While the Salvatore students couldn't agree on much, they all did agree that they needed to get Dana out of sight. Knowing that the townies probably wouldn't respond well to one of the missing girls of Mystic Falls High, laying unconscious surrounded by a group of teens from the Salvatore Boarding School.
Fortunately, with all the students attending class, they were able to bring Dana back to their school bus without raising any suspicion. While MG carried Dana's body over, Landon had opened the back door and broke the silence that fell between them all.
"So... let me get this straight," he began and climbed into the back of the vehicle to help MG drag her in. "Dana died with vampire blood in her system, so she came back to life and now she's in transition, and she needs to feed or die?" Landon said with uncertainty and jumped back down.
"Nailed it bro, easy decision, right?" MG replied with ease. Feeling something strange on his hand.
He noticed a cobweb-like material stuck to his hand. MG looked at it in confusion but wiped it off without thinking too much of it.
"Alright so... we give her human blood, it's that simple," Kaleb proposed but Hope wasn't too happy with how easy they were taking this situation.
"Not everyone wants to be supernatural. Some people just want to be normal," she explained more sympathetically.
"Dana's traumatised, you guys. This is a huge decision. Maybe we should give her a day or two-" she reasoned.
"She'll be dead in a day if she doesn't feed," Hope interrupted and looked towards the Gemini witch standing next to her.
Lizzie only smiled mischievously. "Oops. I suck at math," she said sarcastically.
"You should tell her the truth," Landon rebuked, criticising the group's lack of empathy for the girl. "My guess is that she'd be psyched to be at a place like your school... I know I would," he spoke honestly, making the rest think more deeply.
Seeing MG's lack of participation, Kaleb mentioned, "You're awful quiet over there, MG."
"I'm a feminist, bruh. I'm not gonna tell Dana what to do with her body. Landon's right," he responded.
Without moving his body, his eyes fell to Alex who was standing a bit further away from them. "And you?"
Their attention was now given to Alex who had her hands stuffed into her pockets. "He's got a point. It's not fair to complete the transition without her own consent. As much as some people seem to dislike her here, it's just wrong," she added, looking between each of them.
After Alex was finished, they all turned to Lizzie. With the odds stacked against her, she rolled her eyes and gave in. "Ugh, fine. Okay, but to be clear, she is not joining drill team," she compromised.
Hope, stood next to Alex not really paying attention to the rest of the group. Instead, she stared at Dana's bite mark trying to rack her brain for possible answers. Sure, the bite was identical to a vampire's, but Alex's comment earlier made her question that.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when Alex softly nudged her arm. Looking up to the girl she nodded towards Dana's body.
Getting the memo, Hope performed a spell to wake Dana up. "Surgere," she recited and with a flick of her hand, Dana had woken up.
She struggled to sit back up but eventually pulled herself up but the back door. She had appeared to still be incredibly weak and tired.
"Did I pass out?" she asked to no one in particular. "I don't feel so well," she murmured and hunched over.
"We know how you feel," Lizzie said with fake sympathy. "You're just hungry," she finished with a dismissive tone.
Dana looked up with narrowed eyes. "Anorexia was sophomore year. This is something else," she admitted nonchalantly as her body began to tremble.
At the comment, Alex felt sorry for the girl. To reveal such information with no care. But she also knew that this type of situation was not uncommon in high schools.
"You'll feel better after you feed. I promise," MG reassured.
"I don't think this is what Landon meant by 'telling her the truth'," Alex tried to reason but was interrupted rudely by Dana.
"Oh, shut up! For real. Even thinking about eating makes me want to..." her voice trailed off.All of a sudden she began to throw up black liquid. Everyone had stepped back on instinct. Faces contorting to disgust and horror.
"Oh damn. What that girl eat?" Kaleb quipped and looked away from the sight.
As she continued to throw up, Alex too had to look away for the sake of her own stomach. She brought her flannel up over her nose to try and escape the smell.
"Oh my god. I can't look at this," Alex whispered to herself and moved to stand behind Hope. Hope had placed her hand on Alex's forearm as she stood behind her. Slowly pushing the two of them back to not get in Dana's way.
"I think her soul just got on my shoes. Ew," Lizzie complained.
"Uh- I think imma be sick, too," MG gagged at the sight.
"Is this normal?" Landon asked and kept his eyes closed.
