Chapter Text
She didn't get it.
She just couldn't understand.
Why would people not want to become a vampire, and just turn their humanity off? The blood lust is kind of unpleasant and so was the dead body on the backseat of her car. But still all the little things that came with being a vampire along with immortality were great. Especially no emotions holding you down was something she could get used to after all the love, lose and grieve cycle she had been through. But not anymore she was as free as a bird. She couldn't remember the last time she felt this content and relaxed.
"Come on Jessica, it's almost time you should wake up" Hope said to the body in the backseat of her car in a sing songy voice.
"Oh wait, I forgot you are dead, hard luck the view out here is great, just in front of us is this big dustbin in which you'll probably go"
"On our right we have my second dinner for tonight who will probably be joining you in the gorgeous dumpster" Hope said with a smile on her face as she continued to examine her surroundings.
This was in no way the place she wanted to go, in fact the entire purpose of the road trip was to find a certain frenemy or a close enough friend and ask very politely for him to do a favor or maybe a few and also give him a little surprise. But since reaching her destination would take a lot of time, she decided she would enjoy her little expedition to the fullest.
As she almost finished her train of thought she saw her dinner number two walking away. She got out of her car and started following the man. As she scooted closer to her prey she could see he was a young guy probably 22, blonde and a sports jock if his John Cena T-shirt was any sign. How ironical, because he'd be wrestling for his life really soon.
"You shouldn't be out this late" the guy said after he had turned around to face Hope.
"Could say the same for you" Hope retaliated while admiring the guy from top to bottom. There is no harm in checking out your food.
"I am serious, this area is not safe at this time, there are rumors that a group of vampires roam around in the city" the guy replied seriously.
"Well if that's true then you shouldn't be roaming around " Hope said as she saw the guy look around them before he scooted a little closer to Hope and spoke in a low voice. "I have a dagger" he said while cautiously pulling out a small dagger from his jeans.
Hope felt like laughing at the naivety of the person, the dagger he had was a shame to all daggers, she didn't know if it could even count as one, it was more like a pocket knife for children, but decided to keep playing along for a little while, let him have a little fun before her version of fun starts.
"Actually, I am new to this area I really don't know anything about this town "Hope replied with fake distress. The person thought for a little while and then answered "If you want I can show you a place where you can stay for the night"
"That be great" Hope replied with a smile as the guy smiled back. With that the guy turned around and motioned with his hand for Hope to follow. Hope obliged as they started heading towards a narrow lane. After about 2 minutes of walking in the lane the guy spoke up.
"So you didn't tell me what you were doing here" he asked curiously.
"I was actually about to go and hunt" Hope replied, she was getting bored and hungry,and walking in narrow lanes was not enjoyable. She needed to go and see Clarke and this guy was not as fun as she thought and definitely not worth wasting her time on.
"Hunt" The man asked with visible fear. "Who?"
" You" Hope replied wickedly, as her eyes turned yellow and veins started popping under her eyes.
The guy looked as shocked as if he had seen a ghost, he took his dagger out, but it fell on the floor. Knowing that he had no other way now, he decided to run.
"You can run, but you can't hide"
Hope used her vamp speed to overrun the guy and came directly in front of him.
"Now, you have two options-first, you keep running and I chase you down in which I will not be very kind and second you voluntarily become dinner"
"How can you ask me to choose from one of them" he said while struggling to get up.
"Fine, then I'll choose for you"
with that Hope sped to him and dig her fangs into his neck as he wretched in pain. After a minute she let him go as he slid down to the floor almost unconscious. Hope bent down and grabbed the guy's head and looked into his eyes.
"Forget everything that happened here, the mark on your neck was given by an animal, also you can't see John Cena anymore so I suggest you start watching SpongeBob"
After compelling the guy and disposing off the body in her car she was finally fully satiated and ready to go and meet her frenemy.
"Ryan Clarke I sincerely hope you are better than these two or I'll hate to dispose you off" with this thought she turned her key on and drove her car.
~~~~
Fayetteville GA
Hope pulled up at the side of a road and got out of her car. The area around was decent, nothing supernatural just humans, right in front of her she saw a small restaurant named lettuce eat . She walked up to the restaurant and got inside as the bell chimed signaling her arrival into the small cozy restaurant. The place was not bad, it was cozy, the walls were off white in color, on one wall was the quote "Cooking with love provides food for the soul", the lighting was ambient and there was a bookshelf in the corner and soft music was playing.
