, returning his smirk. Kol’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas. “We did fight off the headless horseman recently and the girl I’m helping obtained his axe.”

Kol was no longer smirking but full-on smiling. “Oh, you must introduce me to this lovely girl.”

Hayley went to agree thinking maybe introducing Kol to Hope sometime down the line wouldn’t be so bad but then she started to really think about it. “I’m trying to help this kid and I think you’ll just help fuel the fire.”

Kol sighed. “You were always the most reasonable of the bunch. Now, let’s go eat and you can tell me more about the monsters and the little witch you’re protecting.”

Hayley rolled her eyes following behind him to the table. They all sat down, raising their glasses of wine in a silent toast, and started digging in. The meal was full of stories from the past year of all their lives and travel. Despite three members missing from the family and this time of year being the hardest for Hayley it also was the best. Being with the others all together and just finally sharing in the underlying sadness but also warmth of family.

Hayley stayed a little later than she planned, continuing on with the conversation. She finally decided to leave when she realized she was going to be arriving in Mystic Fall after one in the afternoon and she didn’t want to get there too late in the day. She said goodbye, giving hugs to everyone. None of them let her go until she promised to keep them updated and to call if she needed any of them. Even though she did agree, Kol commented that he knew she wouldn’t call but he would make sure to interrogate Freya every time they talked for about what she knew.

Chapter Text

Hope was on the couch reading a book. It was Christmas morning and even though Hope didn’t particularly care for the holiday she had to appreciate not having to work and the lack of people going out because most things were closed so they could spend time with families. She really appreciated the peace and quiet, not having to be at The Grill or have to open the gym. She figured she’d hear from Landon at some point and make her way over to Salvatore to see him and Raf. From the few texts he sent her since the break started it didn’t sound like to many students were there.

Her enjoyment of her relaxing day didn’t last long because her wristband started glowing red. Hope looked down at the pulsing red light. She sighed; her peaceful day was over. She should have known monsters don’t take the holidays off.

Hope got dressed and made her way out of the apartment. With most people gone for break the school was vulnerable even more than usually to an attack. She knew Alaric said he had the knife locked up and completely spelled but relying on some of his students didn’t fill her with the much confidence. She was sure they were good but at the end of the day she would still argue the knife would be safer with her. Even if she kept the knife under her pillow, it would probably still be safer.

She got to the woods and when she was out of the line of sight she shifted. There was no way she was walking all the way to Salvatore. Everyone was still in their homes for the morning, so she wasn’t all that worried about being spotted. She got to the school in moments but in those moments, it had started to snow.

Snow in Virginia wasn’t out of the ordinary, but it had been much too warm for snow. Hope stopped at the edge of the woods before the school and looked up to the sky. The air temperature hadn’t changed. It was still just as warm. There was no reason for snow.

Hope shifted back and slowly made her way to the front door of the school. She looked around but no one was outside. The snow was quickly starting to cover the ground. As she started to enter the school, she pulled out her phone to call Maya.

“Hey Hopey!” Maya greeted brightly after only one ring.

Hope took the phone away from her ear to give it a concerned look.

“You know I hate that,” Hope said.

“Aww, come on don’t be like that. It’s Christmas! The most magical time of the year!”

Hope knit her eyebrows at that. Maya loved the holidays like most other people, but she wasn’t usually so overly cheerful.

“Look, there’s another monster in town and I just got to the school and it’s snowing. Is it snowing there as well?”

“Of course, it’s snowing! It’s not really Christmas without it now, is it?”

“Okay, seriously, what is wrong with you right now?”

“That’s not a very nice thing to ask.” Hope could hear Maya pouting; it made her roll her eyes. “Why are you so grumpy today?”

“I’m not grumpy,” Hope snapped. She still hadn’t left the hallway of the school. “This is my usual attitude.”

“You need to start feeling some Christmas cheer Hopey!” Maya was back to sounding bright and happy. “I have the best idea, come over and build a snowman with me!”

Hope hung up the phone and tried to shake away the weirdness from that conversation. There was definitely something wrong.

When she turned around to face the rest of the hallways Hope saw it all decked out in lights and other Christmas decorations. The air was filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies and chocolate.

She looked in the den and saw a few students mingling, the fireplace going, and a giant green tree from floor to ceiling in the far-right corner. All the students had a mug of hot chocolate and were wearing some version of a red or green Christmas sweater. When they saw Hope, they all gave big smiles and waved.

Hope ignored them and continued down the hall. She had no idea what the hell was going on but there was no way she was dealing with that shit on her won. She needed to find Landon; he didn’t seem to mind happy people.

She made her way through the school until she got to the kitchen. When she pushed open the door, she saw Landon and Rafael, baking cookies, the same as everyone else, giant bright smiles on their faces.

“Hope!” Landon shouted when he noticed her.

Landon was wearing a blue apron, he had oven mitts on and was holding a new tray of cookies that had just been in the oven. He also had flour smeared across his cheek and all over his apron.

“How’s it going?” Rafael shouted just as cheerful. “Did you come to join the fun? We were about to make another batch.”

Rafael also had apron on though his was red. He was just as covered in flour and had some smeared across his forehead.

“Uh,” was all Hope could say. She looked around the kitchen seeing dozens of trays of cookies already. “Don’t you think you’ve made enough?”

“Of course, not silly,” Landon said. “We need to make more. It’s what Santa wants.”

“Right. Santa.”

“He’s real.” Landon lost all his cheer and became very aggressive. “After this we’re going outside to play in the snow.” Landon’s holiday cheer was quickly back. “You should join!”

“Sounds fun,” Hope said slowly, eyeing the two boys cautiously. “I got alerted there’s another monster though so I kind of need to be focused on that.”

“There’s no monster here.” Landon waved her off. “Forget about the monsters, we need to spread as much Christmas cheer as we can for Santa.”

When Landon turned to set the tray of cookies down Hope made her move and ran out of the kitchen. There was definitely a monster in town, and it was making everyone happy, she had to stop it.

Hope made her way to the headmaster’s office, she opened the door without knocking and saw Alaric, Dorian, and Emma all sitting around the desk drinking and laughing. They all also had Santa hats on.

“Hey!” Alaric yelled when he saw her standing in the doorway. “Did you come to join the festivities?”

“No,” Hope said. “We got a monster problem. Kind of seems like that should be the priority.”

Dorian waved his hand at that while Emma scoffed.

“There’s no monster problem.”

“Well considering everyone is acting insane I would disagree. The knife is vulnerable with everyone so focused on being happy.”

“Hope,” Dorian said. “You’re kind of bringing the mood down. We only want to spread Christmas cheer here.”

“Seriously come on in here,” Emma said. “Let’s talk maybe get you to experience this. Santa doesn’t like it when we’re grumpy.”

“I don’t got time for this,” Hope said, turning around and walking back out the door. She made sure to spell the door shut. She wasn’t fully sure why, but she didn’t think them being able to wander was a good idea, or maybe she just wanted to lock Alaric in his office, it didn’t really matter they couldn’t get in the way now.

Hope sighed, leaning back against the door. “I fucking hate my life,” she mumbled.

Just as she pushed herself off the wall an alarm started blaring throughout the school and red lights were flashing.

“Fuck,” Hope said, speeding off down the hall.

It was the alarm for the knife. Something was trying to break down its defenses. Hope got to the place the knife was locked up in seconds. She opened the door to see the knife on a podium in the middle of the room behind a magic barrier.

Standing in front of the podium with his back towards her was a large man in a red suit. Not just any type of suit though it was a Santa suit. He had his sleeves rolled up as he held two large cutlass swords and slashed at the magic barrier.

The barrier flickered with every hit but otherwise held. The man focused all his strikes on one spot, the blades of the swords started to glow a light blue. After a few more hits in the spot the barrier shattered.

“Oh shit,” Hope whispered.

The guy in the suit sheathed his swords at his sides. He moved to reach for the knife but Hope quickly said a spell causing the knife to shoot past the man in red and right into her hand.

The man in red slowly turned to face her.

“Holy shit,” Hope whispered again.

Standing before her was a large man in a red Santa suit, he even had the Santa hat. She was staring at the real-life Santa Claus. He did not look like the Santa in all the pictures or in any of the movies Landon forced her to watch. This Santa though wearing the famous red suit and even had the white hair, that’s where the similarities stopped. The guy’s beard was long and braided, he even had pieces of his long hair in braids as well. He was not smiling but snarling. And his eyes were definitely not filled with joy and wonder. He also wasn’t big and jolly. The guy was big, but it was all muscle.

Santa unsheathed his swords, slashing them together as he prepared to face Hope. Santa snarled, slashing his swords one more time before they started to glow blue again. Now that he was facing her Hope got a better look at the swords, they really looked like typical pirate swords. The edge of the blades were the only thing that glowed blue save for the words engraved on the blades. One blade said ‘Naughty’ while the other said ‘Nice’.

“Fuck,” Hope whispered. It was already an exhausting day, and it was barely past noon.

Hope slipped the knife in her back pocket and ran back out the door, making sure to close it. It wouldn’t do much if anything but if it slowed Santa down for half a second then it would be worth it. Hope backed up down the hall making sure not to take her eyes off the door. She turned her head to see a sword hanging on the wall, she picked it up, hoping Alaric didn’t cheap out and it was actually a real sword.

Santa kicked the door down. He stood there for a second snarling before charging straight towards Hope. He swung both swords, crossing both his arms. Hope ducked just before the blades made contact. When he pulled the blades away, she did a back flip, making sure to hold her sword at the ready.

Santa swung one sword after another, Hope blocked each swing with her one sword. He kept pressing forward, forcing Hope to backup down the hall until she reached the front doors. She looked in the rooms as she passed them and saw everyone completely ignoring the fight going on and still going about their happy holiday.

Santa swiped both swords at the same time again. Hope jumped back out of the way but held her sword out to block. The second Santa’s two glowing swords met Hopes one sword they sliced hers in half.

Hope looked at the hilt in her hand, even though it was less than half the size and there wasn’t really any blade left it was all she had so she held it out, ready to continue the fight.

Instead of swinging again, Santa used his foot and kicked Hope in the chest with enough force to send her flying back, crashing through the front doors.

She brought her hand to her chest; it didn’t feel like anything was broken but Santa sure had one hell of a kick. He completely knocked the wind out of her.

Before she could stand back up Santa was standing over her. He slashed one of his swords down at her. Hope rolled to the left causing Santa’s blade to graze her shoulder instead of killing her.

At the same time, she brought her right hand up, that was still holding the hilt of her broken sword, managing to stab Santa in his side.

Santa stumbled back hissing in pain. He brought a hand to his side causing him to drop one of his swords. He was bleeding. That was good it meant he was killable. Before Hope could stab him again though he disappeared in a blizzard of flurries.

“Fuck,” Hope let out in a breath, as she dropped her head back onto the snow-covered ground.

Hope pulled herself back to her feet, grabbing Santa’s sword that he dropped. She guessed because he hadn’t been holding it when he disappeared that it got left behind. She looked closer and though it was no longer glowing blue she could see that it was the one that said ‘naughty’. Hope decided to hold on to it. Her original sword broke, and she figured one of his swords could stand against the other.

She looked at her arm and saw the cut. It wasn’t terrible, a relatively small scratch but it wasn’t healing as quick as it should. Despite the circumstances that was good to know, she’d try to avoid being stabbed next time.

She made her way back into the school and to the infirmary. Everyone completely ignored her and what had happened outside. No one was in the infirmary either, not even a nurse. She figured Alaric owed her so decided to help herself and clean up the cut.

Hope slipped off her hoodie she was wearing and rolled up her sleeve so she could see the cut fully. There was a light steam coming off the cut and there was a slight burning sensation. The way Santa’s weapons worked weren’t like the headless horseman, his cuts didn’t cauterize the wound, but they possessed some type of magic that made them glow and burn the cut from the inside.

She didn’t think she needed stitches and a patch up would do. Even though her healing was working slowly she did make sure to sanitize the cut just in case. She had to dig through the cabinet a bit to find the right stuff but considering it was a magic school she knew they had to have some magic solution. She usually wouldn’t worry too much but because of the burning from the blade she needed to make sure she got something to counteract the magic if it were a type of magic that would cause more harm down the line.

“Fuck!” she yelled through gritted teeth as soon as the solution hit the cut. The burning of the cut and the solution intensified for a moment. She ended bunching the front desk, putting her hand right through it. She looked down to see a fist shaped hole in the desk. “Oops,” she mumbled but not really caring.

The door to the infirmary creaked open, Hope spun around to face the intruder, grabbing the sword in case of an attack. She figured it was either Santa coming back to finish the job or one of the happy people, if she were being honest, she would probably have to qualms about using the sword on either. It was neither though it was Hayley.

Hope eyed her cautiously. She didn’t seem overly joyful like the others, but she couldn’t be sure until Hayley actually started talking.

“What the hell is going on?” Hayley said. “And why is everyone like creepily happy?”

Hope let out a sigh of relief, Hayley wasn’t happy, this was great. “Thank god, I’m so glad you’re not happy.”

Hayley gave her a questioning look. “Thank you?” she noticed the cut on Hopes arm and made her way over to the desk, grabbing the gauze and wrap to patch it up for her.

“Trust me it’s a good thing. I don’t know why but everyone is like super happy and not at all concerned about anything except for being joyful and spreading joy to others.”

“I assume it’s a monster? And why is it snowing?”

“Yep, got alerted this morning and then made my way here. The snow started as soon as I got here, and everyone was already weirdly happy. I called Maya, it’s also affecting the town.”

“Any idea what it is yet?” Hayley finished tying the wrapping off. “That feel okay?”

“Yes, thank you.” Hope rolled down her sleeve, slipping her hoodie back on. “And yeah, I know exactly what it is we’re dealing with. Already fought it, that’s how I got this little scratch.”

Hayley nodded then tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. After Hope just stared at her for a second Hayley rolled her eyes and asked, “Well, what is it?”

“It’s uh,” Hope paused, looking up towards the ceiling. She fought the thing and yet she still found it insane to say. “It’s uh Santa Claus.” Hope dropped her eyes to the ground then flicked her gaze to Hayley to see the woman’s reaction.

Hayley looked at her for a moment then burst out laughing. She laughed for a solid minute it felt like before she seemed to noticed Hope wasn’t laughing and was giving her an unamused look.

“Shit, you’re serious?” Hayley asked.

“Yeah,” Hope sighed. “It’s been a long day already.”

“How is Santa Claus a monster? Every version I’ve heard about he’s the good guy.”

“Yeah, well none of the versions I’ve heard about looked like a goddamn pirate Santa and carry two fucking magic swords.”

“Swords?”

“Yeah.” Hope grabbed the sword again and handed to Hayley who took it an began studying it. “When he had them the blade glowed a light blue color. He’s still got the other one, that one says ‘nice’.”

“How clever. Is this why the cut isn’t healing.” Hayley gestured to the cut on her arm.

“I assume so. His blades give off some type of magic, the cut had a burning sensation before. I treated it with a magic counteractive solution, so the healing should be better now. That being said don’t let this thing cut you.”

“Any idea how to get rid of him?”

“I stabbed him in the side when we fought. He disappeared in a blizzard of flurries. Haven’t seen him since so I think he might be recovering. I know I injured him though; he was bleeding. Just need to make the next shot counts.

“You stabbed Santa Claus?”

“He was trying to kill me!” Hope threw up her hands. “Also, he almost got this,” Hope pulled out the knife from her back pocket. “Whatever magic is in his swords broke the barrier.”

“Great so he’ll definitely be coming back for that.” Hayley leaned back against the desk, running a hand through her hair.

Hope moved next to her, also leaning against the desk. “So, welcome back.”

Hayley couldn’t help but laugh. “Thanks, this is just what I wanted to return to.”

“Did you have fun?”

“I think so.” Hayley seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before continuing. “It was nice and there were good moments.”

“But also, bad ones.”

Hayley nodded. “What about you? Did you do anything, or did you hold yourself up in your apartment the entire time?” Hayley gave Hope a knowing look.

“I actually did go have dinner with Maya and her family. It was nice. I imagine that that’s what a normal family dinner is like.”

“I think it’s probably good you went. Doing something normal isn’t so bad.”

Hope laughed at that. Hope sat there staring at the blank wall in front of them for a moment. She thought about everything in her life and how much normal she even had in it. Hayley was probably right doing stuff that was normal to most people was probably a good idea, she’s certainly had a lot of the opposite.

“Do you…” Hayley gave Hope a questioning look but didn’t interrupt yet. “Do you think we’ve just had so much hurt in our lives, that we’re so damaged that whatever happy magic is going around doesn’t work on us?”

Hayley sighed. “Maybe,” Hayley answered honestly. “I know I’m not the biggest fan of the holidays anymore, that with any happiness there’s an underlying sadness now. I think you’re in a similar position, though I think you more choose not to let yourself feel happiness than anything.” Hope wasn’t looking at her, but she knew Hayley was looking at her with sadness. “I don’t mean to offend,” Hayley offered kindly.

“No,” Hope shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor. “You’re right. There’s been moments I let myself have fun, but I just can’t let myself be happy, truly happy.”

“Well,” Hayley’s tone became lighter. “it seems for once our misery will come in handy. I mean clearly, we can’t rely on anyone else.”

Hope managed to laugh at that. “Seriously, I was fighting Santa up and down the hallway, not one person even acknowledged it, not so much as a glance.”

“Think that’s part of his deal? He causes everyone to fall into a wonderous joyful state to distract them then with his magic swords he breaks the magical barrier to steal the knife then when he returns it to Malivore no one has a clue.”

“Maybe.” Hope thought back to the conversations she had with everyone. “Or maybe it’s more than that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone I talked to, Maya, Landon, Raf, Alaric, all of them were very insistent on me joining in on the festivities. They even commented that Santa wouldn’t be happy with my attitude.”

“Like whatever reason he’s making everyone happy serves a bigger purpose than just a distraction. I mean if I had the whole town happy as just a distraction, I wouldn’t care about the one or two people who aren’t affected.”

“Right, before I knew it was actually Santa, I didn’t believe Landon at first and it was like all the joy left him and he got angry, like I needed to believe him.”

“So, you think defeating Santa will be enough to break the spell?”

“That or we could try making everyone super miserable.” Hope smiled innocently at Hayley. Hayley stared back, blinked a few times, and shook her head.

“Let’s try killing Santa first.” Hope tried holding in another laugh while Hayley closed her eyes and sighed. “I never thought I would say that.”

Hope slipped the knife back in her back pocket then grabbed the sword then her and Hayley made their way out of the infirmary, slowly opening the door so they could peek their heads out into the hall. No one had disturbed them the entire time, but she wasn’t sure how long it would take Santa to heal himself or reconvene or whatever it was he decided to do.

They made their way into the hallway when they didn’t see anyone. They stood there a moment before they heard singing coming from the common room. Hayley and Hope both gave each other concerned looks. Hope may not be big on Christmas to begin with, but she definitely didn’t understand caroling.

Hope had the sword at the ready as she and Hayley slowly crept towards the common room. When they got close enough, they each peeked their head around the entryway again. Standing before them was Santa Claus in front of the fireplace, holding out his arms as all the people left in the school were gathered around singing Christmas carols.

Santa raised his one sword in rejoice. As the singing got louder and the more people got into it, he cheered them on. He looked to the sword and saw it starting to glow blue.

“Hey,” Hope whispered, nudging Hayley. “I think he might get his power from their joy.” Hope pointed to the sword, “See it started to glow again as their singing got louder.”

“Like it’s recharging,” Hayley said, nodding along.

“Wait, the singing stopped.”

Hope and Hayley both turned back to the common room and saw everyone had stopped singing and was now facing them. Everyone was moving simultaneously. It was weird but Hope considered the overly cheerfulness even weirder.

Santa snarled at them, pointing his sword at Hope. He eyed his sword that she now carried. He began stomping towards them, the group clearing out of his way. As he walked down the path they created, the students even kneeled for him, as if he was some sort of god.

“You got to be fucking kidding,” Hope said, gesturing in disbelief. She shot Hayley a look who just held up her hands and rolled her eyes.

When Santa got close enough, he swung, Hope blocked with her sword, and she was right it didn’t break. Despite hers not glowing like his it was strong enough to hold up. He kept swinging and Hope dodged every attack.

At one point he swung, she ducked, and his sword got embedded in the doorframe. Hope took the opportunity to swing at him, but he retrieved his sword just in time to block her attack.

Hayley moved to help but was grabbed by Rafael. She pushed him to the ground only to be grabbed by Landon. The other students were attacking Hayley to stop her from helping Hope.

“You know I could use some help,” Hope shouted between swings and dodging.

“They keep coming after me!” Hayley yelled back, pushing another kid to the ground.

“You’re a hybrid.” Hope turned to look at Hayley, ducking and rolling just in time to miss Santa’s swing. She rolled behind him and quickly got up and kicked him from behind. He didn’t say anything, but Santa did let out a growl.

“I don’t want to hurt them.”

Hope rolled her eyes and put her full focus back on the fight with Santa.

Santa charged at her swinging again. Hope jumped to the side, the blade barely missing her. The blade dug itself into the wooden mantle of the fireplace. This time before Santa had time to release it Hope brought her sword down, slicing off his hand holding the sword.

Santa stepped back howling in pain, clutching the arm with the now missing hand. His screams caused everyone to stop, even the people attacking Hayley stopped their assault, turning to see what would happen next.

Hope bent down, peeling Santa’s fingers off the sword they still gripped on to. She held both swords in her hands, spinning them, getting use to the feeling.

Santa huffed a few times, breathing heavily. He charged at her weaponless and screaming a battle cry. Hope stuck both swords out when he was in her proximity, piercing him right through the chest with both blades.

She pulled the blades out, kicking Santa off them as she did so. She flicked them to the side to get some of the blood off as Santa collapsed to his knees. Hope looked around the room to see everyone bringing a hand to their head or blinking rapidly, the joyful magic finally wearing off of them. Santa started to fall forward but before the rest of his body hit the ground he disappeared, turning into flurries, leaving a small pile of snow behind.

Hope let out a relieved sigh. She looked to where the severed hand was and saw it too had turned into flurries. She turned her head to get a look out the window and saw the snow outside was completely gone.

“Thank you for saving me,” Landon said approaching her. “Though I think you might have just ruined any Christmas movie involving Santa for me.”

“Sorry,” Hope offered.

After Hope killed Santa everyone was conflicted between being thankful she saved them and giving her weird looks because she just murdered a part of their childhood. They let Alaric and the others out of the office, and they helped calm the students down and get everyone settled again.

Alaric said dinner would still be offered and they could celebrate however they wanted but he wasn’t going to force the Christmas party on anyone. He needed a quiet night after the day and said everyone else could do that as well or still put on a small party.

Hope and the others took the knife back to the room it had been being kept in. She placed it back on the podium and said a spell. Alaric tried to argue but ended up relenting when Hope agreed to leave the knife at the school still as long as she was the one to put up the protection barrier. She put up multiple barriers around the podium and knife. Then when they left the room Hope said a spell to lock the doors and added another layer of protection over it, it would make sure only certain people could enter the room itself.

Hayley went back to her house to unpack from her trip. Landon and Raf ended up going back to Hopes place to celebrate the rest of Christmas just the three of them. They didn’t have a solid plan, but they thought it would be nice just hanging out together. Hope also made sure to bring both of Santa’s swords back home with her. Landon also brought a tub of some of the cookies he made. He said even though he wasn’t being force to feel the joyfulness they were still cookies and cookies shouldn’t go to waste.

Hope was lounging on the couch while Landon sat on the floor going through various Christmas movies he wanted to watch. Rafael was digging through her kitchen, complaining she had nothing to eat. Hope reminded him that she lived alone she didn’t need food for multiple people usually.

Hopes phone started ringing, she figured it was going to be Josie or Maya but was surprised when it was Hayley.

“Hey, what’s up?” Hope answered the phone.

“Get Landon and Rafael and come outside,” is all Hayley said.

“What?” Hope waited for a response, but none ever came, Hayley had already hung up. “Hey,” she threw a crumbled-up piece of paper from one of her sketches at Landon. “Hayley wants us to come outside.”

Both boys gave her questioning looks but she just shrugged. They made their way outside and saw Hayley’s car in front of the gym. Before any of them could question why she was there and what she was doing she told them to get in the car.

After they were all in the car Hayley drove them back to what Hope recognized as her house.

“So, I know it’s not the most exciting,” Hayley started as they made their way to her front door, “And it’s nothing special.” She put her key in and unlocked the front door. “But I felt like you deserved something after the day you had.”

When they entered the house, they didn’t see any decorations which didn’t surprise Hope since Hayley had gone out of town and she mentioned the holidays weren’t her favorite time anymore. She did however see the dining room table set with four plates.

“You mentioned,” Hayley started again, looking at Hope. “That you guys never really got a proper Christmas and I know this technically isn’t that, but I felt like you all deserved to have something nice together.”

“It’s perfect,” Hope said softly. It didn’t matter that it was simple, and nothing was fancy, no one had done anything like that for any of them before.

They all took their seats at the dining table and began digging into some pizza Hayley had gotten. Pizza definitely wasn’t most people’s typical Christmas dinner, but it worked for them. Everything felt casual and comfortable, nothing felt force and not once did Hope feel like she was intruding on something

They ended up staying for a few hours until late in the night, never even leaving the dining table. They all sat around snacking on the cookies Landon had run back into the apartment to grab. They all told stories about funny or weird stuff they got into or things they saw. Hayley and Hope even told them the full story about the Santa monster. Despite living it Landon and Raf’s memories were a bit fuzzy from being under Santa’s influence. That’s how they spent the night, laughing and always finding new things to bring up to keep the conversation going. Hope had never seen Landon look as relax as he did that night and Hope had never felt so light, for once not thinking about the fate of the world.

Chapter Text

Hope was rushing around taking orders to tables. Christmas was over but there was still a few days left of winter break so a lot of students that went out of town were coming back, and the Grill was packed. It also didn’t help that it was New Year’s Eve and it seemed liked everyone was out trying to eat before their parties or ordering a bunch of food for their parties.

“Can I get a strawberry shake?” a voice asked sweetly.

Hope was finishing writing out an order when her hand froze. She looked up, smiling before she even began to turn around.

She turned around and saw her, Josie. Hopes smile grew wider at the site of the other girl who had just as big of a smile.

“What are you doing here?” Hope asked. “I thought you weren’t getting back till after the new year.”

“That was the plan,” Josie explained. “But we missed our friends and Lizzie wanted to be at the school for the big New Year’s party.”

Hope tilted her head at that.

“Landon and Raf had to of told you about it,” Josie said shocked.

“I’m sorry, have you met me? Hi, I’m Hope, I hate parties.”

Josie playfully slapped her shoulder. “Please, tell me you’re gonna come? Please, I’m going to need someone to hang out with while Lizzie scours the crowd for someone to kiss at midnight while everyone else is doing the same or just getting drunk.”

Hope gave a shy smile at the thought of going to the party and hanging out with Josie the whole night. Then being with her when the clock struck midnight and kissing her for the first time. She cleared her throat and shook her head to get rid of the daydream.

“Well how could I pass up an opportunity like that?” Hoped asked with a smile. “I’ll be there.”

“Great!” Josie said cheerfully. “Do you have time for a break to catch up?”

Hope looked around at the restaurant. The business had settled, and all the tables had their food.

“Yeah,” Hope nodded. “I think I can spare ten minutes. Let me grab that shake for you.”

Hope went and personally made Josie’s strawberry shake. When she was done, she brought it to the booth Josie had chosen and slid into the seat across from her.

“So, when did you land?” Hope asked, sliding the shake across the table.

Josie grabbed the shake, bringing it closer to her. “I don’t know about two hours ago.”

“And I was your first stop?”

“Well, we landed then waited around about an hour for our dad who never showed.” Josie swirled the straw around the shake. “Ended up taking a cab back to the school. I dropped my stuff off and came right here.”

“Alaric forgot you guys?”

Josie nodded, playing with her straw. “He wouldn’t happen to be dealing with a monster problem, would he?”

Hope shook her head, raising her wrist to show the wristband wasn’t glowing.

Josie sighed, nodding her head, she leaned forward and slowly took a small sip. She licked her lips a few times, leaning back as if she was deep in thought. Hope leaned forward, impatiently waiting for the girl’s verdict.

“You’re smart, you fight monsters,” Josie started to list. “You’re a natural leader, you’re in prime physical form.” Hope smirked at that, trying to hold in a laugh. It didn’t seem like Josie had realized what she had said. “And you make an amazing milkshake. It’s not fair!” Josie threw her arms in the air. “You’re like perfect.”

“I’m far from perfect.”

Josie rolled her eyes. They talked for a few more minutes before Hope had to get back to work.

“When do you get off?” Josie asked before Hope could walk away.

“Two more hours,” Hope sighed.

“Is it alright if I wait around? We can hangout until the party?” Josie dropped her eyes to the table, avoiding looking at Hope.

“Yeah, I’d really like that. If you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, no problem. Don’t want to go back anyway. I have no desire to get in the middle of Lizzie arguing with dad about forgetting to pick us up.”

Hope continued with her shift. She checked on Josie occasionally and got her some fries to snack on while she waited and a drink after she finished her shake.

When Hope was finally done with work, she walked over to Josie’s booth who quickly got up and lead Hope out the door.

“So, what’s the plan?” Hope asked.

“How about we go back to your place?” Josie suggested. “And you can tell me all about how you killed Santa Claus.” Josie smirked.

Hoped sighed, rolling her eyes. “You heard about that.”

“Oh yeah.” Josie was still smiling brightly. “The first thing we heard when we stepped through the doors was everyone talking about how the scary badass wolf witch girl killed a childhood legend.”

“Look,” Hope gestured with her hand, “in my defense Santa was kind of a dick.”

“Mmhmm,” Josie nodded unconvinced.

Hope continued to try and defend herself with Josie just nodding along as they made their way back to Hopes apartment. They had a few hours to kill before the party and Hope was going to use that time to make sure Josie understood Santa had to die.

“All I’m saying is,” Hope continued as she opened the door to her apartment. “That Santa is creepy. Watching little kids as they sleep. Breaking into houses in the middle of the night.”

“To leave presents,” Josie deadpanned.

“Cats leave dead animals for people, but it’s never taken as something good.”

Josie huffed out a laugh while rolling her eyes again, as she threw herself on the couch. Hope couldn’t help but smile at how comfortable Josie had gotten when she came over.

“Look Santa from your childhood may be all full of love and joy but that Santa was definitely not. He looked like a pirate and when I wouldn’t let him steal the knife so he could take it back to Malivore, bringing us one step closer to the end of the world, he tried to skewer me alive. Multiple times!” Hope threw her hands in the air.

“Yes, yes yes I know this Santa was evil.” Hope nodded; finally glad Josie was seeing it her way. “But did you have to kill him in front of everyone? And did you have to cut off his hand? There were children in the room.”

Hope let out an exaggerated groan. “He was trying to stab me! Look his sword was all I had so when I got the opportunity, I took it. He was forcing everyone to feel joy so he could be selfish and power himself up. Also, the whole cutting off the hand thing wasn’t intentional. It was just a reflex,” Hope mumbled that last part.

Josie laughed, clearly finding Hopes pouting amusing. Josie got up from the couch to grab Hopes arm and bring her to the couch, so they were sitting next to each other.

“You kept the swords, didn’t you?” Josie eyed Hope knowingly.

Hope grinned and nodded, genuinely excited still. “I’m thinking about getting them framed.”

Josie rolled her eyes but kept her smile. “Come on, I know you want to show me.”

Hope jumped up from the couch and ran to her room to grab the two swords. She really was excited. She loved showing off her new toys from monsters. Considering she couldn’t make them glow blue like Santa could they weren’t as exciting as the headless horseman’s axe, but they were still one of the coolest weapons she’d gotten from a monster.

She ran back into the living room, flopping onto the couch. She held up the swords so Josie could see them. Josie took one of the swords in her hands while Hope kept hold of the other. Josie turned it in her hands, studying it, truly fascinated.

“Naughty?” Josie questioned; she ran her fingers over the word engraved on the blade.

Hope nodded. “And this one says nice,” Hope said, tilting the other sword so Josie could read the blade.

“Wow.”

“He made people happy and feel Christmas spirit because he got power from their joy. When he was all powered up the blades glowed this icy blue color.”

Hope grabbed her sketch book and flipped to the sketch of Santa she had been working on. Josie looked at it for a second then looked back at Hope giving her a deadpanned look.

“What?” Hope questioned, looking back at her sketch. She thought it really captured Santa.

“This is not what he looked like,” Josie said exasperated.

“Yes, it was! Ask anyone, they all saw him.” Josie shook her head still not convinced. “I told you he looked more like a pirate than your stereotypical Santa.”

Josie rolled her eyes. “So, if we feel joyful will the blades start glowing?”

“No,” Hope pouted. “During the fight when I picked it up even though his other blade was being powered the one, I had didn’t light up.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thanks.” Hope knew Josie was just humoring her, but she appreciated the effort.

“You really had an eventful time while I was away.”

Hope nodded in agreement. “What about you? I know we talked but tell me about Paris. How was it? How as seeing your mom?”

“It was amazing,” Josie sighed dreamily, smiling as she remembered her vacation. “Paris was awesome but seeing mom was the best. It’s been so long. We spent every day together. She picked us up at the airport and it was like no time had passed we picked up as if she hadn’t been gone.”

Hope gave a small smile. She couldn’t take her eyes off Josie. She loved seeing the girl so happy and rambling about her mom and time in Paris.

“That’s amazing. Tell me everything.”

Josie didn’t need to be told twice. She got into everything, from the second Alaric dropped them off at the airport to the second their plane landed back in Mystic Falls. She rambled about everything, the museums, the architecture, the shopping, the food. Hope was surprised Josie remembered to breath during her rambling. Hope just nodded along, she didn’t have time to interject or ask questions because Josie just kept going. Hopes smile never left her face though. Josie even pulled out her phone and swiped through all the pictures she took, which there was hundreds of.

They continued talking about Josie’s trip. Once Josie was done rambling about everything Hope was finally able to ask questions which Josie happily answered. Hope wasn’t sure how long they had been talking but next thing she knew her wristband was glowing red.

Josie looked down at the glowing wristband. “Another monster,” she sighed.

“Well, it wouldn’t be a welcome home without one now,” Hope said.

She and Josie got up from the couch and made their way out the door.

“So, we headed to the school?” Josie asked.

“Might as well, that’s where they always end up,” Hope answered.

Hope called Maya to have her give them a ride to the school. Normally Hope would walk or shift but with Josie, she figured it would be quicker to get a ride, it was also a bit cold out and Hope knew Josie wasn’t naturally warm like Hope due to her werewolf genes.

Maya quickly arrived after making Hope promise she could help with the monster. Hope agreed as long as Maya promised to listen and not go running off into danger.

They pulled up to the school not long after that. All three girls slowly got out of the car. The entire school was trashed. There was stuff all over the front lawn, draped over the building, and plastered all over the walls. They had just shut the car doors when a few fireworks went off. It was daylight and nowhere near midnight, so it was concerning.

“This part of the New Year’s party?” Hope asked, already having a feeling she knew the answer.

“There’s a New Year’s party?” Maya asked. “Can I come?” Hope shot her friend a glare. Maya just shrugged, still wanting an answer.

“No,” Josie said, ignoring Maya’s question. “We don’t do fireworks. It would draw to much attention to the school.”

The trio slowly approached the front doors, gently pushing them open. The inside was even more trashed than the outside, furniture tipped over, students and teachers running around and screaming like crazy.

There were students and teachers all over. They were in the halls making out or in the common room drinking.

“Something is definitely wrong,” Josie whispered. “I’m pretty sure my dad knows we party at the old mill, but he would never let us openly drink in the school.”

As they made their way through the school towards Alaric’s office, they were cut off by two students devouring each other, pushing each other into the hall and into the walls. They were already practically ripping each other’s clothes off out in the open. Hope was so caught off guard she didn’t realize they weren’t two random students but Rafael and Lizzie.

“Lizzie?” Josie shrieked. The couple didn’t break apart. “Lizzie!” Josie shouted again but this time out of annoyance and not in shock.

“Raf!” Hope threw a little authority in her voice; she didn’t like going full alpha when she didn’t need to.

It worked though. The couple broke apart, detangling themselves from each other. Neither looked embarrassed at having been caught.

“Sorry,” Rafael said, a wide smile still on his face. “We got a little carried away.”

Lizzie giggled, grabbing onto Rafael’s arm. “You guys should join us,” she said.

Josie’s eyes widened at her sister’s suggestion. Hope couldn’t help but do the same at the implication.

“Seriously,” Lizzie continued, elaborating more, “the party is insane. Has to be the best one yet. You have to join. There’s some drinks in the kitchen, you guys need to catch up.”

Lizzie released Rafael’s arm to lean over and loudly whisper in her sister’s ear, “Maybe I won’t be the only one getting lucky tonight with my crush.”

Josie’s face reddened; she couldn’t say anything after that. Hope cleared her throat trying to avoid looking at anyone. Hope knew Maya was smiling widely though.

“Bye!” Lizzie called over her shoulder as she latched onto Rafael again and dragged him upstairs.

“We should-we should really figure out what’s going on,” Hope said, clearing her throat again.

“Yeah,” Josie agreed, vigorously nodding.

Neither girl commented on what Lizzie had said. Maya followed behind them still smiling as they continued their way to the headmaster’s office.

They passed a classroom that had a few students in it. They would normally ignore it, but Hope stopped when she noticed one of the students was Landon, wearing a wizard hat and cloak. He was with a few students, one which Landon had told her about a few times, whose name she thought might be Wayne or something like that. They were all dressed up like some sort of wizard or other mythical figure. They had multiple desks pushed together and were all gathered around looking at some sort of board game. She vaguely recognized it as the game Landon loved to play but she always tuned him out when he started to talk about it.

“Lan?” she asked. She waited for a reply, but one never came. Landon just continued to speak with a horrible fake accent to the other students who were completely engulfed in the story Landon was weaving. Not a single one of them broke their line of sight from Landon.

The students all had red plastic cups of what Hope assumed was the alcohol everyone was drinking. Landon wasn’t a big drinker but whatever monster was around was clearly lowering people’s inhibitions.

“Whatever,” Hope said. They weren’t causing harm to anyone, and Landon wasn’t in danger, so she didn’t really care what they were doing. “Let’s keep moving.”

They finally got to the headmasters’ office but before they could open the door, they heard the sound of music. It wasn’t music from the stereo, and it wasn’t like anything else playing in the school, it wasn’t what anyone in the school would listen to.

Hope dropped her hand from the doorhandle and followed the sound of music. They followed it until it lead them right to the hall that lead to the door that lead to the room the knife was being kept.

They turned the corner, looking down the hall to see Alaric, just like Lizzie, he was making out with someone, pressing them up against the wall. He also fumbled with a key in his hand trying to unlock the door.

On the other side of the wall was a young man with short curly brown hair, little horns poking through the top of his head. He was wearing a brown leather sleeveless vest. His bottom half though wasn’t human, he wasn’t wearing any pants, but his legs were covered in fur, and his feet were actually hooves. He was leaning against the wall playing reed pipes.

“Holy shit,” Maya whispered, slapping Hopes shoulder. “Is that a satyr?”

“Dad!” Josie screamed in horror. “Miss. Tig!” she yelled when the person Alaric was kissing came into view. It was the school guidance counselor. Hope was sure that would make for an awkward next session.

Josie’s shriek broke the two adults apart. Alaric turned around to wave at his daughter. “Sweetheart, welcome home!” he said. Emma brushed her hands over her outfit, trying to smooth out the wrinkles.

The satyr stopped playing his flute, casting a glance at the intruders. Before anyone could react or say anything the satyr took off down the hall, running right through the girls, nearly knocking them over with his force.

They all took off back down the hall after the satyr, leaving Alaric and Emma alone to continue with whatever they were doing.

When they got back to the front of the school and out the doors, they saw the satyr already across the lawn and entering the woods.

“Damn he’s fast,” Hope said. Hope couldn’t be fully surprised; the guy was half-goat after all.

“Well wolf out and get to chasing him,” Maya said, gesturing towards where the satyr had disappeared to. “I mean wolves chasing goats, it should seem natural.”

Maya smiled to herself, laughing at her own joke. Hope glared at her friend, letting out a small but low growl. Maya instantly stopped laughing and gave her friend a hesitant smile.

“Okay, I realize that might be a little offensive,” Maya started.

“It’s completely offensive,” Hope said.

Before Maya could say anything, else Hope pushed past her, shifting midair as she jumped down the front steps, taking off into the woods. She picked up the scent of the satyr right away.

Hope instantly caught up to the satyr, nipping at his ankles. The satyr jumped, hopping, and weaving through the woods trying to stay away from Hopes teeth.

There was a large branch that had fallen in their path. The satyr launched himself over the top of it while Hope leapt, going over the branch and the satyr, landing a few feet in front of him.

The satyr froze. The only sound Hope heard was the rapid beating of his heart. Hope bared her teeth, letting out a snarl.

The satyr turned to run back in the direction they had just come. He hopped over the branch again but before he could actually take off Josie and Maya came running up. Both gasping for breath. Josie was getting better but they really did need to start working on cardio. Josie managed to catch her breath enough to say a spell. Ropes wrapped around the satyr, tightening as he collapsed to the ground, thrashing around.

Hope jumped back over the branch, shifting back in the air, landing back on her two feet. “The more you struggle the tighter the rope gets,” Hope said. It was a very useful spell when detaining someone, it wasn’t meant to harm just capture but if the prisoner struggled enough, it would easily constrict them to death.

Hope had taught Josie the spell before she left for Paris, she was surprised how well the girl had perfected it so quickly. They didn’t get a long time to practice it and they hadn’t practiced it on a living creature yet.

The satyr stopped struggling after hearing what Hope said. He glared up at the three girls, trying to slow his breathing down.

“Can you talk?” Hope asked. The satyr didn’t answer. “We know Malivore sent you.” The satyr tensed. The small movement caused the rope to tighten causing the satyr to hiss through gritted teeth. “Easy,” Hope said softly. “We’ll undo the spell if you promise not to run, yeah?” she waited until the satyr gave a small hesitant nod.

Hope nodded to Josie who approached with Maya. Josie raised her hand saying the spell to release the satyr, making the rope disappear. The satyr quickly scooted back against the branch, creating as much space between himself and the girls. He rubbed his hands over his arms where there were already light pink burns from where the rope tightened.

“We know Malivore sent you,” Hope started again. The satyr pressed himself further into the branch at the name. Hope bent down so she was on the same level as him. “We know he wants the knife. We know he’s forcing you do this.”

Hope looked back at Josie and Maya. They were both a few paces back giving them space. Josie gave a nod of encouragement.

“My names Hope,” Hope offered.

“Maron,” the satyr whispered. Hopes perked up at that, he said it so quietly she wasn’t sure she had heard him. “My name is Maron.”

Hope gave him a small smile. “It’s nice to meet you. I can’t let you take the knife, but I would like to help you.”

“No one can help me. I was swallowed up by Malivore and now must do his bidding. It’s the only way to get my freedom.”

Hope shook her head sadly. “That won’t get you freedom. You know that. If you get the knife and toss it into Malivore then he’ll just be one step closer to rising. If he rises no one will be safe. It doesn’t matter if you helped release him, he’d come for you again.”

“I know, I don’t know what else to do. Everyone from my past is gone. I just want to see them again.”

“Can you tell me about them?”

For the first time since she had seen him Maron smiled, a sweet but sad smile as he thought back to a time before he was swallowed up by Malivore.

“My brothers and sisters lived freely in nature, playing our music, drinking with the humans.” Hope laughed at that. “We’d dance all night, listening to the breeze rustling through the trees. We used to say it was our fallen brethren speaking with us, joining in on the revelry.” Maron’s face fell. “All I wish is to be reunited with them again.”

“I’m sorry, that sounds lovely.”

“It was,” Maron gave a sad smile. “I don’t want to be a slave to Malivore. Help me.” He looked at Hope with pleading eyes. She could see the unshed tears starting to form.

Hope swallowed, nodding somberly. Maron reached into his vest pocked, slowly pulling out a small dagger. He gently slipped it into Hopes hand. Hope looked down at the dagger, it was a simple thing, the blade small and warn, the hilt expertly carved into a smooth piece of wood.

Hope scooted closer while Maron leaned forward, finally moving away from the branch. Hope laid the blade against his chest, lining it up with his heart and slowly pressed it in, pulling him into a hug as she did.

“Thank you,” he whispered into her ear.

She felt him release his last breath. She closed her eyes holding him for a moment longer before gently leaning him back onto the ground.

Hope stood up, taking a few steps back, wiping at her eyes even though no tears had fallen. She felt Maya rest a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle rub. Josie slipped her hand into hers, intertwining their fingers. They all watched at the satyr’s body slowly faded into the earth.

The girls silently made their way back to the school. Everyone at the school had been released from the satyrs charm and was no longer partying like crazy, they were all already working on cleaning up by the time they got back to school grounds.

Hope said goodbye to Josie as she needed some time to herself and was going to get a ride back with Maya. Josie nodded not needing to say anything just offering Hope a comforting smile.

Maya dropped Hope back off at her apartment. Hope pulled out the satyrs’ reed pipes, as she entered, sitting them on the coffee table. She had picked them up before they left, for some reason they hadn’t disappeared along with the satyr. Hope threw herself on the couch and sat in silence, staring at the reed pipes.

