A/N: After that last chapter took two weeks of my time, with me struggling so much to focus that I'd sometimes get maybe a paragraph done a day sometimes, this chapter was a breeze. I finished it, minus editing, in one day. I got my groove back, yay!
Oh, and the Cabin Seven Kids will be in this chapter, and their names will be:
Goth Girl: Dahlia
Tall boy: Tom
Non-binary kid: Sam
I mostly just stole the names I liked the best from other fics, because I am terrible at names. Hopefully we get some canon names soon, because I'd really like to write more for these characters, I just want to know more about them before I do!
On another note, one thing I always love to hear is that I helped inspire creativity, and recently that happened with an artist named StheGardener, who credited me as the inspiration behind their Tallmity AU after reading my old fic "Growing Pains." It made me so happy to hear, so I'm gonna leave a link to that for my Ao3 buddies(sorry, FF friends, they don't allow links there, you'll have to google it).
Also, one of the said FF friends brought up that a TVTropes page has been made for this fic, and I am so happy to hear about that as well. Thanks to Shuffollower for telling me!
"You had a Private Investigator stalk me?!"
Clara stood in the entrance hall of Blight manor, seething at the parents of her former friend. Alador Blight hardly seemed mentally present, hardly paying attention to anything the teenager had to say, his hands twitching occasionally like they wanted to go back to work in his lab with a tool in his grip. Odalia on the other hand, looked unimpressed with Clara, if slightly annoyed with her presence.
Crossing her arms, the Blight Matriarch responded, "Yes, and seeing as you did in fact have contact with Amity, this was the wisest move. I could be pressing charges against you for helping keep her away from me."
Clara fumed, out of indignation, as well as to mask her own bubbling fear just under the surface. Her family was one of the wealthier ones in Gravesfield, but they didn't have even half a percent of the power at their disposal as the Blights did, nor the better lawyers. "I didn't even know Amity was going to be there, we bumped into each other by accident!"
"A likely story," Odalia dismissed easily, clearly not buying it for a moment.
"Eh, actually, I can corroborate her side of the story. Miss Heartfield seemed just as surprised to see your daughter as I was during the game last night." The investigator supplied from the side. "If anything, it was the opposite, Your daughter seemed to have contacted Miss Heartfield, not the other way around. Probably needed money for the bus fare."
Odalia sent a glare his way, eyes narrowing, "Yes, and what exactly are you still doing here? Your services concerning Amity are no longer required, Mister Doyle."
"I've yet to receive my payment. You offered quite the prize for your daughter to be brought back in." He reminded her, no fear in his eyes as he held an outstretched hand for his money.
Odalia gave a curt nod, "Yes, We did. Alador, pay the man, will you?"
Alador blinked, as if his wayward mind was summoned by his wife's words. Reaching into his breast pocket he pulled out an envelope and wordlessly handed it off to the investigator, who opened it up to inspect the bills inside. Satisfied, Doyle gave a nod, "Pleasure doing business with you."
"Just get out, and find the twins next, will you?" Odalia muttered, dismissing the man, who was quick to remove himself from the presence of the Blights, if just to not have to deal with Odalia.
He passed by Clara as he left, bringing Odalia's attention back to the girl, "Are you still here? If you had nothing to do with our daughter's disappearance, our business is done with you."
Clara bit her lip to keep from cursing the woman who had violated her privacy with such blatant disregard. The Blight turned away, making to leave, heels clicking loudly against the tile floors, then stopped. "Oh, and whether or not you had anything to do with Amity's new rebellious phase, I'd appreciate it if you kept away from my daughter from now on. Now shoo."
Clara shook with anger as the two Blights left. Like hell she was going to leave. It's not like that was Amity anyway, they had no right to keep Clara away from her.
Vee sat in Amity's bedroom, anxious and uncomfortable. The room had been stripped bare, if the empty shelves were any sign, with most of the furnishings and items gone. Even the few posters that must have adorned the walls had been removed, if the pin holes in the walls were any clue. Vee didn't know what the place looked like before she arrived, but even she could tell it had been robbed of its identity.
That, however, was nothing compared to the heavy lock on the door, and the iron bars that had been placed over the window.
No matter how soft the bed was, or brightly colored the walls were, this place was a cell, and Vee was trapped once more against her will. She'd thought these people had just wanted to see their daughter again, not keep her locked up, or else she'd have never come with that detective.
The room felt confining, like the walls were closing in on her, shrinking, collapsing. It was hard to breathe, the air refusing to stay in her lungs, and every moment was a struggle, a fight, to keep herself in human form as she tried to keep the panic at bay.
Especially when she had guests.
Amity's mother and father were in the room with her, taking up too much of the already limited space, breathing Vee's air, stealing it from her lungs with their presence.
"Really, Amity, control yourself." Odalia scoffed as she watched what she believed to be her daughter struggle to contain a full on panic attack. "Blights are stronger than this- this- whatever this is."
This woman really wasn't helping Vee feel better. She was entirely unsympathetic to her plight, even as Vee curled more into herself.
With a sigh, Odalia forced a smile onto her lips and sat herself on the edge of her daughter's bed. She pat beside her, expecting Vee to scoot over and join her, her smile fading when the girl made no move. With a roll of her eyes, Odalia continued, "I know things will be difficult, and you'll need time to adjust dear, but this is all only until you can earn my trust back. And do you want to know the best way to do that?"
Vee nodded shakily, wanting more than anything to get out of this room, and willing to do anything to please her jailers enough to let her out.
"You can start by telling me where Edric and Emira are, dear."
Vee froze. She didn't even know who these two people were, how could she possibly know where they could be? Thankfully, her surprise over the question was genuine enough that Odalia gave another sigh, "So you don't know where they have gone either?"
Vee nodded again, mumbling "Sorry."
Odalia groaned, frustration in her voice as she spoke again, "And here I was, hoping you could redeem yourself after your little act of rebellion. They clearly took inspiration from you, and you can't even help us clean up your mess."
Vee flinched a little at her tone, the woman sitting up from the bed and brushing herself off. Vee uttered another small apology, not even sure what she was apologizing for, but hoping it would make her captors less angry with her. The weak way she spoke just earned another hard glare from the woman that was supposed to be her mother. "This is all for your own good, Amity. Be a good girl, and you'll earn some of your freedoms back. You're not to go to school, I'll have tutors over to teach you, and you're not to have any friends over either. Not that you have a way to invite them over, exactly."
