nightmares

Once the four are back home at the school Hope talks to Alaric in private and tells him everything, hiding the urn herself this time though. And asks him for his opinion, if she should tell Sosuke or Landon.

The headmaster doesn't offer a suggestion and tells her it's entirely her choice.

"Hey one more thing I am unsure about." Hope says, before leaving the office.

"Yes?" Alaric asks.

"When Sosuke was high on pain meds... He said he loves me. That was just cooky talk right? He was delusional from the meds?" Hope asks Alaric.

"I'm afraid not." Alaric tells her, squeezing her shoulder supportively before leading her out of the room, hoping to avoid talking about Hope's love life, seeing her as a third daughter.

After her talk with their headmaster, Hope heads to Landon's room without even knowing why or what she's gonna say and knocks on his door.

" Raf here? Should I come back another time?" She asks softly, stepping inside while Landon is putting the school clothes he got in drawers.

"No. We just had our reunion. He's now working out with the wolves." Landon replies with a grin and sits down on his bed.

"And I was just putting away the new clothes I got and thinking about how I'm probably never gonna meet the woman in that picture, which I seem to have lost as well." Landon says heavy-heartedly.

"Not knowing her doesn't make you any less of a good person." Hope tells him, hoping the topic.

"Thanks." He says with a slight grin.

"Soo, you came to help me." He says looking at her while she sits down next to him on his bed.

"Yeah of course." She says.

"Too bad I lost the bracelet too. I liked it." Landon says, rubbing the wrist it was on.

"I could make you a new one." She offers.

"Oh? Thinking I'm going to need more rescuing?" Landon asks jokingly.

"Probably." She says smirking while he leans in closer and kisses her after a dawn out moment of suspense.

Hope eagerly returns the kiss, pushing him down on the bed and straddling him while their hands explore each other's bodies over their clothes.

"So... I have a question for you." He says, clearing his throat happily.

"Do you want to be my girlfriend?" He asks her, staring her into the eyes and Hope freezes, pulling back from her place on top of him, sitting down next to him normally.

"If you had asked me this 2 days ago I would have said yes instantly." She admits.

"And now?" He asks surprised she didn't say yes after the kiss they just shared.

"I need more time." She says nervously.

"I am really happy that you're back and when I'm with you... it's great. But there is also something else I need to resolve first before I can answer you honestly and it may take some time." Hope confesses.

"I see. Well, when you have made a decision, tell me. Until then, can I kiss you again?" Landon asks and after a small pause she nods with a wide smile and Landon captures her lips again.

The next day Hope is lurking around the woods, looking for Sosuke to watch him secretly and finds him at his favorite training spot. She uses a spell to make her invisible and gets closer quietly.

"Alright, no one around, let's do this." Sosuke says to himself, rolling his shoulder while he's standing shirtless in front of a tree which has some of its bark missing.

"How did I do it before?" Sosuke asks himself and repeats the hand actions he blew up the headmaster's door the other day, but nothing happens.

"Shit." He curses after trying this a couple of times.

"Alright. Think about Hope... No bad idea that way I would only be a loose cannon." He says thinking aloud, walking around his training area.

"Maybe if I shock myself I'll know?" Sosuke asks himself.

"But I'm staying away from the house so I don't blow it up, so that's not gonna happen." He murmurs.

"Argh. Why am I so useless!" He shouts, punching the tree he was facing before and punches a hole through it.

"Great. Now I even have to watch out that I don't kill someone when I give them a hug." He sighs defeated, leaning his head against the tree.

"Man I miss the time I didn't have to worry about hurting anyone. It really is easier to be on the defensive." He says, sitting down on one of the logs he uses as weights and closes his eyes to think.

Hope leaves at that point and heads back to the school, not having gained any insight to her feelings for the changed Sosuke.

"So did you tell them?" Alaric asks when Hope enters his office that evening, looking lost in thought.

"No. I couldn't. Landon deserves to be happy and not have to mourn his mother without ever remembering meeting her." Hope says.

"And Sosuke?" The headmaster asks.

"I can't really tell him anything about what happened with him after he got stabbed anyways. We threw caution to the wind and abandoned him at the motel, alone and hurt. Another one of my brilliant ideas." She answers with a guilty sigh.

"You got answers for us." Alaric points out, hoping it'd cheer her up.

"Yeah. But we could have lost him! Aren't you going to punish me for being reckless again?" She replies.

"I think you're punishing yourself too much." Alaric says.

"You're just saying that because you don't remember how bad he was hurt." Hope says, shaking her head.

"Fine, how should I punish you?" Alaric asks.

