CHAPTER TWO:
❝Hostage❞︎

MONTHS. She had been there for months. Seven to be exact. She was still a shy girl when it came to someone she truly didn't know, she was still soft spoken and acted out under pressure or when she was feeling uncomfortable. She found herself gaining control of her magic, and the shifting became easier. Hope had been helpful, slowly teaching the girl how to turn at her own free will with the help of her witch side. She wasn't fully there yet, but she was getting closer and closer.

She sat there on her bed, her pen in her hand as she curled the letters on the pages, a gentle smile on her lips. She liked to keep a diary. Writing all the good, even some of the bad. It made the events of the day remove itself from her shoulders and transfer onto the lined paper. A knock came at her bedroom door, forcing Harper to close her diary and furrow her eyebrows. She stood up from her bed and walked over to the door, pulling it open and smiling when she saw it was Josie. Butterflies immediately filled her stomach at the girls presence.

"Josie!" Harper smiled. "What's up?" She stepped aside, letting the girl pass and enter her room. Josie glanced around, always admiring the aesthetic of Harper's room whenever she entered. It always seemed to change somehow wit every visit.

"I just wanted to check in on you."

"Oh. Well, I'm fine." She nodded. "How about you?" She watched as Josie sat on her bed, a gentle frown on the girl's face. Immediately Harper sat down beside of the girl. "Hey, talk to me. What's wrong."

"It's nothing." Josie shook her head.

"Is that devil doing something to you again?" Harper immediately asked. She didn't like Penelope. She didn't like the way she and Josie had ended things, and the witch just made her angry. Josie deserved so much better than that devil.

Josie immediately shook her head. "No, she's decided to lay off today, I guess."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I'm just. . . worried about you." Josie frowned. "It's a full moon tonight, and I know Hope isn't going to be there because she's helping my dad with something and I just. . . I don't want you to be alone."

Harper's lip twitched upwards slightly before she placed a hand over Josie's, grabbing the girl's attention. "Don't worry about me, Josie. At this point, it's practically painless. I'm getting better at controlling it thanks to Hope. Being a hybrid is kinda cool in the sense that I can control whether or not I shift. Though. . . I haven't fully gotten there yet. Slowly but surely though, right?"

"Right." Josie nodded, a small smile on her face.

"Seriously, Jo, don't worry about me." Harper told the girl, meeting her eyes. She knew Josie was always worried about her when she shifted. The simple thought of Harper being in pain made Josie want to curl into a ball, knowing there wasn't really anything she could do about it. Josie softly sighed before nodding her head.

"I won't." Josie told her. "Just. . . can I be there with you?"

"Absolutely not." She shook her head. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't hurt me." Josie frowned.

Harper looked at her before saying, "You can chain me up, but afterwards, you're gone. Understand?"

"Understood." Josie nodded. Harper sighed before standing up and holding out her hand. Josie smiled before grabbing it, following the girl out of the bedroom and down to the basement where all of the wolves were to be chained up. Josie locked the chains around Harper's neck, ankles and wrists, looking at the girl for a moment. Harper gave her a small nod before watching as Josie stepped stepped out and closed the cell locking it. She stared at Harper for a long moment, and Harper stared back before the hybrid gave Josie a reassuring smile, not tearing her eyes away from the twin until she was fully out of sight.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

THE NEXT MORNING SHE WAS OUT OF HER CHAINS, JOSIE HAD BEEN QUICK TO CHECK HER OVER AS IF SHE WOULD'VE HAD SCRATCH MARKS COVERING HER BODY. She rolled her eyes before assuring the girl at least ten times that she was okay. Josie had been quick to inform Harper on the fact that Hope and Dr. Saltzman were bringing two new students that day. Harper was always iffy when it came to new students.

When she saw Hope, Harper was quick to join the girl's side, watching as Lizzie and Josie introduced themselves to the two boys that Hope and Dr. Saltzman had brought back with them. The dark curly headed boy was Landon, and the werewolf was Rafael.

"Rafael, why don't you go ahead with the girls while I talk to Landon?" Dr. Saltzman suggested. Immediately both twins took one of Rafael's arms, hooking them with their own with kind smiles on their faces.

"Morning, Hope." The twins said in unison.

"Morning, girls." Hope sarcastically smiled.

"More like despair." Lizzie muttered.

"I heard that." Hope told the blonde, watching as they walked away.

"No, you didn't."

"Didn't have to." Hope spoke before they were finally out of view, earning a reprimand from Dr. Salzman. The tribrid rolled her eyes, earning a small nudge from Harper. Hope turned her attention towards the girl, the two following after Alaric as he started to talk with Landon.

"How was it without me?" Hope quietly asked.

"Hard." Harper admitted with a soft sigh.

"You'll get it eventually. This kind of stuff usually takes years." Hope admitted, watching the horror strike on Harper's face. "Not for hybrid's though." Immediately Harper closed her eyes in relief, earning a small smile of amusement from Hope.

They walked down the halls. "So, I'm curious, Landon―︎slow down―︎" He quickly told one of the students, "were you aware of us when you lived in Mystic Falls?"

"Uh, I knew Hope went to some fancy boarding school. People in town said it was for troubled rich kids. I see the rich part is true." Landon answered from behind the two girls. Harper looked at Hope, raising an eyebrow. Hope just waved her off, silently telling her she would tell the full story later. Harper nodded. Landon's attention turned towards a girl who was currently making her books levitate. "Nobody in town mentioned anyone here could do that."

