My feet felt as heavy as stone, the legs that carried them feeling scrawny in comparison. Sweat dripped down my dark pallor skin while I shook for warmth. The life of the town around me taxingly clashed with how truly lifeless I'd felt.
Most would probably blame that on the hell my body had to go through a couple of weeks back. Being starved and badly injured sure didn't help my body in any way. But I knew the real thing weighing me down was my grief.
It was hard not to blame myself for Amity's painful demise. I know I didn't play much part in it, but I just felt so titandamn guilty! I was one of the people Amity was trying to find, and, while I didn't regret my choice of staying with Luz and the others after they were kidnapped, she wouldn't have thought Luz was in the elevator shaft had I gone back to our room and told her the shadows were heading for the third floor.
Not to mention I said some horrible things about her earlier that day. I actually said Willow cared more about her than she did me! Isn't that titandamn ironic? If Willow cared more about Amity than she cared about me, she would've stayed with Amity instead of rushing upstairs to my aid.
Though, what happened didn't mean Willow cared about me more. She didn't know there was an elevator still in the elevator shaft. The hotel had clearly been abandoned. It wasn't that crazy of an idea that they took the metal box out of the elevator shaft when it first closed. And I wasn't the only one in danger on the third floor. Luz, Camila, and Boscha were with me and, arguably, they were in more danger than I was.
Yet Willow still made the decision to leave Amity, and she made that decision because some premonition made her think I was destined to die. Reasonably or not, the both of us were kicking ourselves for not caring about the late Blight more.
I admit it. I said Amity deserved to die, and, at the moment I said it, I believed it too. But Amity was my friend, a friend who stuck with me that entire stay at the hotel. Hell, she even saved my life during the rat attack. I should have never thought her passing would be a good thing, even for a split second while I was blinded by rage. It probably wasn't the smartest idea to be out walking. I had just had my eye removed a week prior for titan's sake. But I couldn't stay locked up in my room, left alone so I could recover. I needed to talk to someone, someone who wasn't crushed by their grief at that moment.
I didn't think he would hear my knock, it was barely audible, but the door opened a few seconds later. Standing on the other side was a newer schoolmate of mine. The flat haired brunette had a scowl on his face at first, but, after noticing who I was, it morphed into a look of shock.
"Agustus?". His dark colored eyes reflected his mix of relief and concern. "Where the hell have you been? I've been trying to get a hold of you ever since I heard you guys left the hotel early".
You don't know how happy I was to see one of my friends not covered in scratches and bruises. It really bummed the both of us out to hear that he had to stay in detention while the rest of us were away but thank titan he didn't go. Had he gotten hurt, or worse, I would've lost it.
I couldn't respond with words. I instantly latched onto my friends and began to sob. He first let out an annoyed "hey", physical contact being something the witch could only tolerate so much of. But then he noticed how broken up I really was, how much I truly needed any form of comfort.
"What the hell happened on that field trip?" he muttered as he returned the embrace.
"There was a murder inside the hotel, Mattholomule" I explained through my many upset hics and sniffs. "We tried to fight back, but he saw everything coming. He was always watching us no matter where we went or what we did".
"Hey, hey. Slow down" my friend tried his best to calm. "First of all, you need to sit down before you hit the floor".
The witchling was right. My legs were shaking so bad I couldn't stand without holding onto something. I was barely able to make it to the couch Mattholomule led me to. I literally crashed into it.
"So, what happened?" he asked. "Someone actually tried to kill you?".
"The owner of the hotel trapped us in with a magic disabling barrier" I began, this time a lot slower. "He had a bunch of super dangerous potions that he used to try to kill us. He wanted our souls so he could put them in his human costumes".
"Human costumes?" Mattholomule huffed, completely dumbfounded.
"Life size suits he made out of fake skin. He's forcing all of the students he murdered to be human victims that he's going to kill every week as a part of his "unique hotel experience".
I could barely choke out my next sentence. My one eye was glued to the ground, knowing that, if I looked my healthier friend in the eyes, I would've broken even more.
"Both Luz and Amity didn't come back with us".
Mattholomule grew cautious, as if he was confronting an angry serpent. He took a while to think about what he was going to say next.
"Sorry, Augustus. That…must really suck".
"Luz is still alive," I continued despite my aching heart telling me otherwise, "but she's trapped inside that hell hole. She made a deal with the killer that, if she stayed, the rest of us could go home".
