Chapter 19- Things Just Go from Bad to Worse.
About an hour has passed since Josie left Hope standing alone in the Kitchen. Josie was pissed and she had every right to be, especially after everything that she had just experienced. She needed Hope to be there for her, care for her, not question her. Yes, physically she was healed thanks to Hope's blood, but emotionally? She was all messed up.
She had experienced a lot in the past week. She went from having no memories of Hope to being able to remember her whole life story, she almost had sex with her (six times and twice in one day) to watching her girlfriend kiss another person -quite passionately I might add- to being kidnapped by her sociopathic uncle and held captive for over a day, where he tied her up, stabbed her and tortured her.
This shouldn't have been her life. This is not the life that she wanted. On days like today, she wished she was normal and not supernatural at all. She wanted to forget about her problems for a while, she needed too. It was all too much to deal with. Hope was too much to deal with. Hope wanted to talk, how funny is that? The queen of stoic, the woman who doesn't talk to anyone about anything wanted to talk to her about what she had experienced? Yeah, no, Josie wasn't going to be doing that. At least not today.
Josie had walked around the school grounds aimlessly but somehow, she found herself down by the lake. The same lake she was kidnapped from less than two days ago. She always found peace here, no matter what had happened in the past. Josie pulled her phone out of her pocket and ran it through her fingers a couple of times before she decided to call her mother. She started to cry as soon as she heard her mom's voice on the other end of the line.
Caroline and Josie's phone call:
Caroline: Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?
Josie: Hey mom. I take it Dad called you?
Caroline: Yeah, he did. He was worried about you. So was I.
Josie: I'm sorry.
Caroline: What are you sorry for sweetie?
Josie: I'm sorry for making you all worried.
Caroline: You don't need to apologise for that. You never need to apologise for that Josie.
Josie: I just don't know what to do anymore.
Caroline: Tell me what's been going on.
Josie: (laughs wetly) Where do you want me to start?
Caroline: From wherever you feel comfortable sweetie. Or you don't have to speak at all.
Josie: Are you coming home?
Caroline: I'm not sure.
Josie: Oh. (There was a dead silence on the phone. It was a couple of minutes before someone spoke again.)
Caroline: Where are you?
Josie: I'm just sat down by the lake, why?
Caroline: How come you're not with your sister?
Josie: She was annoying me. Just add it to the list of the other people who are annoying me today.
Josie was wrapped up in her thoughts and the scenery that she didn't realise someone was walking up behind her.
"Who else is annoying you today?" Caroline asked as she ended the call and sat down beside her daughter.
"Mom! What are you doing here?! Why didn't you tell me you were here already?" Josie cried as she threw herself into her mother's arms.
"I wanted it to be a surprise. I thought it would cheer you up." Caroline replied as she held her daughter and stroked her hair.
"Does anyone else know that you are here?"
"No not yet. I was actually just driving through the gates when you called. I was going to come and find you first."
"Why are you here? Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy that you are here… but why now?"
"Because you needed me, and I wanted to be here. We never really get to spend much time together. You know how Lizzie can be."
"Thank you, mom."
"Now do you want to talk about what's happened?"
"Not right now. Let me just rest here for a while."
"Okay sweetie." Caroline replied before she fell silent. Josie was so physically and emotionally exhausted that she fell asleep in her mom's lap. Caroline waited for her breathing to level out before she picked her up and carried her back to the school. Caroline carried Josie up to her bedroom and laid her down on the bed, she wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her until she herself drifted off to sleep.
Hope couldn't explain Josie's reaction. She was shocked and confused by what had just happened. She didn't call Josie crazy, she never even implied it as far as she could tell. She wanted to run after her to try and find out what happened. But a part of her knew that there was no point, Josie would come and find her when she's ready. That's one thing she could always count on, Josie always came back to her no matter what happened. Hope pushed the thoughts out of her head and fixed herself something to eat.
Once Hope had eaten, she headed through the school, back down to the tunnels to find Alaric and the others.
The group of adults were huddled together just passed the stairs; they were all talking in a whispered hush. Hope hovered on the stairs for a few minutes and listened to what they were talking about. From what Hope could make out, they were talking about Stephanie Salvatore. Bonnie had said that she had found her, but she needed someone to go get her.
"I'll go." Hope offered as she descended the stairs. The group simultaneously whipped their heads around to see Hope walking towards them.
"How long have you been standing there?" Alaric asked.
"Long enough." Hope shrugged. "I'll go and get Stephanie. Just tell me where she is."
"No, It's too dangerous." Alaric replied.
"Are you being serious? After everything that I've done today and what I've done for the school in the past 2 years, you're telling me it's too dangerous?" Hope seethed.
"I… erm… Yes. I'm telling you it's too dangerous. I need you here to protect the school… Where's Josie?" Alaric frowned.
