It took no time at all to fall asleep after our meeting with Boscha. As worried as I was about the premonitions Amity had that night, the savagescent incident had left everyone exhausted. Fortunately, my own fatigue had allowed my night's sleep to be dreamless and allowed me to get up as early as I usually did.
Around five-thirty I woke up to find most of the room glowing a soft orange, although the writing desk in the corner was gently covered in the gentle yellow gleam of a small reading light. Slouching in the nearby office chair was a very despondent looking Amity.
The purple-haired witch looked dazed. Her eyes were open, but she saw nothing. Instead, her focus was all on the dull ache her sadness brought. She didn't seem tired in the sleepy sense, more worn down like all of her stress was corroding away at what remaining lucidity she had. She was no longer paler than usual, but her skin was more of a gray instead of the usual snow white.
I yawned just loud enough for Amity to hear. She snapped out of her trance and turned around to lock eyes with me.
"Morning, Willow" she greeted.
"Good morning. How are you feeling?" I coolly asked back.
"Well, I feel pretty tired…and sore… and a bit hungry… but other than that, I'm doing good," she murmured.
She got up from her seat, stretched, and popped her sore stiff back. As she crossed the room towards her saved spot in bed, I walked over to the armchair that was nestled right next to the window.
"Did you have any problems last night?" I went on once I wriggled into a comfortable potion.
"Yeah" Amity grumbled jokingly. "Her name was Boscha". I began to giggle which, in turn, made Amity start to laugh.
"Don't worry, Amity. You won't have to deal with her today".
"I'm sure you wish you could say the same. I certainly don't envy you". Amity yawned her last sentence causing her to carefully slide under the covers and into her snoring girlfriend's arms.
"Oh, I don't know," I said with a sly roll of my sleepy green eyes. "I might like bossing Boscha around. But don't you worry about that. You need to get some sleep".
"You don't have to tell me twice," Amity sighed happily.
And after that, the room went pleasantly silent… Well, mostly silent. Both Luz and Gus were noisy sleepers and, when she wasn't sleeptalking, Amity mewled a lot while she slept. But my friends' not so soft snores were reassuring. It meant they were getting plenty of rest instead of running off and almost getting themselves killed.
An hour quickly passed. I spent the time sketching random flowers that popped into my head; witch eating tiger lilies, blistering woundwort, and, my personal favorite, the venus eyetrap. I was just finishing the details of the fangs in the eyetrap's pupil cavity when a small beep turned my attention towards the nightstand.
"Hello?" a voice called from the "phone"?... I think that's what Luz said it was.
It sounded lively and energetic, a complete contrast to the sleep stillness of the hotel. "Is anyone there?".
Everyone stayed quiet. I was positive that I wasn't the only one awake, yet nobody wanted to answer the killer's call. It might've singled them out.
"Hello? Breakfast is being served now. I know you all are very hungry so it's best you eat as soon as you can".
Once again, there was no response though I had a strong urge to say something. The witch on the other end of the phone was right. I was starving and so were the rest of my roommates. Aside from Amity, none of us had anything to eat the night prior and, though Gus and I weren't as close to magical deficiency as the youngest Blight was, we were still injured and needed the food to give our bodies a boost.
I didn't know how much Luz needed food, but she definitely wanted it. Human bodies didn't need a frequent supply of magic to heal, or even function, and Luz said that humans could go a couple weeks without food. But her stomach still growled loudly, and the smell of the snacks Amity munched on last night made her mouth water. When her girlfriend offered to share her supper, Luz had just as hard of a time saying "no" as me and Gus.
After one more moment of thinking it over, I walked over to the nightstand. It took me a moment to find out how to use the strange human communicator, but I soon remembered that all Luz did when she talked to the killer was pressed a small button.
"How do we know you're not going to poison us again?" I commented, my voice filled with suspicion.
"Ah. So someone is awake. May I ask your name, young lady?". I pushed down my uneasiness with a deep breath out and tried to sound bold when I responded.
"I'd prefer not to say. Let's say it's a form of precaution".
"Well, I suppose that's alright. Have you looked at the menu yet this morning? We don't have many breakfast options but the ones we do have are completely authentic recipes". That witch had to have been toying with us. He couldn't have genuinely thought that we were that naive.
