The last place I'd expect to find a troll is Mystic Falls Highschool, and yet here we stand. I'm hoping this is all some elaborate joke.
"So, you weren't joking about the troll?"
I laugh at the thought. Out of all the things I expected to happen today, seeing an actual troll wasn't one of them.
"Believe me, I wish it was a joke," she says before walking into the school.
I follow after her. I don't know what the plan is, or even if she has one.
"So, who am I supposed to call for if I'm about to be murdered by a troll?"
She rolls her eyes with a laugh, "Your not going to be mirdered by a troll, but if you need to know, it's Hope."
We stop at an office door and she turns to face me. "Who should I call for when I need back up fighting a troll?"
"Thea."
"We'll Thea, stay here. I'll be out in a second."
She steps into the office. I stay put.
I look around the empty hallway. At the posters for clubs and sports hung up on a bulletin board.
It's strange that despite how normal everything here looks, nothing about this place is normal. The people here don't even know what's going on in their town. Witches, vampires, werewolves, and now trolls too.
I stop looking around when a find spots of purple on the ground across the hall. I look around and step over to them.
I kneel down to get a closer look, and a foul smell hits my nose. Well, that rules out the idea of paint.
I stand back up and go over to the office door again. I plan to tell Hope about the spots on the ground when she comes back out, but when she exits the office, she storms away. I quickly follow after her.
When she enters a restroom I stop at the door. I'm conflicted between going in or not. What if she wants to be left alone? What if she doesn't want to be left alone?
Ultimately I decide on going in. I hear her take a few deep breaths.
"Are you ok?" I ask.
When I do, I instantly regret it. Obviously she's not ok.
"I'm fine. I just need a few seconds."
I stay silent and let her take a moment. It's only short lived because someone else walks into the restroom.
"Boy problems?" The stranger asks Hope.
Hope looks up at the stranger in the mirror.
"Ya," she says, "he's kind of a troll."
I blink a few times at the reference of the troll.
"Oh my god, say no more, we'll fix you up and make him jealous. I have an extra shirt in my locker, and I've got hairspray, lipgloss, and new eyeliner."
Hope looks down at everything set out on the sink and back to the stranger.
"Maya."
"Hope, thank you," She turns to face Maya. "Weird question, by any chance have you noticed a terrible smell coming from somewhere inside the school?"
"I think everyone has."
———
Hope and I look at each other as we stand outside the entrance to the boys locker room.
"Stay here and keep watch."
I nod and she walks into the locker room. I scrunch my nose when the smell hits me.
I wonder why she was upset about earlier. What was said that made her that way?
My thoughts are interrupted when I see someone walking up to me. I never fully thought about what I would do if someone were to walk up. To be completely honest I wasn't expecting anyone to.
Instantly, I put on the fake tears. The man walks up and looks at the door, and then me.
"What happened?" He asks worriedly. Which makes me feel bad since the tears are completely fake.
My head scrambles to find some excuse as to why I would be crying.
"My girlfriend and I," I blurt out with a fake sob, "we got in this really bad fight and she ran off. I couldn't help but wait out here for her."
He tilts his head and looks at the door to the boys locker room again, "And she ran off into the boys locker room?"
I wipe my pretend tears, "It was probably the first place she could find. It was a really bad argument."
"Well, i'll go get her and we can talk through it."
"No," I put my hand out to stop I'm from opening the door to the locker room, "she's really upset right now and really just needs space."
He moves my arm and walks into the locker room. At that point he's already inside, and there's nothing I can do to stop him.
I let out an annoyed sigh and pace back and forth. Hopefully it wasn't a complete failure and she found something that would help.
After a few minutes of waiting I decide to walk into the locker room.
"Listen, your not doing anything, okay?Your just a kid. If there's a monster in my school I'm gonna take care of it." I hear the man's voice echo throughout the room.
I walk forward to stand beside Hope and the man looks at me. "I'm guessing you here to help."
Before I can respond Hope cuts in , "No offense, but I've been trying to kill this thing for over a week, and nothing's worked."