Dana wasn't stopping which made everyone grow even more worried. Dana seemed to be in pain as she coughed and threw up her insides on the concrete.
"She's puking her guts out. Literally!" Hope exclaimed. "Dana. Dana!" she yelled out to try and get any sort of response out of the girl.
It was safe to say that their efforts went in vain as the Salvatore students now stood around the remains of Dana's body in shock. A 'shell' of her body lying in a puddle of diluted black liquid.
"Should we call your dad?" Hope mumbled in question to Lizzie without looking away from Dana's body.
"Why? So he can take another bullet for you?" Lizzie backchatted to her although she was just as horrified and confused as Hope.
"No," Hope stopped, offended she would think so low of her. "Because whatever did this is not a vampire. It's gotta be another monster from the knife," she reasoned with everyone, sharing a look with Landon who quickly looked away.
Kaleb stepped past the group and stood in front of Landon. "Well maybe, the monster's been right in front of us all along," he spoke ominously.
"What...?" he blurted out quietly with an awkward smile but it soon faded when he realised that he wasn't joking. "Are you serious?" he asked, shaking his head as he was taken aback.
"Hey, none of this started happening until you showed up and stole that knife," he pointed right at his chest and paused. "Which is exactly what the other monsters came here to do. You saying it's a coincidence?
"Yeah. Yes, I am," he spoke with urgency and let out an awkward laugh.
His eyes darted towards everyone else who held similar expressions to Kaleb. As of now, it made sense. There was no doubting that Landon had some sort of connection to their monster problem. Alex wanted to believe him but she couldn't. While Landon was with them at the start, they had separated soon after. In the time they weren't together, he was left alone. He had stolen the knife soon after arriving at their school and all of a sudden there was an emergence of dragons and gargoyles. She couldn't believe him with no evidence. But that gut feeling was still present.
Landon looked specifically to Hope. "You believe me, right?" he questioned her.
Hope couldn't hold his gaze for a moment longer so she looked to the side with a heartbroken expression. Alex placed a hand on her back and rubbed soothingly without saying anything.
His posture slumped and he looked away in disbelief. "Got it," he said to himself and began to walk off. "Say no more."
~ * ~
Discarding Dana's remains was a gruelling task at most as the stench of death was now more prominent than ever. Alex had been given the job of finding a hose to wash down the mysterious black liquid from the concrete. But she had quickly handed off the hose to Lizzie.
The clean up was almost completely finished when Kaleb walked up behind the girls.
Taking one good look at it he had already made up his mind. "Nasty," he commented. "Yeah, so um, I'm out of here. But little piece of advice... Landon could be in there, right now, eating fools. So, I'll holla," he pointed out, pausing in between his sentence to place emphasise.
He left right after, but none bothered to run after him or even ask where he was going.Hope sighed. "Come on, guys. If It's not Landon, then what else could it be?" she asked what remained of their exchange program.
"We've encountered mythical creatures that aren't supposed to exist. If it's going the way it is, it could literally be anything. Mermaids, fairies, could even be the bloody loch ness monster at this point," Alex commented sarcastically, although the idea didn't seem that farfetched anymore.
MG, who was busy wiping his shoe with a page out of his comic book, suddenly had an epiphany. He opened the crumpled page and exclaimed, "Spider!"
The three girls looked at him in confusion and waited for him to elaborate further.
"A big spider. An arachne, if you want to get specific," he blurted out almost stuttering on his words.
With no other lead, the girls stepped closer to hear him out. Alex had moved to lean on the side of the back door of the bus, crossing her arms over her chest.
MG had turned over the page so it faced what remained of their exchange program to see an illustration of the arachne he was speaking of.
Lizzie snatched the page to take a closer look, almost scoffing at the absurdity. "This is nerd porn, not real life," she mentioned, handing him back the page.
"So were dragons and gargoyles," he challenged. "The writer bases her comics off of Greek lore. An arachne was originally a beautiful woman who was cursed by a jealous god and turned into a giant spider," he rambled excitedly. "Uh, all it wants is to be human, so it wears the skin of its prey to pass. Oh my god. Its-its fangs are huge, so they could pass for a vampire bite. And its bite liquefies its victims! Plus I found a web in Dana's hair," he reasoned and it all seemed to make sense.
"That explains why it couldn't follow the knife out of town. An SUV-sized insect can't exactly hitchhike unless it inhabits the body of someone," Hope added.
