Chapter 3
Next time Josie saw Hope after their little encounter at the dock, they were in the halls. It was morning and they were heading to the dining hall for breakfast.
Josie's inhibitor was back on her wrist again, blocking the world from magical colors and energies. Just plain old, normal world as other people surely saw it.
Josie had her arm intertwined with Lizzie's as they walked down the hall, but when they were about to turn a corner, Hope was about to do so as well in the opposite direction and they inevitably collided. They backed up immediately and when Josie noticed that it was Hope that she collided with, her cheeks turned red and she internally prayed for it not to be too obvious.
"Watch where you're going," Lizzie advised indifferently at Hope.
At the same time Hope muttered a: "Sorry" with a tight smile directed towards Josie before walking away.
Josie just nodded and avoided Lizzie's questioning eyes all the way to the dining hall.
That day, Josie couldn't stop thinking about Hope. And it wasn't like she was actively thinking about the Mikaelson girl, Hope would just be present in her mind, Josie could feel it. And then, when she realized that she was accidentally thinking about Hope, she would proceed to be actively thinking about her, it frustrated her.
----
Few days later, Josie was in the dining hall, it was evening and their dad gathered them all together so he could say some announcements before dinner. He did (barely got any attention from the students though) and then left, leaving all of them in the dining hall to have dinner together, which was usually weird cause they only used the dining hall for breakfast or lunch, hardly ever they used it for dinner as well.
So Josie was sitting between MG and Lizzie, forced to witness some form of debate they had going on about Greek Mythology while unconsciously looking for auburn-hair among the students. Back when Josie didn't have her inhibitor, she used to easily spot Hope whenever she was in the room, her colors were brighter than anyone else's and Josie didn't have to look for too long to find her. But now, with her inhibitor on and Hope's dark colors, there was no way for her to know if she was in the room or not.
She sighed, focusing her eyes on the plate of food in front of her. Why did she care so much? Why couldn't she stop thinking about her?
"What do you think about Hope?" Josie said, interrupting MG's speech.
They both looked at her, Lizzie just raised an eyebrow questioningly and MG just stayed in silence. Why was she asking about this? Josie cleared her throat and glanced at her bracelet. "I mean, I just notice that she's alone most of the time and maybe we could invite her to join us? Would you guys be okay with that?"
When she looked up again, Lizzie was wearing a cheshire smile and her eyes shone with mischief. "Well I'll be damned" Her smile only grew, if that was even possible. "You finally admit it out loud"
Josie frowned, "Admit what out loud?"
"That you have a little obsession with our designated lonely tribrid" She concluded, fully confident in her statement.
"What?! What are you talking about? I do not have an obsession with Hope" Josie said defensively and started to nervously play with her bracelet under the table, avoiding her sister's eyes.
"Of course you do" Lizzie continued, rolling her eyes. "Do you think I haven't noticed you staring at her and drooling since we were like 13? Honestly Jo, I'm surprised and a little bit disappointed that you never actually confided in me with this"
"I don't have an obsession with Hope, Lizzie" Josie gripped her bracelet tighter and looked at her sister with a frown.
"Why would you be asking about her then?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Oh right, sorry, I forgot the times you'd never shut up about how her aura was the most interesting thing you'd ever seen. See? Normal obsessional behavior"
The two stayed looking at each other, Lizzie raising an eyebrow in defiance and Josie was still frowning, fiddling with her bracelet until MG nervously laughed next to Lizzie.
"Alright," He said, chuckling. "It's okay if you have a little crush on Hope, Jo. And I, for one, wouldn't mind sitting with her"
"But I don't" Josie was fiddling with her bracelet so much now that she accidentally unclipped it and it fell off her wrist, landing on the floor.
That's when all of the energies of the students accumulated in just one single room hit Josie like hundreds of waves. She could sense herself beginning to panic, too many emotions were hitting her at the same time.
Anger, because some boys in the table on her left were arguing about something Josie did not care about but couldn't help but feel the anger.
Sadness, cause she sensed that a witch behind her was starting to silently cry. Also, comforted because the girl's friends were hugging her.
Restless, the majority of the students were finished already with their meals and were hanging out, talking, laughing, flirting.
