Chapter 5
The Looking Glass
"Shagg ron phlegeth ch' hlirgh hupadgh chtenff li'hee Cah Na Dagon." Luz...no Alice groaned.
"Speak English!" said the Owlet. "I don't know the meaning of half those long words, and, what's more, I don't believe you do either!"
The Cheshire Cat shook his head sadly at the young girl.
"Somehow you strayed and lost your way, and now there'll be no time to play, no time for joy, no time for friends – not even time to make amends."
…
"I'm sure you must have a lot of questions," Amity said Luz and her companions stumbled into her hotel room.
"A hundred to be exact," Luz replied as she helped Eda sit down.
"Hey was this really the best place for us to go?" She grumbled as Amity dropped to her knees and held her hands over her wound.
"It's an island, I didn't know where else we could go," Luz admitted as she studied Amity, who closed her eyes as glowing blue circles appeared in front of her hands, and Eda's wound hissed as the flesh cauterized underneath the glow of Amity's spell before she pulled her hands away.
"There, it'll still hurt but at least you won't bleed to death."
"Thanks, kid." Eda grimaced as Luz sat down on her bed.
"How'd you get away from your mom?" She asked.
"I used an invisibility spell to slip away." Amity replied the say way someone might say 'I was out grabbing some milk.'
"Really? Can you teach me?" Luz asked quickly, earning some odd looks from her companions.
"Might come in handy." She insisted.
"You seem to be taking this whole: magic is real thing fairly well," Eda muttered.
"After everything I've seen since being here, it's probably the easiest pill to swallow right now," Luz told her, earning some dry chuckles and nods of understanding from the others as Amity grimaced.
"Unfortunately, magic is not something you can just learn." She began. "Magic users come from powerful ancient bloodlines, and all the ones that I know of are from here."
Luz frowned.
"Oh…"
"Yeah sorry, there is something I can teach you though, anyone can do it," Amity added.
Luz perked up easily.
"Really?"
Amity nodded as she reached out with a hand, using her finger to draw a glowing shape into the air. Luz recognized the symbol as the one that she had found scrawled out in a tub when she first came to the island.
"It's called the Elder Sign." The teal-haired girl began. "Its power comes from its shape. It's supposed to protect you from danger."
"Why didn't it save Abagail?" Luz asked gently, watching Willow tense up as she waited for a response.
"Unfortunately, it only works on creatures that come from…somewhere else. Someplace darker. It doesn't work on humans. That's who I should have feared when I taught her how to draw it."
"How do you know all this?" Luz asked.
"My family has been tied to the island for as long as we can remember. My great-great-grandfather was on the USS Alert when it got stuck on the Devil's Reef. The official story is that island was uninhabited, but that was a lie." Amity began, pulling her legs up to her chest and resting her knees on her chin as she stared at the floor.
"When the stars are just right, The Strangers come ashore, the females and younger males' pair off and…mate. Once that's done, they flock to underground tunnels you found, tunnels made by The Builders for an express purpose. It's a nursey. A place they can safely lay their eggs."
"Is that why there were grooves in the wall? That's where the eggs would go?" Luz asked
"That's right. Once the eggs are laid, the sterile males watch over them while the others head back to the sea. Once the eggs hatch, the sterile males lead the babies to the sea and die in the shallows. The babies eat them to give them the energy they need to reach the depths, and the cycle continues."
Luz scratched her head.
"Ok, but what does this have to do with your grandfather?"
"Well, he and the crew of the USS Alert found themselves on the beach the night The Strangers came ashore. In their journals, they talk about how they were suddenly consumed by lust when they saw them, they saw The Strangers as lost loved ones, people who had once rejected their advances, even as people they longed for but couldn't be with because society would have condemned them for it. So, they joined in the copulation ceremony, and not long after, the half breeds were born."
Amity reached up and touched her pointed ears with her fingertips.
"Every person in Bonesburrow who didn't come here from the mainland is a descendant of The Strangers and some of the bloodlines that were present that night became touched by arcane forces. Including mine." She held out her hand and purple fire sprung up from her palm before quickly dissipating.
