The Necromancer threw open the doors and led the way out into the busy New Orleans street. Hope looked around wildly. It looked like some sort of celebration, but not one she’d ever seen before.

“Does it make you miss home?” the Necromancer taunted, looking over his shoulder at the tribrid.

Hope swallowed. Just breathing made her miss home. This was … something more. She found herself scanning all the faces for familiar ones, even if for just a glimpse of someone she knew in passing.

“Make up your mind yet?” The Necromancer appeared next to her. 

Hope shook her head. “I can’t choose.” But he knew that. That was his whole fucked-up game. It was supposed to be an impossible decision. She was supposed to hurt like this. “You know I can’t choose!”

“That’s the fun, tribrid.” The Necromancer laughed and exposed his yellowed, decaying teeth. He set his hand on top of a casket that came rolling down the street, magically coming to a stop right next to him. “I guess I’ll just make the choice for you.” He slapped the top of the casket and the lid popped open just enough to reveal a sliver of darkness inside. 

Hope couldn’t see who it was inside, but part of her waited in agony to see either her mother or her father come bursting out. The Necromancer stepped back and motioned for her to look.

She stood her ground, knowing there was a trick coming. It was going to be whoever she didn’t choose by the time she got there. Or it was going to be their dead body. Or some other Gotcha! moment.

But Hope eventually found herself opening the lid anyway, reeling when she found nothing but the sickening white cushioning inside. There was no one waiting.

“I can’t believe you let yourself get tricked again,” the Necromancer said, barely able to speak he was laughing so hard. Hope couldn’t move. “You must be such a disappointment to your family. Pathetic, really.”

That turned her frozen veins into fire. Hope whipped around. “How about I show you how much of a Mikaelson I am and I rip your head off?”

But her seething threat was met with an empty street and her own voice echoed back to her in the silence. The Necromancer and the celebration were gone. It was just her and the casket now.