Night Falls

We're Being Punked Pedro

"All right, gather together. Chain spells are about the fluid movement of energy from witch to witch. Where's Penelope Park?" Dorian asked us. I looked over to Lizzie and she shrugged. "Um, lady cramps, Mr. Williams." She answered him. He immediately looked flustered. "Sorry I asked. A disharmonious group makes for an uneven flow." He said. We all burst into laughter. "Okay..." Dorian says as he tried to pick up from where he was at. A note flew across the room until it stopped when Dorian grabbed it.

"Uh-oh, who's in trouble with the headmaster?" Josie asked him.

"Probably the people who started a rumble with the local high school." Hope said giving us three a snide glance. "Lizzie Saltzman, Josie Saltzman, Olivia Hart and baby makes four. Off you go." We all turned back to Hope with a look of confusion on our faces. Once we left the classroom we met up with Ric and followed him into the library. "This makes no sense, Dad. Why are we being punished?" Lizzie asked him. "Because you started a brawl at a charity football game that risked exposing what we really do here." He tried explaining to her. "Well, you weren't mad last night." "I was mad last night. My undying love for my daughters just happened to trump my rage. I volunteered everyone in the game, so stop complaining. You're lucky that it's just community service and not actual jail time." Ric told all of us. "Can I at least offer a rebuttal in my defense, if it pleases the court?" She asked him. He had a look that said go ahead. "First of all, I was provoked. My response was totally proportional considering the levels of abuse that I was forced to endure. And secondly... if anyone should take the blame, it's Josie." "What?" "I'm sorry. I totally cracked under cross, but if you had just let Kaleb catch the ball..." Lizzie trailed off with. "You'd still be in trouble." He said. "Yeah but nice job throwing your sister under the bus." I told her. "Thank you Liv." Jo told me. "Speaking of, the bus leaves in ten minutes, and I expect all four of you to be on it, working together today, harmoniously and without drama. End of debate." "I wasn't even at the game. Why am I being punished?" Hope asked him. "You know what you did. All right, now, go, all of you. Come on." Ric said to us. I glanced at Lizzie who looked like she was taking joy in the fact that Hope got into trouble.

Once we got into the square, we all started walking off the bus. "So, what did you do? My dad never gets mad at you. You're the prodigal daughter. Must have been juicy." Lizzie asked her. "Sorry, no time for girl talk. Public service awaits." Hope said. We all gathered together by Dorian to see what he had to say. "All right, listen up. It's a beautiful day. You got options: Litter, weeds, graffiti. Your choice." He said. Kaleb leaned closer to say, "It's bad enough we get punished while the humans get a pass, but there ain't no way in hell I'm picking up their garbage." I laughed. "Ehh I wouldn't care about picking trash up." I told him. I heard bickering coming from where Lizzie and Josie were standing so I made my way over to Hope with a garbage bag. "Dad told us to work together, okay, harmoniously." Josie said trying to remind Lizzie. "Yeah, and he also said without drama, and I am feeling a rage attack coming on, so I will be remaining drama-free over by that wall of graffiti. Are you coming or not?" She asked. "I don't know, Lizzie, is there another bus you want to throw me under?" Jo asked her. She looks at all three of us with rage. "Fine, Daddy's girls." Lizzie sneered at us until she turned around to face Mg.

While we were poking the trash and picking it up the whole walk had been awfully quiet. (Or awkward) "You have a future in waste management." Hope breaks the silence with. "Cleaning up messes is kind of my thing." She stated the obvious. "Well, your sister is kind of a dumpster fire." Hope told her. "Why do you always pick fights?" I asked Hope. "We've known each other a decade and any time you have the chance, you poke." Josie tried to tell her. "You guys do your fair share of poking." Hope said. "Yeah, in retaliation to your pokes. And with you spending so much time with my dad and keeping secrets..." Jo trailed off with. "We're not keeping secrets." Hope argued. "Oh, yeah? What happened when you went to go find Landon Kirby?" She asked her. "Nothing happened." Hope said clearly trying to change the subject. I turned to look at her. "Something clearly did happen." I said in agreement to Jo. "Rafael never showed up at school, my dad was rattled, so why won't you just tell me?" She tried to pry out. "Because there's nothing to tell. Aah! Oh, my God. Aah! Ow." Hope said while she was distracted she ended stabbing her foot. "Are you okay?" I asked. "What do we do?" "Help me pull it out." Hope said. "What?" Josie asked her. "I can heal myself. Pull it out." She told us. I grabbed the trash poker and yanked it out. "Ow!" "You poked yourself." I stated the obvious. "Shut up." She said while we all started laughing. "Everything okay Jo?" I asked her. "Yeah, I just think that that's making me a little bit nauseous." She said while we saw Dana and Mg making out. "Huh. Didn't see that coming." Hope told us. "It's simple math. MG has the hormones of a teenager and the impulse control of a preschooler. He also always goes for the wrong kinds of girls." Josie explained. "Given my last crush, I can't judge." Hope said to us. "Same." I replied while looking towards Kaleb. "Well, my last crush was actually Satan incarnate. That is, I guess, unless you count..." Jo said trailing off. "Who?" I asked with excitement. "Never mind. It really doesn't matter anymore. Lizzie has dibs." "Dibs? On Rafael?" Hope asked her. "She always calls dibs." "When's it gonna be your turn?" I asked her. "It just is what it is." She said back to us. "Right, well, that doesn't really make it right. Your dad knows I used black magic. That's why I'm in trouble. Don't worry, I didn't tell him that either of you helped me with the spell." Hope clarified. "Thank you." We said at the same time. "And Landon and Rafael took off together. Landon told me he didn't know why he stole the knife. But then he lied about having it, so I don't know what to believe. Then he wrote me this letter that was... I don't know, sweet." She said with a smile. "Lizzie's... sensitive. Our mom is going on these really long recruitment missions recently. That's why she's extra testy. She just really misses her." Josie tried to tell us, "I know the feeling." Hope said while looking down. "I remember how your mom used to come by the school. We all used to say how beautiful she was." Jo said to her. "She really was pretty." I said in a solemn tone thinking about how my mom broke the news to me. "We really should have sent you flowers or something." Josie told her. She laughed. "You did. Your dad signed your names. It was obvious." Hope said to us. "Okay. We definitely deserve a little bit of poking." "I wonder where the boys are right now." I asked out loud. "There's this spell that my Aunt Freya taught me. It's kind of like a full-immersion video chat." Hope said. "Okay, but don't we need something of Landon's to... Is that the letter?" I asked her. Hope looked towards Josie. "You can't tell your dad. They don't teach this at school." Hope told her. "This is the kind of secret that I can get behind." Josie said. We started to do the spell when something went wrong on Josie's end. "Why'd you stop?" I asked her. "This is twin pain. Something's wrong." She told us with worry all over her face. We jog up to the bus to leave. "I think Lizzie's in trouble." Jo stated to Dorian. "I'm sorry, I can't let you leave." He tried to tell us. "No, I need to go home to see my sister. Your dad's with your sister. And I'm under strict orders to keep you here. What? Why?" Josie asked. I look over the the green book and read the title. "And why are you researching that?" I asked him.

