HOPE
Nothing exactly prepares me for what I just hear.
Meeting Eli, becoming his infuriating partner, and ending up in this twisted dinner scenario it's all part of their meticulously orchestrated plan.
If it were up to me, I'd bolt immediately. But instead, I plaster on a smile, swallow my pride, and take a seat among them, knowing I've got no other place to rest my head tonight.
The dining room is oppressively silent for a group allegedly on the same side.
Eli sits across from me, exuding calm and charm aura, twirling his fork like this isn't some elaborate psychological ambush. Kaleb reclines in his chair, eyes fixed on me with an intensity that makes my skin crawl. And Finn? He won't even meet my gaze.
I prod at whatever gourmet concoction lies on my plate. It smells divine, but my stomach is too knotted to care.
"So," I begin, forcing my voice to stay steady, "what's the next phase of this master plan? Do I get drugged? Assaulted? Or maybe used as bait to draw the monster out just for some extra credit?"
Eli's eyes snap up. "What are you talking about, cupcake?"
I shoot him a glare sharp enough to show how pissed off I am. "Call me 'cupcake' one more time, and you'll be sipping your next cupcake through a straw."
Eli's smirk falters, his fork pausing mid-twirl as he studies me with newfound caution. Kaleb's eyes narrow, the corners of his mouth twitching in amusement.
"Alright," Eli says, raising his hands in mock surrender. "No more 'cupcake.' Noted."
I roll my eyes. That wasn't the point. Are they so emotionally weak that they can't understand the fact that rage is swallowing me whole?
I lean back, arms crossed, while I survey the trio. "Good. Now that we've established boundaries, care to explain why I'm the unsuspecting guest star in your little production?"
Kaleb chuckles, swirling the wine in his glass. "You're giving us too much credit. This isn't a production; it's more of an improvisation."
"Improvisation?" I arch an eyebrow. "Funny, because it feels like a meticulously scripted play, and I'm the only one who didn't get the memo."
Finn finally looks up, guilt flickering in his eyes. "It's not like that. We didn't plan for you to get hurt."
"But you planned something," I press, my voice steady. "And I deserve to know what."
Eli sighs, setting his fork down. "You're right. You do. Before you arrived, Principal Kaveri personally instructed Kaleb to pick you up at the station. Not everyone gets that kind of priority, so naturally, we got curious and started digging into your bloodline. Turns out your mom—who's missing now—was once Kaveri's friend and classmate here in Brookshigh. She worked alongside her and the Cardinal Alphas to stop the apocalypse last century."
So that's why I'm here? Not because my story felt so touching to her. Kaveri is the principal and not an external examiner?
"She's everything administration," Eli confirms.
"Stop reading my fucking thoughts, you maniac psycho." I yell and narrow my eyes, processing the revelation. "So, let me get this straight. My entire life in this school has been a setup for some grand plan I wasn't even aware of?"
Finn leans forward, his tone serious. "Not really, Hope. Okay, I left you because I needed to take care of the incident with the suicide student. We were trying to protect you. I didn't want you to see that on your first day in school—but you did anyway."
"Protect me?" I scoff. "By keeping me in the dark? That's not protection; that's manipulation."
"Manipulation is the easier word, if you call it manipulation. It was safer this way."
"Safer for whom?" I retort. "Because it sure as hell isn't safer for me."
I hardly give my trust away, and I manage to give it to Eli—only for him to prove me right all over again that I should definitely trust no one.
If he could have been sincere with me in the first place... and what's that ridiculous lie about my mother saving the apocalypse last century? She's barely forty-five, and they're here telling me she'd lived a century plus?
"Now y'all tell me that you also know Annika—my sister. Annika Kendrick. Because if you all gathered to 'protect me,' it means you must have gathered to protect her when she was sent to Brookshigh."
"Annika who?"
"Fucking Kendrick! I just said my sister—use your head, Kaleb!"
"I've never heard of her."
I scoff and run my hand through my hair. This is fucking pissing me off.
"No, you have. If you really did research about my bloodline and family history, you would know everything."
"We know your mother didn't kill your father. You just think she did because of the angle you saw it from ...at your age."
"Eli. This is the last time I will warn you to stop reading my fucking thoughts."
Kaleb whistles low, his face grinning like he's enjoying the show. "Well, this just got spicy. Eli can never admire a sane woman. Not even for once!"
"I'm not reading your thoughts, Hope. You're just projecting them so damn loud it's hard not to trip over them."
I shove my chair back and stand, the legs screeching across the floor. "Stay out of my head then."
Finn raises his hands like he's defusing a bomb. "Let's all breathe, yeah? This isn't helping."
I glance at him, then back at Eli. "If you knew anything about my mother, you'd know she had her reasons for murdering her husband."
"She didn't," Eli says quietly. "But someone wanted you to believe she did. Someone who erased every trace of her from the official records—including Annika."
That alone is enough to shut me up.
"You're not crazy for remembering her," Kaleb adds, his tone unusually serious. "You're just the only one left who does. Hope, we didn't know about Annika. Your mother's records were sealed tighter than a vampire's coffin at sunrise. We only found fragments—mentions of a powerful ally, a 'Kendrick,' who fought alongside Principal Kaveri during the last apocalypse. But nothing concrete."
I narrow my eyes, skepticism etched into every line of my face. "Convenient. So you expect me to believe that my sister, Annika Kendrick, just vanished from all records? That no one here remembers her?"
Finn shifts uncomfortably, finally meeting my gaze. "Hope, it's not that we don't believe you. It's that someone went to great lengths to erase her. And if they did that, it's because she was a threat—to someone or something. And if she was, so are you. Likely."
Eli's voice is softer now, almost apologetic. "We're not your enemies, Hope. We're trying to piece this together, just like you. But we need to work together. Find out who wanted your family erased and why."
I take a deep breath. "Fine. But if we're doing this, we're doing it my way. No more secrets. No more lies. And if any of you read my thoughts again, I swear—you'll regret it. And for the record, I'm only going to sleep here tonight because I'm certainly stranded. I'm leaving at the next cockcrow tomorrow, and I won't trust any of you that easily again. You'd have to earn my trust from now on."