Without another glance, Odalia began to walk her way to the bedroom door, "One day, you'll thank me for this, Amity."
Before she left, she bumped her hips against her husbands, jostling the man out of his thoughts. Gesturing with her head, she beckoned the man to speak to his child, then sauntered out of the door, humming to herself.
"Ah, yes, this is all for your own good, dear." Alador awkwardly restated Odalia claims, then straightened up a little as he looked down on Vee, "However, don't worry about being too confined in here. You'll be allowed some free time, though it will have to be chaperoned. I could always use a lab assistant, wouldn't that be nice?"
Vee knew enough Good Coven Guard, Bad Coven Guard to know the Blights were trying to endear one of themselves to her. While the man in front of her didn't seem to dislike the idea of having her in his presence while he worked, it was clearly his wife's idea and not his own.
It wouldn't have worked, if not for the fact Vee would do anything to get out of this room. She met his eyes, and gave another little nod, "sure, uh, Dad."
He gave a pleasant smile, returning her nod, then left without another word spoken. Any comfort or endearment he had earned was quickly lost as he locked the door behind him, trapping Vee in her new prison and reminding her that despite his offer and the kind, if absent minded way he'd delivered it, he was just another warden keeping her contained.
With them gone, she allowed herself to break, curling into a small ball and choking out a sob. She couldn't do this. This was too much, too similar to her experience in the Demon Realm, and she just couldn't handle it. Was she just destined to always be trapped? Should she just give up, and accept her fate, to be the toy of these new people?
She didn't even bother to swipe away the tears that streaked down her cheeks as she cried, not knowing how to escape this situation.
She was so distraught, she didn't hear the rapping of knuckles against glass at her window, until they became so quick and loud they drowned even her cries out. Lifting her head up and peeking through the bars she saw a familiar head of blonde hair looking at her, gesturing for her to come to the window. Vee did so, putting her hand between the bars and inching the glass panes open enough that Clara could speak through it and be heard clearly.
"Finely, I thought you'd never hear me- Hey, are you okay?" Clara's tone went from annoyed to concerned, seeing the wet streaks down Vee's face.
"I- I can't! These people are horrible, and I can't be stuck in another cage. I can't be Number Five anymore! I need out, Clara, get me out!" Vee wailed, unable to hold her emotional agony back as her hands clenched on the bars and yanked at them with all her strength. Unfortunately, she had the strength of a fourteen year old girl, and the bars didn't so much as budge as she tugged on them.
Clara watched as Vee continued to freak out, pity in her eyes. She understood from Vee's brief explanation last night that she'd been some kind of freak experiment in the world she came from, but being told and seeing her reaction to being held against her will was far more visceral. She reached through the window, settling a cautious hand over Vee's own, still fruitlessly pulling on the bars, attempting to calm the creature before her down, "Hey, hey, it'll be alright. You can change shape and stuff, right? Can't you just turn into something thin enough to squeeze through?"
Vee sniffled, shaking her head, "I- I might be able to fit in my real form. I can slither through some tight spaces, as long as I can get my head through, but I don't have enough magic in me to change back. I'll be stuck looking like a monster, and hunted down by everyone in this world without a way to escape."
Clara grimaced, "Slither? Like a snake?"
"Yeah, I'm a basilisk." Vee stated, wiping at her eyes with one hand, keeping her other in Clara's grip, feeling oddly grounded by her touch.
Clara shivered, her spine tingling in all the wrong ways, "Right, suppressing that fact. Look, I'll go and find something to use that has magic in it, or something, and then you can get through the bars, and get a new face. You just have to tell me what I'm looking for."
Vee's expression drooped, and she leaned her head against the bars, "Why are you even helping me? You don't even like me. They won't even let me see anyone, so I won't be in your life anymore than if I was halfway across the world. You could just walk away."
Clara's expression steeled into one of determination, "Because I don't want you running around looking like Amity. You're not her, and I don't want some fake doppelgänger, no matter how removed from my life she is, to be taking her place."
She tightened her grip on Vee's hand, glancing away for a moment before meeting her eyes, expression annoyed, "Besides, I might not like you, but I'm not cruel. I wouldn't just leave you to be locked up, even if you didn't look like Amity. Now tell me how to help you."
Vee felt tears pooling in the corner of her eyes again, and she nodded as she wiped them away, "Okay, here's what I know. There's this witch that had the door that led here, and I saw a lot of human stuff in her tent, so she probably comes here a lot. I'm sure she must have left something magical behind, so just… look around town for anything out of place? I don't know, I can't exactly sniff it out while stuck here."
Clara frowned, knowing this was going to be a difficult task, "Alright, fine, I'll find some weird crap and bring it to you, and you can decide what's really magical or not. We do that no matter how long it takes until you're free. So no more crying, got it?"
Vee did her best to keep her sniffles at bay. She had Clara, she was going to be alright. With as much effort as she could muster, she stuck her hand through the bars, offering it to Clara, "We never properly met. My name is Vee. Thank you, for even trying. It's more than anyone else has ever done for me."
Clara eyed the hand, then took it in her own, giving it a single shake, "I'm Clara Heartfield, and I'll be your rescuer this evening."
Clara walked around town, feeling like a total fool as she looked around for something magical. Peeking into holes in trees and finding nothing but a bird's nest, searching through bushes and finding nothing but slugs, and looking in trash cans for anything that screamed that it could have come from an Azura convention.
She'd found nothing, no magical coins, staves, or potions. She didn't know what she expected, really, she'd gone fourteen years without finding a single magical item, how was she supposed to find one now?
She sighed as she threw herself onto the grass in the small Gravesfield park, looking up at the blue, cloudless sky. This was hopeless. Still, she had promised the little demon she'd get her some magic, and help her escape, she just wished she knew literally anything about the supernatural world to be able to do so.
Just as she was worrying about her failures, a soft voice drifted on the breeze, reaching her ears, "A past connection that left its mark on your soul has shown up again, and it's asking you to shed your old ways and enter a metamorphosis! Becoming a spiritual leader, you're meant to be."
Sitting up suddenly, Clara looked around to find the source of the voice. Her eyes glanced around the park, until they landed on a girl, sitting beside a group of what had to be her friends, a deck of cards in her hands that she was doing a tarot reading of.
Vee's words about witches in Gravesfield echoed in her ears, as she clambered to her feet. This was a lead! "H-hey, you!"
