danger. magnet.

shaking her head josie’s laugh was more sympathetic than entertained, “you’ve still got terrible jokes, landon,” she informed him, the smile on her lips almost teasing, almost reaching her eyes. whether or not josie had too many feelings and issues to deal with taking them out on someone else was something she never wanted to do again. “besides, i think i’ve caused enough harm to my friends and classmates both physically and psychologically for at least this school year.” landon’s logic was kind, and the intention was nothing but sweet, “if what they’re not remembering is me doing something embarrassing i’d rather that be the last of their memories of me than what those memories are now, i can’t get it out of my head… what i said, what i did, how they looked at me…”

     her fingers tapped an even rhythm on the cover of the book she was attempting to read. she was pretty sure she’d been on the same page for at least ten minutes with zero progress and had already flipped a number of pages in an attempt to make it look like she was actually paying attention to what she was reading. in reality, her mind was entirely fixed on the missing year. it was clear that she’d at least had somewhat of a good time judging by the pictures on her phone, but it was more than a little weird to see herself with people she didn’t recognize or knew she didn’t like enough to stomach through a selfie with. the voice took her out of her clearly very deep thoughts and she looked at landon with more than a bit of contempt. “first of all, i’ve read the books too not just watched the movies,” lizzie started, annoyance lacing her voice. “and second, anakin was hot before he became all gross and old.” she turned back to her book for a moment before slamming it shut and setting it on the table beside her. “breathe a word of this, and i will  find a spell that will flatten your frodo baggins imitation mop that you call hair into the emo style you clearly haven’t discovered matches your personality.”

.

rafael knew this conversation would happen eventually, he just hoped it would be later rather than sooner, that way he’d have an opportunity to figure out what he wanted to say. he’d been robbed of sixteen months that could’ve been spent trying to find a way to apologize to landon, of course, that paled in comparison to being robbed of sixteen months of ones life. he had no idea where to begin, they’d been through so much together, more than most people experienced in a lifetime and they were just teenagers. but that didn’t give him an excuse, he’d killed landon, that fact was clear as day. it didn’t matter if he was possessed, he was still responsible. “landon,” he sighed, as he reached up to scratch the back of his neck, “i don’t even know if i want to go to college,” he admitted, for once telling the truth.

“Quite a few around here seem to be having issues goin’ and staying asleep, don’t blame you.” Jamie turned back to the counter, plating the one he’d already made and walking it around to the kid before heading back to the stove. “I gotta say, my time here had it’s wild times but the crap that all went down once i’d gone? Wild stuff. It leaves a mark. Nothing wrong with that, but also no use in pretending you aren’t changed by stuff.” Ingredients sizzled in the pan, veggies sautéing under his eye. “Not that you need to spill your life story but, I got an ear if you wanna talk about what’s keeping you up.”

.

“yes,” daisy huffed, “and like i know none of us can remember the past sixteen months but apparently that was also when all common sense was taught,” she didn’t like the negativity swirling around her, the thinly veiled frustration in her voice. daisy loved being back at the school, for the most part, she was still working through some issues. but she loved it, she really did, and yet the prospect of the west wing of the school blowing up because someone put two ingredients that should not be next to each other next to each other was not what she wanted to deal with. she looked at the teenager with a half smile as he hid behind the course pamphlet, “you’re not super subtle, you know,” she informed him, leaning over to pull down the catalogue, “you didn’t offend me by talking, more like… saved me from looking like i’m insane and talking to myself in public.”

josie watched as landon began moping up the mess she had created, a furrow in her brow; she couldn’t decide what was worse, losing her memories of the past sixteen months or being comatose like landon had practically been. at least she had lived those past months, and if she was okay now then she could only deduce that she hadn’t spent that time doing dark magic. “that’s a really bad idea,” josie insisted, shaking her head, “cookware might not deserve it but you deserve it even less,” the brunette smiled slightly, tugging her fingers through her hair and, he was right, it was a couple inches shorter and dark brown had gotten hints of honey from the summer sun, “i wish i remembered, just to know for sure that i didn’t do something stupid in those months.”

Hope laughed, knowing he probably wasn’t too far off. “Yeah you may have a point. I can take a crack at it of course, though I need more than a few minutes to figure out how to put all that encompasses Landon Kirby on paper.” Eyeing the food neither seemed too interested in, she turned to face him completely and reached for his hand. It was nice, a physical reminder they were both here and for the moment, relatively out of danger. “Hey…wanna head into town tonight or tomorrow? Grab a milkshake or sit in the park, people watch? It might be nice to just…get away or something.”

