Yes, I'm updating this before Owl's Apprentice. Don't judge me...

Luz had never before in her life really understood the concept of darkness swallowing anything up. Sure, the darkness was a spooky thing and at some point in their life every child had a fear of whatever monsters they imagined lurking just beyond their sight. That was the reason why Luz had spent most of her five-year old nights snuggling in her mami's bed until she bought her a little night light shaped like an orb for Christmas that year. Even when she had outlived her fear of the dark, Luz always made sure to keep that little night light plugged in and switched on when she went to bed. Funny that, when she thought about it, the light glyphs she could now summon reminded her of that glowing orb. But, as she led her friends down the twists and turns of the Pandor family tunnels, she finally saw just how the darkness consumed what it touched.

It was as if they were walking through the deepest end of the largest pool, weighing down around them like the pressure of water. Wherever they cast their lights, the darkness would visibly crawl away on the walls and ceiling, only to swarm back when they had continued on to cover their tracks. As if the very shadows surrounding them held a mind of their own. At times, Luz was more than positive she heard voices whispering within the crushing black, eyes watching them where they went, always just out of sight. Like they were waiting, but for what, Luz was afraid to know.

No one could say how long they had been walking or how much time had passed since they escaped the zombies and hellhounds. In fact, no one was certain if it was still even nighttime outside. Had time slowed the moment they entered the mansion? Or was it moving at its normal pace? Did the Bewitching Hour mean there was an added hour to this night? The more Luz thought about it, the less it made sense, until she finally had to give up on the idea all together. The only positive thing to their situation was that the palisman, Artemis, seemed to know exactly which turns they had to take, and when they needed to hide.

Just like the Ghost Host had warned them, there were secrets living within the tunnels that Team Owlet did not want to discover. Many times, Artemis would catch Amity's attention, either by a light nip on her ear or a brush of a paw on her cheek, and they would see the warning in the fox's eyes. Right then, Luz would dismiss her light glyph, Amity, Boscha and Gus would douse the flames they were carrying, and the group would scatter to the shallow alcoves lining the walls to hide. For a few sickening moments everything would be quiet. Then they would hear it: the slow, spine-tingling noise of footsteps sliding over the damp stones; claws scraping and overturning loose gravel; a hiss of scales cutting across the shallow water flooding the floor; or the soft, inquisitive snarl of a beast.

Time and time again, Luz was thankful she could not see whatever was slinking its way past them, but she was not without her imagination. She remembered the stories she had been told across the fire at summer camp, of the monsters hiding out in the woods waiting for unsuspecting campers to wander out and never be seen again. Just one of the many easy jabs the kids from school took at her, telling her the monsters under the bed and in the closet would love to eat a little girl like her. Because it was the weird ones that were the tastiest.

Too bad they can't see me now, living in a world of demons and witches.

Once the nameless creature had gone its way and the silence stretched long enough, Artemis would tell Amity it was safe, and the light from her fire spell signaled to the rest of the team they could move on. Luz always made sure to give the witch space for when she was about to draw her magic, though she found it increasingly harder to release her from her arms.

Each time they had to hide, Luz would grab Amity and tug her to the nearest alcove, where she immediately shielded her from the tunnel, offering her own body as protection should the approaching monster find them. Wrapping her arms tightly around the witch's narrow waist, Luz would press Amity's back into the wall to get as far away from the tunnel as they could, but not so much that she would harm her. The very first time it happened, she heard Amity's breath hitch in her ear and her heart pounding against her chest, but for every time after, she felt Amity's arms wrap tightly around her body, as if to pull her further in and away from the unknowns hidden within the darkness. Eyes shut tight, they buried their faces in each other's shoulder, tremors wracking their bodies with pure, unadulterated fear, waiting for it to be safe. It was only the warmth that radiated from Amity's body and the reassuring arms cradled around her that helped ease the cold that prickled at the back of Luz's neck like fangs.

As they strained to listen for the latest creature to make its way by them, Luz slowly turned her face from resting on Amity's shoulder and flinched when her nose brushed smooth skin. Was that her neck? Swallowing, Luz stayed perfectly still, her senses taking in the faint, perfume-like scent she always associated with Amity. Yet this time, in the midst of them avoiding detection of an invisible monster, that familiar smell made her legs turn to jelly. Good grief, what was happening to her? What the heck was Amity thinking right now? The last thing Luz wanted to do was make her friend uncomfortable, and cowering from monsters in the dark was not the place to start to get all swooney! She remembered what happened to those characters in scary movies...it was not pretty. Sometimes funny, in a very dark way, but not pretty. Besides, there was someone else Amity wanted to be with, the unnamed student Grom had become to reflect her fear of rejection. Luz felt her heart clench and held back a sigh. Whoever that had been, it was not her. Feeling Amity's grip relax on the back of her shirt, Luz slowly pulled away and a burst of magenta flames filled the space between them. Amity's face shined at her in the off-color fire and Luz felt her mouth go bone-dry as those burning amber eyes locked with her.

