Hosie Stories

Story 15 - "Let's Go Together"

Authors note:
This originally started as a oneshot on Ao3 and then I continued it, but after a while I realized I wasn't happy with the newer stuff I had written and so I decided to make it a oneshot again. Just thought I would say in case any of you were confused. If you haven't seen this story from me before though, I hope you enjoy :)

Since Josie was the real her again, she felt...different. Herself but also not. And although she was in her right mind again, she wasn't the same person she was before it all. There were these new huge feelings that came with this. Ones she simply couldn't ignore. Guilt - for all of the evil things she did. Shame - for having caused such pain and fear. And for what she did to Hope in her subconscious, even though she was finally out safely. It took a bit of searching, but they finally found a spell and had Lizzie perform it. When Hope's eyes opened, when she was brought back to the land of the living, Josie couldn't have been happier.

All of what she felt, was the reason she put her magic in the coin. She couldn't trust herself anymore. Scared that she could break again at any given moment. She was terrified that some dark magic was still hiding in the corner of her mind, waiting to pounce and take over. Putting her magic in a coin, was her way of protecting everyone until she felt ready. Or unless there was an absolute emergency at hand.

Putting her magic in a coin, although it was for the best, it made her feel like an outsider at school. She felt like she no longer belonged. In spell class, the teacher had been about to ask her to demonstrate, then given her a sad glare when they remembered she couldn't. It had happened many times. She would hear the students laughing behind her in the class, and the moment she looked at them, their attitude would change completely. They would curl into themselves, try and look anywhere but at her. Josie knew why, of course. She would catch it in their eyes, or the way that they would flinch when she looked at them. Fear. They were scared. And everyone knew she was back to normal, that she was no longer sharing her mind with the darker part. That didn't erase their memories of what happened. All the drama and chaos was fresh for them, and the reason that many of them avoided her at all costs.

Josie couldn't blame them. She blamed herself. She sat back, allowing the magic to take over. All because she was scared of being strong, and thought that power meant evil. Hope showed her that it didn't - in fact, she was a visual representation of it. And Hope was the only one who looked at her, like really looked at her, the same way she had before everything. Like she was her friend, a human with feelings. If Josie looked deeper, she would realize that Hope still looked at her like she was her whole damn world.

The Gemini twin had given countless apologies already to more or less everyone she had hurt or threatened. So when she was walking down the hallways and saw Alyssa Chang - she prepared herself for one of her longer apologies. They had never been friends, but that didn't mean Josie didn't feel guilty. She had murdered her for heaven's sake, and she needed to let Alyssa know how sorry she was. Though she had a feeling Alyssa wouldn't accept her words so easily, not that she had to.

"Alyssa! Wait up! Please!" She called after her, quickening her steps. Alyssa stopped, then turned around.

With her usual sass, she responded. "Ughh. I don't have time for this. What do you want?" Some would be able to pinpoint the underlying tone of fear, the way that her voice shook when saying 'you'. Josie noticed it and chose not to mention it. Knowing that the whole school was scared of her, well it hit her hard. Seeing it, that completely broke her. It shattered her heart, and she was trying her best to pick up the pieces. She wanted nothing more than to get back to the way things were, and she was willing to do anything to achieve that.