"My mom found out her powers when she was thirteen. She started seeing visions of the future. She saw how she would meet my dad, she saw how the birth of my siblings would almost kill her, and then she saw me and my destiny…she saw how I was gonna be the one to end the world." Amity continued before taking a shaky breath.
"She saw me standing on the bow of a risen ship, my violin in hand, playing a dreadful song and summoning the one The Strangers call Father. A terrible being that has been sleeping underneath the island for eons. When he wakes, he will climb out of the sea and let out a fierce cry that will call his children around the world to him, a cry that will split the mind like an ax splits wood and make the seas fester like an infected wound, toppling all of civilization one terrible night."
It sounded crazy.
It sounded like the plot of a book Luz would have read in high school, but she couldn't accept it as anything other than the truth.
She had seen The Builder, she had seen the tunnels, she saw what Victor was becoming when he confronted her in Raine's apartment.
"How do we stop it?" Hunter asked.
There was a long silence before Amity answered him.
"You'd have to kill me."
Willow's eyes went wide.
"What?"
"Why?" Luz asked quickly.
"I'm the only one who can play the song and complete the summoning ritual. There have been others my parents tried to use, but they all either died or went insane after just looking at it." She explained.
"As long as I'm alive, the entire world is at risk."
"We're not gonna kill you Amity," Willow said firmly, scooting over to be closer to her.
"I'm sorry that I didn't try to come help you sooner. I'm sorry I didn't look more into why you pushed me away. I'm sorry that you had to deal with this alone, but I already lost one of my friends because of all this. I'm not losing anyone else."
"Willow is right. We can find a way to help you." Luz said, voice filled with determination.
Amity shut her eyes tight and shook her head,
"I can't ask you to do that for me! Face it you two, the world is better without me in it! You'll both be better off!"
"I don't believe that for a second." The Latina said firmly.
"Luz please you have to understand-" Amity pleaded, looking up at her with tears in her eyes.
"What Amity, what am I not understanding?" Luz asked as she scooted over to be closer to her.
"I care about you! I can't watch you die for me! I won't!" The teal-haired girl snapped.
"I've seen your death in your nightmares every night since I met you and I can't do it anymore! No matter how I feel about you! No matter how much I want to be with you. I can't!" She sobbed as Luz stared at her in shock.
"You want…you want to be with me?" She asked, the implications only now dawning on her.
"Of course I do Luz." The girl whimpered, a hint of frustration and disbelief in her voice.
Willow, sensing the tension in the air, addressed the room.
"Come on guys, let's see if we can talk the owner into renting us all some rooms."
"Shouldn't be too hard. They owe me a few favors anyway." Eda replied as she slowly got to her feet.
As their companions filed out, Luz crossed her arms and watched them go, rocking back and forth as Amity fiddled with a thread on her cloak as the door slowly creaked shut and Luz's gaze turned back towards her. She opened her mouth to speak before quickly closing it, making Amity sigh wearily and stand up.
"You don't have to say it."
"Say what?"
"Sorry Amity, I can't go out withdate someone whose parents are trying to destroy the world as we know it. I'm just trying to work on myself right now."
"Well, even I could have made it sound better than that," Luz replied, making her friend smile.
"…you really want to be with me? Like as in take me on a date? Me?"
"Well yeah, couldn't you tell?"
"I mean, all the other times I thought it was a slam dunk it wasn't…or it was a joke."
"You're kidding," Amity asked, turning to face her.
"How much do you have to pay someone to meet Luz Noceda at the movies? The answer may surprise you." Luz saidbegan, putting on her best game show answer voice.
"ImI'm so sorry Luz." Her friend said sitting down next to her.
"Eh, it's ok. I'm over it." Luz said with a shrug as Amity "placed her hand on top of her own.
"Still, you shouldn't have had to go through that." She began. "You're one of the nicest people I know."
"On this island, that's not a very high bar to clear Amity." Luz deadpanned, making her friend giggle and playfully shove her.