Josie could sense all of them. All of the emotions and energies in the air. It was like she was in a perfumery and all of the employees randomly decided to spread every perfume's fragrance in the air at the same time, mixing them all up.
She was wide-eyed and not focusing on anything in particular, just staring at all the colors that were assaulting her vision. It was giving her a migraine and she was starting to feel nauseous, Josie could tell that if she spent another few minutes in the dining hall, she would throw up.
But it all abruptly stopped when she felt a hand clasping around her wrist and then holding her hand. Josie blinked a few times and noticed that it was Lizzie, sitting next to her.
"Are you okay?"
She slowly nodded. Also noticing that her bracelet was in her right wrist again.
"I-" Josie couldn't finish her sentence because even though it all stopped, the nausea didn't and she felt the urge to throw up.
She stood up and ran to the nearest bathroom, not caring that she opened the door with all of her strength and not even checking for empty stalls, she just barged in and let it all out once she found a toilet. Feeling disgusted with herself after and wanting to take a long, cleansing shower, Josie stood up and opened the stall's door.
Maybe Josie should've checked the bathroom first though, cause the sight of Hope, leaning against the sink and looking at her with a somewhat concerned expression caught her off guard. Did Hope listen to all of that? God, now she felt even more disgusted.
"I-I'm sorry" She weakly muttered.
Hope tilted her head. "What are you apologizing for?"
Josie opened and then closed her mouth again, What could she say anyway? So she settled for shrugging and then approached the sink, awfully aware of Hope, still in the same place while Josie washed her hands and mouth… twice. She really needed to brush her teeth though.
"Are you okay?" Hope asked, casually ogling Josie.
"Yeah… just-"
Had a breakdown in the dining hall no biggie what about you?
"Just something I ate" She lied, avoiding eye contact.
Under the corner of her eyes she could see Hope nodding while drying her hands with a paper towel. This was weird, right? Josie had barely talked to Hope her entire life, just a few hellos and good mornings or sorrys once in a while when they inevitably found themselves orbiting in the same space, never actually having a conversation. Yet, there was something.
Yet, Josie felt this pull towards the older girl. Maybe it was the fact that they were relatively connected due to their parents' history. Like those kids whose parents are friends so they become friends as well. It made sense to Josie, their parents knew each other so they have to know each other too so that's why Josie wanted to be friends with Hope when she was a child, but Josie never found the courage to just approach her, besides, if Hope wanted to be friends with Josie then she would've approached her too right?
Then, Josie developed the ability to see auras and once again, found herself wanting to be close to Hope just so that she could experience for herself what was like to be within Hope's energy, in Hope's receiving end of her smiles and beautiful colors. But once again, never found the courage to, so she just stared at the girl hoping that Hope would be the one to approach her, to talk to her, to notice her. Except that when Hope did notice her, it seemed like she was expecting the same thing. So they danced around each other that way for a while, acknowledging each other but never actually making an effort to exchange more than stolen stares.
"...But I guess I'll just find someone else" Hope's voice brought Josie back to reality.
Josie blinked and focused her gaze on Hope, was she imagining it or was Hope nervously fidgeting with her rings? "I'm sorry, what?"
"Nevermind" She showed her one of her tight smiles again before dumping the paper towel on the trash. "Hope you feel better"
After that Hope hurried back to the door and left, no even bothering to look back.
Josie got out of her daze the moment the door clicked shut and realization hit her. Hope had asked her something, but she was too inside her head to catch it. She groaned and splashed more water in her face.
One question still lingering: what had she asked?
----
"Okay stop, I'm sorry alright?" Lizzie said, sitting on her own bed in their room, some books spread out in front of her but she was mindlessly scrolling through her phone until she sighed and looked at Josie. "I shouldn't have said those things to you in the dining hall. It wasn't right"
"No, it wasn't" Josie muttered.
It was nighttime already and the twins were getting ready to go to bed. Lizzie had kept looking at Josie the entire time after she got back from the bathroom, pleading with her eyes for Josie to acknowledge her sister, but Josie just ignored her and kept ignoring her even in their own room.
She didn't know why, but it bothered her that Lizzie thought she had an "obsession" with Hope. First of all, it wasn't an obsession. Second of all, she didn't want to share this thing she felt towards the older girl, with Lizzie. She didn't want Lizzie to know.