"That's rich coming from you Alaric. You know that I'm the best person for this. I'll take aunt Keelin with me if you're that bothered." Hope shrugged, completely ignoring his question about Josie. She didn't really want to explain how they somehow managed to get into a fight only a few hours after they got back. "Bonnie. Tell me where I need to go and what I need to do. Me and Aunt Keelin will take care of it."
"You're going to need to take one of the twins with you as well." Bonnie replied. "Knowing Kai he would have put a protection barrier around her. And it might be a trap."
"Ugh. Fine. I'll take Lizzie with me. Josie could use a rest for today. But if she dies, it's not my fault." Hope stated somewhat jokingly. "Give all the details to Keelin and I'll go and get Lizzie. Hopefully I won't kill her in the process."
"Would it kill you to be nice to Lizzie?" Alaric retorted.
"Yes, it just might." Hope threw over her shoulder as she turned and walked away.
Hope found Lizzie down in the transition cellars with Kaleb and MG. "Hey, weirdo. You're coming with me." Hope called as she walked into the cellars.
"Who are you calling a weirdo?" Kaleb and MG asked at the same time.
"Lizzie." Hope smiled.
"I'm not going anywhere with you. You might kill me." Lizzie retorted.
"You could only wish you would be so lucky." Hope countered. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time."
"I'm not going. And you can't make me." Lizzie stood her ground.
"You know full well that I can make you. Now don't make me do it for you. I don't think your dad would be very happy if I hurt you." Hope stared Lizzie down.
Lizzie groaned as she pushed herself up off the floor. "If I'm not back in 30 minutes, call the police." Lizzie pleaded with MG.
"We're going to be gone longer than 30 minutes." Hope replied.
"Oh God. I'm definitely going to die."
"Lizzie! You really need to stop being so dramatic. I'm not going to kill you. But you might die. And I thought I'd risk your life today instead of Josie's." Hope shrugged.
"Hey, girls. Are you ready?" Keelin asked as she made her way down to the cellars.
"I'm ready. Lizzie's being stubborn as usual." Hope replied.
"I'm not being stubborn. I just don't want Hope to kill me."
"Hope isn't going to kill you. I won't let her, plus I don't think Alaric would be too happy about it." Keelin laughed. "Come on. We don't have a lot of time left."
You're the second person to say that. Where are we supposedly going?" Lizzie frowned as she crossed her arms.
"We are going to get Stephanie Salvatore." Keelin replied.
"Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?" Lizzie backhanded Hope's arm as she walked past her and started to follow Keelin out of the cellars. Hope frowned at the attack but quickly followed suit.
Keelin drove the girls out to the warehouse where Stephanie was. The whole ride over there Hope and Lizzie didn't stop bickering about one thing or another. Keelin told them off several times, they would quieten down for a short time before they started again. Keelin was just about at the end of her tether when they approached the building.
"Finally." Keelin whispered as she pulled the car up to park. Hope shot her a look. Keelin stared at her, before she shook her head and got out of the car. Hope and Lizzie followed.
"So why exactly am I here?" Lizzie asked as they walked towards the building.
"You're here incase we need to syphon anything. Kai might have put a barrier spell around the building that could prevent us from getting inside." Keelin replied.
"Anyway why couldn't Josie have done it?"
"Why do you think?!" Hope spat. Her body tensed up at the mention of Josie's name. She hated feeling like this.
"Oh." Lizzie replied.
The rest of the short walk was quiet between the girls. Once they approached the building Hope stopped. "There's magic here. I can feel it." Hope stated.
"I can too." Lizzie returned.
Hope picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the building. The stone became electrified and fragmented on impact. "That's some serious magic." Keelin said.
"Okay. Go and syphon it, Lizzie." Hope said.
"Why me?! I don't want to get electrocuted." Lizzie frowned.
"Well I can't do it, can I?! God Lizzie you are so dense." Hope retorted.
"You know what Hope? Fuck you!"
"You only wish you could." Hope laughed.
Lizzie was so shocked by the comment that she stormed over to the building and started to syphon the magic. As she was syphoning, she turned to Hope and casted a spell that sent Hope flying backwards through the air, before she landed about 20 feet back from her original position.
Lizzie grinned smugly, proud of what she had done knocking Hope Mikaelson off her feet. Hope pushed herself up to standing and went to cast a counter spell at Lizzie but Keelin stood in the way.
"Hope. Don't you dare think about doing that spell. It's not worth it." Keelin stated. "Go for a walk before you do something you regret."
"She started it! Why do I have to walk away?!" Hope shouted.
"Hope! GO NOW!" Keelin growled.
"FINE!" Hope stormed off. Today's events were getting to her. Lizzie had been more of a pain in the arse than usual and it was starting to grate on her. She felt off ever since she went to collect Lizzie from the cellars, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Hope decided it would be best if she wolfed out. She quickly stormed off to the car and got undressed, throwing her clothes onto the passenger seat and wolfed out.
