A Unique Mark

Chapter 4: What the Hell Does the Mark Mean?

A/N: Mentions of Sexual Assault in this chapter (TW notification at beginning and end of mentions) also Delena Bashing (Only mentioned briefly and never again)

Hope POV:

Never thought I'd have to sneak onto the Salvatore School campus, but here I am. Since I'm technically not supposed to be on campus, I need to make sure I'm not seen by certain people–specifically Landon and Josie. Josie seriously hates me right now (more so than Lizzie ever did) since she thinks I'm trying to steal Landon from her, so if she sees me on campus she'll rat me out to administration and I'll get kicked out. Even though Landon won't tell administration, he'll tell Josie and then I'm screwed. So now I'm sneaking into the library of the school my dad financially supported for years all so I can figure out how I, miss 'heals faster than regular vampires and has never had a single scar in her life', have a giant scar from Raf biting me last night.

"Okay, the coast is clear, no Josie or Mud Pit Jesus," Lizzie said seriously, which was ironic considering how absurd her words were.

"Mud pit Jesus?" I asked, stunned.

"Yea," she said like it was obvious. "Jesus was miraculously conceived, and so was Landon. He was just miraculously conceived by a hell pit and not a god," she explained, obviously proud of her logic.

I looked at her completely stunned. She was right, Landon is the mud pit version of Jesus. She was so accurate in her funny nickname that I started dying of laughter.

"Okay, I know I'm funny," she bragged and then suddenly turned serious, "but we need to figure out what's going on with your healing."

I tried to control my laughter and focus, but it was just too hard. Though I sobered up after hearing his voice.

"Hey, what's so funny?" I heard Landon say behind me.

Turning around in panic, I frantically attempted to brush him off by saying, "Oh nothing, just Lizzie and her nicknames."

"I wouldn't say they're nothing! My nicknames are pure genius with an extensive thought process and extreme cleverness," she defended.

"Okay!" Landon interrupted. "What are you doing here Hope? You aren't a student so why are you hanging out in the library, and when did you and Lizzie become buddy-buddy?" he questioned.

"Oh well Lizzie and I were doing some research on spells and wanted more source material, so we figured the library was a great place and two eyes were better than one. We started doing research into it while on portal duty and bonded over it," I explained hoping to cover up what we're really doing.

"Oh, cool; I'm also doing some research for Raf," he stated, obviously buying my half-ass story, "Any ideas why a witch would slow down someone's healing?""

"Um, well the reason I can think of off the top of my head is murder," I casually state, shocking Landon. "Many witches in an effort to get revenge slow down the object of their anger's healing so that they can kill them in a more painful way that would otherwise not be possible due to their healing. For example, stabbing a human in the stomach can be lethal, but a werewolf would heal and survive easily," I continued, but after seeing Landon's horrified face I stopped, realizing how casual I was being about painful murder. Damn it! I forget that most people I surround myself with aren't as used to murder as us Mikaelsons. In an effort to save face I told him, "Or something like that. I don't know; it could be anything." Good going Hope, that was such a good save. Idiot!

"Okay," Landon awkwardly responded, trailing off. "I'm gonna go tell Raf what I found.

"Hey!" I stopped him. "Can you not tell Josie we were here? Also can you ask her about that spell she used to purge Lizzie of the dark spirit, but don't tell her I asked? Maybe say that Lizzie wants to know, but is too busy to ask her now due to portal duty."