"I'm serious, I know we haven't known each other that long, but when I'm with you, I feel safe. I'm not the successor to my family's business, I'm not the herald of the apocalypse, I'm not the girl who still sleeps with an Otabin stuffie because she has so many nightmares, I'm just…me, and I like me when I'm with you because…I really like you, Luz."
"I really like you too Amity." She replied, her voice barely above a whisper as her h
Luz's heart was hammereding against her ribs. s as the teal haired girl sat down in her lap, wrapping her legs around her.
Only now did she realize just how warm it was in here.
She couldn't believe it.
She knew Amity could have anyone on the island if she wanted, but she picked her.
For the first time in her life, someone picked her.
For the first time, she was the right person, at the right time.
For the first time, she was someone's first choice.
Amity Blight wanted her, Luz Noceda.
A swell of emotion-filled her chest as she made the easiest decision of her life; she kissed her, snaking her arms around her waist, and pulling her close as Amity's hand moved to take her beanie off, tossing it to the side before she ran her fingers through the girl's soft hort brown hair before they parted.
"I've been wanting to do that for a while," Luz whispered.
"Define a while?" Amity wondered, rubbing her cheek with her thumb.
"Since you told me that you dip your fries your milkshake and you like electro-swing. Plus, anyone who can talk to me about Azura for an hour is basically an automatic ten." Luz replied quickly, making Amity chuckle before the Latina leaned in and kissed her again, pulling into her lap and squeaking in surprise when she wrapped her legs around her torso in response.
"Luz…I really like you."
"I really like you too Amity."
Luz leaned back for a moment before she deepened the kiss, taking back the ground that she had ceded to Amity before she leaned back, letting herself fall back onto the bed as the teal haired girl got on top of her, pinning her to the mattress by putting her hands on her shoulders, a warm feeling was spreading through Luz's body, almost like she was on couldn't believe it.
She knew Amity could have anyone on the island if she wanted, but she picked her.
For the first time in her life, someone picked her.
For the first time she was the right person, at the right time.
For the first time, she was someone's first choice.
Amity wanted her, Luz Noceda.
A swell of emotion filled her chest as she made the easiest decision of her life; she kissed her.
Amity leaned back for a moment as Luz's lips crashed into hers before she deepened the kiss, taking back the ground that she had ceded to her as Luz leaned back, letting the fall back onto the bed as Amity put a hand on the center of her chest, a warm feeling spreading through Luz's body, almost like she was on fire"Wait a minute, aren't you gonna take me to dinner first Blight?" The Latina asked shyly.
"Already did remember?" Amity whispered as if it was secret,, as she reachinged over the edge of the bed and yanking the power chord for her lamp out of the socket, plunging the room into darkness.
…
Luz awoke to the sun in her eyes, just barely peeking through the curtain of teal-colored hair that was splashed across her face. When she saw Amity's face pressed up against hers, her body felt all tingly and her brain went fuzzy.
This was annoying because she was pretty sure last night was the best night of her life and yet she could barely remember any of it.
She could still feel a warmth in her chest, radiating out from where Amity had placed her hand before things got…serious.
Luz's cheeks flushed as Amity sighed happily in her sleep and scooted closer to her, the brown-eyed smiled faintly and planted a kiss on her forehead. Amity hummed happily and opened her eyes, the sight of her shinning golden orbs taking her breath away.
"Good morning hermosa," Luz said softly as the beautiful girl next to her blinked the sleep out of her eyes.
"Morning." She replied, throwing her arms around Luz and burying her face in the crook of her neck.
"I'm glad you're still here."
"Of course, I'm still here," Luz replied. "Did you have any nightmares?"
"Not even one."
"Good."
Amity exhaled slowly through her nose, making Luz's brain go all fuzzy as she felt her breath on her neck.
"I hope we get to have more mornings like this."
"Me too."
"Luz? Can I ask you something?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
Amity took a shaky breath.
