"So…" Leaning on the back frame of her bed, Hope stretched her legs as her eyes darted over to John. "You successfully extorted the book from Penelope." She looked at the leather-covered book that the young man was taking out from his bag.
Dropping his bag on the floor, John tilted his head from one side to the other. "I wouldn't call that extortion." He said, throwing the notebook upon the bed.
"Then what would you call it?"
"I just… coerced her into handing me the book by saying that if she didn't, there was the chance someone might slip about her… wrongdoings."
"I'm pretty sure that if I write that on Google, it will feed back to me that it is a partial description of extortion." Hope deadpanned.
"… Anyway," John decided to divert from the topic, which earned him a roll of eyes from Hope. "I got it and was wondering what I should do with it."
Hope slightly widened her eyes in surprise. "I thought you would have read it by now." She said, grabbing the book and letting it rest on her lap.
Walking around the bed, John sat by her side after throwing away his shoes. "Despite my desire to possibly know the gossip of everyone in the school, I resisted this urge with everything I had and didn't open it yet." He crossed his legs and took the book. "But now that we are here and with free time, want to read it together?"
"Wouldn't this be an invasion of privacy?"
"Hope, dear…" John rested a hand on her shoulder, moving it to cup her cheek. "We live in a school with a hundred other teenagers, with many of us having enhanced senses. People invade our privacy and vice-versa all the time just by existing." He said with a soft voice, gently rubbing her cheek with his thumb before retreating his hand.
Hope, despite enjoying the affection, had an even expression on her face. Just say you want to read it. She nonchalantly thought, her nostrils flaring weakly while her eyes accompanied John's hands, observing him opening the book.
"We will just read it once." He said to Hope whilst his eyes were still on the book. "And then, we will burn it or simply break down the spell in it."
"Tsk, okay." Hope leaned forward, getting a better view of the pages. "Just so you know, I'm not exactly happy about what we are doing."
"Even if the first pages are Lizzie writing about you?" John looked up at Hope.
Silently and quickly, Hope fetched the book back from John's hands and started to read the pages.
"I'm actually surprised that Lizzie accepted something from Penelope. From my talks with Josie, they weren't close even when she dated her sister." John commented.
Not averting her eyes off the book, Hope replied. "I'm sure she thought of something to be able to do that." Slowly, a frown formed on Hope's forehead. "Hmph, bitch." She scoffed, lacking much of the hate normally needed to say that word.
Heh, already forgot what she was saying. John chuckled. From where he was, he could also read what was written on the pages. And after a few lines, he nodded to himself. Yep, they definitely are frenemies.
"What are you nodding for?" Hope asked.
"Nothing." John promptly replied, reaching his hand out and leafing to the next page.
The next couple pages were a mix of texts, numbers and even some drawings from apparently half a couple different people if the difference in handwritings was anything to go by.
Magically printed on the white papers were many different things, from homeworks to what seemed to be writings of a diary.
Some of them seemed incomplete and others were obviously complete texts. Many of the black words described mundane and ordinary things, from someone just recounting their days in their diaries to random thoughts that ended up being written.
There were also more intimate writings, such as what John and Hope deduced to be letters exchanged between students in classes or in a similar situation.
The pages flew by and thus did the time. Through the open windows, the sunlight bathing certain areas of the room changed as the sun started to set. Now, orange hues of light invaded between the curtains, setting a cozy atmosphere.
By now, John was the one holding the book in his hands and his back leaning on the back frame of the bed. On his shoulder, Hope rested her head, also reading the book but with not the same amount of focus and attention than he'd given before. Instead, she relaxed, occasionally closing her eyes to simply enjoy their moment of innocent intimacy.
"Can I tell you a truth?" John muttered, leafing to the next page.
"Hm?" Hope hummed in indication for him to proceed with his words.
"I expected a few more gossips than this." John said, his nostrils flaring as he breathed out. "And at least some real good ones, not this thing about how Alyssa and Jed skipping classes to make out." He shook his head, clearly disappointed.