Besides, ignoring Lizzie was easy when all she could think about was Hope and her question that Josie couldn't catch.
"You shouldn't say things that aren't true, Lizzie, and you were this close" She brought her thumb and index finger together "Of shouting it in front of everyone in the dining hall, that would only spread rumours and I don't want Hope to be freaked out about that"
Lizzie raised an eyebrow.
"Don't start" Josie rolled her eyes.
"Just admit it to me Josie" She tossed her phone aside and crossed her legs, putting a pillow on top of them. "You have always paid extra attention to Hope"
Well, that was true.
"And you kept talking about her literally all the time and that was only 2 or maybe 3 years ago?" She continued. "You kept talking to me about her like you knew her"
Josie only shrugged, not wanting to have this conversation at all, and much less with her sister. "2 years ago" She immediately added and then cringed. She wasn't helping her case. "But I don't know her" That felt like a lie. "I was just interested cause her aura's energy was really rare"
"Are you sure that's all there was?"
Josie sighed and stood up from her bed, already done with the interview that Lizzie was apparently clearly enjoying.
"I'm gonna go grab something from the kitchen, do you want anything?", She asked instead.
Lizzie rolled her eyes and grabbed her phone again, "Some brownies. Make sure they're not burned though"
The trip to the kitchen was uneventful, it was well into the night and most of the students were sleeping or in their bedrooms. Josie knew she was breaking curfew but having her dad as headmaster didn't feel like such a threat sometimes.
While grabbing some cookies for her and brownies for Lizzie, her mind wandered to later that evening in the dining hall.
She was somehow losing control of her abilities. They were growing too much and she couldn't do anything but keep her inhibitor on and pray for it not to fall off, cause when it did, her powers didn't feel as amazing anymore as they did a few years ago when she was only discovering them. Her abilities felt too wild now, too loud, too out of control, too overwhelming. They were growing but Josie wasn't growing with them, she didn't know how to control them, how to turn them off when she wanted.
It frustrated her, to not be able to enjoy it all the time like she did when she was younger. To not feel joy in it but instead, fear of her own powers.
She sighed, and this is how she pretended to somehow show them to Hope? By being scared of taking her bracelet off in fear of being assaulted by her heightened senses and enhanced vision?
Speaking of Hope, Josie couldn't help but to keep wondering, to keep making herself remember what Hope had asked earlier. Was it important? Was it something about class? Did she need help with something?
What if she did? Hope did say that she would find someone else? But for what?
Now Josie felt awful, what if Hope was asking for her help with something and she came off as rude?
She grabbed the cookies and brownies, put them in a plastic bowl and without thinking too much about it, skipped the door to her bedroom and went straight to Hope's. But only after knocking and getting no response for a few seconds, she was just realizing that maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe she should just go back to her room and pretend like she never knocked on-
Only that the door swung open and there was Hope right in front of her, tilting her head and raising her eyebrows in confusion. Josie noticed that she wasn't wearing pajamas but jeans and a white jumper.
"Uh, hi?" She asked, even her voice sounded confused.
"Hi" Josie swallowed. What was she doing? "I, uh…"
She glanced at the bowl of cookies and brownies on her hands and swallowed again. She noticed that Hope followed her gaze and was now glancing at the bowl too, appearing even more confused at the sight of Josie with a bowl of cookies outside her door.
"I was just wondering about what you said earlier in the bathroom? I'm sorry if I came off as rude, I wasn't, I was just too in my head that I couldn't hear what you had asked" Josie said rather fast and fought the urge to cringe at herself, she was rambling. "So I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't anything important. And if it wasn't then that's okay, I just… wanted to make sure?"
And apparently she couldn't stop herself.
Hope just stared at her, searching with her eyes Josie's own and when they locked, Josie felt shivers all over her body. Hope's stare was intense, it was heavy with masked emotions and unspoken words but they were guarded and uncertain.
Josie didn't need to take her inhibitor off to tell that Hope was struggling with something right now and Josie just stumbled upon at the exact moment of.
