𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 | Hosie ✔️

Chapter 20

Firmly entangled, Hope held her fingers with Josie's while she stared spellbound into the middle of the great hall.  All participants had positioned themselves at the edge and dead silence had spread throughout the room.  After a few minutes in which the jury had disappeared, one of the men had returned.  In his hands he held a golden sealed envelope.  Looks followed him from all sides as he moved through the room until he stopped in front of the girls who had lined up against a wall.

"The jury has reached a verdict, which is in this envelope", he began to explain.  Josie felt her heart beat faster in an instant.  For a moment, she let her gaze wander over the faces of the others.  Most of them seemed as tense as Josie herself, while some looked as if they wanted to tear the envelope out of the man's hands to find out immediately if they were the lucky one.  Having Hope by her side and feeling beside her calmed her down and soothed her excitement.

Since even the man seemed to see that very few of them could stand it much longer and hardly any of them wanted to wait any longer, he set about opening the paper envelope with his chubby fingers and pulling out a piece of paper.  Slowly he unfolded it and let his eyes wander over it before he raised his voice and announced: "The winner of this year's Miss Mystic Falls competition is ...".
He took a pause for art, as if he enjoyed the fact that all bystanders literally stuck to his lips.
"Emelia Bennett", as soon as he announced the name of the winner, everyone started clapping for the girl, while whispers came up.

However, there was obvious resentment on the faces of some of the other participants, but a smile appeared on Josie's lips.  She could not explain why, but she did not feel the slightest disappointment.  Instead, a feeling of relief spread through her.  Although she hadn't won, the day felt like a success so far.  For perhaps the first time in her life, she had done something just for herself, although there was a risk that her sister would be angry with her for that.  But she couldn't do everything for Lizzie forever and put her own wishes on the back burner.  They were twins, but that didn't mean Josie had to do everything for her.  After all, Lizzie didn't do it for her either.  So why would she do it?

"Are you disappointed that you didn't won?" Hope's voice came from the side to her ears and made Josie turn her gaze in her direction.  She didn't have to think twice to find an answer to the question.  No, I am not.  I used to do something for myself and not always pay attention to others."
She noticed that she was still holding Hope's hand, but made no move to let go.
"I owe it all to you," she added as she let her gaze wander over every feature of her beautiful face: "You encouraged me, gave me a chance to talk to my biological mother, and you participated with me here even though you don't really think anything of it.  I have no idea how I'll ever thank you enough for that."

"You'll have plenty of time to think it over once we've done what we planned for the evening," Hope lowered her voice slightly as she spoke.  She wasn't expecting anyone to hear that they had anything planned.  After all, someone could overhear at any time without them noticing.  The person who terrorized Josie that night was most likely also at the Salvatore Boarding School and maybe even in this room.

As she spoke, Josie's gaze turned to Hope's lips and she began to wonder what they felt like.  Frightened by her own thoughts, she quickly lifted her eyes again and tried to concentrate on her words.  Her plan was now the most important thing and required all her attention.  With the thought that they could actually find out what was behind it that night, and possibly finally get the chance to finally lift the burden from her shoulders, her heart started pounding hard against her chest.
"All right, I guess we should try to get out of here now," she suggested and let her gaze wander.  None of the others seemed to be watching her, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to steal away unobtrusively.

"Good," Hope nodded in agreement and carefully let go of her hand: "Then you go first and wait five minutes before you start.  I'll go shortly after you and then start to distract from you."
Josie had already gone over the plan several times in her mind, but had not been able to find a weak point that could cause it to fail.  Therefore it simply had to work.  If it didn't, she didn't know what else to do to find out who was behind her nightmares and to prevent it from continuing.  Now she was really glad to have confided in Hope and to know that she was on her side.
"See you later", she said goodbye to Hope and then without hesitation moved between the bystanders to get towards the door.