Hey gang! This idea came to me last week and I figured it would be worth a try. This is written out of context from The Owl's Apprentice, but takes place after YBOS. Hope you enjoy!
"In a dark dark wood, there was a dark dark house. In that dark dark house, there was a dark dark room. And in that dark dark room, was a dark dark cupboard. And in that dark dark cupboard, was a dark dark box. And in that dark dark box there was a ghost!"
Six different shrieks filled the air, instantly followed by one howling with laughter. Luz clutched her sides and tumbled onto her back, hardly attempting to stop herself as tears fell from her eyes. "You - you should see your faces! You look so scared!"
"Weh!" King scrambled to his feet and growled. "I was not scared! I was...showing off my nimble reflexes as the great warrior I am!" A crack of thunder sent the scruff of his fur standing on hand and he yelped, darting into Luz's arms. "See? See how fast I was?"
Smiling, Luz gave the demon a reassuring squeeze. "Yeah, you moved alright." She grinned at the rest of the party shuffling back into the small ring they had made around her conjured light glyph, the only sense of comfort in their rather grim surroundings. In total, there were seven of them: Luz, Willow, Gus, Amity, King, Skara, and Boscha.
What was originally a simple potion run to Bonesborough's weekend flayer's market, not farmer's, for Luz and King had quickly turned into a friend hangout when they came across Willow and Gus. Not long after, Amity had joined the party when she and Luz practically walked into each other face-to-face by the Not-Dog stand, as always causing the green-haired witch to go beet-red. When Luz had invited her to tag along, the color in her face eased off to a soft pink on her cheeks and Amity agreed, relaxing enough to show the human some of the better vendor stalls she enjoyed frequenting.
The weather had started out pleasant and enjoyable for the friend squad, but as the day progressed, so did the clouds gathering in the sky. When thunder began to rumble overhead, they all agreed it was time to get out of the open.
"We can hunker down at the Owl House to wait it out," Luz offered up as they left the marketplace. Already, demons and witches were packing up their stalls, eyes turned nervously upward at the collecting clouds. "I'm sure Eda won't mind us all hanging out to wait for the storm to pass."
"Are you sure about that?" Amity glanced back at the disappearing market. "We're still a good thirty minutes away, and the rain looks like it's close to falling."
"I think we can make it, if we walk fast."
Willow, Gus, and Amity looked at her dubiously.
"Okay, if we walk really fast."
A peal of thunder rolled right overhead.
"Okay, if we walk really, really fast." Luz suddenly staggered back as King yanked on her hoodie.
"Less talkie, more walkie!"
With that, the four jogged out of the town and down the road leading towards the forest where the Owl House resided. There were still a few bottles of potions Luz had not been able to deliver, she hoped Eda's customers, and Eda herself, would understand, the bag bouncing against her back as she hurried along the path. Another rumble of thunder came from above and a single steaming drop of rain fell, almost catching Luz's nose. Not good.
"Incoming!" She yelled, diving into the forest as the sky finally let loose a torrent of boiling rain that almost at once began to burn at their surroundings. Willow grabbed the back of Gus' shirt to yank him out of the downpour, their backs flat against the tree trunks of the forest.
"We can't stay here," Willow jolted from a blob of water that slipped between the canopy. "The trees won't be able to keep us safe for long."
"Where else are we going to stay?" Gus pulled his cowl over his head. "The Owl House is too far away and we won't be able to hold a forcefield over ourselves for long."
"I think I know of somewhere else we can stay." The group looked at Amity as she carefully leaned out to look down the road they were currently on, her eyes narrowing to study whatever was ahead, hidden in the steam rising from the ground. "But, we'll have to go out into the rain." She looked at the group. "Luz, you can't summon a forcefield yet, can you?"
Luz shook her head. "Yeah, haven't figured out the glyph for that one."
"Okay. Gus and Willow, how long can you keep your shields up?"
"Five minutes," they responded in unison.
