Day Three - Nightmares

Willow's heart was pounding at the sight she bore witness to.

In the cavern of the Titan's skull, she saw skulls. So many skulls, many of them with their Golden Guard masks still clinging to the faces of bone. Her body felt cold as she gazed upon a field of corpses, her stomach twisting into a dozen knots, her heart thundering with fear as tears burned behind her glasses.

And then she heard the shouts from above.

Willow looked up to the walkway that led to the massive doors of Emperor Belos — Philip Wittebane's — secret chamber where he had found the Collector's prison. A gasp was choked back in her throat as she saw Philip holding Hunter — her Hunter — by his throat over the chasm below.

She tried to call upon her magic to lift her up and to her Hunter, but nothing heeded her call. She tried to race up the stairs she knew were nearby to save him, but her feet remained locked in place.

"Another failure," Philip chided as Hunter gasped and kicked, desperate to escape. "Next time for certain," he added, his tone blaise and uncaring, as if discussing picking up groceries. His free hand blazed with artificial magic and he plunged it into Hunter's chest, his grip on Hunter's neck strangling his shout of pain. Philip removed a bloody, round shape and casually tossed Hunter away to plunge into the air and down, walking back into his chamber.

Willow heard the thud of flesh of bones.

Free of whatever force kept her rooted in place, she ran toward the source of the sound. She found the one body among the bones and fell to her knees, sweeping Hunter up into her arms. A gaping hole in his chest poured blood, but his lungs still fought for breath. His eyes, open and staring, focused on her.

"Cap-"

"Hunter,' Willow wheezed out.

"I love-" His eyes went distant and glassy. He was dead.

The dam broke and Willow wailed in grief, holding Hunter close as she wept.

"Willow!"

Willow gasped and flinched as she was shaken awake. Hunter, scarred up, long-haired, and dressed only in his sleep pants, looked down on her with wide, frightened eyes. "Willow," he prodded again.

The memory of the night returned to her; the movie night at the Owl House, her being too tired to fly home, Hunter bringing her up to his room to chastely sleep together, as they had been doing for some time, now. Neither were even close to ready to go very far with each other, but it was so comforting to fall asleep in each others' embraces.

Willow lunged into his chest, burying her face into him to listen to the thrumming of magic from the galdorstone that served as his heart, the beat-like sound soothing to her. Tears trickled from her eyes and sobs wracked her frame as her mind's eye replayed the gruesome nightmare.

"It's okay, Willow," Hunter soothed, stroking her hair and holding her to him. "You're safe. I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."

Willow slowly felt her breathing level and her muscles ease, wrapped in his strong arms. The horrific images of her nightmare tried to return, but Hunter's warmth and love kept them at bay. She smiled a little, despite herself, and settled back into the comfort of sleep.

"Guys!"

Hunter raced over the spine tree forests of the Knee, head rushing back and forth in search of the Emerald Entrails.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' Hunter berated himself. Why had he honestly thought press-ganging the first friends he'd ever had into the Emperor's coven was a good idea?! It had been Steve's words slowly sinking in that made him realize how terrible basic training had been … and he'd sentenced Willow, Gus, Viney, and Skara to the fate he'd barely survived!

He raced on his artificial staff — Flapjack noticeably absent — to try and find them. He had no idea how, but he knew in his bones that the Entrails were in trouble. Technically, outside help was forbidden for scout trainees on pain of restarting basic training from scratch, but that was better than them being dead.

Hunter blinked as something registered to his senses, his ears flicking. It was a low rumble, far too deep to be a Slitherbeast … His eyes widened behind his Golden Guard mask as it registered: avalanche!

Hunter sped up even further, his metal staff groaning with the power pumping through it. He finally came across the gargantuan flow of snow from higher up the slope, racing down to bury whatever lie in its path. And with a sickening lurch in his belly, he knew without a shred of doubt that his friends were here.

He raced down and sent power hurtling from his staff to disperse the flow. It seemed to be slowing on its own anyway, and Hunter sent waves of heat emanating from the focus gem of his staff that turned the snow from ice to vapor and sent it spiraling into the sky. He let his instincts guide him as the levels of snow slowly descended … and then he found the first body.

Gus clung to the top of a massive croak tree, ropes binding his wrists to the branches. His body was still … suffocation. Hunter's heart lanced with grief, but he kept digging.

Next he found Skara, her lyre torn from her grasp as she hugged a branch with all of her former might.

Then Viney, clinging to the wood with frozen fingers.

