Chapter Text
"Pathetic. This is why real strong women have a moral responsibility to beat their men, and why they should fear us! The sooner you bunch of peons figure that out --"
"Heard about enough of this!"
Record scratch, freeze frame.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! You ever had one of those moments where you think, "How the hell did I get here?"
Stars, what happened to me? I was on top of Hexside! Had myself a nice little outlet with the kids at the library, I mean come on; they got in the new Otabin book early just so I could read it to them, because they knew I loved that series just as much as the kids! But now look;
I'm about to save Goof, Idiot and my dummy from one of the many useful idiots that plague the Boiling Isles!
Ahhhhhh. You know, now that I think about it, my whole life; even before the brightly coloured comet of human-shaped energy came into it, has been a constant series of What The Fuck?! moments.
That, uh, that was my out?
On a particular Tuesday morning, at 5:30 a.m., Amity Blight sat in front of her dresser's mirror, combing her hair as she forced out another yawn. She was just wearing her underwear and a crumpled oversized shirt; different from her usual light pink frilly nightgown. The Boiling Isles' sun wasn't even half up yet, showing both how early Amity had to get out of bed and the fact that the colder months were coming. Thus, the light orbs she'd casted covered the room in a soft glow.
This morning, however, she took the time to examine her features. They were all sharp; sharp ears, sharp jawline, sharp glare, sharp nose. Even her roots were jagged, even if they were getting a bit long. Appropriate, she supposed, for someone so prickly by nature.
"Here we go again..." she mumbled before yawning once again, as she reached to put her triangle stud earrings in. (She had Boscha to thank for convincing her to pierce her ears at thirteen.) Once that was done, she reached for her Otabin plushie on her bed. She'd had it ever since her second birthday, and for a long time she would play with him every day, and hug him to sleep every night. And there was a certain spot at the back of his neck that she had left her own scent, that she always smelled at least once a day; it was comforting.
Once she'd done enough, however, she returned him to the hiding spot. Once she'd reached a certain age, her mother had made her stop playing with him due to it being 'too childish'. That same night, her father had returned it to her, but made sure to tell her directly that she had to hide him well if she did want to keep him. And so she did; despite still sleeping with him every night. (Yes, she locked herself in her room every night, just so she could keep sleeping with her stuffed animal.)
Ten minutes later, Amity made her way to the dining table in her Hexside uniform, with breakfast already prepared for her. At the table sat her father, eating his own breakfast. He was an early riser by nature (unlike Amity or the twins), and thus was also ready for the day before the sun had even risen.
Even seated, Alador Blight was a force to be reckoned with. He was a tall and sturdily built man, with auburn hair complete with a well-groomed beard covering his entire jawline and lip, though not his cheeks. He was almost always seen in black dress pants and a white button-down shirt under a black vest, black tie around his neck like some human buisnessman. He had yet to put on his usual black overcoat, but his cane, made out of a highly durable wood was always at his side. He was the current holder of the family sword, Silencer, a weapon passed down from parent to child near six hundred years, and Amity dreamed about owning it one day.
As usual, Ed and Em weren't there. Because they didn't have a zero period study hall in school like her, they would always sleep in another hour before they had to get ready for school, like the slippery creatures they were. With the high efficiency that came with constant practice, Amity bolted down her breakfast and washed it down with a tall glass of cold puffer slug milk. (It tasted a lot better than it sounded.)
Her father looked up and cleared his throat, making her pause. "Have a good day at school," he said, in his usual neutral voice. Amity mumbled a quick "thanks" before heading out the door, schoolbag over her shoulders.
Once on the road, Amity pulled out a human artifact she'd bought from Eda -- an 'iPod', it was called. A portable record player that needed things you stuck in your ears, and an electricity spell every now and then to work. Scrolling through, she settled on "Every Night" by one Paul McCartney.
As she made her way along the dirt paths to school, she wondered how long she'd done this routine. Waking up extremely early, only to struggle along harder than most could imagine. It was getting harder and harder to handle her classes, especially with her mother pushing her mind to the brink, on top of extra credits and time with her new friends. In fact, she was getting less than six hours of sleep a day now.
Not to mention her hopeless crush on a certain human who rewrote the book on oblivious.
Zero period, and the school day so far, had been the usual for Amity. She was now in front of her locker, changing out books for her next class, when she caught a glimpse of the Emperor's Coven poster stuck in there, along with her photos of the twins and Luz.
