{1.11 | We're Gonna Need a Spotlight | part 2}
[a.n. long chapter ahead]
"Hey, you," Hope greeted with a wide smile. The recipient slid in the seat next to her. It was as if her arrival lifted Hope's mood, and it did. She always felt better around her best friend.
Elara returned the smile. "I'm not late, am I?" she questioned, dropping her backpack onto the ground.
Truthfully, she was missing time, and she want sure how much.
The tri-brid shook her head. "Nope, you're right on time. Thank you for being here."
"Yeah, anytime," Elara responded softly, looking at her.
It was like she fell into a trance. The world around her fell into slow motion, and Elara couldn't but stare at her roommate. Hope was pretty. That was undeniable. Her auburn hair had fallen forward to frame her face perfectly. Her blue eyes reflected the gentle sunlight coming through the window in the front of the class, glowing brighter than before.
She was jerked back to reality when Hope's knee bumped into hers.
Elara cleared her throat. "What-what am I here for, exactly?"
From the front of the room, the teacher spoke to the class as if she heard the question. She recognized her from around the campus, but she'd never spoken to her directly. "Once you have your gel mixed, make a shallow cut on your volunteer."
Hope picked up the scalpel next to her hand. She lifted her head, making eye contact with Elara. "Do you trust me?"
"A little," Elara answered, grinning. Hope laughed at that and lifted the scalpel towards the blond's face.
Hope's other hand rose, too, placing itself carefully holding one side her jaw to keep her steady. The touch was practically electric, sending a shock through her skin, and Elara fought back any reaction.
They were friends, she reminded herself. Just friends.
Best friends, technically. They hadn't been friends for long, but their bond was one of the strongest ones Elara had ever known.
She cleared her throat. "If I had a dollar for every time you've made me bleed in the name of science, I'd have two dollars, which isn't a lot, but it's still weird it happened twice."
Hope laughed softly at that. She returned the scalpel to its place and dipped a finger into the glass tray. "Well, you are my favorite person to experiment on."
"What do you mean by that?" Elara asked with a lifted brow. Was Hope...flirting with her?
The older girl leaned forward and gently rubbed the salve into the cut she made. "You're durable. If I made any mistakes, you'd heal."
"That's your reason?"
Hope's bottom lip tucked itself between her teeth, and Elara's eyes briefly flickered to the motion. "That's one reason. Landon's... fragile."
Elara hesitated before asking quietly, "and the other reason?"
"I wanted a break from him," she whispered, her tone turning suggestive. "And you're very distracting."
Hope was flirting with her, she realized. Hope's other hand remained, lightly holding Elara's face still.
"Still set on not doing a talent with me?" Hope asked.
It took Elara a second to realize she was being spoken to. "Huh?"
"The offer is still on the table."
"Right." Elara cleared her throat, blinking. "Well, I still don't have any talents aside from punching people or brooding."
"I'm sure we could come up with something," Hope insisted.
"I'd rather not be a third wheel," Elara attempted to reason. "Seeing as Team Other is a three-person faction, it'd be me and you and your-your boyfriend."
Hope chuckled softly. "You wouldn't be the third wheel, El, and besides, I'm only dating Landon because you told me to."
Another voice stopped Elara from questioning what Hope meant. "Huh," the teacher said from in front of them. Both girls looked up at her. "Well done, Hope."
Hope smiled widely, finally removing her hand from Elara's jaw. The other rested on her shoulder comfortably. "Thank you, Ms. Featherwood."
Elara lightly touched where Hope had cut her, and her fingers found smooth skin. The healing salve had worked brilliantly. Ms. Featherwood walked away from them, continuing her patrol through the classroom.
Her mind whirled as she processed what Hope told her. Hope was only with Landon because Elara told her to? Why? Why did she care so much about what Elara wanted, and why was she telling her?
"Is, uh, that all?" Elara blurted out, leaning back. She couldn't stay any longer. If she did, she was afraid of what Hope might confess to next.
"For the class yeah, but I still think we can do a talent--"
The squeak of the chair cut her off as Elara jumped to her feet and slung her backpack onto her shoulder. "Great, gotta go," she blurted out.