"Who? Sasha maybe?" MG thought aloud.
"My money is still on your boyfriend," Lizzie sassed.
"He's not my boyfriend," Hope corrected, although not so convincingly as she couldn't keep eye contact with anyone.
"If it can wear the skin of any human, then it could neither. Who knows, maybe Sasha already fell to the same fate as liquified Dana over there," Alex alleged.
"If we had something from it we could do a tracking spell," Lizzie said.
As fate would have it, Landon came running back to the group.
"Would its face work?" he huffed out and he showed everyone the bloodied flesh he had obtained.
After some explanation from Landon, the two witches of the group performed a locator spell, finding that it was nowhere near Mystic Falls High and that it was actually heading towards their own school.
The group of students ran through the outskirts of their school grounds to the arachne's last known location when the school's phone began to ring in MG's hands.
"It's Dr. Saltzman," he announced and looked to Alex who was running beside him. "No way I'm telling him what we're about to do. You're the other student aide," he reminded her and gave the phone to Alex.
"You're his daughter. You can tell him," Alex continued and handed the phone to the Headmaster's daughter.
Lizzie took the phone, not willingly and faced towards another person she could hand it off to."I suck at lying. You're great at it," she admitted and gave the device to Landon.
Without a second thought, he handed the phone to Hope. "You're his favourite."
"You're the hero," Hope sassed and passed it back to Lizzie.
The phone was ringing long enough so the Gemini witch had no choice but to answer it."Hi daddy," her voice faltered as she addressed her father, putting the phone on speaker for the group to hear.
They all stopped to brace themselves for the call.
"Hey, thought I'd call, check in, see how things are going," Dr. Saltzman spoke over the phone and by his tone, they all knew that he was very much aware of their situation.
"So good," she lied, not so convincingly, and Hope nodded to signal to keep up the lie.
"Really? Define 'good', Lizzie, because I don't think that involves me tracking down Dana's body to the glove compartment," he fumed, his voice slowly getting louder as he lost his cool.
"Listen, Dad. It's fine. We cracked the case. It's a spider. But like, a big, huge, nasty spider. And MG's comic books know how to kill it," she defended confidently but failed to mention the creature's actual name.
Alex almost winced at her defence but made no comment.
"Comic books? Really?" he said in disbelief. "Lizzie, listen to me, whatever you're thinking of doing... don't, okay? So just tell me where you are and Matt and I will be right there. And where is Hope?" his voice sounded strained and quiet as if he was holding himself back from losing his composure again.
Alex's gaze turned to Hope's. "Why is he specifically asking for you?" she asked in a hushed tone but only received a shrug in return.
"I'm sorry, dad. You're going to have to trust me for once," she spoke confidently and hung up. "Let's do this."
~ * ~
Running towards the Old Mill where the Salvatore students had tracked the monster, the teenagers could hear the menacing screeches of a monster and screams of people within the building.
It instantly made the group pick up their pace. With Landon in the lead, he had 'heroically' picked up a loose pipe found on the grounds of the Mill and ran directly into the building.
"Landon stop!" Hope called out as he had stupidly ran straight to the monster without thinking.
Alex groaned internally and bolted right after him into the building as well. Although she immediately regretted doing so as she saw the arachne in its true form. A spider twice the size of her, towering over Josie and Rafael on the wooden support beams of the roof.
"Josie?!" she exclaimed as she spotted her friend stuck in the creature's web on the second floor. Her eyes darted towards Alex, and her mind was slowly beginning to ease as someone had finally found them, sighing in relief as she muttered a thank you.
With no time to spare, she pushed Landon back out of the building and snatched the pipe out of his hands.
"Just get back and stay with the others," she ordered with a glare and Landon didn't dare to challenge her as he back away from the building.
Alex used the pipe to make a substantial amount of noise to gain the attention of the aranche just before it had hurt Josie and Rafael. The creature peeled its several eyes away from the two caught in the web to the disturbance down below. It made a horrifying screeching noise and jumped down to her level.
She had managed to stall just long enough for Hope to catch up to her. The creature stared both of them down and it was then that they got a good look at the arachne. A sight that neither wanted to look at any longer.
"Go, me and the twins got it from here," she told Alex and she knew she wasn't needed for this part. She had no doubt that the witches could handle this monster problem.
Lizzie too had made it to them and she ran straight in to help Hope.
