After spending some time just having fun with Marcel and speed painting, Hope knew she had to collect herself and figure out what her next move was. She took a seat at the kitchen counter and thought about everything that had happened lately. What loose ends she could actually take care of. She had told Camille she was a witch, and that was a problem she needed to fix. And there was a possibility she would need to try to compel Marcel (but truthfully she wasn't sure she could bring herself to compel family). Someone did a linking spell to kill her, possibly just to activate her vampire side and possibly as an attempt on her life.
She let out a small sigh and looked out of the kitchen, at the wall where Marcel had hung her unsigned painting. The painting of a blonde and a dark haired girl that kind of reminded her of Lizzie and Josie. She wasn't sure who else she could have had in mind. It wasn't as though she knew a lot of people. However, with their faces hidden, it was impossible to tell.
One thing at a time, she thought to herself, and she got up before heading out of the Abattoir and going to the bar she knew Camille worked at. She headed inside, guilt already starting to sink inside as she knew what she was going to do. She walked over to the bar and took a seat. Marcel suggested compelling the bartender. Hope knew this wasn't what he had in mind, but at the moment it didn't matter. This needed to get done whether Camille was working or otherwise.
"Hey, Lizzie" Camille greeted, watching her, her body a little tense in a way that made Hope know she wasn't sure how to react. The two had been on good terms, but that was before Camille found out about witchcraft, and the blonde had come up with plenty of questions mixed with nervousness. "It's good to see you. Can we talk after my shift? About... What happened last time?"
"Yeah." Hope lied as she looked at her. "We can talk about whatever you'd like. Do you mind getting me a drink? Just something small"
Camille looked hesitant but finally poured her a glass of something not very strong. "Here" she said, setting it in front of her.
"Thanks" Hope said and took a small sip before setting her glass down and looking at it. She wasn't sure she wanted her first compulsion on the girl that would end up being compelled numerous times by her father and who her father would fall in love with one day. It didn't feel right. But Camille wasn't supposed to know about the supernatural yet. Hope didn't really have much of a choice but to compel her.
"Are you okay?" Camille asked as she looked at Hope in concern.
Hope nodded. "I'm fine. I've just got a lot of thoughts in my head, and not all of them are all warm and fuzzy"
"I get that. And I imagine they would be in a" Camille lowered her voice to a quiet whispers "magical world"
"The nonmagical world can be very dangerous to" she said. "It all depends on who is involved and what they are willing to do."
"You're right about that" Camille said. "Reminder, I have a psychology degree. I could be a good therapist if you need to talk about those thoughts in your head"
Hope downed her glass, forcing down the thoughts that had stirred up inside her. It was time to just get this over with. "My thoughts are usually better kept inside. But thank you" she told her. She hesitated before looking at the blonde in the eye. "You're going to forget ever meeting me. You're not going to remember that time in the alley when you found out that the supernatural is real. I was never in New Orleans."
And with that, Hope sped out of the building, leaving no trace that she had ever been there. That she had ever existed. One compulsion down. Another one to go if she could bring herself to do it. She wasn't sure that was something that she could do.
She walked along the streets of New Orleans, taking in the sights around her. The first memories she had of this place were from eight years in the future. Eight years made a difference. A lot of it was similar, sure, but it still felt different. Considerably less cellphones out, barely any screens inside the restaurants, more tourists. She wondered what Landon had thought of New Orleans when he had made a brief stop there 18 years from now to get help from Vincent. She had planned on asking him if she ever saw him again, but their reunion involving the danger of Malivore and the monsters and the secrets she had kept after that distracted her from getting around to asking. If she ever made it back, she should ask him since he had always wanted to go.
Hope reached into her jacket pocket and held her necklaces that she had been forcing herself not to wear most of the time she had been in this timeline. She missed her family. The family that she knew existed. The family in the future that had memories of her life and her father in this timeline that she wishes was still a part of hers.
