Don't let the mummy have the urn
Hope wakes up and sits up on the bench she slept on, looking at Sosuke's sleeping form with relief and guilt.
Wordlessly she makes her way out of the gym and heads back to her room, only to see Alaric waiting in front of her door.
Hearing footsteps approaching the headmaster turns towards Hope and sees her disheveled form with red eyes and streaks on her face from crying.
"What happened to you?" He asks her worried, as she comes over and lets them into her room.
"I had a late night conversation with Landon and Sosuke. I had to tell them about Kansas. and the results were unfavorable." She tells her father figure heavy-heartedly.
"I'm sorry. And to think I have to stack up on the bad news... A slug got to me and I tossed the urn into a river." Alaric confesses depressed
"But I thought we made sure no slug was left." She says drained, flopping face down onto her bed.
"We missed one." Alaric sighs, sitting down on the bed next to her feet.
"So, do you want to talk about what happened with the boys?" Alaric asks, patting her leg.
"Landon hates me now. Sosuke didn't seem that fazed, but I think he's mad too. But at least things between us will be OK. It will probably take a while before Landon even speaks to me again." Hope answers into her pillow, hugging it to her chest as she does so.
"And you? Are you relieved? At least this way the choice is easier, right?" Alaric asks.
"Just because Landon is hurt, that doesn't make my feelings for him disappear." Hope replies.
"So, there is no bright side?" Alaric asks and receives a head shake no.
"I'm going to get Dorian and Sosuke to help me look for the urn where I tossed it into the water. Do you think you're feeling up to helping as well?" Alaric asks Hope.
"No." She admits honestly.
"OK. Then you take your time today and rest. Any idea where I can find Sosuke?" Alaric asks.
"Gym. We slept on the bleachers." Hope answers and proceeds to curl up into a ball on her bed while the headmaster leaves.
In the late afternoon Alaric, Dorian and Sosuke are standing on the bridge Alaric tossed the urn off the night before, having just finished their search but came up empty.
"I really screwed up on this one." Alaric sighs.
"It's on all of us." Sosuke says, shaking his head, wearing only swimming trunks while Dorian is wearing a wetsuit.
"Since when are you so supportive?" Alaric asks shocked.
"It's a newly acquired outlook on life." Sosuke answers.
"I need to study some maps. On where this river leads." Alaric says, deciding on their next step.
"Fine you do that. Now can we get back? I still haven't slept for more than 3 hours at a time." Sosuke asks, stretching his back.
"Yeah. And thanks for your help. I know timing wise, you probably have your hands full with another issue. And yes I haven't forgotten about your week off with Emma." Alaric tells Sosuke and then Dorian when the man is about to chime in.
"Good. So once we have the urn, I'm on vacation mode." Dorian tells them, the three getting into the truck and Alaric drives them back to school.
"I will keep you posted. We'll probably head out early tomorrow morning again." Alaric tells the two men who are grabbing their stuff out of the car, Dorian his diving gear and Sosuke his bag with clothes.
"Alright." Sosuke sighs, the constant chain of events hammering away at his endurance.
Sosuke heads straight to his room, only for Lizzie to follow him at seeing him walk through the school half naked.
"Finally some sleep." Sosuke groans, opening his door and drinks in the sight of his bed with glee.
"Not so fast. I'm still mad at you." Lizzy tells Sosuke, appearing behind him suddenly.
"So? I really don't care." Sosuke tells her and tries to close his door only for Lizzie to block it with her foot.
"You can't run away from me. You know I was right with what I told you." Lizzie yells annoyed but Sosuke pushes her foot out of the way and slams the door shut, the blonde only hearing the turning of a key afterwards.
"That... Gah! I can't believe him." Lizzie curses angrily.
"Just leave him alone OK? He's been through enough these past weeks. He doesn't need a bitchy blonde breathing down his neck as well." Hope tells Lizzie, stepping out of her room still looking like hell.
"As if you care. And why do you look like that? Auditioning for the role of a troll?" Lizzie insults Hope.
