Make Quiet Things Heard

Chapter 40 : Zero Stars (Ep. 7|Part 1)

Hope's POV

I'm sitting on a bench waiting for Lizzie on alert for when a monster comes out of the portal. I'm holding the prism to talk to Josie. She smiles at me sadly. I'm about to talk to her when someone calls my name. She sits beside me.
"Hey Maya." "Hey Hopey." I roll my eyes
"Why aren't you in class?" I ask.
"I was gonna ask you the same thing."
"I'm waiting for Lizzie, you?"
"I'm skipping. I needed to get away from all the chaos." she explains.
"If you ever need someone. I'm here if you need me." I say. "Same goes for you" Maya gives me a side hug. Just then I hear Lizzie's voice is heard.

"Reporting for portal duty! I brought backup." I let go of Maya and see Lizzie, along with a nervous Josie. Oh no. It's only when I look nervously at Maya that Lizzie registers we're not the only ones here. "Oh, hey Maya." she says nervously to Maya and eyeing me angrily.
"Hey, Lizzie. And what do you mean by portal duty?" Maya asks, and I quickly make something up. "Inside joke." Maya nods and stands and walks to Josie.
"I believe we haven't met. Maya Machado." she holds out her hand.
"Josie Saltzman. Lizzie's twin sister." Josie shakes Maya's hand.
"Well I guess I'll leave you three and go back to school." she says walking away. "See you soon, cutie."

Great. Lizzie called me last night when I went home with Freya and told how Josie was. She also mentioned that Josie thought I moved on, so this definitely isn't helping my case. They sit on the bench with Lizzie in the middle separating Josie and me.
"So, this is... nice, right?" Lizzie chuckles nervously. "Together again." "It's great." I say. "It's awesome." Josie replies.
"I mean, for the two of you not to be talking to each other just because you dated the same garden gnome who was in love with you..." she says eyeing us respectively. "I think we're more evolved than that as women."
"Absolutely." "Without a doubt." Me and Josie respond.

"Good. Because, personally, I've never been better. My work paid off. My mind is sharp. All perceived mental breakdowns were a figment of my imagination fed by two manipulative vampires who will remain forever my enemies." Lizzie states.
"What's going on with Sebastian?" I ask.
"Headmaster Downton Abbey wants us to enroll him to keep him off the streets. But after deliberately letting me think that I was unwell, I will not let that happen." she explains.
"You should forgive MG." Josie suggests. "Never." Lizzie denies.
"He didn't want to hurt you." Josie adds.
"He hid things from me. Zero stars."

"He's not the only friend keeping secrets." Josie says.
"I didn't want to hurt you either." I state.
"Yeah, well, zero stars." I sigh and fiddle with the prism. "Is that what I think it is?" Josie asks eyeing the prism. "Yeah." she nods slowly and pursed her lips. She wants this so I hand it to her.
"Here. I don't need it anymore." I lie. I definitely need it but I feel like she needs this more than I do. "Thanks."
"Look at us. Clear hearts and minds. Letting the power of our intellect rule the day over our emotions. Moving forward
with dignity and grace. This is the true definition of girl power." she says and pull me and Josie for a side hug. "I'm proud of us."

We pull away from the hug when we hear someone. "Greetings, witches." He looks like one of the monsters from the pit. We instinctively get into fighting position with me in the middle, as usual.
"Who the hell are you?" Lizzie asks.
"An answer for an answer. There are two sisters. One gives birth to the other. And the other, in turn, gives birth to the first. Who are they?" the monster asks. I try to think of an answer but come uo blank.
"They're...?" "Night and day. The sisters are Night and Day." Josie answer. I smile to myself. I love how smart she is.
"Ah.Your reward for answering correctly is to know that you are in the presence of the master of the ancient lands. The all-holy, ever-divine sphinx." the sphinx stands up through his speech. I sigh. The sphinx looks at us offended.

"People are usually more impressed."
"It's been a long semester." I say and cast a spell to paralyze the sphinx.
"Prohibere." then we notice a civilian jog near us. The twins grab my hand to siphon and we make ourselves, including the sphinx invisible. "Invisique."
"See? Girl power." Lizzie says. Once the civilian is out of sight we undo the spell.
"You guys should take the monster back to school while I tell your dad we caught another monster." I state and slowly walk away. "Bye guys." I say sadly. I've been thinking a lot about what Freya suggested last night when we got to the manor. That we should go home to New Orleans. And I think I need to. I need to find a way to stop Malivore. So I call Freya to tell her my plans and head to Dr. Saltzman's office.