A few hours later Hope got a text from Josie saying the New Year’s party was still on and she understood if Hope didn’t want to come anymore but if she felt up for it, she was still more than welcomed. Hope sighed, staring at the text, contemplating what she wanted to do.

Hope made her way through the woods until she finally saw the light coming from the old mill. She heard the music blaring and all the students chattering. It was eleven o’clock, so she was rather late, but she hadn’t been sure was going to show until like five minutes before she left.

She slowly made her way out of the woods and saw Landon talking to the same friends he had been playing his game with. Rafael standing near Landon nodding along but clearly not paying attention to the conversation. Lizzie was with MG, clearly trying to avoid Rafael based on the way she kept shooting glances at him. Josie was leaning against the wall, staring into her drink as she swirled it around.

“Hey,” Hope said softly as she approached Josie.

“Hey,” Josie replied just as softly, giving her a small smile. “How are you?”

“I’m okay.”

“They really aren’t all monsters, are they?”

“No, a lot are but not all. Some just got caught up in a fight that was never theirs.”

“I was reading some books and I found one that said when a satyr dies, they’re reincarnated in nature.”

Hope smiled at that. “Good, I think he’d like that.”

They continued small talk until it was almost time for the ball to drop. When it was time, they all gathered around outside, looking up into the sky. The witches had done a spell to project live feed as if it were a TV of the countdown and the ball dropping.

Everyone counted down and as the clock struck midnight, they all shouted, “Happy New Year!”

Everyone kissed their significant other, or some grabbed the closest person to them. Others like Landon stood their slightly awkwardly opting to hug a friend or just raise their cup. To a surprise to Hope, Lizzie didn’t try going for a kiss with Rafael but gave MG a small peck, it didn’t last long but the boy had the brightest smile Hope had ever seen on his face.

Hope turned to Josie who ducked her head and was blushing. Hope wanted to kiss her, and she felt like Josie wouldn’t mind. She thought Josie didn’t want to make a move for the same reason, neither girl wanted to do something that could mess up their friendship. Hope also didn’t want her first kiss with Josie to be because of some party, she wanted it to be real. So, Hope did the next best thing she could think of, she leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on the side of Josie’s cheek.

Josie giggled, dropping her head trying to hide her face becoming completely red. When she looked back up at Hope her eyes were shining, and she had a bright smile. Hope returned the smile. Even though it had only been an innocent kiss on the cheek Hope couldn’t help but suddenly feeling very shy, she knew her face was probably turning a light shade of red just like Josies.

Chapter Text

It was late on a Friday night. The holidays were over, and schools had been back in session for a full week. So, in classic Mystic Falls fashion there was a party. It was the big party after the holidays to celebrate the first week of being back in school and starting the second semester. Hope thought it was stupid. When Maya told her about it, she told her as much and then closed the door in her face which Maya ignored and just opened again. The party was really just an excuse to party. To get drunk and party all night before having to fully get back into focusing on school.

Hope hated every single second of the party. Which wasn’t anything new, she just hated parties in general. The only times she felt comfortable at parties was when she would distract Maya with hooking up and they’d leave early. The only time she stuck around a party and seemed to enjoy it was when she was talking to Josie, and they were in their own little world.

The problem with the current party was that Maya dragged her to it and Josie wasn’t there. Hope would’ve invited the girl but there was apparently some project in one of their classes they had to work on. Landon and Rafael each had big projects as well. Apparently, it was common for teachers at Salvatore to assign a large project the first week back from break that would take half or all of the semester. The other problem was that she hadn’t hooked up with Maya since defeating the dragon and she hadn’t wanted to since getting to know Josie and realized she liked her.

That’s how Hope found herself standing in the corner of a room, pressed against the wall watching as a bunch of students danced around, drinking, and listening to music blasting. They had the stereo turned up so loud the lyrics could barely be heard; it was just noise at that point.

Maya was in the middle of the room dancing with a bunch of students, being for once rather tame. Ethan was in the kitchen serving drinks as students came in for more while also talking to some guys from the football team. The football players were shoving each other and laughing, sloshing their drinks as they did so. They got over the death of Connor and their other teammate rather quick Hope thought but it was probably easier when they didn’t know the truth and to them, they had closure.

Dana was also in the middle of the room draped around some guy. Despite Dana and Maya both being cheerleaders neither girl really liked each other, though Dana didn’t really like anyone, and Maya just thought the blonde was a bitch. They were still civil with each other if only to keep up appearances.

Hope didn’t usually pay attention to Dana; she didn’t care about the girl but what got her attention was who she was dancing with. She couldn’t see their face, but they seemed familiar to her. All she could see was long dark hair pulled back and a black leather jacket. The guy seemed to be kissing her neck and Dana had her head thrown back, swaying in a euphoric state.

When the guy pulled away from her neck Hope saw Dana move her jacket up to cover the spot the boy had just been kissing. The boy seemed to be staring in her eyes a moment before taking a step back, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth. When he stepped back Hope finally saw who it was, Kaleb. She didn’t know Kaleb well just that he was a good friend of MG’s, but he helped out a few times with the monsters, so she knew he wasn’t completely useless.

Hope walked over to the couple, grabbing Kaleb by the arm, and dragging him to the other side of the room without saying a word.

“What the hell are you doing?” Hope harshly whispered, pushing Kaleb’s shoulder causing him to stumble back slightly.

“What the hell?” he asked, rubbing his shoulder.

Hope rolled her eyes; she didn’t even push him that hard. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s a party!” he tried for a smile. Hope looked at him unamused. “Okay look Doctor S only serves bunny blood. That doesn’t really do it for me. Sometimes I come to town for a little snack.”

“Cause that seems like such a good idea. Feeding on someone in the middle of the room with dozens of people around.”

“I know how to cover my tracks. I only ever take a little bit; I haven’t killed anyone. At parties everyone is too drunk to notice.” Kaleb looked up Hope up and down, “Almost everyone.”

Hope gave a tight-lipped smile but didn’t say anything.

“Look I haven’t hurt anyone. Dana showed initial interest in all of this,” Kaleb gestured at himself. Hope rolled her eyes. “I haven’t taken advantage of her.” Hope gave him a knowing look. “Okay not fully advantage of. I do feed off her and compel her, so she doesn’t go around screaming and telling everyone. That’s it. I promise.”

Hope didn’t say anything just continuing to glare at the boy.

“Damn, I never expected you to be so judgmental out of everyone,” Kaleb sighed.

“I’m not judging,” Hope said through gritted teeth. “I don’t care what you do or who you feed on. I only have a problem with it if it causes problems for me. Or if it could cause problems for me. Don’t cause problems for me.” Hope added the last part as a threat, not needing to say more.

Kaleb held up his hands in surrender, nodding. “I promise.”

“Hey!” A happy voice came from to the side of them. A second later MG vamp sped over, so he was next to Kaleb, one arm around the other boy’s shoulder while the other held up a little piece of white paper. “I got her number.”

Hope glared at both boys. MG was still smiling with his whole face not noticing that Kaleb hadn’t responded to him. Kaleb kept glancing awkwardly at Hope waiting to see what she would do. Hope could tell Kaleb was holding back a smile though. When MG finally realized Kaleb hadn’t responded he looked up and knit his eyebrows when he realized Kaleb wasn’t looking at him. He turned to see what Kaleb was looking at and when his eyes fell upon Hope he jumped back, clutching the little piece of paper to his chest.

“Hey Hope,” MG said awkwardly. “What’s up?”

“Maya dragged me here,” Hope answered. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh well after the whole satyr thing I’ve been a little down since Lizzie and Rafael-”

“I got it,” Hope held up her hand to stop him from talking.

“Yeah, well so I’ve been a little down since,” MG leaned closer to whisper the next part, “I kind of like Lizzie.” Hope looked up giving Kaleb a deadpanned look and he just shrugged, shaking his head. “Kaleb said I was bringing down the mood and needed to loosen up, so he brought me here. And look! I got a girl’s number!” MG held up the number for Hope to see. He waved at someone across the room, when Hope turned to look, she saw it was some sophomore Hope didn’t know.

“That’s my boy!” Kaleb shouted, clapping MG on the shoulder, giving him a fist bump.

MG happily returned the fist bump then quickly ducked out of the way from them again, making his way back across the room to the girl he had been flirting with.

“Are you kidding me!” Hope whispered harshly again, slapping Kaleb again.

“Chill,” Kaleb said, trying to take a step out of Hopes reach. “It’s all good. My boy needed a night out. Everything is fine.”

“MG can barely control himself. Do you really think bringing him to a party with a bunch of people while you’re openly feeding is a good idea?”

“Alright, I get your point. I’ve been keeping an eye on him. MG isn’t feeding on anyone tonight. Besides, he’s been working with you and Hayley. He’s doing good right?”

“Yes, but he’s still far from being okay. I mean Landon still dies a lot. He hasn’t been around any actual human; you know people who stay dead?”

“I’ll keep an eye on him.” Kaleb looked Hope in the eye to show he was serious. “I accept responsibility for MG tonight, okay?”

Hope reluctantly nodded. She ended up staying a few more hours. She went back to her corner of the room quietly nursing her drink. She continued watching the crowd, silently judging them. She talked to Maya and Ethan a few times throughout the night, but they were incredibly wasted. Kaleb continued his dance with Dana, but she saw him watching MG as well. MG talked with the girl for a little while then ended up following her upstairs.

Eventually Hope left and went back to her apartment. Even though she wasn’t going to get any sleep she had training with Josie in the morning and had to be ready for that. Hope asked Maya if she and Ethan needed a ride but Maya waved her off saying she’d call if they needed anything, otherwise they’d probably just end up crashing at the house like most everyone else.

Hope was back at her apartment working on another painting when her wristband started glowing. Hope sighed; it’d been a while since she had a peaceful weekend. She dropped her brush and made her way out the door. When she was walking down the steps from her apartment, she saw Josie standing out front. Hope checked the time and realized she had completely lost track and it was right around when her and Josie usually met.

“Hey, what’s up?” Josie asked concerned.

Hope held up her wrist. “Looks like training will have to wait,” Hope said.

Josie sighed but nodded. They both turned to make their way back to the school when Hopes phone started to ring. Hope pulled out her phone to see it was Maya.

“Need a ride already?” Hope asked as a greeting.

“You need to get here now,” is all Maya said before hanging up.

Hope took the phone away from her ear, giving it a perplexed look.

“Everything okay?” Josie asked.

“I don’t know,” Hope said. “Apparently we need to make a stop before searching for our monster.”

Josie looked just as confused as Hope felt but nodded anyway. The two girls switched directions and made their way to the house the party had been at the night before.

When they got to the house the front yard was still trashed, it was still obvious a party had happened. Hope quietly walked up the steps with Josie following close behind. The door was still unlocked so Hope just pushed it open. There was some resistance with the door because someone decided to crash right in front of it. Hope wouldn’t say she was gentle in shoving the door open, but the person didn’t wake up.

As soon as Hope closed the door behind them Maya ran into view at the top of the steps. “Come on,” Maya said, running back in the direction she had come. Maya looked disheveled and concerned but not the usual kind of disheveled she had when she partied to hard.

Hope and Josie made their way up the stairs, stepping over the passed-out students. When they got to the top, they saw Maya standing in the doorway of one of the bedrooms. Hope and Josie made their way down the hall and when they were close enough Maya pulled them into the room quietly shutting the door as quick as possible.

“Wha-” Hope started but stopped as soon as she saw what was on the bed. More specifically who she saw on the bed.

“Oh god,” Josie let out in a breath, bringing a hand to her mouth.

“Call Hayley,” Hope said, handing her phone to Josie who took it then slipped back out of the room.

“I stumbled away and was looking for the bathroom when I opened the door I saw them,” Maya explained.

“Has anyone else seen?”

“No.”

Before them was a sight Hope specifically said she didn’t want to see at the party. She never should of left. If she had stayed and been miserable, she could have prevented it. Lying on the bed in front of them was a shirtless MG, drooling as he slept. Next to him was the girl he had been flirting with. The girl lay next to him eyes wide opened and lifeless. She had a small puncture or bite mark on her neck.

Josie slipped back into the room, handing Hope back her phone. “Hayley’s on her way,” she whispered.

Hope nodded. “Be ready,” Hope said looking back to Maya and Josie. They both nodded. Maya stepping back so she was more behind Hope and Josie stepped forward, so she was behind Hope but also a little in front of Maya, hand at the ready to say a spell.

“Hey!” Hope loudly whispered, kicking the bed. “MG!” she kicked the bed again. After a third kick MG finally groggily woke up, rubbing the sleep form his eyes and wiping the drool from his mouth.

“What’s going on?” MG asked sleepily. He rolled over in the bed, his arm bumping the body beside him.

MG turned to look to see what his arm had hit and when he noticed the dead girl he shot out of the bed, jumping across the room, flinging himself into the dresser.

“What the hell?!” MG looked around frantically. “What happened?”

“You tell us,” Hope said.

“I didn’t.” MG shook his head. “I swear I didn’t.”

“You were talking to her all night and then before I left you were following her upstairs.”

“I didn’t.” MG sounded less convinced, looking back to the dead girl. “I didn’t,” he whispered. He leaned back against the dresser, dropping his head into his hands.

Hayley arrived a moment later. “What’s wrong?” she asked, then she saw the body and the state MG was in.

Hayley moved around to the other side of the bed. She knelt down, gently moving the girls head to the side so the wound was more visible.

“I don’t remember what happened,” MG started to explain. “I remember following her upstairs and I remember kissing her and then nothing.”

“I thought you were getting help?” Josie asked. “I thought you said your control was getting better?”

“It was!” MG shouted, dropping his hands, giving Josie a pleading look. “It is. Things have been going well. Hope hasn’t had to kill me to get me to stop the last few times.”

“Yay, progress,” Maya mumbled.

“That actually was progress,” Hope said. She moved closer to get a better look at the wound. “He still has a lot to work through, but we have been making good progress.”

“She was definitely completely drained,” Hayley commented.

“Oh my god,” MG sighed, rubbing a hand down his face.

Hope turned to give MG a sympathetic look. When she looked at MG though she tilted her though. “You don’t have any blood on you,” Hope commented, walking closer to MG.

“Isn’t that not out of the ordinary?” Josie asked. “I mean I know plenty of vampires who don’t,” Josie paused to think of a word, “dribble on themselves.”

“She’s right,” Hayley commented. “I tend not to get any on me. Unless I’m like slaughtering a group of people.”

“Dude,” Maya whispered, lightly smacking Hopes shoulder. “Is it bad I still find her attractive?”

Hope scrunched up her nose for a second, that just didn’t sound right coming from Maya. “Dude,” Hope whispered back. “You do know she can hear you.”

Hope felt Maya tense up and she stopped slapping her shoulder. She glanced behind her to see Maya turning away from the group to hide her blush.

“My point is MG is way too messy of an eater, there is no way he could drain her and not be drenched,” Hope said.

“She’s right,” Hayley said.

“Hey!” MG gasped, offended.

“MG hasn’t once attacked Landon and not made a mess of it.”

“It’s hard,” MG mumbled, crossing his arms.

“Also, the wound on her neck doesn’t match a normal bite mark.”

Hope moved closer to get a look at the body again. “Yeah, this bite is more round. I see teeth marks but not like they came from a human mouth,” Hope said.

“The monster?” Josie questioned.

“There’s another monster?” Maya asked. “Why didn’t you say anything?” she turned around, slapping Hope.

Hope smacked Maya’s hand away. “I had just gotten alerted, and we were on our way to the school when you called.”

“Okay, get what you need,” Hayley said, moving back to where the others were standing. “Then get MG back to the school. Maya call your mom and tell her you found the girl.”

“What am I supposed to tell her?” Maya asked.

“Just tell her you went to a party, and you stumbled upon a room and there’s a girl and she’s not breathing. When she gets here, I’ll handle the rest.”

“Overdose?” Hope asked. She took a few pictures of the body and got some close ups of the wound so they could study it and reference it to any potential monsters.

Hayley nodded. “She went to a party, got drunk, took something. She must have been feeling off, so she went to sleep it off but then never woke up.”

“She deserves better than this,” MG said.

“MG,” Josie said softly, resting her hand on his shoulder.

“I know.” He wiped at the tears that had started to form. “I just-she just deserves better.”

When Hope was done gathering the photos, they would need she, Josie, and MG made their way to the school, leaving Hayley and Maya behind to deal with the cover story. With Hayley compelling everyone it would be no time at all before she was back at the school, Hope just hoped they’d be close to finding out what monster could’ve done that. A monster that sucks blood from its victims but doesn’t have a human bite more a round circular one.

They had just walked through the door when someone jumped out at them. “I can’t believe you went to one of their,” Lizzie looked Hope up and down, disgusted, “parties. Without me!”

Hope rolled her eyes, shoving past the blonde. Josie not far behind her.

“It wasn’t like that,” MG was quick to say. “Kaleb needed a wingman!” Hope rolled her eyes.

“And now you’re suspected of murder!”

MG sighed. “I didn’t do it!”

“He’s right.” Hope looked back at Lizzie and MG who were slowly following behind towards the library. “We got another blood sucker in town.”

“Of course, we do!” Lizzie said, storming ahead, throwing the library doors open. “So, what do we got?”

Hope sat her phone in the middle of the table. She pulled up the photos and said a spell to blow it up so the photos would project, and everyone could see them.

“Okay eww,” Lizzie said.

Hope ignored her. “This is the bite on the victim,” Hope said, scrolling through to a zoomed in picture of the bite mark. “She was completely drained.”

“Guess we’ll flip through dusty old books once again to look for some obscure monster,” Lizzie muttered, as she pulled up a seat grabbing one of those dusty old books.

They started flipping through every book that had to do with monsters that consumed blood, which there apparently was a lot of. There were many that were similar to vampires, a lot actually seemed like variations of vampires just another countries version. None seemed right for causing the circular wound on the girl though.

“MG!” Kaleb yelled, bursting through the doors. “You’re okay!”

“Way to keep an eye on him,” Hope snarked, not even bothering to make eye contact.

“Look I got distracted.”

“I’m sure you did.” Hope finally looked Kaleb up and down. “Looks like you had fun.” Kaleb was still wearing the same clothes as the night before.

Kaleb tried fixing his jacket as if that somehow changed things. “Okay miss judgy, how about you just tell me how to help?”

“Grab a book.” Hope pointed to the photo, “That’s what the bite mark looks like.”

“Weird.”

They kept searching books for a little over an hour when Maya and Hayley finally made their way back to the school.

“How’d it go?” Hope asked.

“Awful,” Maya sighed, flopping into the seat next to Hope. “I hate lying to my mom.”

“Since when?”

“You know what I mean. I hate lying to her about murder.”

“Compelling her that it was a normal overdose and not a blood sucking monster is for the best.”

“I know.”

“It went according to plan,” Hayley said, grabbing a seat at the table. “Compelled the sheriff, the deputies that came with her, and the coroner so all should be good.”

They all silently continued researching again. Hope eventually pulled out a laptop and began googling various monster that drank blood. There was still a lot. She looked over a few that they had already dismissed because they seemed like potentials. She was making her way down a list when she final saw it.

“We might have a winner,” Hope said.

“What the hell is that thing?” Kaleb asked, leaning over to see Hopes screen.

On the computer she had open a picture of a humanoid female looking creature. It had large bat like wings on its back and tiny razor-sharp teeth. The teeth weren’t what caught her attention though. No, what got her attention was the fact the creature had a long tongue that shot out of its mouth, that it used to suck the blood out of its victims.

“It’s called an aswang,” Hope answered.

“Never heard of it,” Hayley said.

“There’s a couple different versions but it’s Filipino lore.” Hope scrolled reading more. “The vampire version takes on a female form and sucks the blood out of its victims using a long tongue. It’s said they live in trees on the outskirts of town so they can swoop down and raid the village at night.”

Hope turned her laptop so the others could see it.

“Damn dude,” Kaleb said, looking at MG. “That thing was in the same room as you.” Kaleb pointed to the screen, “That thing killed someone while you slept right next to it.”

“I was drunk!” MG tried to defend himself.

“You slept with her?” Lizzie questioned, clearly focusing on the real problem.

“Uhh-”

“No time for that,” Hope cut MG off. “Kaleb’s right, she was attacked when you were sleeping right next to her.”

“I was drunk!”

“It doesn’t matter!” Hope snapped. “You would’ve still woken up. That means this thing is so silent when it attacks that it can get past a vampire.”

“So how do we kill it?” Kaleb asked.

“It says it doesn’t like sunlight. Holy objects are said to work.”

“Great, we’ll dump a bucket of holy water on it,” Lizzie snarked.

“Also listed is cutting it in half and burying the halves on separate sides of a river,” Hope said, ignoring Lizzie.

“Are we sure this is the creature,” Josie asked. “I mean no one saw it. All we have to go on is the victim was drained of blood and the bite mark.”

“No,” Hope agreed. “But this is the closest thing we have. We won’t know until we go hunting.”

“Great another late-night excursion in the middle of the woods,” Lizzie mumbled, closing her book.

“It says sunlight doesn’t kill it; it’s just weakened. We could go out now and search trees, but it’ll probably be hard to spot. I think if we head out around dusk maybe we can spot it taking off.”

Everyone nodded in agreement. They spent the rest of the day preparing for the hunt. They tried doing as much research as possible since they thought they knew what they were looking for. They also gathered any weapons they would need, even holy weapons. Hope didn’t fully believe all the stuff but they didn’t have much info so she’d take what she could get.

“So,” Josie said slowly, approaching Hope. “You went to a party?”

Hope was looking over the various weapons they grabbed. She knew Lizzie was joking but they grabbed holy water just in case, pouring it over all the weapons. Again, just in case.

“Yeah,” Hope sighed. “Maya dragged me to it. I was going to invite you, but you said you had that project.”

“And yet you still managed to distract me.” Josie smirked.

Hope returned the smirk. “Well, we were supposed to be training today so it’s not like it really mattered.”

“Yeah, you’re really starting to owe me with these training sessions being cancelled.”

“Well, I’ve always said hands on experience is the best way to learn.” Hopes smirk deepened.

Josie giggled, giving Hope a light shove. “I will admit I have missed the monster hunting.”

They talked for a little while until it was time to leave. They made their way to the woods that was close to the part of town the house the girl had been killed at. All the information they read seemed to say the same thing in that the creature stayed in the woods close to villages. Hope wasn’t sure how far they could travel but she figured not super far if they stayed in the woods at the edge of towns. They timed it so they arrived just as the sun was beginning to set.

Everyone had their own weapons, all swords or daggers. They also all had crosses and little bottles of holy water because Lizzie insisted as a just in case.

They were all standing around in the woods, looking up in the trees, watching for any signs of movement. They were all spread out but in visual distance from each other. In case the thing was in the woods, and it decided to attack one of them the others needed to be ready to move.

“What was that?” Kaleb asked, looking up in the trees.

“What?” Hope called over. Hope made her way over to where Kaleb was.

“I heard something.”

Hope tilted her head, focusing on her hearing. She kept her eyes locked on the trees, specifically the same one Kaleb had been staring at.

After a moment of silence Hope finally heard it, something was rustling around in the leaves at the top of the tree. She turned on her wolf eyes to get a better visual and saw the branches shaking and bouncing. Something larger than a squirrel was certainly in the tree.

The shaking and rustling suddenly stopped. Everyone on the ground froze, looking towards where Hope and Kaleb were standing but no one risked moving on their position.

A black swoosh shot out of the tree and into the next. Hope would have missed it if it weren’t for her night vision.

“There!” she shouted, pointing to the tree it had jumped to. The others took off towards where Hope and Kaleb were.

As soon as it got to the other tree it jumped to the next, then the next, then the next. It was slowly making its way to the edge of the woods, to where the first set of houses would be in sight. The group took off trying to keep pace with the monster. The creature was surprisingly fast for being in the trees.

When they got to the edge of the woods they watched the trees, waiting for the monster’s next move. The creature darted out of the trees again but instead of jumping to another tree is shot out into the air, spreading its wings, and taking flight, towards the houses.

Everyone shot out of the woods, even though they couldn’t keep up with the creature as it traveled through the air, they managed to keep their eyes on it. The creature looked like it was all black or maybe even a dark brown and it had bat like wings. Those are the only features Hope could make out even with her wolf eyes.

They followed the creature through the subdivision until they saw it land on the roof of a house. Everyone came to a halt, waiting to see what the monster would do. The house was completely dark and there were no cars in the driveway.

The creature crawled across the roof on its hands and legs. It crawled around to the back of the house then down the side until it reached a window. With one hand it reached out, gently lifting the window. Then quietly slipped through. There was no wonder no one at the party had heard it. Even being right there the only thing Hope had heard from the creature was the window sliding open.

The gang burst through the back door of the house and made their way up the stairs, finding the room it had gone into. Hope didn’t waste time as she kicked the door open. Before them was a similar sight to the one she had walked in on this morning. There was a girl asleep in her bed. Unlike the morning though the girl wasn’t dead, she was still breathing for the moment.

Hopes eyes darted around the room until finally landing on the creature. It was in the top corner of the room. It had dark grey skin that against the night sky looked black. Hope could see the feminine features of its face but just barely. Its eyes were slightly sunken it, but completely black and long black hair framed its face. Its wings were tucked behind its back as it somehow defied gravity by keeping itself in the corner with both hands and feet pressed against the wall.

The monster opened its mouth, revealing tiny razor-sharp teeth. The teeth weren’t the threat though. Out of its mouth shot a long black tongue. The tongue had its own circular looking mouth with its own tiny teeth encompassing it. The tongue latched onto the side of the girl’s neck and began to drink.

Hope moved into action. She didn’t have time to think, she just reacted. She gripped the sword she held in her hand, running towards the middle of the room and swung the sword down on the tongue.

The blade sliced through the tongue, causing black blood to squirt out, spraying all over Hope and the bed. The half of the tongue attached to the girl fell beside her turning to dust. The half still connected to the aswang shot back into its mouth as it let out a loud screech, causing the vampires in the room to cover their ears. It also happened to wake the sleeping girl who shot up from her bed screaming, hand going to her throat where she felt the bite mark.

The girl saw the monster in the corner and screamed again then she saw Hope with a sword practically standing over her head. She flung herself out of the bed and in her haste fell to the floor. She kicked off the blankets that were tangling her feet and made her way for the door but was instantly met with the others.

The girl screamed again but Hayley was the one to step into her path. She gripped the girls’ shoulders and said, “Go downstairs and wait for us. Don’t say a word. Don’t leave the house. Don’t come back upstairs.” Then silently the girl did as she was compelled to do.

The monster shrieked again and jumped at Hope, catching her off guard since she had been so focused on the girl. It knocked her to the ground but pushed off her and jumped to another corner of the room, shrieking again.

It jumped at Hope again, who was still on the floor but this time it was MG who reacted. He vamp sped to into the room, swinging his sword up as the aswang was in the air, slicing it in half.

The aswang shrieked one final time as its bottom half fell towards the bed and the top half fell towards Hope. Both halves of the monster turned to dust before either hit their targets, though Hope still managed to get covered in its dust. Covered in monster blood and ash. Yeah, she was definitely going to need a shower when she got home.

“Guess you were right about the monster,” Kaleb spoke up.

“And I was right about the holy water!” Lizzie squealed, flipping her hair.

“You don’t know that,” Josie said, rolling her eyes.

“You don’t not know it. So therefore, I was right.”

“I’m going to go take care of the girl,” Hayley said. Hope was sure Hayley just wanted to get out of the room because the twins were still bickering about whether the holy water worked or not.

Josie pushed her way into the room and helped Hope up. As soon as Hope was on her feet, she started brushing the monster dust off of her.

“Dude, you got aswang blood on you,” Maya stated.

Hope turned to face her best friend, giving her unamused glare.

“Wasn’t sure if you knew,” Maya continued, ignoring the glare. “Might want to wash that off.”

Hope suppressed a growl, opting for just letting out a huff.

After the girl was compelled to forget everything, she saw they left the house. Hope would’ve gone back to Salvatore with the others to help clean up their research but since they were already close to town Hayley dropped off Maya then Hope. Besides Hope needed to shower.

Hope got into her apartment and instantly went to the shower, not even bothering to turn on any of the lights until she reached the bathroom. Hope took a long hot shower, making sure to scrub the aswang blood off of her. She scrubbed roughly a few times after it had all disappeared just to be thorough.

When she was done with her shower, she threw on a tank top and some sweatpants, running a towel through her hair one last time before exiting the bathroom. Instead of making her way to bed she spread herself out on the couch. She laid back and closed her eyes. She knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep that night, but she wanted to just pretend for a few moments.

Chapter Text

Hope pushed open the doors of Salvatore making her way to the gym. She had been alerted that there was a monster in town. She was on her way to the school when Josie called saying they already captured it. Hope knew Josie and even some of the others were fully capable, but she had just been alerted, the fact that the monster was already captured raised some red flags though. The monster had never been found and detained so fast. What was the most concerning was that Josie had told her Alaric had been the one to capture the monster. Hope definitely thought something was up.

Rafael, Landon, Josie, Lizzie, and MG met up with Hope on her way to the gym.

“Hayley and our dad are keeping watch over it,” Josie said.

“What do we know?” Hope asked.

“It’s not fully solid,” Landon said. “It’s like a ghoul or ghost, it’s like some sort of spirit.

“It’s like a shadow,” MG added. “It’s got a human looking form but it’s all black and grey, it’s always moving like a shadow.”

“But it’s not solid?” Hope asked.

“No?” MG tilted his head, still clearly confused. “It’s all shadows and darkness. But Dr. Saltzman was able to grab it and put it in the cage. He got it while it was in the middle of an attack.”

“It attacked someone?”

“It started to,” Josie continued. “Dad walked into the infirmary just as it was standing over a student.”

“What was wrong with the student?”

“He didn’t know how to play Wickery,” Lizzie said, rolling her eyes. “He broke his leg. Hasn’t stopped the whining since.”

Josie smacked her sister. “He’s hurt!”

“Whatever.” Lizzie rolled her eyes again.

“Anyway,” Landon said. “Alaric saw it standing over the kid and it had its hands on the side of his head, like it was digging it’s ghostly claws into his skull.” Landon shuddered.

Hope raised an eyebrow, tilting her head.

“Dr. Saltzman just ran over and grabbed it trying to knock it off the kid,” MG took over. “When he touched it despite how it looked his hands didn’t go through the dude, he yelled for me. When I came in, he pushed him towards me and told me to bring him to the cage.”

“Which is where he’s been since,” Josie said. “Dad hasn’t left the gym since after making sure the student was okay. He called Hayley right after. She arrived not long before you.”

“It feeds off of pain,” Rafael added, speaking for the first time. “It found the kid who was hurt and started feeding off his pain.”

“How do you know?” Hope questioned. She was happy to know all the information but that was a lot for a monster they had literally just captured.

“I talked to the kid after Alaric went to talk with our new guest. Talk is a loose term; the kid could barely speak he was shaking so bad.”

“He was just being dramatic,” Lizzie said. Everyone stopped walking to shoot her a glare. She raised her hands in surrender and they continued on their way.

“The dude was screaming in agony after Alaric left. There were small whispers, but he was barely moving his mouth. He just laid there completely frozen.”

“When I came in,” MG added. “It was staring at Dr. Saltzman like it was calculating its next move. I just grabbed it. I don’t know why. It didn’t fight back.”

“We also were there when my dad questioned it,” Josie said.

“It talks?” Hope asked.

“Not exactly,” Landon said. “It speaks but apparently only in ancient Greek. Alaric had to grab a book and translate what it said.”

“It was repeating the same thing over and over,” Rafael said. “That it was the embodiment of pain and sadness, that it would feed on those who suffered.”

“Or something along those lines. Ancient Greek is kind of hard to translate considering no one alive speaks it.”

“Well, what kind of pain does it seek out?” Hope asked. Everyone turned to her curious. “Physical? Emotional? Psychological?”

“Does it matter?” Rafael asked.

“Yes,” Hope said like it was obvious. “If we know what type of pain it goes after then we know who it’s more likely going to target.”

They pushed open the door to the gym. Alaric and Hayley turned to see them.

In the middle of the room was a large metal cage and standing in the middle of the cage was the monster. It was just as MG described, it had a humanoid shape but none of the details, it was made up of all shadows and smoke.

As they approached the others the monster tilted its head, focusing its gaze on Hope.

“Shit,” Hope whispered, stopping in her tracks. “Guess we know what kind of pain it seeks out.”

Everyone turned to look at Hope. Concern was all over Hayley, Josie, and Landon’s faces. The others faces only showed confusion.

The monster slowly stepped forward.

The creature moved until he simple phased through the bars of the cell.

Hope spun around, bolting right back out the doors.

She heard the others yelling for her, but she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop. She knew it was still coming after her.

Rafael was right. The creature seeks out the person in the most pain. It didn’t seem to matter what kind of pain. When it got to the school it found the kid in the most pain at the time.

Then when Hope walked in it homed in on her because the truth was, she was in pain. She was always in pain. In one form or another.

When Hope got outside, she shifted, taking off towards the woods. She didn’t know how long she could run for, but she knew she couldn’t let the monster get its hands on her. She was just going to have to hope the others would find a way to stop it.

She ran as far as she could away from town. She didn’t want the monster to capture her, but she also couldn’t risk it wandering into town and finding some poor civilian who was having a bad day.

Hope glanced behind her occasionally. Despite her running full speed, the monster was still only a few paces behind her. She wasn’t sure how it moved so quickly considering whenever she looked at it it was still following her at a slow and creepy pace. Walking wasn’t fully the right word; it was more like gliding across the ground.

Hope wasn’t sure how long she had been running for, it had gotten dark a little while ago. She was exhausted, she could feel it in her joints as she pushed forward. The only thing still keeping her going was knowing if that if she stopped, she’d lose.

Hope tried to focus on her breathing, keeping it steady so she could go for longer. She could hear her rapid heartbeat, trying to calm it down. She felt the dirt beneath her paws, the crunch of the leaves. There was a light breeze rustling her fur. She focused on all of that, trying to bring herself as much peace as she could get.

Hope looked back again but for once didn’t see the monster. She didn’t stop running but her slight hesitation at not knowing where it was, caused her to slow her pace.

When she turned to face forward, she was met with the creature in front of her.

She slid to a stop, so she didn’t run into him. Or run through him. She wasn’t really sure which would happen.

Hope turned to run back the other way but before she could get moving the creature reached out with a clawed hand, lightly touching her head.

Hope saw a flash of white light.

Yelping as she crumbled to the ground.

She shuddered and spasmed on the ground. Whimpering as her bones broke, shifting her back to human.

Hope laid there on the cold ground, letting out ragged breaths.

She was clothed thanks to the spell she created but she was freezing. It was winter but she was a wolf, she never got cold. She shook though, staring out into the darkness at nothing.

The creature walked closer, grabbing her by the back of her hoodie, yanking her so she was kneeling before it.

She was just coming out of her daze from the pain of the forced shift. Her eyes had just focused on the monster looking down on her. It was a faceless entity.

A hint of a face started to form through the shadows but just as the details were starting to come together the entity reached out with its hands. It dug its shadowy claws into the side of Hopes head.

Hope screamed in agony.

Hopes eyes filled with black.

She no longer saw the woods around her.

All she saw was darkness.

Hope was strapped to a board. Hands and legs bound. Electrodes attached to her head.

“You know why this is happening,” a voice came over the intercom. The doctor.

The machine she was connected to crackled right before a surge of electricity was sent through her body.

She was shocked again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Each zap was turned up another notch and lasted several seconds longer than the one before.

Landon had just escaped. Triad had found her in the rubble. She was currently being questioned.

Her vision shifted to the darkness again. It was so cold. If she could see she’d bet, she could see her breath.

She was tossed to the ground.

The soldier stomped over, kicking her in the stomach three times. Each kick harder than the last.

She rolled over spitting out blood onto the shiny white floor.

The soldier gripped her by her hair, yanking her to her feet.

He let go. Punching her in the face.

Sending blow after blow. Until she was stumbling to stand.

He sent one final kick right to her chest.

Knocking her back. Head smacking the floor as she landed.

She coughed up more blood. Barely able to keep her eyes open.

They had pumped her full of so much vervain and wolfsbane. It would have killed any normal wolf or vampire.

The soldier stalked toward her. Bringing his foot down onto her chest harshly.

She jerked up on reflex. She heard the crack.

She tried to cough up more blood but began to choke on it, causing her to cough more.

Through bleary eyes she looked up at the soldier.

He pulled a gun on her. Pointing at her head.

She stared down the barrel.

All she wanted was for him to pull the trigger.

In the darkness she heard whispers. She couldn’t make them out. She looked all around but all she saw was darkness.

She was running through the woods of a small town.

She had been sent on assignment with another agent. There was a monster.

They were searching for it when they heard reports of a missing boy.

They figured the monster might have captured him.

Hope had really wished that had been the case.

Hope followed the trail to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was the little boy.

Bodies both human and animal littered the field

The boy turned to face her. Blood dripping from his mouth as he smiled, his black eyes glimmering in the sun.

He was possessed.

There was only one way to stop it.

Hope sped forward. Snapping the boys’ neck before the demon had a chance to make its move.

Hope dropped to her knees.

She didn’t even hear the agent approach her before he clasped a hand on her shoulder.

“Good job,” Clarke said. “You save the day.”

Hope stared at the field of death.

She didn’t save anyone.

She was the monster.

The whispering was getting louder. Hope knew she should try and find the source. She knew she should try to fight. She knew she should try to get out of the darkness. She just stared into the sea of blackness. Who knows maybe she was finally in hell. Finally getting what she deserved.

The building was in ruins.

There were fires burning all around her.

The fallen lights sparking.

It was supposed to be a simple mission.

Agents looped their arms around Hopes, pulling her back. She struggled and pulled forward.

She tried to run back into the building.

It was supposed to be a simple mission.

She was dead.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. A routine monster response.

The information had been wrong.

They weren’t prepared and she was dead.

She was dead.

She was dead and it was all Hopes fault.

Hope killed her.

Everything was blurry.

Hopes blinked a few times, clearing her vision.

She was no longer surrounded by darkness. She was in the woods.

In front of her the monster was wrapped in ropes of light. The ropes got tighter as he struggled. Tighter until they finally caused him to burst. Turning him to ash.

Hope didn’t move. She stared ahead into the woods. Into the darkness.

A muffled voice came from beside her. She recognized it, or so she thought. She wasn’t sure. She didn’t turn to look. She just stared into the darkness.

Someone knelt in front of her. Blocking her view of the darkness.

Hope stared into nothing for a moment.

“Hope,” the voice said again. It was a nice voice. So soft and gentle.

Hope finally drifted her gaze up so she was staring at the person before her and into their eyes. They were a lovely warm brown.

She stared into those eyes for a moment. She allowed them to ground her. She used them as a beacon in the darkness.

It was Josie. Josie was the one kneeling in front of her.

“Hope,” Josie said again. “I don’t know if she can here me.” Josie was speaking to someone off to the side.

Hope blinked a few times. The fog slowly leaving her mind. She was in the woods. She was in the woods with Josie. The monster was gone.

“Hope,” Josie said again. “Can you hear me?”

Hope nodded slowly.

Josie broke out into a relieved smile.

Josie slowly stood up, grabbing Hopes hands to help lift her as well.

Hope was standing. She didn’t remember doing that.

Hope looked to the side. Hayley, Lizzie, and MG were there.

They were all staring at Hope with worried expressions.

“Hope?” Hayley asked slowly. Hope focused her gaze on Hayley. “Are you okay?”

Hope nodded.

It was a lie. They all knew it, but no one questioned it.

“Let’s get you home,” Hayley said softly.

Hayley looped Hopes arm around her neck and her arm around Hopes waist. Josie did the same on the other side of Hope.

Hope knew Hayley and Josie were practically carrying Hope through the woods. She knew that because she didn’t register the walking. Before she knew it, they were back at the school and walking up the steps of Salvatore.

“Hope!” Landon yelled, rushing out the doors. He slid to a stop, so he didn’t run into the group, or fall down the steps.

Hayley and Josie slowly let go of Hope. They didn’t fully step back until she nodded, letting them know she could stand on her own.

Landon stepped forward but not so close he was in her space. He started to bring his hands up but hesitated. Hope appreciated that he wanted to comfort her, but she couldn’t handle a hug. The only reason she could handle Josie and Hayley dragging her back was because she was still so out of it.

“Are you okay?” Landon asked softly.

Hope stared into her best friends’ eyes; his brow furrowed. Hope didn’t say a word. She didn’t nod or shake her head. All she did was drop her gaze.

“What do you need?” he asked softly.

Hope swallowed. She needed to hold it together. She couldn’t break. She wouldn’t.

“I think,” Hope said slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. “I think I want to go home.”

“Do you want me to come with?” Landon was searching her face. It’d been a while since she saw him so concerned.

Hope shook her head. “I think I want to be alone.”

Landon nodded. Hope knew he didn’t like the idea of leaving her alone in this state, but he knew that she liked to deal with things on her own. As much as he hated it, he didn’t argue with her on it. He’d tried in the past and it always just made things worse. He knew to wait and eventually Hope would come to him when she was ready. She knew whenever that time came, he would be there.

“I’ll give you a ride,” Hayley said.

Hope nodded. She turned to follow Hayley to her car. Before she could step off the porch though she felt a hand reach out grasping her hand.

Hope didn’t turn around. She didn’t need to. She knew it was Josie. She didn’t have it in her to face the girl but despite her state she couldn’t just ignore her. She gave Josie’s hand a light squeeze. Trying to tell her everything she couldn’t say. Telling her thank you for saving her, thank you for being there. Josie seemed to get the message and gave Hope a light squeeze back.

Hope silently slid into the passenger seat. Hayley got in a second later and started the drive to town. The drive wasn’t long, but it felt like hours. Hope rested her head on the window, staring at the passing trees.

She knew Hayley was glancing at her every few seconds. She knew Hayley was concerned, to say the least. She didn’t speak though. Hope was grateful for that. She couldn’t talk. She didn’t want to.

Somehow the pain monster was worse than the nightmare one. With the nightmare one she relived terrible moments in her life but with the pain monster she experienced it again. She was alone in the woods with the monster, nothing happened to her physically, but she ached. Every hit, every shock, all of it was felt again, like it just happened. It was like her body wanted to heal but there was nothing to heal.

On top of feeling the physical pain she was also in the same mental state as she was when those things happened. She was back in that moment when she had to kill the kid. She was in the moment when she got her friend killed. They were why she could never forget what she truly was, a murderer, a monster.

Hope was pulled out of her thoughts when the car turned off. She pulled her head off the window, noticing they were in front of her apartment.

“Hope,” Hayley said softly.

Hope clenched her jaw; she didn’t look at Hayley. “Thank you for the ride,” is all she said. Then she got out of the car, shutting the door and quickly making her way to her apartment. She knew Hayley stayed there until she got inside. She didn’t hear the car start again until she was up the stairs and the door closed behind her.

She opened her apartment, tossing the keys on the shelf next to the door. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the door, letting out a sigh.

There was a creak in the floor causing her eyes to snap open. She stepped away from the door, but the noise didn’t come from a threat. It was only Maya.

“Hey,” she said slowly. “I tried calling. You didn’t answer and I got worried.”

Hope silently made her way towards Maya. She gently pushed Maya into her room. She started kissing Maya’s neck, who on reflex leaned it back to give her better access. Hope slowly slipped her hands around her so she could slide Maya’s jacked off. When she got it off, she tossed it to the side. She continued to walk Maya back until the girls’ legs hit the edge of the bed.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Maya said. Hope instantly stopped, leaning back but still keeping her hands on Maya’s waist. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, I just wanted a release,” Hope tried to brush it off.

Maya was unconvinced. “What about Josie?”

“What about her?”

Maya gave her a pointed look.

“We aren’t together,” Hope said. “We’re just friends.” Based on Maya’s face she didn’t believe the words either. But it was technically true, her and Josie weren’t together. She liked Josie, she really liked her, but Josie couldn’t help her with what she needed at the moment.

Despite not believing a word Hope said Maya’s gaze softened. “Are you okay?” she finally asked after studying Hope for a moment.

Hope didn’t answer for a second, she just dropped her gaze to the floor. “I’m sorry, I just wanted a distraction.” Hope let go of Maya’s waist, stepping out of her space. “I didn’t mean to make it weird. We can just forget this, please? I’m sorry.”

Maya looked at Hope another second. Hope started to turn away when Maya grabbed her hands, pulling her back in for a kiss.

“Are you sure?” Maya whispered in between kisses.

Hope nodded. Maya’s hands quickly slipped Hopes jacket off, discarding it somewhere in the room just as Hope had done to hers.

Hope lifted Maya’s shirt, only breaking their kissing to get it over the girl’s head. She tossed it across the room and was already back to roughly kissing Maya. Moving her lips down her neck. She pushed forward until Maya hit the back of the bed again, though this time they didn’t stop.

Chapter Text

Hope was just finishing with getting dressed after her night with Maya when She heard a knock at the door. She threw her shirt on and was still smoothing out the wrinkles as she opened the door. Her eyes went wide at who stood before her.

“Josie,” Hope whispered.

“Hey,” Josie greeted softly, giving a shy smile. “I know you didn’t want to talk to anyone last night and I can leave, I just wanted to check on you.”

Hope opened her mouth but before she could say anything Maya’s voice cut through the room, “Hey, where did you throw my shirt?”