When acquiring Penelope's diary, John expected more. Maybe someone plotting against a professor or even the remote possibility of a witch coven conspiring to mess with the school. But he got none of that. Instead, he just learned that the School's Pack's Alpha and the arsonist witch are fucking each other earlier than what was mentioned in the series. But truthfully? John couldn't care less about it.
It's not like I expected much. Most of the reason I acquired this book besides taking out a source of information from Penelope is to "learn" about the Gemini Curse. For that, I gotta thank Penelope for trying to stalk on me. John thought, an impassive expression taking over his face as he leafed through the pages.
I was a little apprehensive that Penelope might not hand me the book because of such knowledge and that I could possibly spread it through the school or alert Josie or Lizzie. Thankfully, I think she didn't think about it much. Or she thought I would destroy it or whatever. Anyway, it's not like she had much of a choice. I basically threatened her to hand it over. Quietly and slowly, John moved his hand around Hope. With gentle movements, he started patting and rubbing her head while also caressing her hair.
"I love the scent of your shampoo."
"I will share it with you if you want." She muttered, her eyelids slowly opening. "Found anything interesting or still disappointed?"
"The latter." John said, going to the next page. By now, he was leafing through the book at a certain pace. If his eyes didn't find anything that caught his interest, he would not give it much attention and simply go to the next page.
By now, he was almost half-way through the book. There was nothing written by Dr. Saltzman yet in the pages read by him from the looks of it, so he just continued to go through the notebook while also enjoying his time cuddling with Hope.
Just then, he felt Hope nudge her head against his shoulder, trying to find a better position to rest.
"Still sleepy?"
"A little." She nodded.
"If you want, I can go to my room."
"Don't you dare." Hope said, bringing her blanket up to cover just her legs. "I just found the spot."
Chuckling, but doing his best for Hope to not feel the weak tremors of his restrained laughter, John curtly nodded. "If you say so…" He whispered, going silent afterwards.
Completely settled, Hope exhaled a short deep breath. Then, for the next seconds, John could listen to the rhythm of her breath steadying.
She fell asleep. A warm smile tucked John's lips, his movements the minimal possible for he feared even him breathing to wake Hope up.
Because of that, his hands dropped onto his lap very slowly. And then, the book which rested in his hands floated into the air, his mind working for not even the flick of the pages to be heard by her.
If John then was leafing the pages at what could be considered a fast rate, now he was moving through it in slow motion.
This will take a while. He thought, but not bothered by it. The soft sound of Hope's breath did wonders to bring a sensation of warmth and tenderness to his soul.
As John read more of the book and more time passed, even the orange lights from the sun setting vanished. Now, only the faintest lights from the small light poles in the school's backyard reached the room, which was not enough to set away the darkness that engulfed it.
Truly, John wasn't bothered by it either. His sight worked in the darkness just as well as it did in broad daylight. Instead, what started to bother him by the pass of time was something different.
For despite having reached the second half of the notebook, he still didn't find anything that could be remotely traced to the Gemini Coven despite finding writings that he could guarantee that belonged to Alaric.
A frown was starting to form over John's forehead. In the series, he ripped off the pages from many books in the library that mentioned The Merge. Is he preventing from mentioning it even in his handwritings? John raised the idea, with his thoughts just further working to make him question the situation. Now that I think about it… I have read more than half a thousand books from that library, most of them about magic and I found no books with pages apparently ripped off. Did I just not run through one of them or did Alaric simply get rid of them? Thinking to this point, John weighed the options and his facial features hardened.
In slight desperation, the pages from the book that were previously passed so slowly to not make any noise started to speed up, enough to produce weak winds that made the boy's hair swing.
From a normal human perspective, John's eyes would be like a blur, scanning every drawn line and written word in the book. And as he noticed the stack of pages remaining to be ready were thinning, he was losing hope in his search.
