Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 88: Toxicity

Note: There are a few brief sensitive topics briefly discussed in this chapter...
If anyone needs to skip over this chapter, let me know, and I will post an author's note directly after this chapter to give a general summary of what you'll miss is this chapter.

————

"I do have to do this, Josie. This is the only way to stop me from hurting anyone else..."

Josie shakes her head, "Hope, you'd never hurt any of us. I know you. You're my best friend, okay? And I need you...Hope, you're the love of my life,"
She sees that Hope is trying to fight her own mind, but she's struggling, so she thinks there may be only one way this ends...
She takes an unsteady breath,
"So...if you're gonna do this, then..."
She reaches her other hand forward, placing her hand with Hope's on the jar. Hope looks to her with her eyebrows furrowed as Josie continues,
"You're just gonna have to take me with you..."

———

Hope looks at the brunette with disbelief in her eyes

Josie nods, reiterating desperately, "Okay? I'll go with you. Just let me have the jar, and we can go together. This will all be over, just like the monsters said."

Hope's mind is so jumbled that she doesn't see through the obvious facade, loosening her grip on the jar until it's completely in Josie's hands.

Josie is immediately relieved. She locks eyes with Hope, seeing the golden flecks swimming in the deep blue, seemingly calmed a bit by Josie's promise to help her.

But then, Josie casts a spell, one that closes the jar once again and sends it flying through the air, over to MG, who thankfully catches it with vampiric reflexes.

And suddenly, Hope isn't calm anymore, "Josie—"
She attempts to make her way past Josie to retrieve the jar from MG, but she's stopped when Josie releases the magic she siphoned from Hope's boundary spell before, creating a new boundary of her own.

"Hope, stop! This isn't you! We made a promise to fight this together, no matter what..."

Hope shakes her head at the brunette, "No, you don't get it, Josie. I saw it—"

Josie tries to talk her down from the edge,
"It's not real—"

"I saw it, Josie...The Hollow. That's why all of this is happening-It's because of me..."

That makes Josie pause.

The Hollow? The Hollow is dead.

Lizzie voices the same thought, "Hope..the Hollow is dead, okay? It's just a hallucination—"

Hope knows what she saw in the mirror, "No, no—My eyes, they were glowing blue—Just like when I was possessed by the Hollow."

Josie knows the Hollow is dead. She siphoned it from Hope years ago. Hope's dad took that pain from Hope, and he died, killing the Hollow for good.

And Josie's seen Hope's eyes glowing tonight. Golden. Not blue.

But Josie's heart breaks, seeing the fear in Hope's eyes.

She must be reliving the pain from her past, and Josie can't imagine how hard that must be.

But, if somehow Hope is right, Josie thinks there may be only one way to know for sure.