1:4 Hope Is Not The Goal

Hope Is Not The Goal

Part 3

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RECAP

"I think her soul just got on my shoes." Lizzie whined. "Ew!"

"I think I'm-a be sick, too." MG said.

Landon eyes were shut, looking away. "Is this normal?" Landon asked.

"Sh-she's puking her guts out." Hope commented. "Literally." The yells, groans and vomiting noises were heard as she continued to puke her guts out. "Dana! Dana!"

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All that was of Dana was skin, black goo and her clothes. "Should we call your dad?" Hope asked, not taking her eyes off the body.

"Why? So he can take another bullet for you?" Lizzie replied.

"No." Hope fired back. "Because whatever did this, is not a Vampire." Hope paused, looking at Lizzie. "It's gotta be another monster from the knife."

Everyone was silent until Kaleb looked over at Landon and spoke up. "Well, maybe the monster's been right in front of us all along." He said walking towards Landon.

"What...?" Landon asked. "Are you serious?"

"Hey, none of this started happening until you showed up and stole that knife, which is exactly what the other monsters came here to do." Kaleb said. You walked in between Kaleb and Landon, slapping your hand off of Landon's shoulder.

"Back off, Kaleb." You said as you pushed him away gently.

Kaleb decided to continue. "You saying it's a coincidence?"

Landon nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. Yes, I am."

"Kaleb, back off." You looked him in the eyes, glaring. "He didn't do it, leave him alone."

Landon looked at everyone before looking back at Kaleb. "You believe me, right?" He directly asked Hope. Kaleb turned around and looked at Hope. You also looked at the auburn haired girl and her eyes softened as she looked into yours.

Instead, Hope didn't say anything. "Got it." Landon responded. He started walking away to the school. "Say no more." He said.

You watched Landon walk off before, glaring at Kaleb. "You had to just speak? He didn't do it, Kaleb! I know him." You said, walking off and into the bus. Kaleb didn't say anything and instead just watched you walk off.

Hope followed you onto the bus. "Hey, you okay?" Hope asked, sitting on the other side of the bus in front of you.

"I'm fine, Hope." You said, not making eye contact. "It's just, he didn't need to say anything, Landon didn't do it. Why didn't you believe him?" You asked.

Hope sighed. "I have a hard time trusting people, and he's broken my trust before." Hope said honestly and you just nodded. "Come on, we need to get rid of the body." Hope said, getting up and you following after her.

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The group now had a hose and was washing away the goo, which Lizzie was doing, and MG was wiping goo off his shoe. Hope had helped put the body somewhere so she was wiping her hands with a cloth.

"Nasty. Yeah, so, um, I'm outta here." Kaleb started. "But little piece of advice, Landon could be in there right now eating fools." You groaned at his comment. "So, I'll holla." He walked off.

'Good, he's gone.' You thought.

Hope sighed. "Come on, guys. If it's not Landon then what else could it be?" Hope questioned.

MG looked confused and stopped wiping his shoes and instead opened up the comic book paper that had been scrunched up. "Spider!" MG said. "A big spider. An Arachne, if you want to get specific." We all circled around MG and he opened the paper up more and showed a giant spider.

Lizzie took the paper. "This is nerd porn, not real life." Lizzie replied.

"So were dragons and gargoyles. The writer bases her comics off of Greek lore. An Arachne was originally a beautiful women who was cursed by a jealous god and turned into a giant spider." MG smiled at the fact he probably figured it out. "Uh, all it want's is to be human, so it wears the skin of it's prey to pass." He chuckled. "Oh my god, it's-it's fangs are huge, so they could pass for a vampire bite. And it's bite liquifies it's victim." He looked between all 3 of us. "Plus, I found a web in Dana's hair."

Hope spoke up. "That would explain why it couldn't follow the knife out of town. An SUV-sized is text can't exactly hitchhike unless it inhabits the body of someone." Hope said.

"Who? Sasha maybe?" He questioned.

"My money is still on your boyfriend." Lizzie remarked. You felt a burning sensation in your stomach as Lizzie said that, why though?

Hope glared at Lizzie, glancing at you quickly before anyone could notice. "He's not my boyfriend." Hope commented.

"If we had something from it, we could do a tracking spell." Lizzie said. Just then Lizzie came up. You smiled and side hugged Landon, happy he didn't run away like last time.

Landon hugged back. "Would it's face work?" He held up a piece of skin.

"I regret hugging you." You said, looking away and covering your nose. Landon chuckled.

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The phone was heard ringing as well all started running through the woods to kill the spider. "It's for you." He looked at Lizzie. "No way I'm telling your dad what we're about to do." He gave the phone to Lizzie.

