If you had asked 14-year-old Luz Noceda where she would be right now, twenty-four hours ago, her answer would have probably been a boring summer camp that would have taught her how to be normal along with some admittedly probably useful skills for later in life. Most definitely though her answer would not have been locked in a cell inside a large medieval jail spire that was apparently in a separate reality after chasing down a small owl for her Azura book through the woods behind her house.
Since she had nothing to do in the cell as it was barren save for a small stone protrusion from the wall that served as a bed, so Luz let her thoughts drift back to the day prior's events and all that had happened in the short span of time. Her mind trying to piece together whether this was reality or some horrific daydream that she had yet to awake from. Luz remembered clearly how she had chased the small owl as it drug a large trash bag behind it at a speed that should have been impossible for its size, but Luz didn't care about that she just wanted her book back so she could get to camp before her Mami got upset that she missed the bus. True she could always have just gotten another book, but this one was special to her since it was a rare, author signed copy that her mother had managed to find and gave to her for her birthday last year, and she would be darned before she let some wannabe panda bird steal it. Really, she had just set it down on the ground to tie her shoe, and that was apparently enough time for the thing to make off with it.
Duking under a thick branch that had grown out, as she followed after the small owl, she called out to it in frustration. "COME BACK HERE PEQUEÑO IMBÉCIL!" She had hoped it would understand her and stop, but the thing just kept running deeper into the woods until it reached an old cabin that even Luz didn't know was there despite having explored every inch of the woods since she was little.
Thankfully the door to the cabin was wide open as the owl had crammed the bag through the opening before Luz lost sight of it inside, though not for long as Luz had soon entered the cabin shortly after it; adrenaline fueling her making her oblivious to everything but chasing the owl. Oblivious even, to the large door made of light that she quickly dove through after the little brat, before she had hit her head on something when she got through and some sort of tarp or blanket fell over her and concealing her from the world.
"Owlbert what have I told you about crashing into the stand on Human Trash Day." She heard a middle-aged female voice say, followed by a small series of hoots that she assumed was from the owl and the sound of the large bag hitting the ground causing its contents to loudly rattle.
Thankfully at that point the adrenaline Luz had been feeling had died down due to the sudden impact and she believed it wise to not move too much to give away her presence, in case this person was hostile since the owl was theirs apparently. Plus, she doubted that anyone would be friendly after someone crashed uninvited into their property chasing their pet owl.
Using her arm Luz managed to slowly move the tarp off of her head so she could look around and see where she was. The first thing she noticed was that the ground was covered in sand, the second thing was that there were crates around her with a lot of junk piled on top of it; junk that was either from 30 years ago or half broken children's toys cobbled together to form odd abstract designs that look like they belonged in a horror movie. Seriously she swore she could make out a teddy bear with a metal coat hanger shoved through its head and a hair curler sewn in place of an arm and missing one of its eyes.
Ignoring the macabre creations around her she then noticed the figure rummaging through the large bag that the owl had muttering to herself as she dug through it. "Trash, Trash, Worthless Junk, Too Gaudy, ooh." The woman said as she tossed aside a phone, followed by a bowling ball, a large diamond ring, and a large golden chalice, before pulling out a pair of gag glasses with spring loaded eyeballs. "These will make me rich, good job boy." She said as she tenderly rubbed the top of a staff that was standing upright in the ground with an owl carving on the top.
Luz slowly removed the rest of the tarp as quietly as she could before creeping into a standing position trying to stay as quiet as possible, so long as she could get to the bag and grab her book she could high tail it out of the door back home. Making sure she made as little noise as she reasonably could Luz slowly crept forward as the earlier adrenaline she felt was replaced with an overzealous portion of anxiety as she felt goosebumps begin to consume her, "Mantén la calma" she softly repeated to herself as she advanced in an attempt to calm her nerves, it having next to no effect as her heart was still threatening to bust out of her chest.
