Chapter 20- Let's make a deal with the Devil.

It was only a short flight for Penelope to reach her coven, but every minute that passed by felt like hours and the longer she was stuck on the plane, the less time she had to persuade her coven to let her be leader and even less time to save Lizzie before all hell broke lose with Wendy. Penelope kept on checking her phone, hoping, wishing and praying that news would come through that she didn't need to do this completely reckless idea. Why in the world would her coven made her a leader at the age of 17? Who knows, it probably wouldn't be the best idea, but stranger things have happened. Once the plane had landed and taxied into the holding, Penelope quickly grabbed her bag from the overhead locker and made her way towards the door. As soon as the door opened, she thanked the flight attendant and headed off towards the airport.

Penelope's mother was waiting for her outside the airport. Penelope hadn't told her why she was visiting but there was a look of disappointment across the older woman's face. "You know you don't have to do this?" The older woman said.

"You know I do mother; this is my fault and my mess, so I need to fix it. And as long as Venus is the leader, I won't be able to fix it. I tried to reason with her, but she was having none of it. Look this is getting us nowhere and the sooner I can get this done, the sooner I can get back home." Penelope replied as she walked over to her mother's car that had been idling in the pickup bay.

When the women arrived at the coven's homestead Penelope saw that there were roughly twenty cars parked wherever there was a space. "I guess news really does travel fast." Penelope muttered as she got out of the car.

"I'm giving you one last chance Penelope. We can turn around and drive back to the airport and all this nonsense can stop."

"This isn't nonsense mother. I can clearly see what side you'll be voting on." Penelope stated as she slammed the car door behind her. Penelope's mother sighed in discontentment.

"You really don't understand anything…"

"Don't you dare say that I don't understand… I understand perfectly well. I was the one that basically ran away from here because you were all smothering me with your rules and your laws, telling me who I can and can't date. I was sick of it mother, it needed to end. It has to end. For Josie's sake and for Lizzie's life." Penelope returned. "Now, let's just get this over with."

The two women walked silently into the house. When the door opened all the noise that was coming from inside stopped and everyone turned to stare at Penelope. The silence only lasted a few seconds before the young children started climbing over everything trying to reach the young girl who had just walked through the doors, each one more excited to see that their favourite person had arrived. It was true, the younger children admired Penelope like she was a princess that had been banished to unforgotten lands but returned to save the day. They all missed the stories she used to tell them about the witches, vampires and werewolves that lived at the Salvatore school. After spending about five minutes catching up with the children, the youngsters were ushered into another room and the grownups were left to talk.

"So, what is the plan then? Where has Penelope gone?" Hope asked as she and Josie walked back into the school.

"Penelope has gone back to her coven to try and persuade them to make her the leader so that she can make a deal with Wendy to get Lizzie back." Josie replied as she wiped away the last of the tears from her eyes. "I don't know how long she will be gone for, all I know is that she said she will call me when it's done, whichever way it goes. So, if she doesn't win then we are going to need to find the ascendant and try to get Lizzie out ourselves, which I guess wouldn't be too hard given that we have a Gemini witch… the problem will be, where will we find Lizzie when we get there."

"I might, it shouldn't be too hard to find her in there. We can just do a locator spell, right? If not, then I'm sure I could just you know…" Hope replied.

"I know what?" Josie asked, slightly confused.

"You know… smell her?" Hope hesitated and Josie burst out laughing. "Ha ha very funny." Hope deadpanned.

"I'm sorry but I needed a laugh." Josie replied. "It's been a depressing day, but to hear you say that you are going to smell my sister definitely brightened it."

"Come on… we need to try and find out where a homicidal maniac would hide an ascendant." Hope replied, nudging Josie with her shoulder before they both turned and headed up the stairs into Hope's room.

"So how long have you been in here?" Lizzie asked.

"I don't know. Not long I don't think. I woke up in the middle of the road about 4ish hours ago and came straight here. This place always felt like home to me… more than my actual home did. So, I came here, best bet that if someone did try to rescue us, they would more than likely check here first. But I wouldn't get my hopes up, these things are pretty much impossible to get into, even harder to get out." Jade replied before she turned and walked back into the kitchen.

"Why do you know so much about prison worlds?" Lizzie hesitated before she decided to follow Jade into the kitchen. Jade had already walked over to the fridge and started pulling food out, getting it ready so she could make a sandwich or two.

"Do you want one? Of course, you do." Jade muttered to herself but also asking Lizzie at the same. "I know about Prison Worlds because it was part of the required reading for 6th years. Professor Saltzman used to run 'excursions' into a prison world, he wanted people to see what just 72 hours could do to a person that was trapped inside a prison world… But when this one group of five people went in… only two came out again… It was a very bad time… Anyways, Professor Saltzman quickly put an end to learning anything about prison worlds… All the years underneath us had to get their minds wiped to forget everything prison world related."

"I'm… I'm actually at a loss for words." Lizzie replied. Jade had finished making the sandwiches and passed one over to Lizzie. "Thanks. So, you said you woke up about 4 hours ago in the middle of the road, right?"

"Yes, that's right." Jade stated.

"So, when I woke up, I was bound and chained inside a weird crypt thing… I don't remember much but I remember feeling cold… Then I woke up again out by the Old Mill, without any chains… You didn't move me or touch me, or anything did you?" Lizzie asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the response.

"No, the first time I saw you was when you scared the shit out of me in the hallway." Jade replied with a mouthful of food.

"Okay… So, does that mean that someone else is here too? Or did I just imagine this whole thing?"

"I mean… I could be either. I'm not sure what type of prison world this is… and I kinda don't want to find out." Jade stated.

