The Revenge Of The Rose

Part I: In Bloom

HOPE

Hope Mikaelson doesn't remember exactly when it started, but it's shortly after her and Landon Kirby get back together that she starts to feel different. It's not a good kind of different, though. In fact, it's a bad kind. Something feels weird. It's like a piece of Hope is slowly twisting and turning.

For a while, things are fine. She's happy. She's back together with the love of her life. The man she loves. She's full of joy and happiness that she never really notices exactly what's happening as she continues to be together with Landon.

That's until she starts to feel weird. When she wakes up one morning, she feels her stomach knotting. She also struggles to breathe for a moment. Like a tightness starts to wrap around her lungs and slowly starts to crush her ribcage from inside of her. She gasps for air, her hands grasping at her throat. She desperately moves her eyes around her room, trying to find anything that could possibly help her feel any kind of normal again...

That's when she coughs, she starts coughing and coughing until she ends up coughing into her hands. She shuts her eyes, finally able to get a hand on her controlling her breathing again. She lets out a shuddered breath before looking into her hand. To her horror, in her palm is a bloody petal of a pink rose.

Hope blinks several times before shaking off the disturbed thoughts and the intense but uncomfortable sensation she suddenly feels in her stomach.

"What the hell?" Hope mutters under her breath, "Okay, maybe I'm overthinking," She says

As Hope gets out of bed, she tosses the flower petal in her trash can. Trying to think nothing of it. She gets changed out of her clothes and prepares for class. As she leaves her dorm, she sees Josie Saltzman. She attempts to open her mouth to say something to Josie. Perhaps just a simple: "Hello,"

Josie looks at her, sending her a small, but sad, smile, before walking away. Still obviously hurt at the way Landon ended things with her and ran back to Hope immediately after. It's no real surprise that Josie has been avoiding her for weeks on end by that point.

As soon as Hope feels Josie's sudden rejection at an attempt to start over, she feels her chest tighten. It starts to feel like there's something wrapping itself around her lungs and she suddenly cannot breathe. She runs into the restroom and rushes to the sink, gasping for air as she tightly grips onto it.

Hope starts to cough, as she coughs, she's gasping for air, desperate for her to have some kind of way to start breathing normally again. She coughs more and more into the sink, finding herself spitting out something. She shuts her eyes, inhales for a second and then opens them to exhale. Only to see bloody pink rose petals right in the sink again.

Hope steps back a few feet, her head trying to wrap her mind around what's possibly happening to her.

As soon as she hears chatter outside, she quickly runs the sink water to try and discard the bloody petals through the sink drain. She grabs a few paper towels and wipes her mouth, trying to hide any proof that she was coughing up petals or blood

After cleaning up as much as she can, she leaves the bathroom and lets out a sigh. She continues her day and tries to not overthink things. She figures, if she ignores it, she won't have a racing, panicked thought with a ton of unease bubbling inside of her.

Hope walks to her class where she spots Josie. She looks over at Josie and smiles. Josie just turns her head away, burying her face into her textbook. It hurts, Hope thinks. Josie's her best friend, but now it's like she's nothing but a stranger. Which is something Hope never wanted to happen. Because that's one of the reasons she was worried about telling anyone who she was in the first place. She was worried that if she tells Josie and Landon who she really is, Josie would hate her. She refused to let that happen, and in the end, Josie hates her anyway...

Josie

Josie's been avoiding Hope for the past few weeks. On purpose, as well. She knows the truth. She knows how much she loves Hope. But she also knows the other painful truth. Which is that Hope doesn't love her. Why would she? Hope's in love with Landon. Which is the most painful truth Josie's forced to accept. The night Landon broke up with her and ran off to Hope, expressing his undying love to her, thus the two of them getting back together symbolized something to Josie. That nothing in their relationship really mattered to Landon.

However, Josie's not even mad. She can't blame Landon for being in love with Hope. Because she is also in love with Hope. She is so deeply, helplessly, undoubtedly, irrevocably in love with her that it almost hurts to even think about her.

For weeks, Josie avoids Hope. When anybody asks questions, Josie replies with the same answer every time: "I just need space," or "I just need time, it still hurts,"

It's not an entire lie. She does still need time. After all, being broken up with just for your now ex to run back and confess his love to somebody else would not be such a fun feeling. But her answers also have some lies to it. She is hurt, and she does need space. But she's not just hurt because Landon left her for Hope, she's hurt because Hope loves Landon .

It's been obvious to Josie for years that she's had strong feelings for Hope. But when their memories of Hope were gone, she still felt a piece of her missing, which was why she and Landon gravitated towards one another. Because the two of them were both missing a part of Hope.

Shortly after class, Josie goes to the library. She's reading when she hears the sound of laughter. She looks up to see Hope and Landon walking. The two of them whispering sweet nothings, Hope looking at Landon fondly while trying to fix his shirt collar and his hair.

The sight is too much for Josie to bear. She pretends to not notice, that is until she finally sees Hope by her feet

"Hey, Josie," Hope says

Josie's breath gets caught in her throat, it's hard to breathe when a sudden burning sensation occurs. She adjusts her body uncomfortably before smiling slightly

"H-Hi, Hope," Josie says

"I haven't seen you around. How have you been?" Hope asks, "Also, what are you reading?"

"Oh- it's umm..." Josie stammers on her breath as Hope leans in. Josie catches a strong whiff of Hope's perfume. It's strong. It's also floral.

"Is this a book about Greek Mythology?" Hope asks

"Yeah, umm, kind of," Josie replies, "I-I gotta go, sorry,"

"Do you want to grab food tomorrow after class?" Hope asks, "I haven't seen you in a while,"

Josie's breath hitches. The burning in her lungs worsen as she starts to cough. . Josie stands up, startling Hope a little bit. Who steps back a few feet.

"Woah, hey, are you okay?" Hope asks, reaching out to touch Josie in an attempt to comfort her

Ratherly harshly, but not too harshly, Josie smacks Hope's hand. Letting her know not to touch her.

"N-no," Josie says, "I-I'm okay,"

"You don't look okay, Jo," Hope says, "Maybe I should take you to the nurse,"

Josie shakes her head and coughs more into her hand. Finally coughing something out.

"I-I'm okay, thanks," Josie says, "I-I gotta go, bye,"

Before Josie lets Hope speak again, she grabs her books and runs out of the library, and right into the restroom.

Making sure the restroom is empty, she opens her hand to see what she coughed up.

To her horror.

A bloody white rose petal.

"What...the fuck..." Josie mutters