Keeping cover behind the large stacks of junk and other items Luz was within about ten feet of the bag when the woman rummaging from it pulled out the very item she was hoping to retrieve. "Ugh, great another novel that gets nothing right about magic," She spat with a slight tone of disgust in her voice as she walked over towards the edge of the stand where more junk was placed around but separated in a somewhat organized manner. "Well at least it'll make good kindling."
It was like tunnel vision as all Luz processed was this woman in a red dress and large amounts of gray hair begin to lower the book towards the candle flame, as the incendiary tendrils grasped up vainly in an attempt to consume the rapidly descending meal. The next thing Luz knew was that her legs had moved, and she was right next to the woman as she grasped at the book to wretch it from her hands before it could be damaged by the flames.
"Hey what gives." The woman grumbled more irritated at having been interrupted rather than having someone crash into her; as she looked at the slowly backing away form of the person who barreled into her, seeing nothing but a retreating form of blue, purple, and brown rushing back into her tent.
Luz wasted no time and darted back into the dark confines of the tent before the woman could do anything to her in response. "LO SIENTO!" She called back to the woman in apologies as she didn't want to be rude, despite the owl the woman had stealing her book.
When she entered the tent again the light around the door still shone brightly revealing the interior of the cabin, seeing her escape Luz barreled towards it as she weaved through the large amounts of random clutter that surrounded her. However just a few feet before she would have entered the door the light dimmed itself as it began to twist, contort, and fold into itself until it was only the size of a briefcase with a large reptilian yellow eye embedded into the center of it.
Luz stopped as she watched the still floating briefcase ascend into the darkness of the upper portion of the tent, "You're not going anywhere." She heard the voice of the lady say sinisterly, as she turned around and saw her holding a key in one of her hands with the same yellow eye from the briefcase emblazoned on it.
Seeing the woman glaring at her with burning yellow eyes that seemed to radiate light around them, Luz turned on her heel and ran further into the tent dodging and weaving through the large amounts of clutter and junk that jutted out and was stacked in the most random of places. Seeing a ray of light peeking out from the bottom of the tent as she approached the back of the tent, Luz slid underneath it by using the little bit of cheerleading training she had before she was removed from the team. Launching to her feet Luz ran all of three feet before she stopped herself as in her heightened state of awareness, she immediately identified the cliff with the long drop in front of her.
It was then that reality caught up to her as she took in the large scene that lay before her, no matter how much she tried to look away she couldn't pull her eyes from it.
The large sun in the sky beat down wave upon wave of scorching heat on the vast sandy terrain that covered all Luz could see, and what wasn't covered by sand was covered by an array of tents and buildings that had no rhyme nor reason to how they were made. Large bone like protrusions jutted from the earth and either reached towards the sky or covered a portion of the earth, large bits of long since decayed dried flesh still clung to the bones.
Beasts of all shapes and sizes soared through the air be they Reptilian, Avian, or Mammalian with various amounts of extra limbs, heads, or even species as Luz swore, she saw a beast with the head of a chicken and an extra two heads of a squirrels attached to the chest. Another beast that was long and serpent like descended upon it as nearly every inch of its form was covered and dotted with eyeballs. Using its distinct form coiled itself around the squirrel chicken beast, and the eye that made up its face spilt open into a row of razed sharp teeth as it buried the center chicken head sending bits of flesh and blood spraying from the body. Then every single eye on its body began to spew a stream of fire, as the body of the chicken squirrel beast was cooked alive and roasted by the fire. Before the eyeball serpent could do anything though they were beset by a large flock of blue avian creatures with large piranha like teeth that eviscerated both beasts in a matter of seconds leaving nothing behind of either creature, not even skeleton nor bone.
Her heart rate quickened, and her body began to quake as she took in the scene before her, bloody beast battle and Gorey but admittedly beautiful sight before her that she thought would look beautiful painted on canvas or as the setting for a fantasy movie. Then she processed that this wasn't fantasy, not in the sense that it was the creation of some creative persons mind, the landscape before her and everything in it was pure reality she realized. The heat from the sun scorched her skin as prickles of sweat began to form, the small breeze of wind blew sand into her eyes and mouth, the course texture and bitter taste stinging both her eyes and tongue with the faint taste of copper.
