beloved, hope mikaelson

04 | WHAT HEROES DO

"GIVEN THE RECENT INFLUX of monsters, the sheriff and I have decided we need to take drastic action," Dad began at the assembly, "Please give him your full attention."

Sheriff Donovan took over. "Like Dr. Saltzman was saying, local girls Dana Lilien and Sasha Stoteraux didn't come home last night. Dana sometimes skips town for a few days to party, but this is a first for Sasha." He concluded what he had to say, taking a step away from the podium for Dad to resume speaking as pictures of Dana and Sasha were being passed around among us students.

"Thank you, Sheriff Donovan. Now while the knife is away with Dorian and things are quiet on his end, it won't hurt to assume the worst. If Dana and Sasha..."

Dad's voice trailed off into the background as I slipped away into my own mind. This monster stuff was getting really terrifying. After what happened to Lizzie with the gargoyle, I couldn't stop thinking about it; what was going to come next. Would the monsters get increasingly more difficult to beat? It was unsettling to just... sit here and try to continue living as a normal teenager when I knew what potentially was out there. We don't even know where these things were coming from.

Everything that's come after us has only existed in folklore for hundreds of years, and has never been recorded in the real world– unlike vampires, witches, and werewolves– until showing up here. Why were they only coming out to play now? And why? Why were they all after this one knife? None of it made sense.

To add to an already natural sense of fear, I had my daughter to worry about. She's just a baby. What if something happened to her? I'm not sure I would be able to live after that. Selfishly, I also worried about myself, partly because I don't want to die– I'm so young, I want to live life– but also because if I die, Eve will be an orphan. Leo made it clear to me that he didn't ever want to be in her life. I am her only parent. If something were to happen to me, Eve would be alone.

I know that she has Lizzie, Josie, and my parents to take care of her for the rest of her life, and as well as I know they'll take care of her, none of them are me. I'm her mom. No one could ever love her the way that I can. She's my baby.

I was coaxed out of my thoughts and brought back to Dad's speech. "Now, I'll need a few of you to volunteer to go to Mystic Falls High under the guise of an exchange program meant to improve relations between our schools, which, unfortunately, is necessary, given recent events. Now, I give you permission to compel them, to gather materials, for locator spells, because any information we can get will make all the difference."

Something rubbed me the wrong way about Dad asking for teenagers– kids– to volunteer in a case that potentially had to do with monsters. Either way, he was volunteering students to put themselves in the way of a potential threat. I know that it made some kind of sense to have supernatural students go to the high school undercover, but still. I wouldn't like it if it was Eve being asked to potentially volunteer for something like this when she's a teenager.

I really wish Mom would come back and co-run the school with him again. I know she's out recruiting– and looking for information on the Merge, that Josie and Lizzie have no idea about– but the school was much better handled when she and Dad ran it together, as Headmaster and Headmistress. Up until I was fifteen, it was like that. Then, once the reins were handed over to Dad by himself, I haven't really agreed with a lot of the decisions he's made.

Lizzie stood up from her seat. "Well, I guess that I can set aside my differences with Dana for a day, because that is what heroes do."

I grinned softly at the floor at her dramatics. I know that many people found my sister annoying. If she wasn't my sister, I'd probably think she was annoying, too. But she is my sister. And I know Lizzie's heart. I know she doesn't mean any true harm by it. She's only fifteen, for God's sake. She's discovering herself. She's allowed to be a little stupid and a little theatrical. I don't agree with her tendency to be rude to our peers, but I'm working with her on that.