Amity crumbled up another paper. Her desk devoured it, gladly. Most things came easy to the young, green-haired-with-brown-roots witch, but confessing her feelings to the object of her desire, Luz was not one of them. Really, everything about Luz was difficult for Amity to deal with. Upon first dealing with the human, Amity was frustrated and annoyed, trying to get Luz out of her head, and even trying spells to do exactly that, but only managed to unteach herself how to tie her own shoes. Finally, upon doing the second of her twice-daily teeth-cleaning, she yelled at her mirror asking why she couldn't stop thinking about Luz. "Because you're in love with her. Now stop spitting your teeth-cleaning potion on me, that stuff's corrosive," the mirror replied.
Amity scribbled some more of her feelings on the next paper. "Luz, ever since I met you, I have this feeling that I just can't shake." Next paper. "Luz, I really admire your courage and determination in the face of overwhelming obstacles..." too hokey. Amity looked forward and to her right at Luz who was on her phone. Amity couldn't quite make it out, but a look of concern seemed to be on Luz's face. Amity's thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging noise.
Principal Bump angrily opened the door and kicked a wastebasket. "Ow, stop taking out your anger on me!" the wastebasket yelled, scurrying back to its place. "Oh, sorry," the principal replied. "Ahem, the seers of the boiling isles have forecasted that, tonight, we will have, another night of a thousand shivers."
One of them arrived prematurely as a chill ran down Amity's spine. "When was the last time I had to deal with this? When I was a kid?" Amity thought. The entire classroom erupted into chaos with students tipping over desks, lighting papers on fire, and screaming, save for one. Luz looked around, taking everything in, confused. "SILENCE!" Bump was able to restore order. Everyone quickly got back to their desks. He cleared his throat. "Clearly, our human exchange student does not understand the significance of this night. Amity, please take Luz outside of class to explain it." Amity couldn't help but be angry at such a request. "What am I, her keeper?" she asked. "Yes." The entire classroom, Luz included, confirmed in the affirmative. Fuming, Amity took Luz by the wrist and escorted her out of the classroom.
"So, night of a thousand shivers, sounds pretty spooky, doesn't it?" asked Luz. Amity peered over Luz, taking her in. Dark complexion, dark hair, petite, full of boundless energy, adorable. Amity let out a breath. "So... on nights like tonight a certain shroud goes over the land. This shroud plunges everything into darkness no matter how bright it is. It's so dark, it's as if you're blind. It then causes you to plunge into your own psyche. The Shroud forces everyone to go through some sort of trauma in order to learn a life lesson." Luz piped up "Like a therapist you didn't ask for!" "Sure..." Amity looked down. "Anyway, in order to not lose your sanity, everyone has to have at least one partner that they... that they..." "They what?" Amity looked up. "Basically, you have to cuddle with someone for the night."
"Oh, I see," Luz said, rubbing the back of her neck and looking down. "So, do you have someone?" Amity replied. "Oh, I'm sure my family will do one big group huddle session." "Well, actually, that's the thing. I'm just learning about this now, but, if there's someone I'd like to go through some sort of weird trauma with, I'd like it to be you. I mean, if you'd prefer to do this with your family that's fine." "Well, as long as I have someone to go through this with, I'm sure they wouldn't mind but I'm still not sure..." Never in a thousand years would Amity have a more perfect opportunity to confess her love to Luz. Every molecule in her body was telling Amity to say yes, give her a hug, give her a kiss, anything. And yet, Amity hesitated.
"Please." Luz peered into Amity's soul with her brown, puppy-dog like eyes. "Oh, okay, fine. I'll talk with my parents and if they say yes, I'll be right over after school." Luz's voice broke. "Yes! Thank you!" she ran off excitedly back into the classroom. After the door was safely shut, Amity began to celebrate, doing small dances and whispering "yes!" to herself. "Mittens loves the human!" her siblings vaporized out of nowhere. Amity blushed, "shut up shut up shut up!" she yelled as she re-entered the classroom and shut the door.
"Aren't ya glad to see me?" Hooty asked Luz. "Why would I be happy to see you?" "Because you have an opportunity to apologize to me." Hooty replied as Amity opened, entered and shut the door. "Hey. I was supposed to ask for a password. Ooh! Delicious frog!"