"It doesn't matter. The worst thing is though, despite how guilty I feel for all of this. I'm not with him right now helping him understand his powers, when I know he needs help." Hope says bitterly.

"Why not?" Alaric asks simply, rolling his eyes as he's looking away from her. Having enough girl-talk problems with his actual daughters.

"Because I can't even look him in the eyes anymore. We never lied. Not to each other and now I'm holding these giant secrets and I don't want ro tell him so I'd have to lie to him all day." Hope says.

"You lied to Landon and that worked out."Alaric remarks.

"But Landon and I don't have so much history. I always thought that Sosuke and work together so well because we always agreed on this one thing. No lies." Hope tells him.

"Well there is also his infatuation with you and willingness to do anything for you." Alaric reminds her.

"Thanks." Hope almost hisses in return, the headmaster only making things harder in her mind.

"Well I am going to stop you right there. For I am not the guidance counselor. So, where is the Urn?" Alaric asks.

"I'm not sure I should tell you." Hope says while Alaric puts away some books.

"Excuse me?" He asks, taken aback.

"Isn't it safer if only one of us knows where it is?" She asks.

"Then that one should be the adult." Alaric tells her.

"You see, and I think it should be the one with high-level superpowers." She replies with a smirk.

"But what do we tell everyone else? We should warn them, before some monster crashes the exam week." Hope says.

"It's usually best to start with some form of the truth. The trick always is giving everyone the right amount of information without giving away too much. We've been through this with the knife, so it shouldn't come as too much of a shock. And this is the time we can do things differently. More responsibly." Alaric tells her.

"Well, no time like the present. Go get Sosuke, would you?" Alaric tells Hope, who stares at him incredulously.

"Don't give me that look, now go." Alaric tells her and Hope nods, heading back to the woods and the mill in search of Sosuke.

A handful minutes later she found him, just not where she expected to when he is swimming in the lake.

"Hey!" She shouts out to him and he waves his hand, swimming over to her.

"What's up?" Sosuke asks when he walks out of the lake and picks up his towel, drying his hairs.

"Emergency meeting. Now." She says sharply and uses a spell to dry him off.

"What I don't even have time to put on clothes?" He asks, being only in his swimming trunks.

"Do it in your room." She says offhandedly.

"Good idea." He accepts and follows her quick steps.

"Why were you swimming?" She asks after a few steps.

"I'm kind of drawing blanks on how to use my powers and I thought it might clear my head and give me some ideas." He says.

"And did it?" She asks.

"Nah. I was thinking I should ask Pedro for help." He says.

"Pedro?" She asks laughing.

"What? He isn't scared by me and he's new at learning magic too." Sosuke says.

"Yeah but magic is spells, incantations, from what I have seen you do its more of an instinctual than intellectual issue." Hope tells him.

"Instinct huh?" He says surprised.

"Thanks. I'll see what I can do on that front." He tells her nodding his head thoughtfully.

"I could... help." She says, sounding unsure herself.

"You have enough on your plate. Midterms, your new boyfriend and I'm guessing this emergency meeting has to do with a certain Malivore?" Sosuke tells her shaking his head.

"We aren't dating... I didn't say yes." Hope tells him as if it wasn't a big deal.

"You didn't say yes? But I saw the two of you sucking face like ... more times than not." He says uncomfortably.

"I like Landon, yes. And he likes me. But it's not that easy." She says guiltily.

"Do what you think is best. But you deserve to be happy and if he makes you feel that way, isn't that the goal? To find the one who makes you feel happy?" Sosuke tells her.

"Just trust me. It's not that simple." She says emotionally and hurries ahead of him.

Him supporting her, despite his own feelings actually making it even harder for her to be around him.

Sosuke watches her leave in a hurry and wonders what exactly of what he said made her upset. He heads up to his room, taking a hidden key out of a hiding spot and goes inside, putting on some clothes.

When he heads to the assembly he's one of the last students to arrive, most sitting around in their pjs as they wait for their headmaster's speech.

"Yesterday I came into possession of another Malivore artifact. It was my hope to find another method of containment before it can signal other monsters, but given the emergency meeting I'm sure you can guess how well that went. Now rest assured we're taking precautions. Sheriff Donovan was kind enough to open the doors of Lockwood mansion to us, so Mr. Williams and Mrs. Tigs are now in the process of evacuating our students from the lower grades." Alaric tells everyone.

"Why don't we just evacuate the damn artifact?" Kaleb asks.