They entered Alaric's office. "No one in Mystic Falls knows much about us. We blend in just enough. Participate, contribute, just enough. Keeps people from asking too many questions."

"What is there to know exactly?" Landon asked, sitting down in the chair in front of Alaric's desk. Harper sat in the one at the corner of the room, opening her sketch book that she had been carrying around with her and gently drawing in the corner whilst listening in on the conversation. She wasn't Alaric's "side-kick" like Hope was, but she didn't like to be anywhere without Josie or Hope beside her if she could help it. She felt more comfortable that way. Sometimes she could sit with MG, but often times he was around the other vampires and she couldn't deal with all of them all at once. Though, she did get along with all of them unlike most werewolves in the school.

"Well, I used to have a speech prepared, carefully unpeeling the layers of mystical history, but it turns out most people have read Harry Potter and are actually cool with me skipping the tee-up." Alaric answered him.

Landon looked at the man in surprise. "You're a school for magic?"

"We are the school for the supernatural, which covers a lot of territory." Alaric corrected. Harper glanced up towards them, before her eyes looked towards Hope who was standing in front of the door. "Everyone here has something that makes them special in ways the outside world wouldn't understand."

"So, what are you?" Landon asked the man.

"Harper and I should get to class. . ." Hope started, glancing towards Harper and watching as the girl stood up and made her way towards Hope, stopping at Landon's words.

"No." The three looked at him. "No. Sorry, I don't mean to be a dick, but I don't know you―︎" He points to Alaric, before looking back towards Hope, "and though the image of you whammying a priest is still fresh, I need you here." He paused. "Just. . . tell me what all that was in the church last night?"

"What do you think it was?" Hope asked, walking closer to the boy.

"Well. . . as best as I can reason, either I've lost my mind, or werewolves are real." Landon simply answered. Hope, Harper, and Alaric all exchanged looks with one another before looking back towards the boy. "This-this is beyond insane. How is that even possible?"

Alaric shrugs. "It's a long story involving an ancient, vengeful witch and a bloodline curse. We cover all that in Origins of the Species, grade six."

"In sixth grade at my school, we learned the state capitals." Landon retorted, earning a small laugh from Hope and a slightly amused smile from Harper.

"We teach that too." She told the boy.

"I have some questions about Rafael." Alaric changes the subject back to the topic at hand.

"Like what?" Landon frowned.

"Well, let's start with who he killed recently."

Harper winced at the blunt question before looking at the three. "That's my que to leave. I'll, uh, see you later, Hope." She gave Hope a gentle smile to which Hope returned before quickly exiting the office. Instead of attending class, she just decided to skip out, doing what her class was probably doing, but instead reading about it in one of the books inside of the library. It wasn't even ten minutes later when Hope found the girl. Harper looked up at her and saw the panicked look on the girls face. "Hope?"

"We tried to make him forget." Hope whispered, keeping her voice down. "He wasn't even phased."

"What?" Harper frowned at this, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"We don't know either." She answered the girl's silent question. "He's in the cellar."

"You locked him up?" Harper hissed.

"What other choice did we have?" The two made it down to the cells, Harper staying against the wall whilst Hope stood right in front of the boy's cell. "Landon."

He quickly turned towards her. "Hope. Can you get me out of here?"

"Not yet. But you're not a prisoner here, I promise." Hope gently told the boy.

"I'm in a witch dungeon!" Landon exclaimed.

"Actually, it's a werewolf transition cage." Harper softly spoke up, her voice almost sounding like a loud bell as it echoed, when really she was practically whispering.

"Great." The boy scoffed. She winced at his harsh tone. He looked back towards Hope. "I'm not so good with, you know. . . small spaces."

"We won't keep you here long. No one expected you couldn't be compelled." Hope calmly told him.

"I don't even know what that means!" The boy snapped.

"MG tried to erase your memories of this place, but it didn't work." Hope simply explained.

"So now what? I'm a hostage? Where's Rafi?"

"He's fine. You're fine, too." Hope assured. "Look, compulsion doesn't work on people who take this herb called vervain. The town sheriff sometimes slips it into the coffee at the gas station we were at this morning. It takes about a day to pass through your system, but you just have to wait it out."

"Sure. Yeah, no big deal. Yeah, I'll just sit here alone in the witch dungeon with my thoughts." He laughed in disbelief. "Would you. . . I mean, could you. . . wait it out with me?" Harper tried to keep her small smirk hidden as her eyes glanced between the two.

Hope looks at him for a moment before speaking. "I'm really sorry about all of this. But it was nice to see you again." She backed away from the cell and nodded for Harper to follow her. Harper glanced towards the boy, offering him an apologetic look before exiting the cellar with Hope.

"What was that?" Harper snapped, looking at the girl.

"What was what?" Hope replied, earning a blank look from the hybrid. "I'm going to go do my training session with Dr. Saltzman. You're welcome to join."

"I'll pass. I'm not as advanced in that part as you are." Harper muttered. "I'm just going to read in the library."

"That's all you ever do. Does it ever get boring?"

"Does pushing everyone away get boring?" Harper shot back.

"You realize you just punched yourself with that come back, right?" Hope asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"I was hoping you wouldn't say anything." Harper muttered before turning away from Hope and walking away.