Hope sat down at the very end of the place in such a manner that her back was facing the people and almost no one could see her face, she couldn't see their faces as well but she could hear what they were talking about. She could hear the couple the on her far right arguing about their children and how their son is not paying enough attention in school and could hear the occasional sniffs and coughs of the old man sitting near the entrance. This was another reason being a vampire was great, no children to worry about, and no worries about falling sick or old age.
Hope picked up her menu as she heard someone come up to her, probably the server.
"Good evening ma'am what can I get for you?" she recognized the voice immediately, there was no way she could forget this voice, after all she spent months alone with him in nothing but darkness. She turned her face around to look at him
"Hope! You?"
"Hey Clarkie" Hope smiled as she kept looking at Clarke's perplexed reaction. It was funny how he opened his mouth to say something but then closed it again as he came up with nothing. She noticed she enjoyed seeing Clarke this clueless and baffled, it was very enjoyable.
"What are you doing here?" Clarke asked once he found his words.
"Trying to get some snacks but only if you would take my order" Hope replied sweetly as she kept staring into Clarke eyes. She had to admit he looked better as human, without his dress coats and all, he seemed much free too. Her train of thoughts was halted when Clarke spoke again
"I am serious Hope, what are you doing here? Look nobody here knows about my past, and I intend for it to stay that way." Clarke said in a no nonsense tone.
"What you intend to do is none of my business and your past is actually why I am here, I am looking for the original bloodlines but that is a discussion for later, right now I want to eat"
"I am sorry but I can't help you, I have left my past behind and want nothing to do with it" Clarke stated as a matter of fact.
"You have to help me or I'll kill everyone here" Hope said as she looked straight into his eyes with an ominous smile. When he looked shock and didn't reply immediately she raised one brow as if daring him to disagree with her.
"Your humanity is off" Clarke reasoned as he gulped. He was scared. He had seen enough no humanity vampires in his time with triad and he didn't recommend company of one to anyone. This also made him realize that Hope was a tribrid now and something grave must have happened that caused her to turn her humanity off.
"You are the tribid now" Clarke asked questioningly.
"Yes. I am the only hungry tribrid in the world, because someone wouldn't get me food, do you have any idea how long the ride was?" Hope said paying no attention to Clarke's shocked face. His shocked face also looked cute; maybe she'll keep shocking him.
Clarke didn't register what Hope said after she admitted to being a tribrid, her being a tribrid meant that Malivore was probably dead, Malivore who was in his bird brain little brother's body. Did Landon not survive? Did Hope kill him? Why does she want to know about triad? Where are her friends? Too many questions ran through his mind all at once.
"Is Malivore dead?" Clarke asked the one question from his mind which was troubling him the most.
"Yes and so is Landon, I killed him. Congrats you're now an orphan and only child." Hope said as if she was telling him about the weather, she really had turned her humanity off and it was probably due to landon's death
"This is too much to take in at once" Clarke whispered in disbelief. He couldn't bring himself to accept the fact that Hope had killed his father along with Landon, the guy she loved deeply.
"No Ryan" Hope said emphasizing on Ryan, "what will be too much is if I don't get my food , because then I'll have to find food elsewhere" Hope said as she glanced over to the couple on far right and veins appeared beneath her eyes.
"I'll get you, what do you want" Clarke said immediately fearing what she may do if she doesn't get her food.
"Surprise me" Hope said sweetly as she smiled at him.
Clarke had a feeling that the next few days were not going to be easy on him.
~~~~
He could see Hope eating her food from his place beside the counter, to any unknown folk it would appear as if a sweet girl was enjoying a nice meal in a cozy restaurant, but he knew not to take Hope lightly, even if she had helped save his life the last time they met. He was still amazed on how she had kept her word and didn't let him die, not only did she save him but also gave him a chance at a new life, there was no way Hope would take away the life she let him have just 2 weeks ago. He glanced at Hope again as she took her last bite and reached for her wine, she seemed as her usual self from far, Brave and beautiful. She turned around at the same time and he turned his face embarrassed that he had been caught staring.
Hope stood up and came at the front of the restaurant and went to straight to the in-charge and compelled him to waive off her bill, and something else that he couldn't make out.
"Hurry up Ryan; we are leaving "Hope said as she came up to him.
