TW: Suicide

"So! This is the room I was given, and you guys are all welcome to set up mattresses or whatever so that we can totally have a huge sleepover!" Luz said as she led Amity, as well as Willow and Gus who were waiting at the top of the stairs for her to get better instructions than "beat it," like where to find a room so that they don't accidentally sleep somewhere they shouldn't, outside of Luz's current bedroom. Behind them was Amity's abomination, who continued to hold Hunter with half of his face dunked into its goopy chest while he muttered what seemed to be muffled obscenities.

It was a small room, just barely large enough to hold the five of them throughout the night. There was a bed nestled in the corner next to a window, a tall dresser that stood against the wall near the foot of the bed, and there was a large floor-length mirror that hung right next to the doorway. From the looks of it, the small area was likely a guest room; one which hadn't had many occupants, seeing how tidied everything was despite the thick layer of dust which seemed to coat some of the upward-facing surfaces.

"Yeah, I know it's a little cramped and a little dusty…" Luz said while running a finger over the windowsill. She looked at the dirt covering her index finger and then wiped it against her thumb, "okay. It's a lot dusty. But that doesn't mean that we can't give it a quick once over and then set everything up!"

Hunter rolled his eye and groaned, but nobody seemed to pay him any attention.

"Oh!" Amity exclaimed, slapping her fist into an open palm, immediately grabbing the attention of everyone else. "This would be a great time to experiment with my abomination ball!"

"Your what now?" Gus asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"My abomination ball," Amity stated once more, now ushering everyone back out of the doorway and into the hall.

"Yeah, repeating it doesn't really answer my question…"

"It's just a little prank I've been trying to develop against all of the annoying shit Ed and Em always pull."

"Why are you pranking our bedroom?" Willow questioned, clearly not understanding Amity's thought process on how a spell intending to cause disruption or destruction was going to be beneficial to their current situation.

"I'm not pranking it per se. It's more like- kinda- err…" Amity trailed off, waving her hand in the air at nothing in particular. "You know what, just let me show you." She turned around and twirled her finger in the air, eliciting a small purple spell circle that simultaneously summoned a counterpart on the floor of the bedroom, albeit five times larger. When the ring was completed, a ball of dripping purple goo came floating up from its center, then began to spin. It continuously accelerated, and before long, there were speckles of purple which started flying off the ball.

"Okay, that'll only take a minute," Amity said as she closed the door to the room. Everyone remained quiet to hear what was happening on the other side of the door; even Hunter had his eye glued to the door and his mouth shut tight.

The whirring grew louder with each passing moment, and every splatter which was thrown into a wall sounded louder and louder to them, each landing with a loud thunk. Eventually, the distinct thunks of abomination goo on the wall were replaced by gelatinous splatter, still occurring at the same volume.

Amity nodded her head, "I think it should be covered." She twirled her finger in the air, repeating the spell she just previously cast. She waited until the whirring stopped before cracking the door inside open.

There was a thud from behind them and everyone turned to face Hunter, who was now laying with his face goop side down on the floor, still restricted to the chair. He spat a few times, blowing a few raspberries intermittently. "What?" He asked. "Never seen someone covered in abomination guts lying on the floor while strapped to a chair?"

"Why do you have to be like that all the time?" Luz asked, oblivious to the others going inside of the room behind her.

"Like what?" He asked forcefully.

"Like that!" Luz gestured to all of him. "You can't be much older than we are, and for knowing us for all of less than half an hour, you're being such a, a-" Luz bit down on her lip and stomped her foot.

"A what? I may be tied here, but i don't have all night for you to find the right word." He prodded, a cocky grin playing on his lips.

"A jerk!" She huffed.

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?" His grin remained vigilant.

"Ugh!" Luz hunched down to get closer to his face. For being irked just a moment ago, getting closer to him like this almost put him in a new light. One that softened her rage. "I don't know what your problem is, or why it is that you're like this-"

"Cause I'm a captive of savage witches." He interrupted so matter-of-factly.

Before she could stop herself, Luz whipped her arm and open palm down towards him. It made contact with the side of his face with a loud crack. She could feel her hand heating up with the sensation of pins and needles not too far behind, but that snide comment held her attention, and she wasn't going to just let such a thing slide so easily.

