The Owl House: Not Fully Forgiven
A lot has happened since Luz returned to the Human realm. Her friends from the Boiling Isles arrived one cold December day, having to awkwardly explain her mom everything that had happened the previous summer, endured a quick tongue lashing from her and that was about it. When she asked them why they were here, Gus, Willow and Amity explained they had a winter break and Eda explained that she and King just missed her. And when they asked her about all the decorations everyone had put up, Luz told them everything she knew about Christmas, it's origins and traditions. Needless to say, Gus was fascinated. However, there was one thing she forgot to explain.
It was cold, snowy December night at the Noceda household. In the house's living room, Luz had introduced Gus and Willow to video games, Eda was watching, Lillith was reading, and King was helping himself to some cookies Camila had made.
"Dang, Gus! You're good!" Luz exclaimed, surprised by his skill.
"I'm surprised myself." Gus replied.
"Hey, Mrs. N! Gonna need some more cookies here!" King requested.
"Thank you, King." Camila replied, placing a fresh plate down before turning to Luz. "And I'm so glad you were able to make some friends, Mija. Even if they're... not what I expected."
"I'm gonna take that as a compliment." Eda said.
"Hey, Luz!" Amity called from the kitchen. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
"Coming." Luz replied.
Getting up from the couch, Luz made her way to the kitchen to see Amity waiting by the counter.
"What's up, Amity." She asked.
The witch blushed a bright red as she prepared to say something.
"You can do this. Just like you practiced." She though to herself as she looked up at the mistletoe Luz was talking about. "Luz, a lot has happened since you were able to make it back home."
"You can say that again." Luz chuckled in agreement.
It was now or never. Amity opened her mouth to say something when...
"Girls! Get in here! You need to see this." Willow called, barging into the kitchen.
As the followed her to the living room, Amity internally screamed in frustration and rage. When they sat down, they saw that the news was on.
"A blizzard is blowing across the state, burying towns in snow. All citizens are to finish all shopping immediately and stay indoors until the whiteout clears up." The news anchor reported.
"This is gonna suck." Luz remarked.
"Tell me about it. And I thought the Boiling Isles' plagues were bad." Eda agreed.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Camila went up to it and opened it, revealing a delivery person standing there.
"Delivery." He announced. "Sign here please."
"Sweet! They're here!" Luz cheered.
"Man, human delivery services are awesome." Gus commented as the delivery guy left.
"What did you order anyway?" Amity asked.
"Don't spoil the surprise!" Luz teased.
"Hey, is anyone getting any colder?" Lilith shivered.
The wind outside howled and whistled furiously. Everyone else in the house started to shiver themselves.
"Ay, mierda. The blizzaard's here." Camila cursed.
"I'll light the fireplace." Amity said.
"Good call." Luz agreed.
"Camila, do you have any candles around here?" Lilith asked.
"Somewhere upstairs." She replied.
As Lilith made her way up the stairs, Amity was able to get the fire going. Luz, Gus, Willow and King joined her in huddling around it.
"Ah, that's the stuff." King sighed in relief.
Suddenly, the lights went out, plunging the house into darkness, save for the fire.
"That's great." Luz groaned.
Just then, the group heard something. It sounded like a loud thud, followed by another noise. It was as if someone or something was on shuffling around on the roof.
"Did anyone else hear that or is that just me?" Willow gulped.
"We heard it." Gus squeaked.
"Well, I'm not checking it out." Eda said.
"No one is. None of us would last a second out there." Camila said.
All of a sudden, the sound of glass shattering could be heard be heard from upstairs, followed by Lilith's scream. Alarmed, Eda, King, Camila and the kids rushed up the stairs with Luz's phone lighting the way. When the made it into the pitch black hallway, they called out for her.
"Lily? Are you OK?" Eda called.
"Marco!" Luz exclaimed.
"Who's Marco?" Willow asked.
"No, she's supposed to shout back Polo." Luz explained.
"Oh, I've heard of this." Gus chimed.
The group decided to check Camila's room first. When they went in, they found candles scattered across the floor and a shattered window. Amity rushed to the window and peered out, barely able to see anything due to the snowstorm.
"LILITH!" She called out.
Eda did the same.
"LILITH! THIS ISN'T FUNNY!" The Owl Lady called.
"Something took her. I just know it." King said.
"What do you know?" Eda snapped.
"I don't know, Eda. I think King's right. Something must've taken her." Luz agreed.
She was proven right when a chain with a hook on the end shot through the window and wrapped around Amity's leg. She screamed in horror as it tried to drag her out into the storm. Eda and Luz quickly grabbed her hands.
"AMITY!" Luz cried.
"HELP! PLEASE DON'T LET GO!" Amity screamed.
The others then rushed to her aid and pulled their hardest as to not let Amity be yanked out of the window. That was until King came along and bit the chain in two.
"Eat it!" He taunted he culprit.
"Thanks, King." Luz sighed in relief.
"What was that?" Gus panted.
"Whatever it was, we better barricade every window." Camila said.
"Nice thinking." Eda agreed.
"I think there's some spare boards in the basement." Luz said.
Several minutes later, every single window in the house. With that done, they had all gathered in the living room, candles bathing the room in a soft orange glow along with the fire, adding adding additional warmth. Luz, Willow and Gus were on the couch, comforting a distraught Amity while Eda paced around, trying her hardest to not shed any tears.
"I can't believe Lilith's gone." Amity sobbed.
"Eda, how're you holding up?" Luz asked.
"What do you think?!" Eda barked. "My own sister has been taken by Titan knows what!"
"Well, getting angry isn't going to solve anything." Camila told her.
The Owl Lady sighed. She was right. What they had to focus on was getting through the night alive. Just then, King ran in with his book of demons.
"Guys! I've been doing a little research. I think you should see this." He announced.
"What is it, King?" Luz asked.
The tiny demon flipped through but before he could show them the page, there was a knock at the door.
"I'll get it." Gus said. "I know human delivery services give you bang for your buck, but this is ridiculous!"
"Gus, wait." Willow said.
But Gus had already opened the door and saw nothing but snow and darkness. When he looked down, he saw a green wrapped box with a red ribbon sitting on on the doorstep and second box that was taller and thinner than the first, was blue and had a white ribbon. He picked them up, quickly closing and locking the door back up.
"Oh man, that's fierce." He shivered.
"What's that?" Amity asked.
"Presents." He answered putting the presents under the tree with the others. "Who'd leave these out in the snow like this? Anyway, you were saying, King?"
"As I've said, I've done some research and this is what I found." King said.
He showed them the page. In the candlelight, they could see the image of a tall being wearing a flowing red cloak, had horns protruding from its head, cloven hooves for feet, long, spindly fingers, a gaunt face with goat eyes and a long, a scraggly beard with no mustache, and had chains wrapped all around it. Above it, was the name of being.
"Krampus?" Luz read.
"And listen to this." King said. "According to legend, Krampus is a ancient demon who comes around the winter celebration. He is said to be the dark counterpart to Santa Claus, whereas Santa rewards good behavior with gifts, Krampus punishes bad behavior by abducting those who had misbehaved. He does not do this alone, for he has a multitude of minions to do his bidding. Lucky."
The others were gobsmacked at this revelation.
"Why did he decide to come here?" Camila asked.
After several seconds of thinking, Luz came to a grim conclusion.
"Remember how Liltih cursed Eda?" She gulped. "What if she was abducted for that?"
Everyone else was speechless. Eda, particularly, sat to down to ponder this. Luz responded by sitting next to her.
"But that happened years ago. Why would he punish her now?" She said.
"I guess he hasn't exactly forgiven her for that." Luz said.
"Wait, if Krampus takes those who have been bad, why would he take me?" Amity asked.
"I'm gonna go ahead and guess he hasn't forgiven you for betraying Willow." Gus guessed.
Amity's ears dropped in sadness at those words. Suddenly, they heard a mix of paper tearing and something scampering away. They turned to the tree and saw that the presents Gus picked up were torn up. Like something had busted out of them.
"Well, crap." Luz gulped.
Just then, he heard what sounded growling. Amity suddenly screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Latched to her leg was a small teddy bear with its teeth sunk into her leg. Drawing a spell circle, she blasted a fire ball at the toy's face, knocking it off her.
"Are you okay?" Luz asked.
"Gah, it hurts." She groaned back, clutching her bloody leg.