"Just leave him be." Hope says exhausted and heads back into her room and seeks the comfort of her bed.
|The next morning|
"Seriously?" Sosuke asks, arriving at the chosen transportation for the trip to the presumed location of the urn and looks at an uncomfortable looking van.
"Yes seriously." Alric tells the teen, patting his shoulder and Sosuke sees Josie, Lizzie, Kaleb and Hope already sitting in the car while Dorian and Emma are packing stuff in the trunk.
"This is not a good idea." Sosuke tells the headmaster, pulling him to the side.
"Ah don't think too much on it. It'll be fun." Alaric replies with a nervous smile.
"Look ignoring the fact that Lizzie wants to kill me, I can not sit anywhere near Hope or I'll fry us all." Sosuke reminds the man, Hope sitting right in the middle of the car.
"Uh you're right." He realizes the potential for disaster.
"I got this." Alaric tells Sosuke confidentially and the teen watches as Alaric gets Kaleb to go in the middle while Hope goes on the passenger seat.
Minutes later the group of 8 start to head out on their long road trip with Sosuke sitting next to Dorian in the very back, behind Josie.
"I don't know what you were all complaining about. See we all fit." Alaric says as he's driving and looks at the others through the rearview mirror.
"Why is Hope sitting up front now?" Lizzie all but yells annoyed by what she thinks is preferential treatment.
"That is a long story." Alaric says shaking his head hoping not to get into it.
"Well we have time don't we?" Lizzie replies instantly.
"I made the call. So just drop it." Sosuke answers and gets glared at in return by the blonde witch while Hope starts thinking Sosuke is really angry at her afterall about her lying.
"Let's just make the best of it alright?" Alaric says hoping to move on from the issue.
"No. I see what you're doing dad. You're giving your star pupils preferential treatment over your own sweet daughters." Lizzie complains.
"Uhm can I switch with one of y'all?" Kaleb asks the three in the back already annoyed by Lizzie.
"No switching. And it's not preferential treatment. This is a call made for the safety of all involved." Alaric says calmly.
"Hah, nice story as if." Lizzie replies annoyed.
"Fine. The truth then. If Hope sits too close to Sosuke he might turn us all into a pile of ash by accident. There, happy?" Alaric tells his daughter annoyed.
"Very." Lizzie says with a gleam in her eyes, looking back and forth between Sosuke and Hope as the girl looks back at Sosuke from her seat up front, hoping it's because he fears getting turned on and not that he thinks he'd get angry.
"So you two are on a rocky path. I knew it. Must be because Hope only has eyes for Landon." Lizzie says, trying to get a rise out of them.
"Lizzie. Stop." Alaric chimes in when he sees Hope turn back to the road depressed.
"Come on daddy, I'm just pointing out the obvious." the blonde replies.
"Would y'all shut up now? I can not handle 6 hours of white people bickering." Kaleb yells, snapping and shutting Lizzie up for a bit.
Over the long drive there is a lot of fighting caused by Lizzie between her and Hope
The blonde referencing to Hope always ruining spring break and starting fires. Other than the complaining Alaric chimes in for annoying road trip sing-alongs and Josie keeps throwing up once an hour because she's car sick.
"I dread the drive back." Sosuke says, stretching his limbs once they are out of the car, parking in front of the river leading to a damn. But Alaric said to look here because of the terrain instead of at the damn itself.
"Alright while you're looking for the urn. We're gonna head to town and see if we come across any more mini plagues." Alaric says, bug related events having happened all along the river since He tossed the urn inside it according to his research.
"So, how are you doing?" Sosuke asks Hope, walking over to her after she distanced herself and is looking out at the large river.
"As can be expected I guess." She sighs.
"In the car. Did you need space because you are pissed at me or because of the other thing?" Hope asks, turning to look at him.
"The other thing. Even this way there was a close call." He says embarrassed, scratching his cheek.
"You're kidding right?" She says.
