"We're on a wild goose chase, admit it."

Mark rolled his eyes, "we're not. Be patient."

"Patient?" I scoffed, placing the gas pump handle back in it's place. "Brother, might I remind you we've been traveling halfway across the states for days now... and there's nothing on this lady."

"There's something. We just have to check the other..." Mark checked the list he made in his notepad. "...10 locations Octavia could be."

I chuckled to myself, definitely dying inside. I mean, we've been through six cities in five states. This woman knows how to hide a little too well. And it makes her look guilty as hell.

"Why are there so many locations she could be?"

"It's helpful to have such precautions in place when there's a psycho mud woman trying to pull your strings. And since she's the same one that helped the vampires and lived..." he shrugged.

"...it's smart to have backup plans for backup plans..." I said with him.

"Octavia is a very smart woman."

"Then how'd she end up being your ex-boss's witch on a leash?" My brother returned to his spot in the passenger's. I got back in the car and set us on the road again, heading further north. I looked at the next location circled on the map. Chicago, Illinois. I always wanted to go there.

"Everyone has something they're willing to go through great lengths to protect. Maybe Allison had leverage over her."

"That'd better be it. Otherwise I'm clocking that old hag." I kept my eyes on the road, but I could feel his little blue eyes on me. "What is it?"

"That thing you're doing has been bugging me since we left the Salvatore School."

"What thing?"

"You've been touching the exact same cheek in the exact same place like... every two minutes."

"I haven't been-" I realized through the mirror of the car door that I, in fact, was touching a very specific spot on my face. "Shut up," I mumbled.

"It's weird. It's worrying. What's up?"

I shook my head, placing my hand back on the wheel. "If we're going to talk about weird things we've been doing, then how about you tell me who you've been texting?"

Bai shrugged his shoulders. "The twins. Sometimes Jack," he said honestly. "Now tell me why you've been weird about that spot."

My eyes widened as I glanced at him. I didn't expect him to be so straightforward about it. Neither did I expect him to be talking to those three. Why would he be talking to those three specifically?

I stammered over my words. "O-okay, that's... that's fine." I drove over into the furthest right lane so I could divert onto another highway. "It just... tingles."

"What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means Hope kind of... kind of kissed my cheek and it just feels weird now..."

"Blake!" I was punched in my shoulder so hard that I swear I could hear a bone snap. I glanced at my brother in disbelief.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"Because you're a fucking idiot!"

"Wh-?"

"Do you really need me to spell it out for you?"

I scoffed, then looked at my brother as if he's lost his mind or something. Because he must have absolutely lost his mind. What the hell is he even talking about?

"Markus. I love you, I do, okay? But you're being a lunatic."

Mark inhaled sharply, stopping himself from yelling, I'm sure. "Sister... it's very, very clear that you and Hope have feelings for each other."

I swerved off the main road, pressing down on the brakes so hard that I thought I'd destroy Kaleb's car. Once it came to a complete stop, I put it in park, then turned my whole body to face Mark. Clearly he's gone mental because...

I mean, me and Hope? Feelings for each other? I don't think I could've heard anything more ridiculous.

The second I started to curse him out for being so tremendously stupid, he reached over to put a finger over my mouth.

"You two argue like a divorced couple who clearly still love each other and don't know how to show it."

"You've barely even know of our relationship for five minutes!" I hissed, slapping his hand away. "You can't just assume there's something there when it's not."

"She kissed you-"

"On the cheek, Bailey. A completely friendly goodbye kiss on the cheek."

He smirked. "A kiss isn't supposed to leave a lingering feeling like that. And for days on end? You can't be so oblivious to what that means." My brother played with his premature mustache, squinting his eyes. "Are you in the closet or something? Claiming to be straight? Is that why you're denying this?"

I swear I'm gonna kill this literal man child.

"You're really testing my patience."

"Just- are you or are you not interested in women?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then is it really so unthinkable that you might be in love with Hope? You told me the other day about when you first saw her. Maybe little wolf cub Melori saw baby Mikaelson and developed a crush... Then as you got older, stalking the girl-"

"I wasn't st-"

"-the crush became something more. Then upon actually meeting her, getting to know her and love her as a friend, it's amplified that innocent little crush." He shrugged his shoulders and crossed a leg over the other. "I'm surprised you haven't noticed any complex feelings, especially now that your vampire side's been activated."