Hope turned back to Maya to see her walking across the bedroom in her bra, holding her sweatshirt. Maya looked up at Hope in question but when she saw Josie at the door, she quickly brought up her sweatshirt, covering herself, then darted to the other side of the bedroom, out of sight.

When Hope turned back to Josie, she saw the younger girls mouth hung open and she couldn’t miss the hurt in her eyes.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you already had company,” Josie said, trying to remain light. She even smiled again but it was clearly forced.

“Jo-”

“It’s fine!” Josie cut her off. “I’m happy for you.” Josie clapped her hands together. “Well, it looks like you don’t need me here, I’m going to go.”

“No,” Hope said, trying to follow Josie out the door. “Jo, you don’t have to go.”

“Yes, I do Hope.” Josie was standing in the hall, but she refused to turn and look at Hope.

“No, you’re upset.”

Josie turned to face Hope, there were tears filling her eyes. If Hope didn’t hate herself before she certainly did at seeing Josie like that. She never wanted to be the one to cause Josie pain.

“I thought-” Josie started. “I believed you when you said you two were just friends despite how you acted around each other. God I’m so stupid.” Josie shook her head.”

“No, you’re not,” Hope said quickly. “Just let me explain.”

“There’s nothing to explain. You’ve been so nice since we met. I just-I guess I misread things.”

“Josie.” Hopes voice desperate.

“I need to go.” Josie turned, rushing back out the door. Hope didn’t miss the way Josie brought a hand to her face, wiping away the tears that had started to fall.

Hope stepped back into her apartment, closing the door, she dropped her against it.

“I’m sorry,” Maya whispered. Coming back out of the bedroom, having found her shirt it seemed. “I shouldn’t of-”

“It’s fine,” Hope cut her off. She lifted her head from the door and turned to face Maya. “You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s my fault. I knew exactly what I was doing.”

“Do you regret it?”

“No. I’ve never regretted any of our times together.” Hope wanted to reassure Maya. “Thank you for last night.”

“I told you; you don’t have to thank me.”

“No, I do. I really needed it.”

“Did it help?”

“A little.” Hope smiled sadly. “It distracted me for a few hours. Gave me something else to focus on.”

Maya nodded. “So,” Maya drawled out. “Want to tell me what happened?”

“What makes you think something happened?” Hope crossed her arms.

Maya gave her a deadpanned look. “Well, we haven’t done that,” she pointed back to the bed. “Since you started developing feelings for Josie.” Hope shifted her body but otherwise didn’t say anything. “Then last night you kissed me and all you wanted to do was forget about whatever happened. Which I’m fine with. Whatever you need, I’m here. I am always willing to let you use me for my body.” Hope actually cracked a small smile at the joke. “I just don’t want you to ruin what you could have with someone you actually have those kind of feelings for.”

Hopes face fell again. “I think I already did.”

“She’s upset now but talk to her.”

 “She doesn’t want to speak to me.”

“Hope,” Maya said sternly. “She likes you. You know that. And you like her. Even if you never try for something more with her don’t let this ruin the friendship you already have. Just talk to her.”

“What would I even say?”

“Explain it. I know it might be awkward but I’m sure she’d understand.”

“She’d understand that when I want to forget my problems I either wolf out or jump into bed with my best friend?”

Maya sighed, running a hand down her face. “Maybe don’t say it like that. Just assure her we really are friend. Also make sure she knows that she wasn’t misreading things.”

“You heard that?” Maya nodded. “Okay, fine, I’ll talk to her.”

“Good.”

“When I’m ready.”

Maya groaned. “Fine, I know that’s the best I’ll get out of you.”

“Thank you.”

“Seriously, are you okay? It’s been a while since you needed me in that way.”

Hope was quiet for a long moment. She didn’t look at Maya, opting for staring at the floor past Maya.

“I don’t know,” Hope whispered.

“What happened?”

“There was a monster, it fed off pain, seeking out the person in the most pain.” Maya sucked in a breath. “I tried to outrun it. It got me though. It made me relive things, some of the most physical pain I’ve been in, and I felt it all again.” Hope stared at Maya through bleary eyes. “I still feel it. It’s like electricity constantly shooting through my body.”

Maya stepped towards Hope, but Hope stepped back, bumping into the door.

“I just didn’t want to feel it anymore,” her voice broke.

“Oh Hopey,” Maya’s whispered, her voice cracking.

“It wasn’t just physical. I killed a kid. I had to kill him. It was the only way. I know that but it was like I was doing it all over again. He was just a kid.”

Hope pushed herself off the door and begam pacing in front of it. She ran her hands through her hair. She just wanted it to go away. She wanted it to go away. She needed it to stop.

“Hope focus on me,” Maya tried to get her attention.

“Then-then I couldn’t save her,” Hope ignored Maya. “She’s dead and it’s all my fault. I got her killed. I killed her. It’s all my fault. I couldn’t save her.”

“Who?” Maya asked softly. To Maya Hope was probably speaking gibberish.

Hope just shook her head. She couldn’t say her name, not yet. She hated herself. She should have saved her. She promised she would protect her. She failed. She failed and she was the one to get her killed.

“Hope,” Maya said firmly. Hope wasn’t sure when Maya got so close, but she was standing in front of Hope, hands gripping her shoulders to stop her moving and get her to focus. “What do you need me to do? Do you want me to call Landon?”

Hope nodded fiercely. She had the vague awareness of Maya leading her to the couch. Hope sat down while Maya ran and grabbed Hopes phone calling Landon. Hope didn’t hear the conversation; she wasn’t even aware of Maya speaking. She didn’t feel Maya sit down next to her. She didn’t feel Maya pull her closer, so her head was resting on Maya’s shoulder. She didn’t notice any of it.

The next thing she became aware of was a knock at the door. Maya got up to answer it and when she opened the door, there was Landon standing there. He didn’t waste a second, he ran into the room, kneeling in front of Hope so they were at eye level.

They held eye contact for a second before Hope flung her arms around his neck at the same time, he pulled her in, wrapping his hands around her in a familiar grip. Hope heard the door close but didn’t need to look up to know Maya had left. Hope buried her face in crook of Landon’s neck and began to sob. Landon’s grip only tightening around her.

Hope didn’t know how long Landon held her as she broke down. Landon had moved them fully onto the couch at some point and Hope cried into his shirt until she passed out. For once sleep was the only peace she did have because when she awoke again the nightmare just started all over.

“Hey, you’re awake,” Landon said softly. He had been in the kitchen and ran back over to the couch when he saw her waking up.

Hope sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “How long was I out?” she asked.

“A few hours.” Landon sat down a sandwich he had been making. “I texted the boss, from your phone, let them know you weren’t coming in.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. You know you don’t need to thank me. I honestly thought I’d have to argue with you and physically block the door to stop you from going.”

Hope huffed out a laugh. “As if you could.” Landon cracked a smile. “I don’t think I have it in me to work today.”

“How are you doing?”

“Josie’s mad at me.” Landon tilted his head for an explanation. “She came by to check on me and Maya was here, and it had been obvious what we were doing.”

“Got it.” Landon raised his hands. “Say no more. Just give her some time then talk to her.”

“That’s what Maya said.”

“How are you really doing though? It’s been a while since I you needed me.”

“I always need you.”

Landon gave her an unconvinced look. “You know what I mean.”

“It took me back to some of the worst pain in my life, when they tortured me after you escaped.” Landon tensed up, straightening his back. “That had been some of the worst pain I ever felt. They pumped me full of wolfsbane and vervain then they also did something to negate my magic. I was powerless, they did everything so I couldn’t fight back.”

“I’m sorry,” Landon whispered.

“Don’t be. It was worth it. You got out. It was worth it.” Hope looked him in the eyes until he gave a small nod.

“It also brought me back to my biggest regrets. When I couldn’t save someone,” Hope continued. “When someone died because of me.” Hope buried her head in her hands. “It wasn’t just seeing this all again; it was experiencing it.” Hope held up her hand, looking at it, “I still feel the tingle of electricity. The numbing pain.”

“I’m sorry,” Landon said, bringing Hope in for a side hug, letting her rest her head on his shoulder. “Do you want to paint while I watch a movie while trying to explain it to you even though you ignore me?”

Hope smiled, laughing, like actually genuinely laughing.

So that’s what they did. Landon threw on one of the movies he liked. Hope wasn’t sure if it was Star Wars or Star Trek or for all she knew it was Lord of the Rings. She didn’t know, she didn’t pay attention as Landon rambled on and on and on. She focused on her painting. She lost herself in the strokes and the colors.

They did that the rest of the day and by the time Landon was finishing up with his last movie Hope was finishing up her painting.

She took a step back examining it. The entire background was dark, blacks and greys and in the shadows was the monster from the night before. The rest of the painting was split into three sections, all fractured with scenes slightly blurry, each sectioned represented one of the three pains she experienced. The first section was white with blue lightning and the tip of a baton showing, the second was the little boy surrounded by a forest, all dark greens and browns, then the final section was the darkest, the hardest to make out for anyone else, it had all blacks and reds, the only thing obvious was something on fire, through the fire was the silhouette of a face only Hope knew, and surrounding all of them was the monster.

Landon sighed, stretching as he stood up, he hadn’t left the couch since he started the movies. He moved over to stand by Hopes side.

“Wow,” he said. “That’s a lot.”

“Yeah,” Hope sighed.

“Is this?” he didn’t need to finish his sentence.

“Yeah.” Hope set down her brush. She left the canvas on the easel so it could dry overnight. “Thank you, I didn’t know how much I needed that.”

“What can I say I’m your official unlicensed therapist.”

Hope laughed again, smacking him in the arm. “Do you need to head back to the school?”

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

“Can you stay the night?”

“Of course.”

“Want to order pizza?”

“Always!”

They ordered pizza from their favorite joint in town and when it got delivered Landon convinced Hope to sit on the couch with him and actually watch a movie. He ended up choosing a Marvel movie, something called Black Widow. He swore up and down that she would actually like it and that it would probably be super relatable. Hope wasn’t sure how something either of them could relate to considering their past could be a good thing, but she went along with it. At the end of it she had to admit it was fairly enjoyable, she liked the fighting.

They talked for a little while until it got to late then they went to bed. Landon took the couch despite Hope arguing he take the bed. He had insisted she needed the sleep and like actual sleep not the lying in bed and staring at the ceiling all night contemplating every mistake she thinks she’s made type of sleep.

Hope stared up at the ceiling for about an hour when she got into bed, but she eventually drifted off. She didn’t have nightmares; it seemed her mind agreed that she was already suffering enough and didn’t need to add more to it. When her alarm did go off, she woke up, feeling the peace for a second before the exhaustion crashed into her again. She still wasn’t over her trauma from the first time and then that creature ripped open her mind, digging into memories and bringing it all to the forefront again. One thing she was definitely certain of, the monster got a tasty meal before Josie killed it.

Hope slipped out of bed and got ready for work. She knew Landon would try and talk her into calling off again, but she couldn’t. She needed a distraction. She needed something to throw herself into so she wouldn’t focus on her trauma otherwise it would swallow her whole.

Landon was still asleep by the time she was done getting ready. She stopped in the living room, looking at him, he looked so peaceful even though he was sleeping on the couch. He was all curled up hugging one of the pillows. Hope rolled her eyes but went over and pulled the blanket onto him a little more, he subconsciously grabbed it, wrapping it tighter around himself.

Hope was at the Grill silently working, keeping to herself, only speaking to someone when she needed to. She was alone with her thoughts a lot which seemed dangerous but as long as she had a task to focus on, she was fine. She was about halfway through her shift and was at the bar cleaning the counter when she heard the bell at the door ring. She flicked her gaze up to see Hayley entering the restaurant. Hope had to shake herself loose to prepare for the potential conversation. Talking to Landon or even Maya was one thing but talking to someone else was another. Hell, the only reason she opened up to Landon and Maya was because she was erratic, her mind wouldn’t stop.

“Hey,” Hope greeted.

“Hey,” Hayley said with a soft smile. “How are you?”

Hope sighed, wiping down the counter again. She was doing everything to avoid looking Hayley in the eye. “Better. Landon came over yesterday. It made things easier.”

Hayley nodded. “Heard you also saw Maya.”

Hope clenched her jaw, flicking her gaze to Hayley.

“Hey,” Hayley held up her arms in defense, “no judgement.”

“Maya and I have an understanding,” Hope said vaguely. “She was what I needed at that moment.”

“Understood, like I said no judgement.”

“How’s Josie?” Hope dropped her gaze back down to the counter again, wiping the same spot she had been.

“You should probably talk to her.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”

“Look, you don’t need me to tell you, you didn’t do anything wrong. However, you like her, and you know she likes you.” Hope threw the dirty rag into the sink, leaning back against the counter behind her. “She thinks her feelings are one sided. I know why you don’t want to get close to someone.” Hope dropped her gaze to the floor. “She deserves to know where you guys stand though, even if it’s just being friends. I’m not saying go to her and ask her out right here and now, I’m just saying she deserves to know if she should give up hope or not.” Hayley smiled at her pun but Hope only glared at her.

“I know,” Hope nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. “I know. I just need to figure out what I’m going to say. Saying you slept with your best friend just to forget the emotional trauma you just went through and saying you guys had a friends with benefits situation going on before you had met her is not easy to explain.”

Hayley’s mouth hung open for a moment before speaking, “I did not need to know all of that. But yes, that does seem complicated. Trust me I’ve had my fair share of complicated relationships. Anyway, you sure you’re doing good?”

“Yeah, I’m still dealing. It was a lot, but I’ve survived it once, I can do it again.” Hope twisted and played with the strings on her wristband. “What was it?” she asked quietly. “I assume you figured it out since you guys were able to defeat it.”

“It was something called an Algos, it’s from Ancient Greek, that’s what really helped us identify it. It was a little complicated but basically the thing was the personification of both physical and mental pain.”

“Can definitely confirm that,” Hope mumbled.”

“They basically get stronger from a person’s sadness.”

“How’d you figure out how to beat it?”

Hayley broke out into a grin. “That was all Josie. She researched like crazy after you took off. She figured if the thing got its power from another person’s pain and suffering then using light and happiness would defeat it. She figured out a way to do a spell the personified happy and light feelings in a physical form, creating it as a rope that wrapped around the creature.”

“She’s incredible,” Hope whispers almost to herself. Hope didn’t know how the other girl could ever doubt herself when it came to magic when she could go and do something like that with hardly any notice and any prep time. Josie truly was extraordinary. When Hope finally did talk to her she needed to remember to thank the girl, she saved her more than the brunette would ever know.

Hayley stayed and actually ordered some food after that, opting to do takeout so Hope could get back to work. After Hayley left Hope finished the rest of her shift without much excitement then went back to her apartment as soon as she clocked out.

Hope entered the apartment and saw Landon still there, sitting on the couch, watching some random show on TV.

“You’re still here,” Hope said.

“Yeah well, I stayed the night so not like I was going to class anyway,” Landon answered. “Figured I’d hang with you the rest of the day and then go back tonight if you were all good.”

Hope nodded. She held out a bag from the Grill. Landon jumped up from the couch, snatching the bag from her. He tore open the top, pulling out the burger and fries.

“I love you,” he sighed, unwrapping the burger.

“Was that for me or the burger?” Hope questioned.

“That depends, did you bring-” Landon was cut off when Hope revealed a milkshake in her other hand. Landon sat the burger down, reaching up to grab the shake. He took a long sip, his eyes rolling back in his head as he did so. “You are too good to me.”

They were in the middle of watching some show Landon was into. He was completely engulfed; he wasn’t even looking at his food as he shoved it into his mouth. Hope wasn’t even sure if he had blinked in the last hour. Hope was on her phone staring, her thumb hovering over Josie’s contact. She wanted to talk to her. She needed to explain. Hope wasn’t sure what to say though, she wasn’t good enough. She knew she wasn’t good enough. Hayley was right she needed to figure out what to say. She wasn’t sure how to tell Josie May was just a friend she sometimes slept with but until the other night that hadn’t happened in months because she had met Josie and really liked her but didn’t think they should be together because Hope was for one to screwed up and also didn’t want to drag her deeper into all of her shit.

Landon left later that night. He offered to stay again but Hope told him she was good. She wasn’t good but she didn’t think she was going to have another breakdown, so she was good enough.

She was lying in bed when she got a call from Maya.

“What?” Hope asked as a greeting.

“That’s a rude way to answer the phone,” Maya whispered. Hope knit her eyebrows, Maya calling, and whispering was not a good sign. “Especially when the person calling just helped you avoid dealing with your emotional issues.”

“It’s 3am, what do you want?”

“It’s not like you were sleeping.”

“Maya.”

Maya sighed. “Fine, my mom just got a call. She’s about to head out.”

“And?” Hope sighed.

“And! She’s headed to the cemetery right outside of town!”

Hope didn’t say anything. She had moved from lying in the bed to sitting up. Hope waited for Maya to continue but she never did. “So?”

“So! She got a call in the middle of the night from the groundkeeper or something to come out to a cemetery because they saw someone sneaking around and digging up bodies.”

Hope sighed. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Nope!” There was some scuffling then, “She just left. I’ll be at yours in five. Be ready.”

Hope sighed, falling back after she hung up. She flung her legs over the side and began to throw on some clothes, she settled for jeans and a hoodie. By the time she was headed downstairs she saw Maya already waiting.

Hope got in the car and glared at Maya.

“What?” Maya asked.

“We don’t even know if this is weird,” Hope sighed, resting her head on the back of the seat as Maya pulled away.

“We don’t know it’s not weird.”

Maya sped across town and towards the cemetery. She parked off the road and out of site so her mom wouldn’t see the car if she left the scene early. Hope sighed as she got out of the car, they were going to have to go trapsing through the woods again to get into the cemetery.

Maya held onto Hopes arm as they made their way through the woods. She had said that she couldn’t use a light since her mom could see so Hope would need to be both their eyes.

When they got closer to the cemetery, they saw a squad car and the sheriff’s car parked near the entrance. Hope helped Maya over the fence then Hope jumped it in one swoop. They kept to the shadows, hiding behind tombstones as the cops talked to the groundskeeper guy.

When Maya’s mom and the deputy started to follow the groundskeeper further into the cemetery they followed. They stayed far enough away that Hope could hear their conversation with her enhanced hearing, but they wouldn’t be seen.

The group came to a stop in front of a grave, so Maya and Hope slowed their pace. They inched forward after they realized that’s where whatever happened occurred.

“Call the coroner,” Sheriff Mac said.

“She’s calling the coroner,” Hope told Maya.

Maya started to squeal but Hope quickly slapped her arm causing her to bring both hands to her mouth.

Sheriff Mac jumped into the grave with the body. Hope assumed to get a closer look. Maya stood up a little to try and get a better view over the tombstone they were hiding behind. Hope grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back down.

“Oh my god,” sheriff Mac whispered.

Hope tilted her head; it was rare that Mac was surprised. “What?” Maya asked, noticing Hopes reaction.

“When was this guy buried?” Mac asked the groundskeeper.

“Just a few weeks ago,” the groundskeeper answered. “Not even a month. Why?”

“Tape off the scene.” Mac looked towards the deputy who ran off to his vehicle, presumably to grab the crime scene tape. “Someone cut into his chest. I’ll have to wait for the autopsy, but it looks like whoever it was took some organs.” Mac pulled herself out of the grave.

Hope relayed everything she had heard to Maya who seemed to be bouncing up and down despite both of them hunched over and hiding behind a tombstone. By the time she was done relaying the info the coroner pulled up.

The coroner got out of his van and loaded up the body with the help of his assistant. As they were pulling out the deputy came back and started taping off the gravesite.

“Did you see anything?” Mac asked the groundskeeper.

“Not much. I was doing my rounds making sure everything was good, no kids hanging around then I heard a noise, like wood breaking or something. I don’t know,” the groundskeeper started to explain. “I went to check it out and saw nothing but when my light passed over the grave, I saw a flash of something tall and white. I almost missed it. I shined my light on it again, but it was gone. I know it was no animal though.”

Sheriff Mac finished writing everything the witness had said. She looked back at him nodding. “Thank you, we’ll figure out what’s going on. Until then I’m going to need to tape off the area, no one in or out of the cemetery. I’ll post an officer out front to keep watch. Also don’t disturb the grave, it’s now a crime scene.”

The groundskeeper sighed but nodded. Mac had the deputy walk the groundskeeper out while she looked around at the scene, she radioed for another squad car to come and take over as watch.

“Let’s go,” Hope whispered.

Hope and Maya got back over the fence and back to Maya’s car without being scene. They made it back to Hopes apartment just as quick as they got to the cemetery. If sheriff Mac hadn’t been preoccupied Maya surely would have got a ticket, Hope thought she saw the speedometer hit sixty at one point, in a thirty-five.

“Get back home before your mom,” Hope said, leaning in through the car window. “I’ll do some research. I close tomorrow but keep me updated, got it?”

“Got it,” Maya said.

Before Maya could pull away or Hope go back inside though her wristband lit up. Maya watched the glowing light just as Hope did.

“Looks like you were right,” Hope mumbled. “Stop smiling.” Hope flicked her gaze from her wristband to Maya who started to cough to cover up her excitement.

“See you tomorrow,” Maya said.

“Don’t do anything without me.”

Maya opened her mouth to respond but Hope shot her a knowing look. “Fine,” Maya sighed, rolling her eyes. “I won’t do anything without you.”

Hope nodded then made her way back into her apartment. When she entered, she kicked off her shoes and dropped herself onto the couch. She had a long night ahead of her. Luckily, she already wasn’t going to sleep so she actually had something to distract her.

Hope pulled up her laptop and grabbed a couple books. She spent hours searching, making a list of creatures that liked to hangout in cemeteries or were interested in corpses. Turns out there was a lot, she had a rather long list. She was able to eliminate some based on the fact that the groundkeeper said it was human looking.

Hope researched until early in the afternoon. She was disrupted from her research when Maya called her again.

“Yeah?” Hope answered, scrolling through info on one of the potential monsters.

“The autopsy is done; the report is in the morgue. The coroner is going out to lunch and then after he’s going to go over the findings with my mom,” Maya said, quickly. “We have until then to see what they found.”

“When can you get here?”

“Already outside.”

Hope smiled to herself, of course Maya was already outside and waiting. Hope threw on her shoes and ran out the door.

They made their way to the morgue, Maya using the keycard she swiped from her mom. They crept through the halls noticing all the lights were off and the coroner was in fact out at lunch.

When they slipped into the room, just like last time Maya went to look for the file and Hope went to the body. Unlike last time everything was out. The body was still cut open on the table and the file was sitting on the desk near the computer.

“It says something cut into his chest and stole his liver and pulled out his intestines,” Maya said, reading the report. “My mom was right. No DNA found, which isn’t a surprise.”

“His chest wasn’t cut open,” Hope said.

“What?” Maya set the file back down and went to stand by Hope to see what she was seeing.

“Yeah, look at this,” Hope pointed to the chest. “This isn’t a cut by something like a knife. It’s not even clean like claws would be. It’s like whatever this is punched into his chest and then just ripped the flesh apart.”

“It goes from chest all the way down, like it was ripping him in half.”

Hope went to say something else when they heard the door that led to the hallway close. Both of them froze.

“Sorry for interrupting your lunch,” sheriff Mac’s voice came.

“It’s not a problem sheriff,” the coroner said.

“Shit, it’s my mom,” Maya whispered. “What do we do?”

Hope looked around until her eyes landed on the lockers. She glanced at Maya then back at the lockers. Maya sighed but nodded. They opened a few lockers, but they all had bodies in them. Hope finally found one near the bottom that was empty. She got in first then Maya climbed in, so she was on top of Hope. Hope pushed the drawer in and closed the door, leaving it open just a crack so they could easily get out but not so much someone would notice.

“Well,” Maya said, smirking. “Isn’t this cozy.”

“Shut up,” Hope whispered through gritted teeth.

The door to the morgue opened and Mac and the coroner walked in. Hope heard Mac walk towards the body, getting a better look at it while the coroner walked over to his desk. The coroner read over his report and gave Mac his findings. The coroner had the same thoughts as them though he didn’t assume something punched into the bodies chest but used some sort of jagged knife or makeshift blade of some kind.

Mac asked a couple more questions and the coroner filled her in on everything he found. They stayed for about twenty minutes before they left, Mac presumably back to the station and the coroner to his lunch. Hope listened to their footsteps echo down the hall and for the door to close. They waited another minute before Hope pushed the door open and slid out on the slab. Maya rolled off her then Hope jumped down.

“Any ideas what it is?” Maya asked as they made their way back to Hopes apartment.

“Not sure,” Hope said. “There’s a few possibilities. I’ll need to see to know which it is.”

Maya took her eyes off the road to give Hope a full faced grin.

“Don’t look at my like that,” Hope muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Stakeout in the cemetery!” Maya shouted.

“I need to get to work.” Hope hopped out of the car. “Be at my place when I get off, we’ll head out then.” Maya nodded and drove off.

Hope got changed quickly and made her way to the Grill. She was cutting it close, she worked late since she was closing but they were at the morgue a lot longer than she intended to be.

Hope had been at work for a few hours when things had finally died down. The main dinner rush was over, so she was mostly cleaning stuff up so there was less to do when they closed in a few hours. She was wiping down tables when her phone rang, it was Landon.

“Yeah?” Hope asked as a greeting.

“Hey!” Landon said happily. “I was just checking in. I know you were good when I left but wanted to make sure you were still good.”

“Well, I spent the night in a graveyard.”

“Oh god what did you do?”

Hope let out a laugh. “Nothing. Maya called; her mom got called in because the groundskeeper saw something.”

“A new monster?”

“Yeah, looks like we got ourselves a bit of a graverobber. It found a semi fresh dead body, busted into its coffin, and ripped it open.”

“What did it do?” Hope could practically hear the way Landon’s face was scrunched up.

“It took the liver and pulled out the intestines. No idea what it’s doing with them.”

“What’s the plan?”

“The attack happened in the cemetery right outside of town, but it crossed over into town not long after. I close but when I get off Maya and I are going to meet up and go hunting.”

“Spending all night in a graveyard with a creature that defiles graves, sounds like a blast.”

“Right,” Hope snarked. “I’ll call you in the morning if we find anything I’ll update you on what happened.”

“Alright, be safe, later.”

After Hope got off the phone with Landon, she worked the rest of her shift. The place stayed dead except for the occasional stragglers or late eaters but nothing crazy. They were able to close on time and get out rather quick.

Hope got back to her apartment and just finished changing into her cemetery investigating attire when Maya arrived. Maya was decked out in all black, if it weren’t for the fact that she had the biggest smile on her face Hope would think Maya seemed threatening.

Maya drove them to the cemetery and parked a good distance away. She made it so they would have to cut through the woods again. There were a couple cemeteries in Mystic Falls but the one they were at was the closest and it was the one that was still being used for new bodies. Considering the creature went after the newest corpse the previous night in the other cemetery it was a safe bet it would come to that cemetery next.

Hope and Maya were wandering around, Maya with her flashlight out, walking up and down getting a look at all the graves when they heard a twig snap. Hopes head whipped around the sound had come from.

“Okay,” Maya whispered, taking a step closer to Hope, moving behind her. “I heard that too so that was close.”

Hope moved slowly and quietly around the side of the mausoleum the sound had come from. When they got behind it, they saw two more people turning a corner, the boy letting out a loud shriek when his flashlight landed on them.

Hope turned off her wolf eyes and glared at the boy who Maya was shining her flashlight on. Landon. It was Landon. He wasn’t alone though; Josie was with him.

“What are you doing here?” Hope whispered harshly. “I told you I would call in the morning.

Landon opened his mouth to defend himself, but Josie spoke first, “We wanted to help. You shouldn’t have to fight a monster alone. We’re in this together, remember?” Josie kept her tone professional, but Hope could tell she was still upset by the way she kept flicking a gaze at Maya and between the two.

“Great!” Maya said happily, clapping her hands together. “The more the marrier. This way we can split up and cover more ground.”

Hope glared at her friend who stared right back. After a moment of silent staring Hope finally sighed, rolling her eyes. “Fine,” she said.

Chapter Text

It had been two days since Josie had seen Hope. She didn’t know exactly what the girl had gone through, despite their research they weren’t fully sure what the monster did to its victims exactly. She poured over books and articles for hours and knew the monster fed off the victim’s pain, she just had no idea what the victim themselves experience. The kid that broke his leg was screaming in pain when they discovered the monster, he hadn’t really been talking since. Then when they found Hope she was completely out of it, she could barely stand on her own let alone form words.

Josie had just wanted to go over and check on Hope the next day. She had never seen the girl so shaken. The nightmare monster took its toll on all of them, but it didn’t even incapacitate Hope like this creature had. When she got there, she realized what a mistake she had made because when she got there that’s when she saw her, Maya. She knew Hope and Maya were friends, but Maya was in her bra and walking around looking for her shirt, it was clear what had been going on the night before.

Josie knew her and Hope were just friends. Hope could date whoever she wanted. Josie didn’t have a right to be upset with Hope. She couldn’t help but be hurt though. She really liked Hope and she thought Hope liked her to, the girl seemed to flirt with her all the time. They talked about stuff Hope didn’t seem to open up to others about, but maybe her and Maya had the same relationship, they had known each other longer. She knew she needed to apologize to Hope for how she acted and for running away, Hope didn’t deserve that just because Josie’s feelings were hurt.

Josie hadn’t liked someone since Penelope, and she really thought Hope was special. She wasn’t used to making the first move though. She also knew Hope was hesitant about getting close to people, the fact that they were friends was already a major step for her. Josie wanted stuff to happen naturally for them, she wanted to wait and hoped that eventually the day would come when Hope would make her move. That clearly wasn’t going to happen anymore. Before, Josie could live in the fantasy but after seeing her with Maya the fantasy was dead.

Josie had come back to her dorm room, eyes certainly red and puffy, but the crying mostly stopped.

“Hey, Jo-” Lizzie started but stopped as soon as she turned and got a look at her sister. “Oh my god! What happened?” Lizzie rushed to her sisters’ side, pulling her towards her bed.

“I went to see Hope,” Josie said, her voice gravely.

“What did that mutt do? I’ll skin her alive. I always thought this room could use a nice wolf throw rug.”

“She didn’t do anything.” Even though Hope really didn’t do anything Josie couldn’t help the small smile at her sisters’ threats. Lizzie could be selfish and self-centered but when it came to those, she loved hurting she would do anything for them.

“Clearly, she did. You’ve been crying. Even I have to admit she usually brings a smile to your face but clearly not today. What happened?”

Josie sighed, calming herself down. She didn’t want to start crying again. She didn’t know why she was so upset; they weren’t even dating. “I went to check on her and when I got there Maya was there.” Josie took a deep breath before she said the next part. “Shirtless.”

Lizzie’s eyes softened, pulling her sister in for a hug. “Oh Jo,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I know I’ve never liked her, but I know you really did.”

“I’m so stupid.” Josie shook her head.

“No, you’re not,” Lizzie said firmly.

“Yes, I am. I thought something was going on with them before and believed her when she said they were just friends. Then I stupidly thought she returned my feelings. I’m so stupid.” She buried her head in her hands.

“You’re not stupid,” her sister said softy, giving comforting rubs to Josie’s back. “Look even I thought wolfy felt the same.”

“You did?”

“Of course.” Lizzie gave her a look like she was the crazy one. “She always brightens up when she sees you. You’re one of the only people she seems to listen to, and you seem to be able to calm her down. Plus, she is always staring at you longingly and flirting with you,” Lizzie gagged. “Also, she drew a picture of you. That is not friendship behavior.”

Josie brought her head out of her hands to look at her sister. She couldn’t help but smile at her twins’ words. When she put it like that it was hard to believe that Hope didn’t like her as well. The thing was she saw Hope and Maya together with her own eyes.

“But Maya-”

“But what about her? Did Hope say they were together? Did she tell you what happened?”

“No,” Josie sighed. “I wouldn’t let her. It was pretty clear what happened, and I didn’t want to hear her explanation. I figured hearing they were now together officially would hurt too much.”

“Well maybe you need to hear it,” Lizzie said softly. “Maybe hearing that will help you move on if that is the case. Maybe they aren’t together, maybe it was a one-time thing. I don’t know. Hope went through a lot last night. Even I don’t think it’s fair to judge her without hearing her out. I think you need to talk to her.”

Josie let out another sigh, reluctantly nodding her head. “Yeah, okay. But I’m not ready yet.”

“That’s fine because first twin cuddles.”

Josie got back in bed with Lizzie right next to her. They got under the blanket and Lizzie wrapped an arm around her just like they always did with each other when one of them was upset. Despite being upset about what happened after talking with Lizzie she somehow got a glimmer of hope back about her crush and was able to fall back asleep rather easily.

Josie cuddled with her sister for a little while before they needed to actually get up and go to class. She made it to her first class, sitting down, preparing for the day to drag. They were about thirty minutes into the lesson when she noticed Landon wasn’t there. She looked around thinking he possibly sat somewhere else but knew that wasn’t likely since he always sat by Rafael.

She flicked a pen towards Rafael to get his attention. She meant to just hit his desk or something but the pent went flying and smacked him on the face. Rafael swatted his hand, not knowing what hit him. He looked around annoyed but when he realized it was Josie his gaze softened. She mouthed an apology then proceeded to ask where Landon was. Rafael seemed to hesitate for a moment but then he mouthed the word Hope.

Josie slumped back into her chair. Hope and Landon were friends, so it wasn’t weird they were together. What was concerning though was that Landon chose to skip class to go hangout with Hope. Josie knew neither of them would do something like that, unless the other really needed them. Josie didn’t know what was going on with Hope or what fully happened, but she was clearly still dealing, and Josie was just glad Hope was letting someone in and letting someone be there for her.

Josie went about the rest of her day like normal. She went to her classes and sat with her friends, but her mind was always on Hope. She was worried about her. She was trying to figure out what they were to each other. She knew they were friends, but Lizzie was right Hope seemed to flirt back and reciprocate her feelings but then she slept with Maya, so she was just confused. She knew it was stupid to be worried about her feelings for Hope and Hopes potential feelings for her when Hope was clearly suffering but it was the only thing she could do.

She was headed upstairs to her room when she ran into Hayley.

“Sorry,” Hayley said.

“Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” Josie said.

“Hey, have you talked to Hope?”

“I tried this morning, but she was with Maya.” Josie couldn’t help the pout on her face at saying Maya’s name. Hayley tilted her head, knitting her eyebrows but then quickly seemed to realize what Josie was implying.

“I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

“It sure looked like it.”

“That monster was a lot. Sometimes when we’re dealing with stuff, we tend to push people away or push certain people away while clinging onto others.”

Josie nodded. It made sense, sort of. Hayley really seemed to know what she was talking about. Hayley seemed to be able to relate to what Hope might be going through on some level. She knew Hope definitely wasn’t the type to sit down and willingly talk about her feelings. She had been pretty open with Josie but there was still so much Josie didn’t know about her. As much as Josie wanted to, she never pressed in fear of Hope pulling away.

“Talk to her,” Hayley said. “I have a feeling she needs you, even if she won’t admit it yet.”

Josie nodded again; she didn’t really believe that, there was no way Hope would ever need her. “Landon’s with her right now.”

Hayley nodded. After a moment of silence Hayley started to turn away, headed to the front door.

“If-” Josie stopped Hayley. “If you see her, can you just make sure she’s alright.”

“Of course,” Hayley promised.

Josie went back to her room and went to bed early. Later in the night she felt Lizzie slip into bed next to her. She guessed Lizzie assumed more twin cuddles were needed. Josie couldn’t complain. It was nice having Lizzie be there and comfort her, it was usually the other way around.

When she woke up, she went about her day like the one before. Landon was once again not in any classes. She assumed he had stayed the night at Hopes and was staying with her again that day. She turned in early again though instead of going to bed right away she stayed up and wrote in her journal. She figured writing about everything going on and about her feelings would help her figure out what to say to Hope when she eventually saw her again.

The next day she went to class and was surprised to see Landon. She was thrilled he was back because him being back meant that Hope was doing better. Landon never would have left Hope if she wasn’t in a good place even if she had kicked him out Josie was sure Landon would have just camped outside her hallway until she let him be there for her.

“Hey,” Josie greeted, approaching Landon.

“Hey,” Landon smiled awkwardly. Josie narrowed her eyes. Landon was always awkward but if she had to guess Hope had told him what happened.

“You’re back.”

“Yeah.”

“How is she?”

Landon opened and closed his mouth a few times. “She’s dealing. You know, she’s Hope. She likes to handle stuff on her own. She seemed better than she had been when I went over. She didn’t fully tell me what happened, but she’s never opened up like that. Not even to me.” Landon gave Josie a side glance before saying, “She hates how you guys left things. I told her to talk to you.”

“That’s what everyone keeps saying to both of us apparently,” Josie mumbled.

Landon smiled at that. They continued throughout the day. Josie was much better than she had been the last two days and she actually paid attention during her lessons. Just having Landon back and knowing Hope was doing better was enough. It also helped knowing that Hope seemed to be struggling with the way they left their conversation, as bad as that sounded.

They were hanging out in the den after classes when Landon pulled out his phone to call Hope. Josie was focused on her homework, trying not to eavesdrop but she couldn’t help but overhear slightly. Landon asked about a new monster and then his face twisted in disgust as Hope seemed to tell him something. He ended the conversation and hung up; he grabbed his book to get back to work again but Josie was staring at him.

“What?” he asked hesitantly.

Josie gave him a knowing look. “A new monster?”

Landon sighed; it didn’t seem like he found a reason to lie to her. “Maya picked up something weird, they went out to the graveyard to it checkout and overheard her mom talking about the body. Something dug up a semi-fresh grave and ripped open the body, taking some of its organs. They’re going out again tonight to try and catch it.”

“We should join.” Josie shot to her feet.

“No!” Landon jumped up as well but to try to stop her, not to follow.

“Come on, they could use our help. I mean this thing robs graves and steals organs. They could use the extra hands.”

They argued back and forth for what felt like an hour before Landon finally relented. At the end of it he admitted he didn’t want to do it and Hope would be mad, but he knew Josie would go anyway and he knew Hope would be more pissed if he had let Josie go out there alone.

They snuck out after curfew. It took some time getting to the cemetery since they had to walk, and it wasn’t anywhere near the school. It was more like on the other side of town.

When they got to the cemetery they started sneaking around. They were looking for the monster but also for Hope and Maya. Landon ended up stepping on a twig and Josie shot him a glare. They heard some noises and around the corner of the mausoleum they were hiding behind came Hope and Maya.

Maya had her flashlight on them while Hope had her wolf eyes. Josie held up a hand to block the light from her eyes while Landon let out a scream.

Hope and Landon argued for a moment. Landon had been right; Hope wasn’t happy to see them. After some convincing though, Hope relented and agreed to let them join.

“I say,” Maya started. “Landon and I go check over here,” she pointed in one direction. “While you and Josie check that direction,” she pointed in the other direction.

Hope glared at May but otherwise didn’t say anything. Josie wasn’t ready to be left alone with Hope yet, but she didn’t argue against either. Not like she could of because the second the words left her mouth Maya grabbed Landon by the arm and hauled him off.

“Shall we?” Hope asked, gesturing forward.

Josie nodded and they made their way across the graveyard. For the first time since they met the silence was awkward. No matter what had happened before they were always comfortable with each other but now they were both uneasy and unsure how to treat each other.

“I’m sorry,” Josie said, breaking the silence.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Hope said.

“I acted jealous, and I have no right to feel that way. We aren’t together. You can date whoever you want. Maya’s great.”

“She is,” Hope admitted. “She’s just not the one I like in that way.”

“But you-”

“We hookup sometimes,” Hope cut her off. “It’s been a thing since we first met. It’s how we met. When one of us needed a release or just an escape we went to each other. I wasn’t okay after that attack, and I just wanted to forget for a while. I’m sorry, truly, I never wanted to hurt you.”

“You said Maya isn’t the one you like,” Josie said slowly. Kicking a rock as they continued there walk through the cemetery. “Does that mean there is someone you like?”

“Yes,” Hope smiled to herself. “There’s a girl and I really really like her. I want to assure her she was not misreading things.”

Josie realized what Hope was doing. By not directly acknowledging they liked each other to each other it helped keep it at a distance, even if they both knew who they were talking about. “Then why didn’t you go to her?”

“Because Maya had always been there. With Maya I know nothing will change. I know our relationship won’t be affected after. With her though it would change everything.”

“And that would be bad?”

“In that context? Yeah. If I make a move, I want it to be something good. I don’t want her to become just another hookup to go to when I don’t want to deal with my emotions.”

“Why haven’t you made a move?”

“I’m scared. I’m not used to going after what I want when it comes to my own happiness. I love our friendship and I don’t want to mess that up by going for it and then things not working out.”

“What if they did work out?”

“Everyone I care about has a habit of dying or being put in danger. I can’t let that happen with her. I hope she understands and can forgive me.”

“She does and she wants you to know there was never anything to forgive.”

Hope finally turned to face Josie, she had been avoiding looking at her since they had run into each other. She gave her one of her rare smiles which Josie happily returned. Before Josie could say anything else though they heard a loud cracking sound, like someone breaking something wooden.

They rushed over to where they heard the sound coming from. Josie looked to see Hopes eyes glowing yellow while she used her flashlight. They came to a sudden stop when Josie’s flashlight landed on a grave.

The dirt was freshly dug up and they heard more cracking as wood chips flew out of the hole.

The girls slowly crept forward making sure to avoid making a sound. They didn’t want to startle the monster before they ever even saw what they were dealing with.

There was more cracking, but it didn’t sound like it was coming from wood anymore. There was also a distinct squish sound along with the cracking. Josie made a face; she could only assume what was being ripped open.

Finally, standing tall in the grave came a tall, slender, pale white figure. It hadn’t noticed them yet because it was to busy stuffing its face with what Josie could only assume was a heart. She could see the razor-sharp claws it had, meant for busting open coffins and ripping open chests.

“Do you know what it is?” Josie whispered.

“Roams graveyards. Eats dead bodies. Tall and slender. Sharp teeth and claws,” Hope rambled to herself as she went over what it could be. “There were a couple different things, but I think this is a ghoul.”

Josie nodded. “Great, how do we kill it?”

“Sunlight, fire, or decapitation if I remember correctly.”

“So, unless you have a sword hidden away, I guess fire is our best option.”

“Good thing you’re an expert.” Hope smirked.

“Hey, did you guys hear that?” Landon yelled as he and Maya came running up.

Josie and Hope snapped their eyes to the other duo. They stopped dead in their tracks at seeing the monster. Maya held her flashlight on the creature, frozen and mouth agape.

The creature slowly turned to face the people who had the audacity to interrupt his meal. It let the heart fall from its bloody claws. It let out a piercing screech that caused Hope to bring her hands to her ears. Josie had for once been grateful that she didn’t have enhanced hearing.

The monster jumped out of the grave in one swift movement. It was turned, fully facing Maya and Landon. Josie was looking at it from an angle, but she could see blood dripping from its mouth still. Chunks of heart flew out of its mouth as it screeched again.

Maya didn’t hesitate when she turned on her heel and took off. Landon stood there for a moment longer. Landon didn’t move until the creature started to dash towards him. Landon in classic Landon fashion was running but tripped over a headstone. He scrambled back to his feet again and took off following the direction Maya had gone.

Hope brought her hands down from her ears and sighed. She looked over the headstone they were still crouched behind, looking at the now empty spot their friends and the monster had been.

“Need a boost?” Hope asked, holding out her hand.

Josie nodded, taking Hopes hand in hers and siphoning a bit of magic.

“Okay,” Hope started, pulling herself to her feet. She grabbed Josie’s hand to help her up as well. “I’m going to circle around to meet it before it gets to them, you get it from behind?”

Josie nodded and they both went their separate ways. Josie ran, following the path the monster had taken to go after their friends. She needed to be ready, she started thinking of various fire spells in her mind.

When she got close enough, she saw Maya standing over a grave, reaching down with her hand to help Landon who had somehow managed to fall into the only empty grave in the cemetery. The creature stood a few feet away from them. It charged forward but Hope had come out of nowhere jumped over Maya and Landon, landing a swift kick to the ghoul’s chest.

The ghoul stumbled back. It screeched again.

Hope grabbed the shovel that was sitting next to the newly dug grave. When the ghoul turned back to her, Hope used the shovel to whack it in the face.

The ghoul fell back from the force of the hit.

Josie took the opportunity to say her spell, creating a ring of fire around the ghoul. The ghoul flinched at the flames around him.

Hope stalked forward, passing through the flames without fear of being burnt.

Hope shoved the shovel into the ghoul’s stomach. It screeched in pain. Its hands went to the shovel but quickly dropped back to its sides not having the strength to lift the shovel off itself. Hope flicked her gaze to Josie who just nodded. Hope ripped the shovel out of the ghoul’s stomach, bringing forth another screech. The screech was cut off as Hope brought the shovel down on the creature’s neck, separating its head from the body.

The ghoul quickly turned to ash. Hope dropped the shovel back to the ground. The flames slowly died down as Hope looked at Josie.

Josie thought Hope had never looked more beautiful, standing in the middle of the graveyard in the moonlight with flames dancing behind her, it caused her breath to hitch.

When the flames were full gone Hope turned and made her way to Landon and Maya. Josie shook herself out of her daze, making her way over to the group. With one hand Hope grabbed Landon by the back of his sweatshirt and hauled him up out of the grave.

“Thanks,” Landon panted.