Her breath hitched as her knees soon wobbled uncontrollably, her mind racked itself a thousand miles a minute as it tried in vain to rationalize what she was seeing, any sensible way that she could realistically explain how she was seeing all this. The strange demon like creatures feasting on each other, the large bone protrusions that were unnatural in size that they made even her favorite monster movie character Godzilla look small by comparison.
"Dios mío." Were the only words Luz could get to come out of her mouth as she retreated backwards toward the tent forgetting that she had been running from someone just moments prior, that was until the flapping of wings drew her attention as a small pink creature barely the size of her hand buzzed over towards her. "Hello little fairy person, or you here to tell me that this is all a fantastical dream and I'm asleep on the bus heading to camp." She pleaded with the creature, thinking of the only sensible conclusion she could, it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that she could have just fallen asleep on the bus and imagined some escape from reality after all.
Then the creature mouth opened as a its lower jaw unhooked and its small dainty teeth swelled in size till, they practically burst from its mouth, a low guttural growl that betrayed the creature's feminine appearance rose from its throat with a single demand that shook Luz to her core. "GIVE ME YOUR SKIN!" It declared before it rushed at Luz's face, barely giving her time to brace herself and hold up her hands in terror before a pale white limb reached forward and crushed the fairy in its grip; its insect like wings and still twitching body falling limply to the ground as green fluids pooled underneath it.
Opening her eyes Luz saw the woman she had been running from in front of her shaking the remnants of the crushed creature from her hand and making noises of general disgust. "Yuck, leave it to Faires to ruin my manicure." She spat as she flicked a small bit of gunk that had gotten under her nail off of it, before turning her attention to Luz. "And you young lady are coming with me."
Despite having weak nerd arms and proportions Luz didn't expect to be picked up by her hoodie with only one of the woman's hands and led back through the tent towards the front, exiting out of it and being placed on a small stool to await her fate. "If you're going to eat me, please be quick." Bracing herself Luz hoped she might be able to get a small bit of mercy from the woman if she made the request.
She didn't expect the woman to scoff and burst into a fit of giggles as if she heard the funniest joke in a long time. "Please kid, even if you looked appetizing Witches eating kids is so three centuries ago," She chortled and walked over to a nearby shelf filled with even more copious amounts of junk and other random Knick knacks. "Besides why would I ever eat a valued customer." She exclaimed with a large amount of enthusiasm as she began pulling out an assortment of her collection and offering them to Luz, who looked on with both wonder and skepticism.
"Customer?" Luz questioned as the woman shoved an electric hair dryer in her face, it was metallic purple in color, but the paint was chipped in many places and entire chunks of plastic were missing from it which exposed the metallic wire frame underneath as well as several of the electrical wires in it as well.
The woman chuckled again before elaborating. "Indeed, my young friend, you now sit before the most renowned proprietor of rare and exclusive treasures from the Human realm. Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne at your service milady, now can I interest you in a Human Air Burner." She said with a large amount flair and a bow before pushing the hair dryer into Luz's hands as she reached back into the shelf, pulling out a large windchime made of multicolored glass bottles. "Or how about this rare and powerful Human Wind Demon alarm charm, it rattles when they get close." She handed it to Luz who hung it from her hand as the bottle clattered against each other making a cacophony of butchered melodies sounds.
As Luz sat there dumbstruck trying to process what was happening the woman, Eda she had called herself, dove into a jumbled pile of clothes and other cloth and fabric materials and items, before bursting from the pile holding a small portable TV VHS player combo, that Luz quickly recognized because her Abeulo liked to collect old electronics and had an appliance store in the nearby state of New York. "How about this black shadow box that reflects nothing but sadness." Eda said flatly as her eyes were comically wide and expressionless as she tried to sell the tale of the item.
