"And she gave away the secrets of her past and said I've lost control again\And a voice that told her when and where to act, she said I've lost control again\…\But she expressed herself in many different ways, until she lost control again\And walked upon the edge of no escape, and laughed I've lost control again." — Joy Division
Luz found herself transported into what felt like a deep dark cave. Gradually, her eyes adjusted, and she saw what looked like parallel lines on the floor that would occasionally zigzag into different shapes. She remembered something from her history class and realized they reminded her of the patterns on the Aztec temples. What she didn't expect was to see about eight doors, all standing upright on their own and appearing to be attached to nothing.
"Okaaaay," Luz resolved with a sigh, "C'mon Luz. You should be used to complete weirdness by this point. It's been a few months now." She then proceeded to one of the doors. "Well, I guess I'll just pick one."
She opened the first door and found on the other side what looked like a long winding platform that looked to lead to a subway terminal. It was odd, because although she hadn't been to New York or London or anywhere that would have one, she knew the layout of subways didn't behave like this. There was what looked like various numbers across the ground that seemed to extend themselves along the walls.
But this place looked like something from Earth, not the Boiling Isles. Wasn't this Amity's dreamscape and not Luz's? Maybe this was a place Amity and read about in her studies of Earthrealm, or maybe their minds were somehow beginning to fuze together.
What bothered her the most, and completely put her off from stepping through, were the patrons of the subway. They all had weird shapes for heads, some looked like just eyes, and others looked like just long beaks. Sure, she'd seen some unusual folk on the Boiling Isles, but there was something sinister about this group. What flesh they had seemed to be glowing red when it wouldn't fade to black.
She promptly shut the door when they all turned to look in her direction.
She decided to try another door.
She walked to the next door and opened it. Beyond it was a small clearing next to a river bank to the left and a dense forest to the right. The clouds overhead looked gloomy and oppressive and seemed to be rolling inward, as though a storm were approaching. It would have otherwise been a beautiful scene besides that, but then again, there was some beauty in storms. What was more disturbing, like the previous door, were the occupants of the world that lay beyond the aperture. They looked to be pale women, wearing what looked like short black cocktail dresses with frayed skirts, all with long flowing black hair that swayed in the breeze of the oncoming squall and shrouded their faces. There were about three of them standing along the riverbank, and all of them seemed to remain completely motionless. After about 10 seconds of Luz staring, they all three seemed to turn their attention to her, though Luz could still not see their faces.
She likewise shut the door thereafter. She immediately felt a chill as she caught her breath. There was a moment of peace that fell over her as she moved away from the door.
She then moved to the next door and found it opened to a vast snowy tundra with a few sparse pine trees here and there along the plane. Snowflakes fell gently from the dark grey sky. Cold air wafted through the door into the room.
While Luz was hesitant about this one, too, but there seemed to be a voice calling out to her across the wind, one she felt she couldn't resist. But how could she cross? Her clothes weren't exactly suited for this.
"Wait," Luz thought, "If this is a dreamscape, maybe I have some degree of control here." She closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. When she opened her eyes, she found that her clothes now reflected those she wore when training on The Knee. She stepped through the door and tried to follow what she thought might be the distant whisper on the wind. "Sweet! This'll help."
She wandered forward, stopping sometimes to try and listen to where the voice was coming. The landscape seemed to be growing darker as she went on. Still, there was a hope in her that wherever it was leading her would be to find Amity. Eventually, after trudging through the increasingly thick snow, she thought she saw some figure in the distance. It looked like a woman in a long, thin, silky white dress (as that of a Japanese kimono) with long black hair that stretched nearly the length of her body.
"Hello!" Luz called out, "Can you hear me!?" She marched towards the ghostly figure, only to see it appear to hover further away from her with each step she made. Could this figure be some mirage or hallucination? Luz squinted through the now driving snow; it seemed to be falling faster and faster as she walked towards this figure, brushing through her eyelids. She felt a sting in her nose as her face began to freeze. At length, the ghostly woman was nowhere in sight, and all Luz could see was the falling snow.
There was nothing else she could do but move forward, now thoroughly lost in the driving blizzard.
Eventually, she found herself in front of a small igloo, similar to those used by the Inuit in ancient times. This was her chance to get out of the blistering cold at last. She stepped through the small tunnel and made her way inside.
Nobody was there.
The room looked sparse, no sign of anyone living there at all. In the center of the room, however, was what looked like a small ice fishing hole with a gleaming pool of water. Luz looked down into the small gleaming pool, wondering how it could be glistening in the darkness like this. When she looked through it, there appeared to her some other world beyond, with partly cloudy skies and a sinking evening sun, though likewise caked in snow.
Luz reached out to touch it, and though it felt wet at first, she could feel cool air on her forearm as she moved it deeper, as though there was a small amount of water that was just hovering in between spaces. It kinda reminded her of the ringed water sprayer she saw at several water parks. She took a deep breath and resolved to climb (or rather fall) through; she couldn't tell which way was up and down.
