The rest of the day passed without further trouble for Ethan.
There were no new monsters, no new fights, and no unexpected encounters in the garden. He spent the hours wandering through the building, getting to know every corner all over again while carefully avoiding places where he might run into Hope. By late afternoon, Alaric showed up at his room with a package of folded clothes and the expression of a man who had just solved a complicated logistical problem.
— Here you go — he said, setting the package on the bottom bunk. — Full uniform. I had them adjust it to your size. Let me know if it feels too tight anywhere.
— Thanks, Alaric — Ethan replied with a nod. — Seriously.
Alaric just smiled, gave him a pat on the shoulder, and left.
The next day, Ethan woke up once again in the top bunk with the morning light streaming through the window. This time, he remembered where he was the moment he opened his eyes, and the feeling wasn't one of shock anymore. It was almost routine.
He stretched, climbed down from the bed, and walked over to the clothes package. He put on the uniform with a strange kind of patience, button by button: a white shirt, dark straight-cut trousers, a discreet tie, and a blazer with the school crest embroidered on the pocket. He adjusted his collar in front of the small mirror attached to the door and looked at his own reflection.
The boy staring back at him looked different. More ordinary. More like any of the other students he had seen walking the halls. Only his eyes—deep and dark—betrayed that there was something more.
First day of class, he thought, and almost laughed. For the second time.
He grabbed his scorched jacket, folded it carefully, and tucked it away under the bed. Then he left the room and headed down the stairs, unhurried, with his hands in his blazer pockets.
On the way, he noticed with a quiet relief that he wasn't drawing nearly as much attention as before. There were stares, of course—some curious, others interested—but not as many, and not as persistent. The mystery of the new kid had lost some of its shine. To most of the students, he was just another face, albeit a handsome one, of a guy who had knocked down Jed and, apparently, torn a monster in half.
He was almost at the foot of the stairs when he heard a voice behind him.
— Hey, newbie!
Ethan turned around.
A boy was walking down the steps behind him, a backpack slung over one shoulder and a wide smile on his face. Short, with a round face, and big, energetic eyes. Ethan recognized him instantly: the guy from the gym, the one who had asked about the "fatality."
The boy stopped in front of him and extended his hand.
— MG, by the way — he said. — We haven't been formally introduced.
Ethan stared at the outstretched hand for a second, then shook it.
— Ethan.
— Ethan — MG repeated, pumping his hand enthusiastically. — So, man. Where are you from? Because, seriously, you are insanely strong. I saw that thing. You destroyed that monster like it was nothing. Like you were ripping up a piece of paper.
— I'm from Reseda, MG — Ethan replied, letting go of his hand with a subtle smile. — And that was... in a specific moment. Adrenaline, that sort of thing. Besides, I'm a werewolf.
— Yeah, I know. — MG raised an eyebrow. — But werewolves don't have that kind of strength. Not like yours. I've seen werewolves hurt people, break things, but tear an oneiroi in half with their bare hands? — He shook his head. — No, man. That is not normal.
Ethan stared at him for a moment.
There was genuine curiosity on the boy's face—no malice, no suspicion, just the fascination of someone who had seen something they couldn't explain. He wasn't trying to catch him in a lie. He just wanted to understand.
Ethan shifted his gaze forward and continued down the stairs, with MG walking alongside him.
A few hours earlier, Hope, Alaric, and Dorian had found a unicorn.
It was a magnificent animal with snow-white fur, a silver mane, and a long, spiral horn that gleamed in the twilight. It stood at the edge of the forest near the school grounds, motionless like a statue, watching them with dark, calm eyes. Alaric, crossbow in hand, was the first to find it strange. Dorian, hands on hips, didn't hide his astonishment. Hope approached slowly, hypnotized, extending her hand and saying it was just a horse with a horn.
The unicorn stepped back, let out a sharp whinny, but was restrained by Alaric and Dorian.
None of the three knew at the time what they had just found. That wasn't a unicorn—it was a monster, and wherever it had walked, it had left a trail of tiny, translucent larvae on the ground, almost invisible in the grass. Hope didn't see any of them. Neither did Alaric. Nor Dorian.
But the next morning, while the girl was asleep, one of them crawled up her nose without her even feeling it.
Hope came down the stairs smiling like never before.
It wasn't a normal smile. It was a wide, relaxed grin, her eyes sparkling, like someone who had woken up thinking the world was the most fun thing that had ever existed. She skipped the steps two at a time, her hair swaying behind her, humming some melody-less tune.
In the first-floor lobby, Landon and Rafael were sitting on the couch facing a coffee table loaded with plates, cups, and a basket of bread. Rafael held a cup of juice. Landon was staring at the floor with a thoughtful expression.
— Good morning, handsome! — Hope sang out, stopping in front of Landon.
Landon looked up, surprised.
— Good... good morning?
— Handsome-speak — she added, pointing with a mischievous smile to Rafael, who raised an eyebrow. — You too, don't get jealous.
She reached out and snatched one of the rolls from the basket, taking a huge bite with her eyes closed.
— Mmm. Sweet carbohydrates — she sighed with her mouth full. — Humanity's greatest invention.
— Well, look at that — Rafael said, watching her with a mix of astonishment and distrust. — Someone woke up in a good mood today.
— I got out of bed on the right foot for once — Hope replied with a theatrical wink, chewing away.
— For the first time in your life? — Landon asked with a half-smile, taking a sip of his coffee.
Hope let out a laugh and lightly tapped his shoulder.
— You are so funny! I love that about you.
Landon nearly choked.
Rafael glanced at him sideways, and Landon looked back at Rafael, the two of them silently exchanging the exact same question without a word: What is happening to Hope?
Meanwhile, on the stairs, Ethan was walking down with MG beside him, and the conversation had shifted topics.
— Do you like soccer? — MG asked, hopping down the final steps. — Watch it? Play it?
— Yeah, I do — Ethan answered, hands in his blazer pockets. — But, you know, mostly Brazilian soccer. American soccer never really did much for me.
— Hmm. — MG stopped in the middle of the lobby, thinking. — To be honest, neither do I. American football has way too many pauses. My favorite team is Barcelona, by the way.
— Seriously, man? — Ethan raised an eyebrow with a crooked smile. — Mine's Real Madrid. Without a doubt.
MG placed a hand over his chest as if he'd just been stabbed.