In the span of about ten minutes Luz had found herself chasing after a bird for her Azura book, winding up in a cabin in the woods she didn't know had been there despite having explored every inch of the woods since her childhood, crossed over into what she could only say was another dimension full of strange and unnatural creatures of fantasy that put Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to shame, witnessing two of them fight each other before they were consumed by a flock of avian creatures, to a fairy with a mouth the size of its body demanding her skin, to finally being sold a random assortment of nonsensical and mishmashed junk by a woman named Eda Clawthorne who was paler than Luz had though was possible.
In light of all this Luz had only one reaction to the woman's sales pitch of the small TV that she had dubbed a Black Shadow Box, Luz laughed. Not a hysterical laugh of her sanity breaking but an authentic laugh as she realized the absurdity of the situation, rising from the stool and being careful to set down the stuff she had been handed earlier Luz spotted a small bowl with masking tape and the word "Candy" roughly scribbled on it in marker. Thankfully it had a pair of Double A batteries sticking out of it that she quickly scooped up before walking towards Eda, her earlier fear and terror she felt at Eda having quickly dissipated with her whacky antics.
"It can do more than reflect sadness, I can show you if you'll let me hold it." Luz said since she was sure that showing Eda that the TV could do more than just reflect black emptiness would raise her standing with Eda and maybe help her get home quicker.
Eda gave a look of contemplation mixed with a large amount of skepticism that had Luz sweating again as she could almost feel the older womans eyes burn into her head, which given this strange reality she found herself in might be more likely than she thought. Then in an instant her expression shifted into one of nonchalant care freeness as Luz felt the weight of the TV in her hands as Eda look down at her amused. "Show me what you got kid, just remember you break it, I mark it up triple and give you half off before you buy it." She joked with a snort as Luz set the TV on the stand facing outwards towards the rest of the market.
Quickly finding the slot for the batteries and hoping that the ones in her hands were still usable, Luz inserted them into the TV and pressed the power button on top of the system, which sprang to life and began playing an old exercise workout video with a stereotypical buff guy in a bright neon outfit calling out move.
Almost instantly a crowd began to form the Luz couldn't help but silently gawk at, there were regular looking people whose only difference aside from odd hair and eye colors being their pointed ears mixed in with large scaly people with sharp claws and fangs, to one who had an eyeball for a face. Luz looked on in awe as the people cambered around the TV and began shouting out various amounts of Snails that they were willing to pay for it, and some even just going ahead and throwing the sheaths of currency in the stand in the hope of gaining favoritism for the item.
Luz felt Eda wrap an arm around her should as she was pulled into the older woman's side, the other hand collecting the bills as they fluttered down to the ground. "Well, I'll be kid, first day on the job and already getting people to throw money without even buying it, I'm impressed." Eda said with a smile as Luz felt a blush creep onto her cheeks at the praise, not used to that sort of reinforcement. "Listen kid, there's probably a lot of questions you've got for me, but stick with me and both of us are going-"
"TO PRISON!" A voice yelled as a large, gloved hand slammed onto the TV smashing it to pieces as people screamed and ran away in terror, as three other people dressed in identical outfits pushed through the crowd towards Eda's stand.
Each one was dressed in a rough grey tunic with a white shawl draped over their shoulders with a gold triangle clasp keeping it in place, and a thick leather belt wrapped around their waist and a sheathed sword at their hip. Dark brown gloves and equally dark brown boots covered their hands and feet, the rest of their flesh covered by a large dull silver cone mask leaving only their eyes open to the world. They were a good foot taller than Eda who was already over a foot taller than Luz, they towered over her as Luz tried to shrink in on herself as they loomed over her.
The lead one withdrew a rolled-up scroll from their waist and unwound it revealing a sinister looking two-dimensional illustration of Eda cackling as lightning like energy erupted from her fingertips, with a smaller black creature near her feet and a blonde-haired kid at her side holding a staff with a red bird in their hands opposing Eda who was also holding the staff with the owl on top of it. "Eda Clawthorne the Owl Lady, you are under arrest for continuous misuse of magic, repeated Demonic misdemeanors, and harboring a fugitive of the Emperors Coven. By his authority you are required to come with us to the Conformatorium." The man growled as his three cohorts formed a semicircle behind him as their hands hung over their swords.
