We'll Go Down In History

Chapter 59

Lizzie's Pov

I back away from Hope uneasily. Despite the threat she just delivered, my only thought is still, 'this makes absolutely no sense'.

This makes absolutely no sense. There's only one way the timeline could have been restored to this alternate reality, and that's if someone stopped me and Josie from delivering Katherine's letter to Klaus in 2011.

So how? How did this dystopian timeline pop out again out of nowhere?

"Grab them," Hope orders the wolves.

Four of them march towards us. Two of them grab my mom's arms, and the other two do the same to me. I could easily break free using magic, of course, but I'm far too distracted to even think about escaping right now.

"Ethan," Hope calls in a sing-songy voice to the werewolf from before. "I'm hungry," she wines.

Ethan's next actions are so robotic that it's hard to believe he isn't under compulsion. He isn't, of course- He's a werewolf, and wolves can't be compelled.

And yet there isn't even the slightest bit of hesitation in his eyes when he brings forth a pocketknife and slices his wrist open.

Hope drinks from his veins, black lines flickering across her face as she does so.

"God, I missed this place," she gasps, lifting her lips up from Ethan's skin.

She marches towards us confidently. Her hands sway at her hips. One of the wolves offer a dagger to her, and she takes it, twirling it around in her hand casually.

"Should I start with you, Liz? Or should I go for Forbes's face, instead?" she presses the side of the blade to my mom's cheek.

"Hold on," I say, finally coming out of my thoughts. "Just- Just give me a moment, okay? I need to figure something out."

Hope frowns. Clearly, this wasn't the reaction she was hoping for. "Figure what out?" she scowls.

"This doesn't make any sense," I put my repeated thoughts into words. "This doesn't make any sense. Don't you get it? This reality appeared out of nowhere. Time isn't supposed to work like that..." I falter a bit.

"Lizzie!" Hope snaps her fingers in front of my face. "Either get on with it, or let me murder your mother in peace."

"This isn't an alternate timeline at all," I breathe.

"What?" Hope says.

"You did nothing to restore this dystopian timeline. So the only way that we're back in it now is if... Is if somehow, we created a completely separate universe."

"In English, please," Hope says, looking bored.

"Your emotional linking spell set the portal's destination to this world, which is a world that's no longer supposed to exist. So, since the portal couldn't take us to the time you wanted to go to, it created an entire reality by itself, instead. This isn't an alternate timeline that we've landed in, Hope. We're in a completely different world," I say, not knowing how I'm saying all this with such sureness.

"A different world," Hope repeats my words skeptically. "Did you get hit over the head by a branch or something?"

"Shut up!" I snap at her. "This is the solution to both of our problems."

"I don't have any problems that need solving," Hope says. "I'm back in my world or timeline or whatever the hell it is you want to call it. You're the one who's in trouble. Not me."