She'd hated being helpless that couple of days when Luz fought the Emperor. When she did tell Amity the whole story, Amity had looked at her poster of Lilith and just barely resisted the urge to rip it apart, or burn it to cinders. Something told her she'd regret it hugely if she did.
She'd thought long and hard about it, and found she wasn't bitter towards Lilith because of the curse; she was in over her head and did everything she could to fix it -- something Amity would have done herself. No, it was because of how she'd used Luz -- her Luz, as little more than a living shield. Logically, it had made sense, but her damn emotions were still getting in the way. And it just felt wrong to let go of it all.
On top of that, just because the Emperor's Coven had revealed their true colours, it didn't mean her dreams weren't attainable; more than anything, Amity Blight had a deep desire to be respected. Not just that, she wanted to be respectable. And the Emperor's Coven couldn't be the only way to that goal, could it?
Amity's mind found itself slipping into an old dream, one that she'd never told anyone about, outside of Willow. Once, she had confided it to one of her peers, and the little brat had gone and blabbed about it to everyone. So many others, though none more so than Goof and Idiot (better known as Edric and Emira respectively), had laughed at Amity for weeks, calling her "Captain Amity of the Emperor's Coven," until she just wanted to crawl away, hands over her drooped ears. It was a true test of her restraint to just shrug and pretend not to care...
Yeah, and when I'm the most powerful witch around, and I've made lots of money, I'll apply to the coven proper. I'll earn that garb. Then I'll come back and get Mother, arrest her, and she'll be thrown into the Conformatorium. She'll die there... that thought always made Amity's mouth curl upwards in a predatory smile, her budding adult fangs showing through.
At the far end of her fantasy, Amity pictured herself, successful, respected, the most powerful witch on the Isles, with a palisman of her own, lots of loyal friends, and plenty of snails. And... a family. Yeah... a family of her own. A beautiful wife who adored her, who'd share adventures with her, and kids, maybe. She knew she'd be a good mother. She would make sure they wouldn't go through what she did.
Although, that image now seemed to contain a certain human girl in the wife position. And she did love the way "Amity Noceda-Blight" sounded on her lips. That same daydream, however, quickly proved to be very embarassing.
It was always hard to summon an abomination at first, but once you mastered it like Amity (and Alador), you could do it almost without thinking; commands were subconscious thought. She kept an abomination close to her almost all the time, mostly to carry her things. And couple that with constant thoughts of a certain human?
So she was in front of her locker, daydreaming about her dummy, when that same girl's voice cut through her thoughts. "Hey, Amity. Is this your abomination?" says Luz awkwardly.
At first, Amity thought that she was daydreaming so hard she was starting to hear things in Luz's voice, but when she turned around and saw what had happened, her head dropped into her hands.
Her abomination was standing there, as innocent as could be, with Luz Noceda under its arm. Once Amity looked up again, she saw that it was now holding Luz up to her with both arms, as if she'd ordered it to go get her. For all she knew, she probably had.
"Yeah... it is..." groaned Amity, embarrassed to be stuck in this situation. "Abomination, put her down."
Luz was set gently back on the floor, and the abomination quickly disappeared after that. "Did you miss me that bad?"
"Kinda," Amity explained. "It's common for stressed out people to mess up their magic. And abominations doing things in their creator's subconscious without supervision is a sign of powerful magic, so there's that, I guess."
"I can tell you're stressed," Luz interjected, immediately sending Amity's heart racing. Her human had a tendency to care too much about things. Amity loved that about her, but didn't want her to know how much of a mess she was. "I mean it; you look like serious shit. How much sleep do you get?"
"Ah...five hours a night, maybe six if I'm lucky?" Amity replied slowly, inwardly hoping Luz wouldn't freak out. The way Luz winced immediately told her that that was the wrong answer.
"Five to six - mierda, how are you even functioning this well?! Dios mío..." Luz cried.
"I know..." Amity sighed. "Five o'clock starts suck. And energy rejuvination potions can only get you so far," she added, fighting back a yawn and shaking the half full bottle in question. "But, I have been getting better grades for it."
"Your mental health is way more important," Luz insisted. "Don't your parents give you any kind of study cutoff time?"
"Well..." Amity said awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. "My mom kind of, sorta, makes me stay up until midnight to keep studying."