The small group turned to look at Clara as she sprinted over, then skidded to a halt. The tallest of the group, a boy with dark, shaggy hair that covered his eyes and a bit of scraggly hair on his chin, sat up, "Yeah, what's up?"
Clara mostly ignored him, pointing to the girl doing the card reading. She wore dark clothes, and black lipstick, having a gothy atmosphere around her. She had to be one of the witches Vee had talked about, who came through to this side. "Sorry to interrupt… whatever it is you're doing, but you're a…."
She glanced around, seeing if anyone was listening in, then bent down and whispered, "You're a witch, right?"
The girl seemed surprised, blinking up at Clara, before bursting into laughter, "Man, I wish! But I like that you can tell what I was going for, everyone else just thinks I'm really into goth culture… which I am, but still, I like the witchy vibe it brings."
One of the teens, with glasses and short hair, and some fabulous makeup despite their overall casual appearance and clothes, joined in with a laugh, "I think she thought you were magic because of the card readings, Dahlia."
"To be fair, she is scarily accurate, despite the lack of actual tarot cards." The boy grinned, still relaxing on the ground.
Clara took a second look, and saw that the cards this Dahlia girl was using were in fact just normal playing cards, with the arcana names scribbled on in pen. With an embarrassed look, Dahlia scooped up all of the cards in her hands, shooting a glare at the boy, "See if I ever give you a free reading again, Tom!"
"Her Mom confiscated all her real tarot cards before sending her off to camp," the bespeckled teen explained to Clara, a teasing grin on their face.
"You too, Sam, I'm charging from now on!"
Clara looked between them, fighting off her own embarrassment. She probably looked like an idiot, asking another teenager if she was an actual, magical witch. Still, it had been her best shot. Groaning and collapsing to the ground, she complained, "This is impossible."
The other three teens looked at her curiously, then Dahlia spoke up, "Hey, come on, what's on your mind? Want a free reading? I do more than cards, I do palms too!"
Clara shook her head, sighing, "No, thanks. And you'll just think it's weird."
"We're all weird," Sam promised, a hint of pride in their voice.
"Yeah, it's part of our Cabin Seven charm!" Tom agreed.
Seeing Clara's cocked and questioning eyebrow, Dahlia filled her in, "We were all in the same cabin at a place called 'Reality Check.' It wasn't an amazing place, but we survived, made friends, and stayed weird, despite our parents' best efforts."
"I had a gaming addiction," Tom admitted, "But now I've got a handle on it. I still play a lot, but I've got these guys to pull me outside to see some sunlight. Plus, co-op is so much better than playing alone all the time."
Sam looked a bit embarrassed, but added their own two cents, "I spent too much time watching anime and reading manga. It really messed with my social life. And my sense of fashion. I was so cringe. After camp, I still love shows like Monster Slayer Academia, but I will never Naruto run during gym class again."
"And my parents sent me to camp for trying to summon demons in my bedroom. Sure, I may have tried to sacrifice my pet bunny Toodles to the dark lord once or twice, but it's not like I actually went through with it!" Dahlia explained, crossing her arms. "I totally could have done it, too, if that bun-bun wasn't so dang cute…"
She patted her side, gesturing for Clara to join her, "Now that we've all told you our weird and embarrassing stories, how about you tell us all about yours, Little Clara Heartfield?"
Clara scooted over beside the girl glumly, but her ears perked a bit hearing her own name, "Wait, how did you know-"
"We may have all been in the same cabin, but we've also been attending the same school, Clara, we all know the name of one of the most popular girls in class." Sam clarified, making the cheerleader breath a sigh of relief that even more people weren't stalking her like that investigator had.
Clara thought for a moment, considering her words. She couldn't just tell them about Vee. They would think she was crazy. Still, she'd already gone off about witches already, so she could give them some half truth garbage, and hope they never, ever talked about it with anyone at school. If they did, her reputation would be in ruins. "Well, I've been doing some… research. On this town, and stuff, and I know we've historically had some witches and stuff around. I didn't mean to call you an actual witch, Dahlia, I, uh, meant that I thought you were a descendant of one of the witches Gravesfield reportedly had! Yeah!"
The three teens looked at her, and for a moment it looked like they were going to call her out on her obvious, thrown together lie. Then Dahlia smiled, a light blush on her cheeks, "Oh, you think I could have been related to actual witches! You flatter me!"
The other two snorted at their friend's blissful expression. "Careful, you might give her a bigger head than she already has," Tom guffawed.
"Shut it, or I'll lure Jeepers to your CraftMiners base next time we play!" Dahlia sang between her teeth, her smile never leaving her face even as she threatened her friend.
Turning her attention back to Clara, Dahlia continued, "Well, if you're interested in witches, I find the best place to learn about them is the Gravesfield Historical Society. Mr. Hopkins is kind of the leading authority on that kind of stuff, even if he's new. Come on, I'll show you the place."
Rising to her feet, and motioning for her friends and Clara to follow her, they all walked together out of the park and down the street, where a large, old building waited for them. Clara had never been all that interested in the town's history before now, but she knew enough to know this was one of the oldest buildings around, almost as old as the town's founding. Dahlia sprinted up to the double doors, a spring in her step, "Come on, there is so much witchy stuff to learn about here, it's great."
Sam rolled their eyes good naturedly, "You really got her going today. Thanks a lot for that."
The group entered together, Clara feeling a little nervous. What if she found something here that screamed "magical!" Would she have to steal it? Would the others notice and try to stop her? But she couldn't just say no and leave, either, this was the only lead she had.
The place didn't look as nice on the inside as it did on the outside. It was dusty, with a few stray boxes laying around, the exhibits visible from the entrance halfway put together. Seeing as Clara had seen a "Under New Management" sign out front, it was easy to piece together that the Historical Society was under renovations from whoever ran it now, that probably being the Mr. Hoskins Dahlia had mentioned before.
"Hey, Mr. H, you in?" Dahlia called out as they meandered about in the entryway, her head glancing around and trying to find the new owner.
A head popped up from under the welcome desk, a relatively ordinary man who had brown hair, a goatee and a pair of thick squared glasses over his eyes. Younger than someone Clara expected to see as the head of the Historical Society, but he looked friendly enough. "Oh, heya kiddos! How's my favorite group of visitors?"
Tom brushed back his hair, a fruitless effort since it fell forward and covered his eyes again not a moment later, "Last I checked, we're your only visitors."
