Chapter 15- We Need to Make a Plan.
Hope was frozen in place when she felt Landon's lips touch her own. She couldn't help but kiss him back, even though every fibre in her body told her not to. Her mind was racing, she understood why Landon was doing this, because before she went into Malivore she was in a relationship with Landon. But she was now in a relationship with Josie, that Landon didn't know about.
Josie couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was suddenly hit with a wave of jealousy, sadness, resentment and hatred. Tears started to fill her eyes and she ran out of the room. Hope broke her kiss with Landon and turned to run after Josie, but Lizzie stopped her. "You really fucked up this time Hope." Lizzie spat as she followed Josie out of the room.
Landon looked at Hope, confused. "What was all that about?" He asked.
"Landon… We should talk." Hope twisted her lips.
"Alright students! Please sit down!" Alaric called from the front of the room. There were hurried murmurs coming from the students, but they all sat down. Landon pulled Hope to the nearest free seats and they sat down. "As you will be aware now, you have been given your memories back. Memories of Hope Mikaelson. Yes, she did jump into Malivore… but she is back now. Please don't let it distract you from your studies. I've agreed with Dorian that you can take today off from your lessons to give you time to adjust again. But school will start again tomorrow. So enjoy your free time. You're all dismissed." Alaric concluded. "Oh wait. I need some of the upperclassmen to help clear the zombie bodies from the main doors please."
As the students started to pile out of the room, a few of them greeted Hope, but most of them just stared at her in a sort of disbelief. Hope found those stares the most difficult. She hated being the centre of attention, she was used to living on the outside of other people's lives with most people not paying attention to her. This was definitely something that she never wanted to experience again and right now, all she wanted to do was to talk to Josie. Hope found herself burying her hands in her face.
"Hey, Hope. Are you okay?" Landon asked.
"No, Landon. We need to talk. But not here." Hope replied.
"Well, let's go to my room. We can talk in there?"
"No, not there. Let's go to the Old Mill. It should be quiet there." Hope shrugged.
"Okay?" Landon looked puzzled, but he stood up anyway, pulled Hope up with him and took her hand in his own. Hope released her hand from his grasp then folded her arms across her chest as they made their way to the Old Mill. Landon tried to make conversation but Hope just ignored him, as she tried to gather her thoughts.
As they approached the Old Mill, Hope did a quick scan of the area to make sure it was clear before she sat down on the steps. Landon followed.
"What's going on then Hope?" Landon asked as he sat down next to Hope.
"When I came back from Malivore… I really struggled to adjust. I lived in a motel for two months before Alar… Doctor Saltzman took me in. I even went to Mystic Falls High School and actually enjoyed it because the name Hope Mikaelson didn't mean anything anymore. And then I came here… For the football game and I saw you and Josie… And my heart felt like it was breaking all over again. Then Josie came to Doctor Saltzman's after the game to check on her dad after he got in that fight with Vardermus… Anyways, the point is I'm in a relationship with Josie. And I love her. She is the reason why everyone got their memories back. She ran off to New Orleans and didn't tell anyone where she was going. Luckily, she wasn't hurt. What I'm trying to say is… As much as I care about you and I wish I didn't have to do this, but we can't be together anymore." Hope spoke with sadness in her voice.
"No Hope. I don't believe this. After everything we went through, I don't accept that you would break up with me. You lied to me many times. You lied to me about my mother and about us finding her. But I still love you Hope. I won't give up on us easily." Landon replied.
"You need to accept it Landon. I am happy with Josie. I want a life with her." Hope stated as she stood up to walk away.
"No, this is not happening. You can't just leave me like that Hope!" Landon stood up and followed her. He grabbed her wrist and spun her around then kissed her.
Hope pushed him away. "Don't ever do that again. I have told you that I don't want to be with you, you need to accept it and move on." Hope turned and walked away.
"You'll come back to me eventually Hope. You know you will. You will inevitably break Josie's heart then you'll come running back." Landon called after her.
After Josie witnessed Hope and Landon kissing, she ran out of the hall, crying. She knows that what happened wasn't Hope's fault, but it didn't stop her from wanting to break everything in sight. She was so full of rage and hurt coursing through her, she didn't know what to do. She ran to her bedroom and within seconds of hitting the mattress, Lizzie burst into the room. She walked over to Josie and joined her on the bed, pulling her into a hug. "It will be okay Jose. I told Hope that she fucked up and she knows that she did. You will get through this." Lizzie spoke softly as she stroked her sister's hair.