Amity nodded. "Okay, that should just be enough time for-"
"Hey!"
The group jumped at the shout and turned to see two figures running towards them, kicking up hot mud and steam as they struggled to maintain their own magic shields over their heads. Amity's eyes widened.
"Boscha? Skara? What are you doing out here?"
The three-eyed witch glared at the group as recognition quickly dawned on her face. "Well, if it isn't the Loser Brigade? Should you all be at home with your mommies and daddies? Oh wait," she leered at Luz. "I forgot, you can't go home to your mommy anymore, can you?"
Amity took a step forward and growled, but Luz grabbed her arm to hold her back. "What do you want, Boscha?"
"Same thing as you losers, shelter from the rain." She looked at Amity, an eyebrow quirked. "You were going to the Pandor Mansion, weren't you?"
"Why does it matter to you?" Lifting her chin haughtily, Amity crossed her arms over her chest. The smug gesture reminded Luz of the early days when she had first met Amity. "After the last lunar eclipse, I thought you said you never wanted to go back to that place? Something about too many ghosts scaring you?"
Instantly, Luz perked up. "Ghosts? Where?" She grabbed Amity's hands, almost jarring King out of her hoodie. "Are you telling me there's an actual haunted house on the Boiling Isles?" A snort from Bosha made her turn her head.
"I never said I was scared," Bosha crossed her arms in a huff and looked away. "They were just too annoying." From behind her, Skara frowned.
"That's not how I remember it."
Boscha glared at her friend.
"Um, hello?"
Amity flinched from Luz's hand waving in her face and looked at the human.
"Two things: one, where are we going to hunker down to wait out the rain? And two," Pure excitement radiated from her face. "Is it at the haunted house? Please tell me it's at the haunted house!" Luz rocked back and forth on her heels, her eyes locked on Amity's pink face and, sighing, the witchling slowly nodded.
"Yes, that is where I was thinking we could stay." Her ears flattened at the high-pitched squeal coming from Luz's mouth.
"This is gonna be so cool! I can't wait to see my first actual ghost!"
"Well, about that," Amity dared to look at Boscha and Skara. "No one knows if it is actually haunted. There are a lot of rumors, but no one has actually been able to prove anything."
A branch snapped and crashed to the ground beside the small group, allowing a stream of boiling waters to cascade down, hitting the ground and sending spatters of burning mud around them. Yelping, Luz all but magnetized herself to Amity's side to hide beneath the glowing forcefield she had conjured, sending all the blood from Amity's brain to her face.
One of these days, this human would be the death of her.
"Enough talking," Amity looked at the surrounding witches and stepped out onto the muddy road. "The Pandor Mansion is our closest source of shelter and is only a few minutes from where we are now. I'm not going to let a bunch of crazy rumors and ghost stories keep me from staying out of the rain."
Willow and Gus nodded to each other and, summoning their own shields, joined Amity and Luz, King still huddled in the girl's hoodie.
"Skara? Boscha? You coming?" Luz glanced back at the witches. Skara looked at Boscha and shrugged.
"It's not that bad an idea, at least we won't be boiled alive." Twirling her finger to summon a shield, the Bard student jogged up to the group as they slowly shuffled their way along the road. There was a quick patter of running feet and Boscha appeared at their side, her shield above her head.
"We never speak of this to anyone."
The group trudged across the muddy road, feeling the humidity from the rain weighing down the air around them as the steam rolled in a heavy curtain to obstruct their view. Amity focused on the route they were taking and scanned the trees lining the road. Both to make sure she was leading the group in the right direction and to take her attention off the fact Luz was glued to her side, practically clinging to her arm. Thankfully, the steam from the rain would be a safe enough excuse for the redness on her face. A bead of sweat dribbled down into her eyes and she swiped it off with the back of her free hand. Spotting the silhouette of a crumbling gargoyle, an actual statue, not the living kind, she looked over her shoulder at the party.
