Give Me Hope ~ Stefanie Salvatore

~chapter 15~

"I think your almighty powers are lacking, she's been dead for hours."

I hear a whispering voice say. I immediately recognise it as Dark Josie.

My eyes shoot open, I gasp, and sit up quickly. I look around and see I am inside a familiar place. I look to my left and see a engraved stone that says..

                Stefan Salvatore
            Brother-Husband-Friend
                Born 1846
                 Now at Peace

I'm inside my family crypt. It takes me a few more moments to realise on the floor next to me, a decent sized black puddle is bubbling. I recognise this as Malivore, in his portal form.

"Well, I guess I doubted you" Dark Josie says, which causes me to come back to reality and look her way. I am faced with Josie speaking to the Necromancer, smirking.

"How did I get here?" I ask, in annoyance and a hint of fear.

"Why don't you tell us?" Dark Josie tilts her head and is clearly messing with me. She knows exactly why I'm here, but is enjoying the fact that I can't put my finger on it. "Oh come on Stef... retrace your steps..." Josie sighs

"I was with Raf, and he told me how you killed him" I shoot my eyes at the Necromancer, my blood boiling. "I told him I would find a way to help him and then... then.." I begin to strain for a moment, trying my best to remember what happened next. Then, I feel an aching pain in my stomach region and instinctively grab unto it.

"Oh my god... I died" I say, panicked.

"Ding, ding ,ding.. we have a winner" The Necromancer says as he throws his arms in the air in victory.

My head floods with panicked thoughts. How am I here? Is this some sort of afterlife hallucination? What happened to Raf? Did anyone find my body yet? My parents? What are they thinking right now?

"No, unfortunately you're not dead.... well fully dead at least" Josie smirks at me and when she realises I haven't caught on, she continues "I told mr.Almighty Dead-Riser over here to control Raf to kill you, then, have him resurrect you so that you could be our little puppet." Josie explains bluntly

My mouth falls open in utter shock. The Josie I knew before is long gone. And even if she came back, how could I ever forgive her for this?

As upset as I am, I have to remind myself this isn't her. This is the black magic. I'll find a way to forgive in time, but right now, I'm pissed.

"What plan is that, exactly" I say, holding back tears and putting only anger and disgust on my face.

"That's for me to know, and for you to dot... dot... dot" Josie points her finger in dot formation three times and giggles.

"For now, we're sending you back to the Salvatore School," the Necromancer smiles and turns around for a moment, "oh, and don't bother trying to tell your school friends what happened, now that I control you, you won't be able to say anything I don't want you to, including spoiling the fun in our little plan" He whispers coldly.

"Where's Raf" I ask desperately.

"Ugh, you are pathetic" Josie grunts, "If you really want to know, he's at the school. Killing you last night wasn't the only mission we had for him"

"What was the other?" I ask, getting nervous.

"We want to raise Malivore. But we can't do that with Landon alive. If Malivore got his hands on Landon, he would absorb him and gain Landons' Phoenix powers and never be able to die. So, we sent Raf off with the only thing that could kill a Phoenix, the Golden Arrow, and well, I think you can fill in the rest" Josie explains carelessly while looking at her nails.