.

while landon and kaleb had butted heads when they first met, they had grown to get along and possibly even be friends outside of slaying monsters. he turned around to look at the picture, it was a group picture of josie, lizzie, mg, raf, jed, himself with pedro on this shoulder, and alric on the end red as could be. was it really the super squad if landon and hope weren’t there? “dr. saltzman is finally a supernatural - lobster-man,” he chuckled. “i think that the beach trip was just a field trip, who knew that they let us out when the world wasn’t about to end.” 

throwing herself down onto one of the sofas daisy exhaled in exhaustion, “if i have to sort through those supplies cupboards for spells one more time because some students think they’re sneaky when they go through stuff for their love potions or whatever they think they’re doing for fun i’m going to scream,” she complained, “i shouldn’t need to repeat ‘i love my job’ on the daily, do you know how close we were to absolute mayhem with some of those ingredients just sitting next to each other?”

     “any chance you’ve seen a cell phone just laying around?” jade asked, frustration clearly laving her voice. she hadn’t been able to find it since waking up, and she’d tried all the normal routes of computer technology already. “it had sparkly case and the background picture was an artsy oscar wilde quote, but who knows if i changed it in the past year.” she shook her head, knowing it was likely a lost cause. she had apparently changed the passwords to everything in the past year and couldn’t figure out what they were to at least she what she’d been posting on social media. she’d had to make do with going through other people’s profiles to see anything she’d done, but there was only so much they could help with. “it’s probably gone for good,” she admitted a moment later. “this kinda blows.”

.

from her outside perspective the salvatore school felt just as she left it. a wave of nostalgia hit her like a sucker punch to the stomach as she walked through the familiar hallways. it was a disgustingly cliche feeling that had her wanting to roll her eyes at herself for feeling so sentimental about this place. but it was what brought her back in the end. it was a home even if she wasn’t one to admit that to her peers. 

the outside yard was as hectic as ever. she had barely even made it out onto the lawn when a football came soaring through the air. with a hand extended she stopped it in the air just inches away from someones face. “you know, i hear the odds of getting killed by a football are low but never zero.”

josie wished that she didn’t care what everyone was thinking about her. because her sister and her friends seemed to be understanding, seemed to not hate her. but josie, who tutored younger students and helped out with everything she knew her dad didn’t have time for wanted people to like her. the ones that had welcomed her help before now just seemed to want to be as far away as possible form the brunette. “nothing, unfortunately for the bowl i’m projecting my feelings onto it,” she hummed. josie couldn’t help but chuckle softly, “no one has seen anyone in a while,” she reminded the phoenix with a gentle smile across her lips, she arched a brow, “you mean normal? not black.”

“Nothing beyond cutting up the best quesadilla ever seen on this side of Virginia.” It took half a second to take stock of the dude before him, vaguely recognizing the picture from the student files though a name escaped him. But the poor kid looked anything but chill or stable in the moment, the decision an easy one. “Take a seat kid, I can share.” He gestures to the chair with the same knife, glancing down at it in dismay before setting it aside, empty hands now repeating the gesture. He brings over some toppings to the table, sliding a plate with the now sliced food on top towards him. “Food can fix like, at least 48% of life’s problems at times. Can’t sleep?”

.

Hope’s smile was more genuine this time, watching as he struggled for nonchalant as he swallowed. A part of her felt too guilty to bring up how she felt the same about food half the time. She’d only been asleep and he’d been a lot more than that. So she’d downplay, and get by. All she cared was he was here, with her. Alive. “Lizzie gave MG a live eulogy once, or so I heard. I’m sure if you ask really nicely she’d do the same for you.” 

.

it was no secret that rafael had been avoiding spending any time in their room, opting to crash on an old bean bag in the old mill, it was far from comfortable but it had allowed him to avoid facing landon. it wasn’t that he wanted to avoid his friend, except, it was exactly that. he had killed landon, he’d stabbed him with an arrow- landon had been dead for well over a year. to say he was ashamed was an understatement. he had been counting on landon being absent from the room, when he went to retrieve a change of clothes, and he nearly turned around on the spot but ultimately deciding to face his fears he took a deep breath as he nudged the door shut. “uh yeah, i did a tour,” he mumbled, “are you sure hope doesn’t want to go with you?”