Hope watched as Elara bolted from the classroom, sighing softly.
~-~-~
Elara paced back and forth in her room, fiddling with a pen in her hand. Something was wrong. Very wrong. Hope was flirting with her while she had a boyfriend, which she apparently only had because of Elara's pushing.
What?
That didn't make sense. One: Hope was hardly a person to listen to instructions from authority, let alone her roommate. She liked Landon in the first place, so why would she not want to date him? Two: Hope wasn't a flirty person. She wasn't open about her feelings, and she definitely wasn't affectionate. Then again, she had hugged Elara a few times, so maybe she was wrong about that.
And Three: Elara wasn't anything special. Sure, she was a different kind of werewolf with a few special abilities, but that was all there was to it. Aside from being a walking bomb that could explode at any moment, she was simple. She wasn't interesting, at least enough for Hope Mikaelson.
She had to figure it out.
A set of footsteps approaching caught her attention, and Josie Saltzman opened the door, stepping in hesitantly.
Elara paused, standing up straight. "Oh, hey, Jo." The twin had been busy with the witches' rehearsal, so her arrival confused the blond.
"I need to talk to you," she said promptly.
"Then by all means, go ahead, but could you be quick? I'm trying to figure something out--"
Josie interrupted Elara. "I've been spying on you for my dad."
She felt her heart drop to her stomach. Her mask, the mask she had spent so long perfecting, cracked. Josie... Josie had been spying on her? Her friend, her first friend at the school, was spying? On her?
"What?" Elara breathed out.
Josie took a deep breath. "When you first came to this school, my dad was absolutely terrified. I'm not really sure why, but either way, he told us to be careful around you. I didn't really agree. I mean, you were just scared and nervous, so I approached you with the hopes of being able to help you."
The blond's jaw tightened as she listened to Josie, her gaze hardening as her breath quickened.
"Naturally, my dad warned me against it, but after he noticed that you were... open-ish with me, he took advantage of the opportunity and told me to watch you, to keep him in the loop of what you were doing and going through."
Elara didn't want to believe it. This was Josie Saltzman. The girl with a heart of gold, who was so selfless and put everyone else first. She wasn't Penelope. She wasn't Lizzie. She was Josie.
"And I've been meaning to tell you because I hate lying to you," Josie continued, a desperation reaching her voice. "You were my friend-- are my friend, but when I was going to tell you, you started slipping away. You were losing your control, Elara. At the game, you nearly mauled someone. There are spaces of time that you don't remember, and we still don't know what you are." She stepped forward to grab Elara's hands, but the blond refused, jerking away from her. "I'm worried about you."
The blond scoffed. "Yeah, clearly."
"I just wanted to help you, Elara--"
Elara started to walk backwards, her heart racing. There was no danger in front of her, no monster standing before her. Only betrayal. She felt the tears beginning to rise, and she didn't need Josie to run and tell her dad that Elara was having an emotional breakdown. She swallowed hard.
"You want to help me? Help me by leaving me the hell alone," she spat, keeping her voice as steady as she could.
She sped out of the library, her previous thoughts completely abandoned, and her vision darkened as the familiar sense of the other part of her taking the reins passed through.
~-~-~
The sun was setting when she came to. The leaves of the forest floor crunched underneath each step, the sound echoing in her ears like a loud bang. She tasted salt on her lips, and she wondered how long she'd been out there.
Her hand raised to wipe at the watery marks on her cheeks, but she paused when she saw a small, pink shape in her hand. A slime coated the palm of her hand. The shape-- a slug-thing--was dead, presumably killed by her. It wasn't like anything she'd seen before.
"What... the hell?" she mumbled, examining what she assumed was the remains of a slug pinched between her fingers.
"Elara!" a voice called out, and she quickly recognized it.
She whirled towards the voice, shoving her hand behind her back. Hope came to an abrupt stop in front of her, a look of worry across her face. Her joyous, happy-go-lucky demeanor had disappeared. "Hope? What are you--"
Hope's eyes darted across her face, which Elara assumed was tear-stained, and her gaze softened. The glint in her eyes from the classroom still remained, but it was different. Elara couldn't explain it. "What happened? Are you okay?"
