"Urgh…"
"Mr. Gilbert." John called the hunter.
"I heard it." Jeremy said, his eyes falling on the girl John was carrying in his arms. "She is waking up. The full moon is helping her body disperse the sedatives."
"Sedatives?" The young man looked at the man he carried. "You drugged her?"
"She wasn't the most cooperative person when I met her." Jeremy said, his voice neutral. "She was being pursued by vampires and I suddenly appeared saying I need to take her somewhere for her safety. And due to the situation we were facing, I deduced it would be best if she went to sleep while I took care of things." Saying that, he pointed towards a clearing a few hundred meters away. "There, land there."
John followed his words and lowered his altitude, slowing down his speed as well. "You will be the one explaining everything to her. You know that, right?"
"Yeah, no problem." Jeremy said. But honestly, his response lacked any attitude to it due to how tired he was.
After almost an entire minute, John slowly descended onto the clearing, his bare feet touching the tickling blades of grass beneath.
Carefully, he helped Jeremy land as well. But as soon as the hunter felt his feet touch the land beneath him, he collapsed on the ground.
"Are you okay?"
"Just tired." Jeremy replied, his eyes closing. "I will just rest for a moment. For now, try to find a tree to chain our wolf here." He stared into the skies, the moon clear to see as nothing blocked his sight. "We don't have much time."
John, still holding the girl, nodded and started to walk away from the hunter, letting him rest as he went around the clearing looking for a place to put the girl down.
The search didn't take long, actually. The group was in a very deep part of the forest, in a place where probably no person has visited or passed by in a long time, which made the young man require less time to find a good enough tree that wouldn't be uprooted by a werewolf's strength.
"It should be fine here." John murmured, bending down his knees as he carefully laid down the girl on the grass, allowing him to have a clear look at her for the first time.
The girl had long black curly hair, so much so that it reached the lower part of her back. And with her laying down on the grass, it spread around her, almost like roots that would pierce the earth.
She was young; John guessed she was about his age or maybe one year older by how it seemed she was reaching the age where teenagers started to have more adult aspects on their appearance.
As he stood up to his feet, John kept staring at her face. My age… and like every werewolf in the school and Hope, she already killed someone. He went around her, taking the chains off his body and approaching the big oak tree he chose that would act as the werewolf's anchor. I remember there is also a young girl at the school, barely a teen. Hope mentioned she triggered her curse not longer than two weeks ago.
Dropping some of the chains on the ground, John kept a single one with him as he went around the tree, circling it with the chain. I wonder… what they had to face to make this decision. To take someone else's life.
As John mulled over these thoughts brought by his mind, he had already walked around the tree once. And by doing so, he picked both ends of the chain and brought them closer, making the chain hold tight onto the tree. He did it so because he feared the tree might suffer any damage and eventually break in case the werewolf kept constantly pulling on the chains.
In all honesty, John was just doing what he thought to be right. After all, he never saw a werewolf transformed in the full moon. He was working on what he speculated the wolf to behave and the possible strength it could demonstrate based on what he saw in the bunker and words from others.
Clang!
The young man pulled the chain that was tightly around the tree and gave a satisfied nod to himself when seeing the metal structure barely moved since it couldn't go anywhere unless the chain or tree broke apart.
In silence, John continued to set everything in the place, connecting other chains to the one around the tree. The only thing left he needed to do was put the chains on the girl.
Hey, John, you can travel across realities, what are you gonna do? Yeah, well, probably chain down a girl to a tree. John mockingly thought, kneeling down nearby the girl.
When he grabbed the girl's arm, John observed as she steered in her unconscious state, groaning again. But this time, the boy thought for a moment she would wake up.
I better hurry up. John took this as a sign of not having much time left and started to speed up his movements. Quickly, he chained down her limbs, neck and torso, with the chains around the latter two a bit loose as these body parts grew and suffered more changes than the others when werewolves transformed to their wolf form.
Having finished arranging everything, John stepped back a few steps. When he was decently far from the girl, he took a sniff at himself.
"Huff… I am stinking." John murmured as he smelled himself.
"That's what happens when you hold someone who spent most of the day in not so clean places." Jeremy commented in a murmur, with him still thrown on the ground a few meters distant from the boy.
"Did you do this to hide your smell?" John asked, not needing to shout for the hunter to hear him. Besides the clearing being completely silent, they both could hear each other well due to their enhanced hearing.
"Yeah. But a vampire could still detect me through their sense of smell." He replied. "I had to move every once in a while, or my smell would start to become distinguishable in the environment the longer I stayed."
"I see…" John brought his legs closer to him, putting his arms around them. "Aren't you afraid of an infection considering your poor physical state and the fact I smell certain unpleasant things from you?" He threw a look past his shoulder at the hunter.
"I'm immune to most diseases. Not at vampire level, but nothing that I can't get over in due time."
"That's good." John replied. "Must make the job easier sometimes."
"You have no idea." Jeremy chuckled. "Once, I had to hunt a new vampire, a ripper, in the sewers of New York." He said with some reminiscence in tone. "After such an experience, you get used to things that are not so pleasant."
