"A challenge she hadn't meant to offer..."

Hope couldn't understand why she still felt so horribly tired when she woke again, but rolling onto her side to look at the clock she realized it was three in the morning. Why had she only slept for three hours? A sudden thumping sound caught her attention and she sat up in slow confusion. The thump came again and again. It seemed to be coming from outside.

Quickly adjusting her black cami strap to fit back on her shoulder Hope slung her bare legs over the side of the bed and stood to her feet. She walked forward and pulled back the curtain to her room open just enough to peer out into the night. Her heart dropped. Outside, piled in the back of a grimy green pickup truck, were the people she'd encountered in the diner miles back. No, that couldn't be possible. How was it they just happened to be here? Unless…they had been following her. A sweat broke out over her brow as she watched them. There were five, three guys and two girls. All were built tall and held a muscular appearance, they appeared capable. They were all laughing as if they were about to play some game. Hope had a horrible inkling that she knew what the game was, and she was the pawn.

The man she had seen before, with the tattooed knuckles suddenly looked in her direction and she quickly pulled the curtains shut. "Sh**" she muttered. She ran a frantic shaky hand through her hair as she tried to think of what to do. Casting a glance over at her phone sitting on the side table she questioned if she should call someone. Her dad, Elijah. Anyone that might be able to talk her through this. She quickly shook her head, dispelling the idea immediately. This is your turn, remember? "Yeah, my turn to get killed…" she spoke under her breath. There was going to be an ending to this and it was up to her if she'd end up on top. She made her decision in silence as she pulled on a pair of jeans and stuffed her feet into her combat boots. She slipped on her black leather jacket and started to search through her items she'd decided to take into the motel with her. It was lucky she had, she thought as she slid a glinting silver dagger into the side of her boot. If they wanted a fight, they'd get one. She was a Mikaelson and they would soon learn not to toy with the original bloodline.

Hope inched herself closer to the window again and gazed out into the dark, frowning when she saw the truck had disappeared. "Where did you go?" she whispered to herself. A glitter of something shiny heading straight for her caused her to immediately dive to her knees. The window above shattered and glass was flung in every direction. Hope looked to her right to see an arrow lying there on the ruddy carpet. "What the he**…" Another arrow went soaring into the room again, this time sinking deeply into the wall. Either these people were incredibly dense or had nothing to lose.

It was time to decide, and the decision was to leave her belongings in the room behind and get out the door. She wouldn't be able to fight back if she couldn't see them in the first place. Crawling towards the door she reached up for the handle and turned the knob, hiding behind the door. Just as she thought. One of the men from outside started to walk in, but before he could get himself completely in the room she slammed herself up against the door, crushing his arm between the jam. If the shattering glass hadn't woken up the owner, then his scream would. Broken arm she'd guess. She opened the door again, the man screaming again from the horrible pain she presumed he was in. There was no time to make another decision, instincts took her body over and she sent a hard kick into the abdomen of a woman with a blonde pixie cut and way too much eyeliner. The woman crashed into the wall opposite them, hitting her head hard against a glass picture frame, leaving a stain of crimson behind. Hope didn't stop to check her pulse and instead took off down the narrow hall. Two down, three more dangers to go. Fantastic.

It was almost like the world suddenly slowed down, like the earth all at once stopped in its rotation and Hope could think a million miles per hour. Her own heartbeat pounding against her eardrums in a slow rhythmic pattern. She came to a halt in the hall, feeling a prickle on her skin that forced her to turn around, eyes catching sight of a silver tipped arrow gliding smoothly through the air towards her. In the next moment, she reached a hand up and grabbed hold of the sleek black body of the arrow just inches before it could cause any damage to her face.

Just as quickly as time seemed to slow it started up again and she watched the other woman, who was much different from her petite partner, come running towards her. She had dark hair that had grown down to her tailbone and fierce green eyes that were just as sharp as the pointed arrows she used as weapons. Before Hope even realized she'd released another arrow there was a horrible pain in her right thigh. A gasp of surprised pain forced its way up her throat and she looked down, the arrow was stuck deep in her thigh. Hope looked up again, a sudden rush of angered adrenaline filling her to the brim. Her eyes turned a haunting amber yellow with dark veins crawling down her cheeks. Canines protruded from her gums and she bared her fangs aggressively at the woman still stalking towards her. In a quick action, Hope snapped the arrow off, she would worry about taking out the head later.

Hope planted her feet and extended a hand towards the woman, uttering the words "Per se qui e fracta toi, per se qui e total toi." The woman let out a sudden scream of agony, dropping the bow as the bones in her hands suddenly began to move, dislocating the joints and rendering her hands useless. A ring of fire surrounded the woman, an after effect to the maiming curse Hope had used. She looked up, her eyes returning to their usual shade of brown, locking onto the two men standing at the other end of the hall. The man with the tattooed knuckles didn't seem to be frightened like the other scrawny one. He seemed surprised.

Taking a step back from the scene, Hope knew if she was going to make her escape it would have to be now. Perhaps they had a better understanding of what she was capable of and that she wasn't to be trifled with. She took off, rushing to her car and slipped in, peeling out of the parking lot so forcefully it burned a rubber mark into the pavement. She didn't dare look back to see if they'd started following her yet. Maybe they had learned their lesson, or maybe they had just accepted a challenge she hadn't meant to offer.

The remaining driving time seemed to pass by quicker than Hope thought it would. Then again, she hadn't taken a break aside from an occasional stop for gas, and she may have been going a bit over the speed limit. She hadn't even pulled over to treat her wounded thigh which still contained the arrowhead from her attacker.

It was nightfall again when she passed the sign that read Welcome to Beacon Hills pop. 30,000 and despite being dangerously tired she wanted to shout out in victory. She'd made it and at this point, that was all that mattered. It was now time to find her temporary residence, so she could catch up on some very much needed sleep. Putting her GPS on she followed it's set instructions, letting herself take in the town as she went. It was nicer than she expected it to be. She knew how often photos could stretch the truth, but it wasn't lower than her higher expectations. She could see herself settling into her rather easily.

Hope passed by Beacon Hills high, watching as a team of lacrosse players played underneath bright field lights. On a Friday night? Football must not be a big deal here. She didn't mind, it wasn't like she was going to be attending the high school.

Not long later did her GPS state her destination was located on her left. She pulled into the smooth driveway of a decently sized two story house with white paneling and a chimney that reached up towards the sky. The porch was certainly big enough for her to relax outside if she chose to do so. It had a comfortable quality about it that resembled the rest of the neighborhood. It felt safe.

Walking past the SOLD sign in the yard, she glanced over at the next-door neighbor's house. The mailbox read Stilinski in white lettering. It wasn't the strangest name she'd ever come across before. She took out the house key from her pocket and made herself very busy in the first few minutes of entering. She wasn't concerned about unpacking until the morning, but what did come first, however, was making sure the house safe for her to live in. She stood where she felt was near the center of the home – between the kitchen and living room – and spoke a boundary spell, setting her own twist upon it. "Otum adnarvet esnavit atim." Now, only those who did not wish her harm could enter the house unless invited in by herself. If the bandits, or whoever they were, she'd just escaped from decided to make an appearance she would at the very least have the upper hand in a house where they couldn't set foot through the threshold.

Feeling pleased with herself, Hope carried in the remainder of her belongings and set them down on the hardwood of the living room floor. She'd arranged for it to be fully furnished, for the ease of it, and now she was especially happy she'd spent the extra money. It wasn't as though they didn't have the money to spare, after all.

The next task to be handled was that pesky arrowhead in her thigh. Hope looked down at the dried blood and bit down on her lower lip. She had of course already healed around the arrow, and so now taking it out was going to be twice as painful. She shook her head as the nerves started to cloud her thoughts. Normally if she were hurt Freya or Elijah would tend her wound.

"Stop being a coward," she scolded herself in a surprisingly strict tone. She then searched through her boxes until she pulled out a bottle of scotch she'd snatched from her father's cabinet a long while back. She figured she may as well take it along rather than get in trouble with him. She'd just continue to let him think Kol had swiped it.

Hope first took a very long drink of the scotch, not so much to take the pain away, but more to get herself to take the fragment out without further hesitation. Letting it settle for a moment she pressed her fingers against her thigh and then dug in and grabbed ahold of the arrow by its head and started to pull it out at a sideways angle, gritting her teeth as her tissue began to tear all over again. By the time the piece had fallen and clattered on the ground her hand was stained in red. She waited for herself to heal properly before cleaning up after herself, trying to scrub away any remaining memory of the incident.

Too tired to fix her bed upstairs, from the pain and alcohol intake, she grabbed a throw blanket from one of the boxes and kicked her shoes off as she sunk into the couch. It seemed almost immediately after her head was laid on the armrest she was pulled into a very deep sleep. Entering a dream world that she would likely forget once she woke, but oh, what a dream it was.