The younger girl opened her mouth to answer, but the crunching of leaves caught her attention. Her head jerked up, her eyes landing on Landon and Dorian. They watched her like a hawk.
They didn't need to see her like this.
"Tell you later," she mumbled, wiping at her face with her other hand. "But, uh, I 'found' this?" She showed the tri-brid her hand, carefully holding the creature between her fingers.
Hope let out a breath of relief. "Oh, thank God. You're not infected."
Elara's eyes widened, flickering between Hope and the approaching duo. "Infected?"
"The unicorn wasn't the monster," Dorian began to explain, holding out an open jar filled with a similar substance to what was on her hand, and Elara dropped the creature into it. "It was the host to this parasite, and we need to get to the school to figure this out."
Elara nodded without hesitation. "Lead the way, then."
~-~-~
The group set up in one of the empty hallways, and Elara came to a stop at the table, standing across from Dorian and next to Hope. Books were open and strewn about it as each of them flipped through it in hopes to find something useful. Landon stood to Dorian's right, taking notes in a small journal.
"So, the unicorn was the host to a parasite, which was the real monster all along," Elara said, the pieces coming together. The memory of how she got from her room to the woods was missing and so was how she discovered and killed the parasite. "And the parasite multiplied, then went to infect the rest of the school."
"Exactly," Dorian affirmed. "It tried to infect me and you, but we managed to stop it. From Hope describes, it sounds like it latches onto the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with inhibitions."
Inhibitions? Elara briefly glanced at Hope. The older girl didn't meet her eye, but Elara noticed her swallow nervously.
"So, I was slug-drunk?" Hope questioned.
"That explains your sudden interest in the talent show," Elara remarked, tilting her head to the side in thought. Hope shrugged.
Dorian continued, "since we have multiple slugs, it must replicate inside the host, and then lie in wait for the opportunity to infect someone else."
Hope tightened her grip on the book in her hands. "I'm good on the gory details, thank you. How do we stop it?"
"That's the weirdest part. I can't find any ancient legends about a creature like this."
Elara blinked as an idea came to light. Landon seemed to think of the same thing, their eyes meeting briefly. It was the same as when they researched the dream demon, but this time, guilt washed over Elara at the memory of his girlfriend flirting with her.
She shook the feeling away. "Then let's not look at ancient legends. Maybe there's something more modern that explains it."
"Like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Faculty, or even Wrath of Khan," Landon added. "Sci-fi is our modern-day myths."
"Which must've been inspired by something in reality."
"Yeah. In those movies, it's all about mind control. Before the slug popped out, Hope wanted to take the urn someplace." He paused, glancing at Elara expectantly.
"Probably Malivore."
"It's kinda weird when the both of you do that. Impressive, but weird," Hope muttered. She placed the book down on the table.
Dorian looked between them. "So, it's like an infection. It gets worse as it spreads. Stage on, it-it lowers your inhibitions. It makes you act out of your character."
Hope reached out in front of Elara, grabbing the jar to look at it. A part of Elara didn't want to know what was going through her mind that her inhibitions were hiding, realizing just how complicated it would make everything, but the other part of her wanted to complicate things, to be selfish.
"Stage two, once you're susceptible to suggestion, you'll do whatever the slug wants."
"Till stage three," Landon chimed in. "You go the way of the unicorn."
"Elara, look at this," Hope instructed, and the younger girl did so. "Doesn't this look bio-luminescent to you?"
She narrowed her eyes to get a better look. Hope was right. Part of the substance seemed to glow in the light. Elara nodded.
Dorian dug through his bag. "Let me check that out." He pulled out a small flashlight and grabbed the jar from Hope. He clicked the light on, and the jar nearly turned white as the slime glowed brightly.
"Whoa. See that?" Dorian shifted the blacklight, it landing on Hope's chest. Then he lifted it towards her face.
Elara couldn't help but wince at the sight of the trail going into Hope's nose. The boys audibly grimaced, drawing Hope's concern.
