"I think she'd prefer mini muffins to champagne." Josie comments on how she thinks Hope would most likely prefer the mini muffins rather than champagne after chuckling softly at MG's rant of Hope's strength.
"Probably. Well, what's the plan, spider-man?" Lizzie agrees with Josie's point before directing a question at Roman, since he's the one who led them to the house, calling him 'spider-man', which amuses him.
Before anyone can say anything, Josie just groans in annoyance at the new crime scene that they're at.
"Ugh, this is pointless." Josie moans out that what they are doing is pointless, which confuses all of them.
"We're at another crime scene. How is this pointless?" Kaleb steals the question the others wanted to ask but his statement before the question seems to aggravate Josie more.
"Exactly. We're at another crime scene but there's nothing here. We don't have any answers, we aren't anywhere close to Hope, or where she is. All we have is evidence, millions of questions, and like, five crime scenes, all of which have the exact same tragic look." Josie admits that Kaleb's statement just proves her point as she speaks loudly yet doesn't shout at them.
None of them are able to speak up as Josie cuts them off while she continues her rant.
"This house, the crime scenes, the evidence, everything we have has brought us further away from Hope. I mean, everytime we have one or two answers, we just gain like a billion more questions. We have nothing!" Josie shouts that they have nothing as she kicks the dresser in her mom's old bedroom after stating more facts on the situation that they are in then sighs in realization of how she's acted.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where that came from." Josie apologizes for her outburst after she has pinched the bridge of her nose and calmed down from her boiling anger.
Everyone remains silent for a few moments, even after her apology, as they all seem to acknowledge all of Josie's points, and Roman stares at Josie sympathetically, appearing to know that Josie deeply cares for Hope as he does yet he also looks relieved since he's aware that if she didn't act out, he would've.
"I'm going to call Matt and inform him of the new evidence we found." Alaric breaks the silence, stating that he'll call Matt and he takes out his phone to do so.
"Let's head back to the school and focus more on the riddle." Lizzie recommends they head back to the school after Alaric hangs up and they all nod in agreement.
They all head back to the school once Matt and some officers get there, with Matt still uncomfortable with how Caroline's house now looks.
After they return to the library, they inform the rest of the group of what they discovered and the assumption that they've made.
"So, she was kidnapped twice?" Emma sounds horrified by this new revelation, as Hope is still only fifteen.
"That's the assumption, yeah." Penelope confirms that Hope being kidnapped twice is the assumption and Emma looks away as she processes this.
"Okay, step one of retracing steps is complete. We already turned the evidence inside out and didn't really find much, so I'm confused." Lizzie looks at the clipboard as she mutters that retracing steps is done then admits that they already looked at all of the evidence again and states she's confused.
"Can I see that?" Josie wonders if she can see the clipboard and Lizzie simply hands it to her as they're sitting close to each other.
"There's a reason you have more questions than answers, the evidence you have is solely a lock, you need to find the key. You already have it, you know that you have it, you just need to find it. Retracing steps is part one, focus on all of the evidence to see what stands out. You have everything you need, all you have to do is realize it." Josie rereads the riddle aloud again before looking intently at the clipboard.
"She never said re-examine the evidence, she just said to focus on the evidence." Josie realizes that Hope never told them to re-examine the evidence, yet to solely focus on it, and this causes Josie to put the clipboard down then stand to her feet so she can walk over to where the evidence is now back in the bags, with magnets keeping them to the whiteboard in the room.
"Focus on all of the evidence." Josie mutters to herself as she intently stares at the evidence then thinks for a long moment.
"I think I need to see the gas station footage from the day she went missing again. I might have missed something." Josie determines that she needs to watch the footage from the gas station the day Hope disappeared, believing she might have missed something.
Lizzie gives her the laptop with the disc of the footage on top of it and Josie takes it.
She opens the laptop then puts the disc in the computer and plugs her earbuds in after taking them out of her pocket, most likely so she can hear the audio better.
The rest of the room is sitting around boredly as Josie busies herself with re-watching the gas station footage while Landon reads the Catching Fire book again, trying to figure out how Lizzie came to one of her two conclusions.
