Damage Control

Chapter Four

Turns out following the light at the end of the tunnel was a very, very bad idea. Hope found herself standing in what looked like a cave, the walls were made of thick black rocks, moss spreading over the surfaces. Water was dripping somewhere far off in the distance, but that is not what kept her attention. In the centre of the room, a black mass lay curled up around a hearth. It's skin was made of scales that changed from black to almost purple as it shifted in the fire's light. The serpent shape rose and fell with even breaths. "You have got to be kidding me." She grumbled to herself. "Not another dragon." The last one she had faced was just a girl, this one she wasn't so sure about.

In her long walk down the dark path towards the light, Hope had nothing to do but think, and it seemed as if she was thinking for a decade before she reached the light. She came to one conclusion, that since she did not remember waking up that means she was probably still stuck in Josie's head, and Josie seemed to have an interesting imagination, so the dragon was not much of a surprise.

She stood off to the side of the cave opening, just far enough that if the dragon awoke, it would not see her, she needed a plan, because she could see the obvious exit on the other side of the room but she had to get past the dragon to get to it. This was going to require a lot of thinking.

Josie woke up on the ground. Her eyes opened slowly to the bright light of the sun above her. Sitting up slowly she realized she was not wearing the same dress she left in but rather a long black puffy shirt and some black pants, as if she just walked out of The Princess Bride. She supposed it was her turn to save the damsel in distress, even if Hope was far away from that.

She got up slowly, taking in the forest around her, it was the same one from her fairy tale. However this time the sky was bright and clear, the birds were singing, all was right in Josie's story... for now.

First thing was first, she had to return to the ruins where she watched her dark self turn Hope to stone and pray she was there waiting for her. Josie knew that it might look all sunshine and rainbows now but there was always darkness hiding in her mind.

She picked her way through the forest, tiny blade swinging off her hip, clearly imagination Josie needed a weapon for some reason, perhaps it was because she didn't have her syphon power this time.

The ruins stood out from the trees, broken and covered in vines as if she had been gone years not days. She could only barely make out the stone platform she was sleeping upon, and where she managed to defeat Dark Josie. Her eyes shifted to the arch where Hope had been turned to stone. It now stood vacant of the tribrid. Josie stepped in closer to investigate, the wall looked the same, as far as she could tell. There were no Hope shaped rocks nearby, so the question was, where did she go? Josie walked around the entire ruined arch, looking for a clue. Finally, her eyes spotted a patch of stone flooring on the ground, looking fresh and pristine compared to all the others around. She pressed her foot to it, pushing her weight down on it... nothing happened. She picked up a nearby rock and tossed it on top... nope. She hesitantly took a step on it, it was the only lead she had for Hope. It was only when both feet were on the floor, did it give out under her and she was falling into the void below.

Lizzie watched as Hope's aunt continued to chant. One of the things Lizzie had always been jealous of was that Hope had a super powerful bad ass aunt to teach her all these cool spells and she was here learning the kid stuff. When Josie told her that Freya Mikaelson would be coming to the school, she almost jumped with joy over the idea of maybe learning a thing or two from her. She had visited the school before, of course, to see Hope but Lizzie would never have been caught dead fan-girling over Hope Mikaelson's aunt.

Freya Mikaelson was definitely an intense woman, she was even cooler than Lizzie could have imagined. But her reputation surpassed her, she looked willing to burn the school to the ground just to get to Hope, someone should have told her Josie already tried to do that, though thankfully not for Hope and thankfully just the entrance to the school.