— Hmph. You know nothing, newbie — he joked, shaking his head with exaggerated sadness. — But I'll forgive you. Just this once.
Ethan laughed.
— Hey, girls! — MG called out suddenly, waving.
A bit further down the hallway, two girls were walking arm-in-arm, talking quietly. They were completely different from one another: one had looser blond hair and a bolder look, while the other had dark, tied-back hair in a more reserved style.
Lizzie and Josie.
Lizzie looked up at the sound of MG's voice, and when she saw who was standing beside him, a curious eyebrow arched, and a smile began to form at the corner of her mouth.
— So you two became friends? — she asked, making no effort to hide her amusement.
Ethan smiled and tilted his head.
— Good morning to you too, Lizzie.
— Good morning, Ethan — she replied.
Then her eyes shifted to the other girl, and something clutched tightly in his chest.
Josie was looking at him with curiosity, her head tilted slightly, her face serene, lacking her sister's irony.
— Are you the new student? — she asked in a soft voice.
— I am. — Ethan held her gaze. — And you are...?
He knew her name. He knew that face, that soft-spoken way of talking, that manner of looking straight into people's eyes without aggression. But she didn't know that he knew.
— My name is...
— This is my twin sister, Josie — Lizzie interrupted, linking her arm through Josie's with an official presentation air. — Fraternal, obviously.
Ethan laughed at her.
— Yeah, I noticed — he replied. — Thanks for answering, Lizzie.
Lizzie broke into a shy smile, casting her eyes down at her own feet as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear—something she never did for anyone.
Josie raised an eyebrow.
Her sister. Lizzie. Shy. In a lifetime of living together, she had never seen that happen.
What is going on here?
Across the lobby, Hope was still smiling at Landon, bread in hand and wearing the strange glow of someone with not a single worry in the world.
That was when she heard the sound of conversation in the distance.
A familiar laugh. A deep, calm voice she would have recognized anywhere. She slowly turned her head without thinking and looked toward the foot of the stairs.
And she saw him.
Ethan was standing there in uniform, blazer on, hands in his pockets, talking to MG, while right beside them, wearing the smile of someone who owned the world, stood Lizzie.
Hope's smile faltered.
What is he doing with her?
The thought came fast, sharp, before she even knew why. She scowled, squeezing the bread a little tighter than necessary.
Across the room at the base of the stairs, Lizzie felt the gaze on her back before she even turned around.
She naturally turned her head and saw Hope staring in their direction. Not at her. At him. It was a tense, fixed stare that she knew all too well.
Lizzie frowned.
She knew what had happened. The entire school knew. She had heard the story from three or four different people about the new kid who had torn a monster in half with his bare hands in the middle of the night to protect Hope. And now here was Hope, eyes glued to him as if...
Lizzie's eyes narrowed, and a sharp smile, almost a challenge, curved the corner of her mouth.
— Come on — she said, tugging on Josie's arm. — Let's go talk to them.
— Talk to who? — Josie asked, getting dragged along.
— Everyone.
The twins crossed the lobby with Lizzie's decisive stride in the lead, while MG, without saying a word, followed right behind almost out of inertia. Ethan, instead of following them, stayed where he was, watching the three figures approach from a distance with his hands in his pockets.
— Good morning, Rafael — Lizzie said, stopping in front of the couch with a sickeningly sweet tone.
— Morning, Lizzie — Rafael replied suspiciously.
— Hey — MG said, catching up and greeting Landon and Rafael with a nod. — Morning, Hope.
— Morning — she replied, her smile returning, though forced this time.
Lizzie and Hope exchanged a look.
It was brief—just a second—and the tension in the air was so thick that MG, glancing back and forth between them, decided it was safer to study the ceiling. Lizzie was the first to look away, turning her face toward the others with the air of someone who had forgotten what she was about to say.
— So — she said, clapping her hands with exaggerated enthusiasm. — As excited as I am for tonight?
Landon blinked, uncomprehending.
— Tonight? What's tonight?
— The school's annual talent show — Hope replied. — All the teams compete. Remember? Alaric announced it last week.
— Oh. — Landon scratched the back of his neck. — Right. I forgot.
— You know — Hope said with a diplomatic smile, trying to break the tension —, the witches' performance just wouldn't be the same without you two.
— Oh, thanks, Hope — Josie said with a gentle smile.
Lizzie didn't hear her. Her eyes had drifted away from the group, scanning the lobby as if searching for something.
— Hey — she said, frowning. — Where's Ethan?
— Huh? — MG raised his head and looked back. — Didn't he follow us—?
He looked around. The foot of the stairs was empty. No sign of the dark blazer, no sign of the new kid.
— He's gone — he muttered. — Did he just vanish?
Hope's smile, still plastered on her face like a mask, vanished all at once.
It was as if someone had flipped a switch. The lightness in her eyes faded, the strange glow went out, and in its place returned the usual Hope: sharp, suspicious, with hard blue eyes. The bizarre euphoria that had made her call Landon "handsome" and steal bread in the morning vanished on the spot as if it had never existed.
— Why the sudden interest in Ethan, Lizzie? — Hope asked in a dry tone, breaking character.
Lizzie turned her head slowly, raising an eyebrow at her.
— And why do you care, Hope? — she replied with venomous sweetness. — Don't you already have your little boyfriend right there?
Landon winced. Rafael muffled a cough.
Hope scowled.
— What I do or don't do regarding Ethan — she said, pausing between her words — is none of your business. Nor his.
— Interesting. — Hope crossed her arms, her smile growing. — I didn't know he was your business.
The silence grew heavy, and it was Rafael who stepped in with the bluntness of someone who didn't know how to do anything else.
— Hang on. Do you have a thing for the new guy, Lizzie?
MG stood frozen nearby.
He liked Lizzie, and everyone knew—or at least, thought everyone knew. He felt his stomach sink involuntarily, but he did what he did best: slapped a smile on his face and pretended the question didn't bother him. He crossed his arms, whistled softly, and looked at the ceiling.
Lizzie looked at Rafael, and then, slowly, back at Hope.
— Let's just say it's a work in progress — she replied, smiling.
Elsewhere...
Ethan had walked away with his hands in his pockets, wandering aimlessly through the school halls without thinking about anything in particular.