"We are much more well-equipped than the world at large to handle the arrival of a monster. Once we know what we're dealing with and the problem is contained, then we can reassess what to do with the artifact. If any of you wish to evacuate then please talk to Dorian or Emma. However exam week will continue as scheduled, wherever you are. I know.I'm sorry but I can't exactly call the State accreditation board and tell them that we're canceling the exams because of monsters. We'll get through this together. I promise. Now try to get some rest." Alaric tells the students, who start to clear out.

The next morning Rafael is talking to Hope and Alaric about what happened to him that night after the emergency meeting. He explains how he fell asleep and in his sleep his old foster father hit him with his belt like he used to while a woman in an old black dress and veil was saying "You know what I want."

"It's after the urn." Hope says.

"Looks like we know that the next monster is here." Aladic says, looking at the angry red skin on Rafael's arm where he got hit in his sleep.

"Well every culture has legends about creatures that only appear in dreams. But a woman in a black dress and a veil is pretty specific." Alaric says, taking a book out of a shelf in his office and looks through a few pages.

"So does this mean she can control our dreams?" Rafael asks.

"It's possible." Alaric answers and finds a page with a specific drawing of a veiled woman coming down from the ceiling to a sleeping person.

"Does that look familiar?" He asks the werewolf.

Only an hour later Alaric gathers the students again.

"Our latest monster is a Night Hag, a malevolent spirit trapped in the astral plane that can only interact with us through dreams. In this case, nightmares." Alaric informs the students.

"So like Freddy Krueger?" MG asks.

"In the sense that what happens to you in the dream also seems to happen to you in real life, yes. The good news is, we're safe as long as we stay awake." Alaric replies.

"Now, I've lined up more evacuation shuttles and they should be running all afternoon, so please those who don't want to stay and fight, take advantage of them. Now that's all." Alaric says, finishing his speech.

That afternoon Landon is the next one to fall asleep during class and stabs himself in his hand in the dream to wake up, only to find the same hole in his hand in reality.

Soon after while most students evacuate, safe for a few brave ones and some who are after better grades Hope is treating Landon's hand in the nurses station while she and Alaric try to convince him evacuate with the others, but he refuses and asks Hope why she kept her distance all day, resulting in her leaving almost immediately and going looking for Sosuke.

She finds him in his sleeping bag in the Mill, deep asleep and hurries back to the school building, asking everyone she can find if anyone remembers Sosuke showing up for the morning announcement, but no one saw him.

"Dr. Saltzman, we have a problem. Sosuke has been asleep this entire time." Hope tells the headmaster, who goes with her to find the boy in question indeed deep asleep in his sleeping bag.

Seeing blood seeping out from the bottom of the bag Alaric zips it open and Sosuke's scars seem to have all been reopened.

"Why the hell isn't he waking up?" Hope asks worried and punches Sosuke in his face hard, getting no result.

"Let's not add injuries OK?" Alaric tells her, stopping Hope from punching Sosuke again.

"We need to get him to the nurses station. If he loses too much blood..." Alaric says and picks up Sosuke with Hope, the two carrying him with one arm of his around each their shoulders while they drag him along.

A few minutes later Sosuke is lying in the nurses station with a drip attached to his arm but his wounds continue to bleed, actually closing and opening every now and then, which to Alaric is a good sign.

"We can't do anything for him here. We should hit the books and find out how to fight this night hag." Alaric tells Hope, who nods, getting up and moves to the door of the infirmary while the headmaster heads to his office. When she sees MG walk by towards the library she says "Wait MG." ,grabbing the vampire.

"I need your help." She says pleadingly.

"What with?" He asks, squinting his eyes.

"A head dive." She says pulling him along to the infirmary while he attempts to get out of her grip but she's stronger than him.

"I'm not doing a head dive again." MG protests.

"You will." She tells him threateningly.

"He will die if we don't do something." Hope then says fearfully, moving over to Sosuke sith MG following her.

"Damn, he's not waking up." The vampire says, watching as Sosuke's bullet wounds spread open and some blood seeps out.

"Bring me in there. I need to try to help him." She tells MG and he looks at her with a sigh and finally gives in.

"Fine." He accepts and she places her hands on Sosuke's shoulders while MG looks into her eyes, his hands holding Sosuke's.

Hope then finds herself on a field behind the school and recognizes the tree in it, as the one she and Sosuke took shelter at when they were young.

"Tribrid is in sight." A voice then echoes through the area and as she steps around the tree she sees Sosuke run towards a dark figure with a rifle and get shot.

The figure then stands up and shoots Sosuke 3 more times. After this happened she looks to the school and sees her window in plain sight.

"This is awkwardly specific for a dream." Hope says to herself.

The scenery then changes to Sosuke getting fed on as a kid while he's watching her and Landon kiss in front of the school weeks ago.