Once we made it to the school we tried to open the gate but there was a barrier spell. Josie put her hands up to it and started siphoning away. We run to the schools door and open it. "Lizzie?" Josie shouted while walking to one of the classrooms. "We will check the library." I told her. Hope and I started running when we almost knocked someone down. "What are you doing here" Ric asked us. "Oh, my God. You scared me." Hope said. "Dorian was supposed to keep you away." "He tried. He lost. But here. Killing Gargoyles 101. He thought you could translate it." I told Ric while tossing the book to him. "Gaulish. Son of a..." He said. "So are we are on our own, or did the Gauls provide clear instruction?" I asked with a rushed tone. "In a nutshell, it says hit it hard, repeat as needed."All of a sudden we hear something make a loud noise. "Is that...?" Hope asked. "Yeah. Listen, it poisoned Lizzie. I'm guessing, to get my attention. Then it attacked me and took the knife." He told us. "The knife? The dragon knife? And you're still breathing?" She quietly yelled. "Oh, I have a theory about that." "Well, save it, because we had to take down that containment spell to get inside the school, meaning our monster can get out." I told him. "A containment spell? Lizzie wanted to make sure whatever attacked her didn't escape into the world. Good girl. All right, well, guess we better find it... before it makes the evening news. So how'd you take the containment spell down?" He asked us while he was about to hand Hope the axe. "She didn't. I did. And I have questions." Josie said to him and grabbed the axe. We started walking to Emma and Lizzie. I looked and saw giant scratches that were on the walls of the school. "Emma? Emma?" Ric called out. The sliding door opened to reveal Emma and she held her finger up to her lips. We all turn our heads to hear the loud walking noises. This was our monster. It flew down in front of Hope causing her to hit the ground and roll over. Ric rushed to stand in front of Hope. The Gargoyle raised the knife and was about to hit him when it stopped. "Dad!" Josie screamed. She ran around the Gargoyle and hit it in the back with the axe. It turned to her and then Ric hit it also. "Fluctus inpulsa." Hope said to it. I turned to Hope and held her hand. "Josie, help me." She said. "How?" Jo asked. "Just repeat after me." Hope told us. "Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa. Fluctus inpulsa!." We yelled at it until it exploded leaving chunks a rock everywhere. "Nice job." Hope said. Josie turned around with tears in her eyes. "How could you jump in front of her like that? You could have died, Dad." She told him. "Honey, I knew it wouldn't kill me, because my research said so..." He tried to say but she stormed off to go see Lizzie. I turned around to follow her only to see my mom holding Lizzie's hand. Josie started to siphon and the grey area with the scratches started to go away.

All of the Salvatore staff and students were called in for a announcement. I made my way and sat down by Kaleb and listened to Ric's speech. "If you'd asked me a week ago...I would have told you I knew the difference between myth and fact. I would have said that supernaturals were limited to the species under this roof. I would have said that folklore and fairy tales were just stories. But I can no longer say that any of that's true. 'Cause just a few days ago, we were confronted by the existence of a dragon. And then, today, our campus was terrorized by a gargoyle come to life. Some of us... were forced to fight. We won. This time. They were drawn here by a knife that went missing earlier this week. And for whatever reason, these creatures consider us to be the enemy. In their minds, we're the villains because we won't give them what they want. We don't even know why they want it. But we're gonna find out. I can't say for sure what their true intentions are. I can't say there won't be more attacks. That's why I'm telling you this. To warn you. To ask you to look out for each other. To do what's best for one another. Because we're more than just a school. And we will stand together, we will fight together, and we will win or lose this battle together, no matter what comes next." After he was done I went to go and find Hope. I made my way out of the library to find Hope leaning on the wall watching Lizzie, Mg, and Josie. "Hey how are you doing?" My mom asked me. I turned around and smiled at her. "I'm good but I'm worried about Hope." I said. She nodded and we walked up to Hope. Once we were close enough to her she turned around. My mom opened her arms and grabbed both of us into a hug. I look to Hope to see tears forming in her eyes.

My only thoughts while trying to go to sleep were occupied with how can all these monsters exist. And who else would be coming.