"After what happened at supper time last night, this room isn't ordering any food. And I'm certain that none of the others will be ordering anything either".
"And what room are you in?".
"I'm not telling you that either". Everything went still again for a moment, the only sound audible being the killer's saddened "hmm".
"Then, what are you going to do about food, little one?" He finally said worriedly. "You don't want to end up in as bad of shape as your friend. That purple haired girl. What was her name again?". The hotel owner sounded genuinely curious, like the terrible shape Amity was in last night was simple gossip. I was starting to wonder if he truly knew how grave this entire situation was for us.
"Maybe it's best if you stop asking questions. I'm not going to answer any of them anyways" I uttered. "Though, I'm surprised you're so concerned about our health considering you're trying to kill us".
"I want your souls," he admitted nonchalantly. "And to get it, you all must die. But I wish for your deaths to be fairly quick, miss. I want this to be an exciting experience that will hype you up for your future employment here".
"Can we really call it employment, cause it seems more like forced labor to me?" I replied with a nervous grimace.
At that point, Luz started to stir. Her eyes slowly blinked open to find her loving girlfriend in her arms. She smiled at the sight before she noticed me standing near the nightstand from the corner of her eye. Her smile fell quickly, and she sat up while starting to stretch.
"Him again?" she growled with a yawn. "What time is it even?".
"Six-thirty" I simply answered.
"Are you serious? ...What hideous crime could I have possibly committed to deserve this?" she groaned in response.
The killer mustn't have heard Luz get up because he continued to answer my question like she had never spoken.
"Your guardian signed the contract, did he not? And, by signing that contract, your principal has given me legal permission to use your souls?".
My breath hitched. It was hard to believe that principal Bump would sign something that ended up hurting his students, but it wasn't anywhere near impossible. It was blatantly clear that the part of the contract that gave the man our souls was far from straightforward, that the killer had stolen our freedom with some sneaky loophole.
"That's a huge pile of… a crock of shit" Luz sputtered. Despite the serious situation, I had to hold in a giggle. If I didn't know any better, I would swear I saw steam coming out of the human's ears. The human let out a huge groan before she continued.
"It's early, okay" she grumbled. "Point is, Eda is my not-so-legal guardian, not Bump, so that contract doesn't mean squat!".
"That may be how it works in the human realm, Luz, but that's not quite how it works here. Who our guardian is depends on where you are at. When you're at the owl house, Eda is your guardian but when you're at school, principal Bump is technically your guardian instead" I explained with a sigh.
If only it worked the way, it did in the human realm. Principal Bump cared for his students, no doubt, but sometimes his desire to please the higher ups clouded his judgment. I'm sure the pressure from the P.C.A made him a bit reckless when planning the field trip.
"So, he officially has the right to kill us!?" Luz spat incredulously. "Don't we get a say in this!?".
"Is that Luz?" the hotel owner asked excitedly. "How are you doing this morning?".
"Well both me and my girlfriend almost died last night and the man responsible woke me up at six-thirty in the mother-lovin' morning so…".
"More reason for you kids to eat" the killer pointed out.
"We would if we could, but somebody keeps poisoning it" Luz pointed out right back. "And before you say, "the poison in the food won't kill you right away", that might actually be worse! Didn't you see how much pain Amity was in last night and all because of your stupid poison".
Titandammit, Luz. There was a reason I refused to tell the killer any of our names or the room number. He seems to be the type of witch to choose favorites, favorites that he wants to have the souls of the most. It was bad enough that he adored Luz, but if he targeted the already injured Blight…
"Amity! That's her name. How is she?" the killer asked, causing my heart to stop for a moment. I silently tried to tell Luz to be careful with a wide-eyed stare. I didn't think she noticed.
"Right now? She's a sleepy little baby who's getting some much-needed rest. Keeping watch all night really tired her out so, if you wake her up, there'll be hell to pay".
"Keeping watch? What was she keeping watch for?".
"Well, there's this person who wants to steal our souls and trap us in a hotel for the rest of our lives…afterlives? … Long story short, we all don't want to be killed in our sleep so we're all sleeping in shifts".
There was a quick pause in the conversation. Anticipation caught in my throat as I held my breath. From what Amity said about her conversation with the hotel's head chef, the killer had "lost his mind" and begun to hurt her. And she also said he had forced her to work at the hotel.