"Hey, Blight!"

Amity broke the gaze and looked at Boscha, who was trying to pry herself out from a narrow gap in the wall.

"How much further?"

Those amber eyes darted back to Luz and held for a moment before the witch looked to the fox on her shoulder. "Artemis, are we getting close?" She sighed with relief when the palisman nodded and glanced at the group. "We're getting there, just a little bit more, then we should be back inside the manor."

"Thank Titan," Willow wiped the sweat from her face. "I don't know how much more of this I can take! When the Ghost Host told us this place would be dangerous, I didn't think it would be this bad!"

"Let's just be happy we've been able to avoid whatever's been crawling around here so far." Turning in the direction Artemis gave, Amity took the lead, pausing only briefly to make sure everyone fell in behind.

Luz followed close beside her, out of reassurance and protection, she told herself. It was not because being anything further than a couple feet from Amity made her anxious or anything like that. No, there were advantages to staying together as a group, and the closer they stuck, the better their chances of survival were. Plus, Artemis now appeared to be happy that Luz was in possession of Rex, though she didn't understand why. As they walked through the tunnels, the fox and the cobra would carry one what must have been the palisman version of a conversation, when Artemis was not busy guiding Amity on which direction to take. In a very odd way, Luz found the interaction to be kind of cute. Weird, but cute. She wondered why Artemis had acted hostile in the beginning and then changed so quickly. Her best guess was it had to do with Luz demonstrating her ability to stay in sync with the cobra during their fight against the zombies and Aremtis had seen how well she could take care of the magical staff. Even still, she had not expected such a fast turnaround.

Rounding a corner, Artemis made a soft trill and Amity stopped as the fox hopped down from her shoulder and slowly paced about the floor, glowing silver eyes taking in the surrounding details.

"I'm guessing we can take a quick break?" She asked the palisman, to which it chirped. Amity looked back to the team and nodded, though no one needed the encouragement, and plopped down about the tunnel walls eagerly for a short reprieve.

Sighing, Luz slumped forward to lean against Rex like a walking stick and the cobra hissed, his tongue darting out to taste the air. She must have been louder than she intended because Amity was at her side, a hand on her shoulder.

"Luz? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Toting this little goofball around is a lot of work," she nodded to King cradled in her hoodie. "I gotta say, this is not how I expected the night to go."

"Funny," the demon quipped. "It's exactly how I thought it would go."

Luz shot him a look before looking back to Amity. "I'm really sorry I dragged you into this, all of you. Eda's going to kill me when I get back for not finishing my potion run."

"That shows just how much she cares about you." King sat up to pat the back of her head. "When Eda wants to murder you, that's her way of saying she loves you!"

"Yeah, I don't think that's true."

"At least you have someone at home to worry about you."

Luz and King looked at Amity as her eyes dropped to the floor. "All my parents worry about is me holding up the Blight status and walking the family path. If anything, they'll be upset that I spent the whole night with people whom they wouldn't deem as 'the strongest of witches'." Amity chuckled, but it sounded forced. "Too bad they didn't get the chance to see us all fighting the undead, that might have changed at least my father's mind about you - everyone's strength in magic. But, that's never going to happen. They'd never be happy with me wasting my time with those they can't approve of."

"But," Luz frowned and glanced at King. "Would you mind giving us a minute?"

The demon squinted at her for a moment, as if debating whether or not to use a snarky remark, then shrugged and with a "weh!" shimmied out of Luz's hood to drop to the floor and walked over to Artemis. "You, palisman! What say you in joining the King of Demons and his Army of Terrors?"

Snickering, Luz shook her head and returned her attention to Amity. Gently taking her arm, she guided her further down the wall to make space between them and the rest of the group. Resting Rex against the smooth stone, Luz crossed her arms and met those melancholy amber eyes. "Amity, do you really believe that? Because I don't! You're not wasting your time with us, and I don't think Gus, Willow, or King think that either! I'm sure Skara feels the same way, I'm not going to speak for Boscha cuz she's a bully, but I bet even she would agree with me."

"No I wouldn't."