Amity counted her lucky stars that that encounter was over, but immediately got into the next one. The small daemon-thing, King, was doing situps with his little legs hooked underneath the couch. "Eh. Eh. Eh," he grunted. "What are you doing?" "I'm going to make myself big and strong enough that this shroud will never think of taking me on!" "You know it's okay to be afraid," a wizened voice declared from atop the stairwell, belonging to Eda Clawthorne, local owl-lady and also on the top of the Emperor's Most Wanted.
"I AM NOT AFRAID!" "I mean, I'm more afraid of spending the night with Hooty than of that Shroud!" Hooty was not going to take this lying down. "Well, fine then. I can huddle with the other members of this house and leave you to face the Shroud alone." "No, no, I take it back!" Hooty and King began to argue. "Come this way, child." Eda beckoned Amity into the kitchen.
"Fool!" Inside the kitchen, Luz saw her mentor, Lilith Clawthorne. Tall, ebony-haired with pale skin, Lilith was at once beautiful, but there was also something eerie and cold about her, whereas Eda glowed with warmth, wisdom, and lived experience. "Uh! If only I included the wormwood root before I poached the eggs, I would have made a most exquisite omelet!" "I'm trying to teach Lilith how to cook, since she no longer can rely on the Emperor's servants to cook for her. Lesson number one, sometimes you have to eat your mistakes!" Eda popped one of the eggs into her mouth, before regretting it, turning green, and spitting.
"Can I offer you anything?" Eda sat down, mug of tea in hand while Lilith continued to putter around the kitchen. "No, thanks." "Mmm. Well, I just want to say thank you for being here for Luz during her first Night of a Thousand Shivers. Now, personally, I love it. I get to live through some trauma, engage in metaphorical combat in my own subconscious, and for this time, I can cuddle and reconnect with my sister" her speech devolved into babytalk as she stood up and hugged the frazzled Lilith, trying to keep her skillet in her hand without spilling oil everywhere.
"I'm even good at guessing what people's traumas are going to be. Now mine is definitely going to be about my loss of magic. Now Lilith's is going to be dealing with the whole 'her cursing me' thing, as if it's a big deal. Bygones, water-under-the-bridge." Amity wasn't too familiar with what Eda was talking about. She noticed Lilith's face. Whereas usually it was unscrupulous, it was now pained with unambiguous sorrow. While she had her broken leg, she recalled Luz missing some school and coming back... different. Morose, melancholic. When she asked Luz what happened, Luz uncharacteristically gave evasive answers.
"Do you know what Luz's is going to be about?" Amity asked. "Honestly? Not a clue." A blood-curdling siren went off. "Alright, enough talk! We don't have much time 'til The Shroud makes it appearance!" Hooty unfurled, twisted and turned until it completely covered King. Eda ushered both Lilith and Amity up the stairs before running back downstairs to turn off the heat, then back upstairs. Before she knew it, Amity was shoved into Luz's room.
The door closed behind her. Amity looked up. There before her was a monster. Until the light flicked on and it was Luz wearing the otter oufit. "Gotcha!" Luz shouted, happily. "Wearing this will keep the two of us comfy and cozy throughout tonight." "Well... actually, in order to beat The Shroud, we have to combine our body heat, so we have to wear pajamas as we huddle."Ah. Well in that case" Luz unzipped the zipper and strode out of her otter costume. Amity averted her gaze. "Relax!" Luz was wearing a shirt that left her shoulders exposed along with boxers that looked like they were tailored for an adult male. Amity changed into her black-with-green-laced button-up pajamas.
"So, here comes the million-dollar question!" "Million what?" "Big spoon, or little spoon!" Amity stared at Luz, blankly. "You know! When we cuddle, we'd look like spoons nested into each other! One person would be the big spoon, the nurturer, the protector, while the other person would be the baby, being held, loved, stroked. So, which one are you?" Amity knew some moment like this was going to happen. She took a gulp, and thought for one moment. "Big spoon."
The human and the witch nestled together in the little-spoon-big-spoon agreement. Luz dozed off. Amity couldn't. Luz had no idea what was coming. Whatever was causing her the most grief was going to be dug up whether she wanted it to or not. Amity's vision faded. Her face became chilly. She heard sirens outside. She felt as if she was being pulled back into a long, dark tunnel, away from Luz, into her own mind.