"Amity, it doesn't matter how important your grades are to you, it shouldn't make you sick," Luz reiterated like the stubborn, loving girl she was. Clearly, she got it from her biological mother. "Get more sleep, even just an hour, OK?"
"Luz..." Amity sighed. I'm not worth the bother.
"Amity, come on!" Luz smashed in, clinging to her arm tightly. "Please."
Amity looked away, blushing. I don't deserve a girl like this. "I...I promise I'll be fine. I've made it this far, I can make it a bit further," she said. She knew her mother would probably force her awake to study even more, while reprimanding her for putting laziness over success. She'd done it several times before, in fact. "I'm sorry, Luz. It's been super hard lately, that's all," Amity reassured, while avoiding the fact that Luz herself was one of the four reasons why.
Luz smiled before pulling Amity in for a short, tight, clingy hug, making said witch blush more brightly than any human light bulb. "Okay, I trust you," she sighed.
Amity smiled back, nervously. She didn't feel right about being cared for, but she knew Luz cared about her a lot, something she wished her own mother -- or anyone -- would do. But it did feel good, giving and receiving hugs. Especially from the incredibly cuddly Luz.
"Anyway, Amity, if there's anything I can do to help, and I do mean anything, let me know," Luz added as she pulled away, smiling like the dummy she was.
Amity considered the offer for a moment...wait...no. Luz couldn't agree to something like that... could she? But it was Luz. Only one way to find out...
"I'm gonna ask a crazy question, then. I hope it's okay."
"P-lease, Amity. Crazy is my middle name!"
"I thought that was Eda, but okay. Do you like girls? As in, romantically?" Wow, that sounded awkward, didn't it?
"Well, I've liked both before. Found out properly a couple years ago. There was this one hot, mysterious guy my second day on the Boiling Isles, but turns out he was a creepy puppet, and I stabbed him with a toy sword," Luz explained.
"Really?" That was something her Luz would do.
"Long story. Anyway, it was only a day, at most. But yeah; I'm okay with both. Why do you ask?"
"Because, I've got a crazy idea to help deal with my distractions and get better sleep, but I didn't want to make you uncomfortable." This can't possibly work, can it?
"Lay it on me, Amity! I'd love to help."
It was now or never. After a few more moments of silence, it came out. "Well, what if we kissed?"
"Us kissing?" Luz replied, shocked at the thought.
Amity tried to take it back, to guage the waters. Could she be on board with it? "Yeah, see, it was a crazy idea when you say it out loud, isn't it?"
"Us... kissing..." A dopey, lovestruck grin slowly crept its way across Luz's face. That idea was starting to grow on her.
Unfortunately for Amity, she didn't notice the grin on her dummy's face, due to her inability to look her in the eyes. "Us kissing! What's wrong with me? Could you imagine that?" Nervous laughter had laced her voice.
Noticing Amity's eyes on her again, Luz quickly tried to throw it off, thinking largely the same things. "Yeah... I know, ha ha... I definitely wouldn't want to kiss you!" It was only seconds later that she realised that that was the absolutely wrong way to go about it.
"Oh, well, sorry," Amity replied, with an air of slight disgust. "I didn't realise that it was such a horrible option. Now I've got classes to get to; see you later."
As Amity walked away, Luz was quick to slip into berating herself. "Oh, you dimwit!" she groaned, as she thudded herself in the head before headbutting the wall. "What is wrong with you?!"
The rest of the day was uneventful. That night, Amity was supposed to be finishing an abomination project, so she needed to focus, otherwise her parents -- or more accurately, her mother -- would start to notice the slight dip in her most recent grades. She was tapping her foot to the beat of another human song, "Fill My Little World" by The Feeling. Unfortunately, human music was making her think of her human again.
It had only been a couple of months since she'd taken a broken bone for her dummy and former best friend. The energy comet in the form of a human girl that had crashed through her life was just stacking up titles; her human, her dummy, her fearless champion, her Luz. With her unwavering optimistic spirit and carefree attitude to life itself, Luz Noceda had stormed right into Amity Blight's heart, and built herself a nest there, like the owlet she had become under Eda.
In hindsight, it was oh-so-easy for Amity to fall so hard and fast for Luz; she'd done so much for Amity purely because she had a heart of gold, and her silliness had bought unbridled joy back into her life. Maybe she was just attracted to silly, childish girls who knew how to take care of her.
