"Hey, Roman." Alaric greets him with a nervous yet grim smile as Roman makes his way further into the library.
"Your text was very vague. It just said, 'there's been a severe issue. I need you to return to the school'. Care to elaborate on the text now that I'm here?" Roman quotes Alaric's text that he sent then wonders if he'd care to elaborate on the situation, revealing that Roman was the person he texted earlier.
"You texted Roman to help out?" Josie seems the most confused by Roman's presence, but that isn't saying much.
"He has the determination and resources that might come in handy. I figured he'd want to help out." Alaric explains his reasoning in calling Roman, who still looks confused.
"You know, I'm usually even more willing to help if I knew the situation I was helping out in." Roman speaks up, saying that he prefers to have knowledge of why he's called instead of receiving vague messages.
"Hope was in an accident and she's been missing for a month." Lizzie blurts out the reason that Roman was called to the school and he looks stunned by this reveal.
"She's been missing for a month?" Roman is still shocked yet he's failing to hide the mild annoyance he has in his tone and he seems even angrier when the rest of the room nod in agreement.
"Why is that jacket radiating Hope's magic?" Roman calms himself before turning his attention to the leather jacket on the coffee table, implying that he noticed it off the bat whereas it took Penelope a month.
"We concluded that Hope surrendered her magic in one of her father's jackets." Josie responds to the question but Roman walks over to the table and picks the jacket up to examine it.
"It's been processed by cops and examined by everyone in this room. I'm not sure if an extra set of eyes is going to change anything." Matt informs Roman that the jacket has been examined by everyone in the library, along with the cops, and assumes he is wasting his time.
"I hate to break it to you but you missed something." Roman simply and outwardly tells them they missed something.
Before anyone can retort, however, Roman holds the jacket closer to him and then sniffs it, inhaling deeply.
When he exhales, his vamp face slowly surfaces before he uses self-control to hide it so he can search the jacket.
"This jacket is literally radiating with magic, or not." Roman murmurs that the jacket is radiating magic before realizing it's not, seeming to have found something.
Roman places his hand in the inner jacket pockets then after searching the second one, he pulls out a necklace that has specks of blood on it.
"This is what's radiating Hope's magic, not the jacket. Which means that her magic is powerful enough to radiate even while hidden within another object." Roman realizes that the necklace was what they were sensing, not the jacket, and he's right since the jacket no longer has an aura around it.
"That necklace should get analyzed. Luckily, we set up a station in the basement." Matt reveals his belief the necklace should get analyzed then puts gloves on before taking the necklace from Roman and leaving to head to the basement.
Roman gives the room a very curious look, clearly confused by the mention of a police station in the school's basement.
Sensing this confusion, the room just takes turns explaining everything to him, like Lizzie's fears of being listened into and everything they discussed before he entered the library.
"Okay. Do we know why she was taking the spirals with her?" Roman has processed all of the information he just learned then has the topic return to Dorian's question again.
"I was just about to answer that question before I saw you standing in the doorway. So, maybe she brought the bag with her as an easy access. I mean, if she left it where it was then when she returned with the knife, she wouldn't have had enough time to find the bag in order to perform the spell." Lizzie reveals that she was about to answer the question before Roman showed up then gives her suggestion as to why she brought them with her just as Matt re-enters the room with the necklace in an evidence bag.
"Possible. But why was she creating a resurrection spell in the first place? And why isn't her father here?" Penelope states that Lizzie's suggestion is possible before asking two different questions, the last one having the entire room gape at her in shock again.
"And why does everyone stare at me like my hair's on fire whenever I ask about her father?!" Penelope loudly asks a third question, clearly having reached the ultimate confusion and annoyance.
"Penelope, her father's dead." Josie blurts out the truth which causes Penelope to frown in confusion.
"What?" Penelope's tone is softer, which implies that she had no idea that Hope's dad was dead.
"He's been dead for two years. You had no clue." Josie sighs out the realization that Penelope genuinely had no clue that Klaus was dead after she explains that Hope's father has been dead for the past two years.
"She never said anything to me about that." Penelope is processing the fact that Hope's father is deceased and that Hope didn't tell her, seeming hurt and embarrassed by this new revelation.
The room remains silent for a little while when Jed walks back into the room, holding a box this time.
"I found this at the door. There was a knock but when I went to look, nothing but this box was there." Jed puts the box on the coffee table after he explains why he was holding it.