"Just don't toss clothes you take off randomly in my face... they smell nice." He confesses embarrassed.
"OK. I won't do it again." She says smiling amused, noticing that this is probably her first smile in the past 2 days.
Everyone but Dorian then gets back into the car and they drive into town.
"Alright. Everyone just look around. We'll spit up into two teams. Kaleb you're coming with me and Emma. You four get along and try to work out whatever is going on before we have to drive back?" Alaric requests.
"Great, we're stuck with Ken and Barbie." Lizzie complains when Hope and Sosuke move over to the twins, Alaric and his group all but making a run for it.
"Cause you are such great company?" Hope shoots back.
"I don't even know what your issue is this time? So I'm in love with Hope. Why should you care?" Sosuke asks Lizzy nonchalantly.
"I care because everyone always chooses her over me." Lizzie says annoyed.
"Can we not discuss this?" Josie asks, hoping to restore peace in the group.
"Yeah I'd prefer we not talk about this." Hope agrees with her arms crossed uncomfortable about the topic.
"Fine." Lizzie agrees unhappily when her sister looks at her pleadingly.
"But we're not done talking about how you ruined our spring break before." Lizzie adds with a scoff and gets out of the car.
"What is she talking about?" Hope asks Josie, but the twin remains silent while feeling guilty and shrugs her shoulders.
"So, what exactly are we looking for? Plague sounds ominous but not really specific to me." Sosuke asks, looking at Josie, the three stepping out of the car as well and following Lizzie who is already strutting off to god knows where.
"No idea. Let's ask around if the locals can think of anything unusual going on around here." Hope suggests, nodding to multiple small groups of people scattered over the town.
"Anything to get a break from you." Lizzie accepts and is the first to go, chatting up a group of guys their age.
"figures." Josie says quietly.
"Everything good between you and your sister?" Hope asks, Sosuke splitting off to talk to some elderly people sitting at a cafe.
A handful minutes later the four reconvene at a fountain in the center of town.
"All I learned is that this town has the biggest ball of yarn in the country." Josie says.
"Same." Sosuke says nodding.
"There seems nothing interesting going on. Do you think your dad was wrong?" Hope asks.
"Who knows. He's desperate to find the urn and our hopes of finding it seem to be going up in smoke." Lizzy says glaring at Hope accusingly.
"Wait. Are you passive-agressively referring to that fire in my dorm room three years ago?" Hope asks accusingly.
"You mean the one you set on purpose to sabotage our spring break trip with our dad?" Lizzie replies.
"It's official. You lost it." Hope tells the blonde, shaking her head.
"The only thing we lost was a week of quality family time. Dad had to cancel the trip to deal with the damage. Well done." Lizzie says still accusing Hope.
"You guys are just talking about ancient history." Josie says hoping to change the subject.
"Oww. Something stung me." She then yelps, grabbing her arm.
"Eww." Hope and Lizzie say simultaneously when Josie pulls up her sleeve and a red boil is on Josie's arm.
"I don't like this." Sosuke says, looking around and suddenly people all around start screaming in fear while a swarm of insects can be seen making its way through the street.
The four see Alaric, Kaleb and Emma get into the car in time as insects were coming at them from their street too.
"This feels plague-y." Hope says.
"It's plague-y." Josie agrees.
"We're kind of stuck in the middle here." Sosuke tells them, moving backwards with insects coming from every side.
They back up against a wall slowly and Sosuke turns to the three girls, Josie and Lizzy standing behind Hope on either side, with the tribrid protectively standing between them.
"Damn. No promises this'll work." Sosuke says and three tendrils shoot out of his fingers, connecting to each girl's arm while he leans against the wall, his hands on either side of the group.
"Come on." He mumbles to himself with closed eyes, trying to force his lightning shield to happen.
After he got stung two times already he suddenly feels Hope kissing him and a wave of electricity comes out of his body, spreading out over a good 50 meters at least with the insects falling to the floor dead and or burned to a crisp.