A Blight must never present themselves as having any weaknesses. Perfection must be maintained at all costs. Wait, was that her mother's voice? Or some locked away part of her mind?
The house was deathly quiet, making it the perfect time to get some work done. She scanned through her textbook again to find that elusive passage on viscosity altering spells, and when she finished reading, she found that she'd been doodling on the paper without thinking about it. As if her memory of how she and Luz first met had flowed out onto the paper.
She slammed her head into her desk, letting out the mother of all groans. Why was it, that when she thought about golems meant to serve only as tools of her will, she thought of her human dummy?! She wanted to laugh and groan at the same time; why was she this hopelessly gay? And now she couldn't stop thinking about wedding dreams -- "Luz and Amity Noceda-Blight."
She needed to purge the fluffy feelings out; Amity turned off the music, set her pen down on her desk and reached into the drawer to retrieve her diary, placed there after Goof and Idiot had found its original hiding spot -- with Luz's reluctant help.
However, that's where it started going wrong. The simple book, with a hand drawn cover and all the intimate thoughts and feelings about her human dummy spilled all over its pages like a contaminant, wasn't there.
"Amity Elara Blight!" Oh, shit. Amity's heart slammed into her throat like the Titan slamming his front door, and she whipped her head around to stare wide-eyed at her mother, her least favourite person in the universe. No competition for that title.
Odalia Blight (nee Graves), despite her clear anger, looked as prim and proper as ever. Her bright green hair, mirrored on Amity's own head, was pulled into a perfect bun atop her head with no hair out of place, and her dark purple dress perfectly pressed and tidy, as always. Her face was stiff and serious, though it was rarely anything other. Her sharp, frosted eyes landed on Amity's. There was no warmth in them; they were poisonous through and through.
"Do not react like that. It is improper of a young lady." Amity made herself swallow past the colossal lump in her throat, trying to slow her heart, currently thudding harder than the Titan's. Her mother's eyes narrowed just a touch. Blast.
"Now, what is this?" Between her forefinger and thumb, as if it was a used tissue, Odalia held Amity's diary.
Amity felt herself pulling a grim face. Odalia didn't have even a fragment of an altruistic bone in her body, if she would go through her daughter's belongings like that. But worse, there was no way she hadn't read the contents; her secret had to be out by now, to the one person in the entire Isles she didn't want to find out. Amity'd much rather fight Belos alone than have her mother find out her crush.
"That's my diary, mother," Amity grit out, in a voice equal parts anger and shame. She wondered if a fresh punishment was coming. The last one she'd got had resulted in her not being able to sit down for days.
When Odalia spoke again, it was with a voice so dangerously low that Amity felt her legs begin to tremble. "I know it is. Who is 'Luz?' Infatuation over this human girl?" Amity could barely hear those words over the terrified buzzing running rampant through every part of her skull.
It felt as if an ice glyph had been drawn directly on her heart; now she was beyond fucked. "Mother... I..."
"No wonder you have been performing poorly in your classes recently. Most of the time was clearly spent pursuing pointless feelings for this novelty. I am very disappointed in you, Amity."
Each word felt like a white hot needle in Amity's skeleton, sealing her fate further. There was nowhere to run or hide. There was no getting out of this one. It was too late to lie in any way, shape, or form. Amity's entire chest felt as though it was being crushed by a huge, invisible hand. No... this can't be the end...
"I cannot believe that I gave birth to you; no flesh and blood of mine would ever associate with such disgusting lowlife creatures."
Amity's heart sank below her, deep into the Boiling Sea as every atom of her being smarted with shame. She didn't think that about Luz; but she couldn't imagine telling her mother that right now.
"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?" Odalia shouted.
Amity felt her throat constrict harder than ever before, and she could only shake her head... for the second time in her fifteen year life, she'd gone and chickened out. Chosen placating her beast of a mother, over her own feelings.
"Well, this is what I think of this human," Odalia drawled with absolute contempt as she began to tear the diary apart.
And it was this that finally got Amity's vocal chords working again. "Please don't..." It sounded as pathetic as Amity felt in that moment.
"No! I'm not wasting time on you to allow you to become infatuated by this novelty! It's going in the trash!"
