Hours passed since Mark and Mel returned to the Salvatore school with Ivan, Beau, and Amir. Nightfall came and no one returned. It really bothered Mel when she woke up from her nap and realized this. It almost made her feel guilty for having a good time with Beau while they were out on some (likely) dangerous mission. One that likely involves Landon's return.

Melori decided to wash up before making a ton of phone calls to find out where everyone was. The first she wanted to make was to Davina so she could help with looking through the new box of her dad's spells for a safe way to rid them of Malivore. The better person to ask about that would've been Octavia, but she had her own problems to deal with.

She figured Beau wanted to shower when she heard them get up, so she left the shower running. They said hey to Melori in a low, groggy voice before sliding into the shower, soliciting a playful snort from Mel. She told Beau where to find fresh toiletries and decided to pass on drying her hair– all because she didn't feel like it– and went on to put on some clothes. She grabbed her phone and started making the round of phone calls, starting with the first person in her contacts. Alaric.

Putting her phone on speaker and setting it on her nightstand, she went to find the shirt she had earlier and put it on. She started to search for her underwear; which is apparently the most evasive clothing piece to find in these situations. Mel let out a frustrated sigh when she couldn't find it in an obvious spot. The call went to voicemail after the last ring. That earned another sigh, only this one held some worry. She ended the call and moved on to the next contact, Davina.

"Beau," she called. Mel heard the shower turn off and called out again. "Beau! Have you seen my undies?"

"Only when I took them off," they called back.

Mel shook her head with a sigh then grabbed the sheets of her bed. She flung it a few times until she saw her panties fly from under the sheets and land silently in front of her bed. "Little bastard," she mumbled as she reached for them. It felt as if her heart dropped when she heard the doorknob turn, saw the door itself open, and witnessed Hope make possibly the most untimely entrance of all time.

She stopped abruptly when she saw the mess of clothes scattered around Mel's bed; her eyes widened when she saw Mel clutching her underwear in her hand and even more so at the realization that they weren't on her. Melori yanked the comforters to cover herself. Though she was likely too late doing so.

Hope opened her mouth, trying to find anything to say. The nature of untimeliness increased tenfold when Beau exited the bathroom, whistling cheerfully like the clueless fool they are. They paused when they realized the situation, looking back and forth between Mel and Hope. "Oh…this is bad."

"That's my robe," Hope shuddered.

Beau looked at Mel and watched the color drain from her face as she realized Beau was indeed wearing Hope's bath robe. Hope pinched the bridge of her nose, deciding she's seen enough for one lifetime, then turned to leave the room hastily.

"Princess, wait–!" Mel struggled to quickly put on her underwear, then went over to her bag and dumped its contents on the floor. "Goddamn it, Beau, I told you where to find the fuckin'… gah!"

"It was in the cupboard, I didn't know!"

Melori groaned and snatched up some sweatpants from the trip. She grabbed her phone and skipped after Hope while still trying to put on her pants.

She was grateful there wasn't any traffic to keep her from catching up to Hope, but the girl was still difficult to keep up with. Mel kept calling and chasing after her, and it was only when Hope stopped in the kitchen that Mel could finally catch her.

"God, why are you so quick," she huffed. Hope scoffed and went to grab a water bottle from the fridge. She didn't say anything. The silence alone could drive anyone mad, but the look she gave Mel was enough to put a pin in Melori's heart. "Look, I'm sorry about Beau–"

"Why should you be?"

"That look on your face is good enough reason."

Hope shrugged nonchalantly. "It's no big deal, really. There's definitely not some strange naked girl in our bedroom, wearing my bathrobe." She shrugged again then took a long sip of water.

"That's… on me, okay? Don't be mad at them, I didn't realize you put it in there."

"Right, and all the rest is just… fine. It's okay that you didn't call to let us know you're home. Nevermind the stranger."

At that moment, Ivan strolled into the kitchen but stopped at the sight of the two girls standing a fair distance away from one another. He clearly had felt an awkward tension in the air and decided it wasn't worth the trouble of trying to figure out the problem. With that, he slowly backed out of the kitchen, turned on his heels and went back to wherever he came from.

