Amity's got herself in quite the dilemma- and she's aware of it. This'll all pass, she thinks, it was just a minor obstacle to try and trick me. That's what life is about. You get over it and you move on. She glances at her clock. 2AM.

Step one -, she writes on a sticky note, get over her.

Get over (her) it.

Okay, so she's got a plan. Plans are good and easy to follow. She may only have one step but it's still a plan.

For the first week, she was just sort of in shock. Just not all there. She was convinced that maybe it was all a dream- a major misunderstanding of some sort. Like it was just a distraction from the bigger picture. She had to look at the bigger picture here. She was only a small part of it. No, she was never a part of it.

Some kids teased her at school, mocking her and asking, oh, where's your other half?

And it wasn't until a few weeks later when she realized she liked the feeling. The feeling of being constantly distracted, being constantly tortured by an indirect source. Being constantly confused over an individual. It gave her something to fret over, something to think about on her otherwise listless days.

Willow and Gus tried to talk to her. They tried to stay connected but they drifted apart too.

Step two -, she wrote a couple nights later, find something else.

She really thought hard about this one, what was she trying to find? A new hobby, maybe. A new person to fall in love with. A new thing to do. She had to come up with something. She had to broaden her horizons. Otherwise, she'd spend all her time thinking about her. It.

If she said it like that, like it wasn't a real thing, she'd have an easier time with this.

Many weeks later, Amity's come to the conclusion that it must've all been a trick- a test from the emperor's coven. It had to be. It must've been. Maybe her whole family was in on it. Maybe they were seeing her eligibility- how she'd react to that certain situation. It wasn't that far fetched, right?

—-

Well, this wasn't how Luz imagined it'd go. It was three in the morning- she totally planned to come through the portal at a decent, humane hour but goodbye was harder than she'd anticipated. Especially since Amity hadn't come.

She probably hates me, is what Luz is thinking when her mom pulls her out of her head. "Mija?!"

"Yes, mama?" She's quick and attentive because she really doesn't know how her mom is feeling about all this just yet. She's mostly in shock. Luz sits on the couch as Camila paces across the living room floor, murmuring to herself. Eventually she sat down at the table and made calls to the family to let them know she'd found Luz.

"Are you okay? Are you even you? Am I talking to a ghost? Oh, dios mio, am I dreaming again?" She puts her face in her hands and groans. Luz sighs and moves to sit across from her mom at the table.

"I'm fine, mama," she reaches across to hold her hand, offering a gentle smile. "It's me."

"Should I even ask where you've been?" She takes off her glasses to wipe her eyes.

"Not tonight, probably," Luz laughs a little, looking away.

Camila gives her daughter a confused glare. "How…" She struggles for the words. "How have you stayed healthy after so many months?"

Luz goes into panic mode. There's no way she could even try to explain the Boiling Isles to her mom now, at this hour, while she's so tired. She hardly understood it herself. She thought about making something up. Someone at camp kidnapped her but treated her good. A Beauty and the Beast type situation. No, that doesn't make sense in real life, she shakes her head and Camila raises an eyebrow.

"I was kidnapped, mami. But they kept me safe." She said calmly.

Her mother's experience contorts to that of one as if she's just seen a ghost. "Que?!"

"Ah, mami, I'm so tired. Can't I explain everything to you in the morning?" Luz starts to head to her room but her mom stops her and pulls her into a hug.

"No, no, Mija. If it's too traumatic for you, you don't have to tell me," she says into her hair.

That would be the easy way out. Why is everything going so well for her right now? What bad thing is about to happen? "No, mami, you deserve to know." She wrapped her arms around her and returned the hug, happy to finally be back in her mother's embrace. She didn't realize how much she missed this. This was nice.

Well, that was weirdly easy, she thinks to herself as she walks up to her room and- when she opens the door, she pauses. She was half expecting it to be her old room. Her bare walls, a lone sleeping bag on the floor. But this was her old room. She forgot that she had an actual bed. An actual room. All of her posters and books and figurines. Wow.

She flopped on her bed, not pulling down the sheets or even bothering to change her clothes, the ones she's been wearing for months. She lay there in the dark, staring up at the ceiling, in shock. Was it finally over? Was she really back? Was any of that real? Had her mom really let her off the hook so easily?

What just happened?

Luz started to feel delirious. Was she dreaming? Did something weird happen? Had she fallen and hit her head? Was she in a coma? What, what, what?

She fell asleep thinking, what is happening? She didn't have King to cuddle with, Eda hadn't come to wish her a good night. She wasn't going to Hexside in the morning. Hexside. School. Crap! I'm gonna have to go back to regular school!

She was really regretting her decision on coming back.