"I don't want to know, do I?" Hope asked.
"Definitely not," Elara answered as a chorus of "nope's" came from Dorian and Landon.
Dorian turned off the light and set down the jar. "You know what? We can use these lights to find anyone who's been infected." He passed out flashlights to each of them, and Elara briefly wondered why Dorian had so many blacklight flashlights.
After gathering their composures, the four wandered through the school, aiming the lights to find any trails. They found one, then another, and another, and when they followed, it led to an abundance of glowing, slime trails. Dorian had been correct about the parasite replicating.
The trails eventually led them to the performance hall, and Elara let out a huff in frustration.
"Even when I avoid the event, I still end up here," she grumbled. Next to her, she felt Hope brush against her, like she debated nudging her and couldn't fully stop herself.
Behind them stood Landon, looking at the audience carefully. He didn't seem aware of the strange energy between Hope and Elara.
"We need a way to de-slug whosever infected, fast," Dorian said. They all turned towards him.
"When I touched the switch to the kitchen vent, it shocked me, and that's when the slug popped out," Hope explained.
Elara's brows furrowed. "What were you doing in the kitchen?"
"Baking," Landon answered with a smile. She glanced at Hope to see her reaction, but she couldn't make out anything specific. Her face was blank like she was holding back whatever she felt about it. "We just have to find a way to electrocute every student in the school without killing them."
"If we don't, they're dead anyway," Dorian muttered. "I'm gonna call Ric."
As he exited, the audience clapped at the announcer welcomed on the next act. Rafael walked out onto the stage, sitting down in the stool, while another werewolf followed behind him with a cello. The trio at the top of the stairs turned to face the show.
His talent was spoken poetry. He started off strongly as the strings of the cello were plucked. He gestured with each phrase, following the flow of her speech. It seemed normal, but then his eyes settled on Elara, Landon, and Hope.
And Elara heard a ringing.
"Uh, oh," she said softly. The next part of Rafael's speech fell past her ears. Instinctively, her left hand reached to the side and landed on Hope's side, trying to push her behind her, but she didn't budge.
"What is it?" Hope whispered. She placed her hand over Elara's, as if trying to protect it.
"Trouble." The word caught Landon's attention, and he stepped back. "We need to get out of here. Now"
At that point, Rafael lifted his hand and pointed at them, his eyes glowing a vibrant green. Elara was right. The students charged at them from the bottom floor. The trio sprinted out of the door, and Hope closed it with a spell.
"That should hold the pod people in for now," Hope said.
"C'mon," Elara directed, taking off down the hallway. Even without enhanced hearing, they could hear the other students screaming at them, yelling incoherently.
It didn't take long for them to find Dorian. Elara walked behind Landon, watching their backs.
Hope jumped into an explanation of what the librarian had missed. He listened, nodding, and handed a heavy set of chains to Hope. He kept the other pair, explaining that he would get the other door.
A huff left Hope's lips. "At least we have all the infected people in one place."
"We just need to figure out how to shock all of them," Elara said, half-way listening. Her ears were focused behind them, listening for any footsteps. She caught something, turning her head slightly.
"Without killing them," Landon added.
A voice rang out into the air. "What are you three--"
Then it was cut off with a grunt. Hope and Landon whirled to face the newcomer and saw a blond ponytail swinging as Elara tossed the owner onto her shoulder.
"Elara, what are you doing?" Lizzie exclaimed. "Put me down-- ow. Please!"
"Grab the chains," Elara instructed, carrying the twin down the hall. "Now."
~-~-~
Elara dropped the restrained twin into the armchair.
"Have you three gone crazy?" Lizzie asked, her voice tight.
"You've been infected with a mind-controlling parasite," Hope explained. "That's why you've been so nice all day."
Lizzie scoffed. "That is not why I have been-- hey!" She wasn't fighting against her chains, but she leaned away when Landon approached her.
"I don't see any slug trails," Landon declared after examining her closely with the blacklight.
"What are you freaks talking a-- ow."
