Chapter 19- Come and find me! x

As Lizzie walked down the stairs, she noticed that there was a packet of crisps and a bottle of water sat on the table near the sofa with a note next to it. She hesitated slightly before she bent down and picked up the note.

Come and find me! X

Lizzie laughed slightly as she folded up the note and placed it in her pocket. "Hope is really playing some fucking kinky shit, I swear." Lizzie picked up the crisps and the water before she headed off to the school.

As she approached the school, Lizzie found it kind of strange that she couldn't hear any noise. There were no sounds of children laughing, none of the usual buzz that emanated from the spells and charms that had be placed to keep the vampires safe from the sun. Nothing. It was silent. And Lizzie started to worry. As she got closer, her senses were in overdrive. She could feel the sun ever-so-slightly sizzling her skin, she could see the trees and bushes blowing slightly in the wind, but she couldn't hear it, the only things she could hear are her heart pounding in her chest and her blood pumping around her body. "I don't like this." She muttered.

"What do you mean Prison World?" Hope snapped.

"A Prison World is a place that can be made into anything the designer creates it to be. It's like an alternate universe of sorts, but every day is the same… Like you can make it so that a werewolf is forced to turn every night because it's a full moon or you can create a world without any magic, or a world where there is no blood so vampires can't feed… Prison worlds are horrible things, people can go mad from being stuck inside one for more than a week, sometimes sooner." Penelope replied.

"And how exactly does someone create a prison world?" Josie asked, looking perplexed.

"I don't know the ins and outs of creating a prison world, but I know you need an object to house the world in the first place… Most people use an old ornament or something like that. Sometimes prison worlds get handed down through generations of families without realising the significant of it. Most witches call it an ascendant. I was giving an ascendant to look after when I moved here…" Penelope explained.

"So, you're telling me that you have the ascendant? That you've had it this whole time?" Hope spat.

"I don't have it anymore… I think Wendy took it. She must have. I had it hidden in the school, in a place where I thought it would be safe, but I checked… I checked before I came in here." Penelope stated. "She must have followed me one day and found where I put it and she took it. That's the only thing I can think of."

"So how the FUCK do I get into a Prison World without an ascendant?!" Hope retorted.

"I guess I'm going to have to make a deal with the devil…" Penelope replied. The raven-haired girl pushed herself up from the floor and started to walk out the room. "This shouldn't take long."

"I'm going for a run before I kill that bitch." Hope seethed, turning on her heels and heading out the opposite door, so she doesn't accidently kill Penelope, leaving Josie and MG standing in the room alone.

"So, you're telling me that there is nothing that the Coven can do? You do realise that a girl is missing and that it's your fault this happened? You say that this is going to be my coven someday and you're not letting me do what needs to be done in this moment to make sure that the coven actually survives." Penelope ranted, phone pressed to her ear, pacing up and down the room. "Yes, you've said that already. All I am asking for is if you get him on the phone, like a video call so she can talk to him. Let him decide if he wants to see her again… YOU'RE NOT EVEN GIVING ME A CHOICE HERE! I KNOW ALL ABOUT THE LAWS! I'VE BEEN STUDYING THEM JUST LIKE YOU FUCKING TOLD ME TO… OUR LAWS STATE THAT IF A MEMBER OF OUR COVEN IS ATTACKING ANOTHER COVEN UNPREVOKED, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO DEFEND BOTH COVENS UNLESS THERE IS A LEGAL REASON NOT TO. THE GEMINI COVEN ONLY HAS 2 WITCHES AND ONE OF THEM IS TRAPPED IN A FUCKING PRISON WORLD… You don't care? Did you seriously say that you don't care?!" The phone call ended abruptly, and Penelope threw her phone across the room. Stressed out, she forced herself to sit down on the edge of the bed and breathe, just for a minute. Suddenly there was a knock at Penelope's door. "Fuck off I'm not in the mood!" Penelope shouted.

The door inched open slightly and Josie's head popped through the crack. "I heard what you said… I wasn't eavesdropping or anything… It's just, everyone could hear you."

"I'm sorry babe. I'm trying everything I can right now, but my stupid fucking coven isn't willing to help and I'm getting fed up with it." Penelope fell back onto the mattress and stared at the ceiling. Josie moved silently across the room to join her on the bed.

"If they are making you leader one day… Why don't you call a vote now? You clearly know the laws and what needs to be done. I don't want to push you because I know it might mean you will have to leave here to go there… But it might be worth it?" Josie replied sheepishly.

"I don't want to leave… That is what is stopping me. I don't want to be the coven leader. They didn't want me to come here in the first place, they said that I would regret it. I don't regret it; I want to stay here with you. I know this is my mess. If I hadn't have come here, then Wendy wouldn't have been turned and she wouldn't have become a heretic. I just want to fix it." Penelope deflated.

"You can fix it by becoming the leader. Whatever happens, I'll be right there with you. I'll come with you. I will follow you anywhere and everywhere all the time." Josie smiled slightly as she took Penelope's hand in her own.