"We're almost there, just a couple more minutes."
"Hey, Amity?" Luz wobbled when her foot stuck in the mud, forcing her to yank it out. "You sure this place is going to keep us safe? Anytime it rains at the Owl House, Eda has to put up a gigantic forcefield to protect it."
"That's because Bird Tube, unfortunately, is alive, which means the house itself is. So, the Owl Lady has to keep it protected from the rain. The place we're going to would have had the protections laid into the foundation the day it was built. We should be there right about now,"
As if on cue, the shape of a massive wrought iron gate appeared out of the steam to tower over the group. Heavy chains wrapped around the opening to ward off intruders, but one of the gates had been shoved open with just enough space to duck under the chains to pass through.
Cautiously, Amity crouched down and slipped beneath the chains with Luz and King right behind her, motioning for everyone to follow. Gus shuffled nervously, his boots squelching in the mud.
"I don't know Amity, are you sure about this?"
"What's the matter Human Lover? Scared?"
Willow glared at Boscha from beside the gate, her hand on the bar as she was about to step through. "Big talk coming from someone who ran away from this place last time, screaming like a little girl."
Boscha stiffened and stomped over to Willow, shouldering Gus as she passed by and almost knocking him over. "I did NOT run away screaming! Besides, you weren't here, you can't prove that happened. So get out of my way, Half-A-Witch." Before Willow could even respond, Boscha was already ducking under the chain, a huge glob of mud kicking up from her heel to splat Willow in the chest. "Oops," Boscha sneered over her shoulder, continuing on past Amity.
Once everyone else had gone through the gate, they trudged down the narrow pathway, taken over by the unkempt plants. Steam from the rainstorm seeped through the foliage to obscure what lay before them, but Luz could see the vague shape of what looked like a big house appearing out of the haze. Her opinion of a big house then switched to a very large house once they got closer, then to a very, very large house. All that went away once they finally came to the door.
"Whoa, now that's a mansion."
A set of wide, shallow brick stairs laid into the ground led to a towering three story building that seemed to loom over the group, giving the unnerving feeling it was watching them. Four columns were stationed along the front entrance, reaching from the deck that wrapped around the first level to support the roof hanging over a wide balcony on the second level. Ironwork laced along the decks like a metal latic in almost ivy-like patterns. What looked like the domed glass roof of a greenhouse jutted out just off to the right, but the building was so wide, Luz could barely make it out. The style of the house reminded her of pictures she saw of the mansions back on Earth in Louisiana, if they decided to go full-on gothic with a Boiling Isles twist. Keeping up with Amity to stay beneath the forcefield, Luz jogged up the stone steps, doing her best to avoid the puddles of hot rain collecting in the holes. Ancient wood creaked beneath her feet as she stepped onto the landing and stared at the huge double doors as Amity walked past her, dismissing her shield now that they were under the cover of the roof, heading straight for the massive double doors, Skara right behind her. Boscha was already there trying to push them open, grunting from the effort, though the doors clearly were not giving way.
Vines wrapped around the columns and wove through the latic, splitting the floorboards they had managed to grow through. When Luz looked up, she could see an army of spiders and spiderwebs clinging to any nook and cranny they could find. Most of the paint on the house, a faded blue-black, had peeled off to reveal the splintering wood beneath. Her hoodie pulled as King snuggled deeper in, his paws clutching her shoulders.
"Wow, those are some impressive knockers!"
Willow, who had been attempting to scrub the mud off her shirt, jolted as Amity, Boscha, and Skara spun around, all three red in the face.
"Luz?!"
Luz, whose face was also red, jerked a thumb over her shoulder at King. "He said it."
The demon looked around innocently at the wide-eyes fixed on him and shrugged. "What? They are!" He pointed to the door and the huge metal door knockers hanging in the center, made to look like ropes interwoven. Or, were they supposed to be snakes?
"Why. Won't. You. Open?" Boscha grunted, pushing at the heavy doors with her shoulder.