The man, who must be Hoskins, winced, then laughed, "Well, you'll see, once I get this place up and running again, people will be flocking to it. I'm ready to show this town the truth!"
"And the truth would be…?" Clara questioned, crossing her arms, watching the overeager man.
He grinned, "Oh, you'll see. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. Until then, feel free to look around, I'm still moving things, getting new exhibits set up, taking old ones down. If you need me, just call."
"Sure thing, Mr. Hoskins," Dahlia smiled, grabbing Clara by the arm to pull her over towards some of the stuff she wanted to show her.
"You can just call me Jacob, being called Mister all the time makes me feel old!" He called back, lifting a box and heading in the opposite direction as the teens.
The Historic Society had a lot of just that, history. Most of it Clara found pretty boring, though even the rest of the teenagers seemed to agree, skipping over most of the exhibits about the town's founding, or some boring thing a mayor did, and skipping right to the witch trials the town had once held hundreds of years ago. Dahlia bounced on her heels, pointing them out, "See all this stuff? Jacob has been really leaning into the more supernatural side of this town's history, and I love what he's done with the place. They say real witches lived here once, and used all sorts of magic, before being chased out of town when two of the town's founders, a pair of brothers, went missing, and the witches were blamed."
Sam sighed, "That's just hearsay. Plenty of places had witch trials, and no actual witches, it was just paranoia. I like a good story as much as the next person, but I think this was all just a misunderstanding that led to tragedy, and a lot of innocent people dying from a broken, primitive justice system that persecuted anyone who was different."
Dahlia clamped her hands over Clara's ears, glaring at her friends and hissing, "Don't listen to the nonbelievers, Clara!"
If Clara hadn't had a run in with an actual demon who had confirmed real witches existed, Clara might have joined her new companions as they descended into giggles, but instead she just let out a series of nervous laughs. "Yeah… nonbelievers..."
The group continued to look around the place, Clara paying close attention to all of the historic artifacts on display. Most of them weren't behind any protective glass, easy to swipe, but nothing seemed to be magical to her poor, magicless eyes. Or maybe her nose? Vee had said something about sniffing it out. Then eating it. Clara didn't want to think about how that worked.
She trudged behind the rest of the group, feeling less and less like she had any idea what she was doing or what she was looking for, until she'd seen everything the GHS had to offer, which in its current unfinished state, wasn't a whole lot. Before long, it was time to leave, and she had nothing to take back to the basilisk.
With a mixture of frustration and anxiety, Clara did her best to try to find some kind of solution to this problem. As the quartet were about to head out the door, her eyes caught a glance at Jacob Hoskins, leaving the back room once again with another box in his hands, and a dash of inspiration hit her.
"You coming, Clara?" Dahlia called, seeing her stop in her tracks.
"Yeah, yeah, uh, just a second. I need to use the restroom. Don't feel like you gotta wait up for me!" Clara excused herself, her new… friends(?) waving goodbye as they exited the door, wincing at the bright sunlight on the other side.
With them gone, and Jacob away and unloading another box of items somewhere else, Clara had free access to the staff room. With nothing but a quick glance around to make sure the coast was clear, she cracked open the door, gritting her teeth when the hinges squeaked, and slid through the gap, leaving the door cracked behind her. The room was dark, too hard to see anything, so turning on the light was Clara's first move, and she blinked when everything was illuminated.
The room she was in was filled with boxes, as she expected, but also filled with swords, maces and axes. A suit of armor was on top of a cabinet, and along the wall there was a board filled with dated pictures and pins, filled with conspiracies about witches, and one in particular with wild grey hair.
Freaky obsessions aside, on the board was something more important that caught her attention, and she strode towards it for a closer look. There, attached to a piece of string linking her to the grey haired woman, was a picture of Amity, beside a girl around their age that Clara didn't know. The picture seemed to be taken in a parking lot, and was dated over a week after Amity had vanished.
Clara tore the picture down, and put it in her bag. She'd ask Vee about that later, see if it had been her or the real Amity, but for now she had to focus on finding something magical, and not the disturbing conspiracy board.
Her eyes wandered to the desk below the board, and her eyes fell onto something and widened. Two something's in particular.
The first was a small bin full of little, miscellaneous items. Under one of the corners of the bin was a note, listing it's contents and where they had been found. The Dump, of all places, which in Jacob's paranoid ramblings seemed to be the meeting spot of some kind of secret society of witches. The junk inside didn't interest her, except for one particular item that was sitting on top of the rest.
A key. Old, bronze, looking a lot like the antique ones she'd see used in cartoons from her grandparents' childhoods. Except for the eye at the center of it's handle, bright yellow and piercing through her, that was different, and really stuck out. The more she looked at it, the more she could swear it was looking back at her. Without thinking, she clasped it in her hands, surprised at its weight, then along with the photo of Amity it joined her bag as an offering to Vee.
The next, sitting beside the bin, was more along the lines of what she had hoped to find. A wand. Or, at least, she hoped the stick on the table was some kind of wand. It was made of wood, had a little glowing green portion at its base that reminded her of a battery meter, and it was on a desk covered in stuff about witches, it had to be a wand. Clara picked it up, examining it, twirling it through her fingers like a baton. Smiling to herself for a job well done, she decided to give it a spin, mocking to cast a spell with it before she put it in her bag.
That wasn't her brightest idea. She'd just meant to imitate the wand work of a popular film franchise, but the wand seemed to have other ideas. As soon as she made a circle with the tip, there was a loud bang like a gunshot that sent her backwards, knocking her off her feet and sending the wand clattering to the floor. Clara landed hard on her backside, and before she could recover a large cage that was suspended from the ceiling fell on top of her, sealing her inside, too heavy for her to lift it to escape. She was trapped.
"What in the world is going on in there?" The familiar voice of Jacob Hoskins asked, opening the door to see Clara inside of a cage, and his papers scattered around the place from the force of the bang. "Hey, you aren't supposed to be back here-"
As he stepped forward, his shoe stepped on the wand, which had been rolling on the ground. Blinking, he bent down and picked it up, inspecting it, then Clara, his eyes widening. "I- I did it! I caught a witch!"
"What?" Clara exclaimed, unsure how he even came to that conclusion, "I'm not some dumb witch, now let me out of here!"