"Correction," Hope smiled sarcastically. "Strangers."

"Look, when we got here, you were all gone so I figured you were out finding man child–"

"Landon."

"-and I just thought it best to not distract you from it. Despite all instincts to be a worry wart and blow up your phone."

"Because you were so worried."

"I'm always worried about you. Don't ever doubt that again. I–" Mel pressed her hands together, taking a deep breath. "Let's not. Okay? Just – tell me how it went. Did you find him?"

Hope inhaled sharply, shaking her head. "It's… been a long couple of weeks."

Mel nodded slowly. She understood that all too well. She sat into one of the barstools at the island counter, giving Hope her undivided attention. Hope put her water bottle off to the side and leaned against the opposing counter with a sigh.

"You missed a lot, Mel. I know you had to go. You needed to find answers for what happened to your family, but… we really needed you. I really needed you."

"Tell me."

Hope shook her head. "No, you heard me ramble about Landon enough over those calls. You tell me about your time away instead."

"That can wait. I've got spoils to show you. The story behind that and the strangers I brought back will come with it. Did you find Landon?"

"Well, yes and no."

"It can't be both, Princess, that doesn't make sense."

"It will. Come on."

"Should I be concerned?" Melori followed close behind Hope. She tried to figure out where she was leading her, and it quickly became evident that they were heading to the gym.

"Depends on how this goes."

"Can I be told what's happening now? The anticipation is triggering."

Hope sighed when they reached the gym doors. Mel took a peek through the windows and saw a huge iron cage at the center of it, and in the cage was a certain curly-haired boy, unconscious and chained up. Surrounding him were only some of the people Mel expected to still be here post shutdown.

"Why's your boyfriend in a cage?"

"Because that's not Landon."

Hope pushed the doors open, capturing the attention of everyone in there. Mel did a quick headcount; Alaric, Lizzie, Jed, MG, and someone she didn't recognize. Someone new.

"Mel," Ric smiled. "Good to see you're back."

"And in convenient timing," Lizzie said. "Welcome back, Wolfie."

"Wolfie? Aw, I have a nickname now? You've really missed me then."

"There was some… worrying involved," the blonde shrugged.

"So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that's our dear friend Malivore inhabiting his human vessel of a son."

"Well said."

"And how'd we come about capturing Landivore and having a new member of the team?"

"I wonder the same about that boy… and the one you f–"

"Nevermind!" Melori blurted, shooting Hope a stern look. "No matter. Nice to meet you, I'm Melori."

The new girl took Mel's extended hand, smiling sweetly. "It's nice to meet you as well. I'm Cleo."

Mel was surprised by Cleo's thick accent, but she was also very intrigued. She knew of only one woman who was born and raised in Africa. She was the strangest psychic witch Mel had ever seen in New Orleans. In her life, really. "Your accent… Nigerian?"

"In a way, yes. But that is another story for another day. For now, we have bigger problems to get into… And he just woke up."

The bunch of them turned to face Malivore– or as Mel prefers, "Landivore." He sat upright in the chair provided to him, looking at each and every one of them with a smug smile on his face.

"Well this is fun," he said. Mel found it eerie how it was Landon's voice she heard and how it was also not. Where before there was the tone of a love-struck orphan hoping to find his purpose in the world, now there was this ancient tone of maliciousness. There's even a hint of cunningness, as if he's the type to enjoy playing games with his enemies.

She's never been a fan of possession. Of all the things to scare her, to really shake her to her core, possession is the one thing that gets to her. At least with killers, they have their own identities. They own their identities. Possession takes that away. Sometimes it even erases someone's entire life.

And here she stands before Landon's physical body, controlled by his golem father's consciousness.

A chill went down her spine. It took all her will not to show her discomfort.

"This is it? The whole of your flock? I thought I earned a bigger welcome party than this. I thought I… struck more fear."

"It's hard to fear someone in a scrawny body like that," Lizzie scoffed. She turned to Hope, wincing. "No offense to your boyfriend and all."