With sudden ferocity, Odalia began tearing pages out of the diary and throwing them into the bin. Each tear felt like one of Amity's few remaining heartstrings had been torn out. Once the empty covers were in the can, Amity bowed her head, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Do you want to end up like your siblings? Wasting your time with needless juvenile behaviour? If you concentrate on your studies and don't get distracted by nonsense, you could make a life for yourself! Do you want to throw it away like those two did?"
"I..."
"How dare you speak back to me!" Amity hadn't realised it was a question where you aren't supposed to give an answer. "You are going to break off all communication with this human and the other lowlifes she associates with, and focus on what really matters! Is that understood?"
Now, Odalia wasn't the only one getting angry; Amity was also starting to see red. It was outrageous... unfair... how dare she do this? The painful memories of when she lost Willow, all the cuffs and blows and beatings -- from Boscha and her gang as well as Odalia -- were coming to a head.
"No..."
"What was that?" It was low, dangerous.
"No! I won't do it! I won't let you use me like some glorified doll!" Amity still couldn't say where she found the anger, but she was holding on like never before. "You can't make me sit here in a cage like a prized animal! You hear me?! I won't live your life!"
A split second later, Amity felt herself recoil as if she'd been shot. Her head impacted on the floor, and she tasted her own blood as her head swam. With another huge wave of trembling and panic washing over her, she got on her hands and knees, arms struggling to hold her up. She looked up, to see her mother lowering her hand, slowly. She had hit her.
Primal panic overcame Amity as her expression shifted to pure fear. "Please, mother! I'm sorry I spoke out of turn! I didn't mean it! I am your loyal daughter!" She might not have made sense there, but it didn't matter either way.
"I am your mother, Amity. I gave you your life, and I will tell you what to do with it. You will learn your place. And pain will be your teacher."
Odalia drew a spell circle.
No, no, no, no! I'm not thinking about that! I refuse to let myself think about what happened next! All you guys need to know is that outside of the one permanent thing she did, she was held back only by the fact that I was her favourite play set piece, and she didn't want to damage me forever. But there were a hell of a lot of things she could do that wouldn't cause permanent damage, and she did damn near all of them! I wasn't able to walk for two days after that!
Luz was worried. Very worried.
She hadn't seen Amity in two days. Amity missing school was not like her in the slightest, and it made Luz's insides churn harder than any amount of lactose could hope to do.
Not to mention how her feelings were starting to become different in regards to Amity than anyone else. She loved Eda, King, and even Lilith and Hooty to an extent, in the same way she loved her mom. Family. And she also loved Willow and Gus, in a different way altogether. The first real friends she'd ever had. But Amity?
The more she thought about it, the more realisations dawned on her and the more she liked the idea. She liked Amity. As in, a lot, a lot. And now her imagination was running wild -- well, more wild than usual. What would it be like? To be with Amity, in that way? To hold her small hand in her own larger one, to kiss her on her lips and hear her squeak, to cuddle up on the old sofa watching kids' movies together?
It would be perfect. She could already see most of those things in her mind's eye. Especially Amity and herself sobbing together at WALL-E.
It wasn't as if she didn't like girls. Both she and her mami were bi, through and through, with no real preference either way... and she was suspecting Eda was the same... and it wasn't any fault of Amity. She was beautiful -- Luz's eyes did function -- and she could see Amity malfunctioning whenever she spoke a word to her lately. Grom, the library, Hexside's halls, Grudgby, Luz knew about all of it. Not to mention how she was on board with kissing Amity when she bought it up.
No, it was her. Because, who wanted to even be friends with the girl too weird for the wierdos that did (admittedly) creepy tricks with her eyelids, let alone date her? The one who was too much of everything, who people just didn't like?
What could people see in her, exactly? Let alone the girl who had intelligence outstripping everyone else, an athletic prowess, a soft, caring heart, and the beauty of an angel?
Oh cramity, I do have it bad for Amity. She slumped, cursing herself for not seeing it before. All those fanfic writers whose work she loved were disappointed in her. And not just because she'd used a few of their phrases in her work.
But, this was a new realm, right? Different rules? Here, she could fit in because nothing fit in anywhere -- just yesterday, she'd seen a gay werewolf couple giving each other a kiss before they left for work. That was something you'd only see in the deepest depths of the internet where she'd came from. Not to mention, she was pretty tame by comparison to all the glorious insanity. In fact, if not for her rounded ears and methods of magic no one would even give a damn.