"And let you free? Don't try to use your witchy mental magics on me, I had a metal plate installed in my head to keep those kinds of thoughts out!" He declared, pointing the wand at her. "Now, how did you get this thing to work…"
He jabbed with the wand, frantically jabbing and flicking it in her direction, making Clara flinch as she waited for something to shoot out, but nothing happened. "Dang. Must be busted…"
He set the wand back on his desk, then turned back to Clara, "So, now that I have you captive… want to hear all my theories on why demons and witches want to steal out teeth to power their time machines on Mars?"
Clara gaped, "Oh no."
She threw herself at the cage, trying to knock it over so she could escape as Jacob opened his mouth to start his spiel, "Someone! Anyone! Help me!"
Despite Clara's insistence that they not wait up for her, the Cabin Seven gang did, in fact, wait. Impatiently though, they were teenagers, so they weren't exactly known for their patience in the first place.
"What's taking her so long?" Sam mumbled, tapping their foot as they sat on the steps outside the building after a long twenty minutes. The sun was already beginning to set, slowly sinking below the horizon.
Tom shrugged easily, the most comfortable of the three, laying down on a nearby patch of grass because sitting seemed like too much work. "When you gotta pee, you gotta pee."
As the minutes ticked by, their mild irritation was beginning to transform into full blown worry. "You know, I think I'm just going to go peek inside, make sure she's alright," Dahlia stood up, quickly followed by the other two.
They walked back up the steps, only to see the sign had been flipped from Open to Closed, despite it still being under normal operating hours. This was getting strange. "Maybe she left?" Tom suggested.
"While I totally get ditching us, and would absolutely begrudge her for it, because we aren't exactly popular, there isn't a way for her to have left. Not unless she climbed out a window just to avoid us." Sam pointed out, as there wasn't a back door to the building.
Dahlia stepped forward, opening the front door despite the closed sign, "Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. Let's go."
They'd hardly made it more than three steps inside the building before a cry of anguish met their ears. "Make it stop!"
With a frightened gasp, Dahlia surged forward towards the front desk, "That was Clara! She's still in here and she's hurt!"
The others were on her heels, listening for where their newest friend could be. Another loud cry met their ears, and as a unit they made for the staff room door, ramming into it with such force they knocked the door right off its hinges and down to the floor.
They were met by the sight of Clara in a cage, hands over her ears as she tried to block out Jacob's ramblings. The man himself was over by his conspiracy board, pointing at the various pictures and newspaper clippings with the tip of the wand as he explained in explicit detail why exactly the witches, demons and lizard people had tricked the humans who lived on Earth into believing it was a globe instead of being flat.
Seeing the three teenagers at his door, he gasped in shock, setting the wand down, "Hey now, that door is older than all of us combined! A part of history! What do you think you're doing breaking it down like that?"
The teens clamored back to their feet, Dahlia pointing a finger at the head of the GHS, "What do you think you're doing with Clara in a cage?!
Jacob pointed back at her, "I don't know, what do you think you're doing here after closing hours?"
Tom shook his head, a disappointed frown on his face, "Yeah, no, man, you kind of lose by having a teenage girl half your age stuffed in a cage."
"Yeah, that's really messed up, Mr. H. And here we thought you were cool!" Sam added, crossing their arms and leveling a glare at the man.
Jacob seemed to have enough common sense left in him to realize how this looked, and raised his hands in his defense, "Now, now, it's not what it looks like, haha, see, this girl isn't a girl at all! She's a witch, who has invaded this world from the Demon Realm, located on the Red Planet, to concoct nefarious schemes!"
"Wait, wait, wait," Dahlia interrupted, "You're saying you don't like witches?"
The man looked at her like she'd grown a second head, "No! I want to hunt them down! Keep the planet safe from their evil magic, and more importantly, upload it all to my mewtube channel as proof of my greatness, and that I'm not crazy! We'll see who's the laughingstock when I've-"
Anything he might have continued to say was cut off by a swift kick to the shins from Dahlia, who wasn't having any of his anti-witch propaganda. Jacob hopped on one foot, clutching his leg in his hands as the teenagers descended upon him, knocking him to the ground and raining down kicks until he was unconscious and unable to harm anyone else.
As Tom and Sam tied him up with some spare rope they'd found, Dahlia checked his pockets, looking for the key to the cage. "I don't see it anywhere!"
"The wand, on the desk, grab that!" Clara urged, eager to get out of this tight confining space, and out of the conspiracy cave of Jacob Hoskins.
Dahlia grabbed it, holding it in her hands with a look of uncertainty on her face, "Uh, look, I know I'm all about that magic stuff, but I really don't think this is going to help here..."
Clara groaned, "just spin the damn thing while pointing it at the lock!"
Dahlia did as she was told, and another loud bang exploded from the tip, shattering the lock. The girl dropped the wand in shock, looking between it and Clara, "Oh my god, you really are a witch, aren't you?"
"No!" Clara denied, because she was pretty sure just waving a wand around didn't qualify someone for witchood. Pushing the cage door open, she scooped the wand back up, clenching it tight in her hands, "Come on, lets go."
The Cabin Seven gang followed Clara's lead, casting their eyes at each other in confusion as to what they'd just seen. Dahlia dogged Clara's footsteps, wonder in her eyes as they made their way back to the spot they had met earlier in the day, the sun now below the horizon, the area illuminated by the glow of the moon.
"So, if you're not a witch, does that mean I get to keep the wand?" Dahlia asked as soon as they stopped, practically vibrating with excitement over having seen real magic with her own eyes.
"Please don't, she'll try to take over the world or something." Sam discouraged, still in disbelief about this entire day's events.
Clara clutched the wand tightly to her chest, shaking her head, "I'm really grateful you guys came to my rescue from that creep, but I kind of need this for someone. Sorry."
"Not a problem. Kind of a weird day, though," Tom stuffed his hands in his pockets, and for once Clara could see his eyes through his hair, looking more than a little shaken by what he'd seen then he was letting on.
Dahlia, not ready for this to end, took Clara's hands in her own, the wand between them, "Is there anything else we can help with? Who needs this thing anyway?"
Clara looked between the three, who, despite Tom and Sam not sharing the same enthusiasm as their friend, didn't look like they were backing down either. Clara, and more importantly, Vee, could use all the help they could get. "Would you like to meet her?"
Vee was mostly ignored by the Blight parents and the staff that served them until she was fetched for dinner at sunset. Her so-called parents hadn't even checked in on her since they had left her, leaving her to wallow in her thoughts and fears. She wasn't sure what was better, being alone with herself, or having company with her captors.
