𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧
𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞'𝐬 𝐚 𝗺𝐮𝗺𝗺𝐲 𝐨𝐧 𝗺𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭
{𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝}
"Dr. Saltzman, this van is very... white of you." Kaleb said awkwardly, trying to diffuse some of the tension in the van.
The van was surprisingly huge. Lizzie,Hope, and Josie all sat behind Alaric and Kaleb. Evelyn, Charlotte, and Alexandra sat in the third row with Emma and Dorian behind them. "It's retro." Alaric hums.
"It's a gas-guzzling atrocity on wheels." Lizzie snapped, annoyed she had to sit by Hope.
Hope sighed as she sat up. "I brought snacks." She said, placing the large bag in her lap.
"Oh, sweet. Did you pack them before or after you decided to FOMO your way onto our trip?" Lizzie asked her coldly.
Hope raised her brows, "Like I'm gonna let you guys chase monsters without me?"
"I wouldn't thought you wanted to spend the break canoodling with your hipster boyfriend." Lizzie glared at her.
Hope rolled her eyes, she hadn't told anyone her and Charlotte were together and Landon was just her friend, Lizzie would probably set her on fire if she knew. "Sorry for wanting to protect the outside world from my mistakes." She snapped. "And Evie was invited."
"Because Evie is friends with Lottie and Xandra and a lot nicer than you." Lizzie snapped.
"Really feeling the love here." Evelyn smiled falsely.
"You know, there's currently an urn on a river cruise spreading plagues across America because I thought a unicorn was cute." Hope said.
"It's called accountability. Maybe there's a bracelet for it." Evelyn told her.
Lizzie scoffed, "Or maybe you just wanted to ruin yet another Saltzman spring break."
"When have I ever ruined a spring break?" Hope asked.
"Girls?" Alaric called out, "We're gonna be in this classic automobile for six hours, all right? So, no bickering."
"It would help if it wasn't a thousand degrees in here. I'm burning up." Hope complained.
Lizzie looked over at her, "You're burning up. Now, that's ironic." She chuckled.
"What does that even mean?" Hope asked in confusion.
"Don't play dumb." Lizzie frowned at her, "I see you. I see right through you."
Hope simply shrugged, "I don't know what you're talking about. What happened to playing nice?"
Lizzie turned to the front, "Over. Done. I'm getting back to me. I am who I am." She looked over at Josie, "Right, Josie?" She frowned when Josie didn't reply. "Josie?"
Josie took one of her headphones out, "Sorry?"
"Josie, you cannot leave me alone with just her for company." Lizzie said 'quietly'
"Well, I get carsick if I don't listen to music." She shrugged.
"Josie!" Lizzie snapped, reaching over to her. Arguing sparked between the three of them, upsetting Alaric.
"Girls!" He scolded, they all quieted down and looked at him. "Girls, there is no reason to be tense or awkward, okay? Now knock it off. We're gonna get through this together."
"God help us all." Evelyn whispered.
"Woot. Road trip." Kaleb said from the front seat.
༄༄༄
A few hours later, the group of ten are still in the car and Fancy is playing.
"I'm boiling." Hope complained. "I'm freezing." Lizzie complained. "I'm starving." Josie complained.
"Punch buggy." Lizzie punched Hope in the shoulder.
"Okay, sandwiches." Dorian said, he and Emma passing sandwiches to everyone in the car.
"Dad, did you only pack meat?" Josie asked him.
"Thank you." Alaric said as he grabbed the sandwich passed to him.
"J-Just baloney?" Kaleb asked, handing the sandwich back to Josie. "I told you, it's meat." Josie told them.
The group are sitting in the car in silence with only the music playing when Lizzie hit Hope again, "Punch Buggy, no returns."
"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer." Alaric sang.
"I think I'm..." Josie threw up, earning instant chaos through the car. "Oh God!" Lizzie shouted in disgust.
"That's disgusting." Alexandra gagged in disgust.
"Get it in the bag!" Alaric shouted.
༄༄༄
The group are unfortunately still in the car when Lizzie complained, "Are we there yet?"
Josie puked in the bag again as everyone groaned in disgust. "Oh, lord! In the bag, sweetheart." Alaric told her.
"Are we there yet?" Lizzie complained yet again.
"I'm not lost." Alaric said, looking to the back where Emma was looking on a map.