Come on, come on…! John bit the inner part of his lower lip as his eyes were filled with love letters, sketches and even bank account numbers.
In a matter of seconds, the couple hundred pages remaining for him to read were gone and only a couple dozen ones remained.
Despite not having seen a single word that he could potentially link to the twins' coven, he put all of his remaining belief in these last pages. He prayed there was anything in there, a half-written phrase, something Alaric could have written on a napkin and threw away later, anything would be accepted by John at this moment.
And as if the world itself listened to his prayers and responded to him, when John went to the next page and was about to immediately go for the next one, his eyes stopped over something that caught his interest.
It was something that was highlighted from all other texts and phrases on the couple pages before the boy. For what he was looking at seemed to be written by an adult and at the same time a young kid who was learning to write.
Was he drunk? The boy asked himself, knowing pretty well the headmaster was a man facing alcoholic problems from past years.
It was a short phrase, seemingly written on what he guessed to be a diary or personal notebook.
Nothing, Caroline found nothing again. Six years, that all we have left to save my girls from this curse.
The words weren't wrong, but the letters were twisted and blurry, with some words having lines crossing them once or multiple times, like someone wanting to cover it with the pen they just used to write.
However, that was not enough to hide what John read. It wasn't enough to stop him from using it as a way to start helping someone.
Yeah, this is enough. John thought, relief washing over him as he took a deep breath, letting the air enter his lungs and escape through his lips.
Just when he did it, John felt Hope moving her head on his shoulder. An instinctual response from her, almost like asking him to remain still.
Should I wake her up and tell her? John asked himself, pondering over what he should do. It makes sense. If I was unaware of what I know and read such words, I would immediately want to share it with somebody else when learning someone's life was at risk.
Calmly and quietly, John put his hand over Hope's shoulder and shook her with the least amount of strength whilst calling her name.
"Hope. Wake up, Hope." He whispered in her ear.
Thankfully, for someone with enhanced senses, this amount of action was enough to wake her up.
Her eyelids flickered, opening to reveal drowsy blue eyes that aimlessly looked around, trying to settle herself in.
"Hm?" Hope let out a soft hum, slowly noticing her surroundings. "John, what time is it?" She asked, her words a little sloppy.
"Around 8 P.M."
"Did you wake me up to have dinner?" Hope raised her head off his shoulder, finding his golden glowing eyes looking at her.
Slowly, John shook his head. "No, it's for something else." He raised the notebook off his lap again. "I found something in the book, something… quite worrying."
Hearing such words, Hope's mind seemed to clear a little more as her eyes gained more focus. "What did you find?"
"I think it's a phrase written by Dr. Saltzman. Something about saving the twins." John replied. "It seems to be recent, not older than a week from the looks of the dates written in previous pages. His writing is very sluggish and he even tried to cover it by scratching the words, but it is quite clear to read once you can ignore the lines." Very quickly, the book which was still floating until now fell onto John's hands, with him bringing it closer to Hope.
However, despite knowing something was in front of her, Hope couldn't see anything written on yet due to the darkness. The werewolves' eyesight offered them to see through the darkness only enough to recognize shapes and forms, more than that and they would need to be transformed. And when transformed, such precise night vision wasn't of use to any werewolf, for they only thought on how to kill what stood before them.
Fortunately, Hope changed that very quickly with a single set of words. "John, could you turn on the lights?"
"Oh, right." John said in realization. With a flick of his finger, the switch on the wall changed and lights around Hope's room illuminated everything.
John didn't suffer from the sudden change of darkness to light, but Hope squinted her eyes a little before her focus wandered to where the boy was guiding her to.
"Was he drunk when he wrote it?" Hope muttered, her eyes narrowing as she took the book off John's hands. "Six years, that all we have left to save my girls from this curse." She read the words written on the white paper, a frown of doubt taking over her features. "Curse? The girls are cursed?"
"From the looks of it." John replied. "Since you know them for longer than me, I expected you would probably have more idea about all of this."
"I don't." Hope shook her head, crossing her legs under the blanket and straightening her back. "I've never heard from Dr. Saltzman or anyone else about the girls suffering from a curse."
"A secret, then." John said. "Strange, I never saw anything out of place with Josie when looking at her physiology. Besides the differences she has compared to the average witch, she doesn't seem afflicted by some kind of curse, I think I would know about it." This time, John's words were completely true since he didn't see anything that could be remotely traced to a magical curse in Josie when looking through her. "Do you think the girls know?"
"Probably not. If it's really something that endangers their lives, I would bet mine that Dr. Saltzman would keep it a secret from them until he could no more so as not to worry them." Hope replied, eyes still looking at the written words. "Six years… six years until something happens." Hope deduced.
"The girls would be what, 21 or 22 until then?"
"Yeah." Hope nodded. "Something will happen when they are 21 or 22 years old."
"It seems so."
Hope had a bothered and worried facial expression now, her eyes never wavering away from the book. "A curse… So that's why Mrs. Forbes has never showed up in the school for more than a couple days the past two years. She isn't only recruiting students if she is even doing that, she is trying to find a solution for some curse that affects the twins."
An eerie silence filled the room, stretching through time until John cut it with his words.
"What should we do?"
"We?" Hope looked at him.
"I mean, we are going to help, right?" John said. "We can help the girls in our own way."
Staring into John's eyes, Hope nodded. "We don't know yet what kind of curse they are under. We first have to learn about it."
"Well, I read hundreds of books from that library and found nothing. We probably won't find anything related to this curse in the school if Dr. Saltzman is trying to keep it hidden from the girls."
"Not finding anything in the library doesn't mean you won't find anything in the school." Hope said, closing the notebook in her hands. "Despite my admiration for what Dr. Saltzman does for everyone, I know he has some tendencies of control. Everything that he considers to bring a certain level of danger to the school is not made public and hidden in the school's archives. There might be something there we can learn about."
"And how exactly do you know about that?" John curiously asked.
Cheekily, Hope smirked. "I have basically been his sidekick for the last year and half. Even if he doesn't share everything with me, one or two things escape from him sometimes when we talk. All I do is just put two and two together and I end up learning about certain things."
"Look at this… we have a smart one here." John said, rubbing Hope's head while smiling as well.
With a broad smile on her lips, Hope permitted her hair to get messy for sometime before John retreated his hand. "Okay, if we want to help the twins, we have to do one thing first."
"We have to rob the school's archives to learn about the curse." John said.
"… I am really starting to get worried with you suggesting we do something illegal every time an idea pops up." Hope deadpanned.
"Relax, I was joking this time." Mostly. John crossed his arms. "Let me guess, we have to share what we know about this whole situation with Dr. Saltzman."
"What I was thinking." Hope nodded. "If we want to help, that's one of the best options. They have been trying to find a solution for years, knowing what they know would help us a lot and also save time for us from looking at places that have nothing." She explained. "Once we do that, we can think about how we should progress later."
"Understood." John nodded. "Do you want to do that now? It's early, Dr. Saltzman must still be awake."
"It would be for the best to do it as soon as possible." Hope agreed, slowly taking off the blanket over her legs. "But first, let's have dinner. I'm hungry after taking such a long nap."
"Hmph, okay." John humorously huffed. "Normally I am the one postponing things for later so I can eat first, but I will let you take that role today." He said, getting up from the bed.
As they reached the door, Hope lightly punched John's arm. "Stop making fun of me or I will get mad." Despite her words, Hope continued to smile in enjoyment.
In a way to answer her words, John pulled Hope by her waist and gave her a deep but shot kiss. "I would love that." He said, his hand sliding into hers as John brought Hope out of the room and guided her through the hallway, the door closing by itself as they walked together to the dining hall.
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A/N
I won't lie, I should've introduced the Merge in earlies chapters, but I forgot it.
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