“So you think your unresolved feelings for Hope are guilt?” Lizzie asked, squinting her eyes at her sister.
Josie nodded. “I just keep thinking … someone here killed her. How did I not know someone here killed her?”
“What do you mean someone here killed her?” Lizzie sat up suddenly, ears pricking in interest.
“Well that’s what she said. That someone at the school killed her.” Josie crossed her arms and began pacing. “And I just … what if I could’ve stopped it? What if I could’ve stopped her from turning her humanity off? What if I could’ve helped her instead of - of whatever it was I was doing instead?”
“Living your life?” Lizzie arched her eyebrows. “You can’t beat yourself up about that, Jo. Hope turned her humanity off because she wanted to turn her humanity off. Nothing you could’ve done would’ve stopped that. She’s happier like this.”
“Well that’s just it, Lizzie. She’s not happy. Happy is a feeling. She doesn’t have those. She chose nothing over everything.” Josie shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t imagine wanting to turn off her emotions. No happiness? No love? No excitement? No joy? She couldn’t imagine being that empty. But that would also mean no guilt. She sighed and turned to her sister. “I have a confession to make.”
“Okay?”
Josie moved to sit in front of her sister, face to face. “Hope and I … well, you know that we hung out that summer. But we weren’t just friends with benefits. We dated. I loved her.”
“Obviously.” Lizzie smiled. “Your heart is not subtle, Jo.”
“Yeah? Did you know I hooked up with her this summer too?”
“You what?”
“She offered, and I … just went.” Josie dropped her eyes, cheeks burning in shame. “I’m easy like that apparently.”
“You’re not easy.” Lizzie stiffened. “Hope’s manipulative like that. You don’t want to sleep with her, and then she shows up and all of a sudden you do!”
“What?”
“I mean, what is it that makes her so irresistible?” Lizzie ranted. “How does she control people like that? She just slinks in and wraps whoever she wants around her finger -”
Josie stuck out a hand. “Are you mad that we slept together?”
“No.” Lizzie shook her head. “No, I am furious at Hope Mikaelson, and I have half a mind to go tell where she can shove her stupid high heels!”
“Please don’t,” Josie said quietly. “I want to move on. That means no dragging her back into our lives like that.”
Josie stuck out a pinkie, and Lizzie wrapped hers around it, crossing her fingers behind her back.
“No dragging her back into our lives.”