"That's just creepy Jo." Penelope snorted as she felt warmth radiate through her body. "But I think I need to do this alone. I won't be gone for long."

"Oh okay." Josie replied as silence fell around them.

Hope ran and ran and ran. She ran for so long that her lungs felt like they were burning her from the inside out. When she finally stopped, she realised that she was at Whitmore College. "Well fuck." Hope groaned as she collapsed on the floor. After about five minutes her breathing had returned to normal, and she pushed herself up to sitting. She stared at the college students who were paying her no attention, like it was normal to see someone collapsed on the floor. I guess this is a college after all, so pretty normal. Hope finally pushed herself up off the floor and decided to head into the college to try and find something to eat. After walking around for about twenty minutes she had finally found a dining hall. She walked in, grabbed a tray of food then sat down at an empty table. The hall was somewhat empty with just a few people scattered around. Hope liked to people-watch, she found it fascinating and slightly annoying at the same time, but her mind started to drift away as she tucked into her food.

"Well, this is definitely the last place I want to be." Caroline frowned as she sat down next to Hope, essentially snapped Hope out of her daydream. "I used to go here you know, many years ago. Did you know that they used to run tests on Vampires underneath the science building?" Caroline shuddered as she recalled the thoughts.

"Yeah, I remember reading about it. It was in one of the Salvatore's dairies I think?" Hope replied.

"Yeah, something like that." Caroline stated. "What are you doing all the way out here anyways? Took me forever to try and find you."

"I just ran… Didn't realise how far I got. Sorry."

"It's okay. Penelope has a plan, so we need you back at the school. Josie tracked you after she couldn't find you on school grounds."

"Okay… Do you have the car? I don't really feel like running all the way back again." Hope laughed.

"Yes, I brought the car." Caroline replied as she stood up from the table and left the hall with Hope in tow. The car ride back was mostly silence. Hope slept for about an hour but woke up startled as they entered Mystic Falls. "Easy there, Hope. You almost made me crash the car!" Caroline laughed.

"Sorry… Bad dream." Hope replied as she wiped the sleep from her eyes. "Do you think Lizzie would want to go to college one day?"

"Strange question. But yes, I think she would. Why do you ask?"

"I'm not… sure." Hope stated. "I think it was my dream, I saw Lizzie at college, she was happy… Like really happy, she had friends and she was in a sorority. She wasn't…"

After about a minute Caroline realised that Hope wasn't going to finish her sentence, but she imagined that it would have been something like she wasn't tied down by me. "Hope, Lizzie loves you, I can tell. Not many people can talk about Hope Mikaelson in that way that Lizzie does. We are going to find her and bring her back."

"Okay." Hope replied and the car fell silent again as they approached the school. When Caroline pulled the car in front of the main doors, both of them could see Josie and Penelope standing in the low light of the evening sky.

Josie was crying as Penelope pulled away from a hug. "It's going to be okay. I will call you. I love you, Josette Saltzman." Penelope smiled. "Hopefully I won't be gone for too long."

"I know, I love you too. But I just… I just wish I could go with you." Josie replied, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Hi Caroline. Hope… I can't stay as I have to catch a flight, but Josie will fill you in on what is going on." Penelope smiled slightly, she quickly turned back to Josie and gave her a kiss before she took the keys from Caroline, got in the car and drove away. Caroline pulled Josie into a hug as Josie continued to cry.

A fine layer of dust covered everything at the school, like it hadn't been touched in about a year. It seemed like everyone just up and left in a hurry. Lizzie had watched enough horror movies that it was not a good idea to call out to see if anyone is here. Lizzie quickly syphoned some magic from the walls and preformed a spell. "Silencio… Invisique." If there was someone here… she definitely didn't want them knowing where she was. Lizzie walked all over the school but couldn't find anyone. She wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but she was starting to get hungry. Other than the packet of crisps, she couldn't remember when she last ate so she headed for the kitchen.

When she rounded the corner into the kitchen, she was immediately thrown across the hallway, landing about 8ft back from where she just was. She lifted her head up and that was when she saw Jade… or more correctly Jade saw her. "Fucking hell Lizzie! You scared the shit out of me!" Jade stammered.

"How could you see me? I made myself invisible?" Lizzie retorted as she brushed the dust off her clothes and stood up.

"Invisibility spells don't work in here." Jade shrugged. "don't ask me why… every other spell does."

"Well, that is fun to know." Lizzie stated. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Wendy sent me here." Jade replied.

"Wendy? Whose Wendy and what she got to do with this? Where is everyone anyway?"

"Wendy is… was… my friend. She was also Penelope's mentor… That was before she turned into a heretic and tried to murder everyone in her coven because hid her husband and children from her. Now she's hellbent on killing the rest of the coven so she can get them back, starting with Penelope." Jade stated. "And this… this is a prison world. We're trapped here."