Luz let out a gasp as Eda just scoffed and began picking at a spot on her nails, "Will you bozos lay off, I haven't done squat... today at least." She said as she pushed the wanted poster away from her as the masked figure sneered down at her before his attention turned towards the huddled figure of Luz who was trying to make herself as small as possible.
Luz found herself hoisted up by the hood of her hoodie as she was lifted over the counter to face the masked man, his eyes narrow slits behind the holes of his cone mask. "And you're coming with us for associating with a known criminal." He said before he passed her off to one of his companions who proceeded to slap a pair of cuffs around Luz's wrists, though they were more like steel mitts as they covered her hands all the way up to her mid forearm.
She looked up at Eda and silently pleaded with her to help out, but she didn't seem to notice as she diverted the leader's attention before slamming him backwards into one of the other men as both fell to the ground, before pointing her staff towards the other one not holding her and blasted him with a stream of energy. Luz felt the one holding her tighten his grip as he began retreating away seeing he was outmatched on his own, but his grip on the chain linking Luz's arms together behind her back as the metal dug into her flesh.
She watched as Eda drew a glowing circle in the air with her finger and was astonished as much of her junk collection levitated itself into a floating chest that seemed to be bottomless before it latched shut and floated behind Eda. "Well kid it's been fun, but I gotta scram. Good luck kid." She said with a laugh as Luz watched in horror as Eda rose into the air riding on her staff as she flew off into the sky, leaving her behind, abandoned, as the other men rose from the ground and let out grunts of pain and annoyance.
"Told you we should have snuck up on her, but NO. We just had to follow procedure huh." The one who the leader had been thrown into moaned as he cracked his neck before he was lightly backhand slapped in the chest by the leader.
"And I told you Cass, even if she's a criminal we have procedures for a reason. You wanna listen to Wrath as he has to file more paperwork for an illegal arrest." The leader retorted as he noticed Luz who was still held captive by the one member of their group who wasn't attacked by Eda. "Well at least we get her accomplice, good word Terry."
Luz had stopped listening after that, she vaguely remembered her desperate pleading her innocence only to be ignored for associating with the "Most Wanted Witch on the Boiling Isles" according to her captures. She didn't know that though and despite how much she protested against her involvement with Eda and how she had barely known her they just hoisted her into a large cage that was chained onto the back of a giant cockroach like creature as two of the men rode with her in the cage.
After what seemed like hours if the darkening of the sky was any indication, they arrived at what one of the men called the Conformatorium, Luz felt goosebumps consume her skin at the obvious meaning behind the name when attributed to the massive prison like building. It was a tall stone spire jutting out of a domed structure surrounded by a large circular wall, the top of the tower crowned with rising spikes sheer malice seemed to radiate off the building as though it despised you for just existing. All sense of joy and happiness was sucked from the air as the cockroach creature crossed over the bridge leading to the building before coming to a halt. The next thing Luz was aware of was being dragged out of the cage before being led through the imposing building, swarms of men in identical outfits patrolled the place, as well as the two who were in the cage with Luz never leaving her side as they each held one of her arms as they carried her through the structure.
Luz could hear the desperate moans and cries that filled the spire like a cacophonous orchestra of suffering and misery pleading for help, her ears drowned by the noise as she was led up a large spiral staircase. The walls littered with cells as people of all shapes and sizes alike looked down at her with defeated eyes, or sheer anger with some of them, it seemed as though each person radiated an aura of despair and hopelessness in some way. Stopping at an empty cell the man on her right released her to pull a large lever beside it, the iron bar door sliding to the side as Luz found herself being thrown into the cell before the bars swiftly shut sealing her in the dark cell with only the light from the torches in the hall outside and the moonlight creeping through a small window to light up her cell.
