Give Me Hope ~ Stefanie Salvatore

~chapter 14~

A few days have passed since Josie, or Dark Josie, I guess, has went missing. I've been told by Ric to just wait it out and go to school like normal. But how can I? How am I supposed to just sit around, knowing Josie is out there somewhere, waiting and planning some kind of twisted idea for god knows what reason.

As hard as it has been, I did listen (reluctantly, might I add), to Ric about attending school. However, this morning, he called me and told me there was to be a meeting at the Salvatore School with all the students, and he wanted me to join.

I walked into the assembly area and spotted Raf.

"Hey, mind if I sit here?" I asked, gesturing to the open seat next to him.

"Oh, uh, yea" Raf smiles. He definitely had other things on his mind, but I chose to not pry and if he really wanted to talk about whatever was on his mind, he could come to me on his terms. I sat down and put my attention on Ric, who just took the stand.

"I know you are all worried. Believe me no one is more worried than I am. My daughter, Josie is still missing. But even as I speak, we're doing everything we can to find her. Jed and the wolves are attempting to track her, Kaleb and the vampires have compelled local police for any help that they can provide. We will find her, and bring her home. With that said, I just want to reiterate, under no circumstances should any of you approach her. While she is our family and friend, she is under the influence of black magic and... not herself. Your safety, and Josies, is my top priority. I promise you I will get through to her, and bring back the Josie we know and love, safely. But first, we just have to find her." Right after Ric finishes his speech, the back doors fly open, which brings all the students attention to who walks through.

"Im right here, dad" Josie walks in wearing a black laced dress and the classic Dark Josie eye makeup. She levitates down the stairs (literally), and looks at all of the shocked faces of the students.

"Well, don't look so shocked. Did you really think that I would miss my birthday?" Josie entices and looks over at Lizzie, "oh, I'm sorry, our birthday." Josie smiles and brushes a strand of Lizzie hair behind her ear. "So, what did I miss these past few days?" Josie smiles and looks at Ric.

We are all left speechless, to which Josie grows bored of and sighs.

"Its no matter" Josie turned around and starts to walk off, "go about your day everyone, I came back for a reason, but first, I have a birthday bash to plan" and she exits the room and with a flick of her hand the doors slam shut behind her.

Ric dismisses the rest of the students to go to class and warns them to stay away from Josie. The rest of us walk over to Ric, waiting for further information on what to do.

"As amazing as Josie looked with her outfit, I can't say the same about her personality. How do we fix this, Ric?" I sigh and ask.

"Well, Josie is filled with black magic right now, making her 'dark side' infiltrate her body right now. Maybe, if we can find a way to reach her good side today, the real Josie we know will come out." Ric offers.

"So we are treating this like a humanity switch on a vampire?" Hope asks, the sarcasm dripping from her tone.

"It's the only plan we got" MG looks at Hope, "I'll go first. I have an old book she gave me when we first became friends, maybe that'll grow some feelings out of her" MG gives her well known victory smile.

"It's worth a shot." Lizzie says.

To that, we all walk over to the main foyer of the school and spread out. MG stands in the middle of the foyer, waiting for Josie to turn the corner. I spot Josie with a crowd of witches behind her carrying boxes. She must've done a spell on them to be her minions for the day. I don't hear much of the conversation once she sees him, but I watch has MG offers the book.