Mazikeen sat atop a table, swinging her legs around childishly, as Landon, Hope, Jesse and Ari wandered around the library.

"Don't touch that!" Hope snapped. "Sorry I didn't— I wasn't—" Landon stammered. "Where are we?"

Jesse signed with his hands, "The Stefan Salvatore Memorial Library." But Landon, not understanding sign language, looked confused. "We're in the Stefan Salvatore Memorial Library." Ari explained, signing as she did so Jesse could feel included in the conversation.

"Oh... is Jesse.. deaf?" Landon asked. "Yeah, he is. He mostly communicates with sign language but he is really intelligent and can lip read too, so don't underestimate him." Mazikeen explained, also signing. Jesse scratched the back of his head, blushing slightly at Maze's compliment.

"All of the artefacts in here have a supernatural history." Hope began, signing the best she could. Landon looked down at an artefact on display. "What's the story on this one?" He asked as Ari helped interpret what Landon was saying, for Jesse.

"No idea, but in my experience, your safest bet is to not touch it." Hope responded. "Noted. I'm sorry about earlier." Landon replied. "Wait.. what happened earlier?" Maze asked, intrigued. "I was wolfing out and Landon appeared." Hope quickly explained before she looked to Landon. "You shouldn't have been out there."

"Yeah. I'll file that under the things that seem really obvious after the fact. So... I guess this means you're a werewolf.." Landon began, before turning to Mazikeen and Ari. "You're witches... and you are?" He asked Jesse.

Jesse had an amused smirk on his lips, before he let his yellow werewolf eyes appear. "Woah." Landon blurted, in surprise.

"I'm a lot of things." Hope confessed, before Landon turned his attention back to Hope. "Care to elaborate?" He asked.

"They're just gonna make you forget tomorrow." Maze reminded the Kirby. "Come on. Humor me." The curly haired boy pleaded, looking between the group.

❤︎

Maze had grown bored with being in the library. Something about Hope and Landon talking and lowkey flirting bothered her. She didn't know why, maybe because Jesse and Ari had left and she had began to feel like a third wheel.

Mazikeen opened the door to Josie and Lizzie's dorm, and closed it behind her. "Hey." She smiled, as her sisters sat up. "Hey! Come join the cuddle pile." Lizzie insisted.

Maze didn't need to hear anymore, as she threw herself between her two sisters and made herself comfortable. Josie and Lizzie just laughed at her enthusiasm.

Mazikeen felt at peace being with her sisters... it was the only time she really felt like she could let her walls down, and be herself.

"I saw Bianca with her tongue down Penelope's throat." Josie huffed, as Maze and Lizzie frowned.

Penelope and Bianca had been dating for about a year, but before they dated, Josie and Penelope were together. The brunette Saltzman had noticed how Penelope treated Lizzie and Maze and ended up dumping her, but barely a couple days later the Park was dating Bianca.

Josie couldn't lie, it did hurt.. as much as she hated Penelope for how she treated her sisters, a part of her still had feelings for her.

"Just... forget about her. Focus on somebody new." Lizzie suggested. "Maybe a good crush will even you out." Maze suggested, before thinking about her own love life.

She couldn't think of anything worse than being in a relationship right now.. not while she was in this headspace.

"I'm setting my sights on Rafael. If he ever speaks to me again after I was such a freak show." Lizzie trailed off. Mazikeen faced Lizzie, "What happened?" She asked. "I don't even want to talk about it." Lizzie admitted, embarrassedly.

"Anyway Mazey, you should set your sites on somebody." Lizzie suggested, trying to change the topic. Maze shrugged, "I haven't really thought about a relationship or anything..." She admitted, as truthfully she wasn't interested in anyone.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The three sisters sat up, before it opened. Alaric stood in the doorway, and smiled down at his daughters.

"Maze, can I talk to you for a moment?" He asked, with a smile. Maze looked between Lizzie and Josie before she got up. "Sure Dad." She replied.

The pair stepped outside, as Alaric closed the door behind them. The father and daughter walked further down the corridor before the older Saltzman looked down at the younger one.

"How would you feel about moving back in to the dormitory?" He finally asked. Maze blinked in surprise, "Wait.. really?" She asked, with a sense of excitement. Alaric nodded, "The girls have noticed that you haven't really been yourself since you've been sleeping in the cellar, and I thought maybe moving you back into a dorm might lift your spirits."