Still, she understood that she could possibly be here for a few more days, weeks, maybe even months. It wasn't like Clara could sniff out magic and find something for Vee to use, especially on such short notice. She'd have to get used to this, as much as she hated it.
She just wished there was something to do to keep her mind off of her confinement. There weren't any books for her to read(not that she could read anything more advanced than children's picture books), no toys to speak of, not even a ball to bounce off the walls. Just a soft bed to separate her from the memories of the cold hard floor of her old cage.
When she was fetched for dinner, she was shuffled down the various hallways, which twisted and turned in a maze unlike anything Vee had seen before. This was a level of wealth she was unaccustomed to, and it made her feel very small to be in the home of people who had so much to their names.
She wondered if that was just because of who she was, or if Amity had felt similarly small, walking down these same halls.
The servant who had fetched her opened the doors to the dining room, and Vee was beckoned inside. With a gulp, the basilisk entered, flinching when the door was shut behind her suddenly, and she was left alone again with only Alador and Odalia.
Vee stepped forward towards the table, seeing a spot already set up for her at the end of the long table. She pulled out her chair, and slid inside of it, trying to keep the nerves settled in her stomach from flaring up, resisting the urge to squint just to see her new family on the other side of the table.
It was long. The room they were in wasn't exactly small, nothing in the Blight home was when they sat in the lap of luxury, and the table took up a good chunk of the space. It stretched on, the burnt umber stained wood like an ocean of darkness between the child and the adults. Vee wondered exactly why she was sitting here, instead of by their side, but didn't want to look a gift-Pegasus in the mouth by asking. This was where the Blights wanted her to sit, so she'd sit there.
On the other side of the table, neither Blight took the head. Instead they sat at the ends, across from each other. Odalia waited patiently for Vee to join the table before she lifted her fork and took her first bite, content to sit in silence. Opposite her, Alador was busy with a mechanism of some kind that Vee couldn't recognize, tool box set beside him, screwdriver in hand, as he unscrewed parts in an effort to tear the thing apart.
"Alador, please, eat your supper. Leave your work for the workshop, won't you?" Odalia reached out and swatted the man's arm.
Vee must have been staring, because Odalia turned to her next, "You know how your father always is, tearing anything he doesn't understand apart to see how it ticks."
It wasn't a threat, not in the slightest, but the way Odalia said it still made Vee's skin crawl. There was just enough emptiness behind the man's eyes that Vee was sure he wouldn't hesitate to dissect her if he ever found out about her true nature, and just thinking about it made her feel clammy.
"Yeah, he's… really good at what he does…" Vee spoke, not committing to any extreme with her statement, nor choosing a side. She wasn't sure if Amity would have joined her mother in vocalizing he join them for their dinner, or encourage her father to work, and she was too concerned with making sure her clamminess wasn't actually scales to comment more than that.
Vee's stomach growled, alerting her to the fact she hadn't eaten since she'd gotten here. She grabbed a fork from the table, one of many beside her plate, and stabbed it into the meat that sat there. Unlike Boiling Isles cuisine, it didn't scream, or try to bite back as she brought it to her mouth, something she actually enjoyed very much about earth food. She'd caused enough suffering for a lifetime when she'd been forced to feed off of the magic of other beings.
Vee didn't often consume meat for that very reason, preferring to stick with fruits and vegetables. That was beside the fact that stealing meat from markets was a lot more noticeable than a few plants. She knew better than to be picky though, and would eat whatever was put on a plate in front of her. Often it didn't even need to be on a plate.
She tore into the meat with gusto, stifling a moan at the flavor. Like everything in this place, it was extravagant, with an excess of flavor. The meat practically melted in her mouth, and she came to the realization that something of this quality probably cost what it normally would require to feed her for a month, easily. She didn't have time to enjoy it, though, as she was interrupted by Odalia.
"Amity, really, what has gotten into you? Where are your manners?" The woman criticized, gesturing at the girl with her own fork. "Sit up straight, for goodness sake. And are you using a salad fork to eat your entree?"
Odalia sighed heavily, "A few months away from home, and you've become a complete savage."
Vee frowned, setting her fork down, suddenly not feeling very hungry. "But Ala- I mean, Dad isn't-"
"That's no excuse, Amity. Be better, even better than us." Odalia scolded. Across from her, Alador had abandoned using utensils at all, and was instead eating the meat with one hand, the other scribbling down notes about his contraption. Beneath the table, Odalia kicked Alador, making him drop his food.
"Sorry, dear," He uttered easily, as if this were an everyday occurrence, whipping his greasy hand against his shirt and then taking a fork in hand to eat, back to ignoring everyone at the table.
Vee tried to ignore the anxiety in her gut, looking over the various forks, knives and spoons laid out for her to use. She wasn't sure which she needed to use in this situation, and didn't want to draw anymore attention to the fact she didn't have that knowledge, so instead opted to push the plate away, "I'm not very hungry."
That was a lie, but Odalia was too far away to hear the gurgling of Vee's mostly empty stomach. Instead the woman put her face in her hands in irritation, "Very well. You're to return to your room until tomorrow, then. I don't want to hear you complaining when you're released again. And we'll work on your table manners from now on."
With a snap of her fingers, Odalia summoned a pair of servants to her side as if from nowhere, one taking Vee's mostly untouched plate, illisiting a whimper from the hungry girl as the most delicious meal of her life was stolen from her, and the other guided her away, and back to her room.
The bedroom door was once again hastily closed and locked behind her, and Vee was alone. Or, at least she assumed so, until she heard rapping against the window again, the sound of Clara's return as her knuckles tapped the glass. Vee breathed a sigh of relief, happy to see Clara even if the other girl didn't like her. It was the closest she'd come to a friendly face since New York. She opened the window from her side, unlatching and sliding it open enough for Clara to open it the rest of the way from the outside.
"It's about time! I've been waiting here for you to show up again for twenty minutes! I think I found something." Clara sent a cocky smile up at her, with Vee unable to resist the urge to smile back despite the girl's rough tone. Her smile fell a little when she realized Clara wasn't exactly alone.
"Wow, the person we're helping is Amity Blight?" One of the new people, with a pair of glasses on, said.
"Well, if anyone's family is full of witches, its hers," the tall dark one grumbled under his breath. "Probably a lot of black magic was cast to get that high up in society."