"How did you figure that'd work?" Sosuke asks Hope, staring her in the eyes while forgetting about the twins.
"Hello? Could you let us out already." Lizzie complains and pushes Hope away, the brunette falling into Sosuke's arms with him catching her.
"Thank you." Josie thanks Sosuke before going after her sister, over to their car.
"Are you OK?" Hope asks him gently, her hand feeling the two bulges on his shoulder and neck where he got stung.
"Yeah. I'm great. So how did you know?" Sosuke asks her again.
"I didn't. I just trusted you and there was no time to use a spell anyways." Hope says with a cute smile and a small blush on her cheeks while stroking over his cheek, their eyes still firmly locked.
"Get away from each other. Or do you want to cause a blackout in the whole town?" Alaric tells them hurrying over.
Hope quickly steps out of Sosuke's arms and nods, embarrassedly following their headmaster.
"What now dad?" Josie asks.
"I'm not sure..." Alaric says only for a crew of people in hazmat suits and buses to drive into town and load up the citizens.
"There is no way this is a coincidence. They are far too well equipped and fast to be first responders." Alaric says suspicious of their help.
"We'll go check it out. But be on guard." Alaric tells them and the seven of them go along with the other citizens, coming up and a fake story of why they are in town though when they have to register with someone.
As they are walking into the tent covered area Hope recognizes one of the supervisors standing around as the very same gas company worker they talked to in Kansas but doesn't show that she recognized him.
"Don't look, but that guy over there was at Seylah's house when we were in Kansas pretending to be there for a fake gas leak. What do you think he's doing here?" Hope tells Alaric as he's getting some water from a cooler.
"I don't know but probably the same thing we are. Trying to cover this thing up. There are groups like that all over the globe. I'm guessing they were tracking the same activity we were." Alaric replies looking over at the man quickly.
"They have an awful lot of artillery too and diving gear." Hope says in realization and both she and Alaric can see a group of armed men load up a van.
"They're after the urn." Alaric agrees concerned.
At the river an hour or so later Dorian runs into the same men who try to get him to give them the urn he just fished out of the river.
The men are promptly taken down by a swarm of insects however with a mummy then going to Dorian and taking the urn out of his hands before disappearing again.
Dorian however still gets captured by the one man who was still inside the car watching everything with shock.
at the medical camp later on Josie and Sosuke got treated for the boils which already start to heal. Alaric just pulled Kaleb to the side, asking him to get one of the phones the staff took from them so he can check in with Dorian when seconds later the same guy Hope identified earlier starts talking to Alaric.
"Hey, who is that guy?" Josie asks, seeing her father talking to the man tensely.
"This creep we met in Kansas while you were in Europe." Hope answers, Sosuke looking surprised.
"He never saw you." She tells him shaking her head at the unasked question.
"Why were you in Kansas? Oh wait let me guess, it involved you insinuating yourself into a situation where only you could be the hero." Lizzie says dramatically.
"As a matter of fact, yeah." Hope replies snarkily.
"I swear to god, you will do anything to get attention." Lizzie complains annoyed.
"Said the narcissist." Hope replies.
"Said the... other narcissist." Lizzie comes back awkwardly.
"OK guys can you please just stop?" Josie complains.
"Om fine. You know what, Let's talk about it. Maybe I was jealous and wanted what you had. A simple day with my family. I lost half of my stuff in that fire including the only painting I had of me and my dad. Why would I do that to myself?" Hope asks emotionally.
"Hope? Do you have a minute?" Alaric asks coming over to the group which fell into silence after Hope's confession and nods to the fake agent watching them.
"Yeah. Sosuke comes too." Hope agrees and grabs Sosuke's hand, pulling him with her as they go talk to the sketchy guy.
"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 Jessica..." The agent named Clarke tells them.
"It's Hope actually." Hope interrupts.
"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 and you have a terrific reputation." Clarke tells him.
"Leave the school out of this." Alaric warns him.
"Hey, I applaud your school's mission. Makes my work easier anyways if you do your job right." Clarke says.