"So, they're alive? Don't worry then. I'm sure the owl lady will break them both out". Mattholomle gave the back of my shoulder an awkward pat that I barely felt.
"Amity's not. The whole reason Luz made the deal is because we found her torn in half!". My raging guilt crashed out of me. It was impossible to hold it back any longer. "The killer captured Luz, Boscha, and Camila, and I decided to stay with them! Willow and Amity freaked out when none of us came back, so they went looking for us and Amity decided to climb down the elevator shaft! While she was climbing back up, the elevator fell and… and we saw…".
The world around me faded away into the dark dust hallway of the hotel. My now glowing blue eye stared ahead of me in horror at an agonizing sight, half memory, half nightmare. I saw her. I saw Amity!
She was painfully pinned under the giant metal box that caused her horrific death. The black dress she wore was soaked in her fastly pooling blood. Her wide golden eyes were cloudy and vivid in misery at the same time.
Yet she wasn't begging for help, or panicking, or anything! No, she was smiling!
"Gus?". Her voice and the blood welling in her throat fought over space in the witch's mouth. "Why do you look so sad?".
"Amity!" I sniveled back. "I'm so sorry! I wish there was something I could do!".
"But this is a good thing. Now that I'm gone, you and Willow can be friends in peace".
"No! No! Amity, I'm your friend too! I care about you, I swear! You matter!". It was unnerving, the fact that Amity was slowly dying yet I was the one crying out in desperation.
All Amity could respond with was a gurgly laugh that got louder and louder each second. It rang in my ear, buzzing around my head like a swarm of bees. Distress flowed through my veins turning my blood ice-cold. My heart beat faster than I thought it ever could.
"What is this?" Mattholomule hollered. "What's going on?".
I could barely hear him. The only thing I could focus on was the maddening sound of Amity's blood-soaked giggling.
"Agustus, you need to calm down. You're losing it". My friend frantically searched for something he could do, something that would bring me out of my panic attack.
"Breathing!" he finally exclaimed. "You said Willow taught you a breathing thing! Do the breathing thing!".
I'm still honestly surprised that I was able to stop freaking out long enough to breathe, but I did what Mattholomule asked. I breathed in for four, then breathed out for four, counting with my fingers as I did so. I focused on the sound of my breath instead of Amity. The way my chest rose and fell lulled me into a calm.
The vision surrounding the both of us faded away. The room grew quiet again, still again.
"Are you…good?" the witch sitting beside me asked.
It took me a moment to respond, but I finally gave my friend an exhausted, "yeah. I'm good".
"Good… Now what the hell was up with the illusions?".
"It's something that's happened to me since I was young" I sighed. "When I get stuck in my thoughts too much, an illusion appears around me, and anyone around me, I guess. I was stuck in one when I first met Willow. That's when she taught me that breathing trick".
"Have they ever gotten that bad before?" Mattholomule inquired after a second.
"They're all pretty scary, but that was the first time I'd ever seen someone die in one of them," I answered while a tear streamed down my face.
There was another moment of silence. Mattholomule was deep in thought, trying his hardest to think of anything he could do to make me feel even the slightest bit better. I, on the other hand, was staying as far away from my thoughts as possible. I soaked in the present moment while it was still static.
"You said the killer put Amity's soul in a suit. Doesn't that mean she's still here?" my friend finally uttered.
"She's still dead. She's just a ghost now" I argued, my listlessness creeping back in as I spoke.
"No. She's a ghost in skin. Aren't we, like, all ghosts in skins?".
"But it's not the same thing. She had a life, but it was taken from her. And now she's being forced to walk around as some artificial human".
Mattholomule took a deep breath, once again pondering about how to respond. The scrawny pale witch then softened, his voice quieting to the calmest hush he could muster.
"Look" he began. "I'm not saying the situation's ideal, but it doesn't sound completely terrible either. With a body, it'll be easier for her to take care of unfinished business, and it'll give her a chance to stay a little while afterwards".
He had a point. Amity would still be able to live, even if she wasn't one-hundred percent living. And, though she was no longer a witch, being a human in the Demon realm didn't seem bad at all. She could still do magic with glyphs, and she'd have Luz and Camila to help her adjust to being human.
"I suppose," I murmured. "Though, that still doesn't change the fact that she's stuck in a hotel with a killer".