Clara silenced them with a glance, then turned back to Vee, "Don't worry about them, Vee. They're friendly, and really helped me out. You can trust them. I think."
Turning back to the group, Clara introduced them one by one by name. Once that was done, she introduced Vee in return, "I know this looks like Amity, but it's not. This is Vee, and she's… well, she isn't exactly normal."
"Preaching to the choir," Dahlia smirked, "Now why would she need a magical artifact in the first place?"
Clara held out her find, a wand, which Vee greedily took from the other side of the bars, "Magic!"
Then, like it were made of licorice, instead of magic infused wood, the human shaped basilisk took a huge chunk out of it with her teeth, noisily chewing and swallowing the wand bit by bit in front of the gobsmacked teenagers.
"Okay, that's just gross," Tom gagged, with the agreement of the rest of the humans watching.
When the last of the wand had disappeared down Vee's gullet, she patted her stomach, feeling much better after having skipped dinner, "okay, I think I'm ready to change. Uh, try not to be too freaked out, okay?"
Vee closed her eyes and began to focus on removing her current form, and adopting her natural one. Skin turned to scales, legs formed into a tail, her ears and snout grew, until she stood in all of her basilisk glory, looking through the bars nervously, "So… uh, what do you think?"
Sam was the first to open their mouth to voice their disbelief, "I was not prepared for that. I was not prepared for any of this."
Tom shrugged, shockingly indifferent for someone faced with a magical creature. "I don't know, I mean, she's still kinda cute? In a scaly way,"
Dahlia agreed, looking maybe a bit too into Vee's new look, "She's perfect."
As much as Clara hated snakes and all things scaly, she could at least agree with Tom, that Vee at least looked kind of cute, in a non-threatening, puppy-dog kind of way. "You're… fine. Can you fit through the bars now?"
Vee grabbed on to the iron bars, pressing her head against it. It took a little work, and a little magic to squish her skull's shape a bit, but little by little she managed to get through. On the outside, the humans lent a hand, pulling the demon through the bars and keeping her from crashing down onto the ground the second she was through.
Her shoulders were next, followed by her belly and her tail, and in no time flat she was out of the Blight's cage, on the ground outside, free like she belonged. Free. That word meant something again, and in her thankfulness she flung herself at the cheerleader of the group, wrapping her arms and tail around her in a tight hug, wailing out her thanks.
Clara, excited to have completed her mission and to see the glum creature happy again, embraced her back, the two bouncing as they hugged until a sharp cough interrupted them. The two girls glanced over to their new friends to see them staring, Sam giving them a knowing look, "Should we maybe leave you two alone for a little bit?"
The human and demon broke apart, utterly embarrassed by the enby's insinuations. "It's not like that at all!" Clara shouted them down, even as the cabin seven crew laughed.
"Clara doesn't like me like that! She doesn't even like me at all!" Vee blushed, covering her face with scaly hands. She'd never received teasing of this type before, and as flustered as she felt, it was almost nice.
Clara reached out and grabbed the basilisk's hand, earning a few more "ooos" from their audience, which she ignored, then gave it a yank, "Come on, we all need to get out of here, or all of this was for nothing."
The group traveled out of the Blight family homes' limits, eager to remove themselves from their property before they could all get caught. Clara knew all the security camera points, and how to avoid them, and one scaled fence later, they were out in the woods behind the house, the same woods Vee had first shown up in.
The basilisk slithered forward, glancing at each of the trees, until she found the path she first traveled and followed it, leading herself and her new friends until they found a broken down shack in a small clearing between trees. Even in the dark, they all grimaced at the state it was in.
"This is where I came through," Vee told them. Slithering up the steps. "I should stay close. I don't know how much more magic is in the area, but it's pretty clear I'm going to have to stick around in case my disguises fail again."
"Speaking of, you need a new one," Clara brought up, the others looking confused.
"I can change my shape as long as I have magic. I came through from my own world looking like a girl named Amity, because she's the first human I saw." Vee explained.
"So, who will you look like now?" Tom asked, scratching the back of his head.
Dahlia crossed her arms, "Personally, I think she looks fine as is."
Seeing the looks the others were giving her, she came to her own defense, "hey, cute snake girl! I know I can't be the only one into that kinda stuff!"
She nudged Clara with her elbow, muttering at her, "look, if you don't date her, I just might, that's your only warning."
Clara chose to ignore that comment, focusing on the question at hand, "Got any ideas who you want to be?"
Vee taped her clawed fingers together, looking a bit put off, "I'm not exactly great at coming up with a unique look. It's probably just a me thing, there aren't exactly enough basilisks for me to compare myself to in that regard, but…"
She looked at the group in front of her, and realized she didn't have to jump in blind. "Wait, I have an idea."
Vee closed her eyes, and focused on what her new form should be. Dahlia, while a bit short, was cute, and just the right height for Vee's purposes, as well as Vee's preferred gender. Vee used her body as a template, picturing her in her mind's eye. Next, she looked at Tom, adding his dark complexion and hair color to the mix. She'd only got a glance at his eyes, but they were kind, so she added them as well.
Next, she took from Sam their hair and smile, adjusting their features to fit on her new face. And lastly, from Clara, she took her nose and ears.
When she opened her eyes, she was seeing through her new body, back on two legs. She grinned up at her companions, a little shorter than everyone besides Dahlia, "how do I look?"
Tom flashed a thumbs up, while the others gave words of approval, Dahlia thanking whatever demons she worshiped that she got the chance to see Vee's transformation with her own eyes.
Vee turned her eyes to Clara, not knowing why, but she wanted the girl's approval. "What do you think?"
Clara looked her up and down, then smiled, "You look very cute. So tiny."
"Hey!" Dahlia protested, stomping her foot against the ground when she realized that comment applied to her as well.
Sam turned to the shack behind Vee, sizing it up as they peeked through their glasses. "This place is a hunk of junk. You sure you want to stay here of all places?"
Vee nodded, "I've got nowhere else to go. Believe it or not, I've lived in worse. Thanks for the concern though, it's… nice to be worried about."
Tom shook his head," Well, we can always help you fix the place up."
His friends all turned to stare at him, even Clara who had only known him a few hours. He looked back, then snapped back, "Hey, my laziness is a choice, I can break out of it to help a friend, can't I?"