"You may be a part of the Emperor's Coven," Luz said dangerously, "but don't you dare call my friends savages. You haven't the slightest idea who they are and what they're capable of. You don't know how intelligent, loving, caring, and good natured they are!" Her threats were barely above a whisper now. Luz wanted to paint a picture in her mind of every one of her friends, but could only visualize one with vibrant green and brown hair; like the ever-grounding and beautiful fields of Earth. She quickly shook that developing thought away. Now wasn't the time.

"And you think you know me like that?" Hunter asked in a blunt, business-like tone, which seemed like a complete one-eighty from how he was previously acting. "You haven't the slightest idea of why I'm here. What's been happening to me. Why I've come after one of the biggest targets on the Isles alone." His voice grew quieter and darker with each statement. "You want to accuse people of not knowing about others? Take a look in the mirror, human, and tell me if you see anything other than a hypocrite." Now he was basically spitting out the words from his scowling face as he finished.

Luz went to argue back but found she was searching for words that were not there. Was he right? Well, he was clearly hunting them, which was definitely not right, but as far as his accusations went, she didn't know anything about him. Heck, she didn't even know that he existed until, like, half an hour ago. In her tongue-tied state, she must have missed Amity's voice beckoning to her, because there was a pale white hand with black nail polish now resting on her shoulder.

She turned back and saw that grounding mix of beautiful green and strong brown hair surrounding- worried amber eyes?

"Luz, are you alright? I called for you three times." She was definitely worried, that much was obvious.

Instantly regretful, Luz slapped on the brightest smile she could muster and chirped, albeit unconvincingly, "yep! Doin' great! The Golden Guard here and I were just having a little chat before we came in!" Her smile began to falter, and there was no way that Amity could not notice. But thankfully she just took her word for it at the moment and decided to drop it.

"Okay… Well, everything's cleaned up in there. Willow and Gus are setting up some extra beds right now, then we should be ready to get some sleep." Her arm traveled down from Luz's shoulder to her upper arm. It almost felt like Amity gave it a little reassuring squeeze as her hand traveled further downward, eventually skimming the tips of her fingers, which gave Luz mild heart palpitations.

They entered the room and Luz let out a whistle. "Wow. You know, I wasn't exactly sure that would work, but this place is spotless! Nice job!" She shot Amity the biggest cheeky grin.

Amity brushed a lock of stray green hair out of her face and turned her head away to hide her rapidly reddening cheeks. "Thanks…" She said with a smile nibbling at her lips.

"You're gonna sleep on plants?" Hunter asked, still laying on the floor but able to see straight into the room from his position.

Willow huffed and crossed her arms, flexing her highly defined upper arms.

Hunter's eyes darted from the makeshift vines and leaves which were piled neatly into three stacks to Willow's face then to her arms. His eyes dilated and he let out an embarrassed cough. "Looks comfy." He said quietly.

With a satisfied humph, Willow went back to shaping their "beds."

"Abomination." Amity commanded to the sentinel standing next to Hunter. She pointed at him. "Grab the smart mouth and place him in the corner."

"What?!" Hunter exclaimed, taken aback. "You're gonna put me in there too?"

"Did you think we were just gonna leave you in the hall where nobody could keep an eye on you and you'd be able to escape?" Amity asked.

The abomination grabbed him off the floor and started moving him into the room as he squirmed. "You're basically sleeping on top of each other already! There's no room for me here too! Not that I'd even want to be in this hotbox with four sweaty teenagers even if there was another place." His chair was dropped upright in the back corner with a loud thud. "Watch it, Jeeves." Hunter bit at the abomination, which only carried a blank gaze towards the wall with its cold amber eyes.

"Oh please." Amity waved him off. "You're what, probably twenty years old?"

"Almost twenty one." Hunter semi-corrected.

"Right." She answered blandly. "You're basically a sweaty teenager too. And probably just as gross as my brother and sister."

"They're cleaner than you think." Hunter added.

Amity's face blanched for a moment before she composed herself- kind of. "Good to know you're spying my family too. You watch after me and my parents as well?"

Hunter shrugged. "Sometimes. I have my favorite from the Blight's. But I can assure you that you're not the one."

"Gross." Willow and Gus said in unison.

"My thoughts exactly." Amity said, whipping another spell circle up, causing a band of abomination goop to appear around Hunter's mouth.