"Like I said," Mattholomule shrugged. "The owl lady will take care of it. And if she doesn't, the Blights definitely will. I'm sure they're not gonna let what happened to Amity slide".
If I wasn't in the hotel when the owner started his killing spree, I would've believed that without a doubt. Eda used to be one of the most powerful witches on the isles and, even without being able to use glyphless magic, still had a ton of tricks up her sleeve. And the Blight family literally created the Emperor's Coven's strongest weapons. Just hearing that they were dead set on rescuing Luz and Amity should've wiped any concern I had for the two.
But I knew what they were up against. Savagescent, a dust bunny, who knows what else the killer had in his arsenal that he just didn't get the chance to use yet. And who knew exactly where he had gotten those highly dangerous and illegal potions from. Did he have powerful friends, ones that could cause a whole bunch of problems if provoked? Or did he perhaps know how to craft those dangerous concoctions himself?
With all that, Eda's curse hindering her magic, the Blight parents silence on their next course of action, and zero help from the Emperor's Coven (Most of what the killer did was unfortunately legal, and making the allegation, even if that allegation is totally true, that he was using illegal potions risked them finding out about the school's highly prohibited multi-track program), things were looking very bleak to me.
"Yeah, I guess" I mumbled, too tired to argue. "Can we… maybe…talk about something else?".
"You wanna talk about your new eye patch?" Mattholomule asked despite not having to.
That was probably the only good thing about losing my left eye. Besides just looking plain cool in an eye patch, I decided to personalize it. I would probably be forced to wear it for the rest of my life, so why not have fun with it.
It was mainly black, but there was the white silhouette of a chameleon in the middle, as a nod to my palisman. And in the middle of the chameleon was a small teal mirror that represented my illusion magic.
I couldn't help but laugh at the question before responding, "You bet your ass I want to talk about my new eye-patch".
…
There were tons of students packed in the auditorium, yet it was relatively quiet. Every conversation across the room were nothing but a bunch of whispers, whether they were rumors or my year just consoling each other.
Instead of wearing our uniforms, everyone was dressed in black. It was our first day back to school after our trip to the hotel, and, before we all went back to our classes, principal Bump decided to hold a ceremony for all of the students who didn't come back with us. He had chosen a witch to represent each student who lost their life, among them were Boscha, Cat, and Willow representing Skara, Amelia, and Amity respectively.
Principal Bump originally asked me to speak for Amity, knowing that I was comfortable with public speaking. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. After what had happened at Mattholomule's place the day before, I didn't trust myself not to get stuck in another one of my horrible illusions.
Speaking of Mattholomule, my friend was sitting in the seat beside me impatiently waiting for the ceremony to begin. He chose to be completely silent, afraid that, if he said something stupid, he would upset me more than I already was. Yet he kept his eye on me, just in case he absolutely had to calm me down.
A scratching sound alerted everyone's attention to the stage in front of us. In the center, principal Bump was fiddling with a microphone, tapping it over and over again then saying things like, "is this thing on?", and "does this thing even work?". Finally, he figured out whatever issue he had and greeted his students solemnly.
"Good morning students of Hexside. You have all been called here today in light of the tragic events of last week's field trip. As many of you already know, the witch responsible for caring for the students partaking in it abused his power and attacked the very witchlings he swore to protect. His horrid actions sent many students to the healing coven and a handful of others to their untimely, unfortunate, demise.
Let us now take this time to commemorate all those who couldn't return home with the rest of their peers".
One by one, each speaker took the stage. They all started the same way, announcing who they were honoring and then explaining how that witch died. Then they talked a little bit about the witch's life and finished by saying they would be missed.
Some did a better job at that than others. I was quite surprised to find that Boscha's speech about Skara was very heartfelt. Though most of it was her bragging, she wasn't bragging about herself. Instead she put Skara up on a super high pedestal, flaunting her success in grudgby and immense popularity. You could just feel the pride radiating off of the triclops, admiration making her three blue eyes shine brighter than I had ever seen them.
The last witch to step up to the microphone was Willow. I didn't know how she was able to look so confident in spite of the grief gnawing inside of her. I could see pain strongly stirring in her bright green eyes, yet she held her head high.
"I am here in honor of Amity Blight, who died while trying to save her friends and the love of her life from the wrath of the killer. To most she was a cold and powerful witch who was hyper focussed on her status and studies, and, for a while, that's the only side of her she ever showed. But over the past couple of months, Amity had started to show a different side that I haven't seen since the two of us were little.
