The rest of the room looks at Alaric, as he would be the one to call them, curious of if he has an answer to Josie's blurted question.
"Uh, I was going to hold off on calling them. I mean, we don't know what happened to her and if Josie's possibility is right then I'm not getting more people worried. So yeah, I'm not going to call her family until we know for sure that she's in danger." Alaric confesses that he's holding off on informing her family, giving a pretty good explanation as to why he isn't.
"Okay, so should we put out search parties in the woods?" Emma seems to agree the most with Alaric's reasoning, despite still being unsure, wondering if they should send out search parties to make sure Josie's theory is correct.
"That would mean we'd have to alert the entire school." Dorian points out that if they send search parties for Hope, they would need to inform the entire school about Hope missing, clearly hinting that Emma's suggestion isn't really keeping things on the down-low like Alaric wants.
Alaric can see what Dorian is hinting at and although he would like to keep the fact of Hope missing a secret, he begins to feel that at least the school should know.
"Let's call an emergency meeting. I understood what you were saying Dorian but it's a possibility that she's still in Mystic Falls somewhere and the students should know that one of their own might be missing." Alaric cuts Dorian off from talking, as he was going to retort after Ric stated that they held a meeting, explaining the situation.
"And also why Taylor Swift is blasting throughout the entire school. I think they should know that too." Landon jumps into the conversation, believing that the school should be informed about the fact someone is probably keeping an eye on all of them, sounding kind of dopey and still exhausted.
They all look at him while he dozes in and out of sleep before they all exchange glances as they realize that he has a point as well.
"Well, I took the liberty of calling various other police departments in the state, who have said that they will call their contacts at other stations across the world. So, if Hope's actually been kidnapped, whoever is responsible can't stay in hiding for long." Matt reassures the room that he has cops in the entire state looking for Hope, and that those cops are also calling others out of state and country.
In the main hall, where Alaric called the emergency meeting, the room is filled with either fully awake or half asleep students.
"Now I hate waking you up at this time of night but there's been a situation and we need all the help we can get. Hope was involved in an accident, she is currently missing. In the morning, I would like the werewolves to work with the vampires to search for her in the woods and I'd like the witches to try locator spells. I will also add and recommend that none of you tell outside sources, like your parents, if you made any human friends because we need to keep this secret within school walls." Alaric informs the school of Hope missing, which had the students muttering amongst themselves, after he admits that he hates waking the students up during the night then advises that they keep the fact Hope is missing a secret from everyone outside of the school once he gives them all an agenda for the next day.
Before Alaric dismisses the group, Lizzie clears her throat as a way to remind him of Landon's suggestion, which helps him remember.
Alaric then informs all of them of a bad feeling and that they are possibly being watched, along with listened into, which is why Taylor Swift is currently playing throughout school, then advises that they remain calm by acting normal as it is currently only a suspicion for now.
Afterwards, he dismisses them, all of them muttering to themselves, then the group all head back to the library, where Landon is sleeping on the couch with a book on his chest, implying that he was helping with research before dozing off completely.
"What was he reading?" MG whispers a question as he tries to get a better look at the book on Landon's chest.
Dorian walks over to him to get a closer look then sighs once he sees the cover of it.
"He was reading The Hunger Games." Dorian announces in a whisper as Landon is still sleeping but it doesn't take long before he stirs awake because Lizzie accidentally dropped a book.
"Sh… Oops." Lizzie immediately filters herself since her mouth was starting to say 'shit' but she realized that her dad was still in the room.
"Hey, how'd the emergency meeting go?" Landon sleepily greets them before asking how the meeting went.
"The school is informed and will be updated on any and all news from here-on-out." Alaric responds to the question which earns a simple nod from Landon.
"Why were you reading The Hunger Games?" Josie decides to question Landon's reading choice causing him to struggle in sitting up, since he was lying down when they entered.
"It was in the bag that I'm assuming was found in the wreckage. It looked interesting so I decided to read it." Landon explains why he was reading the book, revealing that it was in Hope's duffel bag.
"There are a lot of spirals in there too. I couldn't read any of them, though. I'm pretty sure they aren't in english." Landon confesses that Hope has a lot of spirals that aren't filled with english which gets them all curious as Penelope heads over and picks up the bag in order to look through it again.