She shrugged, "None taken. Of all the things you could've chosen, why him?"

"He's human... now, anyway. Perfect against those pesky anti-supernatural barriers you love to use. But most of all, he's unassuming, as you pointed out. So unassuming, in fact, no one will suspect me for…" Landivore inhaled as if he intended to say more, but a smile crept across his face. "Well, I can't say. Supervillain motives and all."

Melori fought the urge to shudder yet again. That's exactly something Landon would reference to. She knew him enough to know that much. Malivore could very well be channeling some of Landon's personality to throw them off. Clearly it's working. At least on Mel.

"But you know who I am. What I am, what I've done. Yet you stand before me, unafraid. You should be afraid."

"It's hard to fear someone cowering behind monsters. Sending them to do your dirty work for you," Mel said.

"I suppose that's why I'm here now. In this vessel, I mean. But here in this cage? Tell me…" He leaned forward, examining them as if to find something in each of their eyes. Melori was so focused on how unnerving this is that she almost didn't notice his eyes lingering on Cleo. "What do you hope to gain?"

"We want you out of Landon," Ric said. "Then we want you gone for good."

"And how do you plan to accomplish that?" Landivore said. His gaze turned to Cleo. "You tried getting rid of me once. How'd that work out?"

Melori turned to Cleo and Cleo lifted her chin with determination and deviancy. "I cannot say. Superhero motives and all."

Somehow Mel knew she had no idea how to truly defeat him. But Cleo did know how not to give her position away.

"Touché, Sowande." Malivore leaned back into the chair, a bored sigh erupting from his lips. "You know, there's no way for you to expel me from Landon's body. Unless you kill me. But get this," he paused, holding a finger up. He lowered his voice to a loud whisper. "You can't kill me without killing him."

"That's true," Melori nodded. "But there's always a way. There's always a loophole."

"And what are you going to do, hm? The girl who can barely do magic?"

Mel blinked. He remembers me, she thought. It surprised her, truly. She figured he'd have little knowledge of every single being that passed through him. But it made some sense. So far, there's only been two people to have been forcefully expelled from Malivore because their existence harmed him; Hope and Melori.

"Don't be shocked, I remember you. And you, Hope Mikaelson. Of course, only one of you is this all-powerful abomination with the means and magic to destroy me and… the other's just a cheap knockoff."

Hope stepped forward, raising a hand towards Landivore. Mel quickly grabbed her arm and gently– yet firmly– pulled her back. Hope was genuinely appalled that she stopped her from raising hell on him. The exchanged looks between one another, both telling something different; Hope wished to make him hurt; Melori didn't want her to do something she'd regret.

"I'm just saying," he continued. Hope sighed heavily in frustration, pulling her arm away. He's really pushing it, huh? Mel said to herself. "Hope's magic's strong. It burned. Yours only tickled. It grew annoying."

"That's enough," Ric interfered.

"Oh, but the games are just beginning."

Melori smiled, slightly nodding her head. That's something they could agree on; this is a game. A game of life and death. And she intends to win it. For her sake, for Hope's, for the world's So if it's games Malivore wants to play, it's a game he shall get.

She walked to the cage and leaned against the cold, iron bars, still smiling at not-Landon. He lifted his head to meet her gaze and the two of them stared each other down. Their gazes didn't waver once.

Malivore raised his eyebrows expectantly. Melori leaned in further and whispered to him,

"So let's play."

A/N: I realized that some of my timeline is off. but I kinda like, don't care. this is my first book (kinda, I took the other one down because I didn't like how it was turning out). I'm still learning how to transition into things and get the flow right. I'm still learning to write decently, actually… but it's fine. you might not have realized my mistakes til I just pointed it out though…

oh well :]

it would be better if bad shit would stop happening in life. or if my mental health was more stable but again

oh well.

we're just gonna rock with it. next time I write something I'll do better with that. or try to. it's surprisingly difficult for me. BUT.

~oh well~

it is what it is.

p.s: we finally moved! smaller place, but much nicer :) now to furnish and decorate my room... sigh.