"37 bottles of beer on the wall, 37 bottles of beer. You take one down, you pass it around. 36 bottles of beer on the wall." Everyone sang boardly
"Oh, yeah. Keep up, guys." Alaric told them.
Alaric drove past the Maple Hollows sign while Josie sang, "My heart brought a little song for you, So won't you take a listen and dance with me to the rhythm?"
Josie put the ukulele on the floor only to end up accidentally pushing Kaleb's seat up. "Whoa, could you not?" Kaleb said.
"I'm sorry." Josie told him.
"We there yet?" Lizzie asked for the last time as Alaric finally stopped the car. "Yes!" Alaric exclaimed.
༄༄༄
"Welcome to Maple Hollows." Kaleb sighed as Alaric drove through the town.
"Girls, you take the fountain area. See what you can find out." Alaric told them.
After some minor investigating, Josie and Charlotte walk back to Evelyn, Hope, Lizzie and Alexandra. "Fun fact: this town has the biggest ball of yarn in the country." Josie told them. "And nobody's seen anything strange." Charlotte said.
"This isn't exactly a hotspot of activity." Lizzie said. "Our hopes of finding anything are going up in smoke."
Hope frowned in realization, "Wait, are you passive-aggressively referring to that fire in my dorm room three years ago?"
"You mean the one that you set on purpose to sabotage our spring break trip with our dad? No,Hope. Why would I talk about that?" Lizzie snapped back.
Hope laughs humorously, "Dude, you've lost it."
"The only thing that we lost was a week of quality family time. Dad had to cancel the trip to deal with the damage." Lizzie tilts her head. "So mission accomplished."
Josie shook her head softly, "You guys are just talking about ancient history-Ow!" She shouted suddenly, slapping her arm. "Something stung me."
She pulled up her sleeve, revealing a nasty looking bump on her arm. "Ew." Hope said.
"Gross." Lizzie said.
The six girls looked up to the sky when they heard a loud swarming sound. Thousands of hornets fill the sky, swarming the town.
"This is plague-y, right?" Hope asked, "It seems plague-y."
The group watched as the town's people run in different directions while screaming, "It's plague-y." Josie said blankly.
"Come on, we need to find a place to hide." Evelyn said, the group running off.
༄༄༄
The group slowly exited the small restaurant and stepped on the dead hornets. "We need to find your dad." Hope declared. "This way."
"Does this way take us past the fire station?" Lizzie asked with snark.
"Oh, my god. We barely just survived a biblical plague. For the last time, I didn't start that fire, and I've never ruined a spring break." Hope told her.
"Yeah, Lizzie, now's not the time." Josie said.
"Fifth grade. You callously gave me the flu while we were building our float for witch week. With global warming, I may never see the Florida Keys. That's on you." Lizzie told them.
"We built it with Alyssa Chang, who had pneumonia over spring break. It wasn't me, and neither was that fire." Hope told her.
"Um, hey..." Josie tried to catch their attention.
"Why did I see you giving us a death glare through the window?" Lizzie asked.
"There's a boil on my boil." Josie said, finally catching their attention.
"Oh, god!" Lizzie exclaimed.
"Ew!" Hope said.
"I think I'm gonna be sick again." Josie told them.
"Pick up the pace, Mikaelson's." Lizzie snapped her fingers. "My sister needs..."
They turn a corner only to see busses, men in yellow suits, and people in lines to get on the busses. "Single file. You're going to be safe. Get on the buses." They hear a man say through an intercom.
"...Medical Attention?" Lizzie said, but it sounded more like a question.
"Oh, I hate doctors." Evelyn groaned.
༄༄༄
"Please form an orderly single file line and proceed to the triage tent for processing." A woman said over the P.A system.
"I don't get it." Hope said, "The locals that we met said that they hadn't seen anything, which means that the first sign of trouble happened after we got here."
"How did these people get here before the bugs?" Emma asked.
"I don't know who they are, but they are too prepared, organized, and well-equipped to be responding to some random insect attack." Alaric told them.
They reach the lady at the front of the line, "You together?" She asked blandly.
"Yeah, you know, we just came in from Roanoke to see that giant ball of yarn you guys have." Alaric told her with a false smile.
"And these are?" She asked.