"Probably because there aren't any," I said. "Even if I did have feelings for her, there's a number of reasons why we just can't work. One reason being the fact that she's got someone she's in a relationship with. Someone she's obsessed with."

"Perhaps... but isn't she also infatuated with you?"

"A curiosity as to who I am," I mumbled as I started up the car again.

"But now she knows who you are. So why's she still so attached to you? And you, to her? I need to think heavily on that, MB. You'll realize the truth soon enough."

I shook my head at him. "Why are you so fixed on this?"

"You're my sister. I can't let you sit and look like a dog longing for a bone right in front of her... That, and I have a bet to win."

"A bet? With who, and f-for what?"

"You should start driving now." I didn't really bother protesting. Anything to get this stupid conversation to end is fine by me. So, I resumed our journey further north of the country.

---

"Nine to go," Mark sighed as he closed the door of the rundown apartment. It's the only place in Chicago that Mark pinpointed. I leaned against the wall opposite to the apartment.

"Great. Another dead end."

"There was at least this." He tossed me a small booklet. I opened it and found a bunch of names scribbled in it, some crossed out, some not crossed out. Others had bold markings next to them. Most names had a bunch of other names. Names of places, addresses, cities and states. "That's Octavia's handwriting. She must've left it the last time she was here. When that was? I don't know."

I shook my head as I continued to look at the names. "You make a list of names like this, you don't leave it behind."

Mark looked up at me. "It's just names."

"Names with addresses under them. Cities. Some of them have names of creeks, woods, lakes..."

"Why would she have a list with names of natural landmarks?"

"You know her better than I do. You tell me," I sighed. I pointed to one of the names as I read them. It's weird that there are dozens of names with names of places in which most of them are known hotspots for the supernatural. And the crossed out names especially struck me as odd.

One in particular was familiar.

"Bai, look at this." I pointed to the name. "Bartholomew Davidson."

"Who names their kid 'Bartholomew'," Mark whispered.

"His street name was Bat. Stupidly ironic because he was a vampire. And not just any vampire, Mark, he was the leader of the massacres."

Mark's eyes widened as he looked at me. "He-? You're sure?"

"I watched Marcel execute him for his crimes. Af-after Klaus and Elijah hunted him down..." I closed the book, inhaling deeply. "Why the fuck does this lady have his name crossed out on some creepy ass list?"

My brother shrugged helplessly and shook his head. I motioned for him to follow me out of the apartment building. I sighed as I watched Mark march over to the car and sit on its hood. He popped his lip, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm hungry," I sighed.

"We just had blood before we-"

"No, I don't want blood, I want pasta. And french fries and a chocolate milkshake the size of your giant head."

Ignoring my joke, Bailey shook his head. "You have human cravings still?"

"Sure. Is that weird?"

"Well... yes and no? I've only ever seen vampires eat out of boredom. Having cravings might be on the normal side, but you're actually hungry like..." His eyes trailed down to my belly, an eyebrow raised. "Like stomach-growling, hungry."

"My stomach hasn't-" As if on cue, my stomach let out some inhuman, beastly growl loud enough for some passing pedestrians to hear it. I smiled at the lady to my right as she passed. Mark pursed his lips to suppress a sme. "Okay, that's that."

"Take this as a good thing. You're so worried about becoming a ripper, right? Use this as a way to control the hunger like how... a smoker uses junk food to help them quit."

"Hm. Good idea." I joined him in the car. "Where to next?"

Mark reached into his inner pockets to retrieve his list. He crossed out the place we're currently sitting outside of, pursing his lips. "There are two places in New-" When he looked up from the paper, his train of thought was interrupted. I raised my eyebrows at him, expectantly. "Actually, we can stay here."

"Why would we do that? This place is dead."

He pointed ahead of us, smiling. I followed his line of sight to a small group of people readying to use the crosswalk. "The one with the black military bag." I nodded so that he knew I saw her. "That's our girl."