Landon looks at the book in complete confusion, clearly not seeing what Lizzie saw that had her determine it helped with scrabble cheats.
The rest of the room can tell that Josie is repetitively rewinding it, yet for some unknown reasons.
Josie is also intently watching the footage even as she rewinds it constantly on the one spot before just letting it play normally then starts rewinding it again once she reaches Hope being outside of the gas station, trying to pay attention so she won't miss anything that's happening.
"Oh, you sly little…" Josie trails off from what she was muttering, as it got the room's attention, and she removes the earbuds from both her ears along with the computer.
"Check this out. I almost completely missed it." Josie summons the rest to the laptop, where she is and they all head over to her as she tells them she almost missed it.
"Alright, I only discovered this when I zoomed in and slowed it down, so you have to pay very close attention." Josie explains how she discovered it then advises that they intently pay attention to the footage before playing it.
They all watch the video, following Josie's instructions of paying close attention to it, as the footage mainly focuses on Hope messing with her hair during the phone call then they see her switch hands as she removes the gas pump before hanging up and she fiddles with her hands for a minute then heads over to the driver's side, reaches for the door handle but uses her one hand to pull her opposite sleeve down slightly just before she opens the car door, gets in, and drives off.
"She was clearly doing something but I couldn't tell what." MG is the first to speak after Josie pauses the video and she simply nods at him.
"Exactly. Now if only we can find out precisely what she did." Josie tells them that what MG has stated is what she wanted them to see then makes the statement of if they can just figure out what it was that she did, only to immediately be struck with something.
"Wait a second, I think I figured it out." Josie instantly rushes over to the evidence whiteboard, as she blurts that she thinks she figured it out.
Josie laughs happily as she turns to face them after intently looking at all of the evidence they have again.
"The necklace." Josie brings up the necklace and they all look confused.
"Yes, the necklace. We have already established that it's part of the evidence." Penelope reminds Josie that they already know the necklace is evidence, staring at her confused.
"No, the necklace. Mr. Williams, what picture did you show the clerk at the gas station?" Josie shakes her head, implying that she's not talking about the necklace they have, before she directs a question at Dorian.
He takes out his phone, finds the picture, and then shows it to Josie, who grabs his phone from him to look at the photo closely.
"And he said that everything about this photo was accurate outside of the fact she had the leather jacket on?" Josie looks up at Dorian for confirmation on if the clerk said that everything in the pic was the same.
"Yeah, why?" Dorian confirms what Josie needed to hear as she smiles brightly at this news.
"Everything about this photo was the same minus the jacket." Josie emphasizes the words 'everything' and 'minus', yet the room is still staring at her in confusion so she shows them the photo.
"There's one thing we didn't find in the car accident, outside of her clothes, and that's her necklace." Josie seems excited about something as she emphasizes 'one' then brings up the necklace.
"We already have the necklace." Kaleb reminds Josie they already have the necklace but she shakes her head.
"No, we've got one necklace and if everything about the photo is the same, then she was wearing two necklaces the day she was kidnapped." Josie zooms the photo in to Hope's neck where low-and-behold, Hope is actually wearing two necklaces in it; the Mikaelson crest necklace they have that holds her magic and a heart locket, which stuns them, as well as explains to them why Josie was so determined about the necklace.
"Well, this is great, it really is, but that doesn't explain what she was doing in the gas station footage." Jed realizes that this new discovery, although great, doesn't entirely explain the gas station footage, which has Josie give Dorian his phone back and head over to the still open computer.
She rewinds the footage then plays it again at an even slower pace, to pay attention to what she's doing.
"Huh, she took off the necklace during the phone call, swapped hands so the one holding the necklace can hold the phone in order for her to not lose it when putting the pump back then most likely placed it around her wrist after re-hooking it. That's why she pulled her sleeve down, so no one could see the necklace." Josie figures out that she was taking off the one necklace while on the phone with Josie and wrapped it around her wrist, making it a bracelet, before she left the gas station.
"Well, now that we've figured all of this out, what are we going to do?" Rafael decides to question what they're going to do now that they have all this new information, unsure of the answer.