"I suck at lying." Lizzie stated, looking at Landon and passing him the phone. "You're great at it."

Landon looked at Lizzie with an annoyed face. "You're his favourite." Not even looking back at Hope, he gave her the phone.

"You're the mystery girl." Hope handed the phone to you. You rolled your eyes.

You passed the phone back to Lizzie as you ran in front of her. "You're the hero."

Lizzie grabbed the phone and came to a stop, all of us stopping as well as she answered. "Hi daddy!" Lizzie said to the phone, putting it on speaker.

"Hey! Thought I'd call, check in, see how things are going." Alaric spoke through the phone, he was obviously playing nice.

Lizzie eyes widened as she looked at the group. "So good." Lizzie said. You groaned as she did suck at lying. Hope nodded to show she was doing great when we all know she wasn't.

"Really? Define 'good' Lizzie, because I don't think that involves me tracking down Dana's body to the glove compartment." He sounded mad.

"Listen, Dad, it's fine we cracked the case." Lizzie said. "It's a spider. But like, a big, huge, nasty spider and MG's comic books know how to kill it." Hope shut her eyes as Lizzie just gave away our whole plan.

"Comic books? Really? Lizzie, listen to me, whatever you're thinking of doing, don't, okay?" Alaric asked but he didn't get a response. "SO just tell me where you are, and Matt and I will be right there. And where is Hope?" He asked.

Lizzie face softened. "I'm sorry, Dad. You're gonna have to trust me for once." She then hang up. Everyone looked at her. "Let's do this." Was all she said as we continued to run through the woods.

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We found the Old Mill that Hope had told me about. This was most likely where the spider was.

Landon an in, hitting a metal rod on the metal stair case. "Hey! Douchebag!" Landon yelled, getting the attention of the spider. "Oh!" He exclaimed as he moved out of the way for Hope to come in.

"I hate spiders." Hope said, looking up at the spider.

You followed in after her. "That makes two of us." You said, looking at the disgusting monster. Josie and Rafael talked but then they kissed. You looked so confused.

Lizzie then runs up the stairs. "Lizzie, Kate, I need your help!" Hope demands. The spider then jumps down as Josie runs down the stairs. "Josie. Take my hand." Lizzie finally makes her way over, you all holding hands.

The spider roared at the 4 of you. "Repeat after me. Imperium fluctus malleus." Hope chanted

You all then started chanting, the twins siphoning to get magic. "Imperium fluctus malleus, Imperium fluctus malleus, Imperium fluctus malleus, Imperium fluctus malleus." We all chanted, it then roared but as we pushed out our hands. Chanting it one last time. "Imperium fluctus malleus!" We yelled.

It then got flown up to the roof of the second floor, screeching in pain until it exploded. it's guts going everywhere on the four of us and all over the Old Mill.

The 3 boys looked back to see you 4 coming out. They surrounded Sasha who was still in the spiders web. You all came out covered in spider goo. You all just stared at each other. It was weird but comforting. You watched as Hope and Landon looked at each other, you felt the same burning sensation in your stomach from before but pushed the feeling away.

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"Was she bitten?" Lizzie asked.

Hope responded. "No." It was a soft reply.

MG started his compulsion. "You're gonna be fine. There was a party in the woods. You and Dana had the time of your lives. But on the way home, you guys were attacked by a mountain lion. You survived and Dana didn't. There was nothing you could do." MG said, sadly.

Sasha's eyes widen. "Dana's dead?" She questioned.

"Just take it all away." Lizzie said to MG. "Tell her not to feel anything."

"You can't compel her not to grieve." Hope spoke up.

Lizzie looked back at you and Hope. "I'm helping her." Lizzie said.

Hope shook her head. "Tell her that it's gonna hurt. It always will." MG was now looking at Hope. "Tell her that some days will be harder than others... but eventually she'll remember the good times she had with Dana, too. Tell her to hold on to those, because it's the key to getting through this." Lizzie's face softened as Hope said that. Hope started walking off.

"MG, tell her that when you loose someone you love, it's okay to not be okay." You responded, your eyes tearing up but you held back the tears. You didn't realise this but Hope was secretly listening in, her body saddening when she heard it. She then turned around as you went to follow after her.

AS Hope and you trailed down the path to a point where Lizzie and Mg couldn't see you, you both came to a stop. "Look, I need to chat with Landon, I'll see you tomorrow?" Hope questioned.

You nodded, making your way to the Salvatore School entry to get to Hope's room. You felt angry for some reason. Why were you feeling like that? You shook the thought away. But then what you said to MG came back. 'when you loose someone you love, it's okay to not be okay.' You haven't felt okay since the moment your parents died, some days harder than others, like Hope said, but you were never okay since they left you.

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A.N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter :)