A/N: This one is kinda trippy, which is why it took so long. I wanted to put a lot into it, but I found the main things that I wanted and took out everything else. If there are any major issues, feel free to comment. I'll be updating this one in the next few weeks I think. This chapter is the turning point of canon and my own plot for Kurt and anti-magic.

TheLapisWarrior: I'll likely get to that after finishing this. Writing the first chapter for that fic has been hell, but it'll be done soon since summer's coming and less work for me and all that.

OMAC001: Astute observation, yes, their actions will change. They were kinda asshats in that episode, ngl, so that's 100% gonna be more older siblings messing with younger siblings than fucking with the head of a 14-year-old girl. Not only that but I feel that Amity's turn felt a little forced in the show and a few of the OC fics on this site, so I'm trying to smooth her personality a little more as well so the bully-to-gay-disaster feels more natural.

Amity had a long day, what with her strained friendship with Willow, her trying to keep her and Gus out of trouble, and Boscha and her lackeys egging her on to get all of them in trouble. Which, in the end, happened, but luckily not to Willow or her friend. Just to that cute - weird human girl. The worst that happened was that she ended up damaging her reputation, which she hardly cared for in the first place, though damage to it could keep her from moving to where she wanted to be in life, so keeping it to a minimum was good, no matter what. The good news was, after the entire thing with Principal Bump, Willow was moving to the plant coven, which he helped her with.

"There are opportunities with the Abomination track, but you'll do better in the thing you are most interested and best at. Look at it like this, would you rather do something you're mediocre at or something you're actually good at?" he urged.

And this meant Willow didn't have to be someone she didn't want to be. This made Amity feel slightly better about the entire debacle, but some guilt still lingered in her heart and she knew that some anger still lived in her former friend's. What she wished most was that suddenly, it would all be settled when she walked into her home so that she could feel comfortable when she lay down in her bed.

She sighed as she walked into Blight manor, seeing the twins' friends loitering in the living room, she placed a hand on her head, dragging it across her face in frustration, "Uh, what are all your friends doing here?"

"We invited them to hang out and since it's getting late, we decided it would be better if we sent them home with full bellies," Emira replied, scooping her up in her arms and hugging her as any older sibling would, "How was your day?"

"It was..." she paused for a moment, "Yeah, no. You won't get anything out of me. It was fine, that's all."

"Alright, Amity," Edric chimed in, "Let us at least introduce you to our new human friend, Kurt Noceda before you go to your room."

"Human?"

"Yes, human. Just like that book you obsess over all the time and all those trinkets that Mom and Dad like to flaunt all the time, human - round ears, bland eyes - the works," he brought the tall human over, "This is Kurt. He doesn't talk much, but he's nice for the most part."

For the most part?

"Uh, I mean, he's cool - he's cool."

Kurt glared at him for a moment, before walking up to Amity and shaking her hand, but Amity narrowed her eyes at him, examining him carefully, "Kurt... Noceda, hm? Nice to meet you," she watched him with a wary gaze, this guy was most certainly related to that Luz girl somehow: He wore the same foreign attire she did, had an unfamiliar scent to him just as she did, it was pungent and overpowering (So much so, that she had to wonder if her siblings were nose blind), and if how her sister was acting around him was any indication, she assumed that he was attractive. Of course, in an older guy like him, she couldn't see it... scratch that, just guys in general to her were unattractive. "Will he stay for dinner too? I wonder if he'd enjoy our cuisine, or if Mom will let them even stay for appetizers..."

"No, actually, Kurt said he'd make dinner for us. Says some things don't change from home and here, food is one of them."

"Oh? And what would some other things be?"

He breathed in a deep gulp of air.

"Fresh air," Emira responded with a smile. "Yeah."

After a moment, he seemed to brighten up and motioned them to come back into the living room, Amity followed them as they gathered. Florence looked up, "Oh, what is it, Kurt? Do you have something to show us?" she asked. Indeed he did. He reached into his pocket with a goofy smile and he pulled out a small box. "What is that?"

Viney read the bottom of the thin box, "M... P... Three?"

The first thing Kurt played was something that he thought would be familiar to people of the past, but might be able to pull them from any classical or formal sense of music. A song that broadened the scope of music in Italy way back in 1972, when songs were both an escape from reality and reality in itself, this album became both in a way, Per un Amico (trans. For A Friend) by Premiata Forneria Marconi. Which started with resounding synth-strings and then the majestic sound of a harp-like instrument, beginning the theme for the song which was an arpeggiated C major chord, that would later expand to Bb major and G minor. Then the acoustic guitar came in with a short but sweet solo, which has the flute added in, then the harpsichord, with the synth and more flutes, then electric bass and then all the instruments move upward and downward to build tension. Then they hold it with more and more dissonance with the electric guitar shining here and the drums keeping exceptional time. The tension reaches an all-time high, then drops into vocals with acoustic guitar and the mellotron.

Via di qua, via di qua (Away from here, away from here...)

Come un re, via di qua (Like a king, get out of here...)

While this was playing, all of them sat in silence, turning to Kurt with bewildered eyes, then back to the magic box playing marvelous, sublimis musica. He used this time to pull Zadie (who had just finished the dishes) aside and ask if he could be shown the kitchen and where the food was stored. He was shown the collection of food in a cellar along with a massive assortment of wine. Of course. Zadie stopped him as he reached the bottom step, realizing someone was there. but this person caught him in the process of walking to the floor as the bottom step croaked. "Who's there?!" it was a woman, her speech was slurred and... well, he couldn't make out much from only two, panicked words. "Is... is that the twins or Amity?"

Zadie looked at him, motioning for him to stay quiet with a finger and a firm hand on his shoulder as she walked out into the dimly-lit cellar, "I'm sorry, I was unaware you were down here, Mrs. Blight..." she said.

"Wh-why did you hesitate to w-walk out when I told you? Come closer, girl," Mrs. Blight demanded, "Why are you even down here?"

"I thought I would make everyone something to eat tonight-" Zadie began, then a loud crack echoed through the room, and she fell at his feet, blood dripping out of her mouth. "I- Misses... I-"

"Don't talk," she ordered, "You talk wh-when I say you can remember? You belong to my... insipid husband and me. Now stand up."

She did as she was told, and Kurt began to see where this was leading, but the- crack!- still shocked him when she fell an even further distance and her glasses fell from her nose and became stained with blood, "Pl-please stop..." Mrs. Blight stepped in front of the steps, oblivious to Kurt's presence, instead choosing to stand over Zadie. Before she could even do anything more, Kurt's firm hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist. When she turned to face him, he saw her face. Stern, unrelenting, and not fully drunk, but buzzed enough that she'd already had a bad reaction.

Stop, or I'll make you, his eyes said. She wrested her wrist from his hold and massaged her hand, "You must be one of Amity's f-friends," she said, "Handsome too."

He backed away in disgust.

"Oh, don't run away now, little mouse," she teased, "You stopped me from having my fun. Maybe you'll be willing to take her punishment for her... human."

"Hey! Is everything alright down there?!" They heard Edric shout down the stairs.

"Shit," she bit her thumb, stopping herself, "We will continue this another time, little mouse. Zadie! Tell them everything is all right."

She did as ordered, her voice undeterred by the abuse.

"Well, if you can get back up here so we can help Kurt cook this food. To be honest, I don't know if he can pull this off," he said, "Uh, do you need any help?"

"No, we'll be fine," Zadie replied, with some haste, "Thanks, though. We'll be headed back up in a little."

"Alright, then," he said walking back to the living room.

They all breathed a sigh of relief, Kurt, because of the tense situation, Zadie since she had risked being hit again otherwise, and Mrs. Blight since she did not want to be caught like this again by her son, "You two should run off back upstairs," she took another swig of wine, "It'd be better... if no one were here."

Kurt picked Zadie up off the ground, giving her the glasses, dusting her off, and wiping the blood from her mouth. He noticed her then, she had tired eyes behind her glasses, a few white hairs in her ponytail, and scars on her hands. This wasn't the first time this had happened to her, and she might have fought back in the past. He shook his head, something brave had come over him to challenge someone who would do something like that. He knew if something like that were to happen again, he likely wouldn't be there or able to stop this woman. Zadie leaned on him a little, having the wind knocked out of her. As silence filled the room, the music playing upstairs could be heard.

In un altra realtà (In another reality!)

Ritrovarmi, uh però (Finding myself just a little)

Per vedere spazio davanti a me (to see a space in front of me)

They grabbed the ingredients they needed for a decent and healthy meal, Kurt picking up the seasoning and other tools before they both rushed upstairs, leaving Mrs. Blight to herself. As they left she dropped to her knees and downed the rest of a bottle, sitting in silence for a few minutes before tears started falling down her cheeks with a whimper escaping her lips. How had she become like this? A question she had to ask herself too often and the answer was always much worse than the last she came up with, though it was nice to think that the worse she thought it was, the less it correlated with reality.

"Fuck," she wailed, chucking the bottle across the room and the glass exploding into hundreds of pieces. "Fuck!"

Zadie breathed heavily as she leaned on Kurt, it is something that she never got used to, the aggression she had whenever she was like this. Any person that was within her sight got the brunt of it, everyone except, of course, her husband. She swallowed the wad of blood in her mouth and told Kurt she could move on her own now. He asked if she was okay and if she needed to rest, but while she was still on auto-pilot, she replied that she was fine and prepared to make dinner with him. And they did. She didn't remember all of it, but by the end of the night, everyone there was happy, including Amity. She and Kurt were mostly silent, though. Then when the time came to turn in for the night, they immediately took the opportunity to slip away from the group. Zadie went to her quarters which was on the other side of the house, and Florence agreed to walk her there. They walked in relative silence, Florence glancing at the maid every few seconds and Zadie simply deep in thought. The laceration on her jaw had begun to frustrate her somewhat. She could probably wash it when she got back to her room, maybe stitch it up with magic or some of the potions she had left. Possibly use some salt and water, she used to hear that this worked way before people used magic to heal everything, and she was wondering if something as simple as that could solve everything. Was simplicity the solution? Could that fix everything? Or maybe to leave everything as it is? She didn't want to exacerbate it or make anything worse, especially since something like this wasn't the end of the world, but god, she wished this wasn't-!

"Zadie?" this brought her out of her stupor for a moment, "Do you even hear me?"

"Hm?" Zadie had not realized that Florence called her name multiple times over the past minute, even tapping her shoulder and shaking her violently, "Oh, sorry did you say something?"

Florence looked at her for what felt like a long time, wondering what was going through that head of hers. Dejectedly sighing, and turning back to the wooden door beside her, "This is your room, right?"

"Oh, uhm," she glanced around, she was apparently lost, "Yeah, thank you, Florence."

She went inside.

Florence stood outside the door for a few moments, hoping to get a few more words out of her, but it was a clearly futile endeavor. Something had gone wrong with her and Kurt while they were making food for the rest of them, something that Emira and Edric either averted their eyes from or couldn't see. When the opportunity arose to talk to Zadie came up, Zadie clammed up, unwilling to speak on it. She went back to the living room area to talk to the Blight twins and see what they know, but they became preoccupied with picking up their mother from what seemed to be a drunken stupor. It was hard not to recognize such a famous face, her technology had changed the world as they knew it.

And there she was, a passed-out drunk that needed to be carried to her bed by her children.

There were so many things running through her head right then, that she needed to leave. As the twins were arguing over what to do with their mother, she went and slipped out undetected, and headed home where her brother was likely waiting silently at the door. Florence couldn't help but think about their situation with sympathy. Even though their father had a hands-off approach and their mother was a drunk, It seemed they turned out alright, quite unlike...

The door creaked open.

"Oh, hey Etheridge..." Florence responded in an undertone, "I..." there was nothing she could say that would make him any less depressing to look at. He looked as if he'd been crying all day, his once long hair was messed up, dry, and in locks, "Sorry."

He did not say anything.

"Can I come in?"

No reply again. He moved away from the front of the door, walking toward the steps to head to his room. Florence followed him, grabbing his wrist as he reached the top step. "Etheridge!" she objected, "Wait!"

He turned to face her.

"Listen, I'm sorry for staying out so long, but I'm alright. Isn't that what matters?" she mollified, they paused for a few moments and Etheridge let go of the anger within him. She grabbed a lock of hair that was down at his neck, it was thinning at the ends, "Hey, why don't you let me do your hair for you? It looks like you haven't washed in a while."

He grabbed a clump of hair, bringing it to his eye line. "No, I wanna get rid of them," he declared, "C-Can you cut them?"

"What changed your mind? Tired of dealing with your locks?"

"No," he said. "It's t-time to get rid of the past, it's time to move forward."

Chapter 3B:

Pale Fire

Kurt was painfully aware of how pathetiche was, but he never forgot the fact that he had the power to cruelly stomp on the emotions of others, something that he inadvertently forgot when he had decided that he would join the Blight twins in their great manor. He was an idiot when it mattered most and Luz knew that. Sometimes she would absolve him of any of his wrongdoings, allowing a bit of leeway, but when he returned to see her and Eda in the same room, Eda with her hand on Luz's hunched-over body, and King watching confused from the side, he realized he would not have that luxury available to him anymore. Turning to face him, Luz and Eda glanced and then did a double-take. They were worried.

Kurt sighed and sat beside them, Luz covering him within seconds, pulling him closer to her. He returned the gesture, "Sorry," he whispered. Though, he knew it wouldn't do much.

Eda had worked him particularly hard in the days following that and Luz was still frustrated with him for ditching her all day like that. She had a particularly insane day, what with her and other students being chased around by the Principal, a highly suspicious fellow student nearly exposing their plan to trick the teacher into giving that flower girl an A or something, and then finding out about the flower girl's talent. And then she heads home to find no one there, Eda had been searching for him the entire time he was hanging out at the Blight twins' house.

Then she had him out all day to help her sell her wares because she wanted him away from Luz while her tolerance for his stupidity and silence recovered. Eda continued to do this until Kurt had found himself overworked by her. She hadn't said anything to him until he passed out while they were working, which was the point where she realized that he had not eaten anything in the past four days. She picked him up off the ground with a frown. "Get up, you moocher," she intoned, lifting him by his wrist and standing him upright as he returned to consciousness. She sighed, taking everything and wrapping it into a cloth, and placing it on her staff. She reached her arms out for Kurt to lay in, "C'mon, there's a restaurant up the block, I'll carry you."

The restaurant was relatively simple and run-of-the-mill, nothing was interesting to look at other than the people inhabiting it. The food seemed just as simple, looking normal even amid the inane styles that they had around this place. "Hey! Eyes over here, clumsy." She snapped in his ear, then stared him down. "I bet you're wondering why I brought you here, scruffy boy," she started.

Kurt blinked.

"First of all, you've been working less and less, and now with you passing out on me..." she sighed, "I don't know what I was thinking, trying to get a word outta you. It's not like I care about you kids or anything! You all just showed up on my goddamn doorstep without knowing what you were getting into!" she kvetched, "But I need to know what happened on Wednesday and why you came back so late. I just want to know if this will be happening again or if you'll be appearing late at night again and if I'll think Hooty is watching me sleep again."

Kurt, again, did not speak especially with Eda speaking in such a confrontational tone, instead, he backed to the edge of his chair and nodded frantically. He didn't expect to have something like that happen again. Eda sighed, relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with Luz's worry and the panic of thinking there was an intruder in the house again. "Ah, thank titan." she effumed. "You should probably talk to your sister, though. She worries about you all the time, you know. The fact that you went out there and forgot about her feelings so quickly probably made her mad, y'know. I mean, I would be if Li-" she stopped herself, in an attempt to efface her slip. He eyed her strangely before their food came.

That was beside the point, though. He needed to quit thinking only about himself and his own needs. Luz was trapped here, too, and it seemed that he forgot about that fact, at least for a few moments. Now, with Eda telling him about this, maybe everything would turn out alright.

That thought was soon squashed as they saw the rain start pouring down outside. Eda looked down at the gem in her chest with deep anguish in her eyes. "Ah, well. Looks like it won't be a fun time heading home."

As the boiling rain started coming down, its boiling heat made Kurt faint. At first, he had become unable to move, much to Eda's dismay, but what was worse was that when they returned home, he did not wake up. His body was much paler than normal and he was holding on to Eda with a vice grip, clutching her as he would his very own mother. His sleep was as silent as his wakeful state. His breathing was shallow and his pulse dropped. As King and his sister crowded around him trying to make sure he would survive, he awoke. "Are you okay?" Luz asked, hugging him as he sat up. He pulled away from her, hyperventilating.

He clutched his knees and turned to the fetal position, making himself small as possible.

"What's happening to him?" Eda asked.

Kurt has not had an easy time recovering from his traumatic experience as a child the majority of his time was spent at home or school. And when he wasn't at those places, he was going from doctor's office to doctor's office. Each of them gave him life advice or little bottles with his name on them. None of the people he met understood that he was a person, and they hadn't seen death grab them in its burning claws and try to eat them whole. None of them saw the fire. They all saw a child who was a troublemaker, spoke to no one but his family, and someone that needed to be fixed with advice like he was in Good Will Hunting. What he really needed -

"I see, "Eda said, her voice soft, "So, he's like this because of that?"

Luz nodded sadly, "It's been rough for him, y'know. The kids at school always made fun of him. Then he would say that he should have died, instead of -" Luz choked up at the memory, "He's never forgotten the feeling of that day. And a lot of things trigger it. I guess that's one of them."

"Listen, I'm sorry about what happened, let's-" she looked where Eda was standing, but the owl lady was standing outside now, spreading a barrier across the Owl House. "Woah," she uttered.

"I've been where you two are, y'know. Always trying to heal something that can't be changed. I know how that feels," she said, looking at Luz. "I'll help you in any way I can, You're my apprentice after all."

Luz gave her a wide smile, "Thanks."

For Kurt, the first half of the rest of that day went to listening to the pitter-patter of the burning rain, and the hiss of the evaporated liquids headed back into the sky. He thought silently about the life that he left behind in the human realm with his mother. She hadn't contacted him in the few weeks that he'd been gone, despite his attempts to mitigate the possible damage. He sighed deeply, an emptiness filling him again. He turned his mp3 up to maximum volume, which meant it was blaring in his ears, drowning out his already massively found thoughts. He didn't want to think right now, he just wanted to be alone.

There were times when this would happen and he had very little idea of what caused it, but when it happened, he felt uncomfortable in his skin like there were a million little centipedes worming up his skin. It was why he disliked when anyone who wasn't Luz hugged or touched him in any way.

He stayed in there until he fell the panic and adrenaline in his body dipped and then hit their lowest point. Kurt sat up and looked around, it felt like all the wind was from his sails for what little there was. Eventually, he came back down to join his sister and King in their magical studies.

King was drawing another one of the demons from his book, preparing to teach Luz a lesson on demons and take her away from that stupid training while Luz was trying to make a circle with her finger, somehow trying to imitate the yellow entrails of Eda's light magic. "This is all she does. Why you gotta be so cryptic, Owl Lady?" She shouted, playing the clip of Eda's simple movement again.

King covered the screen with his notepad. "Hey, you know what's really cryptish? Let me tell you about the most spine‐chilling demon," he said, before showing a goldfish with hands for feet. "Smoochy‐pie the Sweetie Baby!"

Oh, great. Another bait-and-switch joke. Like there weren't enough of those in this series.

"He's... He's a lot more threatening than his name implies."

"Not now, King. I want to figure out this spell," Luz said, turning away from him. King sat down on the pile of books and looked down, upset. "But if I don't have a magic sac, what's the point? I'll just be twirling my fingers around unmagically forever."

"Why do you want to learn magic so bad, anyway?" King asked, turning his head to her.

"I..." she looked up at Kurt, who was leaning against a wall, looking down at the two of them. "It's just that... I want to be someone. Someone other than-" she glanced at him again, looking down and focusing on the circle on her phone again, refreshing it as it went dark. "I want to be different than I was back home, that's all!"

"If... I help you learn these spells for that spell, do you promise we can go back to my demon lessons afterward?" King asked her as he showed her his notepad, showing the "demon" he had drawn from before.

From Luz's face grew a small smile, as she patted him on the head. "King, You can teach me about demons all week if you help me learn this spell."

King pulled out his notebook and started drawing something. When he was down, he showed the two his drawing of a flask with some kind of yellow substance along with a crude sketch of Eda. Beneath them was the word "magic". Kurt and Luz exchanged confused glances but listened to what he had to say. "Every few days, I notice Eda sneaking drinks of this special elixir, see? Then she always gets a boost of energy, see? I think that's where she gets her powers. And I know where to get some."

Well, a recovering magical alcoholic was better than a magical alcoholic who didn't know they had an addiction.

Both King and Luz looked at Kurt inquisitively, like he had said something out of the ordinary, which could have been literally anything. "Oh! I thought-"

"I thought you said something..." King intoned with a depressed timbre.

"Yeah, me too."

No, no. He didn't say anything! Was that mind-reading magic somehow effective on them, too?

"Well, I guess not," Luz uttered. "C'mon King, show me this magical drink."

"Oh, I'll get it."

"Got it!" He exclaimed, handing the elixir to Luz. It wasn't alcohol that was for sure, he knew exactly what that smelled like, but he still wasn't sure if it was one of those things that were only for witches or if a human could take whatever was in there.

Luz popped the cork off the vial. "This is it. I can't believe I'm about to learn magic. Real magic. This is historic," Luz said with excitement. She closed her eyes and brought the vial to her lips, the glowing liquid just barely touching her lips before a sudden flash of lightning and a thunderclap startled her and caused her to drop the flask and spill the elixir.

"Golden elixir. Gone! This is awful," Luz said, falling to her knees trying to pick up the pieces. Kurt went to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, as he did, the lights all turned off.

"Eh, it's just Hooty. He controls the lights and must've just fallen asleep." King said, waving it off.

Suddenly, a loud crashing sound came from the front of the house, Hooty shouted in distress afterward. Luz and Kurt looked up, panicking. Luz ran off to check on Hooty, with King in tow. Kurt stayed for a few moments, then broke out of his stupor, rushing to find Eda so she could deal with whatever this was. She was gone. He ran to the hallway searching for her, but the only thing he found was his room, which had been turned into the pen of a beast, as a white monster pounced on him. Its white palm slammed onto his chest, pushing him deep into the floorboards. "Wh-what the hell?!" he exclaimed. It lifted its paw and slammed it into him a second time, forcing his stomach contents upward and out his mouth in a mess of blood, vomit, and saliva. He passed out for a few moments. His body's survival instinct kicked in, as he brought his foot up to the beast's stomach, launching it to the other wall. He came back to consciousness and coughed heavily. "F-Fuck..." he stared at the beast. Its eyes were flashing in and out between a yellow iris with a pupil before switching to black pits.

Kurt backed up against the wall, his breath heavy, tears falling from his eyes, and his stomach ached. "E-Eda?" he realized slowly. "No..." She sat up and growled, preparing to pounce again. He didn't want to hurt Eda, but he didn't want Eda to hurt him. He didn't want someone he loved to hurt him again. Something welled up inside him, building up like butterflies in his stomach and paralyzing his limbs, "Please... stop. Please. Stop..."

He closed his eyes as he was enveloped in crippling, debilitating fear, he covered himself with his arms and legs, falling into the fetal position a second time. He waited for the pain to explode in his body, to feel the life draining out of him and leaking onto the floorboards, to see his life flash as he died. Instead, silence. The soft pitter-patter of the rain was gone, the flashes of lightning and the thunderclaps were gone, the sound of flies buzzing to escape the room, air moving in and out through his breath, his deep, thumping heart. All of it stopped. He could still see and feel, but it was like time had stopped. "Kurt."

What the hell?

"What are you doing?" it was a voice that sounded just like his. "Cowering against the wall? Crying at the smallest bit of pain? You're so unwilling to do anything but die," what was going on? What was going on? Who was this? Was it his conscience? The devil? God? "There are people out there who need you! Are you just going to give up?!"

The beast lurched forward, biting into him and turning him into three pieces of bloody tissue and skin. His body turned darker by the heat from the Beast's skin and breath rubbing against his body. It felt like he was being violated. The sharp teeth penetrated him, twisting and pulling in and out as he was lifted off the ground, and drenching him in his liquids, sweat pouring down his face as he felt the heat from the Beast's body and its sharp tools invading him further. He groaned in pain, trying to stop the sounds of agony from coming out. "Eda," he growled, his teeth clenched in vocal restraint. "S-stop..."

But she did not stop and she did not yield to his voice, instead choosing to give into ravenous passion, reaching a climax as the life liquid erupted from his body as she tore him in two. Kurt still kept his mind intact somehow, trying to crawl away as she feasted on the split flesh of his lower half. She saw him crawling away and grabbed him by the hair, it was sudden when he felt the inside of her mouth, hot and wholly drenched in saliva.

Gorged, her teeth alighted by his runnels of sweat and sunk in. Her saliva tickled under his nostrils and drove up into his eyes, acidic and acrid. At last, Kurt gave up and looked back; saw his sister outside the jaws of death, the blood—and his gaze was held by that ancient, inescapable recognition. In Kurt's right temple, a pulse began to beat on the brain as that voice echoed through his mind, the one that started all of this, the one that brought death and pain, her voice was evil but clear and lovely as it always was, "Poor little Wolf, can't stand getting what he wants. You are a silly little boy, just an ignorant, silly little boy. Pathetic and weak. Unable to keep the promise to his sister that he made all those years ago. You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you? I'm the reason why things are what they are, little wolf. I'm the reason for everything that will come now."

And finally, she clenched her teeth and crushed him.

"KURT!"

Luz slammed her fists against the beast, crying out to deaf ears. The beast nearly enclosed its jaws around her skull before she was pulled away by King at the last second. The moment it chomped down on her hair, nearly skewering her dome, no, when she arrived to find Kurt's lower half... on the ground and his upper half in the mouth of this demon... death, the possibility that she would never see her mother again, the possibility that all she would have to her name was her eccentric personality, that she would be bloody, empty husk devoid of a soul with no one to remember her all became violently real. The two escaped to Eda's room and hid, both absolutely frightened by the fact that the one who had killed Adegast and Warden Wrath, had been killed by a beast with a scary resemblance to their friend and surrogate mother figure, however, they refused to believe it. There was no way it was Eda. They were unable to gather themselves or understand the chances that they stood, instead, they were preoccupied with the fact that a sibling and friend had been devoured by Eda. And when she came stalking, prowling in the room, Luz was the first to give in to fear and run away, followed by King who was entirely too small to escape.

Time seemed to stop as Eda went for him next. He didn't realize it, but he was crying, curled into the fetal position to protect himself from her, but as he realized where he was, he saw a dark figure standing in the background next to Eda, "There it is. The once-mighty demon was reduced to nothing but a little doormat for the 'Snaggleback'. Aw, I wonder what his father would think about him now. Crying like a little bitch." he was too stunned to respond to the voice. "And here I thought somehow, you were hiding a bit of real 'demon power' under that skull cap of yours! Guess you are just a damn dog."

As Eda leaped to eat him, he ran away with sudden realization that he didn't want to die, but her paw slammed onto his stubby leg and kept him in place as her jaw opened.

"Only dogs stick by their masters when they prepare to kill them."

It was too late before Luz realized she was being chased in circles, Eda was wearing down her stamina so she could catch her easier. "Darn..." she whispered. She heard Eda's footsteps slamming behind her as she tried to run onto the balcony, cornering herself. "Dammit..." she cursed aloud for the first time in her life, as she did Eda showed herself from under the shadows. "Ah, the tireless girl, Luz. Never ready to give up, now resigned to death, just like her brother was!" she cried, but let out a low growl as she moved to meet Beast in her advances, "Oh, look at that! Still got some gas in the tank! Enough to combust on this dumpster fire of a woman!"

"Don't insult...!"

She was pulled to the side by someone, narrowly avoiding being stabbed by the beast. With Adrenaline pumping through her body and brain, she thought what she saw next was a hallucination induced by a near-death experience, just like the voice, but then she realized that it was the dark-skinned, curly-haired boy she knew all her life: Kurt was standing there, bloody and wet from sweat and saliva, he was altogether fine even after being eaten and crushed. "Wh-"

"Sh..." he hushed, "I'm alive. And she's coming for round two."

Eda went another time for Luz, but Kurt caught her in her arms with a flash of black fire. "Eda! Stop!" he growled, "Stop or else!" lifting her off her feet and slamming her against the ground, her legs breaking through the wooden foundation and sticking out the ceiling of the floor below.

"Kurt, stop! You're hurting her!" she shouted.

"She killed me, Luz!" he snapped. He knew he wasn't this emotional, but it was very much not a normal situation to be in. "She could do it again if I don't stop her!"

"Kurt..." she grabbed him by the arm, but he ripped it away. "This isn't you. What's going on?"

"I'm trying to keep my promise. The one I made all those years ago." he said to himself, "I'm going to protect you!"

Luz, still roused by the encounter with death she had just now, "Kurt, I didn't ask you to protect me! I never asked you to do that! I never asked you to fight for me when we were kids or when Adegast tricked me, and I'm not asking for that now!" she grabbed him by the shoulders, "I don't need you to keep that promise from when we were kids anymore!"

"Do you want me to just let you die? Do you really expect me to stand by as you kill yourself?!" Kurt shouted, his hoarse voice gone, replaced by the unmistakable anger of a dead man.

Luz took her hands off his shoulders, looking him directly in the eyes. "No, Kurt."

He silently turned to her, Eda still struggling to pull herself up from the ground, "What do you want from me, then?"

"Just... believe in me," she replied, she pushed him to the side. And stood in front of Kurt facing Eda. "Let me protect you, Kurt. Let me worry about you. Please, just stop running away from the people who want to help you."

Eda ripped her arm out from under the floorboards and went low, preparing to strike. "Fine!" Kurt growled. "What did you have in mind?"

"I have a plan. The elixir that King tried to give me, we thought that it was like some kinda medicine and if we can stun her we can give her the potion. She's sensitive to light, right?"

"Yeah," he said, crouching low to the ground to intercept her advance, "You figure out that light glyph?"

"Yeah... I think I got it while you were..." she gripped her cracked phone, unable to say what happened. "Hopefully, the light glyph might snap her out of it, or at least stun her for us to give the potion."

"How are you gonna set it up?" Kurt questioned, "How long will it take?"

"Gimme five minutes!" Luz swore.

"I just died, Luz. You got three minutes before I pass out or take her out, okay?" he announced. "King will help you. I found him and hid him in the bathroom."

The way he laid it plainly gave her some pause, she knew that she didn't understand social cues as well as others, but it pained her to hear him speak so frankly. "O-Okay." she ran outside as Eda caught him in a grip, they interlocked fingers and claws, pushing against each other.

"Hm. The real Kurt shows himself."

"It ain't exactly pretty looking at you like this, Eda," he snarled, "Luckily, you don't have much strength either!" he lifted her off her feet again, black fire exploding from his arms. He threw her onto the ground and he dropped his elbow onto her. "C'mon! Don't tell me that's all you've got!"

Luz had drawn the glyph over the wall, using a ladder to climb and draw. She set the traps for Eda to fall into, King prepared to bring her over, and the flask was at the ready to turn her back. Eda managed to make it into the room just as she was finishing the glyph. "Sorry, Eda. It's for your own good!" she shouted as she slapped down on the glyph. She felt a rush of joy, hoping it would blind both her and Eda, but it didn't work. "What?" she emitted, falling off the ladder with a grunt.

Eda leaped off her hind legs to crush her jugular and swallow a mouthful of her blood and Luz crumbled at the sight of her friend turning on her. The owl beast chomped downward, tearing into muscle and scratching bone, Kurt's muscle and bone. His leg was pressed up against the wall behind Luz because he sped past quick enough to land sideways and to use as leverage against Eda's yellow fangs from entering any further into his body and to keep her from getting past him. He bit his tongue, drawing blood and the red liquid flooded his mouth. Her maw had pierced his lung, crushed his ribs, and put a hole in his neck. He thought it was the anti-magic radiating off of him that stopped the magic from working.

"Kurt!" Luz shouted, reaching for him before a spurt of blood onto her face brought her back to reality. He was protecting her again, but he was giving her a chance. "Sorry, Eda..."

She flashed the wall of light into her face, blinding her. "Take this!"

Eda cried out in shock and pain, leaning back and tearing open Kurt's wounds, "Argh!" Kurt growled at the same time, clapping a hand onto his bleeding neck and falling onto his back. His hoarse voice echoed throughout the once empty-nesting room, loud enough for everyone in the Owl House to hear, "Do it now! King, do it now!"

"That makes two times you've talked to me!" King shouted, jumping into Luz's arms and getting launched upward, above Eda. He threw the elixir into her mouth while he had the higher space and landed behind her. "Am I awesome or what?"

Eda panicked, shuffling backward, knocking whatever wasn't broken over. Eda looked upward at the brother and sister breathing quickly and allowing the immature tears to slip from her eyes as she turned back to normal, then finally, she shrunk down to her average size. Eda's glazed eyes filled the crevices of the Owl Beast's eyes and slipped shut as she passed out. Luz fell to her knees and looked down at Kurt as the murky blaze sealed up his wounds. Luz stared at Kurt as he laid down, relieved from the long, tiring battle.

"I-I'm sorry, Luz," he spoke, his voice was shallow from a deep pressure from his chest. He looked out the hole in the wall. A gleam illuminating Kurt's dark face and showing sadness and acceptance at the same time. "I s-should trust you more," he said, his voice no longer trembling at the fear of death or of immense pain. He felt that he was calm now, perhaps too calm. Maybe the realization he came to, the epiphany gave him some kind of relief. "Th-Thank you... Luz. For everything."

"Kurt..." she cried, her tears dripping onto his face, sliding down his cheeks. She picked up his tired body and wrapped her arms around him. "You're welcome."

Eda realized she was dreaming. Standing in the middle of a dark void, Eda was facing her old bedroom door. "No... not this memory again," she said anxiously.

The door opened on its own. On the other side, with blinding white light behind it, was a shadowy figure with large, round white eyes that only whispered words that couldn't be understood. But Eda knew she was looking at the beat that ruined her life.

"You! You're the one who cursed me, aren't you?" She yelled at the being. "Who are you? Who are you?!"

"What an interesting memory. A girl betrayed by her own sister that doesn't even know it, while also being one of the most powerful witches in history. Imagine that. It almost makes me want to vomit, this kind of cliche. They're all a buncha B-rate novel protagonists. Especially this one, kinda like Swamp Thing combined with John Constantine. Skeletons in her closet, monster side combined with a gentle side, master witch, fits the bill to me."

"How's that Etheridge?" Florence asked, washing her hands of the greasy and dried hair, and the soap and foam. "Better?"

He peered into the mirror with a deep smile, joy, and happiness apparent on his face, "That's perfect. This is perfect, thanks, sis."

"No problem, I think it looks good on you, anyhow," she complimented, but Etheridge didn't reciprocate. Instead, his mind was focused elsewhere. "Etheridge, you okay? Thinking about-"

"No," he interjected, "No, I'm thinking about tomorrow."

"What's so special about tomorrow? You trying to tell me something, E?"

"Don't worry about it," he continued, "Tomorrow, I hear there's a new student coming in. I've already met him too, and he seemed interesting."

"Oh," she whistled, "What's so interesting about him?"

"Well, we've got a lot in common." Etheridge chuckled, black liquid dripping from his eyes and mouth and pooling at his feet. "We might even be in the same coven. Hopefully, we'll get along..."