It was disorientating to say the least coming out of the other side, but of course, Luz now found herself standing on a small snowy island, painted pink from the evening sun in the distance. Once again, she felt compelled to wander forward, not knowing where else to go. At least this time she could see where she was going this time given the sun.
There seemed to be some interwoven paths along the island, all with small pockets of icy water around which Luz had to step. She made very step count along these nearly hidden twisting, turning paths, careful not to step in any of them, as her shoe had barely grazed one and had built up a small amount of ice around it; she wasn't about to see what would happen if she had fallen into one. At length, she found herself nearing the edge of the island, beyond which was the rippling arctic sea and another similar island. From the distance, she could swear she could see someone who looked just like her, wandering around and equally lost. The even more bizarre thing was the fact that in front of her floated a grayish blue balloon. It seemed to hover roughly 5 feet off the ground and remain stationary in the air, bobbing up and down only slightly as if the tantalize Luz.
She reached out for the balloon and upon grabbing it was transported somewhere else in the blink of an eye.
Now, she found herself in what amounted to the inverse of where she was. To either side of her were high glacial walls that seemed to extend onward and curve around. Her ankles were now submerged in cool water that thankfully didn't chill her this time. Where the blue balloon was, there now floated a faded pink one in its place. Deciding to make progress, she moved on through the twisting, turning icy labyrinth, the pink evening sky still littered with wispy clouds still high above her. Trudging this way and that, she thought this waterway would go on forever, the possibility of the frozen walls melting around her and eventually drowning her entering her mind and making her shudder.
All the while, Luz thought to herself about the diaries she, Willow, and Amity had been keeping about their experiences. Would it be worth it to continue recording everything at this point, now that Amity had gone missing. The answer was probably, as anyone else who had come after them could see what happened, especially if they had begun experiencing the same thing and Luz, Willow, and Amity were…No, she wouldn't think about it.
Eventually, she found herself at a dead end, but what hovered in mid air caught her attention. It was another balloon, this one being a light olive green.
She touched this balloon and found herself transported once more, this time to another island bathed pink from the sunlight once more. This time, there was no other balloon in its place.
In the center of the island was a small, cone-like house with a large wooden door. Luz tested its brass handle, found it was unlocked, and stepped inside.
What she found was an empty room, with various hues of salmon and light red (pink wouldn't have been exactly accurate; it was a little off) along with some green furniture and dark blue curtains. There was a desk in the far corner, along with a bed with a poster above it advertising the Emperor's Coven with Lilith standing proud and smiling on the front. Along the bookshelves were various works of history, planar travel, and various Good Witch Azura books, both the main novels and the spin offs.
"Well," Luz nodded, "This certainly looks like Amity's room; this world did a good imitation of it at least."
Suddenly, the lights turned out. Luz couldn't see her hand in front of her face, and the sensation of being robbed of her sight as well as the immediate dead silence sent her brain reeling and made her blood freeze. Then, her nerves were jolted when she heard the quick tapping of running feet and some figure brushing past her. In an instant, the lights were back on, and Luz spun around to see who had run past her.
It was none other than Amity, but she definitely didn't look like herself.
Her green and brown hair had grown long and disheveled, sticking out this way and that despite the poor attempt at a long, long ponytail she had tried to create. Her face looked almost a sickly pale green, and her eyes look sunken inward with heavy bags, as though she hadn't slept in weeks. Her clothes looked especially different. She was wearing a dark pine green turtleneck sweater which Luz assumed was to adapt to the cold outside, as well as a brown pleated middi-skirt; it seemed conservative enough, something fully uncharacteristic of Amity, but but then Luz noticed her Gothic silver and black jewelry offsetting it, and the outfit made more sense…sort of. She was breathing heavy, as if recovering from a panic.
"Luz…" Amity croaked, "you shouldn't have come."
"What?" Luz shook her head, "Amity, you know I had to. I wouldn't just sit by and let you disappear on me. I'll always come if I think you're in danger…"
"But now you're putting yourself in danger by being here," Amity interrupted, "After all these months, I was sort of happy you didn't come to rescue me." She made some paces across the soft, warm, shaggy carpet towards her girlfriend. Luz wanted to embrace her, but with the way Amity looked right now, she was worried she'd break her at the slightest touch.
"All these months?!" Luz raised an eyebrow, and the side of her mouth strained a bit involuntarily, "You've only been gone for an hour and a half at most!"
"I see," Amity looked at the floor, her eyes darting back and forth as if mulling over what she just heard, "So time DOES work differently here."
"Amity," Luz reached out and held Amity's frail hand, "Is this your dream or someone else's? I know it's an odd question, but I got the sense that our dreams are no longer our own, and that it's all one jumbled mess with the mind of whatever is chasing us."