He stopped in front of a water fountain and took a slow drink, feeling the chill slide down his throat. There wasn't much to do. There was still time before classes started, and he didn't know anyone well enough to strike up a conversation without seeming weird. So he just stood there leaning against the wall, listening to the distant chatter.
That was when a hiss echoed through the ceiling speakers, and Alaric's voice filled all the corridors.
— May I have your attention for a moment, please? — His voice was calm, but carried a weight Ethan recognized. — Last night, we captured a monster here at the school. Everything is under control. But given the potential danger, and with great regret, we are going to have to postpone the talent show. — A pause. — We hope to reschedule this unique event for a much later date.
The transmission cut out with a click.
Hmm, Ethan thought, raising an eyebrow.
He hadn't even known that kind of thing happened around here. Talent show. Teams. Competition. At another time, he might have been curious. Now he just shrugged and went back to staring down the empty hallway.
Some time later, Ethan was standing in front of a long window in the first-floor hallway.
He looked out at the horizon: the fields, the trees, the dark line of the forest in the distance, the clear, cloudless blue sky. Classes hadn't started yet, and he stood waiting, leaning against the windowsill with his arms crossed, his thoughts drifting anywhere and everywhere.
The hiss returned to the ceiling speaker, and this time a different voice spoke.
— Good news, everyone! — Lizzie's voice chimed, cheerful, triumphant, unmistakable. — The talent show is happening tonight after all!
Ethan let out a low laugh through his nose.
— Hmm — he muttered to no one in particular. — Lizzie is always good with words. Must've made her dad change his mind.
The smile stayed on his face for a moment, touched with a hint of nostalgia. He was turning back to look at the horizon when he heard footsteps and voices at the end of the hall.
Hope, Landon, and Rafael were walking toward him side by side.
Hope was the first to see him. He was standing there, facing away in his uniform, leaning against the windowsill and looking outside, unaware that there was anyone else in the hallway.
Her eyes lit up.
It wasn't the glow from before—the senseless euphoria. It was something sharper, more conscious, more dangerous. A slow, mischievous smile appeared at the corner of her mouth, and a very clear idea took shape.
— Hey, babe — Hope said, touching Landon's arm with almost excessive sweetness. — We should enter, don't you think?
Landon stopped walking and stared at her with wide eyes.
— W—what?
— The talent show. — She turned to him, making a sweeping gesture with her hands between them. — Like, me and you. Absolutely. — She ran her fingers through her hair, tossing it back over her shoulder slowly. — I've never participated before, you know? Because I didn't want to go alone.
She was speaking a little louder than necessary. Not too loud. Just enough.
At the end of the hall, Ethan heard it.
His head turned slowly, and his green eyes landed on the three of them.
— But now... — Hope continued, emphasizing the end of the sentence as she savored every syllable. — I have you.
Landon blushed down to the roots of his hair, caught between happiness and confusion, not knowing where to put his hands.
— And we can create our own team — she added, smiling.
Then, without waiting for a reply, Hope hugged him.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and, with a smooth motion, spun him around so that he was facing one way and she was facing the other. Facing the end of the hall. Facing Ethan.
Her eyes met his over Landon's shoulder.
Hope held his gaze, and then slowly, without looking away, she kissed Landon.
It was a brief kiss, but theatrical. Afterward, she hugged him tightly again and flashed her biggest, most mischievous smile—directed without the slightest discretion toward the boy standing by the window.
Ethan didn't move.
Inside his head, the only thing that existed was a confused and furious question: What the hell is going on? He didn't understand a single thing. He only knew one thing with brutal clarity, like a punch to the gut.
He was pissed.
Furious. So angry he felt his jaw lock, his fists clench, and the air around him seemed to heat up. He turned his back without saying a word and walked away with stiff, heavy strides in the opposite direction, a strange energy surging through his body from head to toe. Even his dark, rebellious hair began to lift, strand by strand, as if a static current were running through him.
Hope watched him leave, and her smile—that mischievous, victorious smile—grew just a bit wider.
Jealousy, she thought with satisfaction as she watched his shoulders retreat. He's jealous.
Some time later, in another part of the school, Ethan was sitting by himself, fuming.
Without thinking, he had ended up in the very same place as before: beneath the old tree, leaning against the trunk with his legs stretched out on the grass and his arms crossed over his chest. The anger was still burning inside him, quieter than before, but stubborn, and the same question kept looping over and over without an answer.
Why did she do that?
Sure, this Landon guy was her "boyfriend." He could "accept" that, even if he didn't like it. But to pull a stunt like that? That theater, that kiss right in the middle of the hall, her eyes locked onto him the whole time like she was casting a hook? It was so unlike anything he had seen from her over the last few days. Hope was proud, direct, suspicious—not the type to stoop to games.
What happened to her?
He narrowed his eyes, blew a breath out through his nose, and then suddenly laughed.
It was a short laugh, almost a choke. Here he was, after everything—after dragons and decades of darkness—sitting right back down under the exact same tree, nursing high school jealousy. His only friend at school was still a tree.
— So this is where you've been hiding.
The voice came from behind him, and Ethan froze.
— I'm tired of searching for you.
He scowled without turning around. He knew that voice.
— Is this what you want, Hope? — he asked, anger still heavy in every word.
He heard her footsteps approaching across the grass—light and unhurried—and then she walked around the trunk and stood before him, arms crossed, head tilted to the side with a crooked smile.
— Wow — she said. — And here I thought you were the bad boy who never broke character for anything. Look at you now.
Ethan stayed silent.
Hope watched him for a moment, savoring the silence, and her smile widened.
— You got jealous, didn't you? — she asked in a mocking tone.
— So you wanted to make me jealous — Ethan replied, still refusing to look at her, his voice low and tense. — For what, exactly?
Hope didn't answer right away.
She stayed there in silence for much longer than he expected, and Ethan finally lifted his eyes to look at her. Something was wrong with her face. It was subtle, almost imperceptible: a strange, thin, feverish gleam in her blue eyes that he had already caught a glimpse of in the lobby, when she had laughed a little too loudly and eaten bread like a child.
— Why would a girl want to make another guy jealous? — she asked finally, in a playful tone, taking a step forward.
Ethan opened his mouth to reply.
He didn't get the time.
Hope dropped down right in front of him, kneeling on the grass, and leaned in until their faces were mere inches apart. He felt the warmth of her breath against his lips, saw every eyelash, every detail of the blue in her eyes.
