Give Me Hope ~ Stefanie Salvatore

~chapter 25~

"Well, maybe, you should think about your actions before you go all guns ablaze! You don't think about how other people will get hurt in the process of you getting what you want! No, you only care about Landons' safety." I yell.

"Well maybe if you were strong enough I would have the help to protect Landon, but it's just me so I make the choices I have to!" Hope yells back.

I stand there, shocked.

"You really are a sucky subconscious" I sigh and sit down in my bed, in defeat.

"Hey, I'm just saying everything you are thinking in the back of your head" Hope says blatantly as she sits next to me.

"Whatever" I glare. I grab the crystal, and it turns a bright purple, and once the color fades, my subconscious version of Hope disappears.

I've been practicing on how to play out the conversation with Hope on the crystal a dozen times... and each try just gets more and more difficult.

I hear a knock at my door.

"Come in" I say, and Jo walks in. "You're ready for school already?" I ask, looking at the clock. We still have an hour till we have to leave.

"Well, I actually stopped over to see my dad at the Salvatore School this morning..." She says as she sits next to me, right in the spot that subconscious Hope sat in just a few seconds ago.

"What, needed some lunch money from him?" I say jokingly, and Josie lets out a light laugh.

"No," She smiles, "I actually went to talk to him about, well, Finch..." Her smile then fades for a moment, "He told me Lizzie is on some sort of Wiccan wellness retreat to help manage her control issues... among other things" She explains.

"And her being alone, in the woods, with a bunch of other witches sounded like a good idea to your father?" I say, doubtfully.

"I said the same thing, but he was all for it" Jo raises her eyebrows and shrugs.

"Well, then I'm glad you went and had that talk with you dad" I smile, "Anyways, I'll make something to eat quick and then we can head to school. I'm starving." I stand up to start getting ready, but Jo stands there. There is more she needs to say... or needs to ask.

"What's up?" I look at her, unknowingly.

"Well..." Jo adjusts her posture and looks at me, "when I visited my dad, he had a bunch of research books on his desk. He said he was trying to figure out how all of the monsters have been coming, since Malivore is in the prison world. Well, Hope and Landon a few days back astral projected into the prison world and saw the Necromancers dead body, which shouldn't be the case... because if he died, his body should have been resurrected, in the prison world. But since it wasn't..." Jo explains, and I finish her sentence.

"Your dad thinks his body resurrected in our world..." I sigh. I am so sick of this guy.

"Yea..." She says slowly.

"And if he is here, what does your dad want with him?" I ask.

"Two things," Jo explains, "The first: he thinks that the Necromancer could be the reason for the monsters appearing."

"And the second?" I ask.

"Theres an artifact, my dad found it in the lake near the school... and it was opened. Whoever opened it must've took what was inside and then dumped the artifact in the lake. He doesn't know what it is, but he did some research and found it in the background of photos from public figures who have passed away..." Jo hands my photos that she had in her bag, and I assess them. They are pictures of Rasputin and Napoleon Bonaparte.