I waited for her to turn in our direction so I could get a good look at her for the first time. I haven't been able to before because, well... I was hiding under a picnic table at night. It was hard to see very much.

When the pedestrian signal allowed their crossing, Octavia and the others started across the street, looking both ways and allowing me to finally see her. My jaw dropped at the fact that she looked so young.

"Dude?"

My brother looked at me. "What? What's wrong?"

"She's hot! And so young, I thought she'd be much older."

"That's not important right now. We have a witch to follow."

"No, we're staying here. We can camp at in her hideout, it'd be easier for her to come to us rather than us going to her."

He nodded, "Fair enough. But right now, you seriously need to eat, sis. Your stomach's going crazy."

I smiled awkwardly and exited the car. One good thing about big cities is the amount of people walking about. Where there's people walking about, there's food carts. And Benito's Burritos is absolutely calling to me right now.

I leaned in the car window. "You want anything?"

"I'm not the one that has human cravings, Mel. Thanks for asking though."

I nodded before running across the street to the burrito stand. Luckily for me, the person in front of me had just left, so I was able to make my order pretty quickly. Of course I asked for literally almost everything I could possibly get on the burrito so I could have this fat, messy and delicious thing to gulf down. God, I bet it's gonna taste even better now that I've got heightened senses.

I paid for the food and returned to my brother to see him leaning against the car. He looked down at the burrito in my hand, raising his eyebrows. "Are you really going to eat all of that?"

I smirked. "Of course I am. I may look small but trust me, this thing's getting conquered in five minutes, tops."

A smile spread across his face as he shook his head. "We should wait for Octavia inside. That way we can catch her off guard."

"Long as I can eat my burrito," I nodded, and we headed back upstairs to wait for Octavia in her safehouse.

We waited hours for Octavia to show up and by now, the sun had gone down. At this point I wanted another burrito. Or blood. Maybe both. I think both of those sound great just about now.

I checked the time on my almost dying phone. "How much longer are we going to sit here? My butt hurts."

"Then stand?" I rolled my eyes at him. How can he just be fine sitting here like this? Must be used to being creepy, waiting in people's houses for them to come home. "You're doing it again. The cheek thing," he pointed out.

I quickly dropped my hand to my side. "Can't you just leave a girl to her own devices?"

"I will. Once you realize you're in love with the tribrid."

"I'm not, you dingus."

"If that's true then why does-"

"Shh."

Mark made a face at me. "Don't shush me, I'm trying to help your oblivious ass."

"Shhhh! Someone's coming."

My brother sat upright at the sound of a key in the door knob. He and I shared a knowing look, happy to finally face this woman and get some well-deserved answers.

I can finally ask why she betrayed Dad. They obviously knew each other. He trusted her. And yet, she aided in getting him and Mom killed.

It was dark in the apartment, so when she finally got in, she didn't see us immediately. We waited quietly in the shadows as she closed and locked the door, then moved to the kitchen to drop something off.

I was standing near the switch of the light that lit up half the open space. I turned it on, startling the woman. She jumped and turned around to face us, and the realization that she'd been found out hit her like a train. I gave her a weak, somewhat angry, but definitely very painful smile.

"Hello, Octavia. Remember me?"

HELLO

sickness update: am still sickly but somehow it's not covid. my mother and baby sister both have it. I can't leave the house til they get better so I have missed a week of school/college.. and I'll have to miss more. probably the week after next is when we're fine to get outta quarantine. who knows?

I guess we should be praising this though.. I didn't expect to upload for another two weeks, minimum 😳

YET HERE WE ARE~

I know I've been slow burning the whole Mel/Hope thing but with the help of her dear brother Markus, our girl will get out of this weird stage of denial.

also let's pretend that while they're away, kicking vampire ass, that everything that happened with Landon and Cleo and Finch in the show is happening now because I'm lazy and I don't feel like trying to figure all that out. :) EXCEPT FOR THE PART WHERE HE DIES. that no happen. for now-

okay, I think I'm done rambling :) danke for reading, as usual, my homies. we're almost at 25k. bonkers, I know, I know. ya girl's gettin' famous hehehehe~