Once in her wolf form she took off back towards the warehouse. Once she got closer, she figured something was different. Keelin and Lizzie were nowhere to be seen. Hope charged at the building, forcing the door open. Once inside, she saw Kai leaning over Stephanie's and Keelin's body.
"Glad you could join me Hope. It is Hope, isn't it?" Kai laughed.
Hope pounced full force at Kai but was knocked back. She did it again, but the same thing happened.
"Now, now, Hope… You're going to tire yourself out if you keep doing that… Oh by the way. Did you think I did a good impression of Lizzie?"
Hope growled at him, baring her teeth. She shuffled back slightly before she forced herself forwards again. This time Kai casted a spell which sent Hope flying to the other side of the building, she landed with a whimper but got back up again.
"You really don't give up, do you?" Kai asked, amused. "When will you learn? You are not going to kill me today, or ever for that matter. Because once I completely drain dear little Stephanie here, I will be able to complete my body transfer. I mean, who would expect that? I can leave here in the body of a 16-year-old girl and nobody would ask many questions. I could just say that you all died trying to save me. I mean if I could fool you and… that woman, sorry I don't know her name, that I was Lizzie Saltzman, then I think I could pass as Stephanie very well, don't you?"
Hope paced around, staring at Kai, waiting for the right moment, for him to make the wrong step and she would attack. She just wished she didn't have to wait too long. As she paced, her thoughts went to Josie and Lizzie (surprisingly), if Lizzie wasn't actually here with them, then where was she? And what had Kai done with her. She concentrated on Josie, trying to find that connection they shared earlier. She was screaming in her head for Josie to hear her, but she didn't know if she could. Hope decided to try a different tactic, something she hadn't done before, but she's heard her Aunt Freya talk about it, she was going to try and dream jump. It only works if the other person is sleeping though, and she's definitely never done it in wolf form before.
If there was ever a chance to prove her lineage, now would be the time. The great Mikaelson clan was famous for doing stupid, reckless shit, but they were also famous for their witchcraft. Now would be the perfect chance to try it.
Hope, still in her wolf form, closed her eyes briefly and thought of Josie. In her head she was muttering a spell that she had heard Freya using before. After a few minutes, she started to get images of Josie's dream in her head. She searched around for a few seconds before she found Josie sitting on the grass overlooking the Lake.
"Josie!" Hope called.
"HOPE!" Josie startled herself awake, waking up Caroline in the process. It took Josie a few seconds to register where she was.
"What's the matter sweetie?" Caroline asked, puzzled.
"Something is wrong. Come with me, quickly. We need to find Dad." Josie pushed herself up from the bed and ran out of the room, Caroline quickly followed. Josie made a quick detour to Hope's old bedroom and pulled up the floorboards underneath the bed. She pulled out the massive 'entire works of Shakespeare' binder that was secretly the Mikaelson's family Grimoire. She pulled out the black magic death spell and placed it in her pocket.
Josie ran through the school and down to the tunnels where she found Alaric standing over Kai's body with a sword in his hand. "WAIT DAD! DON'T! THAT'S NOT KAI!" Josie shouted as she struggled to catch her breath from the running.
"What do you mean it's not Kai?" Alaric frowned.
"Hope just came to me in a dream. That's not Kai. She's with Kai." Josie panted.
"You've lost me. Explain it."
"I was asleep, and I was dreaming. Hope was there, naked. She told me that Lizzie is missing, and that Kai has Stephanie and Keelin hostage. Apparently, he did some sort of body switching spell to make himself look like Lizzie. And he's trying to drain Stephanie's blood so that he can take over her body. She doesn't know where Lizzie is though. So we need to find her, and we need to save Hope and the others." Josie rushed to explain.
"That doesn't make any sense. We've been with Lizzie all day. There was no way he could have done it." Alaric replied.
"Actually there was some time where no one was with Lizzie. Lizzie was moaning about having to be stuck with me and Hope all day, so Hope told her to leave and go annoy MG. Then me and Hope got into a fight and I walked out to the lake, then mom turned up. Hope said that when she went down to the cellars to get Lizzie she was there. So she was missing for about 20 minutes or so." Josie returned.
"Wait, Caroline is here? When did she get here?" Alaric frowned.
"That's not the point dad. We need to find Lizzie!" Josie spat.
"Yeah, your right. Keep an eye on whoever that is. Me and Josie will go and find Lizzie." Alaric spoke to Bonnie and Freya before he took off with Josie up the stairs.