"So why are we still here then?" Alaric questions.
"Well, I have an entire town that needs to forget what they've seen today. You know usually it's convincing a handful of people at most. This is a completely different scale and frankly we could use the assistance of a vampire. I noticed the daylight ring on your daughter's boyfriend..." Clarke says.
"Why not call it a freak swarm of bugs? Why erase it from memory?" Hope asks and notices Sosuke stiffening tensely at this.
"Because someone else might recognize them for what they are. Harbingers." Clarke answers.
"Of what?" Hope asks and takes Sosuke's hand gently, rubbing her thumb over the back of it when he's still as tense as can be.
"Seriously? This is obviously the work of a mummy." Clarke tells them.
"See, I told you." Alaric tells Hope with a victorious smirk.
"One of our drivers survived an attack by the river. He's been tracking the mummy ever since. It's still on the outskirts of town. But it's heading right at us." Clarke informs them.
"We are a cleanup organization OK? We're not equipped to go to battle with a mummy." Clarke tells them.
"So... Will you help? Cut him off and keep all these people safe?" Clarke asks.
"These are kids." Alaric says shaking his head no.
"Kids with magic. In a town full of innocents without it." Clarke replies.
"We'd be happy to help." Hope agrees.
"I'm gonna need my weapons." Alaric then tells Clarke.
"Of course. Gather what you need. Round up your friends. My team can help you with everything else." Clarke says and starts to walk away.
"Mind telling me why you volunteered us?" Alaric asks Hope once Clarke is gone.
"I know you two don't remember our trip to Kansas. But that field 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 tells the two men, releasing Sosuke's hand and facing the two and shows them the company card Clarke gave her earlier.
The group then comes together in a strategy meeting where Alarix fills Josie, Lizzie and Kaleb in on the details of Malivore as well as the mummy heading their way.
They plot the mummy's course, assuming it will head directly to Malivore and pick an intercept point.
Emma goes looking for Dorian and Kaleb has to compel the locals to forget about what happened, as well as compel one of the TRIAD members into stealing the urn for them once they retrieve it.
So half an hour later Alaric, Sosuke, Hope,Josie and Lizzie are walking down the mainstreet of the town. Alaric armed with his crossbow while Sosuke has Keylah's sword in a sheath on his hip and a gun in a holster on the other side.
"Some people find it helps to clear their conscience before heading into battle." Lizzie remarks as the five are walking down the street, Alaric up front, Sosuke in the back while the witches plus one tribrid are walking in the middle.
"No one's stopping you." Hope answers.
"Now's not the time." Josie tells the two girls.
"It's always time for truth." Lizzie disagrees.
"Last chance Hope. If you didn't start that fire to keep us from going, then why were you so mean to me after?" Lizzy asks upset.
"Girls quiet back there please, take this seriously."
"I wasn't mean to you. You were mean to me." Hope replies.
"Because you were telling people about my episode." Lizzie says.
"Your what?" Hope asks confused.
"My episode! The one I had when our trip got canceled and you told everyone that I was witch bipolar." Lizzy says accusingly.
"I would never do that." Hope protests shocked.
"Guys seriously, what's even the point of talking ..." Josie tries to stop them.
"Just drop the act Hope. I had my first occurrence. My mom took me away to get help and you decided to use it against me." Lizzie says angrily.
"I didn't even know. I swear I would never do that." Hope replies upset.
"Guys. We have a 7 foot tall visitor." Sosuke interrupts from behind them and the girls look in front of them where a mummy is walking toward them slowly, a green glow coming from its chest while it carries the urn in one hand.
"So what's the plan? Do we rush it?" Lizzie asks.
"It's seven feet tall. We stand our ground here." Alaric says, aiming his bow at the monster.
"OK. Then get behind us dad." Josie says.
"I can't do that. I have to protect you all." Alaric refuses.
"No offense but you and your crossbow are kind of manspread in front of three powerful witches." Hope tells him.
