Legacies (Rewritten) S1

Chapter 20: I Know The Feeling

"Lizzie?!" The blonde heard a muffled voice. It was her Dad's. Relief washes over her face and she screamed for him, yet her voice only came out in a pained groan.

"Lizzie!" The big gash on her abdomen terrified Alaric further.

"What happened?" Emma gasped as she saw Lizzie on the ground.

"Monster! Monster!" Pedro repeated. "Monster hurt Lizzie!"

The mention of a monster on school grounds brought Alaric back to his hunter origins. "Where?"

"I don't know! She told me to look for a teacher."

Emma kneeled, matching Pedro's height, to comfort the rattled boy. "You are so brave Pedro." A distant scream made chills run a marathon down Emma and Ric's spine.

"Gather the students left on campus to a safe room." He said, "Should only be the younger students, most are at town square." He turned to Emma, "Tell those older students that are in their dorms to stay there, lock their doors and don't make a sound."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine, looking for answers in the library."

"Bu-"

"I'll take Lizzie to the safe room with you." He carefully carried his daughter. "Now!"

Back in town square, Josie stared at Hope, while the auburnette only smiled. The silence between them was thick.

"Please say something."

"He what?" Panic and horror was clear in Josie's tone and face.

"Don't worry-

Josie forced a laugh, "Don't worry? Hope, my Dad-"

"Doesn't know." Hope could see relief was over Josie's face. "He doesn't."

"How are you sure?"

"I'm still alive." Hope said, "If he found out I involved his daughter in black magic, he'd find a way to kill me and make sure I stay dead."

Josie scoffed, "Yeah, right."

"He loves you." Hope said what the brunette needed to hear, "We may never understand why they do the things they did, but just know that they do it because they love you." Hope smiled sadly, remembering her own father's smile. "That's what dads do. It's the price they pay for having and loving something death can easily touch."

Another awkward silence flowed in the wind. "Hope, next time, start with that. I don't want to end up in the hospital again so soon." Josie took a deep breath. "And thank you."

"For what?"

"For not telling my Dad."

The two girls stared at each other, Hope could practically see the question in Josie's eyes. "Rafael and his brother took off together."

"Oh."

"Landon said he doesn't know why or how the knife got to him." Hope sighed, "Then, he lied about having it."

"How do you feel about that?" Josie saw that Hope needed to be asked that question.

"God, you sound like Emma." Hope mumbled, "I honestly don't know what to believe. When I found him yesterday, a part of me saw a terrified kid." A laugh escaped Hope's lips.

"But?"

"I saw him with the knife, Josie. We saw him with the knife. I don't know which version of him to believe; Knife Thief or Terrified Kid." Hope sighed, "Oh, Dad, why did I have to inherit your paranoia?"

Josie opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but immediately closed it.

"You can say anything Josie, it's fine." Hope said, "You know more about what I'm going through than Emma."

"Mom and Dad have been really busy these past few months." Josie took a deep breath. Is she really about to confide in Hope about her problems? "They both rescheduled Game Nights and Friday Fry-Off's multiple times and they're both practically married to their work on the weekdays. Lizzie's a sensitive soul, she just really misses them and takes it out on others."

"How about you?" Hope's question took Josie aback.

"Me?"

"Do you miss them?"

Josie nodded silently.

"I know the feeling." They both gave each other a sad smile.

"I remember how your mom used to come by the school." Josie smiled. "We all used to say how beautiful she was."

"She was." Hope smiled, memories of her mom filled her mind.

"Many students would watch her when she would visit you."

"I saw." Hope's smile reached her ears, remembering how ridiculous some students looked while staring at her mother.

"With a mom like yours, we all used to wonder what you'd look like."

Hope raised an eyebrow, "Well, did I meet your expectations?"

"You grew beautifully." Josie said, almost absent-mindedly.

Two sets of eyes found each other again and the world seemed to have stopped. It was the first time either girl saw each other differently. Like there was another person in front of them. Both girls had one thought in mind; under different circumstances they would have been great friends.

Josie cleared her throat, breaking the trance they put themselves in. "We should've sent flowers or something."

"You did. Well, Dr. Saltzman did and he signed them with your names." Hope laughed a little. "It was very obvious."

"Ok, we definitely deserved some poking." The girls shared a laugh. "I wonder how Raf and his brother are right now."

"You wonder a lot."

"I care a lot."

"That's brave." Hope smiled, "Caring about others."

"Thank you." Josie was surprised. With every word Hope says, a new side of hers reveals itself.

"There's this spell that my Aunt Freya taught me. It's like a full immersion video chat." Hope said.

"Based on what I know about locator spells, we would need something that belongs to the boys." Josie said.

Hope pulled out a piece of paper, she rubbed it against her palms and it slowly transformed into a shirt.

Josie's jaw dropped to the floor. "How?"

"Aunt Freya taught me." Hope said with a playfully smug smile.

"Is your aunt interested in teaching teens?" Josie's response made Hope giggle. "Who-"

"Rafael's." Hope said. "I hope. Made myself invisible and went to his dorm room."

"You went to the boy's dorms?"

"I saw things I could never unsee, and heard things I could use against Jed Tien." Hope winced at the memory of the things that violated her eyes. "The spell we'll do, they don't teach this at school. You can't tell your dad."

Josie smiled for the nth time, "This is the kind of secret I can get behind."