Luz curled into herself as her knees found her chest and her hands, finally free from the shackles she had been put in pulled her knees tighter into her chest, tears began leaking from her eyes as she sat alone in her dark cell as the day's events played in her head on repeat. She didn't know how much time had passed as she sat there huddled to the floor, only that at some point one of the guards had come by a slid a tray of some purple gunk with still writhing tentacles into her cell and called it dinner, she had no appetite to eat it. At some point she had to have drifted off to sleep as she found herself laying down on the ground when she awoke, her face once wet with tears now dried, and yet still moist from her pain both emotional and physical.
She knew it was stupid, to trust a random woman she had just met, but despite that Luz had hoped perhaps it had been destiny that brought her to this strange realm at the time. With all of the novels and books she had read on the fantasy genre she had hoped that maybe this could have been her chance to do something good, and to show her Mami that her love of magic wasn't holding her back or detrimental to her future. Now though it seemed like fate had played a cruel irony on her as she sat alone in her cell with just her thoughts to keep her company and the screams and wails of the prisoners outside, and the occasional holler or demand from a guard.
That brought her to the present where we began, Luz Noceda, fourteen-year-old middle school student and resident of Gravesfield Connecticut, daughter of Camila Noceda and avid fantasy fan with no friends. Cold and alone in a prison cell, trapped in a realm full of demons and beasts that seemed ready to rip each other apart at a moment's notice, where the first person she met who she was unaware that they were a criminal, having betrayed and abandoned her to the authorities to make her escape; leaving her to be arrested by said authorities for just associating with her. The tears began to come back again as she remembered the events, distressed that what seemed like an escape into the fantasy reality she had only dreamed of had turned out to be nothing but pain and betrayal since she arrived.
Then she heard it, footsteps, though that description was putting it mildly as they were more like rhythmic stomps that seemed to shake the ground beneath her, even the prisoners around her quieted down at the sound's presence. Luz ignored it though, it was probably just some large guard walking around or a prisoner being taken somewhere, she couldn't bring herself to care about it, not like it would do her any good to. At least, that washer thought before the sound of the stomps stopped in front of her cell and a hand rapped against the bars violently as she swore she heard the metal crack from the simple action alone.
"I hear you were caught associating with the Owl Lady," The figure said, their voice deep but not guttural, that carried a certain smoothness that held authority and power in it. Luz meekly looked up from her knees and saw fear itself standing before her, there was no other way to describe the being that stood just outside her cell. He stood tall, taller than his guards that he was twice Luz's height and then a bit extra, his arms long and thick with a sickly grey, purple hue practically pulsed and threatened to rip themselves apart with how much muscle they had. A pristine white coat that looked vaguely similar to a doctor or a physicians covered his form as it wrapped around him, pinned to it was a more intricate version of the gold clasp that all of the guards wore. A black hood as dark as the abyss itself covered his head but did little to hide the main thing that attention was drawn to when looking at them. The mask that obscured their face was that of a plague doctor of old, dark grey in color and made of a thick leathery material, with two yellow button like eyes boring into her very soul, eyes that sucked all joy and happiness out of whatever they looked at.
Luz had recalled the name that the guards had mentioned in passing and guessed that they were referring to this beast, the name Wrath certainly was apt though she struggled to imagine them doing paperwork at a desk like a mediocre secretary.
Her heart sank when the cell bars smoothly slid away, and the beast entered the cage with heavy slow controlled steps as the mask looked down at her, fear consuming her as she lost herself in the eyes that promised pain and suffering by just looking at them, the very air itself seemed to twist around her neck with the tension choking her. Her body refused to move, every last one of her muscles were frozen in place and her arms too weak to attempt to fight as the towering behemoth of a person continued talking to her. Each word impacted her like she was being punched by the thick trunks that were his arms, she shuddered to imagine the sheer strength they had to have for the to be so large.
"I have some questions for you."