They all slowly approach the box and Alaric is about to open it when Lizzie speaks up.
"Don't! It could be a bomb." Lizzie grabs her dad's wrist to prevent him from opening it, claiming that it could be a bomb.
"Why? If it were a bomb then wouldn't it have gone off the second Jed had picked it up or walked back inside?" Kaleb questions why Lizzie would think it's a bomb then makes it clear that if it were a bomb, it would've gone off before it was brought in the library.
"Just tread carefully." Lizzie advises that they tread carefully instead, seeming to understand Kaleb's words.
So this time, Roman slowly reaches his hand towards the box and carefully opens it, only to reveal a piece of skin with a birthmark on it.
"They mutilated her." Freya realizes that Hope's been mutilated as she looks away from the box, clearly revolted, causing Roman to close the box.
"It appears that whatever or whoever caused the car accident is intent on repeating history." Marcel makes a vague statement about history repeating itself then glares furiously at Roman, who notices the intense stare immediately.
"What?" Roman looks confused by the look that Marcel's currently giving him which has Marcel scoff.
"Two years ago, Hope's mother got abducted and a few weeks later, we found out she was mutilated too. Which begs the question of if you're involved in this." Marcel explains what happened two years ago then accuses Roman of being involved in Hope's kidnapping like he was with her mother but Roman looks both horrified and angry at this.
"What? They mutilated her mother?" Roman sounds very surprised to hear this news, hinting that he wasn't responsible.
"I find it strange how shocked you are. Weren't you the one who abducted her mother in the first place?" Marcel continues to accuse Roman by revealing that he had kidnapped Hayley two years, this conversation clearly infuriating Roman.
"No, I took part in her abduction but I didn't put her anywhere and I sure as hell took no part in mutilating her. I can also guarantee that I had absolutely nothing to do with Hope getting kidnapped either." Roman defends himself, admitting that although he did take part in Hayley's abduction, he did nothing else to her and stands his ground in not having anything to do with Hope's kidnapping.
"I think he's telling the truth." Freya reveals her belief that Roman is being honest with them but the rest of her family still seems unsure.
"You don't believe me? Here, it's my plane ticket from today and it's the only one that I have. I wasn't even in Mystic Falls a month ago, my sister can vouch for that." Roman hands them his plane ticket, which is dated with the day's date and says that he was in China before getting called in.
"This is a real plane ticket. You're in the clear, for now." Marcel confirms that the ticket isn't a forgery and places Roman in the clear, most likely to wait until new evidence comes up.
"Gee, thanks." Roman sarcastically thanks Marcel for putting him in the clear, not even trying to hide his annoyance with the accusations.
"That box of skin means nothing." Lizzie states randomly, catching their attention.
"Uh, it's a box of her skin. It has to mean something." Landon assumes that it actually does mean something or else it wouldn't have been sent.
"You're right. It means that the people who caused the car accident are complete sickos. There's still the possibility that she died on impact in that accident which means she was also violated along with being mutilated. That birthmark was on her shoulder, the only way they could've skinned it from her, whether she's alive or not, is if they took her shirt off. She's probably buried in some shallow grave, topless." Lizzie agrees with Landon's point then makes a good point of her own before dully concluding that Hope is in a grave somewhere without her shirt on.
"Well, she does have three birthmarks. And I know this because she told me personally, not for any other reason." Roman quickly adds how he got the information he just shared, which is the fact that Hope has three birthmarks before anyone can shoot glares or more accusations at him.
"So, if we get another one then it's proof that she's okay." MG believes that if they get sent another one of Hope's birthmarks then it would mean that she's alive but Lizzie scoffs.
"Uh back to my point of her possibly dying in the accident, if they send us her other two birthmarks that means they knew that she had three of them. Now, over the course of the years, Hope's started wearing shorts more and I can guarantee that the other birthmarks aren't on her legs, which means they most likely just stripped her completely in order to mutilate her." Lizzie confesses that due to Hope's transition to wearing shorts more, she can vouch for the other two birthmarks not being anywhere on her legs, which leads her to believe that Hope is in a grave, naked, somewhere.
"Or the other possibility is that she just sent them." Jed joins in the conversation with a suggestion that doesn't make sense.