"If…if things take a turn for the worse, and it looks like I might end up summoning The Father, I need you to-"
"Hey hey no, stop that," Luz said firmly, gently grabbing Amity's face.
"Look at me."
She locked eyes with the golden-eyed girl.
"We can fix this together, ok?"
"Ok," Amity said, still unsure.
"Say it please."
The teal-haired girl took another deep breath.
"We can fix this together."
Luz leaned forward and gave her a long, sweet kiss.
"Now believe it."
"Ok," Amity said softly, a hopeful smile on her face before a firm knock at the door shook them from their stupor.
"Luz! Amity! You need to get up!" Hunter called to them as Luz jumped out of bed and threw on her clothes before stumbling over to the door while Amity wrapped herself up in the bedsheets.
"What's going on?" The Latina asked as she opened the door to her room to see an exasperated Hunter staring at her.
"My officers say they're going to relocate Raine. We need to get to them first, and then we need to get the hell out of here." He said quickly.
…
The doors to Bonesburrow Behavioral Health Ward flew open as Luz and Eda walked in with handguns drawn, in between them was Hunter who had his shotgun at the ready, slowly scanning from left to right as they advanced through the quiet halls of the facility, a heavy silence only disturbed by their footsteps.
Despite the parking lot being full of cars, the ward was deserted.
The patients, the staff, they were all gone.
As Luz noticed even the reception area was completely unoccupied, despite all the computers being powered on, she turned to her companions.
"Eda, Hunter, go find Raine. The sooner we find them the sooner we can get back to Lilith Willow, and Amity and so we can round up the twins and get off this damn island."
Hunter raised an eyebrow at that.
"The twins?"
"Yeah, Amity's brothers and sister."
Now Eda was looking at her strangely.
"What are you talking about?" Hunter wondered, lowering his shotgun.
"Emira and Edric Blight. I met them the other day when I came to see Raine." Luz told them, making her companions exchange confused looks.
"Luz, there was no one else here from the Blight family that day," Hunter told her as she shut her eyes, trying to remember what had transpired the last time she was here.
Her head was starting to hurt again.
"No…no that's not right." She said forcefully, shaking her head. "I saw them right here in this building. Outside doctor Kiki's office. After Amity came out and started talking to me, they went to wait for her in their car."
"Luz…I saw Amity's car pull in after I got here, I know that car. There was no one else in it." Hunter said gently, noticing Luz's hands were trembling, her finger unconsciously floating toward the trigger.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Eda asked her before the sounds of footsteps from above made them all look towards the staircase at the end of the hall.
"Luz, go to Doctor Kiki's office. She was in charge of Raine's treatment. The key to their room will be there. Once you get it, come find us."
The girl nodded and jogged down the hall alongside the pair before splitting off from them as they quickly and quietly went upstairs while she started to turn the knob to the doctor's office only to find it was locked.
"Mierda." She spat, pulling out her lockpicking tool before a voice from behind made her jump.
"Do you have an appointment Ms. Noceda?"
Luz spun around and leveled her gun at Doctor Kiki, who slowly put her hands up.
"Where are the twins?" She growled.
"What do you mean?" The doctor wondered, tilting her head.
"The twins, the Blight twins, where are they?"
Kiki sighed wearily.
"Ms. Noceda…I fear you are unwell."
"Answer the question! I know I saw them here the other day!" Luz snapped. "and don't look at me like I'm crazy! I'm not crazy!"
"Crazy? Oh no Ms. Noceda. We don't use that word here. I've never been fond of it."
Luz growled before making a show of switching her safety off, making the doctor's eyebrows shoot upward, although it was more out of amusement than shock.
"I'm warning you…tell me what the fuck is going on here. What are you hiding?"
Kiki laughed dryly.
"Hiding? Oh, I'm sorry, but the answer was never hidden from you. You just neglected to ask…" She explained, using her index finger to draw a circle in the air and open the door to her office.
Luz turned around and found her eyes drawn to a framed newspaper clipping, so obvious she was shocked how she could have missed it before, or maybe she hadn't. Maybe it had been there the whole time.
