Surreptitious

Prologue

It had been what felt like an eternity since Josie had found out about Landon's death.

He had been an immortal phoenix, supposedly indestructible, felled by a golden arrow thrust through him by his very own brother. Rafael was perhaps the only person more inconsolable than Josie herself, though while she dealt with her grief with an endless stream of tears, the wolf handled his emotions in fits of rage. His aggression towards everyone around him - though mostly directed at himself - lead to Alaric having to contain him in one of the transition cells for the most part. At times Josie would find herself slipping down to see him, the two of them sitting together in silent agony as they grieved for their fallen loved one.

The only other person that would possibly be able to understand the immenseness of their sorrow would be Hope Mikaelson. Everyone was, however, too preoccupied at the time in dealing with the actual death of a friend, that not much attention was being paid to the friend that was merely sleeping. Hope wasn't going anywhere, and Josie herself could only survive one heartache at a time. She'd have time to worry about Hope once she was able to get a hold on her heartache over Landon.

Hope was blissfully unaware of the fact that her love was gone. Being trapped in limbo had its advantages. Unfortunately, Hope was not aware of anything, in fact, as she remained frozen in stone on the landscape that was Josie's mind while her body remained statuesque itself, draped upon her own bed where she had been moved to, safely tucked away in her room. Her newly revived roommate, Alyssa, had insisted on moving into a different room, finding the sleeping beauty to be "too creepy", as she claimed.

No one knew why Hope had not awoken once Josie reclaimed control over her own self once more and consequently rid herself of the dark magic that had taken control of her life. Once mourning over Landon had started to subside, Alaric, MG and Kaleb had taken to the books in order to try and solve the riddle that was Hope's condition. Lizzy mostly remained by her sister's side, attempting to lessen the burden upon her heart as much as she was able to. Eventually, however, she also had to move on and grant Josie some much needed space to process her feelings and sort through her thoughts.

Though Josie was reluctant to spend too much time in the presence of her friends, she would still visit Rafael when the hallways were quiet and sit with him in silence, simply needing to know someone understood. And when she was not with Rafael, she would sneak into Hope's room and sit silently by the tribrid's side and let guilt wash over her, causing fresh tears to stain her cheeks. She felt responsible for Hope's so-called absence, and when she thought of how Hope would have to have her heart shattered by the news of Landon's death once she is revived made Josie feel like the villain of the story all over again.

When Josie lay in bed at night, staring at the ceiling through her tears, she wished she could simply cast her grief and her guilt into that coin along with her magic and be rid of it all forever. Eventually she would drift into a fitful sleep, wishing that she could be the one to never wake up.