"If you are a vampire hunter then I'm sure you've hear of Alaric Saltzman."
I think back to Josie and Lizzie. I could ask them when I get back, but I wouldn't want to overstep.
"Ya," he says, "I know what I'm doing."
"Ya, your very famous around here. But your going to need my help."
For a few seconds he doesn't respond. When the bell rings Alaric leans in to whisper, "I've put kids in danger before, and I'm not going to make that mistake again."
I remember the look Josie and Lizzie gave each other at the mention of the old headmaster. If it was Alaric, what exactly did he do to end up here?
When people start piling into the locker room, I know there's no room to ask questions and the conversation is over.
———
Girlfriend?" Hope questions.
I stand beside Hope to try and hide whatever she's making in a locker.
"Sorry, I panicked. It seemed like a problem someone who went here would have. Plus, it was totally working at first."
Hope laughs. "I think you nailed it. Unfortunately, he was smart enough to see through it."
I look in the corner of my eyes to get a glance at what she's making. I see her pour something into a jar of blue liquid.
"What is that?" I ask.
"Artificial sunlight. We go in there, we blind it, then we attack. Problem solved."
She shakes up the jar and shuts the locker. As we go off to wherever the troll is. I notice purple smudges on the wall as we continue on.
We make it to a door and begin walking down the stairs that it opens to. Pipes run along the ceiling and the smell gets worse the further we go down.
When we make it to the bottom Hope motions for me to hide beside her. I do and look over to find the troll throwing Alaric to the ground.
Hope throws the blue jar and light explodes from it. The troll covers it's eyes and steps backwards.
At the same time Alaric throws Hope an arrow. She holds her hand up and the arrow levitates in the air. She looks at it and aims straight for the troll. When it hits, the troll falls backwards onto the ground.
———
"What are we supposed to do now?" I ask.
Hope and I hide in a bush as we wait for the monster, which we now know isn't a troll, to show up.
When we went back to get rid of the monster at the end of the school day it was gone. The only thing left was a purple spot of its blood.
"Relax, we'll figure out what it is and get rid of it."
"Relax? There's an unknown monster running around somewhere and-"
I stop when I finally see it. It moves towards someone sitting in a bench. My eyes widen when I recognize him as Landon. Luckily he has headphones in.
Hope surges forward and with a wave of her hand, she sends the monster flying backwards through the air.
The monster quickly stands back up and Hope jumps forward to punch it in the face.
The monster doesn't respond well and hits Hope. Which sends her flying onto her back.
I look around for Alaric. He should've been somewhere behind us, yet I can't find him anywhere.
When I look back the monster has a hold of Hope and lifts her in the air.
"Ossox," I whisper with a twist of my hand.
The arm holding Hope twist with a crack. Hope drops to the ground.
In the corner of my eye I see an arrow fly past me. It pierces the monsters free hand. I look behind me to see Alaric.
He runs forward and hits the monster with his bow. Quickly, he loads an arrow, but the monster moves faster. It throws Alaric to the side. Making him drop the bow.
"Hey you," Hope stands up and reaches out a hand, "Incendia."
The monsters hair burst in flames, and when they dissipate, a single eyes is left blinking.
"New theory, Cyclopes," Alaric chimes in.
I grab the bow and throw it to Hope. She takes aim and the arrow flies towards the Cyclops. Hitting it directly in its eye. It falls to the ground and it's body begins to turn to ash.
When Alaric leaves, I turn to Hope. "Well, I guess I'd better get back to the school."
She smiles. "Of course. Thanks for helping today."
I shrug, "You and Alaric done most of it, but thanks for inviting me to come with you."
I smile one last time and begin walking away.
"I'll see you soon," she shouts after me.
I turn back, "I'll be counting on it!"
———
AN: So I tried to aim for a chapter a day, but it turns out I'm busier than I thought. I still hope your enjoying!
I would also like to encourage you to vote, but of course you don't have to!
Finally, thank you again for checking out this story! :)