Luz glared at the three-eyed witch and pointedly turned her back to her. "Look, I know you've got a really messy relationship with your parents, but that doesn't mean you have to think like them! Do you think you're wasting your time with us?"

"No!" Amity looked up at Luz worriedly. "Of course I don't think that! Spending time with you is the best thing I could ever do! I love being with you!" Her eyes widened and she clamped her mouth shut as a blush flared across Luz's face, her own eyes widening in response. "I - I mean - that is - there, there is never a dull moment with you - " A hand slid into her own and she squeaked when Luz took a step closer. When Amity saw her eyes shining in the light from the glyph floating beside them her ears started to flap.

"What do you mean?"

The question had been spoken so quietly, Amity almost missed it and she frowned. Luz must have read her expression because when she said it again, her tone was stronger.

"What do you mean you 'love' being with me?"

Titan, how was she going to get out of this? "Well I," she stopped when Luz's face dropped to stare at the floor. "Luz? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, forget I said anything." Luz released her hand and turned around to look in the direction they had been walking, her arms wrapped tightly around her frame. Amity stood still for a moment, worried she had hurt the human's feelings and reached for her, until she heard Luz choke back a sob and her hand froze. When Luz turned around to face her, Amity's heart plummeted at the tears shining in her eyes.

"Luz!" She grabbed her shoulders. "I - I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!"

"You didn't."

That made Amity stop dead and she blinked. "What?"

Luz smiled lightly, covering Amity's hand with her own.. "It's just, sometimes I find it hard to believe someone as cool and strong as you would be okay spending time with someone as quirky and weird as me."

"Luz I - "

Luz held up a hand to stop her. "Back home, no one wanted to spend time with me, except for Mami. They'd say I was too weird or would find ways to keep me from joining whatever friend circle they had going on. Kids made fun of me because I believed in magic and read books like The Good Witch Azura instead of going out shopping or gossiping about who was dating who. At school, I was constantly teased no one would ever want to go out with me because I'd never be able to make up my mind if I'd want to date a guy or a girl. Mami told me she'd support me no matter what, but even she wanted me to be more normal and tried to send me to that stupid reality check summer camp." Rubbing her eyes with her palm, Luz looked away to where their friends were resting and sighed. "Willow and Gus were the first kids I met to actually accept me for being who I am. Eda, King, and Hooty, even Lilith, they've been the family of weirdos I've always wanted. But, you," she looked back to Amity. "You're not an outcast. The popular girl, top student, jock, you have everything all the kids back home had that I didn't. So, hearing you say that you want to spend time with me, despite all that, I want to believe -"

"You want to believe I'm being honest." Amity did not need to hear that last part, she could read it in those eyes and when Luz nodded, she took a deep breath. She wasn't ready to try like the Ghost Host had said, but she couldn't just let herself fail right here and now. Carefully, Amity tightened her grip on Luz's shoulders, thinking back to their near-moment before the singing busts. "Luz, I may be all those things, but you saw through it to who I truly am. You helped me take off that mask of the popular-top student who only cared about associating with the select few my parents approved of. We may have just survived an army of the undead and a living demon statue, but I didn't need any of that for you to prove you're worth being with, or that you're a powerful witch. Or Willow, or Gus. None of that matters to me. My parents would say I'm wasting my time, but don't you dare for a second think that's what I believe. When I said I love being with you,"

Pausing for a second, Amity took a deep breath, hoping her voice would not betray the panic in her heart. "I meant it. I just want to be with you, Luz Noceda. Quirky human weirdo and all. There are so many things I want to tell you, Luz, things that I'm terrified beyond belief you may not like or would hate me for saying, and honestly, I don't know if I'll ever find the courage to. But, before this crazy night is over, I can try to show you at least a little bit of what I want to say. I hope you'll understand what it means." Before she could stop herself, before the thought of what she was about to do crossed her mind, Amity closed the space between them and pressed a soft, butterfly-like kiss to Luz's cheek. She ripped herself away and spun to hide her now-blazing face, her hands going to her rapidly twitching ears, and waited.

Luz stood perfectly still, her brain failing to register what had just happened as her hand drifted up to touch the electric tingle over her cheek, blinking in an attempt to restart her thoughts. Amity just kissed her. Amity just kissed her. Luz Noceda. Sure, it had been a peck on the cheek and not the romantic weak-in-the-knees heart stopper, but still, it was a kiss. From Amity. Popular, top student at Hexside School of Magic and Demonics. Blinking rapidly, Luz shook her head and carefully leaned her shoulder against the wall for support. Now where the heck did that come from? Air suddenly hissed out from the side and the next thing Luz knew, the wall she was leaning on shifted and pulled away, leaving nothing but gravity to take over.