Walking up to the doors, Luz stared up at the large metallic rings. In the center of each ring, just a couple feet over her head, was carved a wide lidless eye that seemed to jut out of the wood, framed by a triangle pointed straight up. The one on the door Boscha was trying to push open had been slashed, the lines crossing in an 'X', but the one Luz had walked to was left unmarred. Off to the side, Amity and Skara were muttering about what to do to open the door. Gus was attempting to help Willow with her muddied shirt. Turning back to the door, Luz reached up and, taking a breath, lifted the knocker and slammed it against the door.
A thunderous boom echoed around the deck and deep into the house, reverberating down the halls. Some of the spiders that had been crawling along the ceiling of the deck slipped from their webs and dangled on the silky strings. There was a click followed by a hiss of air and Luz watched, jaw slack, as the door creaked open. Luz shook her head in an attempt to clear the ringing in her ears and turned back to face her companions.
"I OPENED THE DOOR!"
"WHAT?" Gus rubbed at his ears. "YOU SAID YOU SNORE?"
Rolling her eyes, Willow peeled her hands off her ears. "SHE SAID - ahem- she opened the door."
"WHY DIDN'T SHE SAY SO?"
Grinning, Luz pushed at the door for it to open all the way, causing the rusted hinges to squeak even louder. Reaching into her pocket, Luz pulled out a light glyph and activated it, sending the glowing orb into the space ahead, setting her potions sack by the door. "C'mon you guys, let's go in!"
King tugged at her hoodie. "Let's not! This place gives me the creeps!"
"Aw King, are you scared?"
"The King of Demons is scared of nothing!"
"Then, we're going in!" Luz took a single step inside, and stopped. "Dios mio,"
The foyer of the mansion stretched out before her in a single long hallway that seemed to go on forever, the darkness swallowing up the light of her glyph. Two sets of stairs flanked the hallway, leading up to a small landing that then split into the beginning of another hall leading off to what must be the wings of the mansion. On each side of the hallway entrance stood a suit of demonic armor at attention with a large halberd clutched in the clawed hands. Over the hallway entrance hung a huge portrait of a man posing with two women. The colors of the painting had long since faded, but as she got closer to it she could see it was of a mother and father, posed on either side of their daughter who looked like she was sitting.
"That's the Pandor family," Amity said, walking up to Luz and nodding to the portrait. "Astor, Ophelia, and their daughter Emilia. They used to be one of the strongest families on the Boiling Isles, rumored to actually be more powerful than the emperor. Granted, that was back in the Savage Ages before he took the throne."
"Wow," Luz stared up at the portrait. Although their faces were poised in a neutral look, something in the daughter's eyes tugged at her, an almost melancholy gaze in the dulled grey eyes. Her long white hair was tucked behind her ears while the rest, Luz guessed, had been let down at her back. She then noticed a smudged patch just above the girl's forehead, like someone had rubbed coal dust on the picture, but Amity's hand on her shoulder pulled her away.
"Skara found a room nearby for us to stay in,"
Blinking, Luz glanced around the foyer. "Why not just camp out here?"
"It's too open. Besides," Amiry gave the painting a wary look. "We don't know what else could be in this house."
Luz glanced over her shoulder at the portrait again before following Amity. There was a brief tug at her hoodie as King scampered into her arms, his eyes focused on the painting.
"Hey, Luz? Did you see that?"
"See what?" She looked at the demon, but he shook his head.
"Nah, it's nothing."
"What?"
"I just saw the eyes move in the painting, but that's normal."
Luz gulped. "It is?"
"Oh yeah, just not when the people in the painting leave."
At that, Luz stopped and looked over her shoulder. A ball of ice dropped in her stomach; the daughter in the painting was gone.
"Amityyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"
Racing in the direction the witchling had gone, feet sliding on dusty marble flooring, Luz shot through the entrance to the room and slammed the door shut. Everyone looked up at her in surprise as she leaned against the door, chest heaving.