"Well… Let's just pretend that little exchange never happened, and get to bed instead." Luz suggested, getting quick nods of agreement back.

Luz climbed into her bed in the corner, snuggling underneath the blankets while she turned to the line of her friends doing the same. Amity next to her, followed by Willow and lastly Gus.

"Ow!" Yelped Gus from the end. He picked something off his behind and held it up in front of him. "Willow, why would you use plants with thorns over them as bedding?"

Willow shrugged. "I didn't think I did, but one must've snuck it's way in there. They're tricky little buggers!" She chuckled, though Gus groaned as he continued to rub it.

"Okay everyone, sleep tight!" Luz called with a small yawn escaping. "And don't let the thorns bite!" She finished sleepily, getting chuckles from everyone but Gus, who along with Hunter, groaned.

Three sharp taps of metal on metal rang out in quick succession, followed by a short pause, then three more taps. The otherwise empty and silent throne room of Emperor Belos was filled with these triplet taps of impatience that resonated from his fingertips as he propped his head up with his other hand, sitting atop his mighty throne. The mask he bore displayed the constant indifference it always had, but underneath it bubbled anger stemming from a distinct lack of intelligence.

Kikimora should have been here three minutes ago with information on the whereabouts of Hunter, the activities of Lilith, and a report on that wretched Owl House demon. The Day of Unity was fast approaching, and with such numerous unknown variables still in play, not having the information on them was beginning to become a problem. For his plans to come to fruition, all loose ends must be addressed; and they will not be unless Kikimora decides she can make time in her busy schedule to show. Up!

Belos slammed the fist he was using to tap onto the throne's arm, causing an echoing bang to reverberate throughout his throne room.

Just then the main doors swung open in a haste, creaking at a higher pitch than normal due to the speed they moved at. In sped Kikimora, her jacket splattered red, pieces of fabric ripped from her shoulder and lower right abdominal areas. She was panting as the pitter-patter of her feet grew closer to the stairs which led to the front of the throne. A few loose papers from the stack she had in her hands dropped and fluttered to the ground behind her, but she paid them no mind as she approached the first stair.

Kikimora knelt down on one leg, her rapid, heavy breaths undeniably overwhelming. "I am sorry-" she spat out between breaths, "Emperor Belos- for my- tardiness." She continued to stare at the ground, her gaze unwavering, patiently awaiting a sign to look up and continue.

"Why are you late?" Belos eventually asked, though it seemed more like a demand.

"My apologies, my Lord, but I had an unfortunate- accident which required my immediate attention." Her breathing had finally calmed to a point where she was able to speak in uninterrupted sentences.

"And what might that have been?"

"Well, we have lost two coven members to that infernal house demon which we were trying to get information from."

"How?"

"Well… Um…" She sputtered, desperately attempting to find the words she was searching for before Belos' short fuse blew.

"Today, Kiki." Belos' voice raised. "Did the demon kill them?"

"Well, not exactly…"

"My patience is wearing thin!"

"They, uh- they actually killed themselves, sir." She shifted uncomfortably under Belos' gaze. "Due to other coven members being assigned elsewhere to prepare for the Day of Unity, Bellam and Peckall were the only two available for interrogation duty. Apparently, as stated in their suicide note," she pulled out a piece of paper from the stack in her hands and began to read, "We have dedicated our lives to the great Emperor's Coven, under your leadership, Emperor Belos. However, this unique form of torture has driven us to the edge of witch sanity, and with the hardlock spells placed on each entry of this dungeon and no other coven members presenting themselves in this area, we are unable to ask for assistance. It is with this note that we implore you, in all of your arrogant glory, to kindly CHOKE ON YOUR BLOOD DRENCHED STAFF, because we will not be making it out of here, ALIVE! We would rather die and rest in peaceful, eternal slumber rather than listen to the inf- unb- CRAZY ramblings of this stupid owl! From a better Hell, warm regards, Peckall and Belam."

Kikimora stuffed the piece of paper in with the others and gazed up at Emperor Belos.

He shifted his forehead to rest in the notch between his thumb and index finger and heaved a sigh. "Send two more guards in with the demon. And only one of them is to be in there at a time. They may rotate out every twelve hours."