Hearing the startled yelp followed by a grunt of pain, Amith whirled around and everyone looked up in time to watch Luz disappear sideways through the hole that had opened in the wall. For a moment everyone stayed perfectly still until they heard Luz's voice waver out from the darkness.

"...No really, I'm fine, thanks for asking…" Holding her head, Luz sat up and took Amity's hand when she offered it to help her stand.

"Luz!" Willow and Gus jogged to them and peered into the opened space. "What the heck happened?"

"I don't know," Luz rubbed the back of her head, ruffling her hair. Amity had to fight the urge to fix it. "I just leaned against the wall and it ran away." A chirp at her feet made them all look down to see Artemis trot up to the secret entrance and sniff it delicately. The fox's tail bushed out and let out a loud trill before rushing into the darkness, forcing Luz to quickly activate a light glyph and hurry in after the palisman. "Well now, this is interesting."

The room was small, roughly half the size of Luz's room back at the Owl House. A narrow cot had been shoved up against the far side of the space and a long desk took up an entire section, completely littered with papers that were all covered in dust. Sconces had been wedged into the numerous cracks in between the stone bricks that made up the walls, but not a single one showed any sign of burn marks from fire. Luz leaned in to check one and her eyes widened to see a very familiar glyph carved onto the round stub. When she tapped it, a flame burst to life. Someone else before her had been studying glyph magic on the island.

"Hey, Amity? Do you still have Chiaro's journal?"

Amity drew a spell circle and the leather-bound journal dropped into her hand. Luz took the journal and walked to the now-burning torch, quickly flipping through the pages.

"Luz, what are you looking for?"

"This room, I think it belonged to Chiaro. He must have been using it as some sort of hideout to study magic!" Catching a page with her finger, Luz held up the book and scanned the words. "Here! He was assigned to a group of servants to deal with the monsters that had taken over the tunnels beneath the manor. They were ambushed and he and Mezzanotte found this room to hide in, along with the servants who managed to escape. He doesn't say what attacked them, he never wrote down the name. But, after he asked about learning magic, Mezzanotte took him down here to study."

"But," Skara frowned. "Why go here where they almost died?" By then the rest of the group had made their way into the narrow room, and Luz shook her head.

"It's not really clear, something about Mezzanotte knowing how to 'read the shadows' to know where to go? Anyways, she would teach him how magic worked and it was during the ambush with the monster Chiaro saw his first glyph: fire. Later on, he and Emilia would sneak down here and," Luz's face went bright pink and she skimmed through the pages, clearing her throat. "Moving on. The last few pages, he talks about whatever Mezzanotte was working on with Damien and Astor, combining necromancy with demonic summonings. But, he also talks about a new glyph that Mezzanotte was helping him with, one that he was going to use to help Emilia run away with him."

"What about the token of love?" Amity glanced down at the foregin words. "Does he talk about that?"

Luz frowned and turned the page. "Not really, which is kinda weird, since he wanted to propose to her. You'd think he'd talk about it for pages, but instead it's like he skipped that whole part of his plan."

Pushing through the papers scattered about the desk, Gus picked one up that instantly crumbled between his fingers. "Fascinating that there was another human to travel to the Boiling Isles and learn magic like you! I'm surprised the history books don't have any record of it."

"I'm not," Willow adjusted her glasses and looked around the room. "If Chiaro was learning in secret, then how would anyone know what he was up to? Plus, the Pandors were a very influential family, the fact so little is known about what happened to them is proof enough they were able to keep a lid on everything."

Looking down at the journal in her hands, Luz flipped through a few more pages, taking in the memories of a human who had walked a very similar path as she, but whose life had ended in tragedy. Secretly, she wished she could have met Chiaro, even just to connect with someone who could understand how she felt. Maybe even find out if, despite the odds, was it possible a human and a witch could be together? She looked up at that idea and shook her head, bringing that particular train of thought to a screeching halt. No, don't go there Luz. Don't make any assumptions about what Amity said or did. A lot of crazy things have happened here tonight, she probably just meant it as a friend. That was a lie, but she did not want to go any further. Still, Luz wanted to do something for Chiaro, something to help at least feel like she could honor his memory if she would never meet his ghost. Turning to the desk, Luz walked over to it and set the leather journal down on the smooth wood.

"Descansa en paz, Chiaro." Sighing, Luz picked up Rex and smiled at her friends. "Let's go, we still have to find a way out of here and I'm guessing we're close."

