Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 104: Purgatory pt 1

We all have secrets we keep locked away from the rest of the world—friendships we pretend, relationships we hide—but the most dangerous secrets a person can bury are those we keep even from ourselves...

Josie rushes down the stairs, tying a silk robe around her body, when she hears urgent knocking on the front door.

She swings the door open frantically, immediately being greeted by the Mikaelsons and Saltzmans.

"We came as soon as we got your SOS message," Rebekah says as Josie opens the door wider for everyone.

"Where's Hope?"

"What happened?"

"She's upstairs," Josie answers Freya first, already guiding them quickly up the stairs towards the bedroom, "I don't know. All she said was 'I remember,' and now..." the family enters the bedroom, seeing Hope laid on the bed with no sign of consciousness, "she won't wake up."

Freya immediately makes her way over toward her niece, with Rebekah and Kol following.

"Her breathing seems alright," Kol notes after listening with his vampiric hearing.

"Pulse is normal," Rebekah adds after checking the pulse point of her wrist and neck simultaneously.

Freya studies Hope's opposite wrist, where her magic-muting bracelet flickers with a golden glow every few seconds, "Something's interfering with her bracelet."

"This isn't good," Kol shakes his head.

"What's wrong with her?" Lizzie asks the Original family.

Rebekah replies, "Well, if what Hope told Josie is true about her memories, and her bracelet doesn't work, ...there would be nothing to keep her from releasing a surge of dark magic or to keep her wolf counterpart from getting overwhelmed and losing control—"

"And nothing to stop her from shutting off her humanity," Freya adds, turning toward Josie, "You need to tell us everything that happened, from the beginning."

Josie nods before going over to her side of the bed, taking a seat and reaching for Hope's hand instinctively, "Well, we had our appointment for the baby, and then she took me on a date to the falls. She said since she couldn't remember our first date there, she wanted to recreate it. After, we came home, and she showed me the nursery. Then we came in here and we were...taking, and—"

"Fucking," Lizzie corrects, reading her sister's expression knowingly, the blush that kissed her cheeks as the memory replayed in her head in an instant.

"Elizabeth," Alaric and Caroline scold her for the explicit language. Though Caroline does give her a curious look, wondering if it's true, as do the members of the Original family.

Rebekah raises a curious eyebrow, a smile slowly forming on her lips, "Is that true?"

"Well, I—" Josie's cheeks tint a more noticeable pink color, and she can feel it. But when she sees the actually hopeful look on Rebekah's face, along with several others in the room, she relents, and a radiant smile creeps onto her own lips, "Yeah..."

Freya's smile grows while Lizzie and Rebekah shriek, with the blonde siphon jumping up and down happily. Kol fetches his wallet, handing a twenty dollar bill over to his vampire sister, and Alaric looks like he would've rather shut his hand in a car door than to have heard that news.

"I knew you two would get right back to where you left off," Freya says sweetly.

Josie nods her head, and her free hand that isn't holding Hope's goes toward her small baby bump naturally, "We did, and I got so caught up in those same feelings and the excitement from finding out the genders of the babies—"

"You know the genders?!" they all scream simultaneously, making Josie's eyes widen at her own slip up.

"Um...no?"

Freya smiles, "We're coming back to that piece of information..."

"Anyways..." Josie changes the subject back, "I kind of got so caught up in those emotions that I kind of told her that I love her for the first time...again."

It's so weird for her to say that, even though she's told Hope probably over a million times that she loves her, but this was the first time since Hope lost her memories, and it really did feel like the first time.

Josie's beaming smile then suddenly begins to fade into sadness and worry, turning her head toward her future wife who lies unconscious beside her. "But when she started to say it back, she got a sharp pain in her head..When I tried asking her what was wrong, all she said was 'I remember,' and she then lost consciousness. That's when I text you guys for help," she recounts what happened as Freya requested before looking up to meet the woman's gaze again, her own eyes welling with tears just as her worries well up inside.

"She's going to be okay honey," Caroline tries to soothe her by rubbing comforting circles on her back.

Freya nods in agreement, "She's right. It seems that her emotions of love for you has caused her memories to begin resurfacing. Physically, she is okay."

"Then why won't she wake up?" Josie asks, her confusion evident in her features.

Freya sighs softly, "I've seen this sort of thing before. The mind sometimes has a funny way of protecting us. When Hope's memories started coming back, she probably got overwhelmed, and her mind shut down to protect her from that pain. Right now, she's trapped in her subconscious, probably searching for a way out."

"Her very own red door," Rebekah adds, remembering her late brother Elijah being in a very similar state. "In order for her to escape her subconscious and wake up, she will have to conquer each memory she's kept locked away."

Josie nods, trying to wrap her head around all of the information.

"She's fighting it right now. She doesn't want to face her past," Kol notes.

Freya nods in confirmation, "Whatever memory resurfaced first must have scared her, which is probably why her powers keep flaring up despite her bracelet. She's a lot stronger than any magic-muting spell that this bracelet could hold."

"So we just have to wait for her to escape her own mind?" Lizzie asks, just as Josie was about to ask the same question.

Just as the words leave her mouth, the light bulbs in the room surge with increased power for a split second, and then the bracelet glows before sparking suddenly then practically disintegrating in front of their eyes.

The broken remnants of Hope's magic-muting bracelet float in the air, signifying the sudden release of her suppressed power

Freya shakes her head, her worry increasing, "We can't wait, she's too overwhelmed. We need to help her escape."

"How do we do that?" Alaric asks.

Rebekah recalls the similar situation with her brother, "When this happened to Elijah, Nik had to enter his subconscious to help guide him out."

Freya nods, "We need the person with the strongest connection to Hope to help guide her through her subconscious before she gets lost in her own mind."

Suddenly, everyone turns their gazes toward Josie, knowing she's the one with the strongest link with the Tribrid.

The weight of the responsibility settles on her shoulders, but Josie nods determinedly, "I'll do it."