"There's nothing in here but various books. I've looked through this bag the second after it was processed, there are just a bunch of research books." Penelope reveals that the bag is filled with research books then admits that she was the first to look through it while they were at the police station.
"What? No, I swear that was filled with spirals when I looked through it." Landon finds it hard to believe that he's wrong, seeming very certain that he saw spirals instead.
"Why were you looking through the bag to begin with?" Lizzie wonders why Landon was going through the bag in the first place causing Landon to sigh deeply.
"I was bored and the bag wasn't much of a struggle to reach so I figured I should try to be helpful while on couch rest but then I fell asleep." Landon admits that he was bored and he figured that since the bag was close to him, he could help but ultimately fell asleep after starting to read The Hunger Games.
(One Month Later)
Hope is still missing and while the school has been very helpful, they've come up empty with search parties and locator spells.
The group remains in the library and they're all lounging around, trying to figure out what happened a month ago.
"Okay, there is only one reason as to why locator spells and search parties aren't working. I hate to say it but she might be dead." Rafael speaks up, breaking the silence with a terrible possibility.
"Rafael's right. She probably died on impact in the accident and is now in some sicko's abnormally large freezer." Lizzie agrees with Rafael's point, then makes an assumption of where she is currently.
"Oh, you've got to stop watching Criminal Minds." Josie recommends that Lizzie stops watching Criminal Minds, sounding disturbed by Lizzie's suggestion.
"It has been a month since she went missing. If she was kidnapped, then why haven't her kidnappers made a demand or a ransom fee yet? I think now is the time to tell her family." Emma points out the time that's passed since Hope went missing, then wonders if she was taken then why they haven't received any demands before announcing her belief that they should call her family now.
"Alright, I'll call them. And I'm pretty sure that another person can help out as well." Alaric agrees to call Hope's family then hints that he'll call someone else to help them as well.
"Hey Freya, Alaric Saltzman. We have a problem and I need you to get in touch with the rest of your family." Alaric greets Freya once she answers the phone then wastes no time in telling her they have a problem.
"What kind of problem?" Freya's tone is confused and sounds sleepy as she asks what kind of problem he has.
"Oh god. I'll get in touch with my family and we'll be there as soon as possible." Freya expresses her fear in what Alaric tells her then confirms that she'll get in touch with her family and hangs up once she says they'll be there quickly.
"So, her aunt will be getting in touch with the rest of the family. In the meantime, I'm going to get in contact with somebody else." Alaric announces that Hope's aunt is getting in touch with the other family members then states that he will contact someone else.
Ric ends up texting this other person a very vague message then pockets his phone once he's done.
Several hours later, Jed walks in the library with Freya and the rest of the family, having helped them get there, then leaves.
"Hey, what happened?" Rebekah is the first to ask what happened, seeming worried like the rest of the room.
"I'm going to start with the fact that the only reason we didn't tell you this earlier was because we didn't want to put you in an unnecessary panic. Last month, Hope was involved in a car accident and she is currently still missing." Alaric confesses that Hope is missing after having been involved in an accident after he gives his reason for not telling them sooner.
Rebekah has a very clear, murderous glare as she looks like she wants to kill Alaric for not telling them this information yet restrains herself because children are in the room.
"Oh my god. How did I not see it?" Penelope mutters to herself about something then rushes over to the evidence and picks up the jacket while smirking.
"Are you sharing with the class?" Kaleb boredly wonders if Penelope's going to share her new revelation with the rest of them, also sounding annoyed.
"This jacket is radiating magic from it, like oozing out of it." Penelope reveals that the jacket is radiating magic, which has most of them look at her in confusion except the witches.
"That's Hope's aura. Why would it be radiating from her jacket?" Lizzie seems to sense that the magic the jacket is radiating is, in fact, Hope's magic then questions it.
"Well, maybe she got bored with the magic and just surrendered it?" Landon, who is in a lot better condition, suggests that Hope surrendered it in a questioning tone.
"But that doesn't make any sense, magic is a large part of her. She wouldn't just give it away." Freya joins the conversation, finding it hard to believe that Hope would give her magic up.