"What did you do that for?! She couldn't help it! How was she meant to know that Landon was going to kiss her when he saw her? They did used to date before we got together. So it's understandable that he still sees her that way, because they never technically broke up. It just hurts because I wasn't expecting it." Josie sobbed. "God Lizzie, do you ever use your brain before you speak?" Josie sat up to face Lizzie.
Lizzie looked shocked by her sister's outburst. "Wait… I'm confused. If Hope didn't fuck up, then why are you crying like she just broke your heart?" Lizzie frowned.
"Have you seriously not listened to anything I just said? I am crying because I love her, and I completely forgot that she was in a relationship with Landon before we all lost our memories. And I'm worried that she will go back to him." Josie replied. "You know what, I can't deal with you right now." Josie shuffled herself off the bed and left the bedroom, leaving a dumbfounded Lizzie on her bed.
Josie walked out of the school and headed down to the lake. She needed to be alone for a while, to clear her head. Josie was sat on the edge of the dock with her legs hanging over the edge. She had been there for a while and she was starting to feel more at peace. Her tears had stopped rolling down her face and she was toying with her phone in her hands when someone grabbed her from behind, placing their hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming. Her phone fell from her hands and fell into a nearby bush as she was being dragged backwards through the woods.
Hope had made her way to the Twin's bedroom. She knocked on the door and waited. Lizzie rushed over to the door and yanked it open. "Josie?" Lizzie asked. "Oh. It's you. What are you doing here?"
"I am here to see Josie. Is she here?" Hope asked.
"No, she's not here. She freaked out after you kissed Landon. She was here, then I told her that you fucked up and she freaked out again then left. She hasn't come back yet. That was almost 2 hours ago." Lizzie replied.
"Oh. Well have you tried looking for her? Surely, she couldn't have gone far." Hope frowned.
"No I haven't tried looking for her, she is usually back by now. She hasn't answered my texts or calls."
"I'll try and ring her." Hope pulled her phone out of her pocket and tried to call Josie. Her phone rang until it went to answer phone. "Yeah, she's not answering me either."
"Well can you blame her? After that stunt you pulled. I wouldn't answer you either." Lizzie quipped.
"Now is really not the time to be a bitch Lizzie. Josie is missing." Hope panicked slightly.
"She will turn up. I would know if she was in trouble. She's my twin." Lizzie stated. "Anyway, move. I'm hungry."
Lizzie barged passed Hope and headed down to the dining room for something to eat. Hope stood in the doorway to her girlfriend's room until she heard Lizzie descending the stairs. Once she knew Lizzie was gone, she entered the room, sat on the floor and did a locator spell to find Josie. After a couple of minutes it showed that Josie was at the lake. Hope gathered the map and shoved it into her pocket then headed to find Josie.
It took Hope about ten minutes to walk there. On the way Hope rehearsed her speech she was going to give to Josie about how she is the only person Hope wants to be with and that she had broken up with Landon to be with her. When Hope arrived at the dock, Josie was no where to be seen. Hope looked everywhere, she decided to call her again. Hope pulled her phone out of her pocket and called Josie again. After a few seconds Hope could hear Josie's ringtone. Hope looked around the area until she found where the noise was coming from. She bent down and picked up Josie's phone, she ended her call and checked Josie's phone, she had 4 texts and 2 calls from Lizzie, 2 texts from MG and 2 calls from Hope. "Josie?! Josie?!" Hope called out as her eyes scanned the area.
There was no sign of her girlfriend. Hope quickly pocketed hers and Josie's phones then stripped off and transitioned into her wolf form. Once she was fully in her wolf form, she sniffed the air to try and pick up Josie's scent before she took off running through the woods. Hope managed to pick up Josie's scent a few times, but then she lost it again. It felt like she is running in circles and not getting anywhere. Hope was getting annoyed with herself. She didn't want to give up, but she knew she might have better luck with a locator spell. So she headed back to the lake and got dressed before she took off running to find Lizzie.
Hope burst through the main doors to the school and ran to the dining room. Lizzie was sat talking with MG when she ran in. "Lizzie! Josie is missing!" Hope panted.
"You've officially lost it Mikaelson. Josie isn't missing. I would know if she is missing. She is my twin." Lizzie replied.
Hope pulled Josie's phone out of her pocket. "I found this out by the lake. It was in a bush. Tell me, why would Josie leave her phone in a bush?"
"What have you done to my sister?" Lizzie spat.
"I haven't done anything to her! I did a locator spell to find her. She was at the lake, but by the time I got there, she was gone."
"Well do another locator spell then. She couldn't have gone far." Lizzie retorted.
"I'm going to need your blood." Hope stated before she quickly turned on her heels and headed back up to the Twin's bedroom.