Hopes head snapped up, looking off into the distance.

“What?” Josie asked.

“Sirens,” Hope answered.

“Shit,” Maya said. “My mom, we got to go.”

Josie and Landon followed Hope and Maya off into the direction they ran. Josie and Landon had walked to the graveyard, so they needed Hope and Maya to be their escape. Josie was just glad they wouldn’t have to walk all the way back to the school.

They hopped the fence and made their way through the woods until they got to Maya’s car. As they got in the car, they saw the sheriff’s vehicle and a squad car fly past them. Maya’s vehicle was perfectly hidden though so they couldn’t be seen. As soon as the cops were out of sight Maya pulled out and made her way to Salvatore.

When they got to the school Landon and Josie got out with a short goodbye and thank you to Maya for driving them.

“Wait,” Hope said. “I’ll walk you.” With that Hope slipped out of the car and followed them to the front door.

Landon walked a few paces in front of them clearly knowing Hope meant she wanted to walk Josie to the door not him. Josie still had something she wanted to say but didn’t want to do it with an audience, even though Landon probably wasn’t listening.

When they got to the porch Landon quickly made his way in only offering Hope a wave goodbye.

Hope stood on the porch staring at Josie who had her back to the front door.

“Thank you,” Josie said softly.

“Anytime,” Hope breathed out. “Well, I should get back.”

“Wait!” Hope had begun to turn but stopped to face Josie again. “I still had something to say before we were rudely interrupted by the monster.”

Hope let out a light chuckle. “Okay.” Hope looked the same as she always did but Josie noticed her fingers twitch a few times. She was nervous. Josie had never seen Hope nervous before.

“I know you said I didn’t need to but still, I’m sorry. I just want you to know we’re good and I hope we can go back to our normal. See you for our weekly training sessions?”

Hopes fingers stopped twitching and she broke out into a small smile. “Yeah, of course.”

“Also, that girl you like,” Josie started, she wasn’t sure where the confidence came from, but she knew she had to say it. “She understands the risks, she accepts them but she’s willing to wait till you’re ready.”

Hope didn’t say anything but smiled at Josies words. Josie with her rare newly acquired confidence also decided to lean forward and place a soft kiss on Hopes cheek before she lost the nerve again.

Josie stepped back, bumping into the door as she reached for the handle from behind. She was sure she was blushing like crazy, but it was worth it because Hope was doing the same.

“Good night,” Hope said softly, taking a step back off the porch.

“Night,” Josie said as she opened the door.

Before she closed the door, she watched Hope walk back to the car. She could swear she saw Maya smiling brightly and pump her fist up into air. She also noticed Maya seemed to punch to high and hit the roof of her car cause she brought her hand down and started shaking away the pain. With that Josie closed the door. Maya seemed happy with Hope and Josie’s developing relationship if that reaction was anything to go by, Josie guessed she really didn’t have anything to worry about.

Josie leaned away from the door and started to walk back to her dorm. She only got a few steps away from the door before she stopped. Her eyes widened in realization, she had just practically confessed her feelings to Hope and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Chapter Text

Hope was at Salvatore training with Rafael outside at the old mill. Landon was sitting on a couch off to the side watching them. They had been at it for a little while and Rafael was dripping with sweat. Hope still felt like she was warming up. She wondered if she should grab Kaleb, he always seemed down for a fight and a vampire would be slightly more challenging, maybe.

“So, why are you avoiding Josie?” Landon’s voice came from off to the side.

Rafael threw a couple quick punches which Hope easily blocked. When Rafael went in for another punch Hope grabbed his arm, twisting it, and flipping him onto the ground with a thump.

“I’m not avoiding her,” Hope said. She stepped back, bouncing on her feet as Rafael rolled to the side groaning. She couldn’t stop her eyeroll. She really needed a challenge. She wondered if maybe Hayley would ever spar. Hayley was a hybrid; she could actually provide a challenge. Of course, Hope figured Hayley would hold back even just slightly and Hope didn’t want that.

“Right,” Landon nodded unconvinced. “That’s why you’re out here with us and not hanging out with her.”

“Josie and I are fine.” Hope turned to face Landon. “We just saw each other the other day for our weekly training sessions.”

“So, you guys are good now?”

“Yeah. Things were a little awkward at first but once we got started with the training things quickly fell back to how they were going.”

Rafael charged trying to get Hope while she was distracted. Even without her enhanced hearing she would have heard his panting and the way he stomped. She stepped to the side just as he would’ve made contact. She gripped one hand on his shoulder and the other on his arm then spun him around, pushing him off into the other direction until he hit the wall.

“Plus,” Hope said, turning back to Landon. “You guys are my friends. Do I need an excuse to hang out with you?”

“No,” Landon admitted. “But it seems like you’re taking some frustrations out on Raf. I just assumed it was Josie related.”

“Nope just normal frustrations.”

Hope turned to face Rafael again when she heard him finally push off from the wall. He gritted his teeth and slowly walked to the middle of the room again. Hope tilted her head, smirking. Rafael was learning, he always let his anger get the better of him and charge in like he had just moments ago, but he was starting to learn to slow down and re-evaluate. It would do no use against Hope, but she was proud of him, it would be helpful in other fights. Fights not against her.

“So,” Landon drawled out. Hope flicked a glance to him but made sure not to lose sight of Rafael. Landon was still on the couch, but he was looking everywhere in the room but at her. “You going to ask her out?”

Hope clenched her jaw. She snapped a glare towards Landon, she could see him swallow a lump under her gaze.

Rafael tried to take the opportunity and make a move. He rushed her but as soon as he was in arm’s length Hope made her move. She used her arms to block his swings and then while he left it unguarded, she used her foot to deliver a hard kick to his chest.

Rafael’s breath caught in his throat as he brought a hand to his chest and fell to the ground. Hope spared Rafael a glance, he was gasping for air but was otherwise still breathing. His heart was still beating, though rather quickly. Hope decided he was alive, so she turned her attention to Landon.

“Look I’m sorry,” Landon said quickly, holding up his hands in surrender. “I know you don’t like talking about your feelings. It’s just you two practically confessed you liked each other. She said she’d wait till you were ready. So why not just make a move?”

“Did you ever think I wasn’t ready!” Hope snapped. Landon flinched at her tone. It was rare for Hope to truly snap at him.

“Sorry,” he whispered softly. “We don’t have to talk about it. I’m sorry.”

Hope closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. “It’s fine,” she finely said, calmer than before. “Sorry for snapping.” Landon nodded. “I’ve never had an actual relationship before. I don’t know how to do it.”

“I’m pretty sure Josie understands that.”

“I just know she’ll regret it.”

Landon’s eyes softened. “Hope.”

“I’m not good enough. I know it. You know it. She’s in denial about it but she’ll learn eventually. Why waste the time in dragging her down with me.”

“Hope,” Landon stood so he was face to face with her. “You are good. The best person I know.” Hope rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’m a little bias but how many other people would sacrifice everything for some random kid they met in a cell next to them and then continue to do so for years. Also look at you now, still fighting for everyone here.”

“I don’t know,” Hope whispered.

“Look whatever you decide to do or don’t do I’ll support you. Just know that you do deserve to be happy. You deserve to be selfish for at least once in your life.”

“Thanks Lan.”

Hope knit her eyebrows when she noticed Landon take a step back closer to the couch. Then she heard it, Rafael rolling over and pulling himself back to his feet. She spared him a glance. He was still struggling with his breathing, but he wasn’t panting as much. She might have got a little carried away with the kick, but she didn’t hear any bones break so really, she just thought Rafael was being dramatic.

She turned to face Rafael again when she noticed her wristband start to glow.

“Wait,” she said, getting a look at her wristband. There was another monster, fantastic.

Rafael was already moving by the time she spoke though. He opted for a kick instead of a punch. His foot was coming towards Hopes face. Hope, still looking at her wristband lifted her other hand up, grabbing Rafael’s leg midair. Then twisted it so he spun around and ended up back on the floor.

“I said wait,” Hope said again, rolling her eyes.

Rafael laid there for a minute, panting. “You know what…I think…we should call it…just for…today…”

Landon moved forward, holding out his hand for Rafael and helping him up.

They followed Hope out of the old mill when the sky instantly started to become dark, grey clouds rolling in out of nowhere. The three of them stopped to look to the sky.

“What’s that?” Landon asked, pointing to an orange-ish red dot in the sky.

The dot in the sky was not the sun since it was much smaller, and it was getting closer.

As it got closer, they noticed it was a ball of fire coming down. It crashed into the grass. They ran to see the ground it crashed into ablaze. There was no rock or anything indicating it was a meteor or something. It was just fire.

They looked up to the sky again and saw more firing raining down.

“What the hell,” Rafael whispered.

“We need to get to the school,” Hope said.

The three rushed off to the school, managing to dodge anymore fire that rained down. By the time they reach school grounds the sky was clear again, not a cloud in sight.

The front lawn was chard and burnt, teachers running around putting out any remaining fire. The school was mostly undamaged except for one side which managed to take a few hits. There were students and teachers working together to put out the remaining flames on the building.

They rushed into the school seeing everyone running around like crazy. The inside was mostly undamaged, but the small children were crying so others were comforting them while everyone ran to the side of the school that took a hit.

“Jo!” Hope called as she saw the girl walking down the hall.

“Hey,” Josie ran up to the group. “What the hell happened?”

“No idea, we were training when I got a monster alert.”

“Next thing we know it’s raining fire,” Landon added.

“What the hell kind of monster causes it to rain fire?” Lizzie asked, coming out of nowhere.

“No idea,” Hope mumbled.

They were making their way to the library, figured they might as well research raining fire, see if anything popped up. Surely there couldn’t be many creatures that could change the weather and make it rain fire.

Just as they opened the door to the library Hopes phone started to ring, she pulled it out and saw it was Maya.

“Yeah,” Hope answered. “I already know about the raining fire.”

“It’s not about that,” Maya cut her off.

“What happened?”

“Meet me, I’ll send a location.” With that Maya hung up. A second later Hope got a text with Maya’s location. She was at some farm at the edge of town.

Hope quickly dialed Hayley next.

“What’s going on?” Hayley asked as a greeting. It sounded like she was already in her car and driving.

“We don’t know but I need you to give me a ride.”

“Pulling up now.”

Hope hung up and started heading back out the door.

“Wow, where are you going?” Josie asked.

“Maya called, something else happened,” Hope answered. “You guys keep doing research, I’ll call when I find anything.”

“I’m coming with.”

Hope sighed but otherwise didn’t argue. She was starting to learn there was no use in arguing with Josie.

They made their way back out of the school and to Hayley who was already parked out front. They slipped into the car and as soon as the doors were shut Hayley took off. Hope put her phone up so Hayley could see where they were going.

They pulled onto a dirt road, slamming on the breaks right away. Maya popped out from behind some trees and ran into the middle of the road.

“What the hell!” Hope yelled as she opened the car door.

“You have to hide the car,” Maya said, running around to the other side and slipping into the back next to Josie.

Hayley sighed, backing up and pulling off to the side near the woods. She wasn’t completely out of sight, but she was out of sight enough.

“Assuming your mom is up ahead?” Hope asked as they all got out of the car.

“And more,” Maya answered, as she led them in the direction of the farm.

It seemed Maya wasn’t offering any explanation until she showed them whatever it was, she had to show them. When Maya usually didn’t want to just say what was wrong it tended to be really bad.

As they approached the field, they kept to the woods to remain out of sight. They could see cops swarming the area. Mystic Falls wasn’t a big town and had a relatively small police force, but it looked like all of them were at the farm, taping off the area, taking witness statements from the farmer and his family. There was also however a bunch of guys in white hazmat suits.

“What the fuck,” Hope whispered. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Maya answered. “Mom got a call from the farmer saying his entire heard was dead.”

“Dead? All of them?”

Maya nodded. Hope moved a little closer to get a better look at the field and saw it. Dozens of cows littering the field.

“Holy shit,” Josie whispered. “How does this happen?”

“Pestilence,” Hayley whispered.

“How is that possible?” Hope asked.

“What’s that?” Maya asked at the same time.

“It’s basically a disease that just wipes everything out,” Hayley answered.

“Think The Black Plague,” Hope said.

“So, are we all about to die?” Maya asked.

“Well, not all of us.” Maya shot Hope a glare and she couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Based on this I’m going to say no. I was just alerted to the monster less than an hour ago and this heard is already dead. I think if humans were affected, we’d already know.”

“Let’s head back,” Hayley said, leading them back to the car.

When they got back to the car Hayley quickly sped away. Hope pulled out her phone to call Landon.

“What did you find?” Landon answered after one ring.

“Pestilence,” Hope said. “An entire heard of cows just instantly dropped dead.”

Before anyone could say anything more the sky got dark again, then a frog landed on the hood of the car.

“What the fuck,” Hope whispered.

“What?” Landon asked.

A second later more frogs started falling out of the sky. Hayley threw on her windshield wipers to help smack them off.

“I’m so confused,” Maya whispered.

“Is it raining frogs?” Landon asked. Hope honestly forgot she was still on the phone with him.

“Looks that way,” Hope said. “I’ll talk to you back at the school.”

Hayley drove as fast as she could back to the school, the raining frogs did slow her down a bit. Using the wipers helped but since they were frogs not rain, they didn’t get brushed off quite as easily. Luckily like the raining fire the raining frogs also didn’t last long. Looking out the window Hope saw frogs covering the ground and street.

When they pulled up to Salvatore and got out of the car a few frogs that managed to hold on hopped off. Hope turned to say something but got cut off by a buzzing.

“Do you guys hear that?” Maya asked.

“What is that?” Josie asked.

“It sounds like buzzing,” Hope said.

“Like insects almost,” Hayley said. “Just a bunch of them.”

Hope looked out across the yard again and in the distance, she saw it. It was a black blob moving directly towards them.

“Get inside,” Hope said. “Now!”

Everyone rushed inside, slamming the doors just as the bugs reached them. Hope peaked out the window to see thousands of locusts swarming the building.

“What the fuck is going on,” Maya said.

“I think we know what’s going on,” Landon’s voice came from behind them. They all turned to see him standing there. There was a glimmer in his eye and a slight smile on his face, Hope hated it. “Hey, are those locusts?”

“Yes,” Hope said. “What did you find?”

Landon led them back to the library, talking as he went. “So, what do we got so far?”

“A bunch of weird shit,” Maya commented.

Landon ignored her and continued, “Raining fire, pestilence affected livestock, and now raining frogs. This is all signs of-”

“Plagues,” Hope finished for him.

Landon nodded. “Correct. But not just any plagues, the plagues of-”

“Egypt,” Lizzie cut him off as they walked into the library.

“Dude!” Landon whined.

“What does all this mean?” Hayley interrupted.

“We’re dealing with a mummy!” Landon squealed.

“We don’t know that for sure,” Lizzie said.

“Right, cause what other monster do you know causes the plagues of Egypt?”

“I don’t know but Egypt has a bunch of mythical creatures. We can’t just assume mummy.”

“Look, I’ve seen The Mummy a hundred times and going off that, when a mummy is raised the plagues start.”

“That doesn’t mean anything!”

“So far the only other big plague we’re missing is-”

Kaleb burst through the door interrupting whatever Landon was about to say. “What the hell is going on?” he shouted.

“What happened?” Hope asked.

“I was in the gym doing my workout cause you know I like to still do the work, even though I’ll always look like this,” Kaleb gestured to himself.

“Kaleb!”

“Right, so I was working out in the gym cause of all the weird shit going on. I finished my set and went to the kitchen to get a drink when my water turned into blood.”

“Yep, that’s the one,” Landon said.

“Are you sure its blood?” Hope asked,

“Yeah,” Kaleb said, holding out his glass. “Look I know blood and that right there is blood. It tastes disgusting but it’s blood.”

Hayley grabbed the glass from Kaleb. She dipped her finger in the red liquid and brought it to her mouth. She quickly made a face as soon as it touched her tongue and started gagging.

“He’s right,” Hayley said through coughing. “It’s blood. I don’t know what’s wrong with it it but it’s definitely blood.”

“Yo guys,” MG said, vamping into the room. “Why is there a mummy on the front lawn?”

“Haha!” Landon squealed in delight. “I knew it!” Lizzie rolled her eyes and slapped him.

Everyone ran to the windows to see what MG was talking about. Sure, enough there was a mummy on the front lawn, making its way towards the school, slowly.

The creature was wrapped in dirty bandages, as if it had just dug itself out of its tomb. Some of the badges were torn and or falling off of it. There were parts of exposed decayed flesh, where the mummy seemed to have been ripping at its badges. Its eyeballs were missing, leaving two black empty sockets.

“Okay,” Hope said slowly, nodding. “How do we defeat a mummy?”

“Well in the movie Brendan Fraser used a cat to scare it away,” Landon said.

“I don’t think we should be basing our battle plans on some movie,” Hope snapped.

Landon gasped in offense. “The Mummy isn’t just some movie. It is a cinematic masterpiece!”

“I’m inclined to agree,” Lizzie said. Everyone turned to give her a concerned look. She brought a hand towards her throat as she swallowed. “I think I just threw up a little.” Lizzie shook her head, shuttering. “That being said I also agree with Hope. The cat is a stupid idea.”

“So, then how do we beat it?” Hayley asked.

MG rushed over to the books Lizzie and Landon had laid out. “Uhh, it says decapitation,” he read. “And fire.”

“Great!” Hope clapped her hands together. “Let’s go.” Hope made her way to the door, grabbing a battle axe hanging from on the wall as she walked out of the room.

They walked out the front door to see the mummy making its way up the steps. Hope quickly ran forward and swung the battle axe, slicing the head clean off.

The head flew back across the lawn, landing a few feet away then rolling. The body slowly collapsed onto the porch. Hope took a step back admiring her work.

“Why isn’t it disappearing?” Lizzie asked after a moment.

A second later the body started moving again, slowly crawling forward, reaching for the doorway.

Everyone jumped back. Landon let out a high pitch squeal and ran into the doorframe as he tried to run back into the school.

“Decapitation does not work,” Hope said.

Every backed up, taking a defensive stance. The thing didn’t have a head, but they didn’t know what it was capable of. It seemed to still have some sense of direction since it was still moving towards the door.

Before anyone else could react or Hope could come up with another plan Josie stepped in front of the doorway, directly in the monster’s path. She had a determined look on her face as she held out her hands, whispering a spell. A second later a stream of fire shot out of her hands, encompassing the mummified corpse fully.

Hope had to duck to the side as the flames got a little too close. Josie kept her position for a moment before finally stopping. When the fire finally died down all that was left was a super crispy burnt up headless corpse. Everyone waited a moment, not letting their guard down again. After a few seconds, the corpse turned to ash along with the head off in the lawn.

Hope stood back up, brushing off the bit of embers than had landed on her.

“Sorry,” Josie said, coming over to help brush Hope off. “I got a little carried away. Probably should have warned you.”

“No problem,” Hope said. “Thanks for the save.”

They all made their way back into the school. They settled in the den needing a break after the eventful day.

“Oh my god,” Maya shouted, jumping up from the couch.

“What?" Hope asked.

“I forgot my car at the farm.”

Hope closed her eyes and sighed. “Can you give us a ride?” she asked Hayley.

Hayley sighed but nodded. The three of them said their goodbyes to the others for the night and made their way to Hayley’s car, so they could head back to the farm again.

Chapter Text

Hope was at work. It was a normal day. It seemed like a normal day. Everything felt normal. There was nothing technically out of the ordinary. That didn’t stop Hope from feeling like something was off. Everyone at The Grill was really into each other. Everyone was pressed next to each other in the same booth, or they were holding hands, there was even a few couples pressed up against the wall making out. Now Hope would be the first to admit she wasn’t great with relationships, and she missed a lot of obvious signals, or so Maya has told her. However, the amount of affection going on at the same time by multiple people seemed weird.

Hope walked into the freezer in the back room and was instantly met with the sight of their cook and one of the servers heavily making out. Hopes eyes widened and she quickly backed out of the freezer, closing the door. Yeah, something weird was going on.

Hope pulled out her phone and called Maya. She hadn’t been alerted by any monsters, but something clearly was going on. She decided on Maya first because Maya would be able to tell her if the weirdness was at the high school as well or she’d offer some insight as to why everyone was suddenly all over each other. The phone rang until Hope got Maya’s voicemail. Which was concerning in itself because Maya always answered when Hope called.

Hope only had a couple hours of her shift so she continued her work and hoped Maya would call back. The day continued as it had been. Couples entered and exited the restaurant like normal but instead of ordering they just hooked up. Hope stood at a table for five minutes trying to get a couples order before finally just walking away. As soon as her shift ended, she was out the door. She didn’t not want to be anywhere near this many people and their displays of affection.

Hope made her way to the high school. Maya wasn’t answering and there was still about an hour left of classes. Hope needed to know what was going on and if Maya was in any trouble. As she made her way across town, she saw the same thing everywhere. In the park people were devouring each other on the benches or even rolling around in the grass half undressed.

When she got to the high school, she saw the same thing as everywhere else. Students not in class but pressing each other up against lockers. She heard movement in a janitors closet and when she opened the door, she saw what she assumed to be was two teachers in same position, she quickly closed the door. Hope was really hoping this was some sort of monster so she could kill it and stop all the lusting that was happening.

Hope made her way looking for Maya. She opened the door to one of the classrooms when she heard a desk scrape across the floor. She didn’t see Maya though, she saw Ethan. When he pulled away to take off his shirt, she saw the girl he was kissing was Lizzie. Hope had to blink a few times to make sure she was actually seeing what she was seeing. She wasn’t sure why Lizzie was at the high school, but she knew her and Ethan weren’t dating, they did have a mutual attraction to each other though. Hope took note of that, whatever was going on didn’t only affect people that were already together. Hope once again closed the door and continued on her way. She was getting nervous about what she would see when she did find Maya.

Hope rolled her eyes and finally relented. She started sniffing around until she picked up Maya’s scent. She followed the scent until she was back outside and headed for the football field. Hope made her way down to the field but didn’t see anyone. She listened closely and finally heard people kissing under the bleachers. She ducked underneath the bleachers and saw Maya pressing a girl up against one of the poles. Hope wasn’t fully sure, but she thought the girl might have been Finch, Maya’s ex. Hope had seen a few pictures of the girl but didn’t remember her from when she went to the school, and she never hung out with her when she was dating Maya, so she wasn’t fully sure if it was her.

“Maya!” Hope said. Maya didn’t stop kissing Finch. “Maya!” Hope said louder. When Maya and Finch still didn’t break apart Hope moved closer. “Maya!”

Finally, Maya broke away from Finch, wiping her mouth. “Hey, Hopey, what’s up?” she said as if she hadn’t just been making out with her ex.

“Oh, you know, me and Finch were just reminiscing about old times.”

“Seriously, Maya something is wrong.”

“Aww, come on,” Maya pouted. “You know I wouldn’t have a problem going for you.” Maya made her way closer to Hope, placing her hands under Hopes jacket. “But I actually like Finch as more than a friend and you’re into Josie.” Maya pressed their bodies closer together. “If you want another hookup though,” she whispered, the rest of her sentence dying off as she leaned forward to press her lips to Hopes.

“Maya,” Hope whispered. “Maya!” she gently pushed Maya back, wiggling out of her grasp. “What the hell!”

Maya rolled her eyes. “See, last time was a fluke, this is why Finch is the better option.” Maya moved back over to where Finch was, grabbing the other girl and bring her back in for another long kiss.

“What the fuck is happening,” Hope whispered. She raised her hands and walked off. She didn’t have time to break Maya out of whatever spell was going on. She needed to figure out what was going on.

Maya really liked Finch when they dated. Hope knew that Maya wouldn’t shut up about the girl whenever she came to hang out with Hope. It was honestly annoying. When they broke up Maya had said it was for the best, they were just too different. Hope hadn’t said anything but was there for Maya. She knew Maya still had feelings for Finch, but she didn’t believe Maya would ever go back to her since it had taken her so long to get over the other girl. Whatever was going on definitely involved people acting on some sort of romantic or sexual feelings they had for each other.

Despite knowing it was probably a bad idea and that she would probably find the same thing at Salvatore she still made her way to the school. The only upside she could think of was that Lizzie was at the high school meaning Hope wouldn’t have to walk in on the blonde twin mid make out with Rafael, again.

Hope shifted and made her way to Salvatore. She ran through the woods. As she flew through the trees. She passed people and couples, there was an unusual amount of people out in town and even in the woods. No one paid her any attention. They were all so busy wrapped up in each other, literally.

When Hope got to Salvatore she quickly shifted back and ran up the steps. She threw open the door and was met with the same sight as everywhere else. Students all over each other. Some were making out on the couch in the den, others had each other pressed up against the wall, and then others were guiding their partners up the steps, Hope assumed to a dorm room or pulling each other into classrooms.

Hope made her way through the school. She wasn’t really sure what she was looking for. She was just hoping not everyone was under the influence of whatever was causing this. She wasn’t fully sure why she wasn’t affected. Maya was and was all over her ex but flirted with Hope as well but when Maya was in front of her, she didn’t feel the same desire.

Hope peeked her head in one of the classrooms and saw Emma Tig making out with Dorian. Hope tilted her head, raising her eyebrows. It was just not long ago that Emma was kissing Alaric, now she was with Dorian. Hope didn’t see that coming. She shrugged and quietly closed the door. She didn’t really care about the headmaster and teacher personal relationship drama that was surely going on.

Hope looked around then finally found Landon in the gym. He was turned away from her as he walked towards the door. She glanced around him to see what had his attention. It was the same as everywhere else, students all over each other. Landon quickened his pace when one of the students started to take off his shirt. He turned to run out the door and turned right into Hope, letting out a yelp.

“Holy shit,” Landon said, bringing a hand to his chest. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

“What’s going on?” Hope demanded.

Landon dropped his hand from his chest, letting out a relieved sigh. “Thank god, you’re still acting normal.”

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know. I woke up and everyone was acting weird. Like everyone acting all couply. They were all over each other kissing and touching.”

“Yeah, same thing in the rest of town.”

“Some of the people are already couple’s, others are ones who are friends, or who are rumored to like each other. At least according to Lizzie.” They made their way out of the gym and back down the hall. “Lizzie made this whole chart and presentation thing on who was coupled up and who was broken up and who liked who and everything.”

“I don’t care. But same as everywhere else. I found Maya and she was back to making out with her ex.”

“So, this thing whatever it is affects lovers? Or people who have an attraction to each other? Is it a monster?”

“I don’t know. I was at work when everything became weird. I haven’t gotten alerted to anything but there’s been ways monsters have gotten around my spell. Something is definitely going on though.”

“So do you think because we don’t like anyone or aren’t around who we like it’s not affecting us?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to see if anyone else isn’t affected. I’m also going to search for Josie. You go research what this might be.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” Landon gestured around as if to state the obvious. “I’ll be fine,” Hope said annoyed. “I know how to control myself.”

Hope walked off, headed for the stairs. She swore she heard Landon mumble ‘right’ under his breath, but she chose to not acknowledge that. She could handle herself. She knew there was a monster or something manipulating people into giving into their attractions or something. She would be fine. She didn’t feel anything next to Maya, surely, she would be fine next to Josie. It was going to be fine.

Hope made her way to the brunette’s dorm, giving the door a soft knock. “Hey, Jo, it’s me,” Hope said.

“Come in!” Josie called. Hope opened the door, seeing Josie messing with something on her nightstand. “Do you know what’s going on? Everyone is acting so…” her voice trailed off when she turned, and her eyes met Hopes.

Hopes throat suddenly became dry. Whatever she was about to say was completely forgotten. She just had the sudden urge to be with Josie, to be next to her, touching her.

Josie slowly makes her way to the middle of the room and Hope seemed to do the same. She wasn’t even aware she was moving closer to Josie; it was just a magnetic pull.

Josie was no longer shy and holding herself back. She was fully confident and taking control. When they were close enough together Josie reached out, grabbing Hope so their bodies were practically pressed together. Josie slowly started to slide Hopes jacket off.

Hope puts her head in the crook of Josie’s neck, breathing in her scent, vanilla. God, she loved that scent, Josie’s scent, it gave her such peace. She rested her hands on Josie’s hips while Josie ran her hands down Hopes back, around her sides, coming to rest on her abs.

Hope lifted her head; she could feel her eyes flickering from gold to their regular blue. She wanted so desperately to just give in. She couldn’t though. She didn’t know why she was fighting the pull. She didn’t want to fight it. Something tugged at the back of her mind though telling her to not give into the temptation.

Josie ran her nose up Hopes neck. Her lips lightly grazing the skin but not actually kissing her. Hope tilted her head up until Josie got to her face. She leaned back slightly looking Josie in the eyes. Her eyes were still flickering between gold and blue as she stared into the deep gorgeous brown eyes.

Hope closed her eyes as she leaned her forehead against Josie’s. Their noses brushed together as the two leaned in. Their lips were just about to brush against each other when Hope jolted, pulling back. She stepped out of Josie’s reach. She closed her eyes as they still flicked back and forth. When she opened them again, they settled on their natural blue.

“What are you doing?” Josie whispered softly, stepping back into Hopes space. She ran her hand down Hopes arm until she got to her hand, slowly intertwining their fingers.

“We can’t,” Hope whispered.

“Why not?” Josie whispered, her lips barely grazing against Hopes ear. “We both want it. Isn’t it about time we both go after what we want?”

Hope closed her eyes again. She needed to remain in control. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t the way. This wasn’t actually Josie; she was under the influence of something.

“Not like this,” Hope whispered, stepping back again.

Josie moved to step forward again when the sound of the door flying open interrupted them. The interruption didn’t seem to break Josie from her trance though. Hope started to turn her head to see who had interrupted them, but Josie gently used her fingers to turn her head to keep her eyes on her.

“Hope!” a voice came. Hope couldn’t break her gaze from Josie though. She wasn’t even sure who was speaking. “Hope!” someone grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her back, ripping her away from Josie. “Yeah, it sure looks like you know how to control yourself,” Landon snapped. It was Landon. Landon had interrupted them.

“What?” Hope asked dazed. “When did you get here?”

Landon dragged her out of the room. He pulled her by the arm until they were out of the school and hopping into Alaric’s truck.

“What would you do without me?” Landon asked as he started the vehicle.

“I was fine. I had it under control,” Hope said. She blinked a few times, the fuzziness from her mind in being in the presence of Josie finally disappearing when she was no longer near the other girl.

Landon scoffed. He put the truck in drive and started off down the road.

“Where are we going?” Hope asked.

“Hayley’s,” he answered. “It’s the only place I can think of that might be safe.”

Landon sped through town, luckily for them with everyone being so infatuated with each other it meant the roads were clear. Since everyone seemed influenced by the monster there were also no cops around, so he didn’t have to worry about the fact that he was going well over the speed limit and the fact that he didn’t have a license.

He quickly pulled into a driveway, both him and Hope jumping out of the truck as soon as he turned it off. They walked up to the door and Landon rapidly knocked. Hope had to grab his hand to stop him.

Hayley flung open the door. At first, she had an annoyed look on her face probably from Landon’s insistent knocking, but her face quickly morphed into one of confusion.

“What’s wrong?” Hayley asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Have you not seen what’s been going on?” Landon asked as he made his way into the home when Hayley stepped to the side.

“No, I haven’t left the house today.” Hayley closed the door once Hope made her way in as well.

“Well, everyone’s gone crazy!”

“They’re not crazy,” Hope tried.

Landon scoffed. “Of course, you think that.”

“I had everything under control!”

“Yeah, it sure looked like it. You looked completely in control.” Landon’s voice was dripping with sarcasm. Hope just glared at him.

“Okay,” Hayley said, stepping between the two. “Can someone tell me what’s happening?”

“Everyone is giving into their attractions to people.”

“Come again?” Hayley turned to face Landon.

“Everyone is kissing and hooking up and doing who knows what with each other!” Landon threw his hands in the air. “All of them! Anyone who seems to like someone on a romantic level is giving into their desires to be with them whether they’re already dating or not.”

“I did not see that one coming.”

“And apparently it’s not easy to control when you’re in the same room as the person you desire.” Landon shot a glare at Hope.

Hayley flicked her eyes to Hope as well but didn’t say anything. Hope cleared her throat, avoiding looking at either of them. “What did you find?” Hope asked.

“Cupid.”

Hope burst out laughing. Hayley’s lips even twitched up slightly. “You’re fucking with me, right?” Hope asked through her laughter. When Landon didn’t smile and just stood there blinking at her she realized he was serious. “You’re not fucking with me.”

“I mean cupid makes people fall in love.”

“This isn’t love though. This is desire, it’s attraction.”

“Also,” Hayley broke in. “If this was cupid wouldn’t people who have never interacted be affected? You said there’s already an interest in each other from the people being affected. Cupid could make anyone fall in love.”

Landon opened and closed his mouth a few times then frowned. “I guess,” he mumbled. “There were a bunch of other love and sex related monsters and deities.”

What was it like?” Hayley asked turning to Hope. Hope raised her eyebrows at the question. “The feelings.” Hayley clarified; she seemed really uncomfortable asking Hope this. “Landon said you were affected. What was it like?”

Hope dropped her gaze to the floor. “Um, when I saw Maya, didn’t really feel anything. Maya approached me but she still seemed more interested in Finch. When I saw Josie though…” Hope trailed off remembering what it was like. The overwhelming feeling to be with her.

“And you just couldn’t keep your hands off her,” Landon snarked.

“Hey, I tried to control it! I could feel myself fighting it so hard in the back of my mind.”

“Were you aware what was happening?” Hayley asked.

“Sort of,” Hope said slowly. “I knew something was wrong but when I saw her, I just wanted to be with her, to touch her, to be close. Something was pulling us together. I was fighting against myself so hard. My head telling me it was wrong but everything else telling me to just give into my desires. It wasn’t until Landon interrupted us that I broke out of the trance. Then it wasn’t until we left the school that I no longer felt the pull of Josie.”

“Look whatever it is we need to get back to the school. With everyone pre-occupied the knife is vulnerable.”

“Maybe try not to lose focus this time,” Landon snarked towards Hope. Hope smacked him in the shoulder as he made his way to follow Hayley out the door. He yelped in pain, rubbing his shoulder where she smacked him. Hope pushed him out of the way, so she was in front of him.

They got in Hayley’s car and quickly made their way back to Salvatore. The entire ride Landon went on and on about how Hope had to avoid Josie. If Landon wasn’t one of the only people not being affected by whatever was going on she would’ve snapped his neck just to shut him up.

When they pulled up to Salvatore it was the same as when they left it. They slowly made their way into the school. Landon standing in front of Hope so he could warn her if Josie was near. Hope understood why he was doing it, she still thought it was stupid though. She could control herself. She was fine. She was completely in control.

Hope was following them down the hall towards where the knife was when someone grabbed her by the arm, yanking her into an empty classroom. When she turned to see who had grabbed her, she was met with gorgeous brown eyes. Hope couldn’t help but smile.

Josie pushed Hope back until she hit the desks. Her hands were on Hope again, rubbing the back of her neck and through her hair. She started to lean in again. Hope almost leaned in as well but the little voice in the back of her head telling her to stop was stronger than before. She gently grabbed Josie’s hands, pulling them down off her neck.

“Why are you fighting this?” Josie asked.

“Not this way,” Hope said softly.

An adorable pout formed on Josie’s face. She was making it really hard for Hope to fight off the temptation. Whatever was going on had such a strong pull. Josie kept looking at her and Hope just wanted to give in, it would be so easy to just stop fighting.

The door to the classroom opened and she heard a, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Hope turned to see it was once again Landon interrupting them.

Landon stomped over to the two of them, grabbing Hope by the arm again and pushing her out the door. In the hallway Hayley was standing there with a small smile on her face. Hope cleared her throat and continued to make her way down the hallway. She heard Landon telling Josie to stay then closing the door, it also sounded like he moved something in front of it to lock her in there.

They finally made it to the room the knife was being kept in. When they opened the door, they saw a man standing before the knife. He was wearing some sort of white toga and had large white feathered wings coming out of his back. There was a bow and quiver strapped to his back as well.

“I told you,” Landon whispered. “Cupid.”

“I am not Cupid!” a loud voice boomed, the man turning to face them.

He looked human, besides the giant angel wings sticking out of his back.

“I am the god Pothos!” his voice boomed again, raising his hands as if he wished to be worshipped.

“Who?” Hope asked. She looked to Landon who just shrugged.

“I am the god of sexual longing, yearning, and desire!”

“So, you’re the one making all these people behave this way?”

“You can’t force people to be with each other,” Hayley spoke. “There’s a thing called consent here.”

“I don’t force anyone. My powers are simple,” Pothos explained. “They just get people to give into their desires, to stop longing, just give into their temptations. No one is forced to be with each other it doesn’t work if there’s not someone they’re wanting. They can fight if they want.” He turned to face Hope. “I’m surprised you were able to fight it considering how much you desire that girl.”

Hope opened and closed her mouth a few times. She wanted to argue back so badly. She just had nothing to say against that.

“Now, stay out of the way children,” Pothos continued, turning back to face the knife. “You have something I desire.”

“What do we do?” Landon asked. “He’s a god which apparently your spell doesn’t detect.”

Hope scoffed. “I’d hardly call him a god, but I guess I’ll add gods to the list of things my spell doesn’t detect. We can’t let him get that knife though.”

Hope rushed Pothos with Hayley attacking from the other side. He saw them coming though, he spread his wings, spinning around so they hit both Hayley and Hope, smacking them across the room. Hope rolled across the ground recovering quickly.

She charged at him again, when she swung her fist, he caught her arm. She tried swinging her other hand, but he caught that arm as well. Gripping her tightly by both arms he lifted her in the air, his wings flapping to keep them elevated. He released her arms, using his foot to send a powerful kick against her chest. He did a back flip in the air pushing off from Hope while Hope was sent flying back. His kick was so strong she crashed right through the wall.

Hope coughed from the dust; she rolled over in the rubble. When she looked around, she saw she was in the gym. She pulled herself to her feet and ran across the room to the weapons, grabbing a sword.

Pothos flew into the gym from the hole he created with Hopes body. He flew higher into the air, getting a full visual of the gym. Hope stood her ground looking up at the god. She spun her sword in her hand, waiting for him to make his move.

As he made his descent Hayley jumped through the hole in the wall and onto Pothos’ back. She flicked claws out and slashed at his chest. He flew around in circles trying to shake Hayley off. She eventually clawed at him enough and slashed the strap holding his quiver, making it fall to the ground.

With all his flying around Pothos was finally able to shake Hayley loose enough. He reached behind him, grabbing onto the back of her shirt and flinging her off himself. She crashed to the ground with a loud thud.

Pothos let out a loud scream as he flew high up towards the ceiling then straight down towards Hope. Just as he was about to tackle her, Hope stepped to the side. She spun around, swinging behind her, bringing her blade down onto his right wing, slicing right through it.

Pothos howled in pain, as he crashed to the ground. Blood poured from his back at his missing wing which laid motionless on the ground beside him. He reached out, his fingers grazing the feathers, he let out another scream.

“Landon!” Hope called.

Landon poked his head through the hole in the wall, stepping through it. Hope glanced from Landon to the quiver on the ground. Landon nodded, running over to grab the quiver.

Hope stepped forward, reaching down to grab the bow that had fallen off Pothos’ back when she sliced off his wing. Hope spared a look at Pothos before turning and meeting Landon halfway.

Pothos gritted his teeth, rolling over to pull himself back to his feet. He looked to his right, seeing the empty space his wing use to occupy. He turned to face Hope, hatred burning in his eyes. He let out one more loud battle cry before surging forward towards Hope and Landon.

Hope smirked, holding out her hand for Landon to hand her an arrow. Landon pulled an arrow from the quiver, silently handing it to Hope. She gripped the bow, aiming the arrow right at Pothos’ chest, after a moment she let it fly. Sending it across the room and into the gods chest. He reached up, ripping the arrow out of his chest.

Landon held the quiver out as Hope continued to pick and choose arrows. Hope sent each arrow into the gods chest. Pothos ripped out the arrows he could but eventually Hope was firing them to rapidly, he couldn’t keep up. After her last arrow was fired, Pothos dropped to his knees.

He opened his mouth to speak but only blood came out. He eventually fell forward towards the floor, turning into ash right before he hit. His detached wing turning to ash as well. Hope looked at the bow still in her hands and the empty quiver in Landon’s. She frowned, she kind of wished she still had some arrows, it seemed kind of lame without them.

“How did you know that would work?” Hayley asked, coming to stand next to them. She stretched her arm, trying to get her shoulder to pop. She had taken a pretty hard fall even if she was a hybrid.

“Well, if the dude was actually a god, figured the best way to kill a god was with one of their own weapons,” Hope answered.

After they killed Pothos, and the influence of his powers had been lifted they made their way to check on the rest of the school. It was safe to say everyone was thoroughly embarrassed by their actions. The only ones who weren’t avoiding each other were the couples who were already dating. They seemed to think it was funny. The people who had crushes on others and who had their feelings revealed because of the whole situation were either having incredibly awkward conversations with each other or were avoiding each other completely.

Hope was walking towards the den when she saw the front door open. Hope smirked to herself and said, “Hey, Lizzie, have fun?”

“Shut up!” Lizzie shouted, her face going completely red as she stomped up the steps.

“I can’t believe you!” Maya’s voice came. She walked through the front door right after Lizzie, storming over towards Hope. She repeatedly starting slapping Hope on the arm.

“What the hell?” Hope asked, trying to smack Maya’s hands away.

“You just left me there!”

“You seemed to be pretty pre-occupied. I tried to snap you out of it. You weren’t hearing it though.”

“Do you know how awkward it was when got back to our normal selves?”

“I’m sorry!” Hope shouted, finally getting Maya to stop slapping her. “God.” She turned to walk into the den where she saw Josie sitting on the couch, silently giggling at the little display she just witnessed.

A little later that night they were all sitting on the couch and Hope couldn’t stop smirking at Josie. Now that the monster was defeated, she could finally enjoy what had happened. And she certainly had enjoyed it.

“Stop,” Josie said.

Hopes smirk just deepened. “That’s not what you were saying earlier,” she said.

“That was the monster.” Josie whipped her head around to face Hope, pointing her figure. “It made people want to give into their temptations.”

Hope stared at her for a minute before the smirk came back and she leaned closer to Josie whispering, “So you’re saying I tempt you?”

Josie’s face reddened. She went to say something, but she just opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds before standing up exasperated “You’re in sufferable,” she muttered, but there was no malice behind her voice. Hope just smiled as Josie walked away.

“That was hot,” Maya commented. Hope turned to face her, she was sitting on the couch across from theirs, sipping a soda. Hope just laughed at her, shaking her head.

Chapter Text

Josie and Hope were dancing around the boxing ring in the gym below Hopes apartment. Josie had on boxing gloves while Hope wore pads. Hope called out hits and Josie threw them. They had been in the ring for a few minutes, they did a couple of warmups then hopped right in the ring. It took a few sessions, but Josie quickly got in the ring and the training was becoming second nature to her.

Things had been mostly back to normal between her and Hope though things were still slightly awkward. Hope specifically was being awkward ever since Josie learned about her and Maya’s little thing. Josie couldn’t lie she was still a little thrown off by the whole thing, she knew they were friends and all the interactions she saw between the two showed a strong friendship. She just couldn’t stop the nagging feeling that despite Hope practically saying she liked Josie that one day she’d realize Maya was a better option. She had known Maya longer, Maya seemed to know more about her than most people besides Landon, she was pretty, they’d already slept together, and Hope didn’t push her away. There was a part of her that also told her that that was all just her own self-doubt talking, that Hope really did like her and that if she actually liked Maya in a romantic sense then they’d already be together.

On the other side of things Josie was also being incredibly awkward around Hope. She remembered everything that happened with Pothos. He made her want to give into the longing and desire to be with Hope. She had practically thrown herself at Hope. She knew it wasn’t her fault it was Pothos’ influence and every time she did Hope didn’t fully stop her. She was pretty sure the only reason Hope stopped her was because it was a monster’s doing which she appreciated. She wanted to be with Hope, but she didn’t want their first time together or their first kiss to be because they were both under the influence of some monster. She wanted their first kiss to be when they were fully themselves and when they wanted it.

“Okay,” Hope said, interrupting Josie’s punching. “Let’s ditch the gloves and work on some hand to hand.”

Josie nodded, resting her hands on her hips as she caught her breath.

“Want to take five?” Hope asked, as she slipped the pads off her hands.

“Maybe,” Josie panted. “Just… a… water break?”

Hope nodded making her way to the side of the ring. She stepped on the rope and pulled up the other, allowing Josie to step out first. Hope in her usual showing off way opted for just jumping over the ropes, lightly landing on her feet. Josie rolled her eyes at the little display, Hope seemed to see and just chuckled. Hope walked over to the table with their gear and tossed Josie her water. Hope leaned back against the table as she took a few big gulps.

“What’s the rest of the plan for the day?” Josie asked, after she was done downing half of her water.

“The gym opens soon,” Hope sighed. “Figured we’d do a little sparring, make sure you know how to block,” Hope smirked. “Then if you’re up for it I was hoping to extend the session a little.”

“How long?” Josie knit her eyebrows. She was fine with more training, but she didn’t have Hopes energy, she couldn’t go for hours upon hours without wearing herself out.

“An hour maybe two, depending how you’re feeling.” Hope dropped her gaze from Josie, her eyes started looking towards the floor then darting all over the room. “I kind of have a surprise. If you’re up for it of course.”