"It's chasing ME, Luz!" Amity's head jerked up to meet Luz's terrified gaze, "The thing, whatever it is, has always wanted me!" And with that, the lights shut off again. Before Luz's eyes even had the chance to adjust, Amity raced back over to the light switch and flipped it back on. "I have to keep the lights on. I know they're get me in the dark. When that thing pulled me through our dream and into this world, I thought that that would have been the end of me. Instead the thing was bringing me to what I believe is its master. I could understand part of their language as one I'd studied from inter-dimensional studies, and what I gathered was that they needed my mind for some ritual, as I'm supposed to have some superior advanced brain or something. I guess I should feel flattered that they want to sacrifice me or whatever, but I can't say I feel okay with it."
There was a distant thudding sound from outside house. Luz looked out through the window and saw that it had now become night, wherever they were.
"I escaped, barely," Amity continued, "and eventually found this place, somewhere I could mold my own safe environment. But I won't have control of it forever."
There was another couple of loud thumps, these being closer, before Amity spoke again.
"It's just a matter of time before they get me, Luz. But before they do, I need you to know something." She took her girlfriend's hands, who now looked even more terrified for her. "I know the Boiling Isles has been a shock to the system for you. Earthy if fairly mundane by comparison, your struggles and terrors mostly coming from those of your own design and failed science. Ours has monstrous creatures that could devour you at any given moment. But, Luz, in our world of demons and devils, you've been our angel of light!" She leaned forward and kissed Luz look and deep with a force that nearly knocked her over. But it wasn't one she resisted by any means. Her lips felt warm, soft, and lovely, and that made it all the more heart wrenching with the next passing moment. "Now I need you to promise me you won't look for me; you need to stay safe."
And right then, the lights shut off again; this time there was no sound.
"Amity?" Luz called through the darkness, no longer feeling Amity holding her hands. She made her way back over to where she thought the light switch and feeling upon the wall eventually found it. Flipping it back and forth, however, did nothing. Luz remained in the dark for half a minute before she felt a sinister presence behind her.
She whirled around, and her eyes had somewhat adjusted to the room and to the soft moonlight pouring into the window. She could make out some dark lumpy shade in the center of the room; it didn't seem to be moving, but Luz could feel its "eyes" upon her. Whatever it was, it was watching her every move and waiting to see what she would do next.
She brought out and activated a light glyph paper but immediately regretted that decision, for she could now see the terribleness that awaited her in the center of the room.
The light revealed that the mass was a gigantic spectral head with a distorted white face that looked only vaguely humanoid. (It reminded her of a Noh mask she saw referenced in some manga she had checked out from her hometown's library, only hideously deformed.) With the light reaching the visage of the "face," it screamed loud and long with an echoing gutturalness that rattled Luz's bones and turned her nervous insides to jelly. It then flew towards her, seemingly ready to devour her, but upon looking up, Luz found herself somewhere else.
She was now in a massive but dark open area. The light still floated above her, allowing her to see the milky white landscape upon which she stood. It had once been snowy like the outside, but now it felt slushy, like it had begun to melt after a cold snap. Luz could see something lumbering in the distance, but there was black smoke everywhere she looked. All she could do was walk through the slush in some direction or another. She saw the massive shape moving back and forth and could only make out some of its features from the occasional belch of fire the creature made with its "mouth," if one were to call it that.
She didn't see anywhere she could go to escape this cold dark world she knew found herself in and began to despair.
"Amity," Luz began to cry, "I'm sorry…I wanted to save you, but I'm lost and don't know where to find you again." She closed her eyes. "I'm cold, alone, and just plain scared. I just want out of here. Please…please help me…" her whispers through the dark seemed cause any other sound, including the smoke obscured creature, to dissipate. There was a massive light growing, causing Luz to open her eyes and look in its direction.
"This way," a calm voice whispered from the illumination. Luz had to squint upon looking at it, but she began making her way in its direction. When she squinted harder, there was the shape of a large man there who looked like he might have had long matted hair. One of his hands appeared to be beckoning her, while the other she perceived held a large silver trident. It was hard to tell in the blinding light, though.
In the next instant, the light seemed to be growing and eventually overtook Luz. She had to avert her eyes again, but this time, when she opened them again, she found herself facing the morning sun streaming in through the windows of the Owl House. She looked around and saw she had been lying on the floor. Willow and Eda had passed out on the floor in awkward positions; it almost looked like something had made them fall asleep wherever they had previously been standing.
She looked in the direction of the couch, and her heart sank when she did not see Amity there.
Just then, Gus burst through the front door, though not startling Hootie who continued to snore very loudly.
"Luz, I had a bad dream," he shouted and looked around the room, "Oh no, it did come true! But don't worry! If my dream was correct, I know how we can still save Amity! She's missing isn't she?"
"Yeah…" Luz muttered.
"Then we better hurry if what that old trident man said was true," Gus then pulled out the large silver key he had found in the abandoned house, "Time for us to enter the Dreamlands from the physical plane!"