In the morning, she came downstairs and her mom had cooked a big breakfast. "What's all this for, mami?" Luz asked suspiciously, wiping the sleep from her eyes as she took a seat at the table.

"I made a bunch of food so you'll have enough to eat while you tell me what happened," she explained oh so casually and Luz's stomach immediately sank. She forgot about that.

"I don't think I can eat anything while I tell you," she said. She didn't know if she'd be able to stomach any human food for a while. She'd gotten so used to the Boiling Isles's cuisine.

After one bite of toast, Luz felt it already trying to come up.

So, Luz started to try and explain. The keyword was try. If she was in her mom's position, she wouldn't believe herself either. The first thing Camila said at the mention of magic, witches and monsters was, "You did drugs?!"

Luz blinked. Maybe she should just go with that one. It would be easier to explain than anything else. "No. Mami, what I'm saying is real. You have to believe me!"

—-

Step twenty one -, she wrote one month later on a pink sticky note. Just stop trying to make a plan!

She stuck it on her desk and tried to turn her attention back to her homework. But it was one of those nights. Things weren't going according to plan. She was supposed to be over it by now.

But the moon was fuller tonight. It seemed closer, Amity thought she could probably touch it. It reminded her of grom night. And well, grom night wasn't really… it wasn't something she wanted to be reminded of. So she tried moving her desk to face away from her window. It didn't help much.

This is stupid! She groaned to herself. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

Click.

Amity turned to see who had entered her room. She specifically asked everyone to not come into her room. It was Emira, all by herself. She came over to her desk, setting a glass of water in front of Amity.

"Need anything?" She asked, petting Amity's head gently. She wasn't used to her older sister being like this. Gentle. Not annoying for once. Still, it was a little unsettling and you could tell Em was a little uncomfortable too, but at least she was making an effort. Amity flinched a little, unsure of how to react to the touch.

"No. Thanks."

"Okay," she said simply. But she didn't leave. Amity knows why. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Now get out of here so I can study."

"You are not fine." Em said, like it was the most obvious thing ever. Maybe it was. She knelt down beside Amity, examining the pink sticky note stuck to the side of the desk. "Twenty one steps, already?"

"It helps me to write them down," Amity's face reddens.

"Well, if you ask me, you should heed your own advice. Stop trying to make a list for everything. You don't get over these things in 'five easy steps', you know." She laughed.

"That's why there's twenty-one."

"You are terrible, Mittens." Em laughs again, taking the sticky note and crumpling it up in her hand. "You know, we can't help you if you don't let us." She goes to open the window and tosses it out.

"I don't need help. I'm alright." Amity pretends to scribble down answers on her test.

"Alright? You never say that." She crosses her arms. "Now I really know something's up."

Ugh, why am I so predictable? Amity sighs. She walks over to the window and leans on the sill.

"Anything you wanna talk about?" Emira asks gently.

"See the moon?" Amity asks suddenly. Em tilts her head, nodding. "It's full. Just like it was at grom."

"Oh?" Em blinks. "Oh."

"And it's in the way and I can't focus but I can't escape it!" She groans, turning away.

"Hey, hey. It's okay." Em pulls Amity into a hug. "There's an easy solution to your problem," stifling a laugh, she says, "Just close your curtain."

Amity pulls away and glares at her older sister. "You don't think I tried that?!"

"So what happened?"

"It didn't work." She said vaguely, sitting back down at her desk. Em was quiet for a moment as she thought of something to tell her younger sister. She just wanted to help.

"Why don't we go see it?"

Amity gives her a cold glare, crossing her arms. "I can see it fine from here, Emira. Why would I go outside to see it?"

Em giggles. "Trust me. Get your jacket on and meet me out there in ten minutes and I'll show you." With that, she rushed out of the room, leaving Amity's unspoken question unanswered. She'd been working on this test for a few hours, a little break wouldn't hurt anyone. She quickly got into her thick jacket, boots and earmuffs. Winter was well underway and it was starting to get very cold- this particular night, it even snowed a little.

Em offered her hand and Amity hesitantly took it. They walked down their long front yard in silence. The moonlight was so bright now. "See? It's not so bad from here, right?"

Yes, it was. It was worse. This didn't help. "Um…"

But Em insisted. "Just look at it. The moon is beautiful, Mittens. It's not here to hurt you. It's here to light up the night, so you're not left in the dark."

Amity turned her attention back to the big floating rock in the sky. The one that had disturbed her all night. It was definitely a mysterious thing, among the mysteries of everything else. It was beautiful in its own right. And Em was right. Without the moon, it'd be so dark.

"It's… alright." She said, just to give her sister the satisfaction. At least she had tried something. At least she cared. Amity smiled gently.

She hated the moon.