While the others playfully bickered and snapped at each other, Clara took the time to take the picture she'd stolen from Jacob and hand it over to Vee, "I found this while I was out. I wanted to ask, was this you, or Amity?"
Vee took the picture and looked it over, her eyes glancing at Amity, but ultimately fixing on the girl beside her, "That wasn't me. And look, do you see those ears? This girl isn't human. She came from the demon realm, and is a witch."
Clara cocked a brow at that, "Witches have pointy ears?"
"Yeah, I thought that was obvious?"
Thinking back on how she met Dahlia and the embarrassment that came with it, Clara smacked Vee upside the head, "you could have thought to tell me that earlier?!"
Still, looking down at the picture, Clara was happy to know that Amity, wherever she was, seemed to be safe and happy, if the smile on her face in the photo said anything. She'd miss her best friend, but it was better that she stayed as far away from her parents as she could.
Even if that meant staying in place like the Demon Realm.
The new friends saw each other often, almost every day. The cabin seven gang hauled usable trash from the Gravesfield dump to the little shack in the woods to use for repairs, and they used what little knowledge they had of construction, following mewtube guides and trying their best to have fun together as they worked to make Vee a new and better home.
Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into a month. And before them, a livable little cabin in the woods had sprung forth. It wasn't perfect, a lot of the parts not matching up with others, but it had its charms. Sam declared it quirky, and no one could deny the word fit, even if there were better, less kind words to describe it.
Vee loved it though, as they all gathered together to put the finishing touches on it. Tom held a stencil up, while Dahlia handled a can of spray paint, the front door to the shack emblazoned with a large, hot rod red number seven.
"The new and improved Cabin Seven is finished!" The friends declared, presenting it to Vee.
"And we're ready to welcome our newest members!" Sam ushered Vee and Clara forward as Dahlia opened the door. Tom was the first one through, throwing himself onto the floor and declaring he wasn't ever going to do anything productive again.
The inside had been cleaned of the animal feces, broken glass and splintered wood that had littered it, replaced with a tidy new floor made from wood salvaged from pallets and sanded down smooth. On top of the new floor were blankets and pillows, a large makeshift bed that took up a bulk of the room, with an old, salvaged CRT TV in the corner, antennas bent at odd angles.
Tom had donated a few old games and a console he never played anymore for Vee to use after they discovered that the place somehow still got power. They hoped the surge of use didn't bring anyone's attention towards it at the power company, but until someone threw the off switch, they were using it to their advantage. Under the console was a beat up old DVD player from the dump, cleaned with it's own set of disks, each of the teens contributing their favorites to increase Vee's collection.
A small dresser and vanity had been donated by Dahlia and Sam respectively, a place for Vee to store her new clothes, and a place to do her makeup, an art form Sam was still trying to teach her.
A variety of outfits, makeup, as well as the blankets and pillows that furnished the place had been a gift from Clara, who insisted she didn't want Vee to get cold out here all alone. That touched the basilisk's heart the most, especially with how poorly the cheerleader pretended she still only tolerated her, despite how much time they spent together these days.
Vee took a look at all she now had, and wiped her eyes, "Thank you, all of you, so much. I'm so grateful-"
All of them, every last one of her friends, embraced her tightly in a group hug, "Shut up, we all love you, so no way were we not going to help." Sam insisted.
"Can't leave my new gaming buddy hanging. I still have so many new games to show you." Tom ruffled her hair.
"We're cabin Seven forever, baby, and you're part of that team now!" Dahlia laughed, arms wrapped around the basilisk's waist, pressing a kiss to Vee's cheek.
"Besides," Clara added, feeling surprisingly more at home here with these new friends than she ever had with any of the popular kids at school, "We still need to teach you the art of the sleepover."
Vee gave them all a wet grin, doing her best to stifle her tears. "Thank you, I'd love to."
"I'll get the games set up," Tom threw himself down to the floor again, flipping on the game console and unraveling the controllers.
"I brought snacks!" Dahlia declared, reaching for her bag.
"We have got to do some stuff with makeup, while we're at it. Can we really call it a sleepover if we don't?" Sam took their own seat, ready for a night of no sleep and fun games.
"Think you can do my nails?" Tom asked, "I swear every time I do my own, they chip before the day is done!"
Clara just sat beside Vee, happy that, despite how they started, she managed to make a new friend. And when the first big rain of the year started that night, she was there to hold Vee's hand, for as long as the basilisk wanted her too.
Deep inside the Cheerleader's bag, long forgotten, lay the slitted eye of a familiar key, bidding it's time until it could be found once more.
A/N: another shipping conundrum. Cheerleader or Goth girl? I love both! I like Cheerleader because it gives a bit more drama, since Vee looks like Luz, and wasn't exactly popular. I love Goth girl, because you know she'd love and accept Vee for her basilisk side, no problems, and they'd be adorable together. They're even friends already, so it's extra fluffy.
But, I do kinda lean a little bit more towards cheerleader myself, just for the Lumity parallels. I'll be just as happy if Goth Girl x Vee becomes canon, though. I just want what's best for the little snake. Maybe my next fic will have GG and Vee get together. Heck, I had enough Vee x Dahlia here I could still even go that route. Or have Vee date both. I'm definitely more fond of that three way relationship than, say, Cam x Raine x Eda.
As for Vee's new looks, she's Luz-lite. Darker skin and hair, shorter height and haircut, with slightly different eyes, but if you said they looked like sisters or cousins, you'd never argue with it. I'm a hack, did you expect me to get creative with her new look? Yeah right.
I like the personalities I used for the Cabin 7 gang. Dahlia is perky and nice, to contrast the dark stuff she's into, Tom is lazy to a ridiculous degree, but always willing to help out a friend(He absolutely uses RPGs to teach Vee how to read better) and Sam is sarcastic, often poking fun of their friends, but never in a way where they intend any harm. Much like the names I used, this is sort of a blend of traits I've picked up from other fics and comics featuring these guys, due to the utter lack of canon material to draw from.
Also, Dahlia is using regular playing cards in this AU, because Eda either has her Hexas Hold'em addiction under control, or something, because we skipped over that episode. It's funny that I've more or less written Tibbles out of the series so far, it wasn't even intentional, but no one seems to mind because he's a terrible character.
We're going back to another break for a bit. Probably a little longer than this break has been, since I want to get at least half of season 2A written before I start posting. I feel more comfortable posting with a backlog I can upload, rather than a chapter by chapter basis.