The Light in my Darkness

~Chapter 24~

Penelope's POV

So let me get this straight, Hope was a student here, and then she jumped into the pit?" Caroline asked after I got done telling them everything, well almost everything I left out the part about how Hope and Josie dated for my own selfish reasons.

"Wait, but why did she jump into the pit in the first place?" Freya questioned looking like she was deep in thought.

"She was the key to defeating Malivore, since she was a tribrid she had the ability to kill it," I finished looking over at Josie who was sitting next to her mom.

Hope's aunt Rebekah stared at me with an expression that I couldn't decipher as being angry or confused before she started talking, "The only question left is why do you remember her,"

"I'm not sure, maybe I have something to do with Malivore like Hope did because she was able to remember stuff about Malivore that no one else did also,"

Both Freya and Rebekah looked satisfied with my answers so they didn't bother asking anymore so we all sat there for a few seconds in awkward silence.

"It's getting late maybe we should continue this tomorrow?" Caroline suggested before walking over to her desk. "There's a spare room here, you two could stay here for tonight if you want," she continued as she grabbed a pair of keys out of it.

"We actually are staying in town but thank you for offering, we'll be back tomorrow sometime," Freya finished before they got ready to leave.

"Sorry about the shoulder," Rebekah apologized half heartily to me with her British accent popping through before they both left.

"Why don't you go get some rest Josie I'm going to talk to Penelope for a minute," Caroline told Josie before she left leaving just me and Caroline in the room.

"I'm very sorry about your shoulder," she apologized sitting down across from me.

"It wasn't your fault, you don't need to apologize," I sadly smiled at her rubbing my sore shoulder.

"You know some vampire blood would heal that right away and it won't leave a scar," she insisted with a knowing look.

"You already know how I feel about that,"

"Right," she smiled back at me lowering her eyes to my stomach. "How are you feeling," she asked referring to my scar.

"It still hurts but it's healed now," I told her before it was quiet for a minute.
"After you left Belgium I found a lead on the merge," I started.

When I left for Belgium last year it wasn't because my mom got a new job or to go to a witch only school, I was trying to find Caroline since I knew she was looking for a way to stop the merge. After I finally convinced her to let me help her we both worked together to stop it, but we never did find a good solid lead until after she had to leave so she left me in Belgium to continue searching for a way to stop the merge.

While I was looking for a way to stop the merge I learned that my coven was the one that put the curse on the Gemini twins and the only way to reverse the curse was to have a member of my coven sacrifice themself during the merge.

"I talked to a couple of the elders in my coven and most of them weren't willing to help but one of them gave me an old scroll regarding the merge and how to reverse it," I explained before she nodded for me to continue.

"After translating the scroll I learned that in order to stop the merge that there has to be a sacrifice,"

"What are we supposed to sacrifice, mice or something?" She questioned raising an eyebrow.

"It has to be a member of my coven," I answered.

"There has to be another way, we're not going to do that, there has to be another loophole," Caroline insisted before she started flipping through the notebook  I brought to her earlier with the translated text in it.

"I've already looked, this is the only way to save both Josie and Lizzie,"

"How are we supposed to find someone willing to sacrifice themselves-," she started again before I gave her a stern look. "Penelope, no, you're not going to sacrifice yourself to protect my girls," she pleaded.

"Caroline, it's the only way, I'm going to do everything in my power to keep them safe weather you like it or not,"

"Over this past year you have become like a third daughter to me and I don't want to have to watch you sacrifice yourself so that they can live, we need to find another way," she continued on trying to reason with me.

"This isn't just for them, this is for their future children as well, after I sacrifice myself in the merge any future twins born into the coven won't have to-,"

"Thank you Penelope," Caroline muttered cutting me off as she wrapped me in one of her bear hugs.

"Mhm," I hummed in response as I hugged her back.

"Why don't you go get some rest, we can talk about this more tomorrow," Caroline said with one last squeeze before letting me go.

Hope's POV

After I found the Whickery bridge I continued up the road towards the Salvatore school so I could talk to Dr. Saltzman and tell him about what happened.

It was already dusk by the time I was in front of the schools gates so did a small spell to unlock and open them.

The school didn't look too different from when I first jumped into Malivore so I assumed that I was maybe only in there for a few days or weeks.

When I entered the school there were a few students walking around but other than that it was quiet so I headed down the hallway towards Dr. Saltzman's office.

I knocked on the door a couple times before hearing a muffled "come in" so I opened the door to see Josie's mom sitting at the desk.

"Can I help you?" she asked glancing up from her desk before looking back down.

"I'm sorry if this was a bad time," I softly apologized. "I was hoping I could talk to Dr. Saltzman,"

"I'm sorry but he hasn't worked here for a few months now," she said looking up from a book she had on her desk.

"I'm sorry but did you just say months?" I asked in confusion quirking an eyebrow.

After I asked that she looked up from her book studying my face a little harder when I saw her eyes light up.

"Hope Mikaelson," she breathed out before getting up and walking over to me.

"Wait, how do you know who I am?"

Now I was more confused than I was before, how could she possibly know who I was since I was erased from everyone's memory.

"Your aunts Rebekah and Freya were here only a couple hours ago, and no I don't remember you but I recognize you from the photo they showed me," she started explaining before she started examining my face closely.

"Klaus Mikaelson had a daughter," I heard her mumble out in awe as she continued to look at me.

"Are they coming back?" I asked her snapping her out of her daze.

"Yeah, they said they'd be back sometime tomorrow," she told me before backing away and grabbing something out of her desk. "Why don't we go get you a room to stay in for tonight before they're back in the morning," Caroline suggested before I followed her along to the witches corridor.

We stopped in-front of one of the vacant rooms to which she unlocked before we both went inside. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle since it was ironic being that this also happened to be my old room.

After I laughed she gave me a questionable look so I apologized telling her that this used to be my room.

"It's getting late so I'll leave you be but I hope we can get this figured out soon," she said giving me a sad smile before leaving.