"I got it!" Eda called before it bit down on her hand. "Ow!"
She then threw the bear into the fireplace, inadvertently throwing her hand as well. She quickly retrieved her hand before it was too badly burned.
"Stupid thing." She said as she reattached it.
Suddenly, gunshots rang throughout the room. Luz and Camila told everyone to duck as on top of the bookshelf, a nutcracker doll was firing at them with its tiny rifle.
"Watch out! That toy's packing heat!" Luz warned.
To show how dangerous its weapon really was, on of the bullets grazed King's arm as he was trying to find shelter.
"King!" Luz exclaimed.
Having had enough of this toy, Gus conjured up some illusions, tricking the toy into shooting them. This allowed Willow to manipulate the tree into extending a branch, grabbing the toy and chucking it into the fireplace.
"King, how's your arm." Eda asked.
"I'll pull through." He groaned.
"I'll get the gauze." Camila said.
"Welcome to the Boo-boo Buddy Club, Amity." Luz said as she and her mom finished bandaging her and King up.
"Thanks." Amity said, blushing at the term 'Boo-boo Buddy'. "Luz, can you help into the kitchen?"
"Sure." She replied as she did so. "What did you bring me here for?"
Amity pointed upwards, prompting Luz to look up. There, she saw the mistletoe and, a second later, the witch pressed her lips against the human's. After several seconds, Amity pulled away, leaving Luz dumbstruck.
"That." She giggled.
"You had it bad, didn't you?" Luz asked.
"You're an idiot, but you're my idiot."
Their moment was suddenly interrupted when the sound of shattering glass and splintering wood was heard, followed by screams. The two ran into the living room just in time Eda being dragged away through a window.
"Eda! NO" Luz cried.
If that wasn't bad enough, a pair of hands smashed through another window before wrapping a string of lights around Gus' neck while two more pairs grabbed him by the torso.
"AVENGE ME!" Gus cried out as he was pulled through.
Just then, the door was breached, the wind blowing out the candles. However, they could faintly make out three short, hooded figures. One of them extinguished the fireplace while the other two dragged Willow and Camila away with chains, while simply carrying King.
"Unhand us, you fiends!" King demanded as they were carried out into the night and the door slammed behind them.
"MOM! WILLOW! KING!" Luz screamed.
Just then, hooked chains shot from the fireplace, entangling Luz's legs. They proceeded to drag her towards the chimney as Amity grabbed onto her hands in a futile attempt to save her.
"Luz! Hold on!" Amity cried.
"Amity, before I get turned into a human chimney brush, I just have to tell you something."
"What?"
"I LOVE YOU!"
With that, Luz was yanked up the chimney.
"NO!" The witch cried out in despair.
Soon, fear was added to the equation as she saw the chimney deforming. She backed up until she hit a wall in fear. Her eyes went wide as a hulking figure emerged from the fireplace. She couldn't see that well in the dark, but she could make out its giant horns, chains, sack and glowing red eyes. Krampus had come. Amity whimpered in fear as the winter demon approached her until he was face-to-face with her.
"I know why you came here." She tearfully choked out. "And I understand. Please, take me instead. I know what I did was wrong, but my friends don't have to suffer for it. Take me, instead. Just please, spare them. I beg of you."
Krampus paused. He almost seemed to take pity on the sobbing witch, taking a few steps back. As for her request, he seemed to accept it as he opened his bag. Chains shot out of it and wrapped around her ankles, wrists, and waist before pulling her inside. Amity let out one final scream of terror as she was pulled inside.
"Amity! AMITY! WAKE UP!" Luz's voice called.
Amity's eyes shot open as she sprung up from her sleeping bag. She found herself in the living room, the morning sun's light filling the room.
"Oh, it was all just a dream." She sighed in relief.
"And by how loud you were screaming, it was pretty intense." Gus commented.
"Wanna talk about it?" Willow asked.
"Maybe later." She answered.
Just then, she felt something in her sleeping bag. She reached in and pulled the object out, which turned out to be a bell with 'For Amity. From Krampus.' etched on the top. The kids stared at it with wide-eyes before looking to each other. They were roused from their thoughts when they heard's Camila's voice.
"Niños, time for breakfast." She called out.
"Oh, sweet!" Luz cheered.