Kikimora placed her paper stack down and grabbed a blank sheet of paper and a quill to write the instructions down. As she scratched away, Belos spoke again.

"Now, has there been an update from the Golden Guard?"

"Ah…" She finished scribbling down the word she was writing, stuck her quill in the finger of her hair, and quickly paged through her stack of papers. "No. He has not written or provided verbal communication since he had left to find the Owl Lady."

"That child's getting fed to the worm the next time I see him…" He muttered.

"Pardon?"

"It's not important." Belos waved a dismissive hand. "Now what about Lilith? She has been acting strange as of late, and I want to know if she is up to anything. Did you learn anything useful?"

"Well," Kikimora fingered through a few more pages, pulling out a few from the stack, and placing the others down. She then straightened out her notes. "All of her day-to-day tasks have continued to be completed on time, her attitude remains characteristically arrogant," Belos sighed, but Kikimora had not heard him and continued, "and she skipped all meals yesterday." With a huff, she quietly added, "not that she needs to lose any weight, the skeleton."

"Hmm." Belos pushed himself off his throne and began walking down the steps. His hands were clasped behind him as his white and gold robe trailed elegantly behind him. He stopped next to Kikimora, who was now frantically picking her stack of papers up, such that they were not in the path Belos was taking.

"Continue observing Ms. Clawthorne. I would like a full report on her activity every other day; every action she takes will be noted and summarized unless you have adequate reason to believe she is acting significantly out of line. Then find me immediately."

"Of course, Emperor Belos." She bowed her head, tilting her body just enough for a stray paper to detach itself from the pile and slide in front of Belos.

His vibrant blue eyes glared down at the stray piece of parchment, then back up to the large double doors sealing the entrance to the chamber. "Every. Action." He repeated, stepping on paper as he glided to the heavy doors. He waved a hand and they both swung open immediately for him.

There were two grunts of pain from the other side; the guards to the chamber had no doubt been tossed into the walls and pinned between them and the doors.

Without even bothering to look back, Emperor Belos stated calmly, with an open hand to the air, "you should know not to stand that close to the chamber. I don't like eavesdroppers." He waved his hand once more and the doors slammed shut, revealing two groaning guards who were toppled sideways on each side of the hall.

"Come on, Eda! I can't wait to get there and see all the pretty flowers and animals!" Lilith called, her untameable red hair bouncing with every running skip she took. She was glancing back at Eda through her large circular glasses, excitedly waving on her younger sister in all her ten-year-old glory.

"I can't!" Eda whined, padding her way behind her sister, who continued to skip ahead despite Eda's best effort to sprint up and catch her. "You're going too fast!"

"Oh come on, I'm skipping, sister. You can catch up to me!" She slowed and fully turned towards Eda, now walking backward in what seemed to be a way meant only to show off. Her grin was a mile wide as she clasped her hands together behind her.

"Quit being a show off!" Eda bit out. She huffed violently, but every bone in her body refused to stop, specifically after seeing that condescending grin plastered all over Lily's face. Eda's throat felt as dry as a desert, each gasp of air feeling like glass shards sliding down her throat; her lungs burned throughout her entire chest with each breath in and out. The sore and aching fire in her legs, which miraculously had not given out yet, burned hotter than any fire magic she had ever felt.

She pushed harder.

Lilith's eyes widened a bit as she saw her sister pick up speed, not that Eda could see it happen with her face glued to the ground five feet in front of her.

"I'll beat you," Eda screamed as she started closing the gap between her and her sister.

Though Lilith took this as a much more serious challenge than she was just getting, she remained carefree. She turned around and began sprinting herself.

Eda peeked up to see Lilith's back towards her now, inching farther away with every step. She could not have this. Lily was always the more athletic one. She could run faster, jump higher, and go longer than Eda ever could. And she was sick and tired of it. Now was as good a time as any to try out the new spell she has been working on. The same one that made her crash and burn for months straight, leaving scorch marks and busted property all around, over, and inside their house.

With a flick of both her wrists, she conjured up two palm-sized orange spell circles, each with a mirroring circle that appeared underneath her shoes.

It was now or never.

Eda ignited the spell circles. Hot orange flames crackled to life, quickly swirling into vortexes that flared out at the ends of each of her extremities. Still running, Eda straightened out her arms, facing her open palms down towards the ground as they began to burn brighter and hotter with each passing second. The searing hot noise ripped through the forest with its high-pitched reverberations, and before she knew it, Eda was airborne.

