This Is The Part Where You Run
Category: Stories

When Hope Mikaelson stepped outside the doors of the Salvatore Boarding School it was because she was asked to help Dr. Saltzman with a new recruit they'd just become aware of, that needed to be brought to the school. Nothing out of the ordinary at the Salvatore School or for Hope specifically.

As one of the oldest students at the age of eighteen, Hope found her place in the world helping Alaric when they could anticipate trouble with new recruits. Such was the case tonight. Caroline had communicated locating a brand new werewolf that was not aware of his werewolf gene and at the next full moon would need to be brought to the school. They had trouble tracking him at first, by the time they found him, he was not in the place where he resided, rather he had been taken to Atlanta.

Hope and Alaric had had a hell of time finding him, not a moment too soon either. The moon was just reaching its apex when they arrived at the church.

Hope understood the challenges of turning for the first time, recalling her own first transformation. She had been lucky to have the help of her father when she went through it, a first of his kind too as the first ever hybrid to ever exist; the Original Hybrid. Not everyone was as fortunate. It could be a lonely experience to transform alone especially when you didn't understand what was happening to you. Hope had been so intent on the mission, getting to the new werewolf that she looked right through the person sitting on the stoop, at first.

Once she noticed someone there out of the corner of her eye, she did a double take. "Landon?" She probably sounded as surprised as she was. Landon Kirby was a boy she had met in Mystic Falls working at the Grill and danced with at a local festival which all washed over her the second their eyes connected. He recognized her too by the way he said her name, as surprised as she was when he saw her.

"You two know one another?" Alaric asked walking up casually next to Hope as if the reason they were there was no longer urgent.

"Long story," was the only answer Hope gave and the only one she had time to give, truth be told when there was ruckus on the other side of the door. "Dr. Saltzman," Hope beckoned, reeling her focus back to the point.

"Yeah I'm on it." He rushed up the steps to the church doors, passing Landon. His hand grasped the handle with a healthy pull and was stopped. "Doors are locked." He stated with an odd amount of calm.

Hope didn't need to be told twice what to do. She could see clearly her unique abilities were needed, lifting her bent arms in front of her face and pulling them back at the same time as she spoke in a foreign language without much consideration for Landon's presence. Desperate times and all. "Dissera Portus!"

The doors opened effortlessly at her command chains and all that had been holding it closed. "You're gonna wanna stay out here Landon, trust me." She said to Landon when she passed.

She and Dr. Saltzman walked in on the new wolf in the process of fully transforming and a priest speaking Latin holding a cross in front of him. Clearly an attempt at exorcism was taking place. They thought a demon possession was taking place. Woefully inaccurate but the assumption was understandable. While the two made strides down the aisle toward the pulpit, Alaric whispered to Hope. "Shut down the exorcist, would you?"

Again, Hope knew just how to respond, like she was seasoned at handling these situations. Holding an arm up in a fist around the same level as the top of her head, she spoke "Silencio!" That caused flesh to conceal the hole of the priest's mouth. "Ad somnum!" She continued, dropping both arms in front of her. Following the movement the bodies of the priest and both foster parents dropped to the ground unconscious but unharmed.

Alaric and Hope each darted to one side of the new werewolf who was still in human form, preparing for the rest of his transformation with chains they pulled from a bag and locked into the floorboards.

They finished in time for him to finish the transformation fully into a werewolf. Hope hadn't noticed that Landon had joined them behind her until that second when she heard him breathe "My God". Not the worst reaction she'd ever seen to the first supernatural encounter but not surprising either. Hope's expression remained neutral.

They subdued Raphael so they could load him into their truck and take him back to the Salvatore School. Alaric made small talk during the ride. "How do you two know each other?"

Hope was the first to attempt an answer. "Uh...he used to serve me milk shakes at the Mystic Grill. There was more but she would volunteer more than that. One of her key qualities was how private she was. Landon added the details she hadn't by admitting they had danced.

"We tried," she corrected with a laugh when she turned toward him with a bright smile. "Then you moved away."