Nonetheless, it didn't lessen the sinking feeling she felt when she read the headline.
Tragedy for The Blights
Below those words was a picture of the mangled remains of a black sedan, the front end was flattened, the windscreen shattered, the driver's seat was covered in blood and the chopped up remains of a long metal shaft could be seen on the edge of frame. In the back of the car was a small car seat behind the front passenger seat, a small green stuffie still sitting in it.
Community shaken as violent crash claims the lives of Blight twins, leaving the family's youngest child, Amity Blight, as the only survivor. The circumstances of the accident are still being investigated.
"Edric and Emira Blight have been dead for almost ten years." Kikimora explained.
The room was spinning around Luz.
"What?"
"The people you saw here the other day are not real. They are constructs created by Amity to cope with their absence. Abominations she's constructed with her magic to escape the unavoidable truth: the twins are dead and buried and nothing can bring them back." The doctor continued as she walked into her office.
"What happened to them?" Luz asked as Kiki sat down at her desk.
"Oh I'll tell you, don't worry. I think you deserve to know the truth…"
…
A black sedan flew down a dark dirt road, jostling its passengers as the driver made no attempt to try and avoid the divots and small hills that littered the access road.
"Emi, what's wrong?" Amity asked from her car seat, holding her plushie close to her chest.
"Nothing is wrong Ami don't worry. You, me, and Ed are just going on a trip and we don't wanna miss the boat, ok?" Her sister told her from the passenger seat.
The brown-haired girl nodded in understanding.
"Ok…are mom and dad coming with us?"
"No Amity they aren't coming with us." Her older brother scoffed from the driver's seat.
Emira put a hand on his shoulder.
"Easy Ed, she doesn't know-" She began before her head snapped to the right as if tracking something in the shadows.
"What was that?" She asked quickly, struggling not to raise her voice.
"What was what?" Her brother warned as they struck another small pothole, making the car bounce.
"I thought I saw something in the trees…" Emira replied, still staring out into the black.
"You're just on edge, don't worry. Mom and Dad are fast asleep they aren't going to notice that we're gone." Edric told her, briefly slowing down so they could make a sharp turn to leave the access road and start heading into town, the dirty and rock giving way to weathered asphalt.
"Hey Ami, hold still ok?" Emira asked as she finally turned her attention to what was going on inside the car,
"Ok." Her sister said with a nod as the green-haired girl reached back and drew a circle in the air in front of her sister before drawing a symbol inside of it. The air around the little girl crackled with electricity as the Elder Sign took shape and filled the car with an eerie blue light before rapidly fading.
"Was that you magic Emi?" Amity asked excitedly.
Her sister nodded.
"Yeah, it was. One day I'll teach you that trick, ok?"
"Ok." The brown-haired girl said as her eyes were drawn upward to the large humanoid figure looking down on them from the rooftops but as soon as she looked away, she saw it on another roof, and then another.
Were there more than one? Or were they just that fast?
"Emi…I see monsters outside…" Amity whimpered, shrinking into her car seat.
Emira didn't answer her, but it was clear she was seeing them too as she turned her head around to track each appearance of the figure.
"Something is following us, Ed. Speed up."
The car's tires screeched as Edric cut the wheel to the left and sent them skidding around a corner, racing through downtown Bonesburrow's oddly vacant streets as they made their way towards the ferry dock.
"We're almost there girls," Ed told his sisters.
"Guys I'm scared…I wanna go home…" His littlest sister whined.
"It's ok Ami, Ed and I are here. You're ok." Her older sister said, looking back at her.
"Can you come back here with me?" Amity asked, one eye cracked open as she held her plushie like was going to try and take it away from her.
Emira looked at her brother for permission, prompting him to nod quickly before the green-haired girl looked back at her little sister and smiled reassuringly before undoing her seatbelt.
"Sure, give me just a second to-Ed look out!"
The car swerved to avoid a figure in the road before it crashed through a series of bushes and ran up the steps of the fisherman statue and crashed into its base with a horrendous crunch.
