Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 23: Avoidance

Today is the first day back at school after winter break. Hope is happy to see Maya, Ethan, and even Landon more often, but she hates that she can't spend as much time with Josie and her friends at the Salvatore School.

Maya, Ethan and Hope are standing at their lockers before class, sharing stories about their break. They ask Hope how Raf is doing at the Salvatore School. They talk about how they are dreading their classes. Hope is thankful for the sense of normalcy she feels with them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Hope notices a few purple spots on the ground. What the hell? She tries not to draw attention to it, but it becomes difficult for her to engage in the conversation. The warning bell rings and Maya shuts her locker, turning around to make her way to class, "You coming, Hope?"

"Go ahead. I'm right behind you." She gives Maya a smile, who begins to make her way to class with her brother.

Hope follows the trail of purple spots down the hall. She notices the foul smell of the slimy substance. She doesn't want to assume it's a monster, but she also knows that the spell she and Cleo cast has probably worn off by now. She knew the peace wouldn't last forever.

She knows she should call Dr. Saltzman, but they sort of had a disagreement about the way she handled the whole Clarke situation. He found out she torched his house, and he thought it was pretty reckless. She hasn't talked with him since their whole argument.

She continues to follow the trail, growing more certain that this has to be a monster problem and she needs to let Dr. Saltzman know.

Hope sighs, pulling her phone from her pocket and dialing his number. He picks up after a few rings, "Hope? I wasn't expecting to hear from you today. Shouldn't you be in your classes by now?"

"Well, I was about to go to class, but I think we may have a monster problem."

"What happened?"

Hope opens the door to a supply closet, still following the trail. She runs a frustrated hand through her hair when she sees that the trail ends here, "There's a trail of...purple goo? It smells awful. And I think this monster avoids the light, because every drop of goo is in a shadow."

"That sounds like a troll. They tend to keep in the shadows. They should be fairly easy to kill, I'm on my way."

She hangs up the phone, taking a break from her tracking to go to an empty chemistry lab. She mixes several chemicals together in a jar, knowing that once it's ignited, artificial light with be created.

She leaves the classroom with the jar, trying to find another trail from the monster. She wanders around for several minutes before she finally finds more spots. The trail leads to the boys locker room. She knows it's empty at this time of day, so she enters without concern for any guys being in there. "Teenage boy plus monster... that's an interesting combination." The smell is even worse now.

She walks around the lockers, toward the showers when she suddenly feels someone grab her shoulder. She swings her leg backwards, knocking the person to the ground, then bends down with her fist drawn back, ready to punch whoever or whatever snuck up on her. She then realizes it's just Dr. Saltzman, who has his hands up gesturing for her to stop, "Woah, sorry, it's just me."

She lets out a deep breath, standing to her feet and reaching a hand out to help him up, "Sorry, I thought you were the monster."

Alaric stands, holding his crossbow, "Nope, not the monster. Thanks for realizing before smashing my face in." He chuckles nervously.

"So how do we kill the troll when we find it?"

"A fire spell should do the job. I'm sure you've got that covered." He makes the backhanded comment, referring to the fire she set at Clarke's.