“Okay,” Josie said slowly. “I’m intrigued. I’m also nervous. You asking to extend training and then saying you have a surprise, I’m not sure this will go well for me.”

Hope openly laughed at that. Josie couldn’t help but smile. She loved Hopes laugh. “Trust me, you’ll like it.”

After they were done with their short break, they made their way over to the training mats. They each took their stances in front of each other. Josie made the first move, throwing a punch, which Hope easily dodged. That’s how most of their sparring went even after all the weeks. Josie would make the first move and Hope would spend most of the session blocking and dodging, teaching Josie the best methods.

Josie wanted Hope to go harder on her, but Hope was reluctant. It took many weeks of convincing for her to even get Hope to agree to throw a few punches. She got why Hope was nervous though, she was part werewolf, she was incredibly powerful, and even though she had incredible control she could still easily hurt Josie. Josie wondered what it was like to have to hold back all the time, the only time she didn’t was when fighting a monster. Even training with Rafael or when she was fighting with Jed it seemed like Hope was holding herself back, like one simple movement and she could just end her opponent.

After blocking all of Josie’s hits Hope finally decided to throw a few of her own. She was gentle enough as to not hurt Josie but went hard and fast enough that Josie still had to try blocking and dodging her. Josie was getting better, she blocked most of Hopes hits and the ones she didn’t weren’t hard enough to knock her down.

Hope threw a punch which Josie easily knocked away. After blocking Hopes hit Josie brought her foot up which Hope easily brought her hands down to block. While Hope was blocking her kick Josie swung again, Hope dropped Josie’s foot, grabbing her arm mid punch. Hope twisted Josie’s arm, then flipped her over, kneeling down next to her. Hope had one hand pinning down her arm while the other was gently rested on Josie’s chest, pinning her to the mat.

Josie was panting. They’d barely started, and she was already out of breath. She wasn’t sure if it was from the training or from being in such close proximity to Hope. Hope also seemed to be breathing rather heavy which was weird since Hope didn’t get winded, like ever. Neither of them moved from their position. In Josie’s defense there wasn’t much she could do, Hope was on top of her, she had to be the one to move first. Hope stayed though, staring down at her with those gorgeous blue eyes she had. Josie didn’t mind though; she could lay there on the floor of the gym for hours if it meant staring into Hopes eyes.

An alarm off to the side eventually went off, interrupting their little staring contest. Hearing the alarm made Hope remove her hand from Josie’s chest and move away from her. Josie couldn’t help but be disappointed. She rolled over to see Hope walking over to the table, turning the alarm off.

“The gym opens in ten minutes,” Hope said. “We got to get going.”

“Yeah,” Josie breathed out. She pulled herself to her feet, making her way over to Hope. She started gathering her stuff, trying to steal glances at Hope who seemed to be doing the same.

Hope unlocked the gym door as they made their way out. “So, where to?” Josie asked.

“The woods,” Hope answered. “Care to run?” Hope smirked. Josie couldn’t help but let out a loud groan. “Don’t worry, I’ll go slow.”

Josie kicked a rock, grumbling a fine. She really didn’t want to, but she was running out of ways to get out of the cardio Hope so desperately wanted her to start doing. They took off towards the woods, headed for the old Lockwood estate where they did their magic training. Josie hated every second of it but appreciated Hope was keeping them at a light jog. Hope even was kind enough to slow her pace even more to stay beside Josie, even though Josie knew Hope could be way ahead of her and be at the sight in a matter of moments.

After what felt like an hour of running even though Josie was sure it was only twenty minutes or so they finally arrived at the Lockwood estate. Josie stopped, holding a hand against a tree as she doubled over. Hope might have had a point, she really needed to work on her cardio more. She knew she was never going to be up to Hopes level, but she should at least be able to do a light twenty-minute jog without feeling like she was going to cough up a lung.

“You good?” Hope asked, resting a hand on Josie’s shoulder. She held a water bottle down in front of her face. Josie silently nodded her head, reaching for the water.

When she was done gulping down the water again, she finally looked around. They spent one day every week there, but it looked different. There was some equipment and what looked to be multiple weapons laid out on a rock near the entrance to the old cellar. There were also targets set up either on the trees or between the trees surrounding the area.

“What is all this?” Josie asked when she caught her breath enough.

“Next step in training,” Hope answered.

Josie walked towards the rock with the weapons laid out. There was a crossbow, bow and arrows, there was a couple wood training sticks, and a couple foam practice swords.

“Are you serious?” Josie asked Hope, smiling.

“Surprise,” Hope said, giving a small smile in return.

Josie couldn’t believe it. She never imagined when she asked Hope to train her in combat that the other girl would help her train with weapons. Josie had wanted to learn how to properly shoot a crossbow after the disaster it was trying to use it for the first time, she also wanted to use a bow and arrow, and she wouldn’t mind learning some of the basics with a sword. She had never actually brought it up with Hope though. She knew Hope had experience in all those weapons and more that Josie probably couldn’t pronounce but she didn’t want to ask Hope for another favor. Hope was already doing so much for her with the combat training and the offensive magic training.

“What would you like to start with?” Hope asked.

Josie ran her fingers across each of the weapons. So many options, she wanted to try them all. She stopped when she got to the bow and arrows. She picked up one of the arrows, bringing it closer and analyzing it. Besides the crossbow it was the only weapon not fake. The others were all wood or foam, she understood why, it was her first session, and she couldn’t exactly start by picking up just any sword.   

Josie turned, holding up the arrow. “Good choice,” Hope whispered, stepping forward. She grabbed the bow and took the arrow from Josie’s hand.

Josie followed Hope, standing behind her as the girl got ready. She went slowly so Josie could watch her movements, see where she placed her fingers and how she held the bow. She raised the bow, pulling the string back, taking aim, then letting the arrow fly. The arrow sailed through the trees until it embedded itself in the little red circle that was the middle of the target.

Hope turned, holding out the bow for Josie. Josie stepped closer, hesitantly grabbing the bow. Hope stepped back so Josie could stand in her place. She went back towards the rest of the arrows, grabbing another, then handing it to Josie.

Josie took the arrow from Hope. She held the bow, lifting it up just as Hope had done. She placed the arrow and started to pull the string back.

“Loosen your grip,” Hope whispered into her ear. “Just slightly.” Josie couldn’t see her but could feel Hopes breath tickle her ear.

Josie did as Hope said, she wiggled her fingers slightly, loosening her grip on the bow and on the arrow. Josie could hear the crunch of leaves as Hope stepped closer, practically pressing herself against her back. Josie’s breath caught when Hope put her arm around Josie, her hands coming to lie on top of the one she had on the bow. Hopes other hand came to rest on her hand holding the arrow.

“Now,” Hope whispered into Josie’s ear again. “Just take aim and let it fly.”

Josie swallowed, nodding. She couldn’t speak. Hope basically had her arms wrapped around her and she couldn’t focus on anything else. Hope was so warm and gentle. Josie closed her eyes, she needed to focus, they were training, Hope was just helping her, she couldn’t get distracted by how gentle, yet firm Hopes hands were. She couldn’t get distracted by how calming of a presence Hope had on her while also feeling the strength coming off the other girl. When she opened her eyes again, she let the arrow fly.

The arrow didn’t hit the middle of the target like Hopes had but she did hit the target. Josie pointed the bow down, getting a better look at the target. The arrow was stuck in the tree, a few circles away from the middle. Josie couldn’t help but smile. She turned to face Hope and turned right into her; Hope was still practically pressed against her. Josie took a step back the same time Hope cleared her throat also taking a step back.

“That was great,” Hope said, giving a soft smile. “You’re a natural.”

“I’m pretty sure that was still mostly you,” Josie said, waving the compliment off. Sure, she held the bow and arrow, but she had Hopes arms around her to help guide her, she’d hardly call it doing it herself, it was still all Hope.

“Don’t believe me?” Hope walked past her moving to grab another arrow. “Do it again.” Hope handed Josie the new arrow she had grabbed. “I’ll step back and just watch.” To make her point Hope took a few steps back so she was no longer right next to Josie but could still clearly see Josie’s movements and the target.

Josie nodded, stepping back into place. She couldn’t help being slightly disappointed. She should’ve kept her mouth shut and just accepted the compliment. If she had, then maybe Hope would have kept her arms around her, training her.

Josie did the same thing she did before, she loosened her grip on the bow and the arrow just like Hope had told her. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She wasn’t trying to distract herself from Hopes presence anymore, she was just trying to focus enough that the arrow hit the target and she didn’t make a complete fool out of herself. When she opened her eyes again, she raised her bow, focusing in on the target, after a moment she released the arrow.

The arrow sailed through the air before reaching its destination and digging itself into the tree. She didn’t hit the middle of the target; she didn’t even come close to hitting the circle the arrow had landed when Hope was helping guide her hands. She didn’t completely miss though. She hit the target; it was just the very outside circle that she hit.

Josie silently smiled to herself. She wiped the smile off before turning to face Hope. She was proud she even hit the target, but she assumed Hope would critique her and she didn’t want to seem too overly happy. She knew Hope wouldn’t be disappointed, but she figured Hope would be correcting her on all the things she must have done wrong. When she saw Hope though the other girl was just giving her a soft smile.

“That was amazing,” Hope said.

“Really?” Josie asked disbelieving. “I barely hit the target.” She pointed to the target, showing how her arrow was barely in the outer circle.

“You still hit the target.” Hope was still smiling. “Without any help from me. That’s amazing. With some more practice you’ll be an expert in no time.”

They practiced for another hour. Josie fired arrow after arrow into the target. She never hit the middle, but she got closer and closer every time. Hope would step closer to help position her hands better or even move her feet slightly, but she never put her arms around her again to help guide the movement. Josie was tempted to mess up and send the arrow somewhere crazy so she could get Hope to do it again, but she wanted to learn. She figured in their next session she could choose the wood sticks or foam swords and get up close to Hope that way.

She helped Hope pack the stuff away. Hope said they’d keep it in the cellar because they were the only ones that came out there. She made sure to spell it so if someone did stumble down to the cellar, they wouldn’t be able to find the weapons. Josie also got lucky because Hope didn’t make her jog back to her apartment. Josie was thrilled, all she wanted to do was shower and take a nap.

“Would you like to hangout?” Hope asked hesitantly, avoiding looking at Josie.

“Sure,” Josie said just as awkwardly. She loved hanging out with Hope and they had done it a dozen times before. This was going to be the first time being back at Hopes apartment since she had seen her with Maya. “Can I shower?”

“Of course,” Hope smiled. She led them up to the apartment. Hope dropped onto the couch while Josie made her way to the bathroom.

Josie tried not to take too long in the shower. She knew Hope was waiting and didn’t want to make her wait forever. She was also exhausted and as good as the warm water felt all she wanted to do was rest.

When she was done, she changed into the spare clothes she brought, a simple t-shirt and sweatpants. Then she made her way out of the bathroom. When she entered the living room she started sniffing, her stomach growled, she didn’t realize how hungry she was, and something smelled amazing. She turned to the kitchen and saw Hope over at the stove.

“Hey,” Hope said, glancing back at Josie before turning back to whatever she was cooking. “I figured you were probably hungry, so I made some grilled cheese.”

“Sounds amazing,” Josie said. “And if it’s anything like your shakes I’m sure it’ll be the best grilled cheese ever.”

While Hope was finishing up making their food Josie walked around to sit on the couch. Before she could sit down though she noticed a canvas on an easel in the corner of the room. It was a new painting; she had never seen it before. She walked over and saw what looked to be the Algos in the shadows of the painting. The rest of it was split into three sections, Josie’s breath caught as she realized those must have been the memories Hope re-experienced.

“It’s done,” Hope said. Josie turned to see Hope setting the plates on the coffee table. When Hope looked up, she saw Josie standing next to the painting. “Oh, yeah, that, I did that after the Algos.”

“It’s incredible,” Josie whispered. “Is this what…” she couldn’t finish.

“Yeah, it’s what I saw. If it’s okay, I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Josie moved away from the painting and went to sit on the couch next to Hope. “Are you okay though?”

Hopes eyes dropped to the grilled cheese on the coffee table. She didn’t answer for a moment, just staring at her sandwich. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Or I will be.” She looked Josie in the eye. Josie knew it was to reassure her, but she could see the pain behind her eyes. “At least the pains gone.” Hope tried for a smile, but it quickly fell. “At least the physical pain is.”

Josie’s eyes widened at that. She still didn’t fully know what Hope experienced and she wouldn’t until Hope was ready to talk about it if she ever was ready. She was sure of one thing though, Hope re-experienced the pain again, even the physical pain, she felt it all over again. They hadn’t known exactly what the monster did, they just knew it fed off of pain. Josie was glad the monster was already dead because if she had known what it had done to Hope she would have killed it again. She just wished she had gotten there sooner, maybe she could have stopped some of the pain, maybe Hope wouldn’t have suffered quite as much.

Josie placed her hand on Hopes back, giving it comforting rubs. Hope turned to look at her again and gave her a grateful smile. Josie stopped asking about it after that, opting to just eat the amazing grilled cheese Hope had so generously made for her.

After their lunch they sat on the couch watching some random show Josie had found. They were sitting right next to each other, not close enough to touch but close enough to share a blanket. Even though they weren’t touching Josie could still feel the natural warmth Hope gave off. The warmth from Hope being so close and being snuggled in a blanket made it very easy for Josie too slowly drift off to sleep, without realizing it as soon as she closed her eyes, she managed to scoot a little closer to Hope.

Chapter Text

Josie was sitting at a booth in the Grill. She was snacking on some fries while she waited for Hope to finish up her shift. She and Hope had made plans to hangout when Josie got out of class, Hope just had a little over an hour of her shift left. She had brought a book to kill the time, she didn’t mind waiting for Hope to get off, but she found she got a bit bored after she was done eating. She was deep in her reading when she heard someone slide into the bench across from her. She glanced over her book to see Maya sitting there. The girl gave her and awkward smile and wave.

Josie set her book down and gave a friendly though slightly uncomfortable smile. She liked Maya, Maya was great. Josie just had never been alone with Maya, Hope or someone else was always around. She also hadn’t spoken to Maya since learning about her and Hopes friends with benefits situation. The only time she had seen Maya and talked to her was when dealing with a monster. So, it was fair to say Josie was nervous about where this whole interaction was going to go.

“Hey,” Maya said, smiling again. She started playing with Josie’s straw wrapper. It made Josie feel slightly better that Maya seemed to be feeling the same way.

“Hey,” Josie said awkwardly.

“I know you and Hope are hanging out today and I wanted to talk to you before she got off.”

“Okay.” Josie shifted slightly in the booth, tensing up a bit.

“It’s nothing bad.” Maya was quick to assure her. “I promise. I just think we need to have a conversation about things.” Maya got more awkward as she said the sentence.

“Okay,” Josie drawled out.

“Before I start, it’s rude to eavesdrop.” Maya’s tone quickly changed to annoyed. Maya flipped her head to the side, narrowing her eyes at someone. Josie looked in the direction Maya was and saw Hope standing behind the counter glaring at Maya. Josie couldn’t help the small smile on her face, as Hoped rolled her eyes and flipped Maya off. “That’s not very customer friendly,” Maya muttered.

“So,” Maya started again, turning back to Josie with the friendly smile on her face. “I just wanted to apologize.”

“For what?” Josie asked, tilting her head.

“For me and Hope.” Maya’s eyes dropped down to the table, watching herself play with the straw wrapper. “And what you walked in on.”

“Oh that.”

“Yeah. I know you talked to Hope, and I know you guys are good now. At least according to her.” Maya furrowed her brow. “You guys are good right?” Maya asked now concerned. “Hope is kind of shit at reading emotions and social cues sometimes.”

Josie openly laughed at that. “Yeah, we’re good,” she said softly. “We talked and things were a little awkward, but I think we’re back too how we were before.”

“Okay good.” Maya let out a breath, leaning back against the cushion of the booth. “I’m glad. I just wanted to apologize for my part in it. My friend needed me and even though I knew it was a bad idea I just wanted to help her. I truly never wanted to hurt your guy’s relationship.”

“I know, thank you for that. There’s no need for an apology though. You and Hope had a thing long before her and I met.”

“Still, I’m sorry. I just wanted to reassure you that Hope, and I are really just friends. I love her but only as a friend. We don’t have a typical relationship and I know it might seem totally weird to outside parties, but it works for us.”

“Yeah, I can’t lie, I do find it a bit strange. I guess it’s hard to wrap my head around how you guys can sleep together and not develop feelings for each other.”

“Because we don’t work that way. I’m not sure how we both knew that to never try, but we just always knew we were only ever meant to be friends. We could have fun sure but when it came to feelings they just weren’t there. Hope has never looked at anyone that way, never showed the slightest bit of interest in some.” Josie’s eyes fell to the table. “Until you.” Josie snapped her gaze to Maya, her mouth hanging open slightly. “Me, Landon, Raf, hell even my brother can see it. I can’t explain it well but Hope and I can’t work romantically because we both need different things out of a relationship. I think you are that for Hope though.”

Josie dropped her head to hide her blush. “I get what you mean. I think she might be that for me as well,” Josie mumbled that last part. When she glanced at Maya again, she could see the other girl smirking.

“I know you told Hope you’d wait till she was ready.”

“She told you that?” Josie asked before Maya could finish what she was saying.

“Hey, look I’ve been waiting forever for Hope to like someone, I will pry any details I can get out of her.”

“I know she likes me. I know I like her. I just don’t want to push her until she’s ready.”

“May I offer some advice?” Josie nodded; she was a little nervous what Maya would say but she felt like advice on Hope when it concerned her feelings would be good. “I love my friend dearly, she’s amazing, she’s great at pretty much everything. Hope however has a habit of getting in her own way when it comes to her feelings. Hope can know what she wants, and she can want to go after it, but she will also always convince herself it’s a bad idea and to not make a move.” Maya leaned forward. “Sometimes it’s better to be the one to make the first move.” Maya winked at Josie, stole a fry, then slid back out of the booth.

Josie was about to finish off her fries when everything started to shake. Everyone started screaming, she could hear glass shatter, and people rushing past her. She ducked under the table. She looked around the room to see others under their table. Workers stumbled around helping other customers get under something. The shaking only lasted several seconds before it stopped.

As Josie crawled out from under the table she was met with Hope. Hope held out her hand, helping Josie back to her feet. “Thanks,” Josie said. “Since when does Virginia have earthquakes?”

Hope shook her head. “I’m not sure it was,” she said. She held up her wrist to show the wristband glowing before quickly covering it with her hand.

“Shit.”

“We need to go, now.”

Everyone was rushing out the doors as well. Josie looked around at the damage, the lights were out, and glass was everywhere. It didn’t look like anyone was dead or hurt too bad though. Pushing her way through the people to get in, instead of leave was Maya.

“Are you guys, okay?” Maya asked when she reached them.

“Yeah,” Hope said, then showed Maya the wristband. “Let’s go out the back.”

They made their way out the back of the restaurant where no one seemed to be rushing to. Josie had never been behind the counter before let alone in the kitchen. There was water still running, pots and pans all over the floor, she had to make sure to hold Hopes hand, so she didn’t slip.

When they got outside, they quickly made their way to Maya’s car. Almost as soon as they were on their way to Salvatore Maya got a call.

“Hey, mom,” Maya answered the phone. ‘Speaker’ Hope mouthed. Maya nodded, quickly switching the phone to speaker.

“Oh, thank god!” Sheriff Machado’s voice came. “Are you alright? Where are you? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine mom, I was at The Grill with Hope and Josie. We’re together now.”

“And you’re all alright? Everyone’s okay?”

“Yes, yes, we’re all fine. No one was hurt.”

“Good, good.” Sheriff Machado let out a breath. Josie figured the woman had been losing her mind. It was only a moment but in that moment the sheriff had no idea if her children were hurt or not or if they were even alive.

“Are you okay? Is Ethan? What happened?”

“Yes, yes, I’m good, I was at the station when it happened. I spoke to Ethan right before you, he was still at home, he got under the dining room table, he’s fine. It seems like it was some sort of earthquake. Listen we don’t know if there will be any aftershocks, and I need to be out there helping people.”

“I know, we’ll be okay.”

“I need you girls to stay together and get somewhere safe.”

“We will, be safe, love you.”

“If I text or call you answer, got it?”

“Yeah of course.”

“Love you.”

With that Maya hung up. They sped their way to Salvatore. Sped is a relative term since they actually couldn’t go that fast. The earthquake had knocked down a few power lines and trees, roads were blocked every which way. People were also running through the streets or in their cars trying to make their way out of town.

They had already been in the car for over twenty minutes, and they were at a complete stop on the only road that led to Salvatore. They were all sitting there in silence, staring at the road ahead of them. All the cars had people honking or opening their doors to yell despite it not being helpful in the slightest.

Josie noticed Hope tilt her head to the side. “What?” Josie asked.

Hopes eyes widened. “Get out of the car,” she said in a rush.

“What?” Maya asked.

“Get out of the car! Now!”

They stopped questioning her and all jumped out of the car, following Hope as she ran to the side of the road near the woods. Just as they reached the woods Josie heard it, or more like felt what Hope must have heard. The rumbling. There was another earthquake. The entire ground shook again, car alarms started blaring.

The rumbling seemed to be getting closer. That’s when Josie noticed it. The people that were in front of them on the road were all jumping out of their cars and bolting back down the road, headed back into town.

Josie latched onto Hope when she started to fall from the ground shaking. Despite Hope being on the same ground as her she seemed to have more balance and was able to keep both Josie and Maya stable. After a moment the rumbling stopped again, allowing the two girls to let go of Hope.

“What the hell?” Maya whispered.

A few seconds after the rumbling stopped a loud crash was heard, causing one more large shake of the entire area. Josie almost fell back but Hope was quick to reach out and catch her. When Josie was steadying herself, she looked straight ahead to where Hope and Maya were both looking as well. Clearly having burst out of the ground, through the middle of the road, was a giant worm like creature. It was standing as tall as the tree line and part of its body was still underground.

“Holy fuck,” Maya let out again.

The worm opened its mouth or what Josie assumed was the mouth. It was more like a giant hole in the front that could open and close and when it opened there was a billion teeth. A yellow liquid shot out of the mouth. The liquid landed on several of the cars in front of it. Almost as soon as the liquid touched the cars it started to sizzle, quickly melting the vehicles.

The worm closed its mouth, turning back and forth a few times as if it was looking at its surroundings, though Josie didn’t see any eyes. It went back down, making another hole in the middle of the road. The ground gave one violent shake as it re-entered again then steadied out into a consistent smaller rumble as it seemed to move on, heading closer to town based on the mounds of the dirt forming.

“What the fuck was that?” Josie asked again.

“It looked like a giant worm,” Hope said.

“So, what, we’re dealing with an Alaskan Bull Worm?” Maya asked, sarcasm dripping in her voice. Josie could see the slight smile on her face though at the joke.

“This isn’t fucking SpongeBob,” Hope snapped, clearly irritated. “We need to get to the school. We’ll make our way on foot.”

“Honestly I’m just glad you understood the reference,” Maya mumbled under her breath. Hope clearly heard her though cause the girl gave her a sharp glare. Maya dropped her gaze to the ground, a small smile still on her face, as they made their way through the woods to Salvatore.

They got to the school relatively easily after that. It just took a lot longer on foot. Every few minutes or so they felt the ground shake. The shaking wasn’t as violent as when they were at The Grill or when they were on the side of the road, which told them the monster was headed away from them. When they got to the school, they saw it was still intact, just a few things here and there had shift. Josie noticed one of the gargoyles on the roof had fallen and now laid busted on the ground, she didn’t really mind, she was over the whole gargoyle thing.

They rushed into the room and saw teachers shouting out orders to students. Some teachers were running back and forth with boxes of supplies such as water and blankets, despite being magic the power was out at the school as well. There were students shuffling about, no one seemed to be panicking but they were definitely erratic based on the way they threw water and energy bars in their backpacks.

“Hayley!” Hope shouted. Josie noticed the hybrid carrying a few boxes into the den.

“Thank god,” Hayley said, setting down the boxes and rushing over to them. “You guys are alright. But why are you all here?”

“Jo!” Josie heard her name being shouted, she turned to see her sister running down the stairs. “Thank god!” Lizzie pulled her into a hug before Josie could even respond.

“We have a monster problem,” Hopes cut through, interrupting their hug. Lizzie let go to turn and face Hope.

“A monster is causing the earthquakes?” Hayley asked.

“Technically, it’s a lot worse than that though.”

They made their way to the library. “Where’s dad?” Josie asked, as they made their way through the halls, she hadn’t seen him yet and he never tried to get in contact with her it seemed.

“He’s handling the evacuation,” Hayley answered. “We felt the first earthquake then after the second one he decided it was safer to evacuate everyone.”

“Good luck getting out of here, the roads aren’t safe,” Maya said.

“Yeah, we ran into the monster,” Hope continued. “And based on what we saw it’s going to be a process to kill.”

They opened the doors to the library. Josie couldn’t help the gasp that left her mouth. She knew they were having earthquakes, but she still didn’t expect to see the library such a mess. Luckily, none of the shelves fell since they were all built into the walls but that didn’t stop the books from falling, books littered the floor. They couldn’t take a step into the room without stepping on a book or having to kick it out of the way.

“Hey,” Landon said, running down the steps, slipping on some books in the process. “You’re okay! This is the work of a monster, right?”

“Yep,” Hope answered. “And we’ve already seen it.”

“Wow, we’re ahead of schedule. So, this will go quick right?”

“Not with our luck.”

“What is it?” Rafael asked, coming down the steps Landon had, though not slipping on the books.

Hope opened and closed her mouth a few times, she turned back to Josie and even looked to Maya. She seemed to be asking how she was supposed to explain what they saw. Josie just shrugged. She wasn’t sure how to say it, she saw it and barely believed it herself.

“A giant worm,” Hope said.

“Like in-” Landon started.

“If you say SpongeBob,” Hope held up her finger in warning, glaring at the phoenix, “I will snap you neck.”

Landon quickly shut his mouth. Josie couldn’t help but smile once again. She would of bet money Hope would have made the same threat to Maya if she weren’t human.

“So, a giant worm,” Rafael said. “What did it look like?”

Hope stopped glaring at Landon to give Rafael a deadpanned look. Josie just sighed and shook her head.

Rafael held his hands up in defense. “What? All worms can look different.”

Hope described what the worm looked like and how it had a giant hole for a mouth and a billion little teeth. She also mentioned how they didn’t know how big it was, but it stood to the tree line and part of its body was still underground. Josie shuddered at the thought, the worm could be well over a hundred feet, and they wouldn’t know it.

“It also spit some sort of yellow acid,” Josie added. “It melted the cars.”

“Why did it spit on the cars?” Rafael wondered aloud.

“Not sure, people were running and screaming at each other, everyone was honking. When we felt the shaking again everyone started to run, the car alarms started going off.”

“What?” Hope asked. When Josie turned to the girl, she noticed her staring at Landon who seemed deep in thought.

“This sounds familiar,” he said.

“You know what it is?”

“Maybe.” He moved to one of the desks, knocking away some of the books onto the floor with the others. He pulled out his laptop and got to work searching for whatever it was he was thinking about. Hope leaned over his shoulder, resting one arm on the table and the other on the back of his chair.

Josie enjoyed helping with the research, she loved being useful and helping out anyway she could. She also loved just watching Hope and Landon work on their own. They had a special dynamic none of the others had, they had been doing this longer than any of them. She loved seeing how they still flawlessly or almost flawlessly worked together and how they came up with plans. Observing them like that was like getting a look into their past, seeing how they use to handle the monsters and Triad all on their own.

“Did it look like this?” Landon asked, leaning to the side as Josie and Maya came to stand beside Hope.

“That’s it,” Hope said.

“What is it?” Josie asked.

“A Mongolian Death Worm,” Landon answered. “They’re basically giant worms, no known eyes, travel underground, and can spit a yellow corrosive saliva.”

“That tracks with everything we saw,” Hope said. “How do they figure out where to attack?"

Landon turned back to his laptop, he did a few quick searches, skimming over multiple pages about the worms. Josie wasn’t sure how he read so fast or knew what to look for, they really did have an incredible system in place.

“Vibrations,” he finally said. “They can feel the vibrations of noise in the earth, and it tells them where to go.”

“And because everyone was making so much noise it came to the road,” Maya concluded. “It didn’t know all the people had run away but it attacked because of all the car alarms going off.”

“Great, so we need a secluded place to lure it,” Hope said, starting to come up with a plan as she paced back and forth. “We make a lot of noise to get it away from town and to the spot we decide and then we focus on killing it.”

“We’re going to have to make a lot of noise,” Hayley chimed in. “If we want this thing to come to us instead of town, we’re going to have to be very loud.”

“We can do that easily; we can even amplify the noise with magic.”

“Come up with a spell that helps send the vibrations through the ground, so the worm is even more likely to hear it,” Josie added, getting where Hope was going.

“Can you and Lizzie work on the spell?” Josie and Lizzie nodded, they said a spell to pull the books they would need so they could learn what spells were already out there and what they might need to tweak. “We need to come up with a way to kill it. As soon as it gets to us there will be nothing stopping it from spitting its acid.”

“You know this is sort of similar to a movie I’ve seen,” Landon said. Hope glared at him. “No no no no,” Landon was quick to wave his arms in the air to show it was actually meant to be useful information. “It’s called Sand Serpents; these soldiers were in the desert and fought off worms that look almost exactly like this.” Landon furrowed his brow after that. “Of course, they didn’t spit the acid.” He rubbed his chin deep in thought.

Hope let out a deep sigh, closing her eyes. She looked like she was regretting life in that moment. “How did they kill the worms in your movie?” Hope asked slowly. It looked like it had been physically painful for her to ask that.

“They blew them up. Like one dude even like strapped grenades to himself and right as he was being eaten pressed the button and blew himself and the worm up.” Landon gestured excitedly. “It was pretty cool.” There was a long pause as he nodded, probably thinking about the scene. “Though the movie is kind of shit. But that was kind of expected so whatever.”

“We could come up with a way to blow it up,” Hope said, ignoring everything else Landon had said. “I’m not sure how it would work with the acid, we’ll need to factor that in.”

“There was also another movie where they crushed it,” Landon said, he seemed to be mostly talking to himself. “It ran into a stone wall because it couldn’t break through it.”

“We also need a place to do this at,” Hope said, still ignoring Landon.

Josie smiled at their dynamic. They worked amazing together. They could research and plan perfectly. They were even great at fighting the monsters together even if it was Hope doing most of the fighting. As soon as Landon started going on about any of his movies or shows though Hope tuned him out. She might humor him like she did before if the information could be useful but as soon as it stopped being useful, she just tuned him out.

“I got a place,” Maya chimed in. “There’s an old factory or warehouse or something. It’s in the woods out of town. We’ve used it for parties a few times until my mom caught us. Said we couldn’t go there anymore the structure wasn’t sound and it was a safety hazard.”

“Maya,” Hope snapped.

“Right. Anyway, it’s abandoned, most people even forget it’s there. It’s not very big, only a few floors and a basement, but it’s stone.”

“Sounds good enough. How far away is it?”

“Not too far, it’s actually really close to here.” Maya walked over to the table, looking at a map of the school. It took a moment of staring at the position of the school and the roads, but she finally gestured to a large patch of trees not super far from the main road.

“Great, let’s get to work. Josie and Lizzie work on the spell. Everyone else find anything that makes noise, stereos, TV’s, even a fucking blender for all I care.”

Everyone scattered, getting right to work. Lizzie and Josie made their way to one of the classrooms with a lab. To create the spell, they were going to need to evaluate it. They read through a few spell books and found a few spells meant to enhance sound. Lizzie set down her phone, opening her playlist. The phone was on full volume when they started the spell, the music quickly filled the entire room.

“It worked,” Lizzie said.

“We need more though,” Josie said. “This needs to be louder than one of your parties.”

“Challenge accepted.”

They flipped through a few more books, finding a few more spells. When they found one, they liked they would test it out again. They found that combining a few different spells they could amplify the sound, but they also found a way to amplify the pulsing of the beat. They were able to find a way so that the vibrations someone feels through their entire body when someone’s music is playing loud is even more amplified.

It was a little over an hour later when Hope popped her head into the classroom. “Hey,” she said. “Did you guys’ figure anything out?”

“Yeah,” Josie answered. “I think we got something that will work.”

“Great! That’s amazing.”

Hope was staring into Josie’s eyes and Josie couldn’t look away. She was interrupted from staring into the lovely blue eyes before her though, when Lizzie coughed. Josie broke her gaze away from Hope to glare at her sister.

“Sorry for interrupting but we kind of have the world to save,” Lizzie snarked.

“I’d hardly call Mystic Falls the world,” Hope said. “But sure, let’s get to it.”

They all piled into two of the schools’ cars. Josie was going to ask why they weren’t taking Hayley’s car but she figured she just didn’t want to risk it. She couldn’t blame her. If the vehicles were destroyed, she was sure her father would write them off as some sort of school expense to replace them.

They made it to the old warehouse Maya had told them about after a short drive. Josie was surprised how close it was to the school. She didn’t really hangout in the woods except for the Old Mill and until she started getting attacked by monsters, but she was surprised she had never seen the building. It was still mostly intact. There were vines growing up the sides, the giant metal doors in front were completely rusted, and the small glass windows were dirty with a few broken.

Everyone got to work. Hayley and Maya positioned the cars, turning the stereos up as loud as they could go. Landon, Hope, Rafael, Lizzie, and Josie all made their way into the building placing a variety of objects around. They didn’t bother going above the ground floor because they knew most of the vibrations would travel closer to the ground. When they got finished, they made their way down to the basement placing the rest of the objects around.

The entire warehouse was empty, the ground floor was just a large open space with metal support beams connecting up to the next floor. The basement was the same, the stairs were metal and creaked as they walked down them. Josie could understand why the sheriff called it unstable, she felt like the steps could give at any moment under her feet.

While they were down in the basement setting up the devices Rafael and Landon were still on the ground floor, running around turning on all the devices. Josie heard a variety of music starting to play, from country to metal. Before the music overtook her ears, she could swear she picked up the sound of a blender, she couldn’t help but chuckle, of course one of them actually grabbed a blender.

“You guys good?” Landon yelled down, stepping down only a few steps.

“Yeah!” Hope called up. “You guys get out of here, make sure you guys get Hayley and Maya a safe distance away.”

“What’s considered safe?”

“Just get far away from the building!”

“Okay, okay,” Landon mumbled, rushing back up the steps.

“You guys ready?” Hope asked, turning to face Josie and Lizzie. Both girls nodded.

Josie helped Lizzie go around and turn on all the objects they placed in the basement. When they were done Hope stood in the middle of the room and said a spell connecting every device in the building and to the two cars outside. Every sound simultaneously got louder.

Josie and Lizzie held hands, starting their spell. Josie couldn’t make out a single distinct sound the way everything started to blend together. She focused on the vibrations; she felt the sound thrum throughout her body. She and Lizzie spoke in unison as the sounds got louder and the vibrations expanded out, extending throughout the warehouse and across the ground.

It only took a few moments before Josie started to feel the rumbling. It was hard to detect at first with the vibrations from the noise but when she focused, she could feel the way the ground shook differently. It worked; the monster was coming right for them.

The entire earth shook, knocking Josie and Lizzie apart, sending them both to the ground. A moment later there was a loud crash, then an explosion.

“It’s here,” Hope yelled over the noise.

Hope stumbled towards them, helping both Josie then Lizzie to their feet. Just as they were regaining their stability everything started to shake again. There was a loud rumble to the side of them. The three of them glanced at the wall, while trying to remain standing. The entire building shook again. They could see the bricks of the wall start to shift.

“Run,” Hope yelled.

Josie and Lizzie took off as soon as the wall burst open. Josie covered her head as bricks flew everywhere. She continued forward, pushing Lizzie faster up the steps. She took the opportunity to look behind her. She saw Hope was following but at a much slower pace and the girl wasn’t facing them, she was facing the giant hole in the wall.

Josie froze at seeing the hole. Bricks and dust laid scattered around. The hole lead underground but it was just a pit of darkness. In a flash the worm shot out of the hole, spreading its mouth wide, Josie got a better look at the thousands of little teeth it had. Hope stumbled back a little more at seeing the worm.

Hope held up her hand, whispering a spell. It was the same fire spell Josie had used a few times. A stream of fire shot out of Hopes hands and coated the worm. She held it for several seconds before finally dropping her hand. The air was filled with smoak, soot covered the remaining brick wall. Through the smoak though Josie saw the worm still there, thrashing around, completely unharmed.

Hope spun around, running towards the steps, she jumped up the first few steps, making it so she was right behind Josie. Hope gave her a gently shove to continued running. The worm came out of the hole even more, taking up over half the basement they had just been in. It curled around, opening its mouth again, spitting out its yellow acid.

Hope covered Josie with her body to protect her from the acid, she raised her jacket to help protect their heads. Josie dropped closer to the stairs. When she felt Hope lift off her, she took off back up the steps. When she got to the ground floor, she met Lizzie in the middle of the room.

Josie turned back to the door just as Hope jumped through the doorway, the stairs falling away under her feet. Hope shot to her feet just as quickly, ripping off her jacket and kicking it across the floor. That’s when Josie noticed drops of acid had gotten on the jacket, if they had touched her, she would have been a goner, even with Hopes healing if the acid had landed on her skin Josie wasn’t certain she’d heal from it quick enough.

Just as Hope got to them the monster burst out through the floor, spitting its acid all directions. Luckily none of them were hit by the acid. The acid did however hit the walls and the support beams. There was a slight creaking of metal, the only warning they were given before the ceiling collapsed.

Stone and bricks fell, crushing the monster first. Josie saw it thrashing around, spraying its acid more, which just caused more damage. A large chunk of stone from the ceiling came down on the worm’s head, finally silencing it.

The girls rushed towards the door. Hope ran ahead, knocking Lizzie back as a metal beam near the door came down. Hope raised her arms, catching the beam, chunks of stone, falling around her.

“Go!” Hope shouted through gritted teeth.

Lizzie looked at Hope for a second but didn’t say anything before she quickly ran through the door.

Josie couldn’t move though. She couldn’t just leave Hope. The girl was literally holding up part of the building so they could escape. She didn’t see how Hope would be able to save herself. If Hope let go, she’d be crushed.

“Jo,” Hope let out in a gasp. “Go!”

“I can’t,” Josie said. “I’m not just-”

“Josie!” Hope’s voice startled her. She looked at the other girl in the eyes, she could see the pleading. She noticed the way her knees shook from the weight she was carrying.

Another stone slap, probably from the other floor came down, landing right on the metal post Hope was holding. Hope’s legs buckled from under her, she let out a groan in pain. With shaky legs Hope managed to readjust, standing up just slightly more, there was still a small clearing towards the door.

“Jo, please,” Hope pleaded. “I can’t hold it much longer. Please.”

Josie could feel the tears pooling in her eyes. She hated it. She didn’t want to do it. She nodded and ran out the door. Ran until she was far enough away from the building. She passed the two vehicles they had drove there, one was still intact, the other was tipped over and on fire.

As soon as Josie was far enough away, she turned back towards the building. She heard it creak and moan, she watched as it crumbled. She stood there frozen until the rest of the building gave away, leaving just a pile of rubble. She searched but couldn’t see any signs of life through all the dust and debris.

The tears still hadn’t fallen from her eyes, she refused to let them. She refused to accept that Hope was gone. She needed to know for sure. She needed to search. If Hope was still alive then she needed to help her.

Josie took a shaky step forward. Then another. And another.

Through the cloud of dust, she saw a shadow of a figure. A small dark blob in the shape of a person moving forward. Josie’s steps faltered, she stopped and stared. The figure stumbled out of the dust, coughing, and waving her hand to clear the air.

Josie took off at a full sprint. Her legs no longer shaky. She ran full speed until she crashed into Hope, throwing her arms around the other girl in a bone crushing hug. Hope stumbled back, having not expected for Josie to fling herself at her but she kept them from falling over. It took less than a second before Josie felt Hope wrap her arms around her, hugging her just as fiercely.

After hugging her for a good minute Josie finally leaned back but not stepping out of Hopes space, she made sure to keep both hands on her. She needed to feel the other girl, make sure she was truly real, that she didn’t just get crushed by a building. She stared into those blue eyes she had come to know so well. Hope was looking at her with concern, as if Josie had been the one who just almost died not her.

Josie stared into Hopes blue eyes. She brought a hand to the other girl’s face, gently brushing away some of her usually auburn hair, which was currently covered in dust and tiny chunks of debris. Hopes face was also completely covered in a layer of grey dust. Josie didn’t care though; Hope had still never looked more beautiful.

Josie glanced down to Hopes lips for a second before bringing her gaze back up to her eyes. Hope’s eyes also drifted down to Josie’s lips. When she flicked her gaze back to Josie’s eyes Josie noticed the way Hopes mouth slightly parted like she might say something.

Josie couldn’t take it anymore. She had just almost lost Hope, she couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t just keep waiting when their lives were constantly in danger. She needed to just go for it and make the first move. She pulled Hope closer, so their bodies were nearly pressed against each other then she leaned down and kissed her. Hope pulled Josie in the rest of the way, running her hands through the girl’s hair to help, pulling her head down further to deepen the kiss.

Chapter Text

Hope was at work, running around, grabbing the dirty dishes from the night. They had just closed and luckily all the customers were gone. It had been a few days since the whole Mongolian Death Worm incident and the whole Josie kissing her thing. Hope had never been so happy in the moment; Josie kissed her and she couldn’t stop herself from kissing back. It was everything she had been desiring, sure she had just almost died but it still had been perfect. After they separated for the night though Hope was left alone with her thoughts, which wasn’t good. Since then, she had thrown herself into work at The Grill and even helping around the gym more as an excuse to avoid Josie. It wasn’t one sided though, Josie seemed to be avoiding her just as much. They both still texted but they were very short casual just catching up texts, they didn’t talk like they usually did.

Hope liked Josie, really liked her. She wasn’t used to liking someone in a romantic sense. Hell, she was barely used to liking someone in general, she usually had a distaste for people, there were very few she liked. Hope just had no idea what she was supposed to do. She was terrified to say the least. She knew Josie told her she understood the risks of being with her, but Hope would disagree. There was still so much Josie didn’t know and Hope wasn’t sure if she’d ever be ready to talk about all that. Even if she became ready, there was so much darkness there, she did so many terrible things, Josie as much as she saw the good in everything, she certainly wouldn’t be able to look at Hope the same. There were also secrets Hope hadn’t told her yet; some she hadn’t told anyone. One of the biggest secrets involving Josie herself and Lizzie. Hope wasn’t sure how she could know about The Merge and still pretend everything was fine with Josie. She stood by the fact that Alaric should be the one to tell them but when the truth eventually came out Josie could potentially never forgive her for knowing and not saying anything.

Hope was so deep into her thoughts as she brought the dirty dishes back to the sink that she didn’t hear Landon speaking to her. She knew he had been working the closing shift with her, but they had barely gotten to see each other let alone speak with how busy they got for dinner. She wasn’t aware he was the one doing the dishes until he lightly sprayed her with the hose from the sink.

“What the fuck,” Hope said, stepping back to not get more water on her, even though she was wearing an apron.

“I asked,” Landon repeated himself. “What are you going to do?”

“Do about what?” Hope avoided eye contact, grabbing the clean dishes, putting them in their correct homes.

Landon let out an exasperated sigh, he leaned over the sink shaking his head. “About Josie.”

“Oh. That.”

“Yeah, that.” Landon turned around, leaning his back against the sink to face Hope. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on! It’s been days! You guys kissed! And now you won’t even talk to each other.”

“We’ve been texting,” Hope defended weakly.

Landon threw a rag over his shoulder giving her a deadpanned look. “Class was boring, have fun at work, I had cereal for breakfast, is not talking. It’s avoiding having a real conversation.”

It was Hopes turn to sigh. “I don’t know what to say.”

“How about, hey want to go out?”

Hope dropped her gaze to the floor, playing with the string of her apron. “I’ve never done that before,” she said quietly.

Landon’s eyes softened. “I know. I know it’s different. I know it’s hard.”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start. I don’t know how to be in a relationship, how to be open with someone like that. Have you met me?”

“Yes, I’m well aware you can be difficult.” Hope glared at Landon, but she knew he said it with love. “Josie is a pretty patient person. Obviously, I mean look how long it took you to get to this moment.” Hope glared at him again, taking a threatening step towards him. “All I’m saying is she knows you. She knows what she’s getting into. She knows you’re not going to be easy.”

“She deserves better,” Hope whispered.

“No,” Landon said with determination. “She deserves someone like you. Someone who will fight for her no matter. Someone who when they care about someone, they would do anything, even if it means burning the world down, all to protect them.”

“I’m not good enough for her. She’ll realize that. I can only offer pain.”

“Bullshit,” Landon snapped. Landon’s outburst caused Hope to look up at him again, he looked annoyed. She knew he hated when she talked down about herself, however everything she said or thought about herself she knew to be true, she wasn’t good enough. “You are good. Period.”

“Lan-”

“No! You have protected me my entire life basically. We met through an air vent connecting our cells. You didn’t even know me, but you helped me, you swore to protect me. We only had one conversation at that point, and you learned I was the son of the enemy you were destined to destroy. But you never saw me as a threat.”

“Because you’re not your father.”