"Painting - left - spooky hallway - gone girl."
"Luz," Willow stared at her. "What's wrong?"
Pausing to catch her breath, Luz hugged King. "The painting of the family, the one in the hallway? The daughter's eyes blinked."
"Luz, a lot of old paintings do that here."
"But do the people in the paintings leave?"
Amity stood up from where she had been sitting by the window and walked to Luz. "What do you mean?"
"Just what she said!" King squirmed out of Luz's arms to the floor.
Frowning, Amity turned the knob and walked back into the hallway, ignoring Luz's protests as she walked up to the painting. "Luz, no one is missing from the painting."
"What?" Luz was at her side instantly, gaping up at the now-complete painting, the daughter in the same stiff-back position she had been in before. "But, but King and I saw-"
"Maybe it was a trick of the light or something." Sighing, Amity placed a hand on Luz's shoulder. "Come on, let's go back to the room. We need to stay together as a group." Thunder rolled overhead and a flash of lightning lit up the windows of the foyer, making Luz jump.
"Yeah, you're right." Giving the painting one last look, the pair hurried back to the room and closed the door.
The room they were in was large, though not so much that the space felt overwhelming, and octagonal in shape. If Luz had to guess what it was, she would have to go with a drawing room. A fireplace took up one section of the wall and, after a brief discussion and searching for pliable wood, they got a fire going to serve both for warmth and a source of light. A few pieces of worn furniture peppered the floor: two chairs, a couch, and a desk with a candelabra, all worn from neglect and moth-eaten, or whatever the Boiling Isles version of moths was. More portraits hung on the wall, but thankfully none of them were of the daughter and her family, though, Luz found them to be a bit odd.
One picture was of an elderly lady holding a rose, posed as if she were sitting. The second was a male witch wearing a bowler hat, an odd choice of fashion considering this was not the human realm. The third one made Luz frown in confusion; it was of a ballerina holding a parasol. The fourth had another male witch, this one with a beard, reading an old-fashioned paper scroll. Strange subjects for paintings, they must have been relatives of the main family.
Luz shifted on the couch and looked at her companions in various positions on the floor or the furniture. Amity had elected to sit with her on the couch, but on the opposite end, her back to her as she flipped through a book she had found on the desk. King had nestled himself against Luz's thigh and she stroked his side. Poor Willow was currently seated before the fire still trying to get rid of the mud staining her shirt while Boscha snickered at her from her position on a nearby chair. Luz had tried to entertain them with a ghost story she had heard at camp one year, but it only annoyed the witchlings and set King on edge, so she dropped the idea.
Skara, who was currently leaning against a mostly empty bookshelf, looked up from her scroll and frowned, her ears twitching. "Hey, do you guys hear that?"
From the desk, Gus lifted his head off his arms. "Hear what?"
A low groan came from the door and Skara shot back behind the desk, both her and Gus yelping when the candles sprang to life. Wind hissed down from the chimney, sending the flames roaring out at Willow and Boscha, the three-eyed witch tumbling out of her seat. Behind Luz, a flash of lightning filled the window and she scooted over to Amity, grabbing her in a hug and pinning King between them. The groaning from the door grew louder, and then stopped and the room went quiet. Shivering, Luz looked around the room and her eyes caught something above the fireplace: a long mirror with a crack in its surface. Slowly, words began to trace along the glass in a fine cursive that glowed with green light. Unable to stop herself, Luz read the words out loud.
"When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange sounds echo through the halls, whenever candle lights flicker where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight."
Amity swallowed, her ears burning from the feeling of Luz holding her, as she studied the writing. "What does that mean?"
Laughter echoed through the room and the raging flames receded to the fireplace, becoming smoldering coals that cast a dim red light. From somewhere above their heads came the creaking of wood and a single voice tumbled down from the shadows.
"It means: welcome, foolish mortals."
King screamed.