Luz was fine with being an outlier -- that wasn't an issue. It was that she was a social, loving person by nature and wanted to give love to others. Now that she did have other outlier friends and was living out her high school AU dreams, did she really want to risk one friendship because the friend in question was just so smart and cool and cute and loving? Oh, cramity indeed.
Luz paused her love ramblings for a moment to look around where she was currently lying down in. Her bedroom, which once was just a spare room where she slept on the floor in a sleeping bag, now looked like she's been there for years. Considering her situation, it only made sense to get some permanent things.
Yes, the desk drawers always had to be slammed shut and yanked open with all possible force to get them to budge. Yes, the bookshelf was missing an entire side. Yes, the bedframe had been broken and mended at least five times, twice of which were courtesy of Eda. Yes, she still missed her video games and all the other electrical items she couldn't access here. But, it was starting to feel more and more like home, because that was The Owl House by nature. (Luz, King and Lilith all had to talk Eda out of building a second nest for Luz.)
Both Luz and Eda had agreed to let the whole cursing thing slide; Lilith clearly had no idea what would happen, and Eda had been a real delinquent brat back then -- well, more of one than now. And if Luz could forgive Amity almost getting her dissected, she could forgive Lilith using her to get to Eda.
Luz had found herself daydreaming all throughout the afternoon about the idea Amity had planted, lasting all the way until Eda called her down for dinner. Forcing her fantasies of singing in the kitchen whilst making brownies together into the back of her mind, Luz went downstairs slowly, her mind still buzzing with this new realization of her feelings for Amity.
Luz slumped into her chair, mind still whirling. Lilith and King were sitting in their respective chairs, Lilith slowly taking sips from a mug of tea -- Thornroot, her favourite. Eda looked up from the pot she was stirring with Owlbert, and taking notice of her kid. Her gold and grey eyes blinked owlishly.
"What's going on, kid?" she asked. "Does Hooty need to get another 'friend'?"
"A NEW FRIEND?!" Hooty burst in, sticking his head through the kitchen doorway. "IS IT A BUG, HOOT? THEY'RE SO CRUNCHY, HOOT HOOT! THERE WAS THIS ONE TIME, WHEN I TRIED TO MAKE A BUG FRIEND, BUT I ATE IT AND THEN I -- OW!"
Lilith had summoned her white staff, and bonked him on the the beak. "Go away," she dully said, remembering all the hassle he'd given her.
"OKAY, OKAY, HOOT!" Hooty was indignant. "NO ONE HERE'S ANY FUN. OW! HOOT!" He retreated to his spot.
"Now you're getting it!" King whooped, as Lilith sat back down.
Eda just nodded, still looking at the slumping Luz. "So, what about it?"
"We're not torturing anyone." Luz shook her head. "I couldn't stop thinking about Amity," she admitted, twiddling her fingers.
Eda raised an eyebrow as Lilith looked up from her tea. "Thinking about her, how?"
"I've just realised I've got a crush on her." Wow, that felt liberating to say out loud. Luz still had no idea what to do next, but it felt good to get it out there.
There was deafening silence for a few moments as everyone else processed it.
"I wasn't expecting that," Lilith muttered, taking another sip of tea.
"Yeah, I could swear that Mint Chocolate Chip was gonna make the first move." Eda shrugged.
"Wait, what?!" Luz blinked, and just gawked at Eda. She couldn't have heard that right.
The silver haired woman all but glared at her surrogate daughter. "Are you telling me you didn't notice that she's crazy about you?"
"I guess I did, but I thought that she had feelings for someone else!" It wasn't even a lie; she had thought that at first.
"You can't be serious, kid! I see her less often than Lily, and even I see it!" Lilith didn't say a thing; she had been hiding in the loft almost all the time, only venturing out when needed or when no one else was home.
"People don't have crushes on me, Eda! They just can't!" Luz threw her hands into the air, before bringing them down again with a thud.
"Whaddya mean, Luz?" asked Eda, baffled where this was coming from.
Luz sighed. "I did see all the things Amity was doing around me, but I guess I kinda blocked them out. Where I come from, no one actually wanted to love me romantically. I've... had bad experiences with dating in the past, not just because I love listening to synthwave and metal and focused more on fantasy books with convoluted backstories than the latest trend online or what the latest slang word was."