“Exactly. You are not a monster Hope.” Landon’s eyes desperately tried to convince Hope what he was saying was true. “You are not what Triad wanted you to be. You are the badass tribrid and you are good.” Landon moved closer so he was standing directly in front of Hope. “You have a good heart.” He gently poked the spot where Hopes hear lay. “You deserve to be happy Hope. You just need to take the chance.”

“Facing feelings is worse than staring down a dragon.”

“Only you would think that.” Landon chuckled lightly, causing Hope to do the same.

“Want me to walk you back to Salvatore?” Hope asked, wanting to change the subject.

“You don’t have to do that. It’s already pretty late.”

“Yes, cause I was going to go right to bed,” Hopes voice dripped with sarcasm. “Come on,” she slapped his shoulder, making her way out the backdoor. “I was going to go for a run anyway.” Landon sighed, pushing off the counter and following Hope.

They walked silently down the dark street, the only light from the moon. Hope looked up at the sky as they walked. There wasn’t a cloud in sight, and she could see the stars scattered above them. She always loved looking at the stars. When she first escaped Triad and truly saw the night sky for the first time, she couldn’t take her eyes off them.

The universe was so vast and seeing it sprawled out above her made her feel insignificant. She felt that in a good way though. Knowing how large the universe was and how small their world was in comparison was a comfort to her. She was always told how she was meant for something more or that she was a cosmic mistake. They really contradicted themselves when they talked to her, sometimes it was she was meant to save the world other times it was she was never meant to exist. The only thing she knew for sure was that she had a destiny, that destiny just seemed less drastic in the grand scheme of the entire universe.

Hope paused, tilting her head, she reached out brushing Landon’s arm to get him to stop walking. He turned to her eyebrows knitted together.

“Do you hear that?” Hope asked.

Landon paused, tilting his head as if he was listening for something. “No,” he said after a moment. “Though let me remind you I don’t have super hearing.”

Hope ignored him, focusing on the sound. It was getting closer. It was getting a lot closer, she didn’t have to strain her ears to hear it anymore, it sounded like clomping.

“Okay,” Landon spoke again. “Now that, I hear.”

Hope looked at Landon concerned. She noticed he wasn’t looking at her though, he was looking down towards her hand. When she followed his line of sight, she saw her wristband glowing. There was a new monster and it clearly just got to town and based on the sound it was coming directly for them.

As the clomping got louder, they both looked up, looking down the road the direction they were headed. Through the darkness they saw a figure on a horse riding out of the mist.

As the creature got closer Hope realized it wasn’t a man riding a horse. They were half man and half horse. Before Hope had time to fully take in the added information the monster was within feet of them and was not stopping. Hope shove Landon, knocking him out of the way while she jumped back. The creature ran right past them as if they were some insignificant obstacle in its path.

Hope watched the creature run away from them, never turning back as she held out her hand to help Landon up.

“Was that a centaur? Did we just see a centaur?” Landon asked breathless. He sounded both parts confused and excited.

“Seems that way,” Hope answered.

“Guess we’re taking a small detour back to town,” Landon mumbled as they took off, back in the direction of the town, the direction the centaur was headed.

The centaur got out of their sight rather quickly, but Hope picked up on his scent quickly. There weren’t many scents that had both a horse and a man mixed together. The only thing slowing them down was the fact that she was trying to wait for Landon.

They were only about halfway back to town when Hope stopped again. She started sniffing around, the scent was everywhere, she didn’t know which direction he went.

“What?” Landon asked.

As the question left Landon’s mouth Hopes only indication of an attack was the whistle in the wind. Hope stretched her arm out, pushing Landon back as she also leaned back. Just as they fell out of the path an arrow whizzed past them, impaling itself in a tree.

The only sound in the air was Landon’s rapid breathing. Hope stepped forward; her eyes glowing yellow as she stared into the darkness. Hiding in the shadows was the centaur, standing tall, bow at his side. He held Hopes stare as he reached back, grabbing another arrow. Hope let out a deep growl.

As the centaur lifted the arrow to his bow Hope took off. As he released the arrow Hope jumped towards a tree, pushing off it onto another tree.

She moved from tree to tree as the centaur continued to fire arrows at her, never moving from his position.

When she got to the last tree she pushed off, jumping towards the centaur. The centaur notched another arrow, releasing it as she was in the air.

Hope sailed over the arrow, using her hands to push off the centaurs’ shoulders when she was close enough, flinging herself behind the centaur.

Hope landed, sliding through the leaves, as she faced the centaur. The centaur turned to face her again. As they had another stare off Hope finally got a better look at him. He had deep dark brown hair as a coat. His entire lower half was a horse while his torso, arms, and head were that of a man. The human part was also in peak physical condition. He had short brown hair to match his coat. A leather strap slung over his shoulder, wrapping across his chest held a knife. He still held the bow at his side while his quiver of arrows was strapped around the back half of his body near the back of his left leg.

Hope didn’t know a ton about centaurs despite them being one of the most known mythical creatures and easy to identify. She thought they were similar to satyrs and were more of a peaceful creature, caring about nature and stuff. The centaur before her though was all warrior. Scars littered his chest and arms from dozens of battles, whether they be from being in Malivore or before, Hope didn’t know. She wasn’t just facing another monster though; she was facing a soldier.

Landon came stumbling through the trees, making more noise than either Hope or centaur made during their little fight. The centaur turned to face the new person joining the party. Hope took the opportunity to rush forward, grabbing an arrow from the centaur’s quiver and shoving it into the side of his thigh.

The centaur howled in pain. Hope jumped over him again, standing between him and Landon. The centaur stumbled back a few steps, wobbling on his four legs. He reached back, yanking out the arrow, tossing it into the dirt beside him.

The centaur quickly notched another arrow, aiming and releasing it in a blink. Hope spun around, grabbing Landon by the shoulders and placing him in front of herself. Within seconds the arrow pierced Landon’s heart. Landon stumbled forward a couple steps, he turned to give Hope a disbelieving look. Hope shrugged then watched as Landon’s body collapsed to the ground.

Hope gently stepped over Landon’s body. “Now look what you did,” Hope said, gesturing towards Landon. “Can’t we just have a conversation?”

“You fight well,” the centaur rumbled, his voice a lot deeper than Hope expected. “You’re a fine soldier. Yet you clearly lack honor if you sacrifice your man so easily.”

“I lack honor? Dude you’re the one attacking innocents. Also,” Hope held up a hand in offense. “He’s a phoenix,” Hope pointed back towards Landon. “He’ll come back.”

“A phoenix?” The centaur stood up straighter, puffing out his chest more. “A son of Malivore. He’s the enemy,” he snarled.

“He’s not the enemy,” Hope growled, flashing her wolf eyes. “He’s nothing like Malivore.”

“What would you know of Malivore child? I’ve been trapped in his darkness for ages. I have fought in countless battles before and after Malivore. I’ve come across no greater enemy, anything that comes from him is not worth saving.”

“He is,” Hopes voice unwavering. “If you hate Malivore so much why be his puppet?”

“I have no choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

“Not for us,” the centaur snapped. “He controls us. I need to get the knife. I need to release Malivore.”

“And I can’t allow that.”

The centaur tilted his head, looking past Hope down at Landon’s body. “I know who you are, tribrid.” Hope tensed slightly but made sure to not show a reaction. “You are meant to kill Malivore, why protect his offspring so fiercely?”

Hope dropped her gaze back to Landon behind her. “Because he’s family,” she said softly. “He’s like a brother to me. And I will not allow harm to come to him as long as I’m standing. I gave him my word I would protect him.” Hope turned back to the centaur; her face determined. “I always keep my word.”

“Seems that I was wrong, you are quite honorable. I used to be like that, fought for my brothers’ side by side, would have died for every single one of them.” The centaurs’ eyes dropped to the ground. “You lose that in Malivore,” he whispered.

Hope spoke softly again, “Not so long ago one of the monsters Malivore sent was a satyr, his name was Maron.” Hope gave a small smile, remembering him. “He tried to steal the knife as well but at the end of the day he kept his heart, I’m not sure how he didn’t lose it.”

“You knew Maron?” The centaur perked up.

“Yeah,” Hope whispered sadly. “He was a friend. He asked to be reunited with his brothers.”

The centaur gave a small smile at hearing that. “Good. He was always too good for this life.” He looked up to the sky. “I had a brother a long time ago, when he passed, he was placed amongst the stars.”

“Sounds nice.” Hope joined him in looking up at the stars.

“We would tell the stories of how the great warrior Chiron was placed amongst the stars to watch over us. He was the wisest of the bunch. Maybe I need to start following his lead.” Hope tilted her head at that. “Killing the boy,” he glanced back at Landon. “Or bringing us one step closer to releasing Malivore would be a disservice to both Chiron and Maron. I need to be better.”

“What are you saying?” Hope asked, she thought she knew where the conversation was going but she was going to need to hear it for herself.

“My love has been waiting for a long time.”  The centaur met Hopes eyes. There was no longer anger in the centaur, only acceptance and what Hope could only describe as peace. “I think it’s about time I reunite with my wife.”

“You’re married?”

The centaur actually chuckled at that but nodded. “I know you don’t owe me but if I may ask a favor of you?”

Hope nodded slowly. “Of course,” her voice broke slightly.

“Thank you.” He walked closer to her, placing a firm yet comforting hand on her shoulder. Hope knew she was slightly shorter than most, but the centaur seemed to tower over her. She had to look up to continue looking him in the eye. “You’re an honorable fighter, I wish you well in your war with Malivore. I am sorry the burden has fallen to you though.” Hope just shrugged, it was her life, she didn’t know anything else. “I am also sorry for the burden I am asking you to now carry.”

“If I can help you find peace and be reunited with your wife and brothers then it’s not a burden,” Hope whispered, trying to prevent her voice from cracking.

“Tell the boy I’m sorry.”

Hope couldn’t help but laugh at that, she nodded. She was sure Landon wouldn’t be happy she used him as a shield, again. She knew he wouldn’t hold a grudge against the centaur though, he’d understand.

“What’s your name?” Hope asked, realizing she hadn’t gotten it yet.

“Hyleas.”

“Hyleas,” Hope repeated. “Well, it was a pleasure meeting you Hyleas. Even if you tried to kill me at first.”

It was Hyleas’s turn to chuckle at that. They stood in silence for a few moments after that. Hyleas’s eyes drifting back up to the stars. Hope looked up once again, enjoying the view. It was crazy how timeless the sky was. The stars Hyleas looked at all those years ago before Malivore were the same ones Hope always looked at. Hyleas looked to them for guidance while Hope looked to them for comfort.

Silently Hyleas handed Hope his bow. She took it, gripping it tight in her hand. Sometimes she really hated when the monsters weren’t actually monsters. Hyleas reached back for the last time, grabbing an arrow. He placed it in Hopes hand, closing her fingers around it. Hope nodded sadly; she knew she had to do it. Hyleas gave a small nod as well.

Hyleas stepped back a few paces. Hope turned around, walking a far enough distance away from what would be her target. Hope closed her eyes, running a hand down her face. When she opened her eyes, she knew tears wanted to form but she wouldn’t let them, it wasn’t the time for that. She took one more deep breath before turning to face the centaur.

She raised the bow, aiming the arrow straight for the heart. Hyleas nodded. Hope released the arrow. Hyleas held out his arms, accepting his fate as the arrow pierced his heart.

Hope dropped the bow to her side. She watched as Hyleas gave her one final smile before turning to ash. A breeze swept past her, carrying the ashes up towards the sky. Despite the tears forming in her eyes Hope couldn’t help but smile, Hyleas was at peace, he was with his brothers and wife again.

Hope dropped down on to the ground, resting against a tree. She held the bow, twirling it in her hands. She smiled sadly at the only item left of her fellow comrade. She closed her eyes, letting her head drop back against the tree.

Hope opened her eyes again when she heard a gasp and flailing around in the leaves. She leaned away from the tree to see Landon had fully resurrected. When she turned to the sky, she saw the sun was just starting to rise.

“Took you long enough,” Hope mumbled, pulling herself to her feet.

“You used me as a shield!” Landon shouted, nearly tripping as he jumped to his feet.

“Well, it was either that or I get hit with the arrow.”

“You could have caught it!”

Hope rolled her eyes. She gestured for him to start walking; they still had a bit of a walk to Salvatore. “By the way Hyleas said he was sorry.”

“Who the hell is Hyleas?” Landon raised his hands as Hope walked past him.

Hope explained everything to Landon on their walk back to the school. Landon was still annoyed that Hope had used him as a shield, but he seemed to mostly forget it about that during the story. As they made it to school grounds the sun had fully risen, when they walked through the front door there were a few students already getting breakfast. Landon said his goodbyes and went to his room to quickly get ready for his classes. Hope had another mission in mind though.

Hope made her way up the steps and down the familiar hall, to the door she had come to know so well. Hope knew she was crazy, it wasn’t even 8am and she was about to knock on the door. She couldn’t stop herself though. If she stopped, she’d think about what she was about to do more, and she’d talk herself out of it.

It took a minute but eventually the door opened, revealing Josie.

“Hope?” Josie questioned, rubbing sleep from her eyes. She was dressed for the day but was still clearly not fully awake.

“Hey,” Hope breathed on. She shoved her hands in her pocket, hoping Josie wouldn’t notice how much they were shaking.

“What are you doing here?”

“I was just walking Landon back.”

“This early?”

“We ran into a monster, and it got me thinking about things,” Hope rambled, ignoring Josie’s question.

“Wait there’s a monster? Are you okay?” Josie’s eyes widened, completely awake after that.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Hope brushed it off. “It was a centaur. He killed Landon. Well technically I used Landon as a shield.” Hope tilted her head thinking back. “He was a cool dude though. He knew Maron. He just missed his brothers and his wife.” Josie nodded along but she didn’t seem to fully be following along. “The whole thing just made me realize what’s important,” Hope said, turning serious. She made sure to look Josie in the eye as she said the next part. “And that I shouldn’t waste time and I should go after what I want. Which is why I’m here. I wanted to ask you something. I know this isn’t the best time.” Hope chuckled awkwardly to herself causing Josie to smile. “But I knew if I didn’t do it now then I wouldn’t do it anytime soon.”

“Okay,” Josie whispered. “What did you want to ask me?”

Hope swallowed the lump in her throat. She took a shaky breath as she stared into Josie’s warm brown eyes. “Josette Saltzman,” Josie blushed at her full name. Seeing Josie’s reaction gave Hope more of her normal confidence. “Would you like to go on a date with me?”

Josie broke out into a full smile, making Hope smile just as wide. Josie nodded vigorously as she said, “Yes!” Josie quickly cleared her throat, calming down her excitement. “Yes,” she said again much more calm than before. “I would love to.”

“Great!” Hope released a shaky breath, a weight lifting off her shoulders. “Friday night?”

Josie nodded. “Friday night.”

Josie slowly closed the door, never breaking eye contact from Hope. Once the door was fully closed Hope turned to walk back down the hall, the smile never leaving her face.

Chapter Text

Josie woke up well before her alarm went off. She wasn’t sure if it was from being anxious or excited. It was finally Friday, and she was going to have her first date with Hope. It had been about a week since Hope almost died and Josie finally stopped waiting around and kissed the girl. She was so caught up in seeing Hope okay she couldn’t stop herself. A few days went by and she and Hope texted but neither of them brought up the kiss. Despite being the one to make the first move Josie was too nervous to bring it up, she was afraid of messing up their friendship. Hope kissed her back, but she couldn’t help but wonder if she made a mistake. Then Hope showed up early in the morning and asked her out.

Hope and Landon had apparently fought a monster on the way back from work. Josie had been concerned and wanted to ask a billion questions but all those went out the window when Hope finally asked her out. Josie could barely remember what monster Hope said she fought, the only thing on her mind was her crush asking her out. When Hope left Josie had leaned back against the door, with the biggest smile on her face. She had let out a squeal of joy, waking Lizzie up in the process. Lizzie had been annoyed and was about to beat her with a pillow when Josie blurted out that Hope had asked her out.

Lizzie rolled her eyes and made a comment about how she knew the girl didn’t have a normal childhood but should know not to ask out people before 7am. She then smiled at Josie and told her she was happy for her and then threatened that if Hope hurt her, she would be skinned alive. Lizzie however did throw a pillow at her head when Josie let out another squeal. The pillow smacked her in the face and when it fell to the ground Josie glared at her sister who was already sprawled back out on the bed fast asleep. Josie however was to giddy to go back to sleep.

That was how she spent the remaining few days of the week while she impatiently waited for Friday to come. She didn’t lose the smile on her face the entire week. Lizzie would roll her eyes every time she seemed to catch Josie daydreaming, but Josie didn’t miss the small smile Lizzie would have on her face when she went back to whatever she was doing.

She texted Hope a little bit throughout the week but not as much as usual. She figured Hope was just as nervous as she was. When she thought harder about it she thought Hope might be even more nervous because she was the one that asked her out and she said she would plan the date. That was all relatively normal, but Josie knew Hope had never actually truly dated anyone. She didn’t want the other girl stressing too much. Josie was sure she’d be happy with whatever Hope came up with, she just wanted to spend more time with Hope.

Josie tried asking Hope what she was planning but the other girl refused to reveal even the slightest details. Josie wasn’t sure if it was because Hope truly had it all planned out or she had no idea so there really wasn’t any details to reveal. Hope was very good at keeping secrets, normally Josie didn’t mind. When it came a date however, Josie wished the other girl was a little bit easier to read. Josie even tried saying she just wanted to know what she had to wear, she needed to know if she needed fancy clothes and to do her hair. She didn’t think it would be incredibly fancy but for some reason she got the vibe that Hope could be super romantic and go all out. Hope had told her she could wear whatever she wanted, she didn’t need to dress up crazy if she didn’t want to, she could keep it casual. Hopes exact words were that she just wanted them to feel comfortable and not feel unnecessary pressure.

After classes ended Josie ran back to her dorm, tossing her bag across the room. She rushed to her closet, pulling out a variety of shirts. She would stand in front of the mirror, holding up a shirt then just as quickly toss it to the side. She had already got through half her closet when Lizzie entered the room.

“Jo what the hell,” Lizzie said. “It looks like your wardrobe threw up all over our room.”

“I don’t know what to wear,” Josie groaned.

“Well, what did Hope say? Did she tell you anything about the date?”

“No,” Josie grumbled, throwing another shirt to the side. “She won’t reveal anything! I don’t even know what we’re doing. When I asked her about clothes all she said was casual and to wear something I would feel comfortable in.”

“That’s sweet. Not sure how romantic our resident werewitch can be but it sounds sweet enough.”

“Right? Ugh, I just wish she’d give me a little more detail. Like casual as in a nice shirt or blouse and skirt? Or is it casual as in jeans and a jacket?” Josie thew her hands in the air. “Hell, maybe she means sweatpants and a hoodie!” Josie flopped down on her bed, burying her face in the pillow.

“If she means sweatpants and a hoodie, I don’t care how much you like her I’ll kill her for that alone.”

Josie only let out a groan in response.

“What about Landon or Raf?” Lizzie asked.

“What about them?” Josie asked, lifting her head just enough so her voice wasn’t muffled.

“Well, they’re friends with your date,’ Lizzie said slowly like she was talking to a child. “Maybe she told them something. There is no way she’s setting this up on her own,” Lizzie waved it off as if it wasn’t even an idea. “She’s not experienced enough. She had to ask someone for suggestions or advice.”

“You really think she’d go to Landon or Raf?” Josie raised her eyebrows questioningly.

“A normal person wouldn’t but considering they make up like ninety percent of her friend group I would say she doesn’t have many options.”

“Stop being mean.”

“When’s the date?”

“Midnight.”

“Are you serious? That’s incredibly late!”

“I know, I thought it was weird too. She said she could come up with something else if it was too late, but I said it was fine. I was curious as to what she possibly had planned that late, nothings open.”

“Maybe she’s taking you to the woods.”

“Cause we’ve had so much luck out there that late.”

“Well, if the plan is to kill you,” Lizzie started but shut up as soon as she noticed Josie glaring at her. “Look just stay here, I’ll be back.”

Josie grumbled something, flopping back over to bury her face back into the bed. She heard the door shutting a moment later. She didn’t know what her sister had planned, but she didn’t have any ideas, so she would let Lizzie do her thing.

Josie wasn’t sure how long she laid down like that on the bed but next thing she knew the door to the room was being opened again. Someone was grumbling as Lizzie seemed to be pushing them into the room. There was a small thud then the door closing and the door locking. When Josie looked up, she saw her twin blocking the door, glaring down at a spot on the floor. Josie rolled over to the edge of the bed, looking over to see Landon on the floor.

“Hey, Jo, how’s it going?” Landon greeted, sounding breathless.

“Good, what about you?” Josie asked, giving a small smile.

“Oh, you know just getting kidnapped by your sister.”

“Whatever for?” Josie asked but directed her gaze towards Lizzie.

“So, we can interrogate him about your date,” Lizzie answered like it was obvious. “So, spill it bird.” Lizzie kicked his foot.

“I have no idea.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “Please, your best friend is going on a date. Her first real date in her entire life. You’re telling me she didn’t tell anything to the guy that’s like a brother to her?”

Landon propped himself, bringing himself up to sit on Lizzie’s bed. Lizzie shot him a glare, but he seemed to not notice.

“Look, I don’t know anything, truly,” Landon said again. “I was just happy she actually asked you out. I asked her what the plan was and all she said was that she had one.”

Lizzie groaned, throwing her head back. “Why are you so useless.”

“I’m sorry! Look I’d help you if I could.”

“How is my dear sister supposed to know what to wear?”

“I don’t know, what did Hope say?”

“Casual.”

“So, then wear something casual.”

If looks could kill Landon would be dead from the glare Lizzie was shooting him. Josie couldn’t help but smile at it. Hope wasn’t the only clueless one to somethings. Josie knew Landon had something closer to a normal childhood, but she sometimes forgot that for the majority of his life he was raised just as isolated as Hope until he was like eleven.

“What?” Landon asked genuinely confused.

“Do you know how many typed of casual there are?” Lizzie asked, she tried to be calm, but Josie could hear the annoyance in her voice.

“Look,” Landon said, raising his hands in defense, he turned to face Josie. “I don’t know what Hope has planned. I know her though. I’m sure whatever it is isn’t crazy fancy, it’s probably relatively lowkey. If she said casual then I’m sure what you wear in your normal day to day, maybe just slightly nicer will be perfect. I can tell you Hope doesn’t have anything incredibly fancy in her wardrobe, basically a pair of pants without rips and a solid-colored shirt is as nice as it gets for her.”

Josie giggled at that, seeing Landon laugh as well. She realized he was right. Hope wasn’t one to outdo herself and go crazy. Whatever she had planned would be nice but also simple. Hope wasn’t into big and flashy. Whatever she wore Josie was sure Hope would love no matter what.

“Thank you,” Josie said.

“Anytime,” Landon said softly. “Have fun tonight and give me all the details,” he added as he walked towards the door. “We both know Hope won’t tell me a damn thing.”

Josie laughed again; it was true. If Landon asked how the date went Hope would most likely give him a one-word answer, then glare at him if he pressed for more details.

“I should have known he wouldn’t be helpful,” Lizzie sighed after closing the door behind Landon.

“He actually was,” Josie said.

“Really?” Lizzie didn’t sound convinced.

“Yeah, I know what I’m going to wear. I was just over thinking it all.”

“If you say so. Do you need help getting ready?”

“No, I think I’m good. Going to keep it simple.”

“Okay, I’m going to go study with MG. I’ll be back before you leave though since your date is so incredibly late.”

Josie rolled her eyes at her sisters comment but didn’t say anything back. She went around and started gathering all the clothes she had tossed around the room. She heard Lizzie shuffling around, grabbing some things before leaving to meet MG.

Josie gathered the outfit she was planning to wear and laid it out on her bed. She looked it over once more, confirming that’s what she actually wanted to wear. Once that was settled her mind calmed slightly, she was still incredibly nervous, but she was no longer panicking. She still had a few hours before she needed to get ready and before Hope would be there, so she plopped herself down at her desk and pulled out some homework. She wasn’t sure how much she’d be able to focus over the weekend depending on how the date went so she wanted to get as much homework out of the way as possible.

Around ten she put the homework way and began to get ready. She decided to shower since she didn’t like the idea of smelling like school for the date. When she was done with the shower, she blow-dried her hair. She opted to wear her hair down, letting it fall down in waves. She got dressed, throwing on dark blue jeans and a simple grey shirt. When she stepped out of the bathroom, she threw on her brown suede jacket. She was staring at herself in the mirror, running her hands down the jacket and pants to get out any wrinkles when Lizzie walked back through the door.

“Wow,” Lizzie said. Josie turned to face her sister. “You look great Jo. Keeping simple yet stylish, I love it.” Josie ducked her head, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. She couldn’t help but blush whenever Lizzie complimented her.

“Thanks,” Josie said softly.

“So, when does wolfy get here?” Lizzie asked, flopping down on her bed.

Josie looked at her watch. “Any minute.”

“If she’s late I get to be mean to her.”

“No.”

Josie glared at Lizzie, holding her in a stare off. If Hope was a minute late or even ten minutes late, she was not going to let Lizzie be mean to her. Hope could more than handle herself, but Josie refused to let her sister interrogate or be mean to her future potential girlfriend.

A knock at the door brought the twins out of their stare off.

“I’ll get it,” Lizzie said, starting to get up from the bed. Josie shot her a furious glare that caused Lizzie to chuckle, dropping back down on the bed. “Kidding.”

Josie walked towards the door, glaring at Lizzie the entire time. When she turned to open the door, she instantly smiled as she saw Hope standing there.

Hope was in a similar outfit to Josie. Hopes hair was in her famously gorgeous half bun look. She was wearing black jeans like she always seemed to, though these ones were nice and freshly clean, no rips or dirt and blood stains. She had a maroon shirt and was wearing her classic black leather jacket.

“Hey,” Hope greeted softly.

“Hey,” Josie said shyly.

“You look amazing.”

Josie brushed her hair behind her ear again, dropping her gaze to the floor. “Thanks,” she mumbled. She was sure her face was bright red. “You look great too.”

“Shall we?” Hope stepped aside, gesturing out the door, holding her other arm out for Josie to grab.

Josie nodded, intertwining her arm with Hopes. As she closed the door she heard Lizzie yell, “Don’t stay out to late!”

Hope led them down and out the front doors of Salvatore. Parked right out front was a familiar SUV.

“Is that Maya’s car?” Josie asked.

A light blush took over Hopes cheeks as she avoided looking at Josie. “Yeah,” Hope answered, nodding shyly. “She let me borrow it so I could take you out properly. Or at least that’s what she said, she practically threw her keys at me.”

Josie giggled at that. She knew she was originally jealous of Maya but after getting to know her and understanding her dynamic with Hope a bit better she wasn’t surprised the other girl did that. They made their way to the car and Hope held the passenger door open for Josie. When Hope hopped in, she told Josie she could play whatever music she wanted. Josie usually never getting that opportunity because of Lizzie, jumped at it, she quickly pulled out her phone, plugging it in and started scrolling to an acceptable playlist.

The drive wasn’t long, they were just going into town it seemed but the whole way Josie lost herself in the music. She started off as quietly mumbling along to the words until it became full on belting out the lyrics. She tried to get Hope to join in, but Hope shook her head saying she wasn’t a singer. Josie just rolled her eyes and continued on. Occasionally out of the side of her eye she caught Hope glancing at her with a smile on her face, a smile Josie felt like was only reserved for her.

The song Josie completely lost herself in ended and when she opened her eyes, she realized they had stopped. Hope was looking at her, smiling but clearly trying to contain a laugh. Josie didn’t have it in her to be embarrassed, she would not apologize for losing it when a great song came on. They both laughed and when they calmed down enough finally stepped out of the car. When Josie stepped to the curb she finally looked up at her surroundings and saw they were at The Grill.

“What are we doing?” Josie questioned hesitantly.

“It’s a surprise,” Hope said. “Come on.” She waved her forward but held out her hand for Josie to grab so they could walk to the door together.

When they got to the door of The Grill Hope pulled out a set of keys, unlocking the door.

“I thought The Grill closed around ten,” Josie said but followed Hope through the door, never letting go of the other girl’s hand.

“It does,” Hope answered. “However, I convinced my manager to let me use the place for the night and even got a co-worker to help me set things up.” Hope paused furrowing her brow. “She was actually just as excited as Maya seemed to get when I mentioned I had a date.”

Hope flipped a switch, but the lights didn’t become bright like they usually were. They were dim, just enough light to see what was in front of them and then some. There were also fairy lights strung up around one part of room, specifically around a specific table. Hope led them to the table, pulling out the chair for Josie.

After being seated for a moment a young woman who Josie recognized as one of the employees came out of the kitchen, carrying two waters. She placed the waters on the table then kindly handed each of them a menu.

“Okay, how did you manage this?” Josie asked, flipping open the menu.

“Honestly,” Hope said. “I offered to pay her, I offered to cover shifts, I offered her whatever she wanted but she waved all of that off and insisted on helping out and being our waiter and cook for the evening. She said she couldn’t miss the once in a lifetime event of me having a first date.”

Josie was taking a sip of her water when Hope said that and had to keep from spitting it out, she nearly choked on the water from holding in the laugh. She knew Hope wasn’t much for relationships and dating but it was entertaining to see how other people perceived it all. She thought Maya was bad but turned out that anyone who seemed to know Hope in the slightest was thrilled she was getting out of her comfort zone.

“I hope this is okay with you,” Hope said after moment. She started picking at the edges of the menu. “I know it’s incredibly late, but I wanted to do something nice, and it just be us, but I didn’t have enough money to make a reservation somewhere fancy and-”

Josie reached across the tabled, grabbing Hopes hand, instantly interrupting her rambling. “It’s wonderful,” Josie said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Josie assured her. “I don’t care what we do, I don’t need anything fancy, I just like spending time with you.” Hope let out a breath seeming to relax instantly at hearing those words. “Besides this has to be the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.”

The waitress came back after a few minutes and both girls ordered their food. The waitress was relatively silent and kept to the kitchen to give them their privacy, but Josie did notice the girl try and subtly give Hope a thumbs up and encouraging nod. Hope rolled her eyes at the whole situation, but Josie found it adorable. No one had ever gone so out of their way to make something what most would consider simple so romantic and perfect.

“So, where do you see yourself after high school?” Hope asked as they waited for their food. “Got any plans or dreams you’re following?”

“Actually, I’ve considered medical school,” Josie answered.

“Really?”

“Yeah, my bio mom was a doctor, I’ve always kind of dreamed of following in her footsteps. I’ve always wanted to help people.”

“Well, you’re already great at that so I’m sure medical school will be a breeze.”

Josie let out a light chuckle at that. “What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah, what are your plans or any dreams you have?”

Hope froze, her eyes taking on a distant look.

“I’m sorry,” Josie was quick to say. She wasn’t fully sure what she was apologizing for, but it seemed like a bad question for some reason.

“No, no,” Hope waved it off. “I’m sorry. I just I’ve never thought about it before. My entire life I’ve lived in the now. My only goals have been, protect Landon and defeat Malivore. I’ve never thought of an after that.”

Josie nodded in understanding. Hope and Landon never really got to dream of a future because they had been held captive or on the run their entire lives. Josie got why Hope only ever considered survival and probably didn’t want to risk dreaming of something after when there was no guarantees for the future. Josie hated it, she wanted to help end the Malivore threat so Hope could start to dream about a life she wanted for herself, not a life revolving around fighting something or protecting someone.

“I guess,” Hope spoke again, bringing Josie out of her internal thoughts. “I guess I’d want to travel.”

“Yeah?” Josie asked, she couldn’t help but be slightly surprised.

“Yeah,” Hope said again more sure of her answer. “I’ve been to a lot of places, but it was either while on the run, so we were in hiding or Triad sent us in to fight a monster and it was a quick in an out trip. There’s so much to see in the world, so much art, architecture, nature, I just want to see it all. I want to go back to some of those places and truly experience them.”

Josie smiled at the answer, when Hope put it like that, she could definitely see the girl traveling all over the world, going from walking around museums to trudging through the jungle. Josie could see it; Hope was the kind of person to appreciate a peaceful walk looking at architecture but then the same day would be ziplining through the rainforest or getting in one of those cages to get up close with sharks.

“Well, if you ever need a travel buddy,” Josie offered with a smile.

“I’d be honored,” Hope said. “Besides, it’s me, odds are I’d need a doctor at some point.”

“You can heal.” Josie rolled her eyes. “The wound would be gone by the time I reached to grab the first aid kit.”

They continued like that the rest of the night even during their meal. They sat and talked for well over an hour. Josie opened up more about her music but still refused to share any songs she had written. Hope talked about art and the stuff that inspired her. Josie loved to hear Hope talk about art, she got a glimmer in her eyes that was just pure happiness and excitement. Despite the type of art, she did most of the time it seemed like art was the only thing not shrouded in darkness, it was Hopes small flicker of light in all the darkness. Hope had told her that even in Triad she had found a way to create art, even something as simple as sketching a monster was a way for her to escape.

When it got late enough Hope got them each a shake to go. Josie thanked their server and Hope took a moment to express her gratitude. Hope also told the girl she could take off if she wanted to cause after Hope dropped Josie off, she was coming back to clean everything up. The girl nodded and gave Hope one last thumbs up before heading out the door.

Hope and Josie walked out the door a moment later. Hope made sure to lock up even if she was coming right back, then they jumped back into the car, Hope once again opening the door for Josie. For the drive back Josie didn’t bother with music, she was appreciating the calm silence. At some point before they even hit the main road Hopes hand found Josie’s and she slowly intertwined their fingers. Josie didn’t say anything, she just looked down at their clasped hands, giving a small smile. Then she looked over to Hope who had her eyes focused on the road but had the same small smile.

When they got back to Salvatore Hope not only walked Josie to the front door but to her dorm as well. They stood in the hall for a moment, just staring at each other, Josie’s back towards her door.

“I had a great time tonight,” Josie said. “Thank you.”

“Me too,” Hope said softly. “I’d like to do it again.”

 “Me too, though I get to plan it,” Josie pointed a finger at Hope.

“Of course,” Hope smiled brightly.

There was a moment of silence, they went back to staring into each other’s eyes. Josie couldn’t help but get lost in the gorgeous blue. Josie was broken out of her staring however when Hope dropped her gaze to the floor.

“You know your father wouldn’t approve,” Hope said. “He doesn’t like me very much,” Hope lightly smirked her eyes dancing with a hint of mischief.

“Well, good thing I don’t care what my father thinks,” Josie said, pushing off the door, being one step closer to being in Hopes space. “He doesn’t know you like I do.” Josie reached down, intertwining her fingers with Hopes again. “I like you, that’s all that matters.”

Hopes smirk changed to a soft smile as she brought her eyes back up to Josie’s. Hope pushed off the wall she was leaning against, bringing them both within each other’s space. Josie’s eyes darted down to Hopes lips.

“I’d very much like to kiss you,” Hope whispered, leaning in just slightly. “Would that be okay?”

Josie didn’t have it in her to form words, all she could do was nod. She saw Hope’s lips twitch into a smile as she leaned in, closing the distance between them.

Josie knew she had kissed Hope before and she had made the move the first time. Their first kiss was rough and passionate and filled with all the worry she had at almost losing Hope. This kiss though was more intimate, there was no life and death, no monsters, no friends standing around, it was just them. It was slow and gentle and perfect. Hope wrapped her arm around Josie’s waste, pulling her closer for a moment, bringing her deeper into the kiss then slowly breaking away a second later.

Hope kept her hand around Josie’s waste. Josie’s hands gripped Hopes shoulders, she wasn’t sure when she had done that. Josie kept her eyes closed, they just rested their foreheads together, basking in each other’s presence like they had done before.

After a moment Hope finally broke away, taking a step back. Josie couldn’t help but miss the contact. When she opened her eyes, she had expected to see Hope smirking at her but was surprised to see the soft smile still in place.

“Goodnight,” Hope whispered softly.

“Night,” Josie whispered. She opened the door from behind her, not taking her eyes off Hope until she stepped back into her room, slowly closing the door.

When the door was firmly shut, Josie leaned back against it, letting her head gently fall back. Josie wrapped her arms around herself in a hug, her cheeks were starting to hurt from how big she was smiling. She wanted to squeal as loud as possible but refrained since Lizzie was sound asleep in bed like the rest of the school.

Josie quickly changed and slipped into her bed. She clutched her pillow, smiling into it. She closed her eyes, sleep instantly taking her, the small smile still plastered on her face.

Chapter Text

Hope was spending the evening at Salvatore. She had her feet propped up on a table as she lounged on the couch in the den. She had a book on her lap, flipping through the pages with one hand while the other arm was draped over the back of the couch around Josie. Josie was leaned back against the couch, shifted more towards Hope but not actually leaning against her. She had her textbook on the cushion next to her and a notebook in her hand as she quickly scribbled the information down.

That’s how Hope had been spending the last couple weeks. She would go by Salvatore after work as long as she wasn’t closing and would just hang out with Josie. They would plant themselves in the den or the library and even once were in Josie’s room. Hope would just read a book, sketch, or flip through some old journal looking for Malivore solutions while Josie did her schoolwork. They always seemed to fall into a comfortable silence. After a few hours of work, they would drift off and some quick kisses tended to happen.

They hadn’t gone on another official date yet. They did small things, but Josie was always quick to assure it didn’t count as an official date. Josie was the one planning the next date. She said it took her a while to come up with something, but she thought she had an idea. She wasn’t telling Hope what that idea was though, Hope rolled her eyes but knew she probably deserved the secrecy since she kept all the details to their first date a secret.

They were interrupted from their peaceful alone time together when shouting started from the hallway. Landon stumbled in a second later, meeting Hopes eyes he pointed back towards the hallway.

“You might want to…” Landon started but trailed off when Hope got up, already moving towards the entrance.

When Hope got to the hallway, she saw Rafael and Jed up close staring daggers at each other.

“This is my pack!” Jed shouted. “I’m the alpha, my word is final.”

“Well, you’re a shit alpha,” Rafael growled.

Jed stepped closer trying to seem imposing as if he was towering over Rafael. Jed wasn’t the most intimidating and he and Rafael were close to the same height, so Hope didn’t really take Jed as a threat. Not that she ever would consider Jed a threat, she could beat Jed with her eyes closed and hands tied behind her back.

“What seems to be the issue,” Hope said trying to stay neutral. She might not like Jed all that much, but she wasn’t going to dismiss the fact that Rafael most likely started the issue.

Hope placed herself in between the two boys, putting her hands up to get each of them to step back. When she turned to Rafael, she saw his eyes glowing yellow. Hope closed her eyes to contain the eyeroll and swallowed down the sigh she wanted to let out.

“I’m sick of this!” Rafael shouted, stepping forward but Hope kept her arm against his chest. “I refuse to follow his orders any longer.”

“So, what, you want out of the pack?” Jed asked. “Fine, go off! Be a lone wolf again!” Jed started to turn away.

“No! I challenge you!” Jed halted in his steps but didn’t turn around. “I challenge you for alpha.”

Jed quickly spun back around storming up to Rafael. “Are you sure you want to do this?” Jed flicked his eyes to glow yellow.

“Beating your ass in front of everyone? There’s nothing I would like more.”

“Fine,” Jed snarled. “Get to the gym.” With that Jed turned and marched towards the gym, the rest of the pack following him.

“What the hell are you doing?” Hope asked, stopping Rafael before he could follow Jed.

“He’s such a dictator,” Rafael complained. “I’m over it. I joined the pack like you suggested to feel a sense of belonging.”

“Which I thought you did.”

“I did, in the beginning. But everyday it’s the same, school, training, pack bonding.”

“Okay?” Hope asked confused.

“Whatever Jed says we have to do. If he doesn’t want the pack involved, then we can’t get involved.”

“That’s what it means to be part of a pack. He is the alpha.”

“Not for much longer,” Rafael growled trying to move forward again.

“Do you really want to be the alpha?” Hope put her hands up pushing him back again. “Because if you win then that’s what you’ll be. You’ll be responsible for all of them.”

“They deserve a better leader, someone who actually cares about them. They deserve more freedom than Jed allows. Besides, if there’s a fight then I want to be able to join and not stand on the sidelines watching my friends be hurt.” Rafael finally met Hopes gaze. “He’s done nothing to help with the monsters, he actively tells the pack to not get involved. The most I get to do is help with research. Not anymore. If there’s a monster to fight, then I’m going to help and have the pack behind me.”

Rafael pushed past Hope stomping after Jed. Hope closed her eyes letting out a long sigh. It was a terrible idea. Rafael had so many bad ideas, but this had to be the worst. Hope wished she could just knock him out and tie him up until she could talk some sense into him. Rafael might be tough but he wasn’t a leader, he cared about his friends but he didn’t know the first thing it took to be an alpha. Despite her feelings about Jed Hope had to admit he was a decent alpha. He made mistakes and there were things he could do better, but she had certainly seen worse alphas out there.

Hope followed behind, just because she didn’t agree with it didn’t mean she wasn’t going to enjoy the show. She didn’t fully know how Jed fought so she wasn’t willing to bet on either wolf. Rafael had a temper and it tended to take over when in a fight. His temper is what had always helped him when in a fight but against an experience fighter and someone who knows what they’re doing then it could be his downfall.

When Hope entered the gym Jed and Rafael were already walking circles around each other, the rest of the pack and some other random students gathered around screaming and cheering for one of the two boys. It seemed that most of the pack was cheering Jed on whereas some of the non-wolf students were cheering for Rafael.

Hope stuck off to the sides but to where she had a good visual of the whole fight. She felt Josie and Landon appear next to her. She shot a glance to Landon, watching as bounced up and down, eyes darting from Rafael to Jed and back again.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Josie asked. Hope flicked her eyes to the other girl, seeing her watch the scene before them with wide eyes.

“No,” Hope said. “If another wolf issues a challenge to the alpha, then no one can interfere, we have to let them settle this.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means one will have to tap out for the other to win.”

“And if they don’t tap out?”

“If one doesn’t concede the fight then it’s a fight to the death. It’s usually a fight to the death.” Hope met Josie’s eyes as she said the next part. “If a wolf issues a challenge, odds are they won’t allow the reigning alpha to live and if the alpha wins, they certainly won’t let the challenger live.”

“They won’t actually kill each other,” Josie said slowly as if she herself was unsure, “Right?”

Hope turned her attention back to the fight, which still hadn’t started. “I don’t believe either of them is a killer at heart. I know Rafael isn’t.” Hope watched as the two wolves continued to circle each other, both refusing to make the first move. “That being said, neither is the type to submit.”

“What’s going on?” a voice from behind came. Hope turned to see Hayley walking through the doors.

“Rafael challenged Jed for alpha,” Hope answered.

“Can you do something?” Josie asked, pleading to Hayley.

“No,” Hayley said softly. “It’s a wolf thing. If a challenge has been issued, then it has to be followed through.”

“Did you have to do this to become alpha the way you are?”

“No, I was born into it.” Hope nodded along; she wasn’t surprised by that. “I also sort of married into it,” Hayley added. “We were technically both alphas, but the marriage combined our packs.”

“You’re married?” Hope couldn’t help but ask.

“Was,” Hayley said sadly. “He was killed a long time ago.”

“Oh,” Hope said awkwardly, “I’m sorry.”

Before anyone could say anything else or make the conversation anymore awkward screaming started. When they turned back to the two boys fighting, they saw the crowd cheering and shoving each other. It looked like one of them had finally thrown a first punch. They were both holding each other, shoving each other back and forth.

Rafael managed to get the upper hand, getting his arms around Jed and slamming him into the ground.

Before Rafael could step away Jed wrapped his legs around swinging his body to the side, flipping their positions.

Jed dealt three quick blows to Rafael’s face before Rafael caught his fist then with his other hand punched Jed in the nose.

Jed stumbled back falling off of Rafael, his nose gushing with blood. Jed ran his hand across his nose but only ended up smearing the blood.

Both wolves were back to standing on their feet, circling each other like they had been when the fight first started.

Jed charged, tackling Rafael back until they hit the gym wall. Jed repeatedly punched Rafael in the side while Rafael tried bringing his elbow down and hitting him in the back.

Rafael managed to bring his knee up, nailing Jed in the stomach. He quickly grabbed Jed by the head and slammed him against the wall.

Gripping him tighter by the hair Rafael slammed his head into the wall again.

And again.

And again.

Hope could feel Josie flinch beside her with each blow. Hope didn’t look at the other girl but reached her hand out, gently intertwining their fingers. Hope didn’t take her eyes off the fight. Rafael wasn’t holding back, as he continued to slam Jed’s head into the wall. The only reason Jed wasn’t dead was because of the padded mats lining the back wall. Jed’s eyes were starting to glaze over it seemed. After the third blow he had stopped fighting back.

Rafael finally stopped smashing Jed’s head into the wall, tossing him to the side. Jed didn’t have enough energy, as soon as Rafael let go of him, he stumbled a few steps before collapsing to the ground on his back. Coughing out a few shallow breaths.

Rafael stalked over towards Jed, his eyes never leaving the wolf defenseless on the ground. His eyes still shining gold. When he got to Jed, he stepped over him, so he was towering above him. Jed’s eyes were barely open. Hope wasn’t sure if he was still processing what was happening, he hadn’t tapped out yet though.

Rafael reached down, grabbing Jed by his shirt, delivering a swift punch to his face. He released his shirt and the boys head fell back to the ground with a thud.