"Let's think of it this way, last month we had someone tailing us from the police station, to the restaurant, almost all the way to the school had Penelope not thought on her feet. So, what if Hope surrendered her magic then purposefully crashed the car because she was aware that she was being followed as well?" MG recommends that they simply put it in a different perspective by bringing up the fact that the day the accident happened, most of the people in the room were being followed, then suggests that she gave up her magic and then crashed the car solely because she knew she was being followed.
"When you put it that way, it kind of makes sense but why crash the car?" Josie tries to see MG's point then questions why Hope would crash the car.
"Uh, probably the same reason Penelope cloaked us. So, the people following her wouldn't come to the school." Kaleb deduces that Hope crashed the car to prevent her possible kidnappers from getting to the school.
"Wait, we're looking at this wrong. What if someone was in the road, which caused her to crash?" Rafael pipes in the conversation, revealing his belief that someone might have been standing in the road, which caused her to crash the car.
"Unlikely. Hope only swerves the car to avoid hitting animals. People are just persona non grata for her." Marcel shoots the idea down that someone was in the road, meaning that if she did swerve because of something in the road, it was most likely an animal.
"Seeing as how the only people who ominously stand in the road are always vampires in Mystic Falls, it makes sense that she'd floor it." Matt finds that Marcel's point seems to make sense, saying that the only people who stand in the middle of the road are vampires, then Lizzie gasps in shock, coming to a realization.
"What if she actually purposely crashed the car because someone was following her then she cuts herself out of the vehicle after failing to break the windshield and died from her injuries before getting too far? Then when the people following her found her body, they realized she was dead and couldn't give them answers, so they just buried her in the woods somewhere?" Lizzie, despite disliking Hope, is hyperventilating at the fact that Hope was just improperly buried in the woods after dying from her injuries in the car accident, yet this theory implies that she agrees with MG's earlier point and also gets them worried.
Josie then steps into calm her sister despite the fact that she's clearly worried that Lizzie is right about Hope being buried somewhere.
"Okay, let's focus on why Hope would surrender her magic. I mean, she did so for a reason, how about we take a break from worrying about her fate and find out why." Emma convinces them to start focusing on the jacket radiating magic again and stay away from fearing about what happened to her for a little while.
"If my research is anything, then it's a possibility that she gave up her magic as a form of protection." Rafael comes into the discussion again then looks through his backpack to pull out a spiral.
"Yeah, according to this, two of the main reasons that witches give up their magic is because they're either too codependent on magic, it makes them dangerous, or they do it as a mechanism to ensure that they can't be forced to use it." Rafael quotes his spiral after finding a specific page, which makes the witches in the room wonder why they never thought of Rafael's point.
"Well, if she was being followed and knew that she was, then it would definitely make sense that she'd surrender her magic so she wouldn't be forced to use it." Davina joins in on the conversation, believing that it makes sense for Hope to do.
"What's in the duffel bag?" Kol finally speaks up since he got there, questioning the duffel bag.
"It was in the car, along with the jacket, her phone, and a book. Which is weird…" Penelope replies to the question then trails off in order to walk over to the bag.
"Because the bag's just filled with more books." Penelope finishes her statement after she opens it then pours the contents of the bag onto the floor, only to reveal that it's books are actually spirals, which seems to stun Penelope.
"I looked through this bag twice last month. It was just a bunch of books." Penelope looks dumbfounded at the fact there are no books in the bag except the next two books of The Hunger Games franchise; Catching Fire and Mockingjay.
"I hate to say I told you so but I did tell you. So…" Landon takes the opportunity to mock Penelope and bring up the fact that he did tell them it was filled with a bunch of spirals with a shrug, causing Penelope to look both annoyed and amused by Landon's words.
So, the group decides to sit on the floor and start reading the spirals while Landon picks up Catching Fire.
"This is latin." Emma immediately deduces that the language is latin the moment she opened the spiral she picked up.
"They're all in latin." Josie points out that all of the spirals are in latin after siphoning magic from the school to cause a wind that would open all the spirals at once.
"What was she doing?" Rebekah wonders what her niece was doing with a bunch of spirals that have latin written inside of them.
"Maybe it's AP Latin notes." Marcel assumes that the spirals are simply notes for her language class.
"We don't teach witches latin. It's a safety precaution, so the witches don't accidentally set the classroom on fire or something." Alaric admits that they don't teach latin to witches as a way to take precautions.
