A Tale To Be Told

One: The Garden of Love

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen
- William Blake
'The Garden of Love'

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When Lizzie woke up, she turned to look at her alarm clock and saw the glaring 5:37 AM but what was on top of her alarm clock was what got her attention, it was a note that doesn't remember putting there, when she picked it up and opened it she realised that the as note from Hope, as she read the note from the older girl, she was overwhelmed with gratitude that she reached out and she looked over to the bed next to hers to find that it hadn't been slept in and so Josie must still be with Hope. Whilst Lizzie and Hope didn't always have the best of friendships, if you can call an insult at every sight of each other a friendship but Lizzie wasn't an idiot and she knew full well that the shorter girl would look after Josie. Now knowing where her sister is, she got up and went to Hope's room to go and collect Josie. Lizzie hoped to not find Hope or avoid all interactions because she didn't want to put aside her pride and thank Hope for the note, even if she knew that she would have to.

Lizzie knocked on the tribrid's door, she knew it was early. She didn't sleep all that well, despite the fact that if someone saw her sleeping she probably looked as though she was dead to the world of the awake, her mind had been running wild, a mess she couldn't form into actual, understandable, thought. The mess that ran wild in her head kept her up late and woke her up before the sun rose up in the sky. After knocking for the third time she lightly pushed the door, to find that it wasn't locked, which Lizzie thought was a highly stupid thing to do, Hope should really start locking her doors, who knows who would come wondering into her room, when Lizzie poked her head into the room to find Hope curled into Josie's side, it looked as though Josie was protecting Hope from the world and everything in it with her arms wrapped around the shorter girl but the arm Hope had around Josie also spoke of protection, it was like her saying 'you protect me and I'll protect you', somewhere in Lizzie's mind was a voice saying that the arm around Josie was Hopes wolfy possessiveness and that Hope would take Josie away from her. She tried to ignore that part of mind and took a sneaky photo of the two before quietly closing the door.

On her way back to her room she bumped into her dad, who seemed to be in a rush and reeking of whatever was in his bottle this time. "Hey daddy , where are you going?" the blonde asked her father, looking down at his daughter he said "There's a werewolf situation I could use Hope's help on", before the blonde twin could say anything he walked off towards the tribrid's room.

'Of course' she thought as walked toward her room to get ready for the day.

******

Hope was starting to wake, in her groggy state she felt unbelievably comfortable, it was like she was wrapped in the most comforting blanket the world had offer, it was also the first time in years that she didn't wake to a nightmare, she was grateful to whatever god existed that she got a goodnight sleep, when Hope started to a wake a little more, she took in her surroundings and realised that she was, in fact, not alone in her room. That's when last night's events came back to her, it would appear that in their sleep, the positions had changed and now Josie was the one holding Hope and not the other way around. She didn't really care, she felt safe being held by someone. Hope doesn't get that luxury, not anymore so she took advantage of the rare feeling of safety.

Before Hope could bask in this feeling she heard a knock on the door, so reluctantly she pulled herself out of Josie's embrace, not without the protest of a half asleep Josie, she pulled Hope back into her and whined a 'no' at the warmth trying to leave, not that she fully realised that it was Hope in her half asleep mind. Blushing when she got pulled back into Josie's embrace, she whispered into Josie's ear "Love, you've got to let go, someones at the door. I promise you can get back to sleep, you just have to let me get up", Josie let Hope go and turned and pulled the cushion into her embrace instead, falling back to sleep once again.

Being free from Josie's comfort was an unpleasant feeling for Hope but she ignored it in favour of opening the door a crack, so that she could talk to whomever was on the other side but she kept it closed enough that they would not see the sleeping brunette behind her.

Hope was not shocked that her Headteacher was the one knocking on her door, when she opened the door to find him, she didn't get as much as a hello before she was told that she has an hour to meet him by the car because there was a new werewolf, Dr Saltzman left before she could do anything other than nod. Hope knew that the only reason she was told and got to join him was because he held little trust for the young Mikeaslon but she also knew that he saw the benefit of her being unkillable, not that her death would affect that man much. In a simplified way, she got to go with him on recruitments because 'Hope Mikaelson could not be trusted to be alone and she's useful'. Her relation with her head master made her feel unloved and worth nothing. Hope knew she was loved and worth a whole lot because if she wasn't, a lot of people would be alive that aren't today, three of those people being her mother, father and uncle.

Hope closed her door and got ready for the day, after she was showered and dressed she had half an hour left before she needed to meet up with Dr Saltzman. She turned to the still sleeping beauty that lay in her bed, she didn't want to leave her without an explanation as to where she was, so once again, she wrote a note, she left the note on the bedside table. With that she walked down to the car.

Hope had a bad feeling about this but she could never predict the real life nightmare that would come out of this journey. Not even the devil could have predicted the monstrous hell that would come to Hope and the people of the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted.

******

AN: I've had this written for ages and I feel like there was supposed to be more but my minds gone blank (I'll just have to add to the beginning of the nxt chapter or add it in later when I remember what it was) so here's a late Valentine's gift