Love Crafting.
Written by: Gwendolyn Flow.
Special thanks to Wicked Space Witch.
Chapter 3: The Wall Monster.
The following day, Amity had attended her classes as usual. She made a quick visit to the library in order to read more in depth about tulpas and the history of its practice. During lunch time, she found herself a lone table in order to eat her lunch and read the books she brought with her.
Her eyes were fixated on the text, moving from right to left while she ate some cookies.
'Tulpas are abominations created by the mind and fueled by the imagination. The first witch who introduced Tulpas to the Boiling Isles is rumored to be an outsider. As written in The Book of Abominations by its author; she came from a door with no house.'
'She claimed to come from a place called The Neutral Grounds. A hostile and cursed place. That's deeply connected to the Imaginarium; a realm of endless information.'
'As she claims; the Boiling Isles seems to have a different type of magic than that of the Neutral Grounds. But tulpas are created just the same…'
"Hey Amity, can we talk?"
The sudden voice made Amity to freeze and slowly her eyes looked up from her book to face Skara, who was standing on the other side of the table.
"What do you want…?" Amity asked, trying not to sound too hostile. She didn't have anything against Skara, but she wasn't planning to hang out with Boscha or her goons anymore.
Skara brought her lunch down and took a seat before replying. "Look, I hold no ill will towards you. As a matter of fact, I still consider you a friend even if you don't feel the same way. I want to thank you; you were my role model, growing up and you've helped me improve as a witch. I learned a lot from you and I want to let you know I understand how you feel about our parents forcing us to be friends. I didn't mean to force myself into your life, I just… do as I'm told."
Then Skara stopped briefly as if she was trying to rearrange her thoughts before she continued.
"I'm not a bad witch… at least I want to think so. But I'm aware that I did nothing to stop you and Boscha from picking on others. I was… scared. Of standing up to either of you. Because as long as you were picking on someone else… I was safe of being picked on." Skara said with honesty, hoping Amity wouldn't take it the wrong way.
When hearing Skara's confession, Amity sighed softly. "I'm sorry to hear that. I didn't intend to pick on others. I simply encouraged Boscha, just to keep her occupied. I… honestly, I never wanted to hang out with her. I wanted to hang out with Willow, but my parents forbid me from doing so…" She said, omitting the fact that her parents went that far to blackmail her on sabotaging Willow's future.
"I noticed. Are you… friends now?" Skara asked, since it's been no secret that Amity had been hanging with Willow and Luz since Grom.
"Well… I want to think we are. But I understand some scars need time to heal. We had a moment yesterday. I told her something very personal, and she was very understanding about it." Amity smiled.
"I'm glad." Skara replied with a smile of her own. "Well, me and the rest had been talking about… stop hanging out with Boscha. Ever since you left us, she took control and we're tired of her attitude. When you played that match against her with Willow and that human…"
Suddenly, Amity interrupted Skara. "Her name is Luz." She said with a firm tone.
"Right… is there something going on between you and Luz?" Skara asked out of curiosity. Making Amity to instantly blush, not seeing that question coming.
"What? No. What?! No!" Amity laughed nervously. "Nothing is going on, we're friends."
Skara had a skeptical look on her face, even she could tell that there was something more going on.
"Well, whatever it is. Boscha is onto you. The last time we hang out with her, she was giving us orders, telling us to stake at the Owl Shack and you. We refused and she didn't take it lightly. She had been warning me that she'll speak with her parents about us two, so far… I believe she hasn't. I don't know why she hasn't said anything, and I would be lying if I tell you, I wasn't scared. She's mean and she's holding a grudge. So, watch your back." Skara said and then stood up.
"Thank you, Skara." Amity said with a soft sigh, rubbing the back of her neck.
"If you want to hang out with us again. You're welcome to do so." Skara smiled.
"That'd be nice. Thank you."
"You're welcome!" And with that, she left, back to her table with the rest of her friends. Leaving Amity alone with her thoughts.
"Hey Amity." Or so she thought…
As soon as she heard the voice next to her, she turned her head and saw Luz sitting right next to her, making her to yelp and fall down on her back in surprise.
"LUZ!" She complained, heart racing at full speed and her face in a complete shade of red. "You almost give me a heart attack!"
"I'm so sorry! I didn't intend to scare you this much." Luz tried her best not to laugh… too hard and helped her to sit back up.
"How long you've been there?" Amity asked, regaining her composure.
"I took a seat when I saw Skara walking away. Was she bothering you?" She asked with a tone of concern in her voice.
"No, we were just talking. Don't worry about it." Amity sighed.
"Ok. I won't." Luz smiled. "So… I want to give you something. Here you go. ~" Luz took out a small box from her bag and handed it over to Amity.
"What is it?" Amity then grabbed the box and opened it gently.
"It's leftover tacos… I well…" Luz tried to explain that she still had so much mermaid meat that she wants to get rid of.
"You made me lunch?" Amity asked holding the box close to her chest and with a shade of red still left on her cheeks.