In the blink of an eye, Emira was ejected from the passenger's seat, striking the statue before carrying on another fifteen feet, sailing over the crash, and landing on the stone path that cut through the center of the park.
Edric didn't fare any better, as airbag deploying didn't save him from the fisherman statue's harpoon that punched right through the windshield and the airbag. The harpoon ran through the right side of his chest and pinning him to the driver's seat.
As her brother groaned and whimpered in pain, Amity saw the monster materialize in front of the car, near where her sister landed, its unnaturally large hands allowing it to pick her up by the head with ease as Edric reached out and screamed her name as she hung from the creature's grip like a ragdoll.
It slowly turned and stared at the car before it strode over and reached through the hole in the windshield grabbing Edric pulling him off the harpoon vertically and through the roof of the car with ease, with the young man's screams of pain being distorted like they were being pumped through a broken radio.
The monster stared at Amity for several seconds before it vanished into thin air, leaving the young girl alone in the destroyed car as flashing red and blue lights filled her peripheral vision and her head started to ache.
…
Luz was fighting back tears as Kikimora finished the story.
"After the accident, the Blights came to me about Amity's nightmares of the accident. Obviously, we couldn't have her carrying about these visages of her siblings being carried off by some creature, so I was asked to…readjust her way of thinking." She explained.
"So you made her believe the monster never existed. That it was all in her mind." Luz realized,
"Precisely. It worked until recent years, that's when she started questioning things. So, we used her medication to suppress her memory and that's when she started playing make-believe. Even then, it has been a challenge. I doubt my methods will work much longer, but thankfully, the fated hour is almost upon us, and the poor girl will finally be able to rest. All I have to do is keep her mind from falling apart for a little while longer." The doctor explained before smiling.
"Thankfully with your help, that will be easy."
Before Luz could ask what she meant she felt someone grab her by the neck and pull her up into the air as another figure, what looked like a ward orderly, rushed over and punched her in the gut so hard she wanted to puke before she was dropped onto the ground as Kiki closed the door to her office as her attackers quickly pinned her to the ground and covered her mouth with a rag as Luz thrashed back and forth, trying to break free.
"For the certain problematic patients of this facility, we have often had to resort to extreme measures." Kiki began as she pulled a long silver lance from her desk, followed by a little wooden mallet before she walked over and got down on her knees.
"You see this? This is a tool that we use for lobotomies. We place it just under the eyelid, riiight here." She continued, tapping Luz's eyelid with her index finger.
"Then we take this little hammer, and we slowly push this deeper into your skull, this allows me to sever connections in the prefrontal lobe and if all goes well, you'll be on the road to recovery. No more pain, no more sadness." The doctor explained, holding the lance next to Luz's head as if she was explaining for an unseen audience.
"Although, I need to be very careful. The brain is incredibly sensitive as you can imagine. There is one well-known case, it happened Connecticut as a matter of fact, where a man not only lost some of his memories but was left unable to create new ones." Kiki said as she used her fingers to lift Luz's upper eyelid. "Can you imagine, waking up every morning to find some total stranger in your bed only to learn that they are actually the love of your life? Very tragic. Imagine if that had happened this morning, with you and Amity?"
Luz's eyes went wide as the doctor drew a little heart around her eye with the lance, its sharp tip just grazing her skin a few times making her flinch.
"Oh yes we know about the experience you and Ms. Blight shared last night, young love is so strong, so vibrant, so…fragile. You wouldn't want to forget her now, would you?"
The girl could only whimper.
"I didn't think so, now relax your muscles, and be as still as you can for me ok?" Kiki said sweetly.
Luz screamed, praying someone would hear her even if she was practically muzzled, as she turned her head from side to side before one of them put a knee on her hand to keep it pinned and grabbed her face to keep her still. With her eyes watering as Kikimora brought the lance closer to her eye.