— You know what I want — she whispered. — And you want it too. Don't you?
Ethan's eyes widened.
What happened to her?
The thought flashed through his head like lightning, and something inside him screamed that this was wrong. This wasn't the Hope he knew, the one who hid her face behind her hair. Nor was it the one who had confronted him in the garden, with sparks at her fingertips and a racing heart. This Hope had the eerie confidence of someone following a script that wasn't hers.
He tried to speak. He wanted to ask what was going on, if she was okay, if...
Hope kissed him before he could finish.
It was a longer kiss than the one in the garden, and this time she didn't stop at the surface. Ethan stood frozen, eyes wide open, feeling the world spin around him, his body torn between what it wanted and what it knew was wrong.
With a willpower that surprised him, he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back, slowly, just enough to break away.
— Hope — he said, panting, his eyes locked on hers. — What happened to you?
— Shut up, you wanted this yesterday when you kissed me, didn't you? — she shot back at him.
The kiss deepened overwhelmingly, shattering any barrier of hesitation and transforming into something entirely visceral, feverish, and unmeasured. It wasn't just a kiss; it was a collision of urgencies. Hope lunged with a voracity that caught Ethan completely by surprise, parting her lips eagerly and tangling her tongue with his in a raw, wet insistence. It was an act far too obscene for the daylight, loaded with a raw voluptuousness that seemed to defy reality itself, mixing saliva and accelerated breathing at a pace that flirted right on the edge of delirium.
Ethan froze for a second, eyes wide, completely stunned. He didn't understand a thing. The shy, proud, and reserved girl he knew—or had been trying to figure out ever since he returned from that hell—seemed to have evaporated. In her place was an uncontrollable force. Before he could reason or try to understand what was happening, Hope intensified the embrace with everything she had, throwing her arms around his neck with a disproportionate strength, pressing every inch of their bodies together desperately, as if she wanted to fuse the two of them into one so they would never come apart.
And to make the whirlwind of confusion and paralyzing shock even worse, she shifted her hips, beginning to grind slowly on top of him as she sat in his lap on the grass. The deliberate, provocative friction was an indecent invitation, driving Ethan even wilder and making his blood race with a dangerous ferocity through his veins. The warmth of her body, the texture of her skin, the taste of that intensely intimate kiss... everything in him screamed to match her, to surrender to that whirlpool of pure passion that seemed to overflow from her.
But beneath the thick fog of desire that threatened to dull his senses, his survival instinct and the cold clarity he had brought back from years of fighting in the depths of Malivore began to pulse like a fire alarm.
This isn't normal, Ethan thought, his brain trying to process the chaos. She's not like this. Not like this.
That behavior had nothing to do with Hope's proud flirting or natural feistiness. There was something exaggerated, almost synthetic and sickening about the way she surrendered to that carnal euphoria, as if she were blindly following the impulses of an external force consuming her from the inside out.
With firm hands planted on her shoulders, Ethan pushed her back with just enough force to break contact, panting heavily with his chest rising and falling erratically, staring into her blue eyes that shone with a frightening, feverish glow.
Ethan's brain raced at a million miles an hour, connecting the dots in a crude way. He remembered what Alaric had said that morning—the reports about the monster that had appeared at the edge of the forest the night before.
— Wait, Hope... — he tried, holding her shoulders firmly to push her away for good while the girl tried to lunge forward again, sighing in frustration with glazed eyes, totally euphoric and wanting more of it.
Hope was completely on edge, letting herself be carried away by an overwhelming wave of pleasure and adrenaline like she had never experienced in her life. Deep down, in a tiny, buried corner of her mind, a distant, whispered voice told her that this was wrong, that the context was absurd, that she was losing control. But the parasite drowned out any warning sign. Her body demanded more, the numbness was addictive, and no matter how much a trace of lucidity warned her, she simply didn't want to stop.
Seeing that verbal arguments wouldn't work against whatever was happening to her, Ethan made a decision he would later know was the best possible one.
Taking advantage of the mystical heritage he had discovered he could master perfectly since his time in Malivore, Ethan channeled a controlled fraction of pure energy from his hands, delivering a subtle yet sharp static shock directly to her arm.
— Ow! — Hope gasped, startled, letting out a cry of surprise as her body shuddered slightly from the electrical jolt.
The exact same second, the shock triggered an immediate reaction in her system. A violent spasm made Hope's head snap to the side, and with a wet, disgusting sound, something wriggling escaped from her ear canal, dropping straight onto the green grass right at their feet.
Both of them froze.
Hope blinked several times, breathing heavily, and slowly lowered her gaze to the ground.
There, wriggling on the grass and glowing with a translucent slime, was a disgusting larva resembling a fat, translucent worm, emitting a rancid smell.
— Huh...? — Hope stammered, her voice coming out thin and completely stunned as she stared at the disgusting bug with wide eyes of pure horror.
A second later, as if a dam had burst in her head, the thick fog clouding her mind dissipated completely. Reality hit her with the force of an avalanche.
The memories of the last few minutes—the bold approach, the obscene kiss, the way she had thrown herself at him in such a totally uninhibited way on the grass in broad daylight, begging for more—flashed back in a crystal-clear, humiliating wave.
Hope's face paled instantly, followed by a wave of blushing so violent that her cheeks turned the color of glowing coals all the way to the tips of her ears. She brought her trembling hands up to her head, covering her eyes, wishing she could vanish from the face of the earth.
— My God... What have I done?! — Hope whispered to herself, her voice breaking into a thread of despair as she stared at her own hands as if they belonged to someone else. The realization kept setting in, bringing an overwhelming wave of humiliation.
She tried to move, but felt an immediate discomfort. Hope shifted her legs with a start, feeling the warmth and uncomfortable dampness stuck to her skin and pants—physical evidence of how far the parasite had pushed her. Panic rose in her throat in a way she had never experienced before.
Without even being able to lift her gaze to look at him, Hope jerked backward, scrambled up from the grass in an awkward leap, and bolted, running as fast as her legs could carry her toward the school building.
— Hope, wait! — Ethan called out, extending a hand into the air, but she had already vanished among the trees, completely ignoring the call.
Ethan stood there alone, taking a deep breath as he tried to calm his own heart, which was still racing from the adrenaline. He looked down at the grass.
The disgusting larva was still wriggling slightly on the ground, glowing with that translucent, foul slime. Ethan's stomach churned with pure disgust.