"Yeah… I still got a huge tail left to get rid of." Luz gave a soft chuckle.
"Why do you freak out so much about it?" Amity asked with a soft chuckle, but was interested in hearing why she was affected this much.
"Ok, so back home, mermaids aren't real. They're folklore, for fantasy books and such, depicted like beautiful humans with fish tails. I love this place, but sometimes it can be pretty morbid. Y'know? I just find it uncomfortable to be eating a creature I loved to read about." Luz laughed softly.
"I see. Well, I've not seen a mermaid from the human world, but I believe if you've seen one you wouldn't consider the Boiling Isles' mermaids to be… beautiful." Amity said with a soft chuckle.
"So… they do not have a humanoid upper body." Luz asked with curiosity.
"I will show you someday."
"Ok. So… about that fanfic." Luz said with a grin.
"Fanfic?" Amity asked, confused, then she remembered what she said last night. "Oh! The fanfic! Yeah… it's not ready yet. I… I… I'm not happy with it. So, I threw the whole thing. Yeah! It's thrash." Amity panicked.
"Aww really? Bummer. But… then I can give you some advice, since I kind of got my own story published here in the Boiling Isles." Luz said then whispered to herself. "That King stole from me."
"What?" Amity asked.
"Nothing! I will tell you the story someday." Luz tried to save face.
"Good morning! ~ What's going on heeere…?" Willow came out of nowhere with Gus, both sitting down on the other side of the table with big grins on their faces.
"Nothing, we were just talking." Luz replied, while Amity gestured them to cut it out before smiling nervously at Luz when she turned her head around.
"Oh." Willow said.
"That reminds me!" Luz then brought a couple of boxes out of her bag. "I brought you leftovers." She then handed them to both Willow and Gus.
"Leftover mermaid tacos?" Willow asked as she grabbed her box alongside Gus, both smiling from ear to ear.
"This is the best lunch break ever. Delicious crunchy mermaid tacos. I'll put you where you belong." Gus whispered as he kissed the outside of the box.
"Thank you, Luz." Willow said, both she and Gus opened their boxes, ready to eat their lunch.
"You're very welcome." Luz said happily, then looking at Amity. "You going to eat yours."
"Of course." Amity said with a soft laugh, opening her box and looking at the lunch her crush made for her. She closed her eyes briefly, smelling the good food and imagining what the future could be. If she would confess her feelings for her.
Then brought herself back to reality, but instead of getting sad about the possibility of being rejected, she decided to enjoy the present and began to eat.
"Thank you, Luz." She said after eating a bite.
"You're welcome." Luz replied and brought her own lunch out of her bag. Which wasn't fish tacos, of course.
They all ate their lunch, and chatted about their classes and some other random stuff. Unaware that from a distance, they were observed. By Boscha. She didn't have a friendly look on her face. She was sitting alone; her social life was in shambles.
She had a fallout with her peers, they've all have move on without her. And she blamed one witch about it. Amity. She knew there was something going on. Suspecting that there was more to it than just her trying to fix her friendship with Willow.
She knew that the human had something to do with it. She put her lunch in the thrash and left. She wasn't in the mood.
As soon as she went back home. She looked through her family's personal library. Just like the Blights, they were rich, powerful and influential. So, they had quite a collection of books that other witches would consider… questionable.
She looked through a book of potions, finding the most vile and toxic concoctions. But she felt this wasn't enough.
She looked through a book of curses, but she again felt this was too light.
Then she brought a book… with a strange cover. A six fingered hand with a number 4 written on it. She put it on the thrash and kept looking.
Then she found a strange looking book, it was covered in dry stains of black ink.
She opened the book and began to read; the author was a witch whom have met a sorcerer from another world. It reads:
'She came from a place called The Neutral Grounds. I've written the Book of Abominations thanks to the knowledge she shared with me. Emperor Bellos approved it. But I'm keeping this leftover information for myself. If you happen to find my book, it means that Emperor Bellos found out and I was probably sentenced to death. I must warn you to be careful for what you're about to read.'
Boscha continued to browse through the book, it was full of forbidden magic, that Emperor Bellos would definitely ban and sentence anyone who uses it to death.
But one chapter… caught her attention.
'To summon The Wall Monster; PHOBOS.'
'This Eldritch beast exists in a dimension in between dimensions. Called The Imaginarium. It is a realm of infinite knowledge. It connects to all realms, as the collective space where all thoughts exist. No one should enter this place, as if any living being that happen to find themselves here will instantly be crushed, by the infinite amount of information that travels across all realms. Rendering them mindless and useless.'
'But there are beings here that are capable of handling such hostile environment. As one of these, is Phobos.'
'In order to summon Phobos, you must do it in a squared room with just one door. Draw a figure in the opposite side of that door…'
When she read this fragment. Boscha immediately looked at her room and moved her furniture away from the wall opposing the door.
She then re-read the whole thing and then drew… a figure, just like in the example. A doodle.