Nodding, Amity walked over to the narrow cot where Artemis had curled up and carefully picked up the fox. "Come on Artemis, we'd better get going." She pulled back when the fox growled softly and settled further down on the bed, tucking its nose under the pillow. "Artemis?" Amity lifted the pillow to peer at the palisman's face when something caught her eyes; a piece of paper folded neatly just beneath the fox's chin. Carefully, Amity tugged it out from under Artemis and the fox scaled her arm to curl around her neck, letting out a soft whine as she unfolded it. "Oh wow," she breathed.

It was a pencil sketch of two people whom she recognized as Emilia and Chiaro, standing together as if they were dancing. They certainly appeared to be dressed for one, Emilia had been drawn with a beautiful, yet simple, ball gown and Chiaro in a plain tuxedo. Despite it being a basic sketch, Amity could see the artist had captured the pure love and adoration that radiated from the couple as they held each other in mid-step. The same dark smudge Amity had seen in Emilia's hair back in the foyer portrait had been colored in, though now it reminded her of her own amber roots showing through the green dye in her hair.

Wait, did Emilia's parents force her to color her hair too? Amity recalled in the portrait Astor's hair was pitch black while Ophelia's hair was platinum blond, and she shuddered. Could this parallel get any more creepy?

Not much had been done to detail the background for the sketch, only a soft coloring of what was presumably the night sky with a full moon and stars hanging over the couple. On the bottom right hand corner of the page was a single sentence scribble in a language that Amity was dumbfounded to realize was one she actually had studied: Shadow Script. It was a very old language, one once used by the Greater Demons of the Boiling Isles, nothing more than a series of lines and shapes to the untrained eye, but to Amity, it was perfectly clear.

Whatever it takes.

"Amity? You ready?"

Taking a deep breath, Amity looked at Artemis and folded the paper back up, tucking it into her pocket and turned to Luz. "Yeah, I'm ready. Let's get out of here."

Luz had taken the glyph torch from its sconce and Amity followed her out of Chiaro's hideaway and back into the tunnels where everyone waited.

"Okay Artemis," Luz glanced at the fox. "Where to next?"

A loud yip cut the air, making everyone jump at the volume and they stared at the fox. Artemis blinked and shook its head as if to say "That was not me." The yip came again, the sound bouncing off the walls, and everyone looked around. Frowning, Luz turned in the direction from which the noise came and looked at Amity.

"I didn't know you guys had coyotes on the Boiling Isles?" She looked up when the yip repeated itself and stared down the tunnel from where they had come. The water at the end of the turn rippled from the movement of the approaching creature and a shadow fell across the wall. A long, low snarl rolled through the tunnel as the shadow advanced and its owner turned the corner. All of the blood drained from Luz's face and the air in her lungs vanished. "That's...that's not a coyote…"

The monster's girth took up most of the tunnel, its muscles rippling like water beneath the greenish-grey hide stretched across its frame as it crawled slowly towards the petrified group. To say it was watching them like a predator studying its prey was an understatement, mostly because it was hard to tell just who it was looking at. A multitude of eyes covered its hulking back and shoulders, while its wide mouth hung open to reveal rows upon rows of jagged fangs. A stream of drool slid down from its thin lips and dribbled into the water. Long, lean arms carried it forward as a gorilla walking on its knuckles, only, this creature kept its fingers splayed out to show its claws that gleamed in the flickering light. Along its underbelly were a dozen, pincer-sharp appendages that stroked the air like the legs of a lobster, hugging its abdomen. It let out another yip-like call and ran a massive tongue over its flattened face.

From the staff, Rex let out a warning hiss and Artemis growled, wrapping tighter around Amity's shoulders.

"L-Luz, I don't know what you're talking about, but we need to need to go before that thing gets us."

Luz swallowed as she slowly began to back away, her eyes not leaving the stalking creature. "And...what is that thing?"

Hands shaking, Amity slowly traced a spell circle by her thigh, hoping the beast would not see her actions. "That's a shoggoth." She felt the spell ignite in her hand and, grasping the glowing magic, Amity pulled back her arm. "Everyone, duck!" The ball of flames sailed through the air and hit the monster in its face, exploding in a bright flash of heat and light. Shrieking, the shoggoth clutched its face and collapsed to the watery floor. Amity grabbed Luz's arm and spun around to the darkness ahead.

"RUN!"

Team Owlet ran.

Chills, emotional feels, and a cliffhanger *insert Ghost Host's laughter*

For those of you wondering, I based this version of the shoggoth off of the ones seen in HBO's Lovecraft Country. Hope you all enjoyed it, and I'll see you in the next chapter!