"Okay then well" She awkwardly said, lowering her eyes to the bowl. The cookies didn't seem appetizing anymore. "I guess I'll just… go. Have a good night"
She turned around and started walking until she heard a soft "Wait"
When she faced Hope again, Hope avoided her eyes at all cost. "It is something important"
"Okay"
"And… I still might need someone" She hesitantly opened the door wider, making it clear to Josie that she was welcomed if she agreed.
Josie just nodded and walked past Hope. She would've lied if she said that she hasn't pictured Hope's room before, she imagined it to be full of colors too, like Hope's aura used to be, that it would have pictures or lights or things that were undeniably Hope's.
What she found though after entering Hope's room for the first time ever, wasn't what she was expecting. Just like Hope's current aura, her room looked the same. Emptied of things, of decoration. Nothing was hanging from the walls. There were as many colors and furniture as the room came with, nothing else. Just a few boxes in a far corner of it, they looked full and as if they had accumulated dust on top of them.
But Josie didn't pay much attention to the boxes but at what was right at the center of Hope's room. She had a large mat on the floor with some lighted candles and stones lying around it. A map was in the middle of it.
"I need your help with a spell" Hope casually said, as if doing magic so late at night for other reasons other than school homework wasn't a big deal.
"Yeah I can see that" Josie looked again at the stuff placed on the mat. "What kind of spell?"
Hope closed the door and slowly approached Josie, standing a few feet from her. Josie tried to ignore the fact that she was alone with Hope again, in her room no less.
Hope cleared her throat. "Does it matter?"
"Yes" She crossed her arms. "How else am I supposed to help you then?"
She had the room's lights turned off, the only light in the room was coming from her bedside lamp and the candles on the floor. Somehow it gave the room some sense of intimacy, as if they were the only two people that were awake in the entire school. It also gave Josie the need to take off her inhibitor and sense that heightened energy.
Hope just shrugged and went to sit on one side of the mat, rearranging some stones. "We're doing an astral projection spell" She explained. "I need your help because I can't hold it for a long time if I'm alone"
"You've tried holding an astral projection for too long by yourself? That can be dangerous" Josie uncrossed her arms and followed Hope, sitting in front of her on the mat.
"I didn't have a choice"
"Why not? You could've asked sooner" Josie pointed out.
'It doesn't matter" She lifted her head and looked at Josie expectantly. "Are we doing this or not?"
Josie set aside the bowl and nodded. Her heart was starting to beat a bit too fast for her liking.
"You'll need to take my hands so you could siphon and still be anchored with me" She instructed.
Josie swallowed, she couldn't convince herself to keep her inhibitor on. She didn't want to this time, the prospect of siphoning from Hope without her inhibitor, to be in her room and in her presence again without it was too strong. So instead of keeping it on where it should be, she took it off for the second time that day.
Emotions and strong energies immediately hit her like a wave and she had to close her eyes for a moment to digest it all, to let her body attune to the energies that it was receiving. It wasn't like in the dining hall earlier, it was much different. She wasn't assaulted with a gigantic wave which would drown her, this time the waves were softly crashing against the shore. Softly letting her know.
She sensed strong magic, constantly pulsating throughout the school but Hope's room was beating the loudest at having her presence in it. And yes, it might be emptied of physical things but it definitely wasn't empty of strong energies. It felt calm and gave Josie a sense of security but at the same time, it gave her a feeling of hopeless (no pun intended) as if something so treasured before was now missing.
When she opened her eyes again, she noticed that Hope was looking at her curiously. Her eyes tracing every inch of Josie's face as if asking a silent question. But Josie's attention was on the aura that was evolving Hope.
It wasn't dark, but it wasn't bright either. Her dominant colors were still dim, meaning that her dominant energy for life in general was still low, but right above and center, green and blue were glimmering and harmoniously dancing, meaning that she was currently feeling some kind of peacefulness and was okay with being expressive towards her current feelings.
Huh. If Josie hadn't taken her inhibitor off, she wouldn't have known considering that Hope's carefully masked expression didn't exactly tell her anything.
"Um, you still with me?" Hope asked, curiously eyeing Josie.
"Y-Yeah" She cleared her throat and looked away, her cheeks burned.
Hope narrowed her eyes but nodded, offering her hands for Josie to take. When she did though, her heart skipped a beat, apart from her hold being too soft but certain, it emanated the strongest magic Josie had ever felt so when she started to siphon, it almost made her dizzy. She closed her eyes again.