Alex ran back out of the building but occasionally looked back, worried for the girls' safety. She didn't even make it back to the group as she stopped in her tracks. Turning her body back to the Old Mill while she was in the open, the boys a few feet behind her.
The creature's shrieks could still be heard from where the rest of the group were anxiously waiting. But suddenly a loud explosion was heard and it was followed by silence.
Alex slowly stepped closer, becoming anxious and about to run right back into that building if she didn't see any of the witches within the next two seconds. But she couldn't even wait one, as she ran back into the Old Mill. Skipping over the entrance steps to see that they were all perfectly fine. Although they were covered in a strange orange translucent liquid that had seemingly come from the remains of the arachne.
The werewolf visibly relaxed and her shoulders sagged. She let out all of her pent up anxiety with an exhale and the girls turned to see that Alex had come to check up on them.
"You guys are okay," she sighed in relief as a smile crept to her face.
"I would hug you right now, but I don't think you'd appreciate it," Josie grinned as she tried to wipe away the mess on her face.
"Oh, I would not like to be in any of your shoes right now," Alex commented, disgusted by the orange sludge that covered the three.
Hope gave the girl a sour look and flicked her hand in her direction, causing some of the arachne's remains to fly onto her. Alex jumps away from Hope and the twins couldn't help but laugh.
~ * ~
With the arachne successfully killed, the Salvatore students were able to eliminate another threat. Although not without a casualty. Sasha had been found alive, also caught up in the arachne's web, but they couldn't say the same for Dana.
As soon as Dr. Saltzman and Sheriff Matt Donovan had found the students, the Headmaster reprimanded them for their reckless behaviour but was also grateful for their quick thinking. As one of his daughters could have been hurt if the rest weren't fast enough.
A neat little cover story had been made up thanks to the Sheriff so they could cover yet another supernatural occurrence that had led to the death of a townie. Sasha's mind had been wiped and everyone could resume their somewhat normal daily routine.
After Hope had left Lizzie and MG to deal with the townie, she decided on holding off going back to her dorm. With memories of dead loved ones on her mind, she couldn't bring herself to go back to the school.
Hope had no destination in mind and was walking aimlessly through the outskirts of the school. With the only source of light being the luminescent bloom of the crescent moon, she felt a tug within her heart. The cold air brushed gently against her skin, a shiver moving through her body so she hugged herself with the fabric of her grey cardigan.
She made sure to keep an eye on the ground, walking over any large branch or rock that she could potentially trip on. Hearing the faint crunch of the leaves beneath her shoes was the only prominent sound in the forest. The tribrid lost track of time. Could've only been minutes she had been walking, maybe an hour or two. But as she noticed a warm orange glow slowly becoming clearer in her peripheral, her gaze shifted to the source.
By coincidence, she had travelled through the forest and had ended up back at the Old Mill. It was strange for the lights to be on at this time of night. It piqued her interest and curiosity got the better of her. Now, with more purpose, she continued walking.
Hope walked up the creaky wooden stairs and entered the building. Inside, any remains of the arachne were now gone and the lights were hung back up. It was like the day's events didn't even happen. On the second floor, she saw a silhouette of a figure. The figure's head snapped at the sound and they had turned around, coming closer to the edge and looked over the railing to see who it was.
"Didn't expect to find you here," Hope remarked softly as she recognised it was Alex who she had found.
Alex was still wearing the clothes from their 'exchange program'. Being lucky enough to not have to deal with arachne remains, although it seemed as though she hadn't even gone back to the Salvatore School. Instead deciding to spend her time trying to return the Old Mill to the way it was before.
Alex didn't respond but smiled. She stopped what she was doing to give Hope her full attention. Putting her arms over to lean on the railing just next to the stairs.
"How'd it go with Sasha?" she asked, bringing an arm up so she could rest her head on it.
"She'll be grieving. But I think she'll be alright," Hope sighed as she looked at the interior of the building, noticing how much work must have gone into fixing the place up.
The tribrid walked further into the building, kicking the stray pieces of wood from a broken chair out of the way. The same chair that had succumbed to Rafael's rage earlier that day. Making her way closer to where Alex was but stopped right at the foot of the stairs.
"And what about you?" Alex spoke in a quieter tone.
Hope looked up to Alex. Crossing her arms over her chest to occupy her hands. "Hm? What do you mean?"
"Are you alright?" the werewolf reworded.