Rafael scrunched up the shirt again in a fist to balance himself as he sent blow after blow to Jed’s face.

Hope flicked a glance to Josie as she felt the other girls grip tighten in her hand. Josie had her head turned away from the fight, her eyes glued shut. She still flinched with every sound of a hit though.

Hope turned her attention back to the fight. Jed’s arms laid motionless at his side. His nose and mouth dripped with blood. His eyes fluttered between open and close with every hit dealt. Until finally they closed and didn’t open again.

Rafael swung three more punches down on the unconscious wolf before standing up, stepping back so he was no longer standing over Jed.

The gym was silent save for Rafael’s heavy breathing. The entire pack stood frozen, staring at their previous alpha on the floor. One wolf seemed to snap out of the daze and slowly knelt down, bowing his head at his new alpha. The rest of the pack quickly followed.

Rafael glanced at the kneeling wolves before him. He finally unclenched his blood fist, the blood probably being a mixture of his own from torn knuckles and Jed’s. He ran his arm across his nose, smearing the bit of blood from the bloody nose he got at some point.

Rafael walked towards the doors of the gym, his pack quickly following into step behind him. He didn’t spare a second glance at Jed on the floor. He didn’t even bother looking in the direction of Hope or Landon. No body moved from their positions until Rafael and the rest of the pack were out the door.

Hope quietly walked over to Jed, kneeling by his side.

“Is he-” Josie started to whisper from behind her.

“No,” Hope answered, not needing the other girl to finish. “We need to get him to the infirmary.”

Hayley got on the other side of him. They each grabbed an arm, yanking him up. Jed groaned but didn’t open his eyes. They each slung one of his arms around their shoulders and slowly dragged him out of the gym and into the infirmary.

They got him into one of the beds. He let out a few more groans with each move but otherwise remained unconscious. Hayley went to help the nurse gather supplies to treat his wounds and inform her of what happened. Hope stood at his bedside while Josie stood at the end of the bed.

“What happens now?” Josie asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Whatever he decides,” Hope answered, looking down at Jed. “He can be in the pack again if he wants and as long as Rafael allows it. Rafael is in charge of the wolves now, that’s a whole new dynamic for both parties. There will definitely be an adjustment period.”

“Will he be, okay?”

Hope stood there, looking down at Jed for a moment. “From what I’ve seen,” she whispered. “He’ll be just fine. Maybe some struggling at first, but he’ll be able to figure himself out.” Hope turned to face Josie. “I’m going to stay with him until he wakes up.”

“Okay.” Josie reached down, intertwining their hands. “I’ll be back to check on you guys a little later if he’s not already awake.” Hope nodded, giving Josie’s hand a grateful squeeze. Josie leaned down placing a gentle kiss on Hopes cheek as she slowly untangled their hands, leaving the infirmary.

Hope stood to the side, watching as the nurse cleaned the drying blood under Jed’s nose and around his mouth. Surprisingly his nose wasn’t broken, he did have a nasty split lip though.

Hayley cleaned Jed’s knuckles as he had ripped them open punching Rafael. While she was doing that the nurse moved on, lifting Jed’s shirt, feeling his side to see if the ribs were broken or not.

“No breaks,” the nurse muttered. “Just badly bruised. I’ll wrap it, he’s going to still want to keep movement to a minimum.” Hope nodded.

After the nurse wrapped Jed’s ribs and left, Hope pulled up a chair to sit by his bedside. Hayley stood on the other side of the bed looking down at Jed with a pained expression. Hope didn’t know Hayley’s whole pack situation, but she knew she cared for wolves more than any other faction. Hayley dedicated her time to help out other packs and recruiting struggling wolves. It was the whole reason they originally met. Hope wasn’t sure if Hayley had a history with Jed though, they never seemed particularly close, but she didn’t know Jed’s story.

“You don’t seem happy about the outcome of the challenge,” Hayley finally broke the silence.

“I didn’t think either would kill each other,” Hope answered.

“Did you think Rafael would win?”

“He’s rash, temperamental, relies heavily on his anger,” Hope listed. “Though he is strong.”

“Did you want him to win?”

Hope sighed, taking a deep breath, she took her eyes away from Jed to meet Hayley’s. “Rafael isn’t a leader. He doesn’t like following orders, that’s how this whole thing started. I’m not sure how much he even likes the other members of the pack. I know they work out together, but he still mostly only hangs out with Landon. He only joined to get a sense of belonging he’s been longing for.”

“You don’t think he’ll make a good alpha?”

“He’s never had to make a decision in his life. Not one that can decide the fate of others. He’s a fighter, he’s strong, he feels strongly, he’s just-”

“More of a follower,” Hayley finished for her. Hope nodded, her eyes going back to Jed.

“Jed’s an ass.” Hope could see Hayley’s mouth twitch through the corner of her eye. “He cares about the others though. He always put the pack first. Always.”

“You don’t think Rafael will?”

“No. I know he won’t. If a monster or Triad were to attack and get Landon. Rafael would do everything to save him.” Hopes eyes drifted to Jed’s wrapped busted up hand then back to his face where bruising was already starting to form. “Even if it means sacrificing others.”

“You saying you wouldn’t do the same?”

Hope flicked a glare to Hayley. Hayley didn’t sound judgmental, but she also didn’t sound pleased with the answer she knew was coming. “Of course, I would,” Hope answered easily. “I’d rather not though. The whole reason I don’t want a pack is because I don’t want anyone dying for me.” Hope dropped her eyes for a second, letting out a humorless chuckle. “I know I’ll put Landon’s safety above everyone. I’ve always owned up to that. No connections means I don’t have to be put in that situation though.”

Before Hayley could respond or say anything Jed groaned, shifting in his sleep then groaned louder in pain from the movement. His eye flew open, wincing as his side shifted.

“I’ll give you two a minute,” Hayley whispered, quickly making her way out of the infirmary.

“How you feeling?” Hope whispered, standing from her chair so Jed could see her.

Jed tried to sit up, inhaling sharply instantly, groaning as he eased himself back down.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You need time to heal. You should be good to move with minimal pain by tomorrow,” Hope said.

Jed nodded, letting out another long sigh. “Why are you here? I thought you didn’t care about me?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

Hope reached over to the table, grabbing the cup of water. She brought it to his mouth so he could sip through the straw.

“I don’t,” Hope answered honestly. “Not really at least. I’m not completely heartless though.”

Jed let go of the straw and Hope put the cup back on the table. “Figured you’d be out celebrating with your boy.”

“First of all, I’ve never cared about your petty squabbles, I would never celebrate one.” Jed actually managed a small smile at that. “Second, I don’t agree with how things went down.”

“I don’t know what to do now,” Jed whispered. “I was always taught to be strong, to be tough, to never back down. Now I’m a failure. The pack was all I had and now I have nothing.”

“You’re not a failure, just because you lost a fight doesn’t mean you’re a failure.” Jed scoffed at that. “Also, you only have nothing if that’s how you want to do things. You can still be a part of the pack.”

“If Rafael allows it,” Jed pointed out.

Hope opened to mouth to reply but before she could say anything the door to the infirmary opened, revealing Rafael walking in.

“You’re awake,” Rafael said. “Good, I wanted to discuss something with you.”

“What?” Jed asked, clearly not trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.

“Look, I don’t like you, however the other guys do and I’m willing to allow you in the pack as long as you follow my orders.” Rafael even had the audacity to smirk. Hope couldn’t help but roll her eyes. The arrogance of winning one tiny challenge was already starting to go to Rafael’s head.

“No thanks.”

Hope actually stopped and stared at Jed. That was the first thing Jed had done that had truly surprised her.

Rafael scoffed, “Come on, you know lone wolves don’t do well. Being in a pack is better.”

“I have no interest in being a part of your pack,” Jed said again through gritted teeth.

“Whatever,” Rafael scoffed again, rolling his eyes before storming back out of the infirmary.

“Guess you made your decision,” Hope whispered. “Honestly, I’m surprised.”

“How many alphas do you know would stay with their pack after being knocked off their pedestal.” Hope had to nod at that, if the winning alpha had allowed the other to live, they hardly ever allowed them to stay with the pack anyway and if for some reason they did chances are the other wolf would choose self-exile. “Besides, I’ve been a lone wolf before.” Jed swallowed hard, tears starting to fill his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. “I can do it again.”

“I have no doubt.”

Hope was truly impressed with Jed. Some could see the whole refusing to stay in the pack as petty, but Hope understood where he was coming from. Jed was very proud and if he stayed with the pack, he’d lose what little dignity he had, at least that’s what he thought, even if that wasn’t true. Hope wouldn’t have thought less of Jed for sticking with what he knew but she knew other wolves would, she assumed other pack members probably would have thought less of him as well. Jed gained a little bit of respect from Hope with that decision, it was probably the most difficult decision he had ever had to make.

“I know we’re not friends,” Hope started. Jed laughed at that, making Hope chuckle as well. “But if you ever need anything, I’m here.”

Jed nodded, “Thank you, Hope.”

“Get some rest.”

With that Hope quietly made her way out of the infirmary. She walked the halls until she found Josie.

“Whatcha doin’?” Hope asked, coming up behind Josie, draping her arms around Josie over the back of the couch.

Josie jumped, dropping the book she had been reading to the floor. She turned in Hopes embrace to get a better look at her. “You scared the hell out of me,” she said, bringing a hand to her chest.

“Sorry.” Hope pulled her arms away, jumping over the back of the couch so she was sitting beside Josie.

Josie leaned over giving Hope a quick kiss causing Hope to smile despite Josie already pulling away. “You’re forgiven.”

“I just wanted to say bye before I head out.”

Josie pouted, glancing at her watch, sighing when she saw how late it actually was. “Is Jed awake?”

“Yeah, he still needs a lot of rest though.”

“How’s he doing?”

Hope sighed. “As well as he can be. He’s handling it better than most would so far. Everything he’s known was just ripped away from him. It won’t be easy. He’s already told Rafael no to staying in the pack.”

“What!” Josie gasped, whipping around so her entire body was facing Hope.

“I guess you could say it’s a wolf thing or more of a pride thing,” Hope tried to explain. “A previous alpha following orders of the one who took their title isn’t easy, most would rather lone wolf it.”

“Wow, as long as I’ve known Jed, he’s always been about the pack even before becoming alpha. I can’t even imagine it.”

“It will take some time; he’s going to have to figure himself out and who he is without the pack. I believe in him though.”

Josie raised her eyebrows at that. “Has this whole thing oddly made you like Jed?”

“Let’s not get crazy,” Hope held up her hand. “Just from what I’ve seen, Jed can more than handle this, it’s just going to take time.”

“So, not to change the subject to something happy,” Josie started, a big smile trying to be contained on her face. “But, I know what I want to do for our date.”

“Great!” Hope said, matching Josie’s smile. “Do I get to know what it is?”

Josie smiled, leaning over to give Hope a kiss then just as quickly pulled back. “Nope.” She giggled at Hopes pouting. “Next Friday night, if you’re free.”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“Great! I’ll tell you the exact time when we should meet up closer to the date.”

Josie leaned back, resting her head on the back of the couch staring into Hopes eyes. Hope did the same but brushed a few strands of hair behind Josie’s ear.

“I got to go,” Hope whispered.

Josie frowned, “Good night,” she whispered.

“Night.”

Hope leaned over, giving Josie a soft kiss but pulled away before it could become deeper. She smiled as Josie chased after her lips. She walked out of the room never taking her eyes off Josie until she got to the doorway, offering one last small wave goodbye before turning to leave.

Chapter Text

It was finally Friday and Josie woke up before her alarm. She had spent so long trying to think of a good second date idea and when she finally decided on something she was beyond happy, she had been practically vibrating the last week in anticipation of the date. Hopes dinner date was amazing and romantic and perfect in every way. Josie didn’t want to top it, but she wanted to do something just as great, she wanted them to have fun.

Josie went to each of her classes, doing the work as needed. She scribbled everything as quickly as possible, as if somehow writing quickly would make the time go by faster. When she wasn’t writing in her notebook, she was rapidly tapping her pencil on it. At one point Lizzie threw a crumbled-up paper ball at her to get her to stop.

At lunch Josie sat with MG, Lizzie, Landon, and Rafael like she always did. They joked around and complained about the homework over the weekend. Apparently, Landon had a paper due on Monday that he had been given two weeks to do but he hadn’t even started yet.

“Dude, you still haven’t started?” MG asked. “I got it done the week it was assigned.”

Landon groaned, dropping his head onto the table. “I do my best work at the last minute,” he grumbled. “I excel under pressure. The time crunch is a bit of an adrenaline rush.”

“They can tell when you do things last minute.”

“Not when you do it well,” Lizzie chimed in. “My presentation on the different types of boundary spells was thrown together the day before.”

MG’s jaw dropped. “You got an A on that presentation though,” he said disbelieving.

“I know,” Lizzie flipped her hair with one hand, smirking at the boy.

“I tried to write a paper on the origins of the werewolf curse the night before and got a D,” Rafael commented, dropping a fry back on his plate as he pouted.

“Like I said,” Lizzie snapped towards Rafael. “When done right.”

“What’s it even on?” Josie asked. She wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation, but she figured she might as well try to seem involved.

“Our origins,” MG answered. “I talked about my parents then talked about how I was turned and what I knew about my maker.”

“Well then Frodo,” Lizzie said, shoving a fork full of salad in her mouth. “That should be easy for you. You’re a phoenix and no one knows anything about your origins. You can literally write whatever you want. No one would know you’re lying.”

Landon picked his head up off the table and nodded, actually seeming to contemplate the idea. Josie rolled her eyes. They all knew Landon was a son of Malivore and his mom had been a human Triad agent but otherwise they knew nothing. Josie already figured there would be some slight bending of the truth going on in his paper considering how secretive he and Hope still were.

Josie zoned out of the conversation, staring across the room and out the window. She just wanted it to be time for her date. She was thrown out of her daydreaming when she felt the rustling of the others at the table. She snapped back to reality, seeing everyone had already gotten up to head off to their next class. Josie tossed her trash in the garbage can, when she noticed Jed sitting alone at one of the tables. He had his hoodie pulled up over his head, but she could see him sneaking glances at the rest of the werewolves a few tables down.

“Hey, Jed,” Josie greeted softly.

“Josie,” Jed said, jumping a little, seeming to not have seen her approach. “Hey.”

“How are you?”

Jed dropped his eyes to the table but gave a small smile. “I’m still getting used to it.” He sat up, pushing his hood so it was resting on the back of his head but not down. “All healed up though. Happy to say it no longer hurts to breath.”

Josie chuckled lightly. “Good, I’m glad.” She spared a glance at the other wolves when she saw Jed’s eyes drift back to them. “Have you talked to any of them yet.”

Jed took his eyes off the werewolves, looking back up at Josie. “No, I wouldn’t know what to say. Not like they’ve tried talking to me either.”

“Maybe they don’t know what to say either.”

“Maybe,” he mumbled.

“You weren’t just their alpha; you were also their friend. I’m sure if you find a way to break the ice again conversation would flow easily just like before.”

“But it’s not like before. Everything is different now.”

“You might not be the alpha anymore. You might not even be a member of the pack but that doesn’t mean you can’t be friends with them.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he sighed. He looked at Josie, narrowing his eyes at her after a second. “Why are you so giddy today?”

The huge smile Josie had been wearing all morning broke out again, she couldn’t help but giggle. “I have a date with Hope tonight.” Jed smiled at that. “It’s officially our second one and I got to plan it.”

“Oooh,” he smirked. “Where you taking her?”

“Nope! Not saying.”

“Oh, come on! It’s just me.”

“No!” Josie laughed. “I’m not risking it getting back to Hope in anyway.”

“Ugh, fine,” Jed sighed in defeat. “She seems good for you Jo, there’s a spark that she brings out in you.”

“Thanks,” Josie ducked her head. She and Jed had talked before, but they were never truly friends, it was kind of weird hearing someone compliment her that way, knowing someone she wasn’t close with could see how she was happy.

“And you seem to do the same for her,” he added before standing up from the table. “Have fun on your date Jo.”

“Thanks again Jed.”

After going their separate ways Josie ran off to her next class before she was late. She stepped into the room just as the bell rang. She scurried off into her seat before the teacher started speaking about their lesson for the day. Josie opened her notebook only to drift off into another daydream. That is how she spent her last few classes, she started off paying attention but then slipped off into her mind, thinking about her date with Hope.

When classes were finally over, Josie rushed up to her dorm, flinging her backpack onto the desk. She ran straight to her closet again to get her outfit ready. There date was in a few hours but luckily unlike the first one Josie wasn’t as stressed. She had texted Hope that it was casual wear, even slightly more casual than the first date, they were going to be outside, and it was going to be fun. She told Hope she didn’t have to worry about picking her up and that she’d meet at her place around seven.

After reading a couple chapters of her book Josie finally looked at the clock, deciding it was time to get ready. She laid out a striped turtleneck sweater since it was still a little cold, and they were going to be outdoors for the night and some blue jeans.

After getting dressed she made her way downstairs, intending to get an Uber into town. When she made her way down the steps as she passed the den, she saw Landon and Rafael, laptop and books out, working on some homework together. On the opposite side of the room was Lizzie and MG. Lizzie seemed completely engulfed in whatever was on her laptop. While MG had his notebook on his lap and pen in hand but otherwise completely forgotten about as he stared at Lizzie. He really couldn’t make his crush on her more obvious.

“Josie?” A voice came from behind Josie as she stepped outside, closing the door behind her. Josie turned to see Hayley, standing in the drive about to get in her car.

“Hayley,” Josie said. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I was just leaving. Does your father know where you’re going?”

“Uhhh,” Josie paused, trying to come up with a good lie. She snuck out to hang out with Hope every weekend, but her father never questioned where she was or why she was missing, so she never actually had to come up with a lie. Josie sighed, dropping her head in defeat. “I have a date with Hope.”

Josie was sure her face was incredibly red, she refused to look up at Hayley. She eventually lifted her head slightly to sneak a peek only to see Hayley giving a small smile.

“Do you need a ride?” Hayley asked.

“Oh, no, I don’t want to inconvenience you,” Josie tried to wave the offer off. “I was going to just get an Uber.”

“It’s on the way and you won’t have to waste your money.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, come on, get in.” Hayley opened the door, getting in the driver seat.

Josie walked down the steps, opening the passenger door, slipping into the seat. “Thank you.”

Josie sat there in the car awkwardly fiddling with her jeans. She stared straight ahead; she wasn’t sure when the last time she blinked was. Now that she was officially on her way to meet Hope for their date all the excitement she felt turned to nervousness.

“You, okay?” Hayley asked concerned.

“Yeah,” Josie said robotically.

“You, sure?”

“What if Hope doesn’t like the date?” Josie turned to Hayley, her eyes wide, every anxiety induced fear playing through her mind. “What if she hates it? What if this makes her think we aren’t good for each other? What if it’s so bad she never wants to see me again? What if I wake up tomorrow to find out she came, grabbed Landon then ran off, disappearing from my life forever.”

Hayley gave her the most concerned look Josie had ever seen on anyone. She looked slightly scared by Josie’s outburst. Josie knew she sounded slightly irrational, but it was her second date with Hope, and she was the one to plan it. Josie had every right to be as irrational as she wanted.

“Okay,” Hayley said slowly. “Calm down. None of that is going to happen.”

“But-”

“Nope,” Hayley was quick to cut her off. “I’m sure Hope will love whatever you plan.”

Josie sighed. She closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. When she opened her eyes again her mind was back to being slightly more rational. “I don’t know. I think it will be fun but I’m not sure if it’s Hopes style.”

“I don’t think there are many things that are Hope style. She seems to prefer to be alone.” Josie frowned. “Except when she’s with you.” Josie couldn’t help but smile slightly at that. “You get her out of her comfort zone, and she doesn’t mind because she’s with you and you make her comfortable.”

“Thanks, I really needed to hear that.”

“What do you have planned?”

“Nope! Still not telling anyone.”

“Well, you better get out, it looks like your dates waiting.”

Josie knitted her eyebrows together, tilting her head. Hayley nodded to something in front of them and when Josie looked up, she realized the car had stopped and they were parked out front of Hopes apartment. Hope was standing outside of the gym, once again in black jeans and her black leather jacket, though she opted for a black shirt underneath instead of the red one.

Josie let out a shaky breath. She turned to Hayley once again. “Thanks again for the ride,” Josie said.

“Anytime,” Hayley said. “Have fun.”

Josie got out of the car smiling, when she got to Hope she saw Hayley drive off, waving a final goodbye.

“Hi,” Josie said shyly.

“Hi,” Hope said, smirking. “Don’t you look gorgeous.”

“Shut up,” Josie rolled her eyes, playfully slapping Hopes shoulder.

“What?” Hope raised her hand to her chest in mock offense. “I only speak the truth.”

“Whatever.” Josie nudged Hope to start moving. They started walking side by side down the street, their hands brushing until Hope grabbed Josie’s hand, entangling their fingers.

“So, where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Hope threw her head back groaning. “Come on! Even I wasn’t this cruel.”

“Debatable.”

They continued walking, making small conversation about their day. Josie told Hope about her classes and about her talk with Jed. Hope told her about work and how when school got out Maya came over and pestered Hope about their date and since Hope couldn’t give any details she demanded as her best friend she be called as soon as the date was over, and she was back in her apartment. Hope said she didn’t plan on doing that, but Josie knew that as soon as she left, and Hope was back to being alone in her apartment Maya would be her first call.

Josie started to slow their pace until finally coming to a stop in front of their destination. When Hope seemed to realize they were stopping she tore her eyes away from Josie to the sight in front of them.

“A carnival?” Hope questioned.

Josie turned to see Hopes reaction. Hope didn’t sound disappointed so that was surely a good sign. She looked up at the entrance, eyes wandering around to all the colors from the rides and the various booths lining the area.

“Yeah, thought it would be fun,” Josie said shyly, biting her lip. “Is this, okay?”

“It’s great,” Hope said, smiling.

They entered the carnival and Hope never lost her smile, looking around at everything in wonder. Josie had never seen that glimmer in Hopes eyes, the childlike wonder. She loved it, she felt like she was seeing Hope act her age, be a normal teenager for once. Hope didn’t seem like the badass, dark past filled, werewitch. She just seemed like Hope.

They ran around the carnival, riding a variety of rides. They started with the teacups, spinning themselves so fast their surroundings passed in a blur. They were both stumbling off the ride and into each other as they giggled.

They ran straight over, getting in line and quickly hopping on one of the rides that spun in a circle as it lifted them in the air. By the time they had started getting higher in the air their dizziness had worn off. Josie was surprised the ride lifted them so high, they could see the whole town at points. Josie loved the view but her favorite part was that they ride caused Josie to slide and be pressed right against Hope who seemed to instantly throw her arm around Josie and hold her closer.

After a few rides they decided to get some food. They grabbed nachos, popcorn, funnel cake, a basket of fries, and some slushies. They managed to find a picnic table, sitting opposite of each other and setting all the food between each other. Josie took the red slushie while Hope took the blue. They rotated picking between all the items until they were both stuffed.

“This has been a lot of fun,” Hope said, finishing off her slushie.

“Really?” Josie asked. She was having a great time, but she still wasn’t sure if Hope truly was enjoying it. “I wasn’t sure if this was really your thing.”

“Yeah, this has been amazing.” Hope looked around at everything surrounding them again, all the towns’ people, eating, running off to rides, or playing games. “I’ve never done anything like this before,” Hope admitted.

“Really? You’ve never been to a carnival?”

Hope shook her head. “Only time I had the option was when we first came to Mystic Falls. I think Maya and Ethan tried to get me to come to one but it was with other football players and cheerleaders, so I always turned them down. This has been great though. Just enjoying things and not worrying about the world ending.”

“Well, I’m glad I could give you a good first experience.”

Hope leaned over the table, bringing Josie into a short kiss. Josie couldn’t help but giggle into the kiss as she tasted the blueberry slushie on Hopes lips. When they finally pulled away from each other Hope sat back down with a sigh.

“What now?” she asked. “Want to play some games?”

“We can,” Josie said. “Though I’ve never won one, we were always told they were rigged.”

Hope gave a devilish smirk. “Well then, let’s go.” She held out her hand which Josie easily took, though the smirk had her concerned. She never knew what to expect when Hope smirked.

Hope led them too one of the booths. It was one of the ones where they had to throw a baseball and knock down all the bottles. If they knocked down all the bottles once they got a small prize, twice a medium prize, and all three times they got the large prize. Hope gave the man working the booth the tickets and he slid three baseballs in front of her.

Hope picked up one of the baseballs, holding it out to Josie first. Josie shook her head, there was no way she was knocking down any bottles. Hope sighed, tossing the ball back and forth in her hands. She quickly pulled her arm back and threw the ball in a blink. Josie almost missed it. One second the ball was in Hopes hand the next it was knocking down one set of bottles. Without pausing Hope picked up another ball, launching it at the second stack of bottles. Then she picked up the third ball, launching it at the last stack of bottles. Each stack collapsing as soon as the ball struck them.

Hope turned to Josie smirking. Josie looked towards the man running the booth who stood there with his mouth agape, eyes darting between Hope and the fallen bottles.

“What do you want your prize to be?” Hope asked, still smirking at Josie.

Josie pointed to one of the giant stuffed animals. After a moment the worker seemed to shake himself out of his shock and got down the prize. He handed it over to Josie, still completely silent.

“Thank you,” Hope called behind them as they walked away.

 Josie carried a giant panda that was half her size through the crowd. They sat down at another picnic table, Josie plopping the panda down in his own seat.

“Did you use your powers?” Josie accused.

Hopes chuckle did nothing to deter Josie’s thoughts.

“That’s cheating!” Josie whisper yelled.

“Relax I didn’t use my witch powers,” Hope defended.

“Werewolf powers are still powers.”

“I used the gifts I was naturally born with,” Hope pointed to herself feigning innocence. “That’s not cheating. That’s just talent.”

“You’re impossible.”

Hope shrugged. “But you find it adorable.”

Josie rolled her eyes. She tried faking her annoyance, but she couldn’t hold in her smile for long with Hope smirking at her the entire time.

“Thank you for the panda,” Josie mumbled. She turned her gaze to the panda, it was truly adorable, she loved pandas, and no one had ever won anything for her. She tried thinking of where to put it in her room. She would put it on her bed but considering how big it was she knew there would hardly be room left for herself with it sitting there.

“What’s next?” Hope asked.

Josie looked down at her watch, they had been there for a few hours and had done nearly everything. She knew their date would be ending soon.

“There’s one thing I want to do before we end the night,” Josie answered.

Hope tilted her head in question, but Josie provided no answers. She grabbed her panda, flinging it over her back so it was easier to carry then stood up from the table. She walked around to the side Hope was sitting on reaching down and taking Hope by the hand then dragged her off to their last thing of the night before Hope could question her any further.

Josie didn’t stop moving until they were both seated on the last ride of the night, the Ferris wheel. They sat next to each other in the car, a moment after they were locked in, they started moving back for the next car to be loaded.

“I know this is a little cliché,” Josie said. “But I always dreamed of going to a fair and at the end of the night kissing the girl I liked at the top of the Ferris wheel.”

“Well considering I have no experience in what most people would call normal activities,” Hope said, chuckling lightly. “I would say cliché is perfect.”

Josie let out a shiver, rubbing her hands up and down her arms. Despite the sweater it was still relatively cold out.

“You cold?” Hope asked.

“Maybe a little but I’ll be fine,” Josie tried to dismiss it. When the ride truly started moving, she was sure she’d be okay.

Hope didn’t say anything else she instantly put her arm around Josie, pulling her closer. The natural warmth Hope gave off caused Josie to snuggle closer into Hope.

She saw Hope smirking out of the corner of her eye. “Shut up,” she mumbled. “You’re a werewolf you’re naturally hot.”

Hope tilted her head looking at Josie with an even bigger knowing smirk. “I’m well aware,” Hope said.

“Your body temperature is naturally warmer.” Josie buried her face in Hopes shoulder. Hope was so annoying sometimes, especially when she was being all cocky and arrogant and self-aware at how attractive she was.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Hope sighed. “Is it helping?” Hope lost the smirk, looking at her with concerned puppy dog eyes. It truly wasn’t fair Hope could be both sexy one moment then adorable the next.

“It’s perfect, thank you.” Josie turned her head, so it was resting on Hopes shoulder as the ride started to move.

They sat there silently holding each other, watching the rest of the carnival go on as they went around and around. Whenever they got to the top of the Ferris wheel they would look up at the sky, getting a perfect view of all the star.

After a few trips around, the Ferris wheel started to slow down, letting people off. It took a few minutes, but they lucked out just as Josie was hoping and one of the stops allowed their car to be at the top.

Josie pulled away from Hope just enough to look her in the eyes but still stay in her embrace. Hope looked at her the same way, leaning in the same as Josie to bring their lips together.

Josie wasn’t sure how long they kissed, she didn’t realize the ride had started moving again until they came to a stop and someone cleared their throat. They both broke apart and saw it was time for their car to be unloaded, the poor attendant looking at them with raised eyebrows, waiting for them to exit the ride.

Both girls quickly got up rushing off the ride as they quietly giggled. Hope made sure to hold Josie’s panda with one arm at the same time as she grabbed Josie’s hand, and she didn’t let go as they left the carnival and went back to Hopes apartment. Hope swung their hands, staring into Josie’s eyes as they waited for the Uber they ordered to get there.

When the car finally pulled up, Hope opened the door first shoving in the panda then held out her arm for Josie to enter, causing her to roll her eyes at the chivalry but also couldn’t help but blush. Josie tried to close the door, but Hope stopped, her leaning in to place one more quick kiss on her lips.

Hope closed the door to the car when Josie was fully in. When the car started to drive off, Josie leaned back into the seat, not being able to contain her smile. She was so happy Hope enjoyed the date and it was one of the best nights of Josie’s life. She felt her phone vibrate, she pulled it out only to see a text from Hope already, saying ‘Miss you, already’. Josie rolled her eyes, biting her lip as she replied saying she felt the same.

Chapter Text

Josie swung her fist. Hope gently caught it in a block. Hope let go, gesturing for Josie to get back into a starting position.

They had been sparring for about twenty minutes, taking a small break halfway through. Hope tried to get Josie to do some warmups which she did, but she was quick to beg to do more sparring. Hope loved Josie’s enthusiasm, she just wished she’d take some things slow. Josie was excelling exponentially though.

After bouncing on her feet for a few seconds Josie ran towards Hope, swinging again. Hope caught the hit with both hands.

Josie tried swinging her other arm but Hope instantly let go one of her hands to catch the other arm. Both of Josie’s arms were in Hopes grasp as she pinned them to josie’s side, then behind her back.

Hope walked Josie back a few steps, staring down into her warm brown eyes. Josie’s breathing was heavy, Hope could feel the rapid rise and fall of the other girl’s chest with them being so close together.

Josie stared back into Hopes eyes, flicking her gaze down to her lips for a second. Hope smirked, she leaned in to kiss Josie when she felt Josie use her legs to kick her feet out from under her, causing Hope to release Josie as she fell to the mat.

Josie was quick to Jump on top of Hope. Sitting on Hopes waste, as she leaned forward, grabbing both Hopes hands and pinning them above her head.

Josie panted, staring down into Hopes eyes, their positions now reversed. Hope couldn’t help but smile. She liked the position she had Josie in, but she had no complaints to how Josie had her at the moment.

Josie flicked her gaze from Hopes eyes once again down to her lips, Hope couldn’t help but follow, staring at Josie’s lips hovering above her.

Unlike last time when Josie leaned down to give Hope a kiss, Hope didn’t flip Josie over. She leaned up as much as she could with her arms pinned to meet Josie, trying to deepen the kiss.

When Josie broke the kiss, Hope let her head fall back to the mat, staring up into Josie’s eyes again. As if she realized something Josie instantly straightened, sitting up, releasing Hopes arms, but not moving from sitting on top of Hope.

“Did you let me pin you?” Josie accused.

Hope couldn’t help but chuckle. She brought her free hands up, resting them on Josie’s side. “I would never,” Hope defended herself. “Even I’m not immune to the distractions of a gorgeous girl.”

Josie blushed at that for a second, smiling shyly before shaking it off her face, turning serious again. “You’re not just saying that? You’re not just going easy on me?”

Hope sighed, smiling softly up at Josie. “I am going easy on you.” The adorable pout Hope loved appeared on Josie’s face. “I go easy on everyone,” Hope clarified. “If I didn’t, well, no one would be around.”

“You know what I mean.” The pout softened but otherwise remained on the brunette’s face.

“When have you known me to go easy on someone and let them win?”

“Never,” Josie admitted. “But you didn’t do it just because we’re…” Josie stopped in the middle of whatever she was about to say, her eyes going wide. Hope tilted her head in question. Hope was about to ask if everything was okay when Josie shook her head, acting like she had before as if nothing happened. “More than friends?”

“Would I like to go easy on you because I care about you and don’t want to risk hurting you?” Hope asked. “Yes,” she answered herself. “Did I do that?” Hope sighed, shifting her body so she was sitting up, moving Josie more into her lap. Josie seemed to without thinking wrapped her legs around Hope’s waste to help stay balanced. “No, simply because I know if I go easy on you, you’ll yell at me and demand I fight harder.”

“Promise?” Josie narrowed her eyes.

“Promise,” Hope said, giving Josie a light peck on the lips. “And I always keep my promises.”

“Good,” Josie whispered.

Josie put her hand on Hopes chest, gently pushing her so she was back to lying on the mat. Josie more laying that sitting on Hope at that point began kissing her.

That’s how their days had been going the last few weeks. They still hung out while Josie did homework, or they still had their movie watching time where Josie would force Hope to watch some movie, but ever since their second date a few weeks ago they had been kissing a lot more.

Hope wasn’t fully sure what they were to each other. Like Josie said they were more than friends, but Hope wasn’t really sure what to call them. She honestly hadn’t thought about it too much since labels were never really her thing. All she knew was that she liked Josie and for once she was having fun, for the first time in her life she had something that was hers and that she chose that made her happy.

An alarm blaring cause Josie to jolt off Hope making her let out a small groan. Josie ended up flipping herself off Hope and tripping in the process so she ended up lying back on the mat beside Hope. Hope covered her face with her arm as she let out a chuckle.

“It’s just my phone,” Hope said. “I need to open the gym.”

Josie let out a relieved sigh, nodding. She sat up then turned and slapped Hope in the stomach.

“Ow,” Hope said, sitting up. “What was that for?”

“Laughing at me,” Josie grumbled. “Jerk.”

That caused Hope to laugh again. She jumped to her feet, holding out her hand to help Josie up as well.

After Hope opened the gym, they packed up their stuff and made their way to the Lockwood Estate. Josie was able to keep up better than she had been any other time. Hope still had to slow down significantly but Hope was proud of the quick progress Josie had been making even if she hated running.

When they got to the area, they had been training, they made their way down to the cellar. Hope said a spell revealing all the training weapons and equipment she kept there. She walked over to one of the walls, picking up one of the foam swords, then turned and tossed it to Josie.

Josie fumbled with the sword but managed to not drop it. Hope hadn’t given her any warning before she threw it, she just made sure Josie was already in the process of turning to look at her before she tossed it.

“No bow?” Josie questioned with a small pout.

“You got the bow pretty much down,” Hope said, grabbing the other foam sword. “A little more practice and you’ll be hitting the bullseye every time. Figured you should learn some basics in closeup fighting with a weapon though.”

“With a foam sword?”

“Master the foam sword first.”

“Then we can move onto real ones?” Josie’s eyes lit up, her smiling becoming wider.

“No.” Josie instantly frowned. “Then we move onto wood practice swords. Then after mastering those-”

“Then real swords?” Hope nodded. Josie jumped, trying to subtly hide her excitement. “Why can’t we just use real ones?”

“The foam ones will allow me to teach you some basic moves and we can spar and not worry about hurting each other.”

“Then why the wood ones after?”

“The wood ones are heavier, more like a real sword so it’ll get you use to the weight while you’re carrying it or swinging it around. Plus, they’re harder so when you get hit it’ll hurt. It just won’t kill or maim you.”

Josie nodded. “Where are we doing this?”

“Up top.”

Hope made her way out of the cellar with Josie close behind. She led them to a small clearing right by the cellar. The clearing didn’t have to many branches or rocks so there wasn’t much to trip on and if Josie took a hard fall, she was less likely to get hurt. The foam swords were meant to be the safest option, but Hope knew she still had to hold back significantly, even with pretend swords.

“Okay,” Hope said, turning towards Josie. “Show me your stance.”

Josie turned her body, positioning her feet, and grasping her foam sword with both hands, holding it out towards Hope. “How’s this?” she asked.

Hope walked around her, looking the stance up and down. “Not bad. Just move your foot,” Hope gently nudged her foot, “here. And loosen up your shoulders a bit. A real sword will be much heavier so you’ll need a tight grip so it doesn’t get knocked out of your hands instantly but also need your arms to stay loose so you can swing.”

Josie nodded. She began to shake and wiggle her shoulders. Hope chuckled lightly at the little display. She had seen Josie loosen up that way before when she was about to tackle something daunting like a three-page paper.

Hope moved to stand back across from Josie, taking position and holding up her own foam sword. “Follow my movements,” Hope said. “I’ll go slow and then we’ll put it all together.” When Josie nodded Hope began.

Hope went slow showing her how to swing the sword and then where and how she would move her feet. She would swing the sword in a slow motion then slowly move her foot into the correct position. She would have Josie watch her then repeat the action, then they would do it together slowly. After doing it several times that way, they put all the moves together and would complete the actions in one continuous movement. Hope kept her actions a little slower so she could watch Josie and make sure she wasn’t going too fast for her.

After around twenty minutes of doing that Hope decided it was time for a break. She walked over to a tree, grabbing one of the waters she brought along and tossed it to Josie. Josie took a few gulps but wasn’t downing it like she usually did. Practicing with the foam swords wasn’t as exhausting but Hope was sure that would change once they got more into training and definitely when they moved onto the wood practice swords.

“What?” Hope asked, tossing her water bottle back onto the ground and turning to face Josie.

“What, what?” Josie asked.

Hope gave her a deadpanned look. “You’re staring at me like you want to ask me something. So, what is it?”

Josie opened and closed her mouth a few times. It kept seeming like she was about to ask whatever it was she wanted but she never did. She settled for dropping her eyes to the ground, staring at the leaves.

Hope playfully rolled her eyes. “Jo,” she said softly, looking at her until Josie met her gaze again. “Whatever it is, just ask me. You can ask me anything.”

“I just-I don’t want to upset you,” Josie explained. Hope tilted her head at that, knitting her eyebrows. “It’s about your past.”

Hope took a deep breath, nodding in realization. “Look,” she said just as softly, with a small smile, “whatever it is just ask.” She stepped closer, taking one of Josie’s hands in hers. “I can’t promise I’ll answer whatever it is, some stuff is hard for me to talk about but never be afraid to ask me something. You can ask whatever you want, I’ll try to be as open as I can be.”

Josie nodded, hesitantly. “How many weapons are you trained in?”

Hope chuckled at that, entangling her fingers with Josie, leading her over to the tree so they could sit down for a moment. It was a harmless question, Hope had no problem answering that one, she wasn’t even sure why Josie was so hesitant. Hope assumed maybe despite the question being harmless it might have to do or lead to something that wasn’t easy for her to talk about.

“Let’s see,” Hope sighed, looking up to the sky as she thought about all the weapons she’s been trained to use. “Pretty much every type of sword, knife, or dagger. A flail, mace, kunai, shuriken, throwing knives, nunchucks,” Hope started listing. “Oh! A kusarigama which is basically a chain with something similar to a sickle on one end and a heavy weight on the other.” Hope had a wide smile talking about that one, she didn’t get to use one of those often but when she did she always had so much fun. There was nothing quite like taking down a group of enemies by swinging around a sharp object on a chain. “Then obviously all the different types of bow and arrows and crossbows.”

“Obviously,” Josie said, overly dramatic with a playful eyeroll.

Hope rolled her eyes as well as she brought herself back up to her feet. She only let go of Josie’s hand for a second but as soon as she was standing she held her hand out again to help Josie up.

“Come on,” Hope said. “Let’s train just a little longer.” Josie nodded, taking Hopes outstretched hand, and allowing her to pull her to her feet.

They grabbed their foam swords and began training again. Hope would do an attack in slow motion to show Josie where she was moving and where she would end up hitting her so Josie would learn where to move her sword to block. After a few tries Hope would go slightly faster and Josie would easily block.

They also worked on the opposite with Hope telling Josie to attack her and watching how Josie swung and where she aimed. She would correct her or offer a better attack method. Hope would also demonstrate the best way to defend some of the attacks.

They did that for a while longer. They didn’t get to the point where they could just spar and go at it swinging and blocking each other’s hits. Josie was a quick learner as usual, but Hope didn’t want to push too much on day one and it was getting pretty late, it was almost the afternoon.

They packed up the stuff and slowly made their walk back to town. Hope didn’t make them run back to town; she enjoyed the nice walk alone through the woods with Josie. Besides not running back meant she could hold Josie’s hand the whole time and just listen to her talk. She loved hearing Josie get excited about a new book she was reading or when she discovered a new song she was currently obsessed with.

When they made it back to town they waited in the small park across the street from Hopes apartment as Josie called a ride. They usually hung out all day together but since it was Sunday Josie had to head back to the school since she had to finish up a paper that was worth a big part of her grade. They had hung out all of Saturday so Hope wasn’t too disappointed, but she was still going to miss spending her Sunday afternoon with the brunette.

When the car finally arrived to pick Josie up Hope dragged her feet as she followed Josie to the vehicle. Hope pouted as Josie opened the door. When Josie turned around to say goodbye she giggled, rolling her eyes at Hopes pout.

“I’ll call you later,” Josie said.

“Okay,” Hope sighed.

“Stop pouting.”

“I’m just so use to spending the day with you.”

“It’s one Sunday. I’ll see you tomorrow, after you get off?”

“I guess I can wait that long,” Hope sighed dramatically.

Josie rolled her eyes again. She reached out, grabbing Hopes hand, pulling her closer, bringing her into a long goodbye kiss.

“Bye,” Josie whispered against Hopes lips.

“Bye,” Hope whispered back, smiling lightly as she rested her forehead against Josie’s.

Hope watched as the car drove away and watched until Josie was out of sight. Hope turned around staring out at the park, sighing as she kicked a rock. There were a few people out but not many since it was still early on a weekend. Hope had no idea what to do with herself for the day, she could paint, she could sketch, she could try researching more about the merge.

“So,” Hope heard a voice from behind her, snapping her out of her thoughts. When she turned, she saw Josie’s sister. “What are your intentions with my sister?”

“I’m sorry?” Hope asked.

“Don’t play dumb,” Lizzie crossed her arms. “Josie really likes you. Our father however hates you.” Hope rolled her eyes at that last part which Lizzie ignored. “So, I’ll ask again, what are your intentions with my sister?” Hope shrugged not sure how to answer. “She’s a good person, a lot better than me, she’s been burned before, and I don’t want to see her burned again. So, are you good enough for my sister?”

“No,” Hope was almost surprised how quickly she answered. Lizzie took a step back at the confession. “You’re right, your sister is good, she’s one of the best people I know.” Hope looked down at her feet. “And I’m not a good person. Your dad has every right to hate me. Hell, I agree with all his reasons basically. I’m just a killer.”

Lizzie swallowed before speaking again. “Well, Landon, Raf, and Josie would disagree with that, they seem to see something good in you.”

Hope shook her head. “Landon sees the best in everyone, we grew up together, to him I can do no wrong, to him I’m a superhero. Raf isn’t blind to what I am, but he has that wolf loyalty and feels like he owes me for helping him with all his shifts. And Josie,” Hope smiled when she said her name, it made Lizzie smile as well. “Josie has a good heart, I’ve saved her life, that’s why she thinks I’m worth saving.”

“My sister has a habit of falling for the . . .” she trailed off, thinking of the best word.

“The broken ones?”

Lizzie didn’t agree but she didn’t deny it. “My sister feels the need to help everyone, she gives herself to helping people, her co-dependency makes her put everyone before herself.” Lizzie looked down, “She does it for me all the time. I’m learning to get better at it and not take advantage of her as much.”

“I like her, I really do, I just don’t want to drag her down with me.” Hope turned away from Lizzie, suddenly finding the tree across from them very interesting.

“Look-”

Hope turned back to Lizzie, wondering why she didn’t continue. She rushed over when she saw Lizzie lying unconscious on the ground.

“Lizzie!” Hope shouted.

Hope moved to check on Lizzie when she started to stumble, her vision going blurry. She brought her hands to her head as she got a sudden headache. Her face twisted in agony as she let out a pained scream, feeling as if her brain was about to burst.

Hope collapsed to her knees. She fell the rest of the way, her body lying right beside Lizzie’s. Through her blurry vision she saw dark boots walking towards them before everything went black.

Chapter Text

It was late in the afternoon and Josie had just finished up the last bit of her paper. It had been for her herbology class, they had been learning about different types of herbs that had magical properties that witches could use. Their project was to choose a subject and then talk about the herbs that can be used, how they can be used, and what they did. Josie decided to focus on the healing herbs, it just made her paper extra-long since there were so many different types of herbs to help with healing.

Josie was finally done though, closing her laptop then instantly pulling out her phone to call Hope. It rang a few times before going to voicemail. Josie didn’t bother leaving one, deciding to just hangup instead. She took the phone away from her ear and looked at it confused. Hope had never not answered when she called. Josie knew it was probably nothing, Hope did have a life, but it was weird.