Hold it.
Josie felt herself disconnect from her body and being divided into two entities, so when after opening her eyes and seeing she was no longer in the school but in a bayou, she gasped.
"It's this way" Hope whispered next to her, tugging Josie along with her.
Her hands were still joined and Josie let out another quiet gasp again, making a move to let go but Hope grasped her hand tighter. "Don't let go. You'd be disconnected from me and go back to the school" She glanced again to their hands and furrowed her eyebrows. "Huh, that's weird"
Normally, if she were any other witch, she wouldn't feel Hope's hold on her hand, not even her warmth, their physical bodies were in the school, not in the bayou. But because she wasn't a normal witch but some type of siphoner, Josie figured that it was just another perk of her powers that she hadn't discovered until now.
"Don't let go" Josie pointedly repeated.
Hope kept looking at their hands, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, probably still wondering why she could clearly feel it when it should be just a ghostly touch.
When she shook her head slightly and turned around, walking through the bayou and tugging Josie with her, Josie visibly relaxed her shoulders, she didn't know she was even tightening them.
The bayou's energy wasn't the same as the school's but Josie could tell that it was exhilarating. It beat with raw and wild magic and she felt completely attuned to it. Even more so when they stopped walking at the edge of the trees and found RV houses all around and a cottage at the edge of a lake with a small dock. There was a bonfire in the middle of the clearing and maybe 8 people in their mid-twenties or thirties drinking and talking around it.
Did Hope just bring her to a party?
"Where are we?" She asked
"In the Bayou" Hope vaguely answered. Her eyes were shining and utterly focused on the scene in front of her.
"Yes, I know Hope" Josie sighed. "But why are we here? What's so important here?"
Hope turned around to look at her, her auburn-hair seemed almost red illuminated only by the bonfire, her eyes had a wild glint on them. "This is the home of the Crescent Pack" She said, the ghost of a smile on her face. "Those people there, are the former members of the pack"
Josie nodded. Fully paying attention to Hope, she couldn't seem to look away from her.
"I wasn't part of the pack though, but my mom was their Alpha for a long, long time" She said softly, her eyes had adopted a nostalgic look and Josie could feel it perfectly. "So, once every two months they all try to get together to celebrate the life of the deceased members, knowing that all of the deceased are right there with them in the other side"
Hope bit her lip nervously and looked away.
Josie felt her heart heavy in her chest, this was the first time that she saw Hope display so many emotions after two years, she wasn't wearing her usual mask. Even though she couldn't see her aura, Josie was sure of what energies Hope was giving off right now. Sad. Nostalgic. Upset.
"That's truly beautiful, Hope"
"Yeah?" She somberly chuckled. "Isn't it ironic how some things are viewed as beautiful only because they're sad?"
Josie blinked. "I didn't mean it like that," She pointed out defensively.
"It's not beautiful," She replied. "It's just sad, Josie. Beautiful would be that all the Crescent wolves were here, celebrating being alive and well"
"That's true. But this" Josie pointed to the clearing with her head. "Depends on how you look at it. I find it beautiful because after all this time, you still remember them. You still honor them and have them present even if they're not. That it matters enough to move 9 people to the same place for that whole purpose"
Hope's eyes were shining but her jaw hardened. She visibly swallowed and looked away from Josie.
"Let's go say hi" She tugged Josie again. "It'll start soon"
"What will?"
When they got closer to the bonfire, the people warmly welcomed them and Hope introduced Josie as just a friend from school. Which made Josie feel kind of weird but she decided not to dwell on it.
The whole time the remaining of the pack were constantly making sure that Hope was doing okay in school, besides other things. Hope seemed content to answer them and be around them, that she occasionally giggled or just kept smiling. Josie noticed that her giggles and smiles were real, she wasn't faking being cheerful. She truly was and it amazed Josie so much that she so desperately wanted to see her aura to check if Hope's colors were shining again.
These wolves auras were between red and green. Some had shades of indigo and others had orange and red. Everyone was shining bright and it gave the bayou some kind of cheerful energy. Josie was loving it, even though she was in her pajamas and by now, they have astral projected for too long that she was starting to be exhausted, she couldn't care less, she was enjoying meeting these people and why not, doing so by still holding Hope's hand all of the time.
