Secrecy (Hosie)

Part 82: Attendant

"This was my idea, Jo. And he thinks it'll work."

"Of course he does. This is exactly what he wanted, Hope—"

"It makes sense. The monsters wanted to kill me and toss my body into the pit. Maybe if I can get enough of my blood dumped in there instead, it'll weaken Malivore enough to contain him and the monsters in him."

Josie hates it, but it does sound like it'll work.

Hope continues, "I'll eventually get too weak to fight if Malivore decides to spit out another monster, so—"

"We'll handle the monsters. Whatever you need," Cleo assures her, and MG nods in agreement.

"I'll look after him, too," Alaric ushers his head toward Clarke, loading an arrow into his crossbow.

"Again, standing right here." Clarke scoffs, crossing his arms.

Hope nods, gratefully, before looking down at the knifes in her hand, "Once I cut, I'll just heal...I need someone to keep the wounds open..."

Hope looks up to Josie, who looks more than disturbed and troubled.

She genuinely looks like she could cry at the thought of hurting Hope.

"Hope, I don't think I can—"

"Please Jo..."

Lizzie steps forward, seeing her sister's struggle.

But she knows Hope needs this.

And they'll be safer if they can at least contain Malivore.

She places a hand to Josie's shoulder while taking a knife in the other hand, nodding to Hope, "I'll help too."

Hope smiles wearily, "Thanks Lizzie."

Lizzie nervously questions, "Okay, so this isn't gonna actually hurt you, right? Because if it will, I take that back—"

"I'll be fine Lizzie," Hope actually lets out a small laugh.

Lizzie lets out a relieved breath, "Okay, then I'll do it."

They pause, looking to Josie.

Lizzie tries to joke, "Um, Jo, she's got two arms. I'll share the other one if you want."

"Oh, so now you want to share?" Josie argues.

And Hope only facepalms.

"I was just being nice, damn."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you for offering to let me cut my girlfriend open."

Clarke steps toward them, reaching a hand toward the other knife, "I'd be happy to cut your girlfriend open for yo—"

Alaric raises his crossbow at him, and Clarke immediately steps back with his hands up in defense.

Josie scoffs, taking the other knife from Hope's hand, "You're not touching her. You've done quite enough...I'll do it."

"Thank you," Hope sits down in the chair, draping her arms over the armrests, hovering them over the buckets.

Lizzie kneels down on one side, while Josie kneels on the other, leaning in to leave a kiss to her lips.

Hope whispers as they pull away, "I love you."

She thinks it's reassuring for Josie, but Josie doesn't think so, "Well don't be sweet right now! You need to piss me off or something. Stop making me love you more."

"Sorry, love."

Josie glares at her, "Hope, stop—"

"Sorr—Shit—" Hope sighs.