"Did you find any giant crocodile or mutant turtles in there?" John glanced down at him.
"Hahaha… nah." Jeremy weakly laughed, swiping off the dried blood on the corner of his lips. "Just corpses and rats that could be mistaken for dogs." He said. "You would be surprised by how you can find the strangest things there. I even found some signs of life, but didn't stay longer to take a look after I killed the ripper."
Reminder: Plan a treasure hunt on New York's sewers. John randomly thought, the idea earning him a smirk. "Well, you might have gotten used to the smell of rot and such, but I saw a clean and good lake not far from here when we were landing. I'm going there to shower." He looked at the hunter. "Can I take you to watch over her?"
"Did you chain her down properly?" Jeremy asked.
"Yes." John answered.
"Then you can go." Jeremy said, closing his eyes. "If anything happens, I will shout out."
"Okay." Nodding, John walked away from the hunter, going in the direction of where he saw the lake.
It wasn't far, as the boy had mentioned before. After walking a little more than a couple hundred meters and passing through some trees, John found it–an immaculate, crystal lake reflecting the moonlight.
The surface was still, every so while a ripple appeared on it due to the wind or even a few fish that swam through the water.
In the background, there was the occasional sound of a few crickets and maybe an owl.
"It seems peaceful." John thought, approaching the lake as he started to undress himself.
When he took out his shirt, he put it over his shoulder before taking out the phone from his pocket and taking out his shorts as well.
"I should tell Dr. Saltzman that everything is fine here." John muttered as his feet ran over the gravel surrounding the lake, unlocking the phone in his hands.
Thinking he should contact someone to alert the headmaster, the young man slowly and casually looked over the list of contacts on the phone.
Bonnie Bennett, Caroline Forbes, Damon Salvatore… Hm, I should've guessed Alaric would have their contacts. A bit of interest made way towards John's eyes as he read the contacts. Even after seeing Dorian's contact, someone who should be close to Alaric at this moment and he could share with that everything here ended up fine, he kept scrolling due to his curiosity.
"Hehehehe… Elizabeth♡." The young man lightly laughed at how Alaric saved his daughter's contact. "Elena Salvatore, Jeremy Gilbert, Josette♡, Marcel Mikaelson, Rebekah Mikaelson. I guess they are the ones acting as Hope's guardians in this case if he has their numbers." John continued to scroll down the list of contacts, reaching the end in no time.
Valerie Tulle… John's eyes wandered over the contact, a hint of surprise found in them. That is a name I didn't expect to see here. The boy thought, his surprise not unjustified. In this world, it has been what, more than a decade since she left to live her own life? I didn't expect Alaric to have her contact. Following these thoughts, the boy's steps splashed into the water, his figure submerging in the lake.
Casually, John threw the phone in the air, the device starting to float as it closely accompanied the boy as he stopped going further into the lake, the small waves caused by his movements drawing water lines on his chest.
Feeling the strike of coldness against his skin and the natural comfort provided by the water, John readjusted himself on the lake. Instead of standing in it, he was now floating on the surface, the moonlight bathing his body as he slightly dipped his hair into the water.
"Damn… this is awesome." The young man felt his body instinctively relaxing. "I guess I will put that lake by the school to some good use from now on." As he enjoyed the open bath, John brought the phone closer to him, letting it turn horizontally on the air so he could look at the screen from his position.
He scrolled up the screen, returning to its first half as he was in search of a specific contact he laid his eyes upon a few moments ago when listing the contacts.
"Here it is." It took not much time for the boy to find the contact he was looking for, with him unceremoniously clicking on it, showing the options he had available to contact the owner of the number. And among the options, John chose a normal call on the speaker.
…
Vrr! Vrr! Vrr!
"Hm?"
"Is someone calling you?"
"I think it is." Hope said, taking her phone out of her pocket. "It's from you, Dr. Saltzman." She showed her phone's screen to her headmaster.
"Then it is John. I handed him one of my phones." Alaric said. "Accept it outside. Things will soon be noisy down here."
"Okay." Hope nodded before turning around, going up the stairs that led to the surface.
At the top end of the stairs, she opened up the heavy door of pure metal and walked out of the bunkers before closing the door behind her. Only then, when alone in the clearing surrounding the small house of concrete did she accept the call.
"Hello, John? Is that you?" She asked, putting the phone by her ear.
"No, it's the Interdimensional Immortal Traveler." John deadpanned, a light smile on his lips.
At the boy's response, Hope's immediate reaction was to scowl. "Sorry, then. You called the wrong person. Try another number after I call it off." She threatened, but her words lacked any real intention behind them.
"Well… it would be a shame to suddenly end this fated call, don't you think?" John said. "How about we continue it despite our lack of knowledge about each other?"
"Ha…" Hope casually laughed, her voice carried by the wind. "Stop playing, you doofus. Be serious, okay?" The girl's tone was a mix of stern and gentleness. "I was worried, you know? How the hell could you think it was a good idea to go out to help a vampire hunter with a vampire problem?"