She continued to kick her legs only for a moment before straightening them out as well. The flames under the soles of her shoes roared louder as she aligned them parallel with the ground. Her palms still faced the ground, but she was adjusting them little by little as she picked up speed, as to not perform an epic face plant.

"Easy now…" Eda told herself. "You've got this. You can catch that priss."

Lilith, who had her eyes set straight ahead ever since Eda began running faster, finally saw a bright light emanating ahead of her, signifying the break in the trees right outside of their summer cabin. She was going to win once again!

As if there was any doubt. She smirked.

Knowing how close she was to the finish line, Lilith peeked over her shoulder back toward Eda. She gasped when her gaze fell on Eda, who was now screaming towards her at a speed she could not even hope to match.

"Move it, Lily!" Eda yelled with a toothy grin as she sped by her sister. The look of astonishment on her sister's face was worth every bump, bruise, and burn she had gotten practicing this spell. Pride swelled in her chest as she broke through the tree line and into the bright sunlight. She was almost at the house; she could cross the proverbial finish line by tapping the door, write this down in her own history book as the first time she beat her sister in an athletic event, and gloat for the entire rest of the time their whole family was on vacation here. Who was she kidding? This would be worth a lifetime of gloating.

However, there was only one minor detail that she had forgotten about up until this very moment. Each time she had tried this spell out before, it had ended in her crashing into something because she could not properly control her flight path. But now that she could stabilize herself, a new problem had just dawned on her. She didn't know how to safely come to a stop.

"Uh-oh." Eda gulped. Her arms and legs began to shake. She was losing her concentration fast. The flame in her right hand flared up, tilting her left. At the same time, her left hand's flame flickered and puttered out. Eda lost her balance completely and was thrown into a downward corkscrew. She hit the ground hard, her momentum carrying her forward at the same speed as she now tumbled towards the front of the cabin.

Her body broke through the gate guarding the path up to the front door with a loud crack, sending splinters and small hunks of wood flying in every direction. She tumbled up the path to the door, bouncing off the ground like some poorly made rubber ball with limbs sticking out in every which direction. And a few of the flowers aligning the path were unfortunate enough to be flattened or snapped in Eda's destructive wake.

She slowed down and managed to tumble her way up the steps before she slammed into the door. Her back was on the ground as she looked up to her legs which lay against their family's once pristine cottage entrance door, now covered in mud, dirt, and an assortment of beautifully colored flower petals.

Eda blinked once, then again, before looking back to see Lily jogging up to her on the small porch. She had a few hairs out of place, a couple of sweat droplets that were meandering their way down her cheeks and off her chin, and she had the biggest shit-eating grin a witch could ever manage to muster up.

"Well," she emphasized like she was still holding bragging rights, "I guess you've finally beat me."

"You're right, I have." Eda pointed an accusatory finger at her without missing a beat. She pushed away a few stray hairs which were covering her face then blew a few raspberries when one fell back into her mouth.

"Well, I honestly couldn't have asked for a better winning moment for you, sister." She sighed and her look of superiority morphed into a warm, heartfelt smile. She stretched one of her arms out towards Eda, silently asking for her to take it.

Eda moaned and rolled to the side, causing some of the mud from her shoes to streak across the door in a double arch. She pushed herself to one knee and then grabbed Lilith's hand, who pulled her upright.

"Mother is not going to like that." Lilith pointed at the splatter and streaks that Eda left all over the door.

"Nope." Eda agreed, emphasizing a pop into the 'P.' "You think she'll go easy on us since I'm completely covered in-" She looked down at herself, "everything?" Eda started trying to brush some of the stains away, sadly to no avail.

"Nope." Lilith answered, emphasizing a pop into her 'P' as well. "If anything, it'll probably make our punishment worse." Eda nodded. "And I didn't even have anything to do with it." She sighed.

"Psh. Yeah right. You started the race. If anything, this whole thing is your fault."

"My fault?" Lilith scoffed, raising an offended hand to her chest. "I never told you to fling yourself into the door like some kind of crazy person!"

"Well you were being such a show off earlier by running backwards away from me! You think you're so cool for doing something dumb like that!"

