It was past sundown now and Hope had realized Mel wasn't back now. She should've been there. She said she would, and she keeps her word. That's a known fact. Hope found herself pacing the room, anxious because Melori hadn't called or texted. She didn't answer Hope's calls or texts either. It worried her because Melori would never be out so late. And she would call if she was.

It meant something was off. Hope had to find out why Mel wasn't home.

Hope left the room and stormed through the halls, making her way to Ric's office.

When she rounded the corner to his office, she saw that the Saltzman twins were about to enter, and they didn't notice her, so they would've likely closed the door on her.

"Wait up!" Hope called.

The twins, arm in arm, turned to face her. Lizzie rolled her eyes very obviously and scoffed. "What do you want?"

"Mel's in trouble," Hope said without hesitation, deciding that was what's wrong. There was no way she wasn't, otherwise, she'd be here talking to her.

The twins- even Lizzie- seemed genuinely worried having heard this news. Josie shook her head, "What do you mean? How do you know?"

"I just have a feeling. It's sundown and I haven't gotten so much as a text from her."

"Our thing can wait," Lizzie sighed. She tried to seem uninterested, but it was clear she felt some way. "Come on."

The girls all entered the office to see Alaric already packing his hunting things. His daughters looked at each other before turning back to him. "Dad, Melori's in trouble."

Ric nodded briefly and packed a few stakes in the bag. "I know. Or at least, I'm hoping she's in trouble and she's not the trouble-"

"She's not," Hope said assuring.

"Then we need to go. Now."

"Wait, wait," Lizzie paused. "Are we overreacting?"

"Trust me when I say this girl keeps her word. When she says something will happen, it will happen. She'd be here annoying me with that stupid nickname if she wasn't in danger."

"Where are we supposed to go?"

"Music store," Ric said. "That's where she was going." He swung his duffle bag over his shoulder, ready to go. "Let's go."

The four of them paced out of the room, then out of the boarding school. Ric went over to his secondary truck, throwing the bag in the back of it. Josie sat upfront with her dad while Lizzie and Hope hopped in the back. Ric started up the engine and rolled out of the driveway.

"So, what do we do if Mel's been murdered?"

"Lizzie!"

"What?! It's a legitimate question, okay?"

Hope shook her head, "There's no way she's dead. Even so, she's part vampire. She'd be back."

"Yeah, but probably bloodthirsty for... blood... I'm just saying-"

"She. Is not. Dead," Hope said through her gritted teeth. "She's just in trouble."

Alaric squeezed the steering wheel with a sigh and turned on the headlights as it was getting darker. He wasn't prepared for that possibility. Likely because an upgraded original vampire would invent new ways of torture just for him because he didn't take care of his daughter properly. That was the driving force motivating him to bring her back. That and he's genuinely concerned. It wasn't long until the curved roads lead them further towards Mystic Falls. But something caught all their attention; the black truck he let her borrow. He slowed down to a stop just in front of the vehicle, the headlights illuminating everything in front of it. The four of them exited quickly to assess the scene.

Hope bent down a good meter away from the truck Mel seems to have disappeared from. She identified the item as Melori's phone. It had various new cracks that were not there earlier that day. "This is hers," she said.

"And she was on her way back," Alaric sighed, holding up the white guitar from the backseat. "If you ask me, someone used the classic vampire trick."

"What? Lying in the middle of the road, waiting for her?" Josie asked. "What would a vampire want with her?"

"You guys don't think it was one of the vampires that attacked the bayou, do you?" Hope wondered.

"What would they want with her, though?" Lizzie asked.

Alaric placed Mel's new guitar back in the truck. "Maybe they want to tie up loose ends. There are still some out there, right? Maybe they don't want her to be able to identify them and send Marcel after them."

"Makes some sense, right?" Josie shrugged. "I mean, Malivore-erased memories are restored. For everyone that knew her."

"We should do a tracker spell," Lizzie suggested. "We can get her back easy. Surprise them and kick their asses."

"Hey."

"Oh, sorry... their butts."