"Hold up, listen to this. After all this time, it's finally complete. Now all I need is an anchor in which I can get what I want." Lizzie reads aloud from a journal, seemingly quoting it, then she anxiously looks at all of the spirals before grabbing the one that Josie was about to reach for.
"These spirals are all dated. What I just read was from a journal in which she cataloged and updated weekly." Lizzie realizes the spirals pages are all dated so you know when she wrote them then explains that she was reading from the only journal in the bag before going back through the journal, skimming the pages.
"Oh my god. She was trying to write the death spell in reverse." Lizzie gasps in shock as she concludes what Hope was doing for a majority of the spirals then holds up the spiral she grabbed before Josie could, showing the room the page.
"This is the death spell completely in reverse. According to the journal, she finished the rewrite of the spell… two weeks before the accident." Lizzie looks at the date in the journal, realizing Hope just finished rewriting the spell two weeks before she went missing.
"Why would she rewrite the death spell?" Vincent speaks up, clearly curious as to why Hope would rewrite the spell.
Lizzie flips through a few pages of the journal before stopping then gasps in shock again.
"According to this, two days before the accident she had finished combining the rewritten death spell with two other ones." Lizzie reads from the journal again then looks through the spirals to see which one has the same date of the page she's reading.
"This one. This is her completed spell, the only question is what's it for?" Lizzie finds the spiral containing the combined spells then wonders what it would be for which has Josie gasp in realization.
"Of course. She didn't just rewrite the death spell, she put it in reverse. Putting a spell that takes lives in reverse would ensure the opposite effect. She was creating her own resurrection spell." Josie comes to the conclusion that Hope was creating a resurrection spell, which shocks the entire room.
"Now that we've figured all of this information out, why was she taking this stuff to the cabin with her?" Dorian expresses his relief in the fact they have figured out a lot of information before asking why Hope would take all of her spirals with her to the cabin.
"What cabin?" Rebekah questions the location with a frown, very confused.
Alaric sighs deeply before telling Hope's family about what they've been up to and also brings up Hope's belief that some mega powerful witch or being is capable of erasing the existence of specific creatures from everyone's subconscious.
"She was on her back to the school but never made it." Alaric finishes the explanation of everything that's been going on and they all process this information before focusing on Dorian's question.
"Wait, you said that she was looking for an anchor. Does it say why?" Penelope brings up Lizzie's words from when she first read the journal then wonders if it said anything else about an anchor.
"Um…" Lizzie picks the journal up again and starts skimming through the pages to see if it says something.
"Aha! The knife. That's what she was going to use for her spell. According to this entry, she started taking interest in the knife after it lured a dragon from some unknown area, believing that it would make a perfect anchor." Lizzie discovers that Hope was going to use the knife to anchor her resurrection spell then continues skimming the pages until the end causing her to frown.
"But it doesn't say anywhere why she needs an anchor." Lizzie pouts at the fact that it doesn't say why she needed the knife as an anchor.
"That's why she convinced me to let her meet up with Dorian. She wanted the knife for herself." Alaric sighs as he realizes the true reason as to why Hope convinced him to let her meet up with Dorian instead of him.
"Yet that doesn't explain the need for an anchor or why she took all these spirals with her." Kaleb decides to point out that although they keep getting answers, they also just keep asking themselves more questions.
"That's it." MG mutters to himself, clearly having figured something out.
"I figured out why she needs an anchor. She was using a death spell. In reverse or not, it still classifies as one of the darkest forms of magic even if it is combined with something else. The school isn't allowed to practice dark magic because of what it does to a witch, so Hope must have believed that if she had an anchor for the reversed version, then she wouldn't be tempted to continue using dark magic." MG concludes the reason as to why Hope needed an anchor for the spell after announcing that he knew why she needed it.
"Very understandable and plausible. Not to mention it makes sense." Kol is the first to agree with MG's conclusion, saying that it makes sense and everyone else agrees with it as well.
"Okay, but we still don't know why she brought the spirals to the cabin with her." Josie brings the topic back to Dorian's question of why she brought the bag of spirals on her trip causing Lizzie to open her mouth but is unable to speak, as she finds herself silently looking at the library door in shock.
Curious of her silence despite making moves to speak, everyone else turns their heads to where she's looking, only to see a blonde male in the entrance-way.
"Hey." the guy greets them with a wave and a small nervous smile.