Hope didn't respond right away. Unsure how to reply to her. Even though it was a simple question, she hesitated. "Why do you ask?"
"You have that look on your face and you are out here in the middle of the night," she teased. The corner of Hope's lip upturned slightly. "What look? And hey, you're out here too."
Alex smiled but brushed off the comment. "Something is troubling you. It's written all over your face," she uttered more seriously, her smile changing to one of concern.
Hope looked down at her feet and shrugged. Unsure how to respond.
"Do you wanna talk about it? You don't have to, just an offer," she pushed off the railing and sat down at the top of the stairs.
Hope considered the offer for a moment. The two shared a look but Hope's gaze drifted off to the side. Contemplating whether or not to tell her.
Alex kept her eyes on Hope, watching the way her eyes looked away, how her lips parted slightly as if she was going to say something.
The Mikaelson looked back and sighed. Without giving a clear answer, she walked up the stairs and sat next to Alex. Hope kept her eyes down at her lap and she rubbed the palm of her hand with her thumb.
Alex was patient and didn't try to sway her further into talking. Rather just sitting in silence with her as thoughts were swimming through Hope's head.
What Hope learned about Alex was that she was very easy to get along with. She learned that while Alex appreciated a good conversation, she also enjoyed a comfortable silence. It made it easy for Hope. Living in the supernatural world, nothing was certain. So it was moments like these where she was grateful for Alex's company. She kicked herself for not getting to know her sooner.
"Something Lizzie had said when MG was compelling Sasha. It just... put me off. It made me think about my parents. My family," she spoke quietly, her voice showing signs of uncertainty, wondering if she was going to regret saying anything.
Alex didn't know what she was comfortable with, so she opted with just listening. Making sure Hope knew that she had her full attention. Alex nudged her knee softly with her own. A simple action, yet it meant a lot to Hope. It made her feel reassured and like she was being truly listened to.
"I've become very familiar with the concept of death and losing a loved one. I'm sure you've heard the stories about my family. It's hard to miss if you stay at this school long enough," she gave a humourless laugh and glanced at Alex, but quickly looked back down at the stairs in front of her. "At that moment, it made me realise how Lizzie had no idea what that felt like. It made me feel isolated and alone... more than ever," Hope confessed and kept her eyes down at her lap.
Alex didn't respond right away, rather, letting her words sink in fully and thought of what to say before just blurting something out randomly.
For a moment, Hope felt self-conscious next to her. Wondering if she had said something wrong, or if she didn't truly care about what she was saying. But those thoughts were quickly stopped as she felt Alex nudge her knee again and instead keeping the minimal contact rather than pulling away.
Hope's gaze fell to Alex's once more and she saw the empathetic look on her face instead of a sympathetic one she had grown used to growing up.
Alex smiled as reassurance and sighed softly as a way to compose her thoughts. "I know it's a really basic thing to say to someone, but... you're not alone. I'm not too familiar with your story, Hope Mikaelson. I don't know what experiences you've faced or struggles you've gone through," she began and paused for a moment. Making sure not to ramble to the point where nothing she said made sense. "Sure, I've heard a whisper here and there, but I don't really know. What I do know though, is what it feels like to lose a loved one. I know it's a different kind of hurt, and that hurt is something that stays with you and never goes away. You never know what it feels like until you experience it. It's complicated and messy and you'll never be the same again. It becomes a dull ache in your heart that tugs at it every time you're reminded of it... I don't know you, Hope Mikaelson. Not really. I haven't gotten the chance to yet. But you're not alone," Alex spoke softly and sincerely. Taking great care with her wording and Hope's feelings so that she made her feel safe and comforted.
Hope began to tear up at the small speech. She was afraid if she responded, she would end up breaking into tears. She couldn't bring herself to look Alex in the eye because she knew she would break in an instant.
From beside her, Alex caught a glimpse of a faint smile and she was satisfied with that. She didn't need anything from Hope. She was just glad that she could help in some way.
Hope fiddled with her hands that rested in her lap. The tribrid struggled to utter a simple 'thank you' as she knew if she said anything, she would stumble on her words. So she rested her head against Alex's shoulder. A non-verbal 'thank you'.
The two were now sitting closer than ever and both were content. No more words needed to be said. A comfortable silence was shared between the two girls. Hope felt at peace in Alex's presence. Her mind and heart were at ease. And right now, that was exactly what she needed.