"This… sounds stupid…!" Boscha groaned as she read the next fragment, explaining that she had to break the wall and say some very ridiculous incantations.
She tossed the book away and sighed, dropping down to the floor and laying against her bed. "That witch must had been a complete lunatic." She sighed and tried to think of what to do next.
But… as she had her back turned against the wall. The doodle began to animate, spreading slightly and becoming a more cohesive drawing on the wall.
The doodle spread, like tentacles across the wall until it reached the window on the left side of Boscha and cracked it. Making Boscha to gasp in surprise. She looked at the cracked glass and then realized that there was a strange drawing on the wall that lead all the way back… to her doodle.
Her eyes went wide as she realized that the doodle was looking at her, and moving, as if it was bringing the wall to life.
Then, the doodle proceeded to spread into text that reads: 'Hello, I'm Phobos. Lend me your voice.'
She felt unsettled by this. "What? What do you mean by that?" She couldn't believe she was talking to a drawing on the wall.
'Do you want me to help you?' The doodle asked in text once again.
She thought about it for a brief moment before replying. "Ok… but you'll help me, right?"
The doodle became euphoric as soon as it heard the response, spreading across the wall in an instant, now in an incoherent mess that was no longer a doodle, quickly carving three holes on the wall and made it screech in a very loud and unsettling sound, and suddenly, it began to spread into the floor.
Boscha screamed and tried to run through the door before her feet froze in place, quickly, the doodle spread all up her shoes, up her legs until eventually reaching her neck.
At this point, she was scared to death. She felt unable to control herself. She turned to face the wall, and words began to come out of her mouth in a voice that wasn't her own, with a distorted tone that was making her throat hurt so much.
"Oh yes! Hmph! I've not heard my own voice in centuries!"
She could look at herself in the mirror when she used her peripheral vision. Her eyes showed complete and utter horror.
"Oh, right! I just wanted to tell you that you didn't need to do all crap that idiot wrote in that book. I told him so mystical mumbo jumbo that he took waaay too seriously. I told him to break the wall, y'know, as in… breaking the fourth wall. Eh, eh? Get it? Ha ha! I thought that was hilarious but he didn't quite get the joke." She heard laughter come out of her mouth that was quite unnerving.
"So, anyway, I heard your thoughts reaching me in the Imaginarium, so, I guess you want something from me, huh? And… speak!" The doodle let Boscha to regain control.
She fell to her knees and began to cough loudly; her throat was burning.
"What… I don't understand… what just happened?!" Boscha panicked, crawling away, trying to reach the door, which was shut down immediately when the doodle spread all the way onto that wall.
The doodle then used text once again. 'Tell me what you want dum dum.'
"You… you're real. Ha ha! Ok, so, there's a person that I want her life ruined. I want to know every dirty secret of hers. Can you do that?" Boscha said with an intense level of hatred.
'Information? I can do that, but ruined? How?' The doodle asked.
"I want her whole social life ruined! She and her friends did me wrong and I want revenge! I summoned you, so you have to obey me! …Right?" Boscha said that last part with insecurity.
'Obey you? Says who?'
"I summoned you! Those… are the rules." Boscha spoke and fear began to overcome her once more.
The doodle spread all the way up to her once again and took control away from her once again.
"Summoned me? Ha! I came here by my own free will. I can make you do what I want though. Like this!" She then began to dance against her will. "Doodle doodly doo, diddly doo, doodle doo, ha ha!"
She stopped, and she watched her own body walking up to the mirror while the voice spoke up to her. "As you can see. I don't really need you. So, if I do you a favor, what's in it for me, huh? I mean, now that I think about it, I could just… keep you." The voice said in an ominous tone, forcing her face to turn into a serious one before the voice immediately cracked in laughter.
"I'm just kidding, dude! Sheesh, no one gets my jokes, ever! Don't worry, I already got a physical form… somewhere. So, let's try this again. If I do this, then what I do I get…? I can taste the intense pettiness and hatred you got for this girl… Amity, huh?" As Boscha heard that, her eyes turned into horror once more, it was as her mind was nothing but an open book. "And a sweet scent of fear too…" Out of a sudden, the entire doodle on the walls began to shift into different colors, as if it was detecting something going on in Boscha's mind.
The doodle let her go and she collapsed on the floor, coughing violently.
'Hexside… is this your school?' The doodle wrote on the wall.
Boscha looked up and read what was written on the wall, she quickly moved up to find safety against the door. She nodded in response; her throat hurt too much to speak.
'Then we've got ourselves a deal. Draw a figure on the Blight Manor's nearest wall you can reach and I'll take care of the rest. Farewell.' The doodle left the instructions written on the wall while the rest moved quickly towards the intersection where the walls connect and disappeared into it.
Leaving Boscha with her conflicted feelings of guilty and fear.
End of Chapter 3.
Phobos was created by me. Just thought of spicing this fic with a little bit more of conflict. Hope you like it and leave a review if you can! It is nice to hear your thoughts!