"I didn't get half of that," Eda replied, "but it's their loss for not getting you."
"Thanks," Luz shot back. "But yeah, that's why. I can't believe I didn't fall for her earlier; she's beautiful, loving, caring, smart..."
Eda cut her off with a laugh. "Wow, you've got it fucking bad, kid!"
"Edalyn, language!" Lilith cut in.
"Please, that one was tame, Lily!" Eda shot back. "Besides, you're on the Boiling Isles, kid. Different rules, different people. You really like that girl?"
"Yes."
"Okay, so we can kidnap her, throw her in a room here, and you can bring her food and gifts every day until you're sucking face. That's a good way to get her to love you."
"Yes!" agreed King, clearly into the idea.
Luz felt her heart stop for a few seconds. "What?! No!" she shouted. What was Eda thinking?
"Edalyn, come on!" Lilith scolded at the same time.
"What?!" Eda threw up her hands. "That's how it went for me and my first girlfriend!"
"I don't think you want to put her through all the bad decisions in our pasts! Do you not regret any of it?"
"No?"
Luz threw back her head and groaned. This wasn't going that well, was it? "Maybe I just shouldn't take that risk." That drew the attention of both the sisters.
"Bah," groaned Eda. "A life without risk is boring. That how you want to live, kid?"
"Yes," agreed Lilith. "If you want love, you've got to fight for it. Believe me, I'd know."
"Huh, I guess," Luz grumbled.
Eda frowned at the glum look on her kid's face and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"It'll be okay, kiddo," Eda insisted. "Now, how about some food?"
A tiny smile pulled at her lips; she knew Eda was trying to to help through distraction. "Okay."
Luz woke up early the next morning. Before the sun rose, in fact.
She knew Amity had a zero period, and that meant she would be up far earlier than most people. To that end, Luz had also gotten out of bed that early - something she'd never do on her own - and was waiting for her now.
She saw a figure shuffling along with her hood raised, and hunkered in like she was the loneliest girl in the world. And a hint of bright green only confirmed who it was.
"Amity!"
She froze stiff at the call of her name, and seemed to hunker in even more. Luz, ever the empathetic girl, slowly moved over to her, and noticed the off thing immediately.
Amity's hair had been re-dyed; her lovely auburn roots (lovely?!) were gone, now the same shade as the rest of her hair.
"Amity, did your mom make you re-dye your hair?" As soon as the sentence left her mouth, Amity's head flinched as if she'd been slapped, hunkering in even further than before, like she was trying to take up the least amount of space possible. That had to be it.
"Yes," she answered after a long, painful moment, just as the bell screamed. Her voice was almost dead inside. "I have to go."
Luz grabbed her shoulder, preventing Amity from moving away. "Wait, Amity, don't go. Talk to me."
"I'm not talking about this right now." She pulled away and ran inside, leaving Luz to watch her go from the bottom of the stone steps with a frown.
Her stomach was churning like she'd drunk a gallon of milk once again, not only because of worry for Amity, but also anger at her mother. She'd never met the ominous Mrs. Blight, but she knew already without a doubt that she didn't just dislike her; she hated her.
Amity could hardly pay attention to her classes that Friday. She was mad at herself, for all kinds of reasons.
Of course, Luz would be able to put two and two together and see that she was upset; she always was the first couple of days after having her hair 'fixed'. Along with everything else that had happened.
Why did she have to be so loving? Too loving for her own good? It had almost gotten her mentor petrified, for Titan's sake! Not to mention her being stranded!
The whole day, Amity moved like a soulless machine from one area to the other, unable to get her mind and heart to stop arguing.
It hurt, in more ways than just one. And she had never felt so weary; her abominations moved with more animation.
As the final bell screamed, and with dark clouds thick in the outside air, Amity left her class, only to quickly get pulled into an empty storage room.
Luz's beautiful face was in front of her. And it was the last face she wanted to see right now.
"Amity, what's going on?" asked Luz desperately. "You vanish for two days, and you're back with your hair dyed and acting like the Terminator? What happened?"
Amity didn't know why she thought she could get out of doing this, but now she had to do it the hard way.
"I can't hang around with you anymore, Luz." It was the most painful thing Amity had ever been forced to say. More painful than the constant throbbing in her face.
"What?!" Luz was incredulous. "Why? Did I --"
"It's not you, it's me. I don't think I'm comfortable in situations like the ones you get into."