"Well, I do… So, you can either come with me, or maybe I will die out there… I'm thinking you'll go with the first option because if Hope knows that you were in here with me and you didn't do all you could to protect me then she will most likely kill you." Lizzie grinned as she finished off eating her sandwich. Once she had finished, she quickly turned on her heels and headed out the kitchen and back into the hallway. "Are you coming or not?" Lizzie called, and true to form, Jade groaned but quickly fell in behind the tall blonde.

"How long does it take for 30 witches to decide… This is taking to long…" Penelope grunted as she stood up from the chair she was sat in.

"It takes as long as it takes." Venus replied.

"We don't have the time for this. I need to find out what is taking so long… This shouldn't be happening."

"Well, what did you expect, that people were just going to accept you as the leader? You've got to be joking. You are seventeen for Christ's sake. You're still a child! You really think they are just going to hand leadership of the coven over to you?" Venus scoffed.

"I swear down Venus if you don't…" Penelope was cut off mid-sentence when she saw a young girl walk towards her.

"It has been decided." The young girl stated. "Penelope is our new leader."

"Fucking finally!" Penelope exclaimed. "Right, so tell me where Wendy's husband and children are."

"They are in the prison world… It was the safest place to keep them. Well, it was before you let Wendy get her hands on the ascendant." Venus replied.

"Well fuck. I guess it's time to make a deal with the devil."

The sun was just starting to set outside the window when Josie's phone buzzed into life. "It's Penelope." Josie said as she picked up her phone. It was a text message.

Penelope: It's done. I'm it. I'll be home in an hour 3 xx

Josie read the text out loud to Hope. "An hour? I think that will be cutting it a little bit close for my liking… Can't you message her back and tell her that something needs to be done sooner than that. Two hours is all we have left… I don't like this… I don't like this one bit." Hope stated, as she pushed herself up off the floor and headed over to the door. "Message her back and tell her that I am going to find Wendy, so she best be there before the time is up." And with that, the room fell quiet again. Josie panicked and quickly followed after Hope.

"If you're going, then I'm going… I'm not leaving you and I'm not staying here by myself." Josie huffed as she caught up to Hope. Even though Hope is small, she still walks very fast when she isn't using her wolf speed.

It took Hope the best part of thirty minutes to try and find the right weapons she wanted to use. A crossbow and an axe are what she finally decided on. She packed the crossbow and the axe into her backpack and passed it over to Josie, before she quickly turned and left the weapons room and headed outside to the Old Mill.

The two girls walked in silence. As they came into the clearing near the Old Mill, Hope froze. The hairs on her arms and neck stood on end. "Someone's here." She whispered to the brunette and pushed the other girl behind her, protecting her. Josie handed her the backpack.

"You're right Hope… Someone is here." Wendy laughed as she jumped down from the roof of the Old Mill. "It's me."

Hope quickly reached into the bag, pulled out the crossbow and fired off a shot.

"Nice try Hope." Wendy said as she caught the arrow mid-air, snapped it in half and threw it on the ground. "You're really just pissing me off and maybe I will kill Lizzie quicker."

"You dare lay a hand on Lizzie and I will kill you!" Hope seethed.

"You've already tried to kill me once Hope… It didn't work… You know what I want. Tell that bitch Penelope that she has an hour to get me what I want, or Lizzie is dead."

"Tell me yourself arsehole." Penelope chimed in, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"I don't see my husband with you… So, I guess it's time to kill Lizzie." Wendy smirked.

"If you kill Lizzie, you will never find your husband or your children." Penelope replied. "Are you willing to make a deal?"

"Why would I want to make a deal with you?" Wendy laughed.

"Because I am the leader of the coven and I know where your family is. In exchange, I want Lizzie returned… SAFELY." Penelope stated.

"Oh wow… so they made you leader, what are you… fourteen?"

"I'm seventeen you arsehole. Now do we have a deal?" Penelope repeated.

"Possibly… Where are they?"

"Where is the ascendant?" Penelope asked.

"It's safe… Why do you care?"

"Because the ascendant has your family in it."

Lizzie picked up a discarded bag from the floor and shook the dust off it. "I guess this will have to do."

"What are you doing with that bag?" Jade asked.

"Well I was planning to see how many pieces of a human body I could fit into it." Lizzie laughed as she turned to face Jade, who surprisingly seemed quite shocked by the tall blonde's comment. "Oh calm down, I'm not actually going to chop you up. It was a joke. I figured that since we are leaving here, we might need to get a few supplies before we leave… just in case."

"Oh yeah… that's smart…" Jade replied.

Lizzie spent the best part of an hour rummaging around for different items to but in the bag. She changed into some sweatpants, a comfy top and a sensible pair of walking shoes. "Ugh why do they make these things so ugly…" Lizzie muttered as she finished putting her shoes on and started placing the items she had picked out into her bag. She had charmed it to make it bigger on the inside, kinda like that bag that Mary Poppins has. Lizzie loved that movie even though she would never admit it if someone asked. Lizzie had managed to fit a tent, 2 sleeping bags and about 4 sets of clothes into the bag before she decided that she had enough to last her a while.

Whilst Lizzie was packing everything into her bag, Jade had ventured back down to the kitchen to fill another bag full of snacks, because you can never have too many snacks. Once she had finished raiding the kitchen, Jade made her way back into the foyer and waited for Lizzie. Luckily the blonde didn't keep her waiting too long.

"Do you have any idea where we are going?" Jade asked.

"No, but that's why this is fun… We can literally go anywhere… kinda like when Bilbo Baggins got selected by Gandalf to go on a quest." Lizzie laughed.

"I have no idea what you just said… but okay." Jade nodded as they both turned, headed out the doors of the school and down the drive towards Mystic Falls.