She should have anticipated Landon wasn't just going to overlook what he had seen her do outside the church but when she was caught up in doing what needed to be done, it had slipped her mind until he commented about seeing her blow a door off the hinges with her brain and asked for explanation. Hope only squirmed uncomfortably in her seat without an answer. Luckily, Alaric knew her well enough to know how to alleviate her responsibility to answer by doing so for her. "Oh, we'll explain everything. We're almost there."

Minutes later they were pulling into the Salvatore School. Home sweet home. Back behind the safety the gates of the school offered. They were greeted by Alaric's twin daughters, Lizzie and Josie who introduced themselves to Raphael and we're in turn asked to give him a tour of the school while he spoke to Landon. As they were walking away, Hope overheard Lizzie refer to her as "despair", a play on words from her name being Hope and an analogy of her personality which was not perceived by others as embodying Hope.

Hope was given that name by her Uncle Elijah because she represented hope for the Mikaelson family. Hope for what, she wasn't entirely sure but she could only imagine as she came from a long line of villains. Hope for resurrection? Hope for glory, power? While she dwelled on that she didn't lose a step when she responded to Lizzie. "I heard that."

"No you didn't." Lizzie knew she had amplified hearing associated with her werewolf side; one of the three species that made her a tribrid.

"Didn't have to." Hope didn't have the best relationship with Alaric's daughters despite them being close and him knowing her parents. Everyone expected them to be a threesome but that wasn't the reality that manifested.

Hope followed Alaric to his office along with Landon as if she belonged in the room. She had gotten pretty comfortable occupying Alaric's office because she helped so much with the school. Not because her father had donated $3 million to the school when it first was started, at least she hoped that wasn't the reason.

Alaric asked if Landon was aware of the school when he lived in Mystic Falls, which Landon only answered that he knew she attended some fancy boarding school and that people in town said it was for troubled rich kids. What he said after more under his breath, Hope heard but decided not to announce or answer.

He referenced Hogwarts loosely of the fantasy novel series as the only remotely similar thing he could compare the school too. "It's not specifically for magic, no. Although we do have that here. It's a school for the supernatural," Hope answered. Alaric jumped in to finish explaining.

"That covers a lot of territory. Everyone here has something about them that makes them special. Special in ways the outside world wouldn't understand."

Landon was in a unique position very few humans ever experienced; taking in the supernatural for the first time, what people believed to be myth, fantasy and story.

To have something you've always believed about the world and that everyone believes about the world blown to bits in a single incident could be difficult to process. Hope herself had always grown up around the supernatural, of course because she also was one and came from some. But beyond that, while she knew that most people didn't know, she'd known humans back in New Orleans that knew, accepted them and kept their secret. Declan, a man her mom dated, had been one of them for a short time before he was compelled to forget, for his own safety, as one from a long line of his family that had all gotten mixed up with the supernatural in some way and all had died as a result. She'd heard about his cousin Camille who had known her father and become a vampire during their close friendship.

She hadn't witnessed Camille's reaction but she could imagine it was similar to Landon's and Declan's. They all were the same generally; shocked, disbelief, resistance, denial, deceit, anger even sometimes, that this whole other world could have coexisted with theirs right in front of their eyes without their knowledge. All the while none ever managed to consider that, upon discovery of the supernatural community, they have had as equally long existing as humans have, to master the art of blending in as a means of survival because humans don't accept them.

Which seemed to be what was happening here with Landon when she tuned back in from her own thoughts as Alaric was giving Landon an explanation of what the Salvatore School really was and Landon asked what she was. What...she was. Like she carried a disease. She tried to swallow the question and not take offense by reminding herself that Landon was just another outraged human who can't wrap their mind around anything that isn't familiar or common. With Landon though, the rejection felt intricately personal...but why?

Keep your distance, Hope, she told herself. "I should get to class," Hope stated without answering.

She started to step toward the door but was stopped by Landon asserting that he "needed" her here. She didn't ask why but the question rolled through her thoughts. Rather than torment herself further she joined the conversation. Landon asked again what happened in the church, a question that still had not been answered yet and Hope was somewhat avoiding, as much as she knew that wouldn't last forever.

