Raw Love [SLOW UPDATES]

Chapter 2

"So this room has been empty all month. Honestly, it's been empty for years. I don't know why." On the way to the room, Lizzie had told her everyone's names and had shown her pictures of them. Lizzie pushes open the door to Hope's old room and both girls walk inside. "So? What do you think?"

"It's nice." Lizzie smiles and then plops down on the bed.

"I was thinking of asking my dad if we could go into town tomorrow and grab some decorations for your room." Hope nods and jumps a little when someone knocks on the door.

"Come in." The door creaks open and Landon pops his head in, seeing him made Hope's heart skip a beat.

"Uh Lizzie. MG's looking for you." Lizzie loudly groans and heaves herself up from Hope's bed.

"I will see you at 7 for dinner." Landon moves into the room so Lizzie can get past him. He turns to Hope after she's gone.

"Um hi, I don't think we've met." He holds out his hand and Hope shakes it. "Landon."

"Hope." She smiles and he returns the smile as someone calls to him from down the hallway, the voice oddly sounding like Josie's. It was in fact Josie as she walks up to Landon in the doorway pressing a kiss to his lips, making Hope's heart sink. So he had moved on.

"Oh, I see you have your room. Would you like a tour?" Hope shakes her head and Josie smiles as she looks at Landon. "Want to get out of here?"

"Are you sure we should leave her alone on her first day?" Hope rolls her eyes and clears her throat.

"I'll be fine." They ask her again if it's fine if they leave and she reassures them she'll be fine and they leave, shutting the door behind them. Hope mutters a spell under her breath to lock the door and then quickly walks over to the closet. She gets down on her knees and pries some loose planks off of the floor to reveal a small hole. Hope reaches inside and pulls out a box with an M on it. She runs her fingers over it as one tear slides down her cheek. She puts the loose floorboards back and walks over to the bed. She opens the lid and looks through all the pictures in it until she finds a certain one. It's on the day she met her dad, they were all gathered on the front porch smiling widely. Hope wished she could call her aunt Freya right now and talk about her dad. I wish you were here dad even if you wouldn't remember me." She hears someone knock on the door and quickly wipes away her tears, shoves everything in the box, puts it back in the floor, and unlocks the door. "Hey, Lizzie."

"Hey, are you alright?" Hope nods, putting a smile on her face. "Let's go to dinner."

****

"Okay, so we have the werewolves, the witches, and the vamps." Lizzie points out each group and then turns to Hope as Josie, Landon, and the rest of the crew sit down. "Everyone usually sticks to their own species circle but we don't care. Hey guys. For those of you who haven't met her, this is Hope."

"Hi." Everyone greets her and the few who hadn't met her properly shake her hand.

"So are you here for good?" Hope looks over at Kaleb and nods. "Like we need another witch."

"Kaleb." Hope smiles. She had missed Josie's scolding and Kaleb's remarks. She looks around at all of her old friends and smiles. She was home.

A couple of months later

Landon sits on the bench in the town square writing in his journal, earbuds in, as a large hairy creature stumbles closer and closer. It's just about to reach him when Hope runs up behind the cyclops. "Ekai." The monster flies into the air landing on its back. As it's getting to its feet Hope rushes at it, smacking it across the face. The monster smacks Hope in return and she falls to the ground crying out in pain. She looks up as it stumbles towards her and she tries to get to her feet. "Eka-." The monster wraps a big beefy hand around her throat and lifts her off the ground, Hope struggling to breathe. The beast is about to stab her when an arrow flies through the air and embeds itself into its hand. The monster drops Hope on the ground and she looks back to see Ric with a crossbow in hand. It rips the arrow from its hand and Ric runs forward, smacking the beast across the stomach with his crossbow and then across the face. Ric is loading up his crossbow when the monster grabs him by the scruff of his shirt and throws him across the clearing. "Hey, you." Hope stands up as the beast looks at her. "Incendia." Its head sets on fire and the monster starts yelling as it hits its head to put the fire out. After the fire is out the monster removes its hand to reveal its eye, large and bulbous.

"New theory, cyclops." Hope quickly scoops up Ric's crossbow off of the ground and shoots it at the cyclops, the arrow soars through the sky and lands straight in the middle of its eye. Hope lowers the crossbow as the cyclops falls to the ground with a thud. Ric runs up behind Hope breathing heavily. "You think it's really uh-." Ric doesn't finish his sentence because the body disintegrates and starts disappearing.

"Yep."

"Great. Let's get out of here." Ric takes the crossbow from Hope and walks away as Landon turns around taking out his headphones.

"Hope. What happened?"

"We uh- just killed a cyclops." Hope gestures to the disappearing particles. "I mean it almost attacked you."

"Oh." He awkwardly scratches the back of his head. "Thanks for saving my life I guess."

"Uh yeah." Hope looks back at Ric. "We should get back to the school."

****

"A cyclops. Gross." Lizzie scrunches up her face in disgust as Josie giggles and laces her fingers through Landon's. "And you had no idea this was happening right behind you?"

"Like I said. Headphones in, music blasting, I can't hear a thing." Lizzie rolls her eyes and turns to Hope.

"Hope, of course, being the badass." Hope rolls her eyes as well. "I mean my dad helped but you did most of the work."

"I'm just glad it's dead." Hope eye's shift up to the clock, 10:07, and she stands up to stretch her arms above her head. "Well, I'm going to head up. I've had a tiring day." Everyone wishes her goodnight and Hope heads up to her room. When she's inside, she mutters a spell to lock her room. She walks over to her bed table and opens the top drawer, pulling out the prism. She sets it down on her desk and then sits on her bed.

"Hey, Hope." Hope looks over at subconscious Landon and sighs, looking down at her hands. "Hey, what's the matter?"

"I'm starting to think coming here was a horrible idea." She sighs again and puts her face in her hands. "Every time I see Landon and Josie I- it's too much."

"What's too much?" Hope looks up and out the window watching as a few leaves break off of a tree branch and fly away in the wind.

"I love him and he doesn't even remember that he loves me and that we were happy." A tear slides down her face as her voice breaks at the end of the sentence. "He's happy, I know but-. What do I do?"

"I think you should decide that for yourself." Hope scoffs and looks at subconscious Landon. "What? I only know what you know. I'm your subconscious."

"I- I don't know what I should do." Hope picks up the prism making subconscious Landon disappear and puts it back in the drawer. She pulls back the covers on her bed and climbs in, pulling them up to her chin while memories of her and Landon run through her mind. She shakes her head to try to get rid of them and turns on her back, the blanket falling. Hope sighs and looks up at the ceiling. What do I do dad?