"This is my wife...Emma." He wrapped an arm around Emma who laughed falsely. "Uh...these are my daughters. From my first marriage." He gestured to Hope,Josie,Evelyn, Lizzie and Charlotte.
"Alexandra here is Evelyn's girlfriend." Alaric said as Alexandra sent a small wave. "And, uh, Kaleb here is, uh-."
"My boyfriend." Josie and Lizzie said in unison before shooting each other looks.
"Hey..." Kaleb chuckled awkwardly, "When you're good, you're good, right?"
After they checked off, Hope and Evelyn walked side by side. They noticed the man from Landon's moms house, they walked by him while giving him a side glance. The two now stand next to Alaric at a table, "Don't look, but that guy over there was outside of Seylah's house when we were in Kansas, with the fake gas leak." Alaric did the opposite of what Hope said, and looked over at the man. "I said don't look."
"What's he doing here?" Evelyn questioned.
"I don't know. Probably the same thing we were. Trying to cover things up. There are groups like this scattered all over the globe. Probably tracking the same activity we were." Alaric told them.
"Awful lot of artillery, too." Hope said. The three eyeball the oxygen tanks, wet suits, and fins.
"Dr. Saltzman, their gear." Hope pointed out.
"They're here for the urn." Alaric realized.
Evelyn's eyes widened, "Dorian..."
༄༄༄
The two Mikaelson's are now sitting beside the twins, Charlotte and Alexandra.
"Hey, who is that guy?" Josie asked.
"This creep we met in Kansas when you guys were in Europe." Hope answered.
"Why were you guys in Kansas?" Lizzie asked. "Oh,wait, let me guess, it involved you insinuating yourselves into a situation where only you two could be the hero."
"As a matter of fact, yeah." Hope told her.
"I swear to God, you will do anything to get attention." Lizzie said.
"Said the narcissist." Hope scoffed.
"Said the...other narcissistic." Lizzie said back lamely.
"Okay, guys, can we please just stop?" Josie tried.
"Okay, fine." Evelyn finally snapped. "You know what? Maybe we were jealous. Maybe we wanted what you had. A simply day with our family. Hope lost half her stuff in that fire, including the only picture I had of me and my dad. Why would she do that to me?" After she was finished, she missed Josie looking down in shame and guilt.
After a few moments of silence, Alaric walked over. "Evelyn, Hope."
Evelyn turned to Charlotte and Alexandra, "I'll be back, okay?"
༄༄༄
"I work for an organization that keeps monsters and things that go bump in the night from public view. I thought I recognized you and Danielle and Sofia-." Clarke told them.
"It's Hope and Evelyn,actually." Hope told him.
Agent Clarke nodded, "I wasn't sure if it was a coincidence, so we searched your van. We know you're Alaric Saltzman, headmaster of the Salvatore School. We know a lot about it. You have a terrific reputation."
"Leave the school out of this." Alaric told him.
"Look, I applaud your school's mission. If you do your job right, makes mine easier." Clarke said.
"So why are we still here?" Evelyn asked as she crossed her arms.
"Well, I have an entire town that needs to forget what they've seen today. You know, usually it's convincing a farmer in Nebraska he didn't see a chimera, you know, or a few ice fisherman in Minnesota that it wasn't a yeti that ate their bestfriend." He joked half-heartedly. "This is an entire town. It's different. We could use the assistance of a vampire. I noticed the daylight ring on your daughter's boyfriend-."
"Oh, he's not their... Never mind." Alaric shook his head.
"Why not call it a freak swarm of bugs?" Hope asked, "Why erase it from memory?"
"Because someone may recognize them for what they are. Harbingers." Clarke told them.
"Of what?" Evelyn asked.
"Seriously? This is obviously the work of a mummy." Clarke said.
Alaric fist pumped the air, earning a weird look from the three. "I told you." He told Hope triumphantly.
"One of our drivers survived an attack by the river. He's been tracking the mummy ever since." Clarke said. "He's still on the outskirts of town, but he's heading our direction. We're a cleanup organization. Okay, we're not equipped to go to battle with a mummy." He chuckled lightly, "So...will you help? Cut him off at the pass and keep all these people safe?"
"Oh, these are kids..." Alaric said.
"Kids with magic, in a town full of innocents without it." Clarke told him.
"We'd be happy to help." Hope blurted out.
"I'm gonna need my weapons." Alaric told him.