"Sosuke." She tries to shake him awake, but gets no reaction.

The scenery changes again, this time to Sosuke watching her and Landon making out in a field, something she never did.

"Sosuke." She says, trying again and this time he looks at her confused.

"Huh? Why am I seeing two of you? This nightmare is weird." He says, pointing at her and the half-naked her lying on top of Landon.

"I did a head dive. You're stuck asleep. You need to wake up!" Hope tells Sosuke, shaking him.

"How?" He asks.

"I don't know. usually people wake up when they get hurt in their nightmare." She says perplexed.

"Then quick. Hit me." He says and Hope slaps him across the face, both waking up in the real world breathing heavily while a red handprint slowly forms on Sosuke's face with him sitting up.

"The hell?" Sosuke asks, seeing his wounds reopened and MG standing over him while he's in the nurses station.

"You're back." Hope says relieved.

"Yeah. So why didn't I wake up before?" He asks confused.

"I don't know what makes me slapping you different from getting shot?" She asks.

"You slapped me on the only made up part. The rest were memories mixed together." He answers while pulling the drip out of his arm.

"Memories?" She asks.

"Yeah. Doesn't matter. So what are we dealing with this time?" He asks.

"A night hag." Hope answers.

"Oh, right she popped up in my dream a few times asking for it" He says putting air quotes on it.

"I'll let Dr. Saltzman know you're awake." MG then tells them, speeding away.

"You should stay down." Hope tells Souke when he sits up with a slight moan of pain.

"And risk falling asleep again, no thanks." He retorts and stands up, looking down at his blood smeared arms and chest.

"I'm gonna take a shower." He says shaking his head and is about to leave the room.

"The memory at the tree where you got shot. how accurate was that?" Hope asks him awkwardly.

"Pretty much just like it happened I think, except the shooter was a normal guy not a shadow." Sosuke says and leaves the room.

"Where did he go?" Alaric asks when he arrives in the room soon after.

"He wanted to take a shower." Hope replies.

"Alright. I'll check on him." Alaric says.

"Did he get shot saving me?" Hope asks the headmaster before he goes after Sosuke.

"I think so, yes." Alaric answers.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Hope asks upset.

"We thought it's best not to worry you. You were finally opening up to people." Alaric answers, sitting down on the corner of the bed in the room.

"Why does he like me? He got hurt so often because of me." Hope asks the teacher.

"Because you are a great girl Hope and he sees it. Everyone here does." Alaric tells her, giving her a hug.

"I don't know what to do with all of this." She says tiredly, returning the hug.

"You can take your time. Both of them will wait for you until you know." Alaric tells Hope supportively before leaving to check on Sosuke.

Later that day Sosuke is looking through some books in the library when Landon sets down his books across from him.

"Hi. I have a question. You were with the monster the longest. Did it always look like that woman?" Landon asks, having a theory.

"Hmm no. It looked like me a few times." He says, shaking his head.

"Hah." Landon says excited and writes something down before hitting his book and jumping up, rushing to the exit.

"Something you want to share with the class?" Sosuke asks as he leaves.

"Wait there." Landon tells him before disappearing in search of their headmaster.

"Dr. Saltzman, hold up."Landon says, running up to him and Hope.

"I hope you have decided to evacuate afterall?" Alaric asks the teen.

"No. Actually I stayed busy like you said and I think I got something." Landon says and waves for the two to follow him back to the library.

"I was thinking, what if the books were actually correct about the night hag. And she can't hurt anyone in real life. But obviously we're getting hurt here, so I thought. Maybe we're not dealing with a night hag." Landon says.

"If it walks like a night hag and talks like a night hag what else could it be?" Alaric asks.

"Aha, that's what I was wondering and started going through these books. Voila." Landon says, showing them a page on an Oneiroi.

"What's an Oneiroi?" Hope asks, looking at the book with Sosuke leaning over the table to see as well.

"It's a black winged, shapeshifting dream demon from Greek mythology." Alaric answers.

"Why would one monster disguise itself as another monster?" Hope asks questioningly.

"It's so we don't know how to fight it." Sosuke tells her, Alaric nodding in agreement.

"Good job Landon." Alaric tells the human and leaves with the book.

"Yeah, nice deduction." Hope tells Landon, rubbing over his shoulder before seeing Sosuke still sitting at the table.

"Oh, right. Before I forget or you run off again." Hope says, poking her wrist with a knife and holds the wrist out to Sosuke, her blood slowly trickling down to her palm.

"Right. Better heal up before the fight. Fingers crossed the vervain is out of my system." Sosuke says and takes her hand, pulling her arm to his mouth and sucks up the blood that escaped her arm with Landon watching this with a cringe.