Elara lifted a brow at Lizzie's strange reaction while Landon questioned it. "What was that?"
"Unchain me, and maybe I will tell you, you thrift store hobbit."
She had to admit, Elara thought the insult was pretty clever. Lizzie gasped in pain.
"Yeah, definitely not infected," Elara concluded. She leaned down and began to remove the chains.
"Then why are you acting so weird?" Hope questioned.
Lizzie spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm not acting weird, I am turning over a new leaf. With this. I spelled it to shock me whenever I said anything mean." She glanced at the bracelet. "And in increasing voltage. Worst idea ever."
Landon shook his head. "No. That's genius. That's why there's no slug in her."
Hope looked at him incredulously, and Elara finished removing the chains, tossing them onto her shoulder.
"Then why are you wandering around here instead of at the talent show like everyone else?" she questioned.
"I was looking for Josie."
Elara stiffened at that. She couldn't hear the rest of what Lizzie said over her own thoughts. Josie had betrayed her. She'd been lying to her since she got there. A hand on her shoulder caught her attention.
"Elara, did you hear that?" her roommate asked. Her eyes landed on Elara's hand. "We need to find Josie, now."
Elara blinked, nodding slightly. "No- yeah-" She took a deep breath. "Let's go."
And they did. The obvious answer to where Josie went was the Mill since that was where the urn was. She could siphon the barrier and go through it easily, and they didn't have time to waste.
She followed Hope into the building, hearing Josie and Penelope talking inside.
"Not so fast, Thelma and Louise."
The witches turned at Hope's voice, and Josie's eyes immediately landed on Elara, who clenched her jaw. With lowered inhibitions, Josie confessed to lying to Elara and betraying her, and both of them knew it was still the truth, even if it was done through slug-actions. Penelope raised her hands aggressively, beginning to cast a spell, but Hope was faster. She thrusted her palm forward, casting a spell of her own, and launched People into the air.
She crashed into the wall and landed with a thud on the ground. Several canes scattered from above, landing on her.
"Found the canes," Hope remarked.
Josie's gaze hardened. "You shouldn't have done that." She brought her hands together, and a glowing ball of fire appeared in her hands.
Before Hope could react, Elara launched herself forward, hoping to at least disrupt the spell, but Lizzie got to her first.
Josie whirled to face her sister, and Elara paused her steps. Hope stopped, too. The shocking bracelet had been wrapped around her wrist. Lizzie grabbed her sister's other hand, restraining her the best she could.
When Lizzie's plan worked and the bracelet shocked Josie, the slug popped out. Josie was freed from its control. She was safe. She quickly apologized to her sister for the harsh thing she said as Lizzie pulled her into a hug. What was said didn't matter. They were okay.
After a moment of sisterly love, the hug ended, and Josie turned towards Hope and Elara. When Josie's eyes landed on her, her hand curled into a fist, her nails digging into her palm. The look was knowing as if a silent conversation was happening, but Elara didn't respond.
Josie took a step forward. Elara took one back.
"Don't," Elara pleaded quietly. Josie barely heard her, but the single word still stung.
Yet she knew it could never hurt as much as the pain she caused Elara Laurent.
~-~-~
The door to their room closed behind Elara as she slipped through it. The talent show had ended long before, but Elara didn't come back immediately.
Hope stood at her dresser, leaning against it. She combed her fingers through her damp hair, and she spotted Elara in her mirror.
She stopped what she was doing and turned to face her roommate. "Hi."
"Hi," Elara greeted, shoving her hands into her pockets. After they killed the rest of the parasites, Elara disappeared. It wasn't strange for her, especially after an emotional event. Hope wanted to question her, to figure out how to help, but Elara avoided her.
"It, uh, took three showers, but I finally feel clean," Hope said, attempting to start a conversation.
"Three?" Elara asked with a small laugh. "Wow."
Hope hummed, her lips forming an upside-down smile. "You missed out on the talent show."
Elara shook her head. "I didn't. I just, uh, watched from the back." She walked over to her bed and sat on the edge of it. "Rafael's juggling was surprisingly decent, and the witches had a good performance."
