Disclaimer: I don't own Saving Hope or Originals. Much as I wish I did.

Chapter 4

Joel shot up in his bed. Something was coming. Coming for his son and they were right outside.

He didn't bother with getting changed as he ran out of the room, half stumbling down the stairs, to get to the front door. It flew open just as he reached the bottom. He instinctively threw the first three men into the opposite wall before he felt a sting in his neck seconds before agonizing pain in his head as he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

-TO/SH-

Vincent and Marcel looked into the room to see, not just the four missing kids, but another boy as well, lined up in the room as a witch continued to cast his spell.

"There were only 4 kids reported missing," Marcel said.

"They must have just gotten to the last one."

Add the witch got to the last stages of the spell, Marcel stepped forward.

"Get away from them." A metal pole forced him backwards as he was impaled, and Vincent rushed towards the other witch from behind, knocking him to the ground. The witch looked up at him.

"I know you. Vincent Griffith," he said. Vincent paused, looking confused and slightly worried.

"How do you know me?"

"Because you've been me." Vincent saw one of the boys – the youngest of the lot, he thinks, and slightly familiar – twitch slightly and frowned in confusion. He thought this witch was controlling the kids? "It's happy you're here. It wants you here." Pushing the boy from his mind for the second, he paid more attention to the witch.

"It wants me here? What are you talking about?"

"It's the thing, the thing that resides in this city," the witch stated with a smile. "In all of us. It's in you. Loving you. As it loved your wife." Wrong thing to say. Vincent started hitting the downed witch before casting a spell.

"Casser les os, casser les os," he chanted before pain enveloped him, causing him to scream until he fell unconscious just as Marcel came up from behind.

"With which eye would you prefer to view your end?" the witch questioned just as Marcel stabbed him in the chest. The witch merely raised his hands and used the same spell he had on Vincent to make him collapse on the ground. "Let it be done," he said and all five of the kids in the room collapsed on the ground, including the boy who had seemed to be waking up, as his spell took effect. Vincent woke just in time to see and grabbed a knife. Getting a hold of the witch, Vincent held the blade to his throat.

"Let them go. You let them go, now," he demanded, pressing the knife harder to his throat.

"Did you think you were unique Vincent? That it had only chosen you?" he taunted, sounding pretty pleased with himself, despite being the one with the knife to his throat. "Don't you see? You freed it, Vincent. You gave it breath. And now? Now it has to be fed." Vincent had heard enough and

slit his throat, letting his body fall to the ground, as Marcel got to his feet. Vincent knelt next to the son of a friend of his, Adam, as Marcel went to check out the alter.

"The spell's already in motion," he said as he checked on the kids. "It's draining the life out of these kids. They're freezing."

"Vincent, what is all this?" Marcel asked, waving a hand over the items on the alter. Vincent joined him with a frown, as he picked up a toy.

"The witch," he started. "He used their personal items to bind them to the spell. Totems. I know this magic. I can reverse it." Vincent held his hands palm downwards as Marcel stepped back slightly as Vincent chanted.

"Vincent?" Vincent went over to the kids as they started to wake up, specifically, to Adam.

"Yeah, man, it's OK. You're ok. Can you stand for me?" he asked, holding out his hands for Adam to take so that he could help him up. Marcel and Vincent looked them all over to check that there were no physical injuries before they would have them over to Will who was waiting for their call.

"You find out who's kid the youngest is yet?" Marcel asked as Vincent came to stand next to him. Vincent shook his head.

"Kid's stubborn," he said. "Wouldn't even tell me his own name. But I swear he looks familiar." Marcel nodded. He looked familiar to him too.

"Let me try talk to him." Marcel walked across the room to the little boy and crouched down in front of him. He looked up and then gave a look that said he clearly thought he was an idiot. "Hey kid. I'm Marcel." The kid looked like he was about to interrupt, but kept his silence, having been taught it was rude to interrupt by his father. "We need to know your name, you know? Can't keep calling you kid, especially when we try and get you back to your parents."

"You don't even remember my dad's name," he said with a disbelieving look. "And he's told you, like, 3 million times! I'm not telling you."

Marcel watched him go with an astounded expression on his face as he was essentially ignored so that a kid could go play with a stuffed bear, before walking back over to Vincent, who had a half worried, half amused look on his face.

"And that's not even the least of our problems," he said as he reached him. Marcel have him his full attention. "We've got 5 kids, but 6 totems." Marcel blinked, before looking down at the alter again, seeing a little girl's hairbrush.

"So who's the other kid?" He picked up the hairbrush and turned it so that the back was facing him, only to see a familiar crest. He and Vincent shared a look before Marcel went and called an ambulance for the kids.

-TO/SH-

"No." The youngest, who they finally found out was called Luke – now that knew where that familiarity came from, given that he was the son of the man they had thought was Elijah for the past 4 years – was now stubbornly clinging onto Vincent's jacket as they tried to get him into the ambulance with the other kids.

"Luke, come on man," Vincent sighed as he tried to pry the 5 year old's fingers from his jacket. "You need to get checked out." Luke have him an incredulous look and just clung tighter.

"Look, the sooner you get checked out by a doctor, the sooner you can get home with your dad, OK?" Marcel said as he struggled not to laugh at the sight of Vincent in his own struggle with a 5 year old, though judging by the glare on Vincent's face, which was aimed at him, he doubted he was doing very well in concealing his laughter.

"No. Daddy said not to go near bad people. A bad man will take that truck, we can't go in there!" Marcel and Vincent shared a slightly shocked look. The kid had been through a lot in the past few hours, but he sounded so sure of that, and magic didn't have boundaries like keeping knowledge of the future with adults.

"OK, well, how about this? I'm going to cast a spell to make sure nothing can go wrong on the way to the hospital." Vincent muttered a protection spell under his breath and the ambulance shimmered a dark blue before going back to normal. "See. Perfectly safe." Luke hesitated before shaking his head. Vincent sighed before giving in. "OK. I'm going to take you home, alright?" Luke nodded quickly.

"I'm going to stay with the ambulance," Marcel announced. "Make sure nothing goes wrong."

"OK," Vincent agreed. "I'm going to drop Luke at home and meet up with you later." At Marcel's answering nod, Vincent patted Luke on the back and turned him towards his car. "Come on, man. Don't worry about it, Marcel and I won't let anything happen to them." Luke still looked a little worried once he got in the car. Vincent turned back and called to Marcel. "And you need to get them back here. If Hope Mikaelson is linked to that spell, she's going to die."

"I just got rid of them!" Marcel exclaimed.

"Well you need to bring them back, Marcel! She's a kid alright? She's practically your sister." Vincent waited until Marcel sighed and nodded before getting in the car and driving away.