Amity was back at the Grom. She didn't know how she got there. She didn't recognize that she was in the fever-dream reality of The Shroud. The Grom happened much the same way it did before, with the titular creature escaping. But it once again transformed into Luz's silhouette, things began to behave differently.
Luz recognized herself. "Is that... me? Are you afraid of me? Or are you afraid of all humans?" She began to cry. "I know we didn't get off on the right foot, but I didn't think you'd fear me." Amity wanted desperately to explain what Luz meant to her but could not find the words. The Grom absorbed Luz and Amity's anguish and grew stronger, smarter. The Grom reached into Amity's pocket, unfurled a note, and handed it to Luz.
Luz read the note. "Oh, Amity, I—I'm flattered but... it would never work out. I'm a human. You're a witch. The Titan forbids it. There would be an uproar in the boiling isles." The Grom split from one into two beings. "Oh, Mittens, you're so desperate for love you're willing to date a human instead of a witch," her brother chided as he walked around her, tracing his finger condescendingly over her head. "It's kind of adorable, actually. It's not as if the human would ever fall in love with you," her sister added while imitating her brother, both encircling around Amity.
"Besides." Their voices joined in unison as they knelt, facing Amity. "You're nothing more than just a bully." Out of them came two silhouettes, her mother's silhouette coming out of her brother and vice-versa. "Oh, Amity," her mother started. "We accepted you, even when we found out of your... alternate orientation..." Her father began to speak. "And you repaid us by falling in love with this... human."
Tears streamed down Amity's face. Her face was red and contorted in anger and sorrow. But she closed her eyes, swallowed, and steeled herself. "You aren't the Grom. You aren't real." Her parents' silhouettes retracted into her siblings, then her siblings disappeared into a POOF of black vapor. Then the entire scene changed.
Luz was speaking. "And then, Bloodbaine the evil witch said to Azura the Good Witch, 'Don't you get it? I love you, I always have." A long pause. Amity oriented herself. She and Luz were sitting on chairs reading to children. "Amity, it's your line!" Luz informed, happily. "Oh, uh... 'You love me?' Azura asked." "'You're such an idiot.' Bloodbaine chuckled, too proud to answer in the affirmative." Amity looked into Luz's eyes. "'I love you too.' Azura answered." "And that's how Azura cured Bloodbaine's evil with the power of love!" Luz shouted as the children walked away satisfied with the reading.
"How's it going, Amity? You seemed a little off in your own world today." "This is nice, Luz. Well, you're not Luz. You're that Shroud. This is more pleasant, but just as fake as the other dream. I'm not going to know for sure how Luz feels unless I ask her out." "Well, for what it's worth, I hope you get the human!" Shroud-Luz said happily before disappearing into a cloud of gaseous vapor.
Amity woke up. She still could not see. It was still cold. Colder than she had remembered from last time. Colder than anything in her life. She held Luz tightly and heard sobbing. "Luz, are you okay?" Sniff. "Yes. It's just, the dream I had." "I was meeting with my mother and my principle... explaining that I went here instead of that boring summer camp. Mama tried to defend me, but the principle thought I was crazy, and had me sent to an asylum... like our version of the Conformatorium."
"Wait, but how did it get resolved?" "It didn't. But it did make me realize that I have to talk to my mom about the The Boiling Isles sooner or later, or else I'm going to regret it." Amity pondered this, wondering what it was like, to have a mother across space and time that you were still bound to as her child, wondering if there was some way she couldn't help when she was interrupted.
"So, what was your dream about?" Luz sounded in a much better mood. "Well, we were back at the Grom." "Isn't the Grom about your deepest, darkest fears too? Man, talk about plagiarism! This Shroud needs to get more creative!" "Well, yes, but there was a piece of unfinished business from that day." "Oh? You wanted me to wear the otter costume, wasn't it? Say it!"
"I LIKE YOU." Amity went wide-eyed, gasped, and covered her mouth. She knew that if she didn't just blurt our her feelings, they might remain buried forever. "I wanted to ask you to be my partner at the Grom! That's what the note was about! The Grom was you because I was wasn't ready for you to find out!"
The silence was more oppressing than The Shroud. After what seemed like an eternity Luz spoke. "Wow... that is a lot to think about. And honestly, Amity, I haven't thought of you that way..." "Oh no, here it comes..." Amity thought as she winced. She had never asked out anybody before but she knew she wasn't going to take rejection well. "...but now that I know how you feel, I would like to go out with you."