"Really?" Hope asked. She approached Elara and sat next to her. "Why didn't you sit with me and Landon?"
"Because I didn't want to be a third wheel."
The mood shifted as Hope caught on to what Elara meant. She made a point of being a third wheel before, and slug-drunk Hope implied that it wasn't Elara who was the odd one out.
"You wouldn't be," Hope breathed out.
Their eyes locked, and Elara saw the sparkle in Hope's eyes, the glimmer she'd seen before. It wasn't the slug influencing her this time, no. The emotions were still there, hiding behind a barrier that Elara didn't understand.
"Hope, I--"
"Elara, I--"
They began speaking at the same time. When they realized they spoke at the same time, an awkward laugh escaped the both of them.
"Sorry, you can go," Elara apologized.
Hope shook her head. "No, you go. I'd rather get to the bottom of what hurt you first."
Elara shrugged. "Fine, I'm going to explain it briefly because I really don't want to cry again and don't want to linger on it tonight." She took a deep breath. "Josie has been spying on me for her dad and has been telling him everything I've told her."
Hope didn't know how to react. How was she supposed to? Josie hurt Elara, and as much as Hope didn't mind Josie, she wasn't going to tolerate someone hurting her roommate. She was angry, confused.
"Elara... I'm so sorry," Hope apologized.
Elara shrugged again. "It's-It's fine. I'll deal with it in the morning. Can we just go to whatever you want to say, now?"
Hope blinked in confusion, but she nodded slightly. If Elara wanted her move on, she would move on. What Elara wanted, she got.
"Yeah, sure, um. I just..." Hope began, hesitating.
There were a million things she could say, but the one thing she wanted to say she couldn't.
"Wanted to apologize."
The blond's brows furrowed. "What for?'
"Everything. My behavior. Josie's. Giving a unicorn a pass and infecting everyone."
"Hope, you don't have to apologize for the unicorn. There were three of us there, and if we really thought it was a threat, we would've killed it. It's all of our faults for the parasite replicating. It was a horse, and as much as I hate them, they don't look dangerous. You couldn't have known."
Hope smiled weakly at Elara's words. She was trying to comfort her, and it meant a lot to Hope.
"As for the other things, well, I'm not going to blame you for your actions. I mean, you were slug-drunk. The damn thing was controlling you, and you didn't reveal that you were lying to me. That's not your fault, either."
Elara was brushing off the flirtations, and truthfully, Hope didn't know how to feel about that. She should've been grateful. Elara could've held it against her or even threatened to damage her relationship with Landon--
Then again, it was her relationship with Landon. Not Elara. It hardly mattered in comparison.
"Thank you," Hope said. "For not blaming me."
"Of course. What are best friends for?" Elara teased, nudging Hope's shoulder with hers.
Hope let out a small laugh, nudging Elara back. "Well, as your best friend, ss there any way I can help you feel better?"
A second passed as Elara thought it over.
"Would you sleep with me?"
Hope nearly choked on air.
"We-we. I. What?" she sputtered, her face flushing.
Elara's eyes widened as she realized what she said. "Oh, my God. Not like that," she quickly explained. "Like in the 'in my bed the way that friends would do' because I haven't been able to sleep lately, and I thought that maybe your presence would be able to help."
Hope cleared her throat, rubbing the back of her neck in an attempt to wipe off the heat. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. What are best friends for?"
Their conversation continued for a while, bouncing from topic to topic, but there wasn't anything serious. They talked about classes, about the talent show, about whatever mythological creature Elara read about recently. It was simple conversation between two friends.
When they finally decided to go to bed, the two climbed into Elara's. Hope realized Elara's bed was actually much more comfortable than hers, and she wished Elara had asked to sleep with her sooner. The idea had passed through Hope's mind before when Elara first expressed that she had nightmares, but they weren't close enough for it to have been effective.
Sleep came them easily, and when she woke up in the morning, seeing the gentle sunrays bounce off of Hope, Elara realized she was right. Hope was the answer.
Because for the first time in months, Elara completely slept through the night, undisturbed and without a single nightmare to torment her.