"OK, good point." He says, moving behind them next to Sosuke.
"Can I try..." Sosuke tries to ask, but Hope cuts him off with a sharp "No."
"What do you think a mummy can do to hurt us?" Josie asks.
"I think we're about to find out." Hope replies and the mummy stops maybe 10 meters away from them and breathes out a swarm of wasps.
With a shout of "Bulla." the three witches, now holding hands so the twins can siphon magic from Hope, erect a barrier around them and the two men behind them.
"Do we rush it now?" Lizzy asks.
"Not yet." Hope answers, shaking her head.
"On three." Hope says after a suspenseful break and starts counting up. After she got to three though she goes down on her knees and start vomiting beetles while the mummy has its hand pointed at her and then moves over to Lizzie who also starts to feel bugs crawl up her throat.
Sosuke quickly grabs Josie's hand so she can siphon him. She gives him a quick nod and casts a spell protecting her from whatever the mummy is doing to Lizzie and Hope. Once she's protected she uses a fire spell, a large ball of fire hovering above her hand and she blows against it, what can only be described as a wall of fire incinerating the mummy moments later, it's amulet and the urn dropping to the street with a 'ding' sound each as they land in a pile of ash.
"Worst spring break ever." Lizzie complains her mood as foul as ever.
"You OK?" Sosuke asks Hope, helping her to her feet and she continues to cough a few more times before nodding with a hoarse "yes."
"Sosuke. You really have a lot of energy in you." Josie tells the boy surprised.
"Another perk of my 'rebirth' I guess." He says air quoting rebirth.
"Can we go now?" Lizzy asks annoyed and starts heading back with a frown.
"Yeah. I'll get those." Alaric says, picking up the Mummies amulet and the urn before the group heads back to the medical camp.
"You never told me. Did you really die?" Hope asks Sosuke, the two walking shoulder to shoulder with Josie walking on the other side of Hope with more distance between them.
"I don't know myself. All I remember is passing out against that tree and getting hit by lightning." Sosuke says, making her chuckle softly.
"I guess lightning did strike twice." She tells him.
"Crybaby." She then adds with a teasing smile and starts running away with him rushing after complaining "I'm not a crybaby! I was sensitive to electricity."
Alaric looks after them with a small smile himself.
"What is it dad?" Josie asks surprised.
"I have just rarely seen Hope like that. Happy." He says and Josie looks at Hope again who's sticking her tongue out at Sosuke as he gives chase after the faster girl who uses her werewolf speed to her advantage.
Another half hour later the group is standing at their car with Kaleb. Trying not to stand out while they are waiting to put the second part of Alaric's plan to action, waiting for the mummy to rise again and then let the person Kaleb compelled steal the urn in the chaos while they break the mummies curse with Josie and Lizzie siphoning the Amulet which Kaleb steals from the mummy with his super speed.
The plan went off without a hitch until shortly after receiving the urn from the compelled agent headlights light up behind their van and Emma as well as Dorian get lead out of a hummer at gunpoint.
"I'm impressed. I almost hate to take it off you. But my team found your wife looking for Dorian. We thought the two of them would provide some nice leverage in case things went wrong." Clarke says, walking Emma and Dorian over while his TRIAD men still have their guns at the ready.
Alaric sighs and holds out the urn to Clarke while saying "Let them go."
Clarke accepts the urn and promptly leaves with his men.
Dorian and Emma get in the back next to Sosuke again, while Kaleb is riding up front and the three girls are in the middle, Hope sitting between the twins.
By the time their car pulls out of the town Dorian, Emma and Kaleb appear to be fast asleep.
"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 grandfather like mine, 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." Hope tells Lizzie softly, looking at the girl with complete honesty.
"I believe you." Lizzie accepts this after a short pause.
"What I don't get is why anyone would accuse me of did you hear it from?" Hope asks and Lizzie looks over to Josie who looks at them guiltily with Hope to shocked to say anything. And a heavy silence falls over the rest of the car ride with the three girls falling asleep one after another.