She reached the Abattoir and headed inside and to the library. Marcel wasn't inside, she realized as she listened at what was going on in the house (which was nothing). Hope assumed that he was probably doing his business as king of the city or whatever dramatic title he currently might have. She wasn't sure if she was grateful he wasn't in the compound or if she wished he was here so she could get it over with. He was her family. And she knew he'd eventually remember. The compulsion would break. But that didn't mean she liked the idea of tampering with the memories of someone she knew and loved, nor did she like the idea of him looking at her and seeing a stranger if they ran into each other again before she went back to her time.
Hope sighed and sat down, closing her eyes and thinking about what she knew about how she died. She knew it had to have been a spell, but could it have been a linking spell? Those spells needed something of hers to link to her, DNA, something. And Hope had made sure not to leave anything behind in Mystic Falls, and she had the only thing she properly owned, her necklace. But there was her family, her family that she had left behind. If whoever killed her linked her family together, if they got ahold of the tiny bit of her left behind to link everyone together, then when she died, it meant someone from her family must have been killed. She needed to get back to Mystic Falls. Now.
She opened her eyes and put away the books she had looked at while trying to figure things out. She cleaned the glass she was using while she waited for Marcel to return. Once he did, her work here would be done. It took about 30 minutes, but finally Marcel returned from whatever business he had been attending to.
"You're back" Marcel said, walking over to Hope.
"Yeah, I went to take care of some unfinished business. I compelled someone to forget about me. To forget about magic." Guilt tugged at Hope's heart, but she pushed it away. She knew it was what she had to do.
"You did the right thing. It's better not having anyone that doesn't have to know about this." Marcel said, easily noticing the conflicted feelings written across the tribrid's face.
"I know. It still doesn't really make it much easier. Messing with people's mind isn't something I really want to do, especially those I know that were or are important to my family later on."
"You're going to try to compel me, aren't you? See if you can compel vampires like your family can? Well, I'm on vervain. Just in case any of the Mikaelsons show up" Marcel said
Hope's heart ached as he singled out himself from their family. How he didn't consider himself a part of it. "I don't want to. I really don't, but it might be the best thing to do"
"I'm not going to tell anyone, Hope. Your secret is safe with me" Marcel promised her.
Tears burned in her eyes, and she looked away. She took a deep breath and looked away, thinking. "I need to head back to Mystic Falls. Some stuff is going on. I think I know how I died, but I don't why or who did it. So if you're on vervain, I can't take care of this, which means I have time to figure out if I can even bring myself to do it and if I have to, But either way, I need to leave town tonight. So if I decide to come back, I'll see you later."
"You're leaving now?" Marcel questioned. "The only sleep you've probably gotten in days is when you were dead."
"You're not wrong. But I'll be fine. Excessive amounts of energy is kind of part of the package deal." Hope chuckled.
"Pick a room. Take a nap. You can leave when you wake up" Marcel said, his gaze on Hope.
Hope was silent for a long moment before she shook her head, standing up and walking over to him. "It's better I go now. But thank you for the offer. And for helping me while I was in transition. It means a lot"" She reached out and pulled him into a hug. Marcel hugged her back after a moment. It had been a while since he had a hug that lasted longer than a second.
The tribrid finally pulled away and left at vampire speed. She reached the bus stop and got on the next bus that headed in the direction of Mystic Falls. She sighed softly as she looked out of the bus window, trying to think about what she should do and how she could have died. Who could have used her family's blood in order to target and kill her? Or kill her family as a whole because with the right spell work, blood could tie to blood. The only person she could think of that would be able to do the spell and likely to was Esther, Hope's grandmother.
Technically others could cast the spell if they had everything they needed, but Esther was the most likely choice. Hope knew that she had tried killing the whole family more than once, even if Hope didn't know the details of it. This could have been it, and Hope was included since Esther knew about her. She should have known, but she was so focused on trying to not let the future be destroyed that she had blindspots.
She focused on what she thought she shouldn't do rather than helping deal with the threats at hand. Maybe she was here for a reason. Maybe she could make things better and still make sure they were on the path for her friends to be born. Change things for the better but do everything to make sure things don't become worse. Maybe just maybe that was what she had to do.
With those thoughts in mind, the tribrid leaned against the window and looked out at the scenery, her hand reaching up and touching the necklace that she had put back around her neck. It was time to go back to her family and to the place she had spent most of the past 11 years of her life.