She probably wasn't the only one who wasn't here by choice. His wife couldn't have been alone in the kitchen and the witches that worked alongside her surely didn't work there by choice. Who would willingly help a clearly unwell witch hurt other people?
Just like with his wife, he was trying to force us to work there, all because he believed that we'd somehow learn to love his idea. Was there a chance that he noticed how unhappy everyone was? Was he, even for just a moment, having second thoughts about everything? After all, it only took one second for the killer to bring down the barrier and set us free.
"You don't need to worry about that. I know you kids need your rest. I won't disturb you while you sleep" the hotel owner assured.
I let out the breath I was holding in. Luz's words didn't seem to have affected him. But I did have to admit, hearing that he had no intention of attacking us at night was relieving.
I believed him. He seemed to genuinely care about our wellbeing, in a sick twisted way that is. He had said before that he wanted us to have fun and enjoy our time at the hotel. Apparently being woken up was only fun after six-thirty.
"Yeah, no. That's not how it works". Oh Titan. He woke up Boscha. And, despite her hoarse voice saying otherwise, she was awake enough to be a hellhound. "You see, you're a killer. You're a child murder who's already killed two of the students you trapped inside of this shithole".
"Three of us" a sorrow filled voice corrected. "First Juvencus froze to death. Then Beatrix was killed during the savagescent incident when her throat was torn out. And…" my peer paused as they swallowed the lump of grief in their throat. "... and then Cyrus succumbed to their wounds earlier this morning".
For a moment, no one else said a word. All that could be heard was the very faint sounds of the two-remaining people on the line.
"So" Boscha continued. The triclops' usual sarcasm slowly flowed back into her voice the more she spoke. "Why should we ever believe anything you say? Or, better yet, how the hell do you expect to murder a bunch of students and still be respectable at the same time?".
"You must look at the bigger picture, children. You all have an opportunity to be a part of a truly unique experience, all while receiving free housing, free food, and—".
"All we have to do is die? Listen, oh benevolent buisnesswitch. I hate to tell you this, but most people don't want to die. And some people don't want to die so much that they're willing to do some pretty gruesome things to stay alive. So, we're all giving you one more chance. Take down the barrier and let us go, or we will make you do it by force".
In response, the killer let out an angered sigh. He took his time deciding what to say next but then decided to answer us with some sort of frustrated promise.
"You'll all learn to appreciate what I'm doing for you someday. But, for now, I advise you to not to do anything to brash".
"That's all I needed to hear," Boscha huffed. "Alright girls. Get ready cause we have a lot to do today. And Willow. Wake the rest of the Luz-ers up before you get ready. They have shit to do too".
Once she was done ordering everyone around, Bocha left the phone to go get ready for the day herself. The killer also chose not to say anymore, deciding instead to go back to silently watching us. Since the conversation was clearly over, I grabbed one of Gus's shoulders and lightly shook him awake.
"Huh? What? What's going on?" he sleepily mumbled.
"Boscha's awake. And so is the killer" I simply told him.
My friend sighed while he sat up. He groggily looked over at the clock before letting out a large groan. As the tired witch rose to his feet, I turned to Luz who was staring down at girlfriend hesitantly.
"Let her sleep some more. We can wake her up before we leave" I suggested. Luz gave me an enthusiastic nod before she meandered up to her suitcase.
Our morning routine was a good distraction from everything going on. We were all too busy getting dressed and brushing our fangs that we didn't have time to worry about what could've gone wrong later that day. But making ourselves look presentable didn't take as much time as I had hoped and, before I knew it, it was already time to meet up with Boscha and her crue.
Luz sat on the side of the bed and delicately poked Amity's shoulder. As the witch was slowly coming back into the waking world, I turned towards Gus.
I could hear the auguries Amity revealed to us the night before replay over and over in my mind. My subjects would drown in darkness, Amity would become an amalgamation of beauty, Luz would go from a light to a flame: all of those visions talked about our future. But Gus's future was never mentioned.
I feared the worst. Whether it was rational, or I was just paranoid, this awful feeling burrowed deep in my gut told me that Gus would not make it out of the hotel alive. So even the very idea of him and Luz being alone in the un-refurbished part of the hotel sent shivers down my spine.