"It wasn't left behind in the accident and it wasn't in the house she was held captive in for a month so it can be established that she's still wearing it. Which means that we are very lucky right now." Lizzie assumes that due to the fact her locket isn't with the other things from the accident nor was it in the house she was held captive in, then she's probably still wearing and she assures them that they're lucky that she most likely is.
Lizzie then heads over to the computer, exits out of the footage screen, removes the disc, and opens a specific app while Josie sits down next to her as she types a password into the app she just opened.
"What exactly are you doing?" Marcel is the first to question what they're doing, clearly confused by the unfolding events.
"That heart locket she wears, I spelled it two years ago. So now, it acts like a camera that can tell us where she is. Well, I'm praying it will tell us where she is anyway." Josie gives a brief explanation of the fact she spelled Hope's necklace to have it act like a camera.
Lizzie finally manages to type in the right password after two errors and they all focus on the screen but they can't really see anything as something is blocking the necklace.
"Wake up." an unidentifiable woman's voice can be heard before they hear Hope get slapped.
"Mmm." Hope moans in pain as she stirs awake then seems to wake up more when she gets slapped again.
"What?" Hope groggily asks about the wake up call, sounding so weak her voice is nearly unidentifiable.
"You're in luck." the unknown woman vaguely states that Hope's in luck and Hope weakly chuckles.
"What can you tell me about the boss? I think I overheard somebody mention a boss." Hope weakly wonders what the woman can tell her about the boss then quickly adds that she heard someone mention the boss.
"He's going to be here soon. He has been dying to finally meet you and the thing you're lucky about is that we need to keep you alive, unlike the people you were formerly in the captivity of." the unknown woman makes it clear that they took her from Caroline's old house, due to needing her alive after claiming that the boss is on his way to where they are as he's been dying to meet her.
"Well, if that's the case then maybe you can, uh, loosen these ropes a little. They're too tight." Hope recommends that the woman loosen her restraints a little bit then moans that they're too tight, annoying the woman.
"Fine, but only a little." the woman reluctantly agrees to loosen the ropes, yet only slightly and proceeds to do so.
However, it's revealed to be a trick as Hope had already loosened her bindings earlier and Hope breaks out of her restraints after she headbutts the woman once she started to loosen the ropes around her wrists.
Hope then engages in a fight with the woman, ultimately getting the upper hand and knocking her out cold.
She decides to put the woman in the chair she just escaped from and tighten the ropes, so the woman won't be able to reach anything, then removes the weapons she has on her after taking her necklace on her wrist and putting it back around her neck.
Hope unloads the gun, completely disarming it and tosses it to the side then holds up a knife that she took from the woman in front of her, even though she's unconscious.
"I'm gonna take this." Hope mockingly comments that she's going to take the knife then rushes to the door and opens it, revealing bright lights that Hope has to shield her eyes from due to being stuck in a very dim room.
Once Hope's eyes adjust to the lights, she starts running again and everyone watching is trying to see where she is, as she's not outdoors.
Hope reaches an area that has a ladder and, without thinking, she dashes to it then immediately starts climbing it, only to be stopped by someone who grabs her foot as an attempt to try to pull her down yet she repetitively kicks them in the face until the grip is gone and continues hurriedly climbing the ladder.
She is stopped by the fact that the ladder leads to a door, yet doesn't seem like a trap door, and after a few moments of practically body-slamming against it, the door opens.
Hope runs out and instantly closes the door behind her before rushing through the wooded area that she's in, implying that she was in a bunker and/or storm cellar.
"Um, okay Hope, think. Where are you? Nope, don't think, you don't have any time to think. Postpone thinking." Hope briefly stops to catch a breath and think about where she is but immediately begins to run again when she hears footsteps, seemingly following her.
Hope reaches a clearing but still hears footsteps behind her so, running out of options, she climbs a tree and hides in the upper branches in order to not be seen.
Although the necklace, and therefore the people watching, can't, Hope can see a man enter the area, looking around for something.
Hope thinks for a long moment and realizing that she can't wait till he leaves as he'll eventually start following her again, she takes the knife out of her bra, where she stored it after stealing it, grips it tightly as she gets a steely, determined look in her eyes, then jumps from the branch, landing on top of the man that was following her.