"Of course." Clarke nodded, "Gather what you need. Round up your friends. My team can help you with anything else." Clarke turned and walked away.
"Okay, I know you don't remember our trip to Kansas clearly, but that field that we woke up in in Georgia, that's where the portal to Malivore is. It's hidden in plain sight by a company called TRIAD." Hope held up the card Agent Clarke had given them, which had the TRIAD symbol on it. "Look Familiar?"
༄༄༄
The six girls walked behind Alaric on the street of the small town. Lizzie spoke up, "Some people find it helps to clear their conscience before heading into battle."
"Not stopping you." Hope said.
"Now is not the time." Josie tried to stop them.
"It's always time for truth." Lizzie retorted, "Last chance, Hope. If you didn't start that fire to keep us from going, then why were you so mean to me after? I'll tell you why, because you were guilty."
"Girls! Quite back there, please." Alaric told them.
"Seriously." Hope shook her head, "I wasn't mean to you. You were mean to me."
"Because you were telling people about my episode." Lizzie told her.
"Your what?" Hope asked.
"My episode. The one I had when our trip got cancelled. You told everyone that I was witch bipolar." Lizzie said, as the two girls stopped and turned to look at each other.
"I would never do that." Hope told her, after all the anxiety attacks Evelyn had and everything she had gone through because of her mental health. How could Lizzie believe she would do something that cruel because of hers?
"Guys, seriously, what is the point of even talking..." Josie said, but was cut off but Lizzie. "Just drop the act. I had my first...occurrence, my mom took me away to get help, and you decided to use it against me."
"Guys..." Evelyn tried, but was ignored.
"I didn't even know. I swear, I would never do that." Hope told her honestly.
"Guys." Josie said.
"What?" The two girls snapped.
Evelyn turned her head, "There's a mummy on Main Street."
Alaric held up his crossbow as the mummy growls as it slowly comes closer. "So, what, do we, like, rush it?" Lizzie asked.
"It's seven feet tall. We hold our ground until it's close enough to attack." Alaric told them.
"Okay, Dad, Lottie, get behind us." Josie said.
"I can't do that." Alaric told her.
"Dad." Lizzie called out.
"I have to protect you, all of you." Alaric told them.
"No offense, Dr. Saltzman, but you and your crossbow are kind of manspread in front of five powerful witches." Hope told her.
Alaric lowered his crossbow in contemplation before speaking, "Okay, good point." He and Charlotte moved behind them.
"Okay, what can a mummy do to hurt us?" Alexandra asked.
"I think we're about to find out." Evelyn replied.
The mummy opened it's mouth, letting out a loud scream as bugs flew out of it's mouth. "Hope." Josie said nervously. The five girls grabbed ahold of each others hands and chanted, "Bulla." They kept the shield they created around them until all the bugs were gone and they dropped it.
"Nice teamwork." Alaric said.
"Should we rush it now?" Lizzie asked.
"Not yet." Hope replied.
The mummy growled loudly, "Now?" Lizzie asked again.
"No." Hope replied.
"I really, really think that we should rush it." Lizzie said nervously.
"Wait!" Hope snapped, "On three. One... Two..." Suddenly, the mummy held up it's hand as Hope began to choke.
"What's happening?" Lizzie asked, "What's happening?" Bugs began to fall out of Hope's mouth as she coughed, "Oh, my god. Oh, my god." Lizzie began to choke as well, as the remaining girls looked at them with wide-eyes.
The mummy looked straight at them, so they chanted. "Resistus maledi." They covered their mouths with their hands. The three girls shared a look before holding up their hands, "Ignalusa." Josie chanted, a ball of fire gathering in her hands. She blew it onto the mummy, making it disintegrate to ash as Hope and Lizzie finally stop choking.
"Worst spring break ever." Lizzie said.
༄༄༄
"So the mummy ain't actually dead?" Kaleb asked Alaric.
"Well, if I'm right, the mummy's curse is bound by the scarab in its chest." He said, "Once the girls siphon the scarab, the curse will be lifted and the mummy will be dead."
"Okay, and what if you're wrong?" Kaleb asked.
"He's never wrong." Hope spoke up.
"So what now?" Lizzie asked Alaric.
"Until we get the urn, we wait." He lifted the hood of the van.
"How long do we have to wait?" Lizzie asked, "If I have to bug-girl again, I swear to God, I will never talk to you again." She told Hope.