But the truly wonder came when they all went their separate ways (except Hope and Josie of course) and later returned as their wolves. Josie gasped loudly and backed away at seeing so many wolves together approaching them, but Hope squeezed her hand and muttered a: "It's okay" so confidently that Josie saw no reason to believe otherwise.
The wolves positioned themselves around the bonfire and started to howl (surprisingly) harmoniously. As if they were reciting some kind of melody.
Josie once again gasped at seeing and sensing (even in her astral self) what it was obviously doing. All around them, the wolves created a golden and white mist, covering the top of the bonfire. The energy and tension in the bayou immediately increased.
Josie knew they weren't the only ones there in that moment, there were other energies as well. She could feel it so clearly as she could feel Hope's hand on hers.
She turned to look at Hope and some tears were trailing down her cheeks. She had a sad smile and her eyes were so big and focused on the scene in front of her. If Hope could only see what was truly happening, she would think that it wasn't just sad but beautiful as well.
Josie took deep breaths, still looking at Hope, and tried to visually transmit what she was experiencing to Hope. She focused all of her attention on the sensation of Hope's hand on her own and imagined the opposite of siphoning. Instead of taking, giving. Giving so much. Giving her heightened senses. Giving her enhanced vision. Putting it there to be taken and absorbed.
Hope wasn't a siphoner, there was no way she could be able to take it, but when she gasped out loud and her breathing became erratic and her eyes even wider, Josie just marveled. Was Hope seeing it too? Seeing the mist of gold and white? Sensing the raw and divine energy all around them?
It lasted for a couple more minutes, Hope watching the scene and Josie watching Hope. She seemed to be looking at something for the first time, her eyes taking everything in and studying everything with a little furrow between her eyebrows, her mouth was slightly opened.
It all felt too surreal.
Until it all ended and the wolves kept quiet, circling the bonfire until one by one were separately leaving and then returning as their human form.
The gold and white mist never faded even after they had stopped.
They hugged each other and offered kind smiles to Josie and Hope until it was all over and everyone had said their goodbyes.
Hope let go of Josie's hand and Josie was immediately transported back to her own body, in Hope's room, still intertwining hands with her in the middle of the mat. Once she felt herself in her own body again, she let go of Hope's hands for real and opened her eyes.
Hope's aura wasn't as dark as it was minutes before. It had adopted some kind of glimmer. Her eyes were still big and unfocused and Josie could sense that she was slightly in shock.
Josie swallowed and looked away, grabbing her bracelet and reluctantly putting it on.
"Um, Hope?" She uttered.
Hope blinked a few times and focused her eyes on Josie, frowning in confusion.
Josie dreaded the next few seconds, she didn't want Hope to question her about what happened in the bayou. She wasn't even sure if Hope had been able to see and sense like Josie did.
"I, uh, I gotta go. I've been gone for too long and Lizzie might be wondering where I've been" She hesitantly said.
Josie stood up and immediately felt her legs and arms wanting to give in to the exhaustion. They have astral projected for too long.
"Are you okay?" Josie asked when Hope didn't bother to give her an answer but just kept looking at her as if wanting to solve a puzzle just by staring at it. "Hope?"
Hope got out of her daze and slowly stood up, wincing and stretching her legs. "Yeah, I'm okay" She said, her voice hoarse.
She approached the door and opened it, holding it open so that when Josie walked past her, she heard Hope whisper a soft, "Thank you" before closing it without giving her the chance to reply.
Josie returned to her room, completely distracted and fiddling with her bracelet. What happened in the bayou still fresh, she couldn't shake the feeling it left on her. She couldn't stop seeing Hope's reaction over and over again in her mind, wondering if maybe Hope had seen it too.
She went straight to her bed and turned off the bedside lamp, even if her mind was hyperactive now, her body was screaming in exhaustion.
"Uh, hello? Where have you been?" Lizzie grumbled, still in her own bed with her phone on her hands.
"Library" Josie lied.
"What the hell have you been doing in the library for three hours?" And where are my brownies?" She whined.
Josie remembered the bowl of cookies and Lizzie's brownies next to Hope's mat. "I ate them" She lied again.