It was only when he got to the base of the tree that he found the captain. Her hands were buried into the wood, and Hunter gaped in awe at what she had done. She had used a Death Wish, a piece of wild magic thought lost. It funneled the power of one's life into magic to super-charge it. Usually it was used to strike down an enemy … but Willow had used it to grow a tree strong enough to weather the avalanche and save her friends.

Except … they weren't saved. They had still died.

Willow's sacrifice had been for nothing.

And in the end, it was Hunter's fault. Because he had thought he knew better for their future than they did.

"Captain," Hunter whimpered, gently drawing her from the frozen tree. "Willow …" He brushed some strands of hair from her face, her glasses ong gone in the raging snow … and they broke away from the chill.

"Don't you see, hunter?" Uncle said, creeping closer in his horned mask. "This is why you shouldn't have made friends."

"Hunter?"

Hunter pried his eyes open, the muscles sore from him clenching them shut for so long. He took a shuddering breath, his eyes wet but no tears shed. He'd had that nightmare before, among countless others.

In some he'd drowned kIng in the boiling Sea. Or Eda. Or Luz.

In some he'd killed Amity in a dozen different ways during their duel at Eclipse Lake.

Many, like that one, involved the Emerald Entrails dying during scout training if he hadn't gone after them, and Darius hadn't been happy to let them go. In others, they'd survived and hated him for it. He wasn't sure which was worse.

It went on like that, his subconscious apparently delighted to torment him with his mistakes and what might have happened. Or maybe he had so little good in his life that his subconscious was working with all that it had.

"Hunter," Willow whispered. He was drawn from his spiraling thoughts by her voice and looked down into her soulful green eyes. "Talk in the morning?" she asked shyly.

"Trade stories," he agreed.

This wasn;t the first time they'd had nightmares on the same night. Not for them or any of the Hexsquad, Owl Crew, or CATs. It had become something of a tradition to share nightmares, a way to get them out in the open and off each others' chests and shoulders.

"Few more hours of sleep," Willow sighed and nuzzled back into his chest.

"Mm-hmm," he replied, already falling back into slumber.

Willow and Hunter held each others' hands as they stood in a forest of dead trees, the ground dusty and as dead as the forest. Before them loomed the shape of Belos, his emaciated, bestial form dripping with putrid slime, lanky hair hanging from twisted antlers.

"You cannot escape me," he croaked, eerily long talons scratching a tree and gouging lines into the wood. "I am eternal."

"Perhaps," said a calm, masculine voice behind them. The witchling and grimwalker turned to find two figures holding hands behind them, both of them shining with a halo of golden light.

One looked much like an older version of Hunter, with more prominent cheekbones and fainter circles under brown eyes. His hair was white, rather than ash-blond, and tied back with a red ribbon. His clothes were centuries out of style, simple and practical. He was a handsome man with a strong, wiry build … and with round ears. A familiar cardinal palisman sat on his shoulder.

Caleb Wittebane.

The other looked like a stockier Eda or Lilith. Her auburn hair was cut at her shoulders and barely tamed, as if putting on a show of civility. Her eyes were golden, like Eda and Dell's, and sparkled with mischief. Her skin was pale as a bone, her body curvy and strong. She wore a purple dress and leather apron, a blue jay palisman perched on her shoulder opposite the cardinal.

Evelyn Clawthorne.

"But you have no power," Evelyn said.

The couple lifted their joined hands, and the light around them intensified. Waves of warm power washed over Willow and Hunter, but they seared Belos and knocked him down. His body began to smoke and singe.

"You cannot escape!" Belos wailed.

"They don't need to," the couple chorused, looking at Willow and HUnter with fond smiles. "This is their refuge."

Belos wailed and burned to cinders that scattered into the wind, and Caleb and evelyn faded into mist.

Hunter? Willow?

Both of them awoke to find Luz looking down on them with her crooked smile and suggestively lowered eyelids. "Have a nice night?"

"Nightmare," Willow said, her voice scratchy.

"Same," Hunter croaked.

"Oh, jeez," Luz said, her grin falling into a chagrined grimace. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Willow said, snuggling back into Hunter's chest for a moment. "It ended nice."

"Yeah, it did," Hunter sighed.

Neither, of course, knew that they had experienced the exact same dream. Just as neither of them felt the smiles upon them from the hereafter.

Day Three, everyone! Dug deep into the darkness for this one ...! Hope it turned out more sweet than bitter.