— Damn bug... — he muttered, clenching his teeth in revulsion.
With a look of deep irritation, he raised the sole of his sneaker and stomped down hard, crushing the parasite against the dirt with a dry, disgusting crunch. He lifted his foot, wiping the sole on the grass to get rid of the remains.
As he looked at the mess, the gears in his mind began turning rapidly. The sudden mood swing, the uncontrolled euphoria, the total loss of inhibition... that wasn't normal, not even for an ordinary teenager, let alone the proud Hope Mikaelson.
— This definitely has to do with that monster Alaric talked about earlier... — Ethan concluded aloud, frowning as he looked in the direction Hope had fled, feeling that the trouble at the Salvatore School was only just beginning.
Ethan left the crushed remains of the parasite on the grass behind and walked with firm steps back to the main school building. He needed to find the headmaster as fast as possible; if there was a creature spreading those manipulative larvae through the hallways, the entire school was in grave danger—and he didn't even want to imagine what else that thing might have done to other people.
He headed straight for the headmaster's office, but it was empty. Alaric's desk was still cluttered with papers, but the headmaster wasn't there to hear the warning.
Frustrated, Ethan spun on his heel and began walking through the crowded hallways, searching for any familiar face that could give him a clue to Alaric's whereabouts. That was when he spotted Landon walking out of one of the classrooms.
Remembering the pathetic scene of the hallway kiss and the "boyfriend" role the kid was playing, Ethan felt a flicker of irritation, but swallowed his pride. The priority was elsewhere.
— Hey, man — Ethan called out, approaching with long strides.
Landon stopped in the middle of the hall, turned around, and scowled instantly. He didn't like Ethan—the mysterious stranger in a leather jacket who had appeared out of nowhere and, to make matters worse, seemed to be messing dangerously with Hope's head.
— What? — Landon asked flatly, lifting his chin defensively.
— Have you seen Alaric? — he cut straight to the point.
Landon crossed his arms, staring at him with suspicion.
— No. Why?
— I need to find him. It's urgent — Ethan insisted, taking another step forward, his green eyes fixed on the boy.
Landon raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms even tighter.
— Look, I don't know what your deal is, newbie, but why are you so desperate to find the headmaster? What happened now?
Ethan let out an impatient sigh, having no time for petty high school rivalry.
— That monster they captured last night... It wasn't alone, or it left something behind. This crap is infecting the school with larvae. They crawl into people's ears and screw up their nervous systems, changing their behavior, taking away everyone's filter.
Landon blinked, thinking he was hearing things.
— What? — he blurted out, letting out a nervous laugh. — Larvae? What are you talking about, man? Are you crazy?
— Exactly what you heard — Ethan retorted, his deep voice cutting through any mockery. — I saw one crawl out of someone just now. It's real. So if you find Alaric before me, do me a favor and tell him.
Without waiting for an answer or giving Landon a chance to retort with his insecurities, Ethan turned his back and continued marching down the hall, leaving a completely confused and stunned Landon planted in the middle of the way.
After wandering and wandering through the entire school for a while without managing to find any authority figure—neither Alaric nor anyone who could take charge—worry began to tighten in Ethan's chest. Could these guys have been caught by the larvae too? The idea that the entire school might be silently taken over made him quicken his pace.
That was when he spotted Dorian walking down the hall, accompanied precisely by Landon and Hope.
Without wasting a second, Ethan bolted toward them.
— Hey, guys! — he called out.
Huh? Dorian turned, seeing Ethan approach with long strides. Landon immediately scowled, crossing his arms and trying to disguise his obvious discomfort at having to look at the newbie. And Hope... well, Hope couldn't even lift her face to look at him. The weight of shame from what had happened earlier made her glue her eyes to the floor, her cheeks burning.
— Hey, Dorian, do you know what's going on, right? — Ethan asked, stopping right in front of them.
Dorian nodded with a serious expression.
— Yeah, and it looks like we need answers fast. Follow me.
They quickly walked to one of the school study rooms. Inside, they spread out among the massive bookshelves, opening heavy, leather-bound, thumbed-through old books, trying to find any mention of that bizarre creature.
— Okay, we don't know how long the unicorn was infected before it died, so we need to figure this out now — Dorian muttered, hurriedly turning the pages of a grimoire.
— Wait, it was a unicorn? — Ethan asked.
— Yeah, it died from what looked like one of these larvae — Dorian replied.
— I thought only one monster came at a time... — Landon muttered, frustration in his voice.
— Turns out the unicorn wasn't the monster — Dorian corrected, looking up from the papers. — It was the host for this thing.
He pointed to a small glass jar on the table where one of the larvae was contained.
— It took advantage of that Trojan horse and reached us — Dorian continued, explaining the dynamic. — From what Hope said before we came here, it seems to lodge in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain linked to inhibitions.
Hearing that, Hope quickly lifted her face for a fraction of a second, stared at Ethan with panic in her eyes, and bit the side of her mouth, holding back a moan of pure anguish.
— So... I was controlled? — she asked, her voice coming out thin and trembling.
— Since we have multiple grubs, they must multiply inside the host, waiting for the opportunity to infect someone else... — Dorian explained.
— Yeah, I think that's enough of these disgusting details — Hope cut in, crossing her arms with a shudder of repulsion. — How do we stop this? That's the worst part: I can't find any information on these creatures anywhere.
While Dorian tried to flip through another book, Landon barged in:
— Soul vampires, final exam, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan... Movies are our modern sources of myth. That means they might have been inspired by something in movies; after all, everything there is about mind control!
Before Landon could continue with his cinematic theories, Ethan stepped forward, cutting off his train of thought:
— Maybe an electric shock can solve the problem and expel the grub?
Dorian looked up, confused.
— Why do you say that, Ethan?
— Well... basically, I thought Hope was acting stranger than usual... — Ethan explained, keeping his voice steady, though Hope turned her face away, swallowing hard. — So I gave her a static shock, and the bug popped right out of her ear.
Landon's eyes widened as he looked at the girl.
— Is that what happened, Hope?
Hope nodded slowly, still unable to look at Ethan.
— It's like an infection — Dorian continued, refocusing on the problem. — It gets worse as it spreads. Stage 1 lowers your consciousness and makes you act totally out of character. Stage 2 is when you become highly susceptible to suggestions; you do exactly what the grub wants. And Stage 3...