The two scuffle for a few moments before Hope stabs the guy in the neck, the blood splattering across her face as he was on top of her at the time.
She weakly pushes him off of her then struggles to her feet and kicks at his lifeless body.
"Hmm, looks like I hit an artery. My bad." Hope deduces that she hit an artery in his neck, due to the blood splatter it caused, then apologizes before removing the knife, hiding his body in a bush, and running off again after she hides the knife down her bra again.
"Did she just apologize for hitting an artery?" Kol takes the time to question if Hope had just apologized for stabbing someone in the neck causing the rest of the room to slightly chuckle before they resume watching with interest.
Hope very weakly runs and the people watching can tell that she has very low energy, her entire escape most likely coming from an adrenaline rush, that seems to be wearing off.
Hope stops to catch her breath again and think about where she might be as she pants heavily from exhaustion.
She leans against a tree, trying to control her breaths and relax in order to help her think more clearly.
"Okay, you're in the woods, but where? You know what, screw trying to find out my location. I'll just wait until I reach civilization." Hope talks to herself as she tries to think about where she is then halts thinking, claiming that she should just find civilization.
Hope starts running yet again in order to help her find some civilization.
She keeps it up until she trips over a root of a tree and lands in another clearing but this one has a stream, so she scrambles to her feet then rushes over to the running water, limping in pain.
"Oh ow, my leg really hurts all of sudden." Hope grabs her leg, her hand being just above her knee as she announces that her leg suddenly hurts in a hushed tone.
Hope takes a minute to feel where her leg hurts by pressing down on various areas until she makes a small screeching noise as she feels where the pain is, along with feeling something metal.
"What the hell is that? Is there something metal embedded under my skin?" Hope simply mutters to herself, wondering what is in her leg then questions if there's metal under her skin before sighing as she contemplates her options.
She decides to take the knife she stole out of her bra again and places it in the stream to wash the blood of the person she killed with it off then heads over to a section of plants, as she seems to recognize them as plants that can help her, once she's done cleaning the knife.
It's revealed to the people watching the necklace camera that she's still in her school uniform, only barefoot, as they see her cut off one part of her leggings then slide it off, and put it next to her.
"Alright, brace yourself because this is going to hurt like a bitch." Hope whispers to her herself, then takes a deep breath of anticipation as a way of bracing herself, while she grips the knife tightly.
"Ahh." Hope partially screams once she stabs herself in the leg, causing the people watching to get looks of discomfort.
Hope cuts her leg open and, due to all of the wolfsbane in her system, her wound does not heal whatsoever, allowing her to dig through her injury to find the metal thing in her leg.
"Mmm." Hope moans in discomfort as she digs through her own wound before ripping out the metal thing she felt when she was trying to find the pain in her lower thigh.
"Gah. Got it. Is that a tracking device?" Hope briefly groans as she rips the metal thing out then sighs in relief before realizing that it might be a tracking device.
With a look of worry, she drops the tracker into the stream, cleans the blood off of her hands along with cleaning the knife again then uses the sap of the plants to make a form of medicine before taking the pant leg from off the ground to use it as a splint since she wraps it around the injury she just made and places the hunting knife back down her bra once she's on her feet again.
"Yep, that hurts. Just walk it off, walk it off." Hope realizes that her leg is still in pain but encourages herself to walk it off as she psyches herself up and starts running once more.
Hope takes yet another break to catch her breath after a good half hour of running when she hears something that seems close by.
"Please oh please, be civilization." Hope pleads that what she hears is a town or something before she starts heading towards it.
However, it doesn't take long before she gets knocked unconscious by an unknown force and the screen becomes black and gray fizz, like a broken TV.
"If any of you are wondering, the screen gets like that when she's unconscious. I haven't fixed it to work when she's sleeping, or underwater yet." Josie debriefs the group on why the screen looks like a broken TV and they all nod understandingly.
"Did she just cut herself open and remove something from her leg?" Jed seems to be looking for reassurance to his question more than anything, clearly impressed by Hope's willpower.
"Yes, she did." Marcel confirms that she did cut herself open and they all sit around to wait until Hope wakes up.