"I can't Hope, my shift doesn't end in another 2 hours" He said hoping to avoid going with Hope, he trusted her but in no way was he eager to go walking with a no humanity vampire, who had just threatened to kill. Moreover she was calling him Ryan all of a sudden; he didn't have a good feeling about that.
"Don't worry I compelled your in-charge to give you the week off, paid even" Hope said pointing to his in-charge who just smiled at them. "Thank me later" Hope said as she started pulling him along with her.
"A week off, why would you do that, I have to pay my bills now, do you know how expensive everything is?" Clarke said as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "And what did you say to him, why is he looking at us like that?" Clarke said as he noticed his in-charge staring at him with an interrogative look.
"Oh I told him that I am your girlfriend and I came here to meet you and we are going on our first date today" Hope said as if it was the most normal thing, she saw him looking dumbfounded "now you have a week off, staring at me won't change that, so you might as well come with me before I follow up with my threat from earlier today"
"Wait don't do anything. I'll come, just let me change first" he replied quickly, the situation was starting to get out his hand quickly, he would have to do something about it soon, he thought as he started walking away from Hope and reached the employee's room.
"Hurry up baby or we will be late for our date" Hope said as she blew him a kiss.
Clarke was speechless. She called him 'baby', he looked around and saw everyone staring at them. If calling him baby from across the room wasn't enough, she blew him a kiss too. He was getting light-headed so he quickly went inside the employee room to change out of his work clothes. He went inside and looked for his bag, thinking about how the meeting could have gone worse or how she could have killed him and anything that would stop him from thinking about Hope calling him baby and blowing him a kiss, he wasn't sure he'd be able to control his thoughts once he started thinking about it. He had to think about the dangers here. There could have been bodies; he could have died, instead all he received were threats that had to mean something good.
As Hope waited for him to change, she heard the door open and a woman wearing a red skirt with matching top and white sweater entered. She saw Hope and then started looking around the restaurant.
"Hey Trudy, Ryan is changing" the employee behind the counter said as he motioned with his hand towards the room Clarke went in not moments ago.
"Oh thank you Jack" the girl Trudy replied as she walked up to Jack and stood beside Hope. "Ryan and I have our third date tonight, and you know what that means right?" Trudy said in a very uncanny manner.
"What does it mean?" Hope asked with a smile, in just these few minutes Hope had decided she didn't like Trudy much , she also figured that she was giving a very creepy vibe.
"I am sorry" Trudy said confused. Maybe she heard wrong.
"I mean what third date with Ryan means?' Hope clarified, not at all bothered by the agonized look on Trudy's face.
Trudy was confused but before she had time to reply back to Hope, the door to employee's room opened and Ryan came out dressed in black jeans and shirt, with a leather jacket.
Ryan looked up and saw Trudy and just behind her was Hope smiling as if she heard the funniest thing ever. Pure horror crossed his face and he quickly covered up the distance between him and the two girls.
"Ah Ryan baby welcome, we were just talking about what third date with you meant, since you know we are going on our first date today" Hope said as she looked at Ryan lovingly. "Third date is not that far behind right?" she asked and looked at Trudy. Trudy looked devastated.
Ryan looked between Trudy and Hope and then went to stand directly in front of Trudy and said "I can explain everything, it's not what it looks" Ryan tried to reason with Trudy
"What do you mean it doesn't look like what it seems" Trudy asked
"Trudy please listen, give me a moment and I'll explain everything, I am not with her" Ryan said
"Oh, he is very much with me, you can even ask the in-charge here, Ryan just took the entire week off to spend time with me" Hope replied, clearly enjoying herself way too much.
Ryan looked at Hope with a frown, silently pleading for her to stop this but she just shrugged.
"I trusted you and you did this to me" Trudy said, as she started crying and violently thrashing his hands on his chest.
"Trudy please listen"
"Liar, I thought you were different" Trudy blamed as she continued hitting him in the middle of the restaurant.
At this point Trudy was a mess, Ryan looked as if he had been ran upon by a group of elephants, the guy behind the counter stared confusingly between Hope and Trudy, all the customers had forgotten their food and were looking at the brawl that was happening and one guy was even recording the entire scenario, and Hope was just standing there with a fond smile, thoroughly enjoying the mess she had created.
"It's going to be a lot more fun than I imagined" Hope said to herself as she looked at Ryan who was currently trapped between the counter and Trudy. He looked back at Hope with an annoyed look on his face.