"I mean, think about it. She practically hates everyone at this school except Emma and Dr. Saltzman. Maybe Josie's first theory was right and she's still in the woods. Not to mention she can kind of have a sick sense of humor, so she's sending us her skin to assure us she's alive." Jed elaborates on his suggestion, bringing up Josie's first belief, as they all shared them in order to help the rest of the school think, and they all seem uneasy towards the suggestion.
"How would she even mutilate herself?" Penelope asks the first question that comes to her mind, stealing it from everyone else.
"She is kind of an animal whisperer, she could have convinced a bear or a monkey to do the deed." Josie speaks up softly, seeming to agree with Jed's theory more than Lizzie's.
"Okay, let's say Jed is right. That doesn't explain why she would give up her magic by placing it in a necklace." Kaleb attempts to play along before bringing up the fact she surrendered her magic.
"Wait a second." Josie walks over to the white board, where Matt had placed the evidence bag containing the necklace on, and removes the magnet holding it up.
"This necklace has blood on it. That means she was wearing it after the crash and she had enough strength to hide the necklace before whatever happened did." Josie looks at the necklace, pointing out that it has blood on it and concludes that she was, at least, still wearing the necklace at the time of the accident then hid it in the jacket on scene.
"I think the question we should all be asking right now is why the hell was she taken in the first place? She was far from a terrible person, so the fact she was grabbed to begin with makes no sense to me." Landon believes that they should be asking why Hope was attacked at all then he compliments her by saying that she was a good person before admitting that he doesn't understand why someone would go after her.
"Well actually, we're her family and because a lot of people hate us, it's possible that they are trying to get our attention." Rebekah explains that although Landon is right in the fact that Hope is a good person, her relations to her family is most likely what made her a target.
"You know the worst part about this is that Hope isn't even sixteen yet." MG decides to point out the worst part of the entire situation by stating that Hope hasn't even had her sixteenth birthday yet.
"I forgot, she was born in May, it's only March." Penelope realizes that MG's right, saying that it's only March while Hope was born in May.
"They mutilated and violated a fifteen year old girl?" Lizzie sounds flabbergasted by this new information, hinting at the fact she didn't know Hope's birthday.
"No, I will stand by my statement. The people responsible for her car accident are utter sickos." Lizzie composes herself before she says what's truly on her mind, quoting her one of her own lines, which has the room either chuckle or nod in agreement.
"Isn't our birthday next week?" Josie questions Lizzie on if their birthday is next week.
"Who knows. Due to the entire school practically being on lock-down and focusing all of their energy on finding Hope, it might be postponed just like the election for the honor's council was." Lizzie assumes that the twin's birthday will be postponed due to Hope still missing yet she doesn't seem sad about it being postponed.
"Why does it sound like you don't care about your fifteenth birthday?" Rafael voices his confusion while calling Lizzie out on her tone of voice as she spoke about the event being postponed.
"Hope's missing. As much as I would love to set up everything to have a perfect party, I don't remember the last insult I gave Hope. I would hate to find my suggestions of her being dead to be true without giving her a proper insulting goodbye." Lizzie explains the reasoning for her lack of glumness towards postponing her birthday and Josie just sighs.
"That almost sounded like the nicest thing you could say about her." Josie mutters under her breath that Lizzie's reason almost sounded like a compliment about Hope.
Suddenly, one of the officers from the basement enters the library with a piece of paper and hands it to Matt, who takes it, then the officer leaves.
Matt opens the piece of paper which has nothing else on it but an address and he shows it to the group.
Davina reacts the quickest by pulling out her phone and opening google maps to put the address in.
"Got it. It's right here, in Mystic Falls." Davina shows the group what the map pulled up, saying that the location resides in Mystic Falls.
"Let's go." Alaric advises that they head out and they all head out.
It doesn't take long before they get there and Matt, along with Alaric, seem to recognize the house almost immediately.
"This is Caroline's old house." Alaric makes the decision to point out the location of the house and the group cautiously enters the building.
The inside is completely trashed and damaged, very far from the way that it used to look.
In the living room, all they see is a wooden chair with broken restraints but no couches, no coffee table, no TV, nothing but the chair.
"Guys." Josie looks at one wall, which has them turn their attention to where Josie's looking at.
When the others look where she's staring, they see the words 'freak', 'filth', and 'crossbreed' scrawled across the wall in blood.
"You absolutely sure you had nothing to do with this now?" Marcel stares accusingly at Roman, wondering if he wants to change his answer in not being responsible for Hope's kidnapping and Roman looks at him, gulping nervously as though he knows something.