But scanning the two upper floors for clues was the safer of the two missions. Once the killer spotted us leaving, we were sure he'd go down to the basement as soon as he could. We were the bigger party and Boscha had put a huge target on all of our backs by threatening the killer this morning. And even if he chose to ignore us and go to the upper floor finding two of the sneakiest witches in our year, one of them being the owl lady's apprentice, would be a lot harder than finding a large group of them.
Then again, Gus would be with Luz. I trusted my friends to keep each other safe but a nagging voice at the back of my mind told me not to. The killer had some weird infatuation with Luz, so who's to say he wouldn't put all his focus on attacking her.
Oh my titan! Had I made a huge mistake!? Separating both the killer's favorite target and the witch I thought was destined to die soon from the rest of the group was the worst possible thing I could do! Why did I ever think that was a good idea!?
To Willow, one life matters more than the other. When the words popped back into my head, my breath caught in my throat. I was destined to get someone killed and now–
"Willow?". Gus's call snapped me back to reality. "You good?".
"Yes" I sighed after I took a moment to calm myself. I was probably overthinking things too much. Premonitions never meant exactly what you think they mean, right?
"I'm just a bit worried".
"I'm sure you'll make it through the basement just fine. If any witch can, you definitely can". Gus gave me a white fanged grin that made my heart crack. My trepidation hung over me like a large vulture. No matter how much I calmed myself down it wouldn't go away.
"It's not the basement I'm worried about" I admitted just as Amity woke up enough to say something.
"What's going on?" she croaked.
"Good morning, Agridulce. Sorry to wake you up so early but we're all about to leave" Luz soothed.
"So early" what time is it?".
"It's almost seven thirty. We kinda all got rudely woken up like an hour ago".
"Oh…And who's noisy ass am I kicking?".
"The killer gave us a wakeup call. We had a very… interesting conversation with him" I explained in an attempt to extinguish the youngest Blight's wrath.
"That pile of griffin shit" Amity grred. "Bad enough he's trying to kill us but now he's depriving us of sleep? I'll kill em' ".
The grumpy witch sat up, immediately noticing the grief in my bright green eyes. Her scowl softened as she reached out to grab my hands.
"Willow" she murmured when I grabbed her hands back. She opened her mouth then closed it again. Her gaze didn't leave mine but the witch herself was lost in her thoughts. I pulled her onto her feet before I wrapped my arms around her. Once the Blight knew what was going on, she returned the hug just as tightly.
"Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it" I cooed with a calm smile on my face.
"I trust you". Amity's voice shook from heartache. "I just don't know if I can handle the thought of losing you again".
Tears threatened to spill onto my face, but I pushed them down. A feeling of gratitude made my heart hurt but in a good way. My heart didn't ache because it was broken. It was swelling with joy. I never thought I'd hear anything like that from Amity after all the years of mocking but now…
I gently pushed out of the hug. I wanted to look Amity straight in the eyes, pinning her attention onto my earnesty.
"I will be back".
The sound of sniveling turned both of our attentions to the end of the bed. Luz's tear-filled eyes twinkled while she held back a sob as best as she could.
"You mean it" she snuffled.
"I mean it, Luz" I snickered.
Amity turned towards her girlfriend, her scowl quickly returning, and began to spit caring threats at her. Slightly blushing, all the poor human could do was nod and say "uh huh" over and over again. She knew that, when the witch told her to come back unharmed, she meant it.
From the side, Gus let out a giggle. That was a huge mistake. That just directed her tirade away from Luz and towards him. The grouch only stopped her angry lecture when I jumped in.
"We have to go," I said hesitantly. I didn't want to leave the room. Going out into the hallway meant starting our trek to the basement. But I couldn't leave Boscha and co. waiting for too long.
We all said one more goodbye to Amity before the three of us walked out the door. I began to head towards where Boscha was waiting when Gus grabbed my shoulder and yanked me and Luz into a hug.
"You're leaving already?" I squeaked.
"We're not gonna hang around and get bitched at by Boscha" Gus laughed back.
"That sounds fair. Just… be careful".
"I don't think we can be careful," Luz joked with a slight grimace. "But if we weren't always ready for danger, one of us would be dead by now".
Without another word Luz and Gus left the embrace, gave me one more wave, and headed towards the stairwell on the other side of the lobby. I stared onward at them for one very long bittersweet moment then took a deep breath.
