𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 | Hosie ✔️

Chapter 21

As she pushed her way through to the door, Josie accelerated her pace and walked straight to the stairs leading up to the students' rooms. She quickly climbed the stairs until she reached the landing, but then stopped there. Examining, she let her gaze wander up and down the hall to make sure it was empty. Although all the students should still be downstairs celebrating the Miss Mystic Falls award.

Never seeing anyone, she kept walking until she stopped at Hope's room door. Both girls agreed she shouldn't do the spell in Josie's room. After Lizzie had not won, they could not risk her sister returning to her room and preventing her from doing her job. After all, it was possible that this was the only chance they had, and that they would not get another chance after that. Everyone was downstairs at the party and distracted. Still, it was better to be careful.

She pulled out the small key that Hope had left for her to open the door and enter. She quickly closed the door behind her again and then stepped towards the desk. There Hope had placed both a candle and a knife for her before the competition started. Even if she hadn't thought so at first, it was good to have someone who was with her in this matter and supported her. Alone, she would certainly not be as far along as she is now and might never have had the idea to try it this way. After all, at Salvatore Boarding School they were taught to keep their fingers out of black magic and were taught nothing more than defense. But now that someone with dark magic attacked them, it felt like fighting fire with fire. Besides, she had to admit that dark magic had always been fascinating for her in some way.

Her fingers closed around the two objects and she placed the candle on the floor in front of her. A mere snap of her fingers was enough to ignite the wick and let a bright flame flare-up. She just stared at it for a moment before she stood up again and walked over to Hope's bedside table. There lay a folded piece of paper, but even without reading the words, she knew what it contained.

As she reached for it, her fingers trembled slightly with excitement. Maybe it would have been better if Hope had done this and Josie had let Emma Tig catch her. After all, the Mikaelson already knew the spell, but then again, Josie couldn't let her father catch her so easily. I'm sure it would be very difficult to explain. So she had no other choice than to try it herself. However, she needed to wait a while before she started to cast the spell, otherwise, her distraction would be gone.

She took a look at the clock that was on the desk. Another two minutes before it was time. Carefully she unfolded the note and let her eyes wander over the letters that were written there. In her mind, she went through the sentence but did not yet dare to pronounce it.

Again her eyes fell on the clock. One more minute. Her heart finally began to know who was behind it and to be able to stop this person, faster. She still couldn't figure out who was after her. And especially why. She was the Saltzman sister who was better liked by the students and she didn't know why they should try to harm her.

One more time she looked in the direction of the clock, only to realize that the last minute had passed. For a moment her heart stopped as she lowered her gaze to the leaf and laid it on the wooden floor. Then her fingers wrapped themselves around the handle of the knife, cutting her palm lightly, as the spell demanded. A slight pain stretched up into her arm, but it was only a small sacrifice for what the spell would bring her.

She stretched her hand over the flame and closed her fingers into a fist. Slowly, single drops of blood began to run over her skin and fall into the flame. With a hiss, the liquid mixed with the hungry fire. She lowered her eyes to the note and began to read what was written there. No sooner had she pronounced the first word than the flame turned a deep blood red and flickered upwards, and as soon as she had finished the first sentence, she felt magic begin to flow through her body. Hope had allowed her to suck off some of her magic before the event and now she could feel Hope's energy flowing through her body and seemingly invigorating it. It was a warm and pleasant feeling that she had never felt before. Every magic she took from someone else made her feel something different, but it had never been like that with Hope before. She seemed to have something as special about her as Hope herself was special.

When she started to repeat the spell, everything around her became black for a moment before a completely new image appeared in her mind's eye. It took a few seconds for her to realize that this was exactly what was supposed to happen. She tried to calm her fast heartbeat as best she could and focus on what she saw around her.

Around her was the hall of the Salvatore Boarding School, where most of the students and guests of the Miss Mystic Falls competition were still to be seen. It was a tangle of voices that made it impossible for Josie to concentrate on any of them and the look of the person through whose eyes Josie was looking was quickly tossed back and forth, making it impossible for her to see anything clearly at first. Then, however, the person seemed to start moving towards the door through which you came back to the main corridor of the school building. She passed a mirror that allowed Josie to catch a glimpse of the figure.

In the reflecting surface, she saw a girl with dark brown hair and eyes of the same color. Her skin was slightly tanned, but her face had never seen Josie here before. Yet she had to be a student of the Salvatore Boarding School. At least that was revealed by the school uniform in which she was dressed exactly like Josie herself.

But she was not allowed to look any further, because once again it turned black all around her and hardly a second later she found herself back in Hope's room. Josie's breathing was shallow as she blinked briefly and supported herself with her hands on the wooden floor. She quickly blew out the candle and leaned back slightly. For a moment she closed her eyes once more and saw the face of the girl once more, which had run itself into her mind. She didn't know who this girl was and she had no idea why she was torturing Josie in her dreams in this way, but now she had the chance to finally make it stop and let her sleep peacefully again in the night. Without Hope's help, she would probably never have been able to do that, though.

-

Hope had just spoken the spell for the last time when the door behind her opened and made her look over her shoulder. There she spotted Emma Tig, looking at her with a serious expression on her face: "Hope Mikaelson, what the hell is this? "Hope tried not to pull her face when the woman approached her, but in fact, she had been waiting for Miss Tig to show up. After all, that was the reason she had performed the spell in the first place. Her only purpose was to distract from Josie and protect her. She could get in a little trouble for that herself. That much it was worth to her to help Josie find the person who was terrorizing her. If not much more. By now she had become more than just important to her and she didn't help Josie just to prove that she wasn't the one behind it.

"You know what's coming, don't you?" Emma's tone was reproachful and made a hand gesture that made the Tribridin realize it was time to leave the room she was in. And Hope knew. After all, this was not the first time she had been caught practicing dark magic. Even if this time it wasn't in her own best interest. There was no way Emma could let her know, let alone Dr. Saltzman. If Josie had wanted her father to know, she would certainly have told him herself already, and therefore it was not up to her to tell a secret that was not hers.
"You have some explaining to do, Hope," Miss Tig added as she walked across the hall, followed by Hope.
"Yes, I know," she muttered as she was already thinking of the best possible excuse.