— Is when you end up like the unicorn — Landon finished, completing the train of thought with a grimace.
At that moment, Hope reached out and picked up the glass jar where the dead larva was.
— Did you guys see that? Some parts look bioluminescent... Can I see it? — Dorian asked.
He pulled a small UV flashlight from his pocket and shined it against the jar. Immediately, the parasite inside the glass began to glow in a vibrant neon green tone.
Curious about the light's reaction, Dorian accidentally flashed the UV flashlight beam directly toward Hope's face. The reflection revealed patches of a bluish, fluorescent slime glowing subtly on the skin above her mouth, coming out of her nose.
Hope blinked, realizing what that meant.
— I don't want to know, right? — she asked, her voice skeptical and defeated.
— Yeah, it's better not to — Dorian and Landon replied in unison.
— Ow... — Ethan chimed in, stepping closer. — Lend me that flashlight real quick.
Dorian tossed the flashlight toward Ethan. Without hesitating, he caught it out of the air, turned the beam directly against his own face, and pressed the button.
— Well? — Ethan asked, keeping his eyes fixed on them. — Anything?
Dorian and Landon frowned at the same time, stepping back a pace. Illuminated by the ultraviolet light, there was an unmistakable green glow crawling dangerously close to Ethan's mouth.
— Wait, hold on. I'm not infected — Ethan said, frowning and quickly wiping his face with the back of his hand to disguise the awkwardness.
He knew very well what had happened: when Hope had thrown herself at him and kissed him in that desperate way right after the parasite came out of her ear, the grub's fluids and slime had been transferred during the intimate contact, smudging his skin too. But of course he would never say that out loud, especially with Landon standing right there in the room glaring at him with that unfriendly look.
— I just touched the grub when it had just come out of Hope's ear and I must have wiped my hand across my face by accident... It's freaking disgusting, I just need to wash my face — Ethan justified himself, shaking his head with a fake look of repulsion.
Landon stared at him for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes with obvious suspicion, but ended up letting out a sigh and shrugging, having no way to prove otherwise.
— Hmm... Fine, if you say so — Landon grumbled, still half skeptical.
Without wasting any more time on that disguised argument, the group decided to leave the study room to assess the extent of the problem in the hallways. Using the ultraviolet flashlight Dorian was holding, they illuminated the stone floor and immediately froze upon seeing the naked truth: the hallway floor was completely stained and covered by luminescent trails of moss and grub slime. The parasite had already spread everywhere.
— Wait a minute... So basically, we need to electrocute the entire school? Is that it? — Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow.
Dorian nodded with a tense expression, illuminating the tracks on the floor.
— Well, it seems to be the only chance we have to fix all of this and expel the parasites before they reach the final stage.
Landon let out a short, ironic laugh, gesturing with his hands: — Okay, so the brilliant plan is to electrocute every student in the school without letting any of them turn into barbecue in the process. Perfect, no flaws in that plan.
— If we don't do this, they're going to die, Landon — Dorian retorted, gravity weighing heavy in his voice. — I'm calling Rick right away.
While Dorian walked away quickly to try to contact Alaric, the rest of the group remained near the second-floor hallway railing. That was when the muffled sound of music and applause caught their attention.
Below them, in the vast main lobby that had been hastily prepared, the long-awaited Salvatore School talent show was taking place. And right there, in the center of the improvised stage under the colored lights, Rafael—Landon's friend—was performing before an audience of students completely oblivious to the invisible danger crawling beneath their feet.
In the void a light rises from within, unity, division, tension... Hope jokes that she can now remember why she didn't come to the talent show. Rafael continued: — All the wolves look at me waiting for my opinion... waiting is a cancer. Can't you, sir? Then who else?
— Damn, this is making my ears bleed — Ethan says, shaking his head.
Rafael looks up and sees Hope and Landon up there. He gestures for the girl to stop playing and starts speaking, declaiming the subtext with a strange intensity: — Two brothers raised together, one is left behind because his usefulness ended... Resentment inside me, terror... And I, I bleed and I don't believe what I feel... Since our dance, at that moment...
Ethan looks where Rafael was looking: it was Hope. Ethan starts letting out quiet, muffled laughs, hiding his mouth with the palm of his hand, an acid thought crossing his mind: Damn it, it was enough to leave Hope alone for a little while and there's already a bunch of crazy guys trying to play romantic with her. Curse the hour I walked away to that piece-of-shit place.
Then Rafael continued, his voice echoing through the lobby: — Something deep always growing inside me, and I don't want to yield... And jealous of something you have and never lived until I lived...
Hope looked compassionately at Rafael; she understood perfectly what he was trying to say, feeling the weight of that message. On stage, Rafael closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and when he opened them, blurted out: — And why is the artifact here? Monsters coming, people running...
Hope and Landon look at each other, confused. — They ask why the guilty one is alive — Rafael continues, his voice growing increasingly theatrical and dark.
— Shit... are all these people actually hypnotized? — Ethan says, frowning.
Suddenly, the entire audience begins to stand up in unison. On stage, Rafael's eyes change drastically, glowing an intense green under the grub's direct influence. Around him, the eyes of all the students present turn green as well, reflecting the mass infection.
— Tch... — Ethan scoffs, rolling his eyes. — What a bunch of cheap copycats.
Landon and Hope look frightened at Ethan. The next second, the horde of hypnotized students begins charging toward them, sprinting up the stairs and down the hallways.
Hope and Landon take a step back, wanting to run. — Oh crap, let's get the hell OUTTA HERE! — Landon says in a panic.
— Relax — Ethan says with an irritating calmness.
— What?! Are you out of your mind, Ethan? Let's get out of here right now! — Landon screams, pulling Hope by the arm.
— Relax, I said — Ethan repeats, letting out a light sigh. — Sure wouldn't mind an Avenged Sevenfold song right now to set the mood even better.
Ethan's hands close tightly. At that exact moment, sparks of pure electricity begin to crackle and pop around his fists, illuminating the corridor with a bluish glare. Before the horde of students reaches the top of the stairs, Ethan discharges the energy, launching a wave of concentrated lightning toward them.
The electrical discharge hits the crowd with brutal force, knocking all the students backward with a dull thud, rendering them instantly unconscious. With the shock, the parasitic grubs are forced out of everyone's ears, wriggling on the grass and the floor before dying.