"That witch is going to bleed me dry if she carries on." Lizzie shook her head as she forced herself up to follow Hope. "See you in a bit MG."
Lizzie found Hope sat in the middle of her bedroom with everything laid out ready for the spell. Lizzie shook her head as she took a seat opposite Hope. "You best be right about this." Lizzie spoke, which caused Hope to break her concentration for a few seconds. Hope grunted then continued with what she was doing.
After a few minutes Hope finally spoke. "Give me your hand." Hope held out her own hand and Lizzie laid hers on top. Hope picked up the knife and placed a cut across Lizzie's palm then turned it over to let the blood pool on the map. Both girls said the incantation and watched the page eagerly, waiting for the blood to start moving.
Five minutes passed by and the blood hadn't moved from its spot. "Why isn't the blood moving? Did you do it wrong?" Lizzie quizzed.
"No, I didn't do it wrong. I have done hundreds of locator spells! I don't know why it isn't working. There are only two reasons why a locator spell won't work. One: she has been cloaked. Or two: she's dead." Hope replied, she winced as she said the second one. She wouldn't live with herself if anything happened to Josie.
"Well she wouldn't put a cloaking spell on herself. If she had, you wouldn't have been able to find her at the lake in the first place. And I would know if she was dead. I would feel it. So someone must have her." Lizzie stated. "Can't you like… wolf out and try to find her that way?"
"I tried that, before I came to find you. Her scent kept moving and every time I thought I was getting close, it disappeared. I practically ran around the woods in circles looking for her. Whoever has her knows how to confuse a wolf." Hope was pissed, she shoved everything out of the way and screamed. "I'm going to find whoever has her and I am going to kill them!"
"Calm down Hope. We will find her. We need to talk to my dad." Lizzie tried to reassure her.
"Calm down?! Who the hell are you and what the fuck have you done to Lizzie Saltzman? YOU'RE SISTER IS MISSING!" Hope snarled.
"I know she is Hope, but one of us has to keep a level head and that clearly isn't you right now." Lizzie breathed.
Hope stood up and stormed out of the room. Lizzie huffed and followed her. Hope rushed through the school to find Alaric. She found him in Dorian's office talking with Dorian and Emma. She burst through the doors. "What's going on Hope?" Alaric asked, slightly stunned by the sudden intrusion.
"Josie's missing." Hope hissed.
"What do you mean Josie is missing?" Emma asked.
"We can't find her. Hope found her phone down by the lake and we did a locator spell, but we couldn't get a read on her. Hope even wolfed out, but she couldn't keep Josie's scent for long." Lizzie stated as she walked in behind Hope.
"She couldn't have gone far. We'll get a search party going. We'll get some of vampires to go and check the woods. And we'll get some of the witches to do a locator spell." Emma said. "Alaric, why don't you go and organise the vampires and I'll get the witches started. Dorian can you put the rest of the school on lockdown and then do a head count? Just to make sure no one else has gone."
"Yeah okay. I'll get that sorted." Dorian said as he rushed out of the room.
Alaric fell back into a chair in a state of disbelief. He didn't listen to anything that Emma had just said. He shook his head then stood up. "I need to check something." Alaric muttered before he rushed out of the room and headed to his old office. Hope and Lizzie followed him. Once Alaric entered the office he headed over to the 'bookshelf' that kept the ascendant hidden and reached inside the illusion of books and pulled out the box. He unlocked it and found it empty.
He picked up the box, smashed it on the floor and screamed in rage. "The ascendant is gone. Lizzie did you take it?" He stared at his daughter.
"No I didn't. We promised we wouldn't touch it until it was the last possible option!" Lizzie replied.
"Well we're going to need to find it." Alaric stated.
"How? It's not like we can do a locator spell on it." Hope replied.
"You're right. A locator spell won't work. I'll call Bonnie. She should know how to find it. Hopefully she's enchanted it or something." Alaric shook his head as he pulled out his phone. "She's gonna kill me."
Hope and Lizzie looked at each other briefly before they turned their attention back to Alaric. He was on the phone with Bonnie and filled her in on what had happened with the ascendant. Alaric and Bonnie spoke for a few minutes before he hung up the phone.
"She needs to check something when she gets home. She said she will ring me back in fifteen minutes." Alaric stated.
"Okay, so what are we going to do? We still need a plan to find Josie and if she is cloaked, we need to find a way to uncloak her." Lizzie replied.
"I can phone my aunt. She might know a way." Hope groaned. Then proceeded to pick up her phone and call her Aunt Freya.