"Good girl, ah ah, there's no need for tears. This procedure can be uncomfortable, but it shouldn't be painful. Ok? Now all that's left is to-"
Hunter's angry shout made the doctor jump, making her turn just as the blonde-haired boy came down on her with a fire extinguisher in both hands and caved her skull in with a single blow. Her two guards moved to attack Hunter only for Luz to pick up her gun and shoot them both in rapid succession before she let her weapon fall to the floor as she rolled on her side, letting the rag fall away from her mouth as she gasped for air, her entire body trembling.
"Luz, you have to get up we have to go, they took Raine. They're gone and we can't stay-" He began as Luz screwed her eyes shut and whimpered, holding Amity's face in her mind as tightly as she could.
She hadn't forgotten.
Thank God she hadn't forgotten.
Hunter's hand on her body made her jump and she scrambled to her feet, the entire room still spinning as she tried to process everything that had just happened.
"Luz, we have to go now." Hunter insisted as she nodded and started to follow him back towards the entrance, only to find Eda in the hallway with her weapon pointed at Hunter's friend Mac, who had his hands up.
"Hey Eurig, can you get help me out here?" He said nervously, showing his mangled teeth, which had begun to fall out.
His breathing was labored, his skin barely clinging to his skull, and his eyes seemed to have grown to twice their normal size and there was a trickle of blood coming from his mouth and nose.
"He's one of them." Luz hissed before taking aim.
"I know what you are!" She shouted making the officer laugh.
"Do you now? Well, then you should know you're out of your depth little girl." He continued as his laughter deepened and his form seem to bloat while his skin started to tear like wrapping paper.
His fingers lengthened, turning black as they did so, and the webbing in between them grew at a rapid pace as his shoes were torn to shreds as his feet underwent similar changes. The folds in his neck seem to burst like pustules, revealing a set of blackened gills, which briefly opened up to reveal the cherry red membrane that lined the inside of the organ. The man's back split open as his limbs continued to stretch, revealing a long-frilled fin that ran down the length of his back before he screamed in pain, and a hint of release as a long tail sprouted from his lower back. The violence of its emergence made him fall forward as his skull audible shifted, becoming more fish-like as the last of his teeth fell out and the bank of jagged bone emerged from glistening ebony gums.
Mac's breath rattled as he rose to full height, now standing at just over seven feet tall, and roared before stumbling forward like a toddler taking their first steps, throwing himself through the air as Eda, Luz, and Hunter started shooting at him, landing numerous hits that seemed to do less than nothing to the monster that the officer had become.
As Mac landed with a thud, he ripped a fire extinguisher from the wall and it with his claws, filling the room with a thick white haze as his opponents stopped shooting, fearful they would hit each other.
Luz scanned her surroundings as Mac's rattling breath seemingly enveloped her from all sides before a roar from behind compelled her to duck as Mac took a swing at her. As she ducked, she heard Hunter rack his shotgun and fire. Buckshot shredded the walls as Mac turned and took a swipe at where he thought the shot came from as Luz fired three shots straight into the side of the head. One of her rounds struck Mac's eye, making it burst and leak a milky white fluid on the floor as he reached down and picked her up by the throat.
The Latina lifted her gun and jammed the barrel into his wrist, emptying the entire clip into her attacker's limb, forcing him to drop her before stomping on her stomach with his foot. Luz cried out as she felt a sharp pain in her chest and struggled to get up as Mac grabbed her by the hair and pulled her across the floor towards him, opening his jaws to bite her head when Eda came running in, launching herself forward and kicking him the head with both her feet.
The attack hardly staggered Mac who roared and grabbed Eda by the ankle before throwing through one of the reception desk windows as the white haze created by the ruptured extinguisher started to subside.
Hunter strode down the hall, firing a volley of three shots from his weapon, racking it with more malice with each attempt to bring Mac down. His colleague was undeterred, walking towards Hunter and yanking the gun from his hands and throwing it across the room before snapping at Hunter with his jaws, his teeth clattering like blocks of wood being slammed together as he tried to take a bite out of Hunter's neck.