Both Hope and Landon stand frozen in the exact same spot, completely static, jaws dropped, staring at the boy with wide eyes.
— That was amazing! — Landon blurted out, totally pumped about the brutal electrical discharge that had just saved everyone.
But the burst of excitement didn't last. The next second, snapping back to reality and remembering who had done it, he immediately scowled and returned to his usual mode of hating Ethan.
Hope took two steps forward, still in shock, but with her blue eyes shining in pure admiration. — Ethan... that was incredible — she admitted, her voice a little shaky. — How did you do that?
Ethan turned his head toward her. He held her gaze, letting the corner of his mouth curve into a calm, provocative smile. — Well... if you want — he replied, keeping his eyes locked on hers as the smile grew —, I'll teach you later.
— Tch!
Before Hope could reply to anything, Landon abruptly stepped in, planting himself right in front of her and glaring at Ethan with his chin raised and his fists clenched.
— I already told you to stop giving those little smiles to Hope! — Landon ranted, his voice altered by jealousy. — She's my girlfriend, man!
Ethan didn't even bother getting worked up. He just offered another short smile, shaking his head at the boy's little show, and turned around, beginning to walk smoothly down the hall toward the upper floors.
— Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there staring at the knocked-out guys? — Ethan called back over his shoulder, without even slowing his pace.
— Tch... — Landon muttered, huffing with rage as he glared at Ethan's back.
Hope, for her part, stayed frozen for a second longer, her fingers instinctively rising up to the wolf pendant at her neck. She watched the green-eyed boy's confident posture retreat down the hallway, feeling that same strange, inexplicable chill run down her spine once again.
Dorian came rushing down the hall with some heavy metal chains wrapped around his arms, panting and looking around with wide eyes, expecting the worst. But instead of a massacre or students transformed into monsters, he ran straight into dozens of teenagers passed out across the floor and three people standing.
— What happened in here?! — Dorian asked, jaw dropped, dropping the chains to the floor with a dull thud.
Hope was the first to answer, still catching her breath:
— Ethan gave everyone an electrical shock all at once.
Dorian widened his eyes, turning to the boy with a look of pure reverence.
— Wow... Man, you really are amazing.
Ethan flashed a cocky smirk, crossing his arms with that nonchalant pose that seemed to be his trademark.
— Ah, I do like being praised. That's not half bad — he teased.
Hope rolled her eyes hard, though she couldn't suppress a tiny smile at the corner of her mouth. Next to her, Landon let out another irritated sound:
— Tch...
Ethan glanced sideways at his rival and decided to provoke him a little more:
— Hey, watch out so that "tch" doesn't turn into a nervous tic, Landon. Any second now your mouth's gonna lock up.
— You son of a... — Landon ranted, losing his temper completely.
He took a step forward, ready to lunge and fly at Ethan's throat, but Hope stepped right in between them, pushing his chest back to hold him off.
— Landon, stop! Enough! — she ordered, sternly.
Ethan still had that goofy little grin plastered across his face, which made Landon even angrier.
— See? You better shut your mouth and listen to what your "girlfriend" says — Ethan spoke up.
— Don't tell me to shut your mouth, you... — Landon cursed under his breath, pointing a finger at Ethan over Hope's shoulder. — You're only lucky Hope is defending you, or I'd break your face.
— Sure, champ. Just imagine — Ethan said, letting out a huffed laugh and turning his back. — I'm out of here.
As he took a few steps to walk away from that stupid high school argument, Ethan's green eyes landed on a familiar figure coming down the hall.
— Lizzie! Hey! — he called out, raising a hand.
Lizzie stopped walking, surprised at being called, and walked over to the little group, crossing her arms with a typical judgmental expression.
— What are you guys doing out here? — she asked.
Dorian, who was still trying to organize his thoughts, hurried over:
— Lizzie, we need to find Rick right now, have you seen—
But Dorian didn't even finish his sentence. Before Lizzie could understand anything or open her mouth to explain, Hope and Landon reacted out of pure survival instinct and paranoia: the two of them lunged at her, grabbing her by the arms and beginning to wrap the heavy chains around the blonde's body to immobilize her, ignoring her hysterical protests.
— Hey! What are you doing?! Let me go, you lunatics! — Lizzie screamed, thrashing around as she was tied up by force.
Standing a few meters away, Ethan just crossed his arms and watched the chaotic scene from afar, eyebrows arched and looking completely lost.
— I... I don't even know what they're doing — Ethan muttered to himself, shaking his head at the madness.
— I need to go find Rick — Dorian said hastily, turning his back on the corridor. — I'll leave the rest to you guys.
Ethan nodded silently, just watching the movement. Without wasting time, the group dragged Lizzie to a nearby chair, wrapping the heavy chains around her body to keep her totally immobilized.
— Why did you tie me up?! Are you guys completely insane?! — Lizzie yelled, thrashing in the chair with her face red with anger. — Let me go right now!
— Because you were infected by a mind-controlling parasite, and that's why you were acting so nice and weird all day — Hope fired back, crossing her arms with a convicted look.
— That's not why I've been... — Lizzie tried to defend herself.
Landon, determined to play detective, walked up to her holding the ultraviolet flashlight. He shone it close to the girl's face and, without any ceremony, reached out and poked her nose to inspect better.
— Hey! What do you think you're doing, you idiot?! — Lizzie complained, squirming in revulsion.
— I don't see any grubs here — Landon stated, frowning.
Out of nowhere, Lizzie's body gave a violent jolt, as if she'd taken an invisible shock, making her groan in pain and squeeze her eyes shut hard.
— What was that? — Landon asked, startled by the jerk.
Lizzie took a deep breath, catching her breath, and fired back at him with all her usual acidness:
— Take this off me right now, or maybe I'll tell you, you ridiculous thrift-store hobbit!
At that exact second, another invisible snap hit Lizzie, making her arch her back in the chair with a fresh spasm of pain. She clenched her teeth, cursing quietly.
Meanwhile, Ethan stayed further back, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the scene with a mix of amusement and boredom. He unlatched from the wall and took a few steps closer.
— Yeah... I don't think she's infected — Ethan opined, glancing sideways at the blonde.
— Then why was she acting that weird way all day long? — Hope insisted, confused.