Freya: Hey Hope. Is everything okay?
Hope: Hey Aunt Freya. Erm, no not really. Do you know a way to uncloak someone even if you don't know where they are?
Freya: Oh, erm. I'm not sure. I can have a look through some of the Grimoires, but off the top of my head I don't think there is a way. What's going on?
Hope: Oh. Erm… Someone has taken Josie; we can't find her.
Freya: Right okay. What have you tried to do so far?
Hope: Well initially I did a locator spell to find her. When everyone got their memories back, Landon kissed me and Josie saw, she ran out. I gave her space for a while before I went to look for her, I broke up with Landon, properly. And I wanted to tell her that. So I did a locator spell and it said she was down by the lake. But when I got there, I couldn't find her. I found her phone in the bush. So I wolfed out and tried to pick up her scent, but it was all over the place and I couldn't get a read on her… It was like she kept moving in all different directions. She doesn't know the full extent of a werewolf's abilities, so she wouldn't know how to cover her trail. I looked everywhere for her. I gave up after an hour and went to find her sister. When I found Lizzie, I did the blood location spell, but nothing happened. The blood didn't even move on the page.
Freya: Awe hunni, I'm sorry that you're going through this. And I hate to bring this up, but… you know that there may be another reason for why the locator spell didn't work, right?
Hope: Yeah, I know… But that hasn't happened. Lizzie would know and she hasn't felt anything.
Freya: What do you mean she hasn't felt anything?
Hope: Josie and Lizzie are twins, but they are also part of the Gemini Coven. They have a… weird connection to say the least. But they can sense each other, so Lizzie would know if Josie is hurt… Or…
Freya: Say no more… I'll have a look through the Grimoires, and I'll get back to you. Okay? Everything will be fine Hope.
Hope: I hope you're right Aunt Freya, I don't know what I'd do without her.
Freya: You'll get through this Hope. I'll give you a call in a little while okay?
Hope: Thanks Aunt Freya.
Freya: Bye sweetie.
"She's going to check through some of the Grimoire's and get back to me." Hope groaned as she flopped onto the sofa in Alaric's office and ran her hands across her face. "I hate feeling so… useless. I should be out there looking for her!"
"I want to be out there as much as you do Hope, but we can't go looking for her if we don't know where to start. Let's just wait to see what Bonnie and Freya have to say." Alaric tried to reassure Hope, but he didn't believe what he was saying.
The three of them sat in silence for a few minutes before Alaric's phone rang.
Alaric: Hey Bonnie, did you find anything out?
Bonnie: Hey Ric. Erm yeah. So it looks like someone accessed the Ascendant at 12:30pm. I can't tell you who though. But whoever did it must have some serious power. There hasn't been a mystical event for a while. There are only two ways to access it, one is through Bennett blood and a mystical event and the other way is through some serious black magic. Has anyone at the school used black magic recently?
Alaric: Erm. Yes? Josie used black magic to give everyone their memories of Hope Mikaelson back.
Bonnie: Ah yes. I remembered Hope as well. Well, that alone shouldn't have triggered the Ascendant. Are there any particular students that have experience with black magic?
Alaric: Other than Josie and Hope… No, I don't know of any other students.
Bonnie: Are you sure that they didn't do it?
Alaric: Are you seriously accusing my daughter right now Bonnie? Josie is missing. She didn't do this. Neither did Hope for that matter.
Bonnie: I'm sorry Ric, I had to ask.
Alaric: I know.
Bonnie: If Kai is out… I want him dead just as much as you do. Give me an hour and I'll drop by the school.
Alaric: Okay, see you soon Bonnie.
Just as Alaric ended the call with Bonnie, Emma rushed into the office. "Hey, so we've done a head count and the only person that is missing other than Josie is Alyssa Chang."
"Alyssa Chang? Are you sure?" Alaric asked.
"Yes, we double checked. We can't find her. No one has seen her since the assembly." Emma replied.
"Actually… Me and Josie saw her. She walked in on us in the bathroom. She said something to me, but I thought she was just being her usual bitchy self. She said "Don't get use to… whatever it is you two are doing… It won't last long, now that everyone has their memories back." I thought she was just making a comment about Landon. What if she has something to do with Josie being missing?" Hope started to get angry.
"What were you and Josie doing in the bathroom?" Lizzie asked.
"We were just… talking." Hope lowered her eyes to the floor, not willing to admit that she was actually in the bathroom trying to fuck Josie.
"Hmm sure you were." Lizzie narrowed her eyes.
"Girls, enough. We need to make a plan or something. And we need to find Alyssa." Alaric stated.