The blonde fell onto his back trying to avoid the attack as Luz came running up from behind, jumping on Mac's back and drawing her pocketknife and stabbing him several times in gills, twisting the blade and yanking it upward on her last strike, shredding as much of the organ as she could before Mac reached up, grabbed her and threw her into a nearby wall as Eda hopped over the reception desk and scooped up Hunter's shotgun before rushing forward. Firing into Mac's back, which made him turn around and roar at her.
She yelled back in fury, racking the shotgun, and jamming the barrel into Mac's open jaws and down his throat before pulling the trigger.
The buckshot round obliterated the back of Mac's head, leaving him to fall to the floor with a hefty thud, his limbs twitching as Eda stumbled backward into the wall and slid down the floor, looking over to see Luz slowly pulling herself to her feet, holding her side.
"We got him." She panted as Hunter walked over to Eda to retrieve his shotgun.
"Anybody got any ammo left?" The older woman asked before they shook their heads.
"Well, let's hope we don't run into any more of…him," Luz muttered, pointing to the corpse on the floor as the doors to the ward flew open.
A group of a dozen police officers poured into the room, weapons drawn and trained on the trio.
Luz's blood ran cold when she saw their distorted features.
Bulging eyes.
Warped skin.
Bulging folds on the neck.
"Put your weapons on the ground, now." One of them hissed.
The three were quick to comply, knowing they were in no shape for a fight, and put their arms up as four of the officers moved forward and pushed them onto their stomachs before handcuffing them.
"They're secure Mr. Blight." One of them called out.
"Thank you, officer." A man with long messy brown hair said, walking into the building.
He had Amity's eyes, and there was a tired but serious expression on his face. His body was covered in a long flowing sea-green robe with a white scarf sitting on his shoulders. The scarf was covered in small black runes, much like Luz had seen down in the tunnels, and she watched them slowly transform before her eyes into something she could understand.
The voices that read them to her were Amity's, who read in English, and her mother, who read in Spanish. Despite the cacophony of noise in her mind she was easily able to distinguish the two and comprehend what the runes said:
"Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men."
"Ah, Luz Noceda. You're the girl I've heard so much about."
Luz scowled at the man that caused Amity so much pain and spat at him.
Blight just chuckled and shook his head at her defiant display as he dropped down onto one knee.
"Let me ask you. Are you happy here on our island?" He asked. "Did you finally get what you wanted? Someone, to save? Someone who needs you? Someone who's going to throw themselves at you for being yourself? Someone who you were able to lure into bed with the promise of comfort?" He titled his head, waiting for a rebuttal for only a moment as Luz and her companions were pulled to their feet and the same strange creature that she had seen at the museum appeared amongst the officers, the world bending around it as if it were a walking funhouse mirror.
"Is this the story you wanted to star in since you were a little girl?" Blight continued, stepping to the side as the three were herded towards the alien figure, who just watched them approach, its presence seemingly threatening to drain the color from the world and plunge the entire room into darkness.
"Well…be careful what you wish for detective."
…
A.N- Owl House is back in March baby! Woohoo! I'm so excited to see what ideas these new episodes will give us for writing and drawing and AMVs. It's a good time to be a part of a fandom filled with so much passion and creativity! Helps keep me going on my own stuff ya know?
Now that my obligatory freak out about the show coming back is out of the way, I can tell you that I gave myself nightmares writing this chapter! Yaaaay.
I do want to apologize for how long this update took. I was in a bit of a rut mentally around the holidays and then I had two back-to-back COVID scares which took me out of action for the first few weeks of school and now that I'm better I've been playing catch up.
I hope to finish this fic in the coming months alongside my other ongoing TOH project in the Postscript continuity I've been writing. Once these two are done I will be taking a little break from TOH to really soak in the new episodes as I write the next Postscript fic (it will be another video game tribute!) and look into some other TOH standalone AU fics I've been dying to write for the longest time.
Anyway, to bring this longwinded note to a close, I do wanna thank you for reading today's update. Whether you just found this fic or if you've been here since the beginning, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and you're just as excited as I am to see how this story ends! You won't wanna miss it!
Until next time,
See yah!