Maze nodded, but scoffed for a moment. "I mean... what would you expect? My nights have been pretty lonely. And I've been made to feel like I'm insane." She admitted, before she crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart." Alaric said, his face faltering. "Dad... am I broken?" Maze suddenly asked. Alaric felt his stomach turn with guilt, and for a second he didn't answer, as he thought about the crazy people she had for biological parents... of course, Mazikeen wasn't them. The moment of silence filled Maze with doubt. "No, of course not." The older Saltzman finally said, offering the blonde a smile.

Despite his words, Maze doesn't feel convinced.

"So... who will I share a room with?" Maze asked, deciding to change the subject, before she could get upset over the fact that her Dad probably thought she was broken and crazy too, like everyone else. "Hope." Alaric responded, as the younger Saltzman thought about it.

Maze and Hope were close when they were kids, but as Mazikeen became more familiar with her magic and became dangerous, and Hope's life became busy with the Hollow and family issues, the duo had drifted apart.

But the truth was, Maze thought Hope was absolutely beautiful, and even though she wouldn't openly admit it, she was excited to spend more time with the girl... and hopefully rebuild the friendship they'd lost.

"Is Hope okay with this?" Maze asked. Alaric nodded. "I asked her about it, and she's fine with it. You can start moving your stuff into the dorm tomorrow." Alaric smiled.

Maze nodded, before she stepped forward and hugged Alaric. Alaric hugged her back, feeling guilt rise in his chest. He had been too busy worrying about how much of a danger Mazikeen was, that he hadn't noticed that she'd become depressed. It wasn't until Josie and Jade pointed it out, that he'd actually stopped to realise.

❤︎

The Next Day

Molly and Jade walked down the corridor, Molly huffing at her daughter. "Why would you promise Jesse that he can have icecream for breakfast?? That's so unhealthy." Jade rolled her eyes playfully before she looked to her mother, "He was beating me at Just Dance... I needed to distract him with something so that I could win!" She insisted.

The duo stopped, as Molly noticed from the hallway, that Dorian was standing in the library, looking surprise by something.

The older Hale stepped into the library, followed by her daughter. "Hey Dorian. What's wrong?" She asked. "The alarm didn't trigger. I don't know why." Dorian explained, as the Hales noticed that he was standing by the glass cabinet, where there was an absence of an artefact.

"What was it?" Molly asked. "Knife, dated circa the 11th century. Supernatural origins unknown." Dorian sighed. Jade frowned, looking at the space where the knife had once been, as she couldn't help but wonder who the hell took it.

❤︎

Maze clutched a box with her few belongings in her arm as she walked up the stairs to Hope's room. Suddenly, she was stopped by Jade and Ari. "Mazey! Good morning!" Ari chirped. "Morning." Jade smiled at her ex girlfriend. "Hey guys.. what's the rush?" Maze asked, as they seemed to be heading somewhere.

"Your Dad has called an assembly." Ari explained. "Quickly take your stuff to your dorm and come with us." Jade said, suggestively. The Saltzman nodded, and quickly headed to her new dorm to place her box down. Once she had, she returned to Jade and Ari in the corridor.

The trio headed down the stairs, to the assembly hall, where they met with Jesse. He often sat with Jade, so she could interpret for him incase his mother wasn't going to be present.

"Hey Jesse." Maze waved, as Jesse smiled and waved back at the Saltzman, before he signed with his hands, to ask Maze how she was. "I'm good, how about you?" Maze signed back, as Jesse gave her a thumbs up.

The four sat in the crowd, and were joined by Lizzie and Josie. They looked up at the podium, as Alaric stood behind it. Molly stood it his right, to sign his speech to the crowd for her son and any of the other students that may have been hard of hearing.

"For ten years we've gone undetected. Protecting you, protecting our secret has been our singular mission." Alaric began. Ari felt a nervousness rise in her chest, as she looked to Jade and Maze.

"Tonight I need your help to find Landon Kirby... before he exposes us all."

Maze sat back in her chair, and bit her lip as she thought about the boy who she had considered a new friend. She had a soft spot for Landon, he had been so nice to her, and it was the first time in a while that the Saltzman had opened up like that to someone new.

Now, Maze was angry. She wanted to completely destroy him, for deceiving her.