Josie sighed deciding to find someone else to talk to until Hope called her back. As she walked the halls on her way to the den she thought back to her morning with Hope. Josie had so much fun learning with the foam sword, she couldn’t wait until she became good enough for her and Hope to fully spar. She couldn’t wait to be able to use the wood swords and then eventually real ones.

Josie learned all about the variety of weapons Hope was experienced in. Josie had been nervous to ask her but Hope answered no problem, quickly listing off all the weapons. Josie was in awe of it all. Hope didn’t go into detail about how exactly she learned each weapon though, why she had to learn such a variety. Josie didn’t push with that question though. Hope told her she could ask her anything but if Hope wasn’t providing the extra information, then Josie could only assume it was bad.

Then Josie remembered her conversation with Hope before their sword training, at the gym, when she asked Hope if she was going easy on her then she almost called Hope her girlfriend. She managed to catch herself, but it was still awkward. They hadn’t had the conversation yet and just because she wanted to become girlfriends didn’t mean Hope wanted to. Hope liked her, she knew that, but Hope had never had an actual girlfriend before, hell based on what Maya said she never even really had a crush. Josie didn’t want to rush it; she was afraid if she brought it up, she would scare Hope off. This was all particularly new for Hope, so Josie wanted to go at Hopes pace.

Josie made it to the den and saw the boys sitting around one of the tables. MG and Landon were playing some sort of game with cards while Rafael was writing in a journal.

“Hey,” Josie greeted.

“Hey, Jo,” Landon greeted, managing to pull his eyes away from the cards in his hands for two seconds to look at her.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m, wining!” MG shouted, jumping up from the chair, bumping the table in the process, causing the cards to spill onto the floor.

“Damn it!” Landon shouted, slamming down the cards in his hands.

“Right…” Josie said, drifting her eyes to Rafael who still didn’t seem to acknowledge she had entered the room.

“Don’t mind him. He’s journaling.”

“He journals?”

Landon gave a little shrug. “When we were on the run Hope suggested it once. She painted to deal with her feelings, I work on my music, so she suggested maybe writing for him. He does it every day now.”

“Hope didn’t answer when I called,” Josie pouted. “Have you heard from her?”

“Nope.” Landon started gathering up the cards, reorganizing them so they could fit back in the box. “Haven’t talked to her all day. You saw her this morning, no?”

“Yeah,” Josie sighed, slumping down in the seat next to him on the couch. “I told her I would call after I finished my paper.”

“Maybe she’s painting?” Landon leaned back against the couch once the game was all packed up. “She really loses herself in it.” He smiled to himself, “She once painted for hours, didn’t realize the sun had set until I came by and literally waved a hand in front of her face.”

Josie laughed at that. That was definitely a possibility. She had seen Hopes paintings, she knew how talented she was. Considering how many paintings Hope seemed to do, she had to of spent hours upon hours working on them.

“Have any of you seen Lizzie?” Josie asked. “She wasn’t around when I got back, and I haven’t seen her since I left this morning.”

MG’s eyes dropped to his lap, his fingers quickly tapping on his leg.

“MG,” Josie said, leaning forward, narrowing her gaze at her best friend. “Where is my sister?”

“Who?” MG said. He closed his eyes, sighing, seeming to realize how dumb he went when he decided to play dumb.

“MG.”

“She’s not doing anything bad,” he quickly started to defend her. “Just remember, she loves you,” he pointed his finger at her. “She just wants to make sure you’re okay.”

“Oh god,” Josie whispered, her eyes going wide. “What did she do?”

“She waited until you left Hope this morning then went to talk to her,” he said quickly. As soon as the words left his mouth he shrunk into this seat, closing his eyes, preparing himself for a potential explosion.

Josie blinked a few times not saying a word.

Rafael continued his journaling as if nothing were happening.

Landon watched Josie out of the side of his eye. He casually leaned away from her, pushing himself into the arm of the couch.

“She what!” Josie screeched.

“Come on, Jo,” MG said, sitting back up, hesitantly looking at her. “Lizzie just wanted to talk to her plus Hope can handle herself.”

Josie shot her best friend a furious glare. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a vampire and setting him on fire would lead to his death Josie would surely do it. Josie let her mind wander for a second to think that maybe she could invent a spell where the enemy feels like they’re being burned alive but doesn’t actually get set on fire, with a spell like that then she wouldn’t have to worry about killing her friend.

“She just wants to know her intentioned with you,” MG continued, being absolutely clueless to Josie’s plans for his suffering. “She wants to make sure she’s good enough for her sister.”

Josie’s eyes widened in horror at realization. Lizzie was the one that kept asking if Hope was her girlfriend yet. Lizzie was the one that kept insisting she needed to define the relationship. And now her sister was out there talking to Hope to figure out what Hope’s intentions were. This was worse than any monster Josie could potentially face.

“Oh god,” Josie whispered.

“And done,” came Rafael’s voice.

Josie looked up at him, seeing him smile as he closed his journal, sitting it on the table.

“What did I miss?” he asked, seeing Josie’s concerned face. He looked around seeing MG’s guilty face.

“If it helps,” Landon said, leaning forward, nudging Josie with his knee so she would look at him. “There’s nothing Lizzie could say that would scare Hope off.”

“Not even if she demands to talk about Hopes feelings and what she wants out of this relationship?”

Landon opened his mouth to answer but then nothing came out. He held his mouth open for a few seconds as he seemed to really think about Josie’s question. Then Landon slowly closed his mouth, leaning back against the couch.

“Oh god!” Josie shouted, jumping from her seat. “I just-I can’t-I need to-” Josie never finished a thought as she threw up her hands and ran out of the den and back up to her room.

There was nothing she could do to stop Lizzie. Lizzie was going to talk to Hope and Josie was going to have to deal with whatever that outcome was. She knew her sister wouldn’t intentionally ruin her relationship. She knew Lizzie was doing this because she loved her. She was more afraid that if the topic got to deep Hope would get scared of her own feelings or potential feelings and run off. Josie would wait until her sister got back and interrogate her over her interrogation of Hope.

Josie picked up the book she was reading, it was some young adult fairytale retelling of Red Riding Hood. She couldn’t help but think of Hope whenever she read something relating to Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf. Hope thought of herself as some terrible monster and Josie had to admit Hope’s wolf form could be terrifying, to enemies. Josie wasn’t an enemy though; she didn’t see Hope as the big bad wolf. Hope was soft, gentle, and protective.

Josie didn’t realize she had fallen asleep until her alarm started blaring, causing her to jump awake, getting tangled up in her sheets in the process. She managed to throw her book off the bed, that’s when she realized she hadn’t intended to fall asleep, it just happened while reading. Josie originally had meant to stay awake so she could talk to Lizzie.

When Josie looked over to her sisters bed she saw it was neatly made. Josie scrunched her eyebrows at that, Lizzie wasn’t one to wake up early and make her bed. Josie slipped out of bed though, quickly getting changed. She saw no signs that Lizzie had gotten ready. Josie quickly rushed out of the room to head down for breakfast, hoping Lizzie was there.

When she entered the cafeteria she saw the boys at their usual table, picking at their breakfast. There was no Lizzie though. Josie walked over to the table, looking around the room. She saw the wolves seated together, the vampires, the other groups of friends that always sat together, Jed sitting alone. Still no Lizzie.

“Do you guys know where Lizzie is?” Josie asked.

“No,” MG said, shaking his head. “Figured she was with you.”

“You didn’t see her come back last night?”

MG furrowed his brow, a second later his eyes going wide as he looked up at Josie.

Josie quickly pulled out her phone, fingers moving automatically to call Lizzie. It rang again and again. Josie tapped her foot with each ring. Something was wrong, she could feel it in her stomach. She should’ve waited up for her, she should’ve tried calling, she should’ve rushed back into town as soon as she learned Lizzie went to talk to Hope.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Landon said. “It probably got late and she just crashed at Hopes.”

Josie looked at him, her eyebrows raised. She couldn’t believe he even suggested the idea. He didn’t sound all to convinced himself though. Josie pressed Lizzie’s name again, calling her for the third time.

She saw Landon pull out his phone, the screen lit up with someone calling him. “See?” he said, gesturing to the phone. “That’s probably Hope.” When he got the phone out of his pocket, he looked at the screen before answering. “Uh oh,” he whispered. He quickly answered. “Maya, what’s wrong?”

Josie hung up her own phone, she flung herself into the seat beside Landon. She swiped the phone out of his hand, setting it in the middle of the table and putting it on speaker. She ignored Landon’s whine of protest.

“Hey,” Maya’s voice came. “Did you guys get an alert about a monster, is Hope with you, or something?”

Landon furrowed his brow. “No, haven’t heard from Hope all weekend.”

“What about Josie?”

“We had our weekly meetup,” Josie answered. “I left before noon on Sunday though.”

There was silence on the other end. For a moment Josie wondered if the call got disconnected. There was the slightest bit of breathing though that told Josie Maya was still on the other end.

“What?” Landon asked.

“I tried calling Hope last night, she didn’t answer,” Maya finally said. “Which isn’t the biggest shocker but when I woke up, I saw she never messaged me back or anything. I decided to swing by her place before school to make sure if everything was okay.”

“And?”

“And I can’t tell!” Maya sounded frustrated. Josie could imagine the girl running an angry hand through her hair.

“Does the bed look slept in?”

There was silence again. “Landon,” Maya said calmly. “This is Hope.” There was another short pause. “The bed never looks slept in!” Maya shouted, causing Landon to lean back on the bench.

If the phone hadn’t been on speaker and had still been at Landon’s ear Josie was sure he’d be having hearing issues after that.

“Can you tell if she’s been there at all?” Josie asked.

Maya sighed. “No, everything looks the same. Nothing is out of place.”

“What about work?”

“The gym was still all locked up, lights off and everything when I got here.”

“Okay, that’s weird.”

“I know she doesn’t work at The Grill until later this afternoon, so I know she’s not there.”

“Okay, something is seriously wrong.” Josie got up from the lunch table. “I can’t find my sister as well; last I know is she was going to meet Hope.”

“Shit,” Maya breathed out.

“I’m going to call Hayley, we’ll meet you at Hopes place, stay there, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course, I’ll poke around, see if there’s anything.”

After Josie hung up with Maya, she pulled out her phone to call Hayley.

“Hello?” Hayley answered after only a few rings.

“Hope and Lizzie are missing,” Josie said.

Josie had to admit that probably wasn’t the best thing to say right away but she was panicking and she needed to know where her sister and Hope were.

“What!” Hayley screamed into the phone.

“Lizzie never came home last night, she was with Hope,” Josie explained quickly, pacing back and forth in the cafeteria. “Now neither of them are answering.”

Josie heard shuffling and what sounded like keys rattling. “I’m on my way.”

“Meet us at Hopes place,” was the last thing Josie said before hanging up.

“What’s the plan?” MG asked.

“Go tell my dad.” MG sped off as soon as the words left her mouth. “And you drive me to town.” Josie pointed towards Landon. She turned and started walking towards the door.

“I don’t have a license,” Landon said. Josie turned back around shooting him a glare. “But that doesn’t matter.” He quickly got up, running behind Josie.

Josie hopped in the passenger seat of her dad’s truck while Landon hopped in the driver’s seat. He looked around confused for a moment. Josie rolled her eyes, reaching over and flipping down the sun visor, the backup keys falling into Landon’s lap. Landon grabbed the keys and quickly started the car, not wasting time as he sped away.

Josie was glad that though Landon seemed nervous about driving without a license he seemed to be a decent driver. He stayed in the correct lane and didn’t hit anything. He was going fifty in a thirty-five though, Josie didn’t care though. If Josie had been the one behind the wheel she was sure they’d be pushing seventy by the time they hit the actual road.

They quickly got to Hope’s apartment. Josie didn’t wait for Landon to fully stop as he pulled into a parking spot before she was opening the door and jumping out. She was already halfway up the steps to Hopes apartment when she heard the slamming of Landon’s door.

She made her way into the building, seeing Hopes apartment door already open. When she got to the apartment she saw Maya and Hayley standing in the middle of the room.

“Anything?” Josie asked.

Hayley looked around the room. Josie could see the concentration on her face as she took in every inch of the apartment, searching for the smallest detail out of place.

“No,” Hayley sighed, turning her attention to Josie. “The only scent in here is Hope’s and your guys,” she looked towards the whole group.

“Lizzie?” Josie asked.

Hayley shook her head. “She hasn’t been in here recently. Wherever she met Hope, it wasn’t here.”

“When I left Hope, we had been waiting in the park across the street for my ride to arrive.”

“Let’s check it out.”

Josie was the first out the door, not waiting for the others. Hayley was right behind her though. Landon and Maya were a few paces back, jogging to catch up.

“We were standing right here,” Josie said, jogging to the edge of the park where she had gotten into the car. She spun around looking for any signs of a struggle.

Hayley knelt down, sniffing the air. She rested a hand on grass, bringing it closer to her nose.

“What is it?” Josie asked.

“Lizzie was here,” Hayley answered. “So was Hope.”

“So, whatever happened, happened right after you left,” Landon said, nodding towards Josie.

“Which means they’ve already been missing a day.” Josie’s heart dropped at the realization. “And we didn’t even know it.”

“Hey, we’ll find them.” Landon moved, resting his hands on Josie’s arms, trying to give her a comforting rub. “Hope is strong, and Lizzie is with her. There is no one I would rather go missing with, she’s in good hands, Hope won’t let anything happen to her.”

Josie deflated; she gave Landon a sad smile. She knew he was trying to be comforting and it was working, though only a little.

“What about Hope though?” Josie asked, her eyes filling with tears. “Will she be, okay?”

Landon’s eyes softened; he didn’t bother trying to say anything more. He couldn’t lie to Josie. What he said was true, she was sure of it, Hope wouldn’t let anything happen to Lizzie. Hope wasn’t as good at protecting herself though. Landon pulled Josie into a hug; she quickly buried her face in his hoodie.

“There was someone else here,” Hayley said.

“What?” Josie asked, pulling away from Landon. She wiped her eyes as she went to stand closer to Hayley.

“There’s another scent. Someone else was here.” Hayley tilted her head, her brow furrowed. She took a big whiff, closing her eyes as she tried focusing on the other scent. “I can’t tell who it is.” She shook her head. “I can tell someone was here but there scent is faded, like they were trying to cover it up, I can’t even get enough to track it.”

“What could do that?” Maya asked.

“A witch,” Josie said in realization.

Josie grabbed Landon’s arm, not bothering to ask before she started to siphon a little. Josie said a spell, gesturing with her hands across the space Hope and Lizzie had last been.

“There’s traces of magic,” Josie said.

Josie said another spell. Everyone stepped back as gold magical outlines of Lizzie and Hope formed. Josie watched as Lizzie and Hope talk. Then Lizzie fell to the ground. Hope turned but as soon as she went to Lizzie she stumbled, falling to her knees first, then the rest of the way. A moment later a purple outline of the other person appeared. Then all the magic disappeared as soon as they were standing in front of Hope and Lizzie.

“Someone took them,” Josie said. “The spell doesn’t allow us to see details, just outlines of the magic but it had to be a witch.” She looked towards Hayley.

“That was awesome,” Maya mumbled.

“What witch would take both of them?” Landon asked. “Why would they even take Lizzie?”

Josie turned to Landon, furrowing her brow.

“No offense,” he said, quickly holding up his hands. “I just mean if this was a Malivore monster why take both of them. I get Hope. I get me. I don’t get Lizzie.”

“Maybe whoever it was, was after Hope and Lizzie was just in the way,” Maya suggested.

“Then why not kill her?” Hayley questioned. “If they only wanted Hope there is no reason to leave Lizzie alive.”

Josie let out a small gasp. Her sister wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be. If Lizzie were dead Josie certainly would have felt that.

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Hayley was quick to reassure her. “They took both of them. That’s a good sign.”

Josie nodded.

“So, how do we find this monster?” Maya asked. “Our resident monster detector is kind of the one who’s MIA.”

Josie’s head shot up; her eyes wide as she looked at Maya. “It wasn’t a monster.”

“Yeah, I know you said it was a witch-”

“No,” Josie cut her off. “It’s not Malivore. I was with Hope, her wristband never lit up. The only time that’s happened is when the monster wasn’t on this plane, or didn’t always have a physical form. If this was a Malivore monster Hope would have been alerted while I was with her.”

“Then who would send a witch to kidnap Hope?”

Landon sucked in a breath causing the others to look at him. His eyes were wide as he stared into Josie’s. “Triad,” is all he said.

Chapter Text

Lizzie rolled her head trying to get rid of the pain in her neck, it felt like she had fallen asleep sitting up again. The second she moved her head though she felt the sharp pounding, she groaned as she tried to bring a hand up to rub her head. Her arms didn’t move though, she jerked again, feeling something holding her down. Lizzie slowly opened her eyes, trying to blink away the sleep and pain. Everything was blurry, the room was dark and cold, she felt a small breeze causing her to shiver. She tried to move her arms, when once again she was met with resistance.

Lizzie’s eyes snapped open fully. The last thing she remembered was talking to Hope. She had gone to town not long after Josie. She knew Josie was going to head back to school after she finished whatever her and Hope did every week. She just wanted to talk to Hope one on one, without anyone there to interfere or interrupt them. Her father didn’t trust Hope and though she hadn’t done anything wrong since they met Lizzie knew the girl had a darkness in her. She knew Josie liked her, but Lizzie needed to be sure her sister would be safe with Hope. After Penelope Lizzie was going to make sure Josie never got her heart broken again. She didn’t care how many times Hope saved them from monsters, Hope had secrets, Hope was dangerous. Lizzie needed to know whether Hope would be a danger to her sister though.

She and Hope had been talking, Hope had been going on about her own self-hatred and that Josie could certainly do better. Lizzie was inclined to agree, Josie could definitely do better. Josie was the best person she knew; she always sacrificed her own happiness for others. Lizzie knew Josie especially did that for her, which Lizzie was trying to be better about. Which is why she was talking to Hope. Lizzie wouldn’t let Josie sacrifice anything for Hope, Lizzie refused to let Josie settle for less than she deserved. But in the middle of their talk everything had gone black, and Lizzie couldn’t remember anything.

She looked around frantically. She didn’t recognize anything. She was in some sort of dark room, the few windows that there were, were so caked with dirt, she couldn’t begin to actually see anything out of them. The floor was concrete, and she realized she seemed to be strapped to a chair. She looked down, trying to turn her head as far as she could. She even rocked back and forth; the chair seemed to be metal. She wasn’t confident in her ability to get out of a wood chair but if it had been wood then she could have at least had some glimmer of hope of doing some cool move like in one of those movies, flinging herself back and breaking the chair.

Lizzie tried moving her arms again, but it was no use. She flexed her hands, wiggling her fingers. She could still move them which was a good sign. She felt around, wiggling her wrists as much as she could. It felt like it was only rope tying her hands together based on the way her wrists rubbed against it when she moved them, causing a slight burning sensation.

There was a low groan from in front of her, causing Lizzie to snap her head back in that direction. She wasn’t sure how she missed it before but right in front of her was Hope. Unlike Lizzie though Hope wasn’t bound to a chair. Hope had giant metal shackles connecting her wrists together, that hung from the ceiling by a large chain.

Lizzie had seen shackles like that before. She’d never seen them in person, only in their textbooks. They were similar to the type of chains some werewolves would use to lock themselves up. She remembered her mom talking about Tyler Lockwood and his transitions. She would be there for him as he turned, and she would help lock him up so he couldn’t break free.

Lizzie wasn’t sure who grabbed them or how many there were. They knocked her out and if they took down Hope, they had to have magic. If they already had Hope chained up like that then they most likely knew she was a werewolf as well. Or they just wanted her to be uncomfortable and in a better position to hurt her. Lizzie wouldn’t dismiss that last option, Hope seemed like the type of person who had pissed off plenty of people.

“Hope,” Lizzie whispered. There was no movement. “Hope,” she said again a little louder. Still no movement. “Hope!” Lizzie snapped harshly.

Hope lifted her head sluggishly, looking around with another small groan. Her gaze finally settled on Lizzie.

“Lizzie?” Hope questioned, her voice gravelly. “What the hell?”

“I don’t know,” Lizzie said, shaking her head. She looked around the room again. To the right of her, under the windows was a table she hadn’t seen before. The table was mostly hidden in shadows, but her eyes had officially adjusted enough she could make out some jars and bowls, all filled with items used for when doing a spell.

“I don’t remember going down,” Lizzie said. “I was talking to you and next thing, I’m here. Do you remember what happened?”

Hope squinted, looking off to the side. “I-you-you were talking,” Hope said, her face contorting as she tried to remember. “You stopped talking. I turned and then…” Hope looked down at the floor, her eyes darting everywhere and nowhere. “My head-my head started hurting. It felt like my brain was going to explode.”

“I think a witch grabbed us. That’s how my mom described what it felt like when a witch makes the blood vessels in someone’s head pop.”

“Before I blacked out, I remember someone walking towards us.”

“Did you see who?”

Hope shook her head. “Just their boots.”

Hope looked around the room again, she blinked a few times probably trying to get her eyes to adjust more. She finally leaned her head back, getting a good look at the chains holding her up. She opened her hands, twisting to get a grip on the chain. She pulled on the chain, lifting herself a few inches higher before letting go, dropping back to her original position with a groan of pain. She gripped the chain again, trying again, ending with the same result. She did it a few more times, each time ending the exact same until finally she stopped.

Hope was letting out ragged breaths. Lizzie could see the quick rise and fall of Hopes chest. From the little light that was in the room she could make out sweat dripping down the side of Hopes face.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Lizzie asked harshly. “Just rip the chains from the damn ceiling.”

Hope tried again. Dropping back down again. This time she let out a cough. The coughing became violent as Hope couldn’t catch her breath as well as she should have been able to. Her body shook with each cough, the chains rattling at each movement.

“I…can’t…” Hope said between breaths.

“I’ve watched you kick Rafael’s ass on a weekly basis, make it so Jed wouldn’t even try and go against you, and take MG down with only one hit,” Lizzie said, leaning forward in her chair. She was quickly reminded her hands were still bound behind her, as she leaned back again. “What do you mean you can’t? This should be nothing to you.”

“Something is wrong.”

“No shit.”

“No, something is wrong with me.” Lizzie gave Hope a deadpanned look. Hope let out a low growl. “You know what I mean.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?”

“It doesn’t feel right.” Hope looked towards her bound hands again. “I can barely pull myself up, I don’t have my strength.”

“Great,” Lizzie sighed. “A typical useless werewolf. What about your magic.”

“No use.”

“You didn’t even try.”

Hope brought her eyes back to Lizzie’s. She glanced down to the ground, telling Lizzie to follow her gaze.

Lizzie had missed it before, but right underneath Hope was a circle drawn in chalk. She recognized the pentagram and the symbols surrounding it. It was meant to contain powerful creatures. They did something to keep Hope from being able to use her strength and they put her in boundary spell, keeping her from accessing her magic.

“Shit,” Lizzie whispered. “Just my luck, I get kidnapped with the most powerful person I know, and they’re rendered completely useless.”

Hope shot Lizzie a glare which Lizzie ignored. “What about you?” Hope asked through gritted teeth.

“I’m a siphon witch,” Lizzie said like it was obvious, “remember?”

“And?” Hope questioned, obviously getting annoyed with Lizzie’s questioning.

“I didn’t charge up before coming to meet you.”  Hope rolled her eyes. “Look,” Lizzie snapped. “I didn’t think I needed to be all hopped up on magic just to go into town. I was meant to threaten you not to hurt my sister then be back at school.”

“Josie, she has to know one of us is missing already.”

“My sister is nothing if not determined. She’ll find us.”

“Oh, sweety,” a feminine voice came, there was a creak, what sounded like a metal door opened, the doorway created a silhouette of light around the new arrival. “No one is going to find you.” The door slammed closed, shrouding them back into the darkness.

Out of the shadows behind Hope stepped the woman. As she got closer, stepping further into the little bit of light they had in the room, Lizzie saw her. The woman was decked out in all black, even her makeup was dark, she had long blonde hair done in a stylistic messy look as it draped around her face.

“Who are you?” Lizzie’s voice wavered. She tried to be brave, despite the lady looking like a normal witch, Lizzie could feel her energy. Everything about the girl was clouded in darkness.

“An old friend,” she answered, reaching up to run a hand down Hopes arm as she stepped around into Hopes view.

Hope glared at the woman, letting out a snarl. Hope clearly recognized who the witch was. Under any other circumstance knowing who kidnapped them would be a good thing, seeing that Hope knew who she was though, caused Lizzie to fill with dread.

“Well, well, well,” the witch said. “Look at Triads favorite possession all strung up.” Hope lunged at her despite being restrained. “You’ve gone soft. I figured you’d be a challenge, but I walked right up to you before you even knew what was happening.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Hope gritted out.

“Tsk, tsk, is that anyway to talk to an old friend?”

“What are you doing here?” Hope was breathing heavy. Her eyes weren’t glowing, but Lizzie could hear the growl in her voice.

“Agent Carter came back with a fascinating tale, talking about how monsters started showing up in Mystic Falls and The Salvatore school was fighting them off, so we had nothing to worry about.” The witched walked over to the table, picking up objects here and there before settling on a knife. “Now,” she spun back around, twirling the knife in her hands. “Something seemed off with his story, so they got him to talk to their special asset.” She shot Hope a knowing smirk. “And well, he let everything out. Not that he had a choice.”

She paced back and forth between Lizzie and Hope, twirling the knife in her hands. She never looked at Lizzie though, only Hope. Lizzie knew she wasn’t the priority, the only one that mattered to her was Hope, to her Lizzie was nothing. Lizzie wasn’t sure why the witch even kept her alive. Based on how she was restrained verse Hope, it seemed like the witch didn’t even consider Lizzie a threat. Without her magic Lizzie was inclined to agree with the witch’s assessment.

“They couldn’t send a team again,” the witch continued. “Considering how easily you laid waste to the last one. You also clearly have friends here,” she flicked an uninterested gaze towards Lizzie before focusing back on Hope. “So, they decided to send someone to even the playing field. Someone who could stand against you.”

“Well, then why would they send you?” Hope asked, sounding genuine, ending it with a smirk.

The light smile that had been ghosting the witches’ lips quickly fell. Her eyes taking on a fire as she stomped the few steps closer to Hope, so they were inches apart. They glared at each other. Lizzie thought they were having a stare off until she heard Hope hiss sharply.

“Don’t die yet,” the witch said, her voice becoming sweet. “My fun is just getting started.” She turned skipping back out the door.

Lizzie looked from the door the witch had just walked out of back towards Hope. She saw Hope struggling to breath, gasping on shallow breaths as her eyes were cast down. Lizzie followed her line of sight, seeing the stab wound in Hopes side, blood slowly dripping towards the floor.

“Oh god,” Lizzie whispered.

“I’m fine,” Hope groaned, taking shallow breaths.

“Fine is not a word I would use to describe our predicament.”

Hope inhaled, quickly hissing then jerking in pain. “Wolfsbane,” she let out in a breath.

“What?” Lizzie knit her brow.

“The blade.” Hope looked up towards the ceiling, her eyes wide as she tried to slow down her breathing. “It was coated in wolfsbane.”

“So, what, she plans on killing you slowly?”

“No, she just plans on torturing me.” Hope closed her eyes, inhaling deep breaths then letting them out slowly. “Triad wouldn’t allow her to kill me.”

“That’s comforting,” Lizzie deadpanned.

“I think she injected me with wolfsbane before this.” Hope groaned as she shifted. She was hanging so there wasn’t much movement she could do to get comfortable. “I’m healing, I can feel it but it’s slow. There’s definitely wolfsbane in my system.”

“Well, what do we do? Who is this bitch? Are we just supposed to wait, hoping Jo, Hayley, or my dad finds us?”

“She’s a witch from Triad.”

“I’ve gathered that much, specifically when she said she was a witch that Triad sent.”

Hope shot her a glare. Despite the dark circles around her eyes and the beads of sweat on her forehead her gaze still managed to be threatening.

“Triad had many witches,” Hope continued. “I trained with a few. I competed with others.”

“I’m going to assume she wasn’t a teacher.”

“No, she was competition a few times. If you want to call her that. She never won.”

“Because you’re just oh so talented,” Lizzie snarked.

“Her ego has a habit of getting in her way.” Hope rolled her eyes. “She failed because she’s not as smart or as good as she thinks she is.”

There was a loud creak from the door. A sliver of white light lit up the room before it was quickly dispersed. “Smart enough to get one up on you abomination,” the witch said as she stomped back towards them.

Lizzie could see the way Hopes jaw twitched at the word abomination, but she didn’t say anything. She kept her composure. Lizzie wasn’t sure how Hope could be so calm, how she didn’t react when someone said something like that. Lizzie hated the students who talked about her, when she would have an episode and the other witches would snicker and laugh behind her back. Lizzie hated it all. Talking to Miss. Tig helped, it also helped that Josie threatened anyone who dared say something bad about her. Still, she couldn’t fathom growing up and hearing how you were a mistake and abomination be normal.

The witch stepped in front of Hope again, lifting up her shirt slightly to get a look at the stab wound. Lizzie leaned to the side in her chair to get a look. Hope told her she was healing but considering she was in a circle that nullified her magic and she said the blade was dipped in wolfsbane then Lizzie was doubtful how truly okay Hope was.

They didn’t keep wolfsbane out and about at the school. Her dad has a small stash for emergencies, but he kept it locked up. Just like he kept vervain and other magical objects used to contain supernatural’s. It was rare action was ever required, but occasionally if a student lost control or a threat came knocking, her father wanted to be prepared.

Even though they weren’t werewolves every student was required to take basics in magic, werewolves, and vampires. Lizzie learned what vervain did to vampires just like she learned what wolfsbane did to werewolves. Lizzie couldn’t imagine the pain wolfsbane inflicted. When she was younger, she saw one of the wolves inhale wolfsbane, he had gotten his hands on it somehow and he collapsed onto the floor gasping for air. He had to be taken to the infirmary and they kept him for a whole day. He wasn’t back to his full strength until the wolfsbane had fully left his system.

The stab wound on Hopes side looked like a stab wound still but Lizzie could tell it truly was healing, just slowly. If Hope had been at her normal strength Lizzie was sure the wound would have healed seconds after the knife was pulled out. The wound was already getting smaller, and it had stopped actively bleeding. Lizzie’s shoulders relaxed at the sight.

The witched clicked her tongue a few times before letting out a disappointed sigh. She dropped Hopes shirt back down, frowning up at the girl.

“You’re still healing,” the witch said. “What a shame.” The witch turned, walking over to her table. Lizzie tried to lean enough to see what the witch was doing but could only see her hand movements. She was tearing something up and tossing it into two buckets. “That just means I get to have more of my fun,” she turned back towards them with a sinister smirk.

She took her buckets walking behind Hope and back into the shadows. Lizzie squinted but she could only make out a few movements when she focused hard enough. She couldn’t see what exactly the witch was doing. After a few seconds she heard water running.

The running water stopped. There was scraping of metal against concrete as the witch seemed to be picking her buckets back up. Based on the way the water was sloshing around Lizzie assumed both buckets were filled to the brim. The witch stopped behind Hope. She sat down one of her buckets before using both hands to get a better grip on the other.

Lizzie held her breath. She had no idea what the witch was about to do but considering the first thing she did after kidnapping them was stab Hope, she assumed it wasn’t good. The evil witch lady clearly had a grudge against Hope. Lizzie still wasn’t sure why the witch took her as well. Hope hadn’t reacted to anything since the witch entered the room. Lizzie wasn’t sure if she should be concerned or feel at ease by Hopes lack of reaction. The only reaction Hope gave that she felt the witch’s presence behind her was her turning her head just slightly, as if she were trying to subtly glance back at the witch or listen to what the witch was doing.

The witch tilted the bucket just enough, so no water spilled out, she brought her arms back before surging them forward. She held onto the bucket as it emptied its contents on Hope. The second the water came into contact with Hopes skin she jerked forward, howling in pain.

Lizzie’s eyes went wide as they darted around Hope searching for what caused the reaction. She didn’t know what the witch put in the bucket before she added the water. She could only watch as Hope convulsed, her chains rattling violently with each shake.

The witch didn’t say anything as she came back around to Hopes front. She once again didn’t bother looking at Lizzie. She watched Hope with a bored expression. She waited until Hope was no longer shaking. Hopes eyes were ablaze as she stared down at the witch. Lizzie could see the slight shuttering of Hopes body, the light shaking of the chains. Hope was seething though. Lizzie wasn’t sure if the deep breaths Hope was taking were due to the pain or her anger.

The witch didn’t wait a second longer as she lifted her second bucket and released it onto Hopes front. Dousing her entirely in water. Hope groaned in pain, jerking back violently, trying to escape the water. Her hands opened as they instinctively tried to move in their chains but couldn’t.

Lizzie got a perfect view of Hope this time. As soon as the water hit Hope, she saw her skin turn red as whatever was in the bucket began to burn her. The witch stepped back, tilting her head as she smirked at the sight.

“God,” the witch whispered. “What a sight.” She glanced towards Lizzie, looking her up and down. “Now, what shall I do with you?” she leaned down, becoming eye level with Lizzie. Lizzie pressed herself as far back into the chair as she could get. The witch had one hand resting on the back of the chair while the other gently came up, brushing hair out of Lizzie’s eyes then caressing her cheek.

Lizzie’s eyes were wide. Her mouth hung partially open, her lip quivering. She didn’t have any smartass comment. She couldn’t even bring herself to beg for her life. She was going to die. She was going to die some terrible death. She wasn’t strong like Hope, there was no way she could put up with countless amounts of torture. The second the crazy witch brought out whatever horrible torture device she was going to use on her Lizzie would just beg for death in that moment. She knew she couldn’t do it; she would rather just end it quickly, she didn’t want her death to be long and drawn out, filled with suffering.

“It won’t work,” Hopes gravelly voice came. The witch lost her smile, turning to glare back at Hope. Lizzie peaked around the witch’s head, seeing Hope slumped forward in her chains, barely able to keep her head up. Hopes skin still had a red tinge to it but had already seemed to heal the initial burning. “He won’t come.”

Lizzie tilted her head. “Yes, he will,” the witch said, leaning away from Lizzie to fully look at Hope. “You protected him his entire life. You’re his only family. He will search for you. And when he finds you. I’ll have my prize.”

Landon. She was after Landon. Lizzie should have put that together quicker considering the witch was from Triad. Triad wanted both Hope and Landon back. The only true logical reason for a Triad witch to kidnap Hope would be to lure Landon out. Lizzie was mentally facepalming herself for being so stupid not to see it before. The witch was right, Landon would surely be looking for Hope and nothing would stop him. She couldn’t figure out if the witch knew about Salvatore though, if she knew about their friends, if she knew that even if Landon himself did come to find them that he wouldn’t be alone. Lizzie was starting to agree with Hopes assessment, this witch wasn’t the brightest.

“No, he won’t. Seriously, only you could be this stupid,” Hope panted out. She was paler than usual, the dark circles around her eyes becoming darker. For someone who already didn’t sleep, Lizzie wasn’t sure how they could look more tired than ever before. “You’re gonna fail.”

The witch straightened her back, taking a threatening step towards Hope and further away from Lizzie. Lizzie couldn’t help but close her eyes and let out a silent sigh of relief, the witch’s attention was fully back on Hope, she had forgotten about Lizzie again. When she opened her eyes again, she couldn’t help but be worried about Hope. She didn’t want the witch’s attention, but she also didn’t want Hope to get hurt anymore or worse even killed. She saw the witch’s fingers twitch at her side, right where she had the knife she had stabbed Hope with strapped.

“You’re a failure Amber,” Hope continued. Lizzie’s ears perked up at hearing the witch’s name for the first time. “Just like you’ve always been.” Hope lifted her head, her dark gaze meeting Ambers. “And you know what happens to failures,” Hope managed to give a dark knowing smirk.

Lizzie didn’t know what Hope meant but Amber clearly did. Amber stomped towards Hope, taking her knife and shoving it into Hopes side, the same place she had the first time. Lizzie jumped back in her chair. Amber held the knife in longer than the first time, Hope somehow never broke the stare. Before she pulled it out, Amber gave the knife a vicious twist, pushing it up, then ripping it out, letting it clatter to the floor.

Hope gasped out a breath, coughing up blood in the process. Lizzie felt her eyes fill with unshed tears at the sight. “Careful,” Hope gasped out, coughing again. “We wouldn’t want me to die.” She coughed again, giving a blood smirk.

Amber stormed out of the room, making sure to knock into Hope on her way past. Hope’s mouth twitched when Amber bumped the new wound but didn’t drop her smirk. Lizzie watched; mouth hung open as Hope kept her smirk until she heard the door close. Once the door locked shut, Hope dropped her head, her shoulders finally sagging back down.

“Are you okay?” Hope rasped out.

Lizzie heard her but didn’t register the words. She continued to look at Hope, from her slumped form, to the new knife wound, to the bloody knife on the floor as drops of blood slowly pooled around it. When Lizzie brought her gaze back up to Hopes face she saw her looking at her with a concerned tired expression.

“Am I-am I okay?” Lizzie questioned, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I won’t let her touch you. No one else will pay for what I’ve done.”

“She’s torturing you,” Lizzie said again in a daze.

Hope seemed to shrug as best as she could with the way she was chained up.

“Why do this for me?” Lizzie asked, a tear escaping from her eye.

“Because you don’t deserve it,” Hope answered. She swallowed, her throat clearly dry from all the torture. “Can you untie yourself?”

Lizzie wiggled her wrists again, the rope digging into her skin, she felt a slight sting. “I don’t know. I think it’s just rope but she tied it really tight.”

Hope nodded tiredly. “Well, if you could work on that I’d greatly appreciate it,” she let out a laugh, but it quickly turned hollow.

“You don’t think they’re coming.”

“I’m sure they’re looking for us. We’ve been here a while, I think, maybe a day. Despite what I’ve said, Amber isn’t completely stupid. She certainly has us both hidden, if they could pick up our trail somehow it would be a while before they found us.”

“You really think I can get us out of here?”

“You’re our only option.”

Lizzie let out a humorless laugh. “Great. We’re surely dead then, sorry you got stuck with the useless twin.”

“Hey, don’t say that.” Lizzie wasn’t sure where Hope gathered the strength, but she seemed to sound more confident. “Don’t underestimate yourself. I’ve seen what Josie can do, you’re just as capable as she is. As I always tell her, you just need to believe in yourself.”

“You’ve been training her, she’s stronger because you’ve been helping her. If she was here, she could do something.” Lizzie looked down at her helpless self, tied to a chair, bound by a simple rope. “I don’t even have any magic, I’m completely useless like this.”

“Does it look like I have magic currently?” Hope snapped. Lizzie’s eyes shot back up to Hope, she hadn’t been expecting such an outburst. “I’m in an anti-magic circle. She has me pumped full of wolfsbane. Even if I could break these chains, I’m too weak to fight her off.” Hope’s gaze was hard as she stared down at Lizzie. “I’m sorry to ask it but I really need you right now. I need you to save us,” Hope voice was full of determination.

Lizzie continued to stare up at Hope. She never saw what the big deal was about the girl before. She hated to admit that she finally saw what Rafael and everyone else saw, why they were all so willing to follow her orders. Hope was a leader. She wasn’t a big talker, but she certainly knew how to give a good speech to someone when they needed it.

“How could you need someone like me?” Lizzie couldn’t help but question. She still couldn’t believe she was their best option for getting out of their current situation. “The bitch didn’t even bother with an anti-magic circle around me. All she had to do was use some stupid normal rope.”

“Don’t you get it?” Hope asked. “That’s the whole point. She underestimates you. Everyone underestimates you and your sister; you even underestimate yourselves. She didn’t put an anti-magic circle around you because she doesn’t think you’re a threat.”

“I’m not a threat,” Lizzie mumbled.

“Yes, you are,” Hope continued determined. “You can be if you want to be. Your secret weapon is the fact that everyone underestimates you, you can use that against them.”

“I don’t know.”

“Lizzie, you got this. I will make sure Amber focuses on me, not you. She won’t hurt you. I promise.” Hope stared at Lizzie until she nodded. “I won’t be able to fight but I’ll help in every way I can. I’ll walk you through it, just get yourself untied, okay?”

Lizzie nodded again hesitantly. “Okay,” she whispered. “Are you okay? I mean are you sure you can take much more of this?”

Hope gave her a sad smile. “I’ve dealt with this my entire life, there’s nothing she can do to me that hasn’t already been done.”

There was a loud creak, indicating the door was being unlocked again. “This is a terrible plan,” Lizzie whispered harshly.

“It’s all we got,” Hope whispered back, right before the door opened, allowing Amber to enter again.

“How’s it hangin Hopey?” Amber asked, twirling around in front of them with a soft smile.

“I’m going to kill you,” Hope threatened.

“That’s going to be kind of hard in your current situation.” Amber ran her hand down Hopes body, never actually touching her. She bit her lip as she looked up at her prized possession. Lizzie silently gagged. Amber went to lift Hopes shirt slightly again. “Hmm, not healing quite as fast as last time,” she nodded in approval. “Looks like we’re getting there.”

Amber reached into her pocket pulling out a little cloth pouch. She poured whatever was in the pouch into her hand, Lizzie couldn’t see what, Amber was standing directly in her line of sight. In one swift motion Amber took whatever was in her hand and shoved it into Hopes wound, making sure to dig her fingers deep into the cut.

Hope let out an agonizing scream. She tried swinging her body back to get away from Amber but there was nowhere for her to go. Lizzie jumped in her chair, flinching away from the scene. She turned her head to the side, forcing her eyes shut. She struggled against her bindings, just wanting to bring her hands to her ears.

“If you were just compliant this wouldn’t be happening,” Amber said, monotoned, she shook her head in disappointment. “Though I can’t lie, I’m happy you’re so resistant.” Amber removed her fingers from Hopes wound, dropping her shirt back down in the process. “It’s because of your stubbornness I get to have my fun.”

Amber skipped over to her table of ingredients once again. She grabbed a bowl, mashing up something again. She reached to the side grabbing a pitcher of water that had somehow been out of Lizzie’s sight. She poured a little bit of water into the bowl, using a wooden spoon she stirred, making sure to mix up whatever she added before.

She held the bowl with both hands as she sauntered over to Hope. She looked up towards the chains binding Hopes hands. Lizzie couldn’t make out the words, but Amber whispered something. Next thing she knew the chains holding Hope lowered, Hope was just under eye level of Amber, her feet barely touching the ground.

Lizzie’s body stiffened. Amber was planning something; she wouldn’t risk lowering Hope to the ground without a plan. Hope probably knew that but that didn’t stop her from taking the moment to relax her shoulders. She let out a satisfied sigh as she rolled her shoulders.

Amber reached up, gripping Hope by her hair, violently forcing her head back so Hope was looking up into her eyes. Lizzie could see the fiery glare Hope was giving the witch. The witch stared into her eyes for a moment before shoving the bowl into Hopes mouth, forcing her jaw open.

Hope started coughing and gagging as the water was poured down her throat. When the bowl was empty Amber released Hopes head with jerk, making her way back over to her table, filling her bowl backup with water.

Hope violently coughed again, spitting up as much water as she could. Around her mouth Lizzie could see little flakes that looked like some type of herb.

Hope wheezed a few times, trying to catch her breath. She was staring off into space, not looking at Lizzie or even bothering to glare at Amber. That’s when Lizzie realized what Amber was doing, she was mixing wolfsbane in the water.

Amber walked over to Hope again, shoving the bowl into her mouth again, repeating the process.

“Stop!” Lizzie shouted; she wasn’t sure where she found her voice. Lizzie’s eyes widened for a split second, she hadn’t spoken to Amber since she first entered the room.

Amber pulled the bowl away from Hopes mouth, being careful to not spill what remained of the water. She flicked an annoyed gaze towards Lizzie. Lizzie swallowed deeply as Amber’s attention was back on her.

“You’re-you’re going to kill her,” Lizzie tried to keep her voice steady, but it wavered.

“Aww,” Amber sighed, throwing on a fake pout. “Sweety, no need to be concerned for your little friend.”

“I mean friend is a strong word,” Lizzie couldn’t help but mumble.

“Oh?” Amber tilted her head, raising an eyebrow. “Why would you be together when I captured her unless you were friends?”

Lizzie swallowed again. She needed to be strong. She couldn’t give up her sister. She couldn’t give up anyone at Salvatore. She had no idea how much Amber knew, she assumed she knew nothing about Hope and Josie’s relationship though. If Amber truly knew how close Hope and Josie were, nothing would stop her from capturing Josie. Lizzie would never put her sister at risk.

“I was lightly threatening her,” Lizzie settled on saying, not a complete lie.

“So, if you were threatening her that means you aren’t friends.” Amber took a step towards Lizzie, swirling the water in the bowl a little as she looked down at it. “That implies you don’t like her.” Amber gave her a knowing smirk.

“Look!” Lizzie tried to raise her hands, briefly forgetting she was still tied up. “Just because I’m not her biggest fan doesn’t mean I want to see her dead.” Lizzie looked into Ambers eyes trying to plead to her. “She’s not a bad person.”

“Now, that’s where you’re wrong sweety.” Amber sighed, turning back to Hope. She walked back over, forcing the rest of the water down Hopes throat.