Tortured Past (Hope Mikaelson x OC)

Chapter Øne - The Dying Song

2026
Middle of Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia, United States

Alaric Saltzman had hunted a lot of supernatural in his lifetime.  Werewolves, Vampires, Witches, Originals even.  He had never thought that he would be searching for something potentially even weirder that those 4. 

A sort of magical distress signal had been put out from the middle of a wildlife refuge.  This signal was picked up by none other than the wonderful (and moody) Hope Mikaelson.  The signal had been put out by something Hope described as "A field of anti-magic".

Neither of them knew what it was, but they figured it should probably be investigated. 

So as the two of them were trekking through the woods, they began talking.

"So, what do you think we're looking for?" Hope asked.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me what a field of anti-magic looks like.  I have no idea what we're looking for, other than it's probably magical." Alaric responded.  He had no idea what he was looking for, and it didn't help that he couldn't exactly track something that avoided magic.

Hope stopped for a moment before he did as well and he looked at her, slightly confused.

"Do you see anything... off?" She asked him.

"Not particularly-" he looked again at where she was staring.  It was a tree engraved with what looked like wings.  "What is that?"

"I'm not sure..." she said before walking towards the tree and putting her hand out to touch it.  As she did so, a transparent dome rippled and contorted, revealing a large hole behind the tree.

"Dr. Saltzman, I think we found where the signal came from."

"Yep, definitely one of the weirder things I've seen in the past decade.  Here, take a flashlight."  He said, throwing her a flashlight before walking into the hole. 

The entranceway slowly opened up into a passage, leading to carved steps that led downwards into the dark tunnel.  At the end of the steps was an opening into a cave.  They both entered the cave and looked around, seeing a smaller cave off at the far end.

They approached the smaller cave and discovered a large wooden door within it.  They walked over to the door, and hope opened it with use of magic. 

The door was pushed open as it revealed a large passage with torches on the wall.  The torches slowly lit up to reveal what was at the end. 

At the end of the passage was a large cross sitting vertically against the wall.  Attached to the cross, was someone the two didn't recognize. 

They made their way to the cross and began inspecting the person. 

"They've probably been here years.  Dead most likely." Alaric said as he looked at the cross.

Hope however looked at the man himself.  He didn't look particularly dead, and instead looked relatively fine.  The only concerning thing was the large scars on his chest.  And as Hope was looking at the scars she noticed something.  His chest was rising.  It was faint, but it was rising.

"Dr. Saltzman... I think, I think he's alive."

"What? No.  Look at him, he's all beat up; and besides, this cross, the woods rotting.  No one been here in decades.  A few century maybe." 

Hope moved her flashlight up to his face before yelling and dropping it in panic.

"Hope! Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine.  But, he's, he's definitely not dead."  Hope moved her flash light to his face once again to reveal that his eyes were open. 

His lips slowly moved as the man spoke.

"He...help...-" he spoke slowly.  "Me..."