Another eternity of silence. Amity could feel her heart beat. "Did I do it? After all this time, I asked out Luz, and I got a yes! This can't be real, this must still be a Shroud-Dream!" "Hello! Boiling Isles to Amity, are you still alive?" the very real Luz probed. Amity screamed in pure delight.
The assorted group of witches, demons, and the lone human assembled for breakfast the next morning. "Another Thousand Shivers successfully weathered!" Eda declared. "So now is the part where we talk about our dreams and what they meant." Hootie started. "My dream meant that I need to start standing up for myself and should stop being a doormat." "Mmm, that's nice, Hootie, moving on!" "Heeeyyy..." Hootie didn't have time before King started.
"In my dream I helped all of you, by crawling into small spaces and fetching things that none of you could because you were too big!" Eda began to interpret. "Fascinating. So it's about accepting you for who you are, even if you're small and not-so-powerful." "No! It's about how I need to become the biggest, strongest, toughest, most powerful demon!" King laid on the floor, attempted to do a situp, and failed. "Well, the Shroud can lead you to water, but it can't make you drink," Eda concluded.
"Anyway, moving on, my dream was exactly how I thought it was. I got into a bunch of situations I could have easily resolved with my magic and had to learn how to make do without it. And I did. The end." Eda smiled, pleased with herself. "And I was also right about Lilith, so take it away!" Lilith somehow looked more pale than usual. She covered her face and grasped her mug of tea. "I had to watch myself curse my sister over and over again. I tried to interfere but my magic could not work, and when I tried to physically stop my younger self I just passed right through. Only when I forgave myself and let go did the Shroud allow me to awaken." Amity had a confused look on her face. Luz whispered to her "Lilith cursed Eda awhile back and turned her into the owl-thing, it's a big deal." Lilith continued. "Actually, I had another dream, a better one. I was taking care of a group of children. I think I was the head of the Orphanarium. I was... happy." Lilith let off a rare smile.
Eda began to baby-talk. "And you were just the cutest repentant sister, yes you were!" She stopped baby-talking. "Time for the instant playback!" She drew a circle into the air, only to have nothing happen. "Oh, Lilith, you do the instant playback." "Do I have to, Eda? It's humiliating!" "Hey, you cursed me, remember! This is the least you can do!" Lilith sighed. "You're going to use this as an excuse to make me do stuff for the rest of my life, aren't you?" Eda answered, "Anything less just wouldn't be me!"
Lilith performed a spell-circle while covering her face. In the circle, the group could see Lilith on top of Eda, being held and sobbing. "I'm the big sister. I'm supposed to protect you! And I hurt you!" Lilith could only barely stammer. Lilith was on top of Eda, Eda was stroking her raven hair. "There, there. I can't say dealing with this curse was the most exciting thing in the world, but I managed. And now you get to manage too! I know all the secrets on how to deal with this! So there's this cream you can put on your toes..." The non-Playback Eda interrupted. "And, you can just fast-forward through this part. "Gladly." Lilith affirmed.
"And you no longer have magic!" said playback-Lilith. "Well, I'm going to learn to get by without. If that human can learn how to do magic with some paper, then I can do!" Luz and Amity were holding hands under the table. Luz blushed, which caused Amity to Blush. "But sister, you don't understand! The Emperor told me that it is our destiny that one of us is to destroy the other!" This brought a gloom over the group. "Ah, what does he know? If you've known me as long as you have, you know I don't believe in destiny, or fate." Eda's optimism restored the group's spirits.
"Anyway, enough of us old bags yacking, Luz, Ames, what were your dreams?" Luz started. "Well, my dream was about me confessing the truth to my mother." Eda pointed a finger to her chin contemplating. "Yes, I'm sure magical nightmare realm is going to go down smooth as butter. Your turn, green-hair!"
Amity did not like being put on the spot, but she knew this would happen. "Well, my dream was also about confessing the truth. But this time to Luz." "Oh, and did you?" Eda asked. "Yes, I did. And now, we're going out!" King, and Lilith's jaws dropped as far as they could. Hootie's literally hit the floor, breaking a hole in it. "Gonna have to get that fixed." Eda said. She was completely nonplussed. "Oh, was I supposed to act surprised? Then run that by me again, and I'll act."