"Dr. Saltzman said Mr. Gilbert needed help and I was probably the only one that could help. I didn't see much reason to refuse." John tried to defend himself, stretching his arms before putting his hands to rest on the back of his head. "Sorry if I made you worried. But everything ended up well in the end, okay?"
"Sigh… Okay." Hope nodded in acceptance, her eyes glancing down as she drew lines on the ground with her feet.
"You know, I expected some action." John said. "With me suddenly appearing to save Mr. Gilbert and the new wolf from a horde of vampires. But fate played me and disappointed me in the end, which resulted in me finding both of them hiding in a trash dumpster, both stinking more than a fish having spent half a day in the sun. And the great part? I had to carry both of them, so now I am smelling as well."
"Pft, that happened?" Hope stifled her laugh. "So what now? Where are you with your smelly ass?" She started walking around the clearing, a hand supporting the arm holding the phone.
"Well…" John looked at the lake and trees surrounding him, with the stars doing the same to the moon in the sky. "I am… taking a natural shower." He slowly said. "I am floating on a nearby river I found."
"…" Hope stopped, no words coming out of her mouth.
And for a good few seconds, the world around her fell into silence as well, accompanying her into state.
"Hope?" John called out.
She breathed deeply. "John?" She responded by calling out the boy's name.
"Yeah?"
"Are you… na-naked?" The young woman stuttered when attempting to pronounce the word.
"No." John denied immediately, unnecessarily shaking his head. The action threw a few drops of water on the phone.
"Oh, that's good." Hope released a sigh of relief, with a smidge of broken expectation underneath it. And even if weakly, the point they reached into the conversation sent her mind in a little spiral. "But it somehow is still strange that you decided to bathe in a lake with clothes and all." She said the first thing that came to her mind.
Glancing down on himself, with his eyes resting over the water scattered over his torso and legs slightly submerged, John pursed his lips, a self-conscious hint of amusement flickering across his face. Better be quiet about it. "I had to clean my clothes as well, so I thought why not." He answered casually, trying his best to not let his tone slip.
"I see…" Hope replied. "So, you rescued them. I can presume you already prepared everything for the werewolf to go through her full moon."
"First thing I did when I landed." John said. "Found a good tree and chained her down to it."
"That's not a good match of words, don't you think?" Hope cheekily said.
"I thought the same." John replied, his lips curling up. "Everything seems good. Mr. Gilbert is not in great shape but he said he will be fine, so I can only say the night ended up positive." The boy paused. "Are things going well on your side?"
"They are." Hope nodded. "Mr. Schmidt was the last one to arrive, but with him, every werewolf in the school is bound in chains waiting for the moon."
"Well, every werewolf but one." John said. "I know you are special and all, but don't you feel anything under the full moon?"
"I do." Hope shortly replied. "I can feel it, the moon trying to pull on the curse. But I can simply ignore it."
"Interesting." John muttered. "Do you think we have how long until it starts?"
Silently, Hope looked up at the sky. "It should be anytime now." She said, dropping her sight.
"Okay." John said, adjusting his stance in the water. His feet reached the lake's floor. "I guess my bath time is over then. I should go and help Mr. Gilbert watch over her." Slowly, the young man walked out of the lake, water dripping off his body as he picked up his clothes floating on the surface. "Any friend advice to my werewolf here? It's her first time and although I bet Mr. Gilbert must know a thing or two more about transformations than me, you must have some valuable advice I could use, right?"
"Hm…" Hope hummed in thought, quickly thinking of something. "Tell her to not resist. Resistance against the full moon is futile. Tell her to embrace the anger, the wilderness and the primal aspect of the wolf. It will shorten the transformation and it won't… weigh too much on her mind."
"Okay." John nodded, his feet dragging along the shore, the dirt sticking to them. "I will try to relay those words. I just hope she doesn't try to kill us for drugging her, kidnapping her and chaining her to a tree."
"Yes, good luck with that." Hope humorously smiled. "I guess that's where our call ends, hm?"
"Unfortunately." John put on his clothes, uncaring if they were soaking due to the water. Fortunately, the water washed the bad smell off them. "But fret not, I will be with you soon. Tomorrow I get back to the school."
"Okay." Hope softly said, turning to the iron door. "But a question, who says 'fret not' nowadays? What are you, a thousand years-old?"
"Yeah, I am your uncles' childhood friend, I've been sleeping these past few centuries." John said, rolling his eyes. "I only woke up because I've glimpsed the presence of a beautiful girl, beautiful enough to wake me from my sleep."
As the young man's words echoed through the phone, reaching the girl's ears and comprehended by her, Hope smiled despite herself, cheeks warming as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger.
Holding onto the knob of the door, Hope weakly tightened her grip on the phone as well, her breath deepening as the words escaped her lips. "You are stupid…" She said, not offending nor cursing. Her words carried an affection that she had not shown in a long time to others but her family. "Return soon, okay?"
"Yes." John nodded. "Bye, Hope."
"Bye, John."
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