Luz couldn't believe it; the girl she was crushing on was trying to cut herself off? It was like Earth all over again.
"So yeah, I have to stop being around you." That wasn't even a lie on Amity's part, because horrible pain had been promised her if she didn't.
Luz could see the conflict in Amity's gorgeous eyes -- this wasn't genuine, right? "Amity, talk to me. What's really going on?"
Amity had become more hostile, just like that. "Can't you just respect my wishes?"
"Was it your mom? Did she put you up to this?"
The way Amity's left eye twitched was all the proof Luz needed. "Luz... stop..."
Luz slowly reached out. "Hey, maybe I don't understand your pain... but my mom says..."
Amity just slapped her arm away like slapping a stinging insect. "Stop. You're right; you don't understand. And your mom isn't fucking in this realm, remember? You might not see her ever again! Now get out!"
Amity knew that that would hurt Luz. She wanted to take all the words back, but she couldn't. Not if she wanted to get rid of the pain.
The glass veil shattered.
Deafening silence filled the empty space, as she and Luz stared back at each other with eyes the size of dinner plates, gold glaring with pain and masked fear, and tear filled brown looking with shock and hurt.
Amity's heart dropped below the Boiling Sea once again as Luz's lips began to tremble and her eyes turned glassy (like they had when she lost Eda that time at the Emperor's castle). Amity wanted to give an explanation upon seeing it, but for the life of her, she couldn't get her mouth to form the words she wanted to say.
Luz burst like a soap bubble, choking on a sob before she turned and ran, wrenching the door open. It slammed against the wall, the bang echoing through the small room as she fled down the hall. Once she was out of earshot, Amity just let out a wordless scream and crumpled to the ground.
It really was like Willow all over again.
"Why am I so good at being bad?!" she wailed out in anguish.
A soft blue glow on her head seemed to snap her out of it; the illusion placed on her had come off, and she had no intention of putting it back on. Not to mention the pain coming from it right now.
Summoning a handheld mirror, Amity looked at her face again, only this time with the added red mark that spread like a foul liquid over her left eye and cheek, from her hairline all the way down to her jawbone.
A burn scar.
"Luz? Are you okay?" Willow asked, once she'd run into Luz in the hallways, shuffling along and devoid of her usual energy.
"Let's just go," Luz whispered.
Not wanting to question it, Willow nodded, and they walked along together. But those eyes were unmistakeable.
However, when they got to the front doors in Hexside's foyer, they both stopped to look outside. Brilliant, jagged streaks of purple lightning crackled through the early evening sky, making loud crashes and bangs as they went.
"Oh, that's just great," Willow mutted as she gazed out. "Blastning."
"Is that bad?" muttered Luz, devoid of all her curiosity, or energy.
Willow ignored it... for now. "It's like boiling rain, but highly unpredictable, and known for shutting down all magical communication. So we can't call for help, and I don't know any shield spells. Unless you found a glyph for them?"
"No..."
"Right," the plant witch sighed. "That means, we're all stuck here. Let's go find Gus, and wait it out, 'cause going out in that is crazy."
The two turned, and walked back inside.
The beast glided soundlessly down from the rafters and landed lightly on her feet. Her night vision was now far better than most witches and demons; she could easily make out her targets.
The beast had been creeping through Hexside with exaggerated care for the past few hours. She had given her word to her masters -- the course of action was clear. And the lightning keeping them all here was a welcome addition. Not to mention the school's security wards working in her favour now.
Now, the beast glided through the halls... silent and invisible as a wraith...
Unbeknownst to all of them, however, another person was outside, right on top of the building.
"You've always thrown everything you could at me!" Amity yelled into the sky, as if directly to the Titan. "Well, I can take it! All of it! I always have! And now I can give it back!" The lightning crackled around her. "Go on! Strike me! You've never held back before, why start now?! Come on!" There were a few more tantalising moments of silence, but the lightning didn't hit her.
Amity just crumpled to her knees, wailing with pent-up anguish. "Why?! Why do you want me to suffer so much?! What did I do to you, and everyone else in my life?! Why do you and the rest of the universe hate me?! Why... can't you just... end it?!"
She knew she was a Blight. But the tears had finally got to her. Those blasted warm, salty drops were streaking down her face as she knelt there, in a storm that refused to end her.