Up until halfway to their home Sosuke suddenly starts glowing slightly.
"Don't tell me?" Alaric asks worried, looking back at him while pulling over.
Sosuke quickly gets out of the car and seconds later a loud bang wakes everyone up.
"What happened?" Emma asks, everyone looking around.
"Nothing. Just go back to sleep." Alaric says half chuckling.
"Where's Sosuke?" Josie asks, the teen sitting behind her missing.
"Excuse me." Hope says, getting out of Lizzie's side and goes looking for the brunette teen.
"If I shoot it into the air there's no evidence." Sosuke says chuckling as if having a revelation.
"aside from this." She says, sitting down next to him and strokes over his visible chest lightly before quickly pulling her hand back with a quiet "Sorry."
"Yeah. I should try guiding it through my arms maybe." Sosuke agrees with a sigh, holding his hands up towards the sky from his spot on the floor and a small crackle of lightning shoots out of his palms.
"You can think about that later. Come on, we don't want to keep Dr. Saltzman waiting." Hope says.
"You drive." Alaric tells Sosuke, the teacher now sitting between his daughters while Hope gets into the back besides Emma with a small smile on her lips.
"Seriously dude?" Kaleb asks, chuckling at the sight of Sosuke's ruined shirt.
"Shut up." Sosuke chuckles, shaking his head.
"What are we missing?" Josie asks quietly.
"Doesn't matter. Get some sleep girls." Alaric replies and hugs his daughters against his side while Sosuke starts to drive, soon after being the only one left awake until he pulls up to their home in the middle of the night.
"Kaleb." He says, poking the vampire awake before doing the same for all of the passengers.
The group then heads inside before splitting up.
Alaric sees Kaleb head to the kitchen and follows him. Seeing the young man drinking from a bag of blood with gusto.
"Kaleb. I wanted to thank you for today. You really showed me what you're made of." Alaric says, the vampire turning to him and stopping his meal.
"Then can I be real with you?" Kaleb asks.
"Of course." Alaric replies.
"You know, whether it's Clarke or a monster who's coming next. We all need access to our full powers. I mean all I did today was compel a few people and I'm out of steam. I need real blood. The witches need offensive magic. I respect you and what you're trying to do here. But the times are different now Dr. S. so the rules should be too." Kaleb tells him wisely.
After his talk with Kaleb Alaric goes looking for Dorian and wants to apologize for ruining his getaway, but doesn't get much of a chance when Dorian punches him in the face and leaves saying "I quit." after having just learned about Alaric kissing Emma when she was slug-drunk.
Meanwhile at the twin's room the girls are getting ready for bed.
"Why would you drive a wedge between me and Hope? Why lie?" Lizzy asks her sister.
"I was gonna ask the same thing." Hope chimes in, standing in their doorframe
"I didn't just lie. I started the fire. Lizzie had made some remark about me being obsessed with you. And I just blurted out 'How could I be obsessed with somebody who would say such mean things about my twin?'" Josie confesses to Hope.
"But I didn't." Hope says upset.
"I know. I just made it up." Josie admits.
"Why?" Hope asks distraught, always having thought that Josie was her friend of the two sisters.
"Because I didn't want Lizzie to know the truth. I had a crush on you. I slipped a note into your room that morning and... I don't know, immediately regretted it. But I couldn't get in by then. So I did a fire spell under your door. I was really only aiming for the note." Josie apologizes regretfully.
"Why would it matter that I knew?" Lizzie asks confused.
"Because my whole life. Any time I've ever liked anyone, you go for them. And you always win." Josie tells her sister.
"You had a crush on me?" Hope says, letting the explanation sink in.
"Of course I did. Who wouldn't?" Josie answers, Hope and her having just a miniscule smile playing on their lips.
After the emotional conversation with the twins Hope heads to her room, stopping in front of it for a moment. Instead of going inside, Hope steps over to Sosuke's door and knocks softly. Hearing no reply she uses her magic to open the door.