Caroline started to follow Josie out of the bedroom, but she got distracted by a noise coming from the Kitchen. There was a muffled banging coming from inside the blood bag fridge. When she pulled the door open, Lizzie tumbled out through the door, into the arms of her mother. Her hands were tied together, and her mouth was gagged. Lizzie's eyes went wide at the sight of her mom and she started talking.
"Sweetie, I can't understand you. Stop squirming and I'll take the gag off." Caroline reassured her. Lizzie stopped moving at stood up straight. Caroline released the gag and Lizzie took a deep breath.
"MOM! What are you doing here? I thought you was out the country?" Lizzie rushed.
"Your dad called me yesterday when he found out that Josie was missing. I caught the first flight out here. I got in about 2 hours ago." Caroline replied as she untied Lizzie's arms.
Once Lizzie's arms were free, she quickly pulled her mom into a hug. "I've missed you." She muttered.
"I missed you too Lizzie." Caroline smiled. "Right we need to go and find Josie and your dad. How did you end up in the freezer tied up anyway?"
"Kaleb and MG said that they wanted a blood bag each, they've not eaten all morning, so I said that I would get them one. When I came up here and walked into the fridge someone knocked me out and tied me up. I don't know who it was." Lizzie rubbed her head slightly, frowning as the two of them walked out of the Kitchen and straight into Josie and Alaric.
Lizzie quickly wrapped her arms around Alaric and hugged him. Josie interrupted them. "Sorry, but we are kind of on a time frame right now, so we need to get going."
"Why where are we going?" Lizzie frowned.
"To save Hope, Keelin and Stephanie from Kai. Bonnie's given us the details. It's about a 30-minute drive from here. So we need to move. Hope said that she doesn't know how much longer Stephanie will last." Josie replied.
"How do you know that?" Lizzie asked.
"Now's not the time to get into the little details Lizzie." Josie replied.
The family of four jumped into Alaric's car and they soon set off towards the warehouse. The 30-minute drive was both long and short, because Alaric was driving well over the speed limit, but he didn't care. They pulled up next to Keelin's car and got out, Josie rushed to Keelin's car and pulled Hope's clothes from the seat before she joined the rest of her family as they made their way up to the warehouse.
Caroline sped ahead to the main entrance, forced her way inside and ran full speed at Kai but was knocked back. Caroline landed next to a growling wolf. "Oh shit!" She quickly stood up and moved away from it. It wasn't long before the rest of the Saltzman's came running through the door. Josie threw Hope's clothes over to her as Alaric had his crossbow in hand and pointed it right at Kai.
"LET THEM GO KAI!" Alaric called.
"Ooo, I'm so scared." Kai laughed. "What are you going to do to me?"
"You shouldn't be worried about me. You should be worried about them." Alaric gestured towards his twins.
Josie and Lizzie were stood either side of a now human and clothed Hope and were holding her hands, syphoning magic. The three of them started to recite the death spell and they watched Kai keel over, stumbling out of his protection barrier. Caroline quickly broke a wooden beam and sped over to Kai, stabbing him through the heart.
Kai's body started to desiccate almost immediately from the combination of the spell and the stake. Josie and Lizzie dropped their hands from Hope's, and they collapsed to the floor. Hope rushed over to Keelin and Stephanie. Keelin was alive and breathing, just unconscious. Stephanie on the other hand, was barely alive. Hope moved over to Stephanie, she bit her own wrist and brought it up to Stephanie's lips.
Just before her wrist touched the other girl's lips, Caroline pulled Hope away. "Let me do it. She's my niece." Caroline smiled. "You look after your aunt, okay?"
Hope nodded as she moved back over to Keelin. Hope pulled Keelin up to standing, taking the brunt of the weight onto her left side as she dragged Keelin out to the car. She pushed her aunt into the backseat before she returned to the rest of the group.
"Is everyone okay in here?" Hope asked.
"Yeah we are fine thanks." Alaric replied.
Hope's eyes hovered towards Josie. She was debating about talking to her, but she decided against it. "If you are all okay, I'm going to get my aunt back to the school." Hope said as she turned to exit the building.
"Hope, wait. You can't drive." Alaric called.
"I can drive. I just don't have a licence. I can put Aunt Keelin in the front seat, so it looks like she's giving me a driving lesson." Hope shrugged. "And I'll drive within the speed limits."
"I'd prefer it if you didn't do that." Alaric responded.
"Hey, it's not like I can die. I don't really see the harm in it. Plus you have a lot to deal with here. So…" Hope turned and walked away.
Hope just reached the car when she felt a hand on her back. She turned around and saw Josie standing there, her face flushed because she had been running. "Give me the keys. I'll drive." Josie smiled weakly.
Hope reluctantly handed over the keys and climbed into the passenger seat as Josie moved swiftly around the car and got into the driver's seat. "Is she going to be okay like that?" Josie frowned as she spotted Keelin curled up on the backseat.
"Yeah, she will be fine." Hope shrugged.