"Why is he drinking your blood?" Landon asks.

"Vampire blood can heal people. And even though I'm not a full vampire yet, my blood also can heal people." Hope informs him just as Sosuke releases her arm with a mumbled "thanks."

"Wow wouldn't that be really great for modern medicine?" Landon asks.

"The problem is if someone dies with vampire blood in his system he or she becomes a vampire." Hope explains.

"Then why is Sosuke..." Landon asks questioningly.

"Because I know what I'm doing plus Hope would probably stake me herself if I ever became a ripper." Sosuke says, chuckling.

Armed with the new information about the monster Hope, Landon, Rafael, MG, Kaleb and Sosuke gather to devise a plan to battle the demon.

"Dream demon? How the hell are we supposed to fight it?" Kaleb asks after Hope and Landon just explained what an Oneiroi is.

"Leave that part to us. But since we can't fall asleep. Sosuke because he would die and me because that would compromise the location of the urn. I need someone else to pull it out of the dream realm into the waking reality." Hope informs them.

"So Freddy Krueger like I said." MG says nodding.

"Wait, how the hell are we supposed to do that?" Rafael asks.

"If it's anything like the movies, we just grab and pull." MG explains.

"Yeah OK. Is it too late to get on the evacuation bus?" Kaleb asks, fearing that the plan would fail.

"No. I mean I'm not gonna ask all of you to stay. This has to be your choice." Hope says understandingly.

"Well I am in." Sosuke says.

"Yeah well you don't have to go night night." Kaleb says.

"I had my 10 hours in the ring with it. Tag you're it." Sosuke replies jokingly, pushing Kaleb lightly from his seat next to the Vampire.

"I'm not leaving unless Hope does." Landon says getting up from his seat.

"I'm not leaving Landon behind." Rafael says grinning at his brother.

"As founding member of the super squad i can't bail." MG says.

"Y'all are gonna get yourselves killed. But if MG stays, I stay." Kaleb agrees reluctantly.

"In that case it's naptime boys." Hope tells the group and they relocate to the gym, setting out four sleeping bags in a circle.

"Hey man, whatever you see in there. It's not real OK?" Kaleb reminds MG as the two are sitting down on their sleeping bags.

"I know. I already faced my worst nightmares in the cemetery so bring it on hag." MG replies.

"Landon I don't think you should do this." Hope tells him concerned after pulling him to the side.

"No. You don't get to ignore me all day and then still make decisions for me." Landon replies.

"You're gonna be inside of a nightmare. You're human, you'll get hurt." Hope says.

"My biggest fear was fitting in here and now I'm gonna be a dream warrior. Plus my plan saved the day. While you will actually be the one saving the day... Which is so sexy by the way." He tells her.

"I'm staying and helping you stop this thing." Landon tells her.

"I don't know what it's gonna take to stop it. But maybe there is one thing you can do to help me. I need you to keep them calm while I hide the urn in the Mikaelson wall safe in front of my room, behind that painting." Hope whispers to him and gives him a gentle kiss on his cheek.

The four boys then all lie down to sleep and fight the dream demon, waking up together when in each of their dreams they have defeated the demon.

In the meantime Hope and Sosuke are waiting by the wall safe she told Landon about.

"Oops, we lost the urn." Hope says, holding open the safe door and shows that it's empty.

"Enough playing." Sosuke tells her and aims his shotgun at the demon, firing the first shot, making it growl and hide behind its forearms.

Sosuke fires another two rounds of buckshot before tossing aside the gun and instead takes the sword that belonged to Seylah out from a sheath at his hip.

Simultaneously Hope rushes at the demon and the two start grappling, throwing each other against or through nearby walls until the two of them land in the gym and get up facing each other.

"Stay back guys I got this." Hope tells the others who back away to make room for her fight.

Hope jumps at the creature and tries to snap its neck but it has longer arms and chokes her instead.

"Incoming." Sosuke yells and Hope leans back as far as she can, the sword Sosuke just threw cleaving through the monster's arms and it screams with a shrill sound before Hope grabs its head and uses her magic until the head explodes in a small shower of grime.

"Why always so violent? Just snap its neck." Sosuke says, getting an eye roll in response while he collects the sword he threw and looks it over, black-green blood now sticking to it, slowly trailing down its black, double edged blade and towards the cross shaped pommel and hilt with many small symbols engraved in it.

"I don't know what you're complaining about. Landon was right, that was sexy as hell." Kaleb tells Sosuke while everyone looks surprised when the demon and its blood dissipates in a shower of black and red flakes.