"Okay, that one wasn't even remotely my fault." Hope said.
"Yeah, well, the beetle slime in my tonsils says otherwise." Lizzie said back.
"Why can't we just give the mummy the urn?" Charlotte asked. "Is opening the portal to Malivore really that bad?"
"Do any of the monsters that have been trapped in there seem happy and balanced to you?" Evelyn asked.
"I'm with Lottie." Lizzie said, "Why don't we skip bug vomit round two and just go and get pancakes or something?"
"Think of it like this. We'll be setting the mummy free from his prison." Alaric told them.
"Hmm. Poor mummy." Josie sympathized. The group watched as screaming employees rushed out of the tents.
"All right, look, we can keep having empathy hour or we can do what we came here to do." Kaleb said.
"Here we go." Alaric chimed.
The opening to the tent was swept aside by the mummy as it roared. "What the hell is happening?" Clarke rushed toward them.
"I don't know; he should be dead." Alaric told him as the mummy continued to roar.
"Well, clearly he isn't." Clarke said.
"Yeah, I can see that." Alaric said back.
The mummy knocked over boxes as it growled in frustration, "He's looking for the urn." Hope told them.
"What do we do?" Clarke asked.
"I don't know." Alaric shrugged slightly, "Give him the urn."
Clarke pulled out his walkie talkie, "Hey, can someone give this thing the urn?"
The tech over the radio replied quickly, "Can't. The urn's gone."
"Wh-Who's been in there?" Clarke asked.
"Only our guys." The guy replied.
"Do something." Clarke told them.
"Kaleb?" Alaric nodded to the boy.
"Yep." Kaleb vamp-sped over to the mummy, "Nice bling. Don't mind if I do." Kaleb took the scarab from the mummy and sped back to the group. "Lizzie!"
"Got it." Lizzie, Josie, and Evelyn grab onto the glowing green scarab and began to siphon it's powers.
"Oh, crap. Hurry." Hope said as the mummy continued to growl in their direction. "Like, 𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘺 hurry."
The monster opened it's mouth and bugs began flying towards them, much like before. Alaric and Clarke both shielded their eyes as Hope chanted "Bulla."
The group opened their eyes, only to see the mummy frozen in place. "The curse is lifted. He's gone." Alaric said before turning to Clarke and saying, "Well, Agent Clarke, we do any more work for you guys, you're gonna have to put us on the payroll. Guess we'll be, uh, on our way out of here." The group made their way into the van. "Whew." Alaric shut the hood to the van, "Good night."
༄༄༄
They pull up to the side of the road after driving for a little while, "Okay. So where is she?" Alaric asked.
"You doubting my skills?" Kaleb remarked. "There." The woman from the lab came towards them, handing the urn to Kaleb.
"Thank you. Oh, and you may want to lay low for a little bit, sweetie." Kaleb told her, before looking over at Alaric. "You're welcome."
Alaric chuckled softly before speaking, "All right, let's go home. All right."
Suddenly bright head lights turned on, "Wait a second." Alaric said, They turn to look at the back windows as Clarke walked around the car.
"They have Dorian and Emma." Hope said, as a guard brought them out of the car.
"Oh..." Alaric sighed heavily, before holding his hand out for the urn to give to TRIAD. "All right. Sit tight." He told them before getting out of the car.
༄༄༄
The group is sitting in the car in silence with Dorian and Emma cuddled up in the back, and Evelyn,Charlotte, and Alexandra cuddled up in the third row while sleeping when Hope spoke up, "If you really thought that I said all those things about you, then you hating me all these years makes perfect sense. But with a father and a grandfather like mine, along with all of Evelyn's issues, I'm probably not immune to those issues myself. I don't take it lightly and I would never make fun of you for it."
"I believe you." Lizzie told her.
"What I don't get is why anyone would accuse me of that. Who did you hear it from?" Hope asked, Lizzie slowly turning her eyes to Josie, giving her the answer. Hope turning her eyes to Josie also in hurt and realization.
༄༄༄
𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲: i know in the show Josie set the fire because she had a crush on Hope, but I'm changing it to her setting the fire because she wanted to tell Hope Charlotte had a crush on her because Charlotte didn't have the courage, and I would write that scene but this chapter is already at almost four thousand words and I don't want to make it any higher.