"What do you think it was?" Classic Hope tactic. If she couldn't avoid a question, her usual go to, the second was to answer with another question. Better to start with his own assumptions than blurt out something that could otherwise be avoided. Call it a defense mechanism from being supernatural and having to hide herself her entire life from anyone she met outside the walls of the school.

His deduction was exactly right, she should have guessed. He had seen every gruesome detail of their world in one fast paced night. At this moment gave into her first impulse, no answer and instead sat on the edge of Alaric's desk and turned to him who seemed more than willing to take the lead when Landon outburst that this...the supernatural world, was insane. Her world. Proof in her mind that as much as she liked him, she needed to not get close to him and let him in. He clearly couldn't handle it.

Alaric explained that the insanity of the supernatural was explained in species origin, grade six at the Salvatore School and Landon remarked that in sixth grade at his school they learned the state capitals which Hope found humor in, but seemed to be the only one when she smiled. "We teach that here, too."

Alaric changed the track of the conversation, shifting in his chair at the same time, to Rafael. "I have some questions about Rafael."

Landon looked a bit perplexed by the question and asked like what, probably a bit surprised that he would even have any answers to give. Alaric cut right to the case when he asked "let's start with who he killed recently."

Understandably, Landon was defensive about being asked such a blunt, accusing question about his friend.

"The werewolf gene lies dormant until the carrier takes a human life. So if he triggered the curse, it's because he killed someone. We don't accept cold blooded killers into our program."

Landon insisted that he wasn't. While Alaric rattled off facts he had already gathered on Rafael, Hope remained focused on Landon. What he must be feeling during this line of questioning. She could see it all over his features. The prickly nature around him. Maybe her experiences weren't the same but she understood the feeling of being told bad things about people she cared about. It was the crux of being a Mikaelson. It never got easier. These were people she adored, that loved and protected her from the moment they found out she existed, she had been told. They'd been her heroes, only for the world to tell her a different tale. One of murder and mayhem. Klaus Mikaelson, the greatest villain of all time. To her, he was Dad. To her, he was the Prince in the story that came to save the day. She constantly endured whispers about him every day. She'd already lost him. But to hear horrible things about him from people, it was as bad as losing him again. She lost pieces of the image of him she had built of him from her childhood every time. So at some level she understood Landon in this moment and the only thing she could do was do what her name described, provide Hope. "Landon, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but we're only trying to help. I've been going here since I was seven. This is a safe place for people like Rafael. This is a home."

Landon explained the heartbreaking tale of Rafael accidentally killing his girlfriend Cassie in a car accident six weeks before in liberal detail and went further to explain Rafael's behavior afterward. All of which was proof enough he wasn't a cold blooded killer.

"That's all...consistent with a newly triggered wolf. It's normal. Thank you for that Landon. Hope?" Alaric beckoned her.

She stood and Landon began asking if he was going to be hexed and what was going to be done to him. "That's something we don't do here. Nothing will happen to you. I won't let it," she answered.

Instead of going straight to the door, she stopped close to Landon. "Everything is gonna be okay. I promise," she said gently, smiling at him. "We're ready."

Landon made a snarky remark about the headmaster running a school with secrets being liberal with information to which Alaric answered casually. "That's because we don't intend for you to remember any of it."

Another student entered, one Hope knew well as MG who was introduced to Landon. "He's also a vampire," she added to the introduction.

MG stepped to Landon with a hand on his shoulder and recited some instructions to him about what he would know and remember from last night. All routine compulsion. Hope found herself wishing it didn't have to be that way, that he didn't have to forget their time together.

When MG let go, they were stunned when Landon outburst about them being insane and that he couldn't forget everything since last night.

Immediately, they all realized the compulsion hadn't taken. They debated with MG if he had done it right and in the meantime Landon tried to escape but MG used vampiric speed to catch him at the door and subdue him. "Get him to the cellar. This isn't good. This is bad," Alaric announced.