I will not deny the fact that she was a bully, and she wouldn't either. But, with the help of a certain human, Amity faced her own cruelty, the consequences of her actions, and began to work towards being a better witch. And that witch turned out to be someone I am proud to have called my friend.
Amity was by no means a saint, but I know for certain that her strength, her valor, and her kindness will definitely be missed.
Thank you".
Each word Willow said stabbed me like a dagger. My friend was completely right. Amity wasn't perfect and had made her fair share of mistakes, but despite all that, we still cared about her.
So why couldn't Amity have just believed that! We all told her how much we cared about her a million times over, and yet she died thinking that I meant more to Willow than she did! And, what's worse, I meant more to her than she did!
I felt a hand grab the side of my arm. It very delicately shook me in order to get my attention.
"Take it easy, Augustus. Remember you've gotta breathe".
I gave a thankful glance to Mattholomule as I brought my focus to my breathing. I began to internally count, paying close attention to the sound of every breath in and every breath out. It didn't take long for myself to calm down, though my inner anguish only dulled into an ache instead of disappearing like I wanted it to.
"Though these brave students may not be here anymore, our memories of them will remain with us forever. As we move forwards and things go back to normal, we must never forget everyone we've had to leave behind".
Principal Bump's last sentence took all of the dread and fragile hope that had burrowed deep inside of me those long last two weeks and lit them ablaze. We had to leave them behind? Does that mean he was willing to forget about all of the students who were still stuck inside the hotel?!
Those students we had taken the last half hour to honor didn't just get to happily move on to the spirit realm! They couldn't move on like principal Bump wanted all of us to! And what about the Hexide students that were still alive?! Both Edric and Emira were being forced to work at that hellhole until the killer felt they'd made up for being beaten up by his gargoyles! And then there was Luz!
"He didn't even mention Luz," I growled to Mattholomule. "She's the reason the rest of us made out alive, and he's not even going to give her a shout out".
"Before I bring this assembly to a close, I would like to give you all one final opportunity to come up to the stage and say something for our fallen friends".
"Here's your chance, then" Mattholomule urged as he sat up slightly and faced me. "You should say something".
"I don't know if I can," I cried. "What if I freak out again?".
The witch beside me took a good look at the mess I'd become. My nails were digging into the arm of my seat. My one good blue eye twitched while it tried to open wider than it already was. I gnashed my fangs together, baring them like a cornered wild animal. Mattholomule dejectedly let out a sigh while he turned his head away from me. Then he rose to his feet.
"I have something to say," he called out.
Surprised chatter rose into the air. The principal looked as shocked as everyone sounded, yet he moved to the side and let the scrawny witch take the floor.
"As you all know, I didn't go to the hotel, so you're all probably wondering, "what the hell is that guy even doing up there?". Well, that guy is here to remind you that Luz exists… and she's alive. And we shouldn't just abandon her inside of that hotel or any of the ghosts that are in there too".
It wasn't graceful at all, but it was still sweet to see Mattholomule try to give a heartfelt speech in my place. But sweet as it was, his spur of the moment plan still backfired. He wasn't ready for the rest of the auditorium's response for what he'd just said.
"What are you suggesting we do?".
"You weren't even there".
"Luz made her decision".
The angry tirade of complaints drove me out of my seat and up to the stage next to Mattholomule. I gave him a small smile and put my hand on his back.
"You get an A for effort," I chuckled quietly. "But I've got it from here".
Each step towards the microphone stand made me feel powerful, the sound of my feet hitting the floor echoed through the room. My chest was puffed out in courage, while I held my head up high.
"Fellow Hexide students," I thundered. "I stand in front of you today in honor of Luz Noceda. Like Mattholomule said, she is still alive, and she made a deal with the killer that ended with her being trapped inside the hotel so everyone else could be set free. You would not be sitting here right now had Luz not given up her own freedom.
And she is not the only one who survived the killer yet is still stuck in the hotel. Camila, Luz's loving mother, and Vee, Luz's newest sister, refuse to leave their loved ones' side. Edric is being forced to work at the hotel without pay and his sister, Emira, is fighting for her life as we speak. And, of course, all of the witches' mentioned here today, the ones that we say we'll never forget, are still in that titandamn hotel too!".
"What are you getting at, Augustus?" a stