the new home

Hope, Sosuke and Alaric head to the town center where they lost the monster's tracks before and decide to split up to go look for it.

Hope is the first to find it, arriving just in time as it was stalking up behind Landon, who is sitting on a park bench listening to loudly playing music over earbuds.

Hope uses a spell to send the creature flying across the small grassy area they are at, making it land on its back a good 20 meters away.

Seeing it slowly getting up from its position Hope takes the initiative and rushes it, jumping up to punch it in its face. The hit connects but doesn't do anything besides make her his target while she backs up slowly.

"I got this." Alaric says, arriving beside her and shoots his crossbow bolt, which the creature blocks with its large hand, the bolt sticking firmly inside it.

With its other hand the green giant knocks Alaric away as he was reloading and sends him crashing into Hope who misses a wind spell and simply produces a gust of wind flying over the monster's head.

"How great that you got it." Hope complains, pushing Alaric off herself and then kicks him away before the monster's large foot can crush or at least badly harm him.

With a growl the creature grabs a hold of Hope's neck and holds her in the air, strangling her while Alaric is hurriedly trying to reload his weapon.

A shrill shriek then escapes the large monster, before it collapses to its knees and Hope can break free from its grip.

"Let's see if you can handle this?" Sosuke says, two blades sticking in the backside of the creature's knees.

He then grabs the creature on top of its head and looks into the sky, seemingly whispering something into the air and within at most 3 seconds a small dark cloud forms in the sky before a lightning strike hits him and the monster, which cries out in pain, before falling over dead half burned to a crisp.

"Do you think it's a Malivore monster?" Sosuke asks, yanking his blades out of the creature's knees and attempts to flick its purplish blood off the weapons, only for the monster and his blood to disappear in a shower of ash and embers.

"That would be a yes." Hope says once it disappears.

"Great. Well at least another thing hasn't changed. It was after Landon." Sosuke says, the teen in question coincidentally getting up from the bench and spots the three of them while Hope helps up Alaric.

"Hey. Long time no see Sosuke. Dr. Saltzman." Landon greets the two men while pulling out his earbuds.

"Good to see you too Landon. Uhm we gotta head out, we're just showing a new girl around town." Alaric says and ushers Sosuke and Hope away.

"What was that?" Sosuke asks, demanding an answer with crossed arms when Dr. Saltzman leads them to his car.

"I don't want the others to get involved again. I endangered them once, I'm not doing it again." Alaric says stubbornly.

"Fine then, what is your plan?" Sosuke asks, looking at the principal.

"I'll come up with something." Alaric says confidently.

"But you're not doing it alone. This is my fault, they are back because I am out of Malivore." Hope tells him and gets in the passenger side seat of the car.

Alaric gets in the driver seat and the two look at Sosuke for a moment.

"As if I'd pass up the opportunity to hunt some monsters." Sosuke agrees and gets in the back of the car.

"Since you're not at the Salvatore school anymore. Where do you guys even live?" Hope asks the two.

"We'll show you." Alaric says and starts the car, driving them to a house on the outskirts of town, heading in the direction of the Salvatore school.

"It's not much. But it's home for now." Alaric says, parking the car.

"OK, I'll meet you guys at school then." Hope says, getting out of the car and starting to walk away from them.

Alaric looks back at Sosuke and nods at Hope, wanting the teen to get her back.

Hope walks back to the main road when Sosuke grabs her hand and pulls her along with him to the house.

"You're staying with us." Sosuke tells her, leaving no room for discussion.

Hope smiles lightly and nods, following them inside.

After a quick tour Hope is standing in Sosuke's room, looking around with some nostalgia at seeing his things, which are mostly various kinds of weapons.

Spotting something covered up in a towel on top of his dresser she gets curious and reaches up to unfold it, but finds herself too short to reach the item.

"Let me help." Sosuke says softly and moves behind her, Hope feeling his breath tickle the back of her neck before he lifts her up with ease, holding her by her waist while she grabs the item off the dresser.

"Aren't you mad I was snooping?" She asks curiously, holding onto the item while he sets her down on her feet.

"This must be weird for you too if even half of what you said is true. I'm just trying to be acceptive of that." Sosuke replies.

"And this might be yours anyways. It was in the room across from mine at the school and I knew that I made it. I just couldn't remember why." Sosuke tells her, sitting down on the edge of his bed and offers her a seat besides him, which she happily accepts, putting the mystery item on her lap.

She then unties the knot keeping it covered up and smiles emotionally when she sees the bust of her with her father that he made for her.

"Do you know?" Sosuke asks.

"This was a gift you made for me. We had a friendly competition with a handmade present as a wager." She explains, rubbing over her fathers face carefully.

"This is me and my father. I had a painting of us just like this. But it was destroyed in an accident. You knew how much it meant to me and spent months crafting this." Hope tells him with a happy smile.

"I see." Sosuke says, patting her hand gently.

"You can stay in this room. I'll be downstairs on the couch. Feel free to help yourself to some clothes and I'm sure you'd enjoy a shower after nearly 3 months in a pit of darkness." Sosuke tells her sympathetically.

He then steps out of his room, giving her one more smile and closes the door behind him.

Hope sets down the bust of her with her father and gets off the bed. She looks into his drawers and takes a simple black and red colored shirt as well as a pair of sweatpants, lying them out on the bed.

She takes off her clothes and steps into the adjacent bathroom, where she turns on the shower and steps inside, the warm water raining down on her.

Finally feeling able to catch her breath, after first having been met with the reality that no one remembers her, then having learned from Dorian that Sosuke and Dr. Saltzman aren't at the school anymore only to be attacked by the monster to finding her lover again, who also doesn't remember a single thing about her.

She feels herself tremble and folds down defeated in the shower, sitting on its tiled floor with the water drizzling down on her while she hugs her knees to her body and cries her heart out.

After a 10 minute shower Hope dries herself off and leaves the bathroom. She puts on her selected clothing and lies down on the bed, failing to find sleep until half an hour later she slips out of the room and makes her way downstairs quietly.

She ends up standing in front of Sosuke, who's lying seemingly asleep on the folded out couch.

Being daring and desperate Hope gulps nervously before she climbs onto the fold out couch and lies down next to Sosuke.

"Can't sleep either huh?" He asks quietly, his eyes opening and meeting her scared ones.

Wordlessly shaking her head, Hope looks at him pleadingly.

"I'm starting to understand why you owed me so much before. Even without knowing you, I just can't resist you." Sosuke tells her and carefully pulls her over to himself, pulling his blanket over them and hugs her around her back while Hope starts to cry and sniffle info his chest, clinging onto him for dear life until sleep finally overcomes her.