Turning to the gathered grudgby team, I finally, tiredly, greeted them.
All the girls wore their hair down in hope that it would somewhat protect their necks. It seemed to have worked better for some more than others. Amelia's silky green hair just barely reached her shoulders while the two thicker haired brunettes, Bo and Kat, as well as Skara had hair so long it went halfway down their backs. Boscha had a mane of hair that she had tied in a way that made it completely cover both the back of her neck and most of her chest.
As for me, my hair was nowhere near as long as Boscha's. But it also wasn't as short as Amelia's either. It didn't go down my back, but my thick raven colored hair covered my neck and shoulders no problem.
"It's about time," Boscha huffed. "It feels like we've been waiting here for hours".
"We haven't been awake for hours".
"I know, Cat. That's why I said "feels". Oh boy. This wasn't going to be fun.
Noticing my discomfort, Skara trotted up to me with a reassuring smile. How that witch was already so peppy not even an hour into her morning I'll never know. But I still appreciated the gesture. It was nice to see that at least one of us was in a good mood.
"You ready?" she asked.
Ready? I didn't think I'd ever be ready. But I had to at least act confident. The witches around me needed me to.
"Ready as I'll ever be".
…
The stuffy air was suffocating though our blossoming fear had already taken our breaths away. The sunlight was trapped outside, the only reason we were able to see where we were going at all was the few and far between overhead lights. Only Titan knew why the lights in the basement were on. Perhaps the killer knew of our plans to sneak down to the basement ahead of time and was invitingly leaving the lights on for us.
No. No. I needed to focus. I was leading a group of witches into certain danger. I had to keep my calm.
I was in the lead of the group while the others fanned out around me. We didn't want anyone out of sight, so that meant there would be not back of the group.
We were all completely silent, the only one aloud to speak was me. We all needed to keep our ears pricked for anyone, or thing, lurking in the shadows.
"Left. Go left". I nearly jumped out of my skin. The voice was just a quiet whisper, but I heard it loud and clear. Who ever said it said it right into my ear, after all.
"What was that?" Amelia yipped. "Did someone just say something?".
"I heard it too," Bo announced. "It told us to keep heading straight".
"You mean left," Boscha spat. "It clearly told us to go left".
"It told me to go right," Skara jumped in.
"That doesn't matter" I called, my voice bold and clear. Everyone's attention snapped towards me. Their eyes, though missing hands and arms, grasped onto me. It made another chill run up my back.
"This is obviously a trick. We just need to ignore it and keep going" I commanded. After no one objected, I began to walk forwards. The rest of the group followed, their chorus of footsteps filling the eerie silence once again.
"Turn left" the voice whispered again. Nope. I'll just keep going straight, thank you very much.
"Go left!". I felt the chill crawling up my back grow stronger. It felt as if bugs were hiking their way up to my ear.
"Left! Left! Head left!". Wait a moment.
I pulled my hand up to the back of my neck to find something there. Spiders! Lots of them! All screaming the same thing into my ears.
"Left! You must go left! Turn left! Go left! Left! Left! Left!". The barrage of hollers busted their way into my brain. Like surging magic flowing through an angry witch's veins, the words bounced around my head assaulting all of my senses.
"Left! Left! Left! Left! Left!".
"Willow?".
"Left! Left! Left! Left!".
"Willow!".
"Left! Left! Left! Left!".
"WILLOW!". The abrasive sound of Boscha scared holler broke me back to my reality. My legs, which I didn't even realize were moving, slowed until I eventually stopped. The constant hollering remained but it was pushed out of my senses.
"Willow?" Boscha shouted. All three of her blue eyes looked crazed. Her hand pressed into her ears as she fought off the tons of bugs marching into them. "Where are the others?".
My eyes went wide while they raced around me. No matter how hard they searched, I couldn't find anyone around me but Boscha.
Fear is all I could feel at that moment. All of my rationality melted away. The spiders had gotten what they wanted. They had made Boscha and I both head in the direction they were screaming at us to go.
No. No! No! NO! That bastard! With one simple spell, one single potion, he was able to take away every defense our party had. He dulled our senses and separated all of us!
"What now?" Bosha growled. "What do we do now?!".
It took me a moment. My mind was still writhing and was now spinning as well.
"We find as many of the girls as we can… And we pray to the Titan that we find them alive".