Into Thin Air

Chapter 79

Hope picked her head up, looking around the darkness surrounding her. 
“Hello?” She pulled herself to her feet. “Jade? Penelope?”
“Hope?”
Hope whipped around at the sound of Penelope’s voice, echoing around her. Her eyes were wide and alert, checking the impossible darkness for any hint of a person. 
“Hope!”
“Penelope?” Hope held her hands out. “Post tenebras spero lucem.” 
A ball of light appeared in her hand, lighting up the void around her. She cautiously stepped further into the darkness, eyes scanning back and forth.
“Pen?”
“Hope!” 
The sky exploded into white light, and Hope held a hand over her eyes as it blinded her. She squinted into the brightness.
“What if she doesn’t come?” Jade whispered to Penelope as they looked down at a miniature Hope shielding her face.
“She will.”
The two watched as Hope started to move away from the opening in the sky.
“She’s fighting it.”
“Give her a minute.”
Hope’s feet fell out from underneath her and she hit the ground elbows-first. 
“Ouch,” Penelope commented with a grimace. “Come on, Hope.”
The light was dragging her backwards now, Hope clawing at the nothingness. It was futile, though, and she flew up towards the opening, falling through the hole in the sky. 
She groaned as she lifted her head to look around. It looked just like the Salvatore School entrance, and when Hope looked down, she was laying on the wooden floors.
“Hi, Hope.” Penelope smiled softly and offered her a hand up. “Took you long enough.”
“Where am I?” Hope asked as she took Penelope’s hand. 
“A small pocket of Malivore,” Jade offered shyly.
“It was more comfortable than the mind-numbingly empty void.” Penelope shrugged. 
“Huh.” Hope nodded like it made sense to her. 
“I really thought you’d get here faster.”
“I had a long drive.” Hope laughed a little, remembering everything that led up to her and Lizzie’s road trip. “A lot has happened since you left.” She turned to Jade. “And a lot more has happened since you left.” Hope shook her head. "But I'll explain everything once we get out of here."
Jade furrowed her eyebrows but it was Penelope who voiced the question,
"How exactly do you plan to get us out?"
"I have less of a plan and more of a theory," Hope said. "Malivore wasn't meant to consume witches, vampires, or werewolves. If a vampire and a witch didn't upset Malivore's stomach enough to make him hurl, then a tribrid surely will." Hope nodded to herself. "And if that doesn't work then … our lives rest in Lizzie's hands."
"Lizzie Saltzman is what stands between me and an eternal hell in here?" Penelope cringed. 
"I trust her."
"Yeah but I don't."
"That's because you don't know her. She's changed a lot. You know, she died while you were gone." Hope crossed her arms.
"Lizzie Saltzman is a heretic now?" Jade's eyes lit up.
"More like … a witch of the dead. And essentially immortal."
"Cool."