Hope stood upright, clutching Melori's phone in her hands. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled, attempting to focus as much energy as possible. "Sequitur." She released her grip on the phone, allowing it to hover over her hands. Surrounding Mel's object was a form of visible energy. Normally it would lead them in the direction Melori's captor took her, but instead of what she hoped, the spell flopped. The phone wavered, emitting crackles of energy before falling back down into Hope's hands. "Goddamn it," she groaned.

"Either you suck at magic, or whoever took Mel has a powerful witch blocking any locator spells."

"Or whoever took Mel is that powerful witch," Josie sighed. "Maybe we should head back to the school. There's tons of magic there that we can siphon and try helping bypass whatever security measures this person has."

"And maybe with all our magic combined, we can track Mel. Get her back," Hope nodded.

Alaric opened the door to the passenger's seat of the black truck. "I'll drive this one back."

"I'll get the other, then," Hope mumbled, heading back over to the gray vehicle behind her. She clutched Melori's phone in frustration, thinking of all the ways she could be harmed right now. Her only best friend is in danger and Hope could do nothing about it right now.

Josie hitched a ride with Hope. The blonde twin went with her dad to talk to him about her thing from earlier.

The engine was already running, so Hope was able to start turning the vehicle around to go back to the Salvatore School. The ride was short, quiet, and in no time, the four of them returned with one more vehicle than what they left with. Only, they'd hoped to have one more person with them.

They all exited the vehicles after they were parked. Hope sighed heavily, "I'll go raid our room to see if there's something of hers with a stronger connection. That should help."

"We'll be in Dad's office," Josie nodded.

Hope marched back in and went to her room as quickly as possible. She looked at Mel's side of the room, searching around for something that'd be valuable to her. Something she cherished. The stronger the bond, the stronger the locator spell will be, and the better the chance they'd have to bypass the spell blocking them.

One way or another, Hope was going to find her friend.

She went to search the closet but only found clothes- both hers and Mel's alike. She then checked Melori's drawers, only finding a bunch of school stuff and undergarments. But after checking underneath the girl's bed, Hope found that metal box that was retrieved when they were in Fort Valley. Admittedly, Hope found it before. She just resisted the urge to open it and snoop. But now, it was probably her best chance at getting her girl back.

She grabbed the box and sat on the bed with it on her lap. She examined it carefully to find some way to open it as there was no latch or lock... It seemed impossible to open.

Must be magically protected, Hope thought, smiling. Smart girl. Hope moved on to feeling around the box with her hands, closing her eyes to concentrate on feeling for the magic. There had to be some indication for what magic was used, or how to bypass it.

Eventually, she brought one hand underneath the box and felt around it. Somewhere in the middle, she felt a dip in what's supposed to be a flat surface. She continued to curiously feel around the strange fingertip-sized dip until eventually, she felt a pinch. Hope winched and jerked her hand back to see that her middle finger had been pricked and that there was a little dot of blood leaking from it. She looked down and watch the box unlock itself and reveal the contents inside.

"However you just opened, box... thank you," she sighed.

There were many things inside that piqued her interest. The first thing was some jewelry that had been in the family for centuries. That part was obvious. There were many vampire rings and necklaces and amulets with similar patterns to the ones in the box. But it was strange to see something as rare as a black opal incorporated into them. Hope figured it had to have been from her dad's side of the family. Sometimes they give good luck to witches, if properly owned by them.

Beneath the jewelry was what Hope assumed was Blake Bennett's grimoire. It was obvious. Big old book, likely with ancient symbols on them? Duh. Of course, it's the grimoire.

Hope decided against looking through her dad's spells. One, she had her own, and two, it wasn't hers to meddle with. However, sticking out of the corner of the grimoire was a picture. Hope carefully pulled it out and examined it. In the photo was a woman, a man, and three little kids: two boys and a green-eyed girl, all identical.

It was Mel's parents and brothers. Hope had never seen them before, so this was new to her. And it showed exactly where Melori got her eyes from.

"Enough snooping," Hope said aloud. "This should do." She closed the box and returned it to its previous location. The picture was still in hand as she exited the room, holding the photo close. There was one thing Hope was certain of right then, and one thing only.

One way or another, Melori is coming home. And whoever took her will suffer.