"Dumb?! Do you know how much skill and coordination it takes to run backwards like that? Probably not cause you're so young, but it's a lot!"

"I'm only two years younger than you!"

"Well-"

Before Lily could even begin her retort, the door to the cabin behind them swung open. It slammed into the side of the wood paneling which put a knob-sized hole into the mud-splattered surface. As the once pristine door slowly creaked back on its golden hinges, both Eda and Lilith shrunk as they hesitantly turned around to see who was there.

Standing in the doorway, scowling as though it were her professional career, was a woman in her mid-forties whose piercing green eyes bore into both of the young children on the porch. Her violet floor length short sleeved dress, accented by an overlay of white in the shape of an X across her chest, made her look like someone ready to attend a formal dinner and dance. However, both Eda and Lilith knew that the only dance they would be having today would be one with the devil herself: Gwendolyn Clawthorne.

"Uh-"

"Hello-" Lilith gulped, "mother."

"Uh... So are you coming out to have a nice drink and relax in the sun?" Eda shrugged sheepishly. If it were any other time besides this moment right now, that may have been an accurate guess. Unfortunately, their mother's crimson red cheeks did not foretell such an activity today. Especially not with her lips which were pressed so incredibly tight together that someone may have mistaken her for having only one.

"What. Are. You. Two. Doing?" She spat out each word with deadly venom laced into each syllable.

"Well you see…"

"We were actually just…"

"Stop!" She commanded with a raised hand. Both sisters went silent. "I don't want to hear some half baked excuse from either of you. You've broken the gate, destroyed my lavish flowerbeds, caked the entire porch with mud, and even made me put a hole in the side of the house!" She pointed to each destroyed item as she named them off, then clenched that same hand into a fist that dropped to her side.

"Well, actually, that last one was your fault, not ours." Eda pointed out. And she immediately regretted it.

Even though it seemed impossible, their mother's cheeks flushed an even darker shade of crimson, and Eda could have sworn that she saw smoke starting to billow from her ears. She took a sharp, deep breath, clenching her teeth together with such force that they were liable to break at any moment. After what felt like an eternity, she slowly let her inhalation of rage out, never breaking simultaneous eye contact with her children.

"You will clean up your mess and fix everything that was broken before you do anything else." She gritted out, barely able to move her lips for proper articulation. "If I find either of you doing anything else before the front of my home is spotless," she narrowed her eyes, "you can dream about what could have been the rest of this vacation from summer school detention."

Eda and Lilith both drew horrified gasps.

"Now go!" She pointed an outstretched finger forward.

Like a bolt of lightning, Eda and Lilith scurried upright and made headway for the gate. They slowed down as they approached it and Eda took a fleeting glance back.

A smaller figure appeared in the doorway behind her mother, barely half visible. A young boy about eight years old with glistening blue eyes just like Lilith's and bright orange hair like Eda's, which was fanning out in every direction like he was just zapped by electricity, grabbed the hem of their mother's purple dress.

"Mommy?" He asked so sweet and innocently with his high-pitched voice. His mother looked down at him and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Why do they always have to mess up everything nice you make?" He batted his eyelashes at her a few times, his eyebrows furrowed with genuine curiosity.

"Oh, I'm not sure, Torin." She shrugged. "It's just in their nature to be destructive, I suppose. Something they must get from their father."

"Well-" Torin said, now looking Eda straight in the eyes, unblinking, "I hope I never grow up to be like that." Gwendolyn only shook her head at him.

"You little monster." Eda growled under her breath.

"Come on." Lilith sighed, grabbing Eda by the shoulder of her shirt and dragging her towards the shed. "Let's get this over with."

Eda never took her eyes off Torin, but right before she rounded the corner out of sight, she knew she saw his tiny little mouth pull up into a huge wicked grin.

A/N: So, it's been a while. Apologies for having to take so much time to upload, but I hope you all enjoyed the latest installment! As always, I would love to hear anyone's feedback on the story/chapter, and I'll see you all in the next chapter!

-G

TheFranninator: I like to think Eda is classy enough to only hurt children when absolutely necessary. And I can't wait for the tournament either! It should (hopefully) be coming up in the next few chapters.

Mr. Spinner: Hunter always seems to be on the wrong end of the stick... And I appreciate the feedback!