— I'm not weird! I'm just trying to change a little bit because of this right here... — Lizzie huffed, lifting her left wrist to show a silver bracelet glowing faintly. — I cast a personal spell to zap me with a shock whenever I say anything cruel or mean. The voltage goes up with every offense, and I've already realized it was a terrible idea.
— No, actually it's genius, and that's why you weren't infected by the grub — Landon said.
Lizzie turned her head, catching Ethan's eyes lingering further back. Seeing him there, her bravado vanished for a second and turned into pure dramatic despair:
— Ethan! Please, save me from these lunatics before they leave me paralyzed with this paranoia!
Ethan sighed, shaking his head with an amused half-smile, and delivered his verdict:
— All right, guys. Let her go. You can already see she doesn't have a single grub in her brain... which is more than I can say for the Hobbit over there.
— Pfft! — Lizzie let out a muffled laugh, not making the slightest effort to disguise it.
Landon immediately scowled and stepped forward, glaring at Ethan with his chest puffed out in anger.
— You son of a... what's your deal with me, man? What do you have against me?
Ethan tilted his head slowly, keeping his hands in his jacket pockets, and stared back at him with a cold, serene gaze.
— I simply don't like you. If that's what you wanted to know, now you know.
— Go to hell, man — Landon growled, gritting his teeth.
Hope walked over and pulled the chains off her. Lizzie massaged her reddened wrists, shooting a death glare at them.
Ignoring the crossfire, Hope crossed her arms, her forehead furrowed with worry. She looked at the blonde and cut straight to the point:
— Wait... why weren't you at the talent show like everyone else?
Lizzie's tone changed instantly, losing her defensive pose and taking on a genuinely distressed air.
— I was looking for Josie. She was acting weird all day and suddenly disappeared from the event.
Hope and Lizzie looked at each other, the same terrifying thought crossing both their minds at the exact same time.
— Must be because she's infected — Lizzie continued, her voice wavering slightly.
— We have to find her right now — Hope exclaimed, taking a step forward, already ready to bolt down the halls.
Before following after her sister, Lizzie caught her breath, smoothed down her uniform, and glanced sideways at Ethan, arching an eyebrow mockingly.
— Wait a minute... by any chance, are you part of the Scooby-Doo gang now?
Ethan let out a genuine laugh, amused by the comparison.
— Hahaha... Very good, Lizzie. That is exactly what we look like.
He pointed disaffectedly with his chin toward Landon, who was standing right beside him.
— He's Scooby, of course.
— HAHAHA! — Lizzie couldn't help it and laughed out loud, thinking the joke was perfection.
Landon instantly scowled, the blood rushing to his head from the public humiliation.
— You son of a... — Landon retorted, grinding his teeth and stepping half a step toward Ethan, ready to fly at his throat again.
Hope grabbed Landon hard by the shirt collar, pulling him back before he could lunge at Ethan.
— Enough! This is not the time to fight with him, Landon! — she yelled angrily, before turning her face to Ethan and glaring at him. — And you, stop provoking Landon!
Ethan raised his hands in surrender, flashing a cynical smile, but decided to back off to avoid an even bigger blowout.
Some time later, following the trails of fluorescent slime and Hope's sharp intuition, the group reached the back of the Salvatore School, around the wooded and slightly more isolated outskirts of the campus.
It didn't take long to find what they were looking for. Josie and Penelope were standing there side by side. Both of their eyes glowed with the unmistakable neon green of the parasitic infection, proving the wave of larvae had claimed more victims.
— There's the urn... — Penelope pointed out, with a mocking smile and a voice loaded with a coldness that wasn't hers, indicating an old artifact hidden among the roots of an old tree.
— Not so fast, Thelma and Louise — Hope retorted, narrowing her eyes.
Penelope raised her hands, preparing to cast a direct attack spell against Hope. But the tribrid was much faster: with a fluid wrist movement, Hope conjured a shield and deflected the magical blast right back, sending the energy returning with full force. The impact knocked Penelope far, making her tumble onto the dirt ground.
At the exact moment of her fall, with the thud, a package containing several magic staffs that had been hidden in Penelope's clothes slipped out and rolled onto the grass.
Ethan, watching the commotion a few paces away, crossed his arms and let out an impressed whistle:
— Found the staffs — Hope confirmed, bending down quickly to pick one up.
— You shouldn't have done that... — Josie murmured, whose once-peaceful expression had transformed into pure hostility under the parasite's control.
Taking a step forward, Josie raised her hands and began channeling pure magic, condensing the luminous energy until a mini incandescent sun ball formed in her palms, ready to incinerate whoever was in front of her.
Before Josie could fire the fire blast, Ethan acted in the blink of an eye. He stretched his hand toward her and fired a precise, controlled electrical shock. The lightning hit Josie square-on, cutting off the magic instantly and making her collapse to her knees in the grass.
— Huh...? — Josie stammered, shaking her head and getting up slowly, blinking confusedly, totally dizzy and not understanding what had happened. — Lizzie...?
Lizzie, who had followed the group closely, didn't hesitate twice: she ran to her sister and hugged her tight, relieved to see her conscious.
Meanwhile, the larva controlling Josie slid out of her ear, wriggling on the grass for a few seconds before stretching its legs and dying for good from the electrical shock.
— Is that it? — Ethan asked, looking at the grub on the ground and wiping his hands.
Hope turned to face him and nodded with a tired sigh.
— Yeah... it's over.
As she answered, she glanced sideways, her cheeks heating up again as she remembered what had happened earlier under the parasite's influence. The shame was still hitting her full force.
— Great, because I'm actually craving something to eat right now — Ethan said, breaking the silence with a carefree smile.
Landon scowled, huffing with anger, and pointed a finger toward the exit:
— Good riddance. Get lost for good.
Ethan was about to leave the spot, but stopped suddenly, as if he had just remembered a very important detail. He turned his face to the blonde beside him:
— How was it again, Lizzie?
— Hm? What? — Lizzie asked, furrowing her brow, confused by the random question.
— What was it you called him that time you were tied to the chair?
Lizzie's eyes widened for a second, catching the reference, and a wicked smile broke across her face.
— Ah, yes... Thrift-store Hobbit!
Ethan burst out laughing, turning his back and starting to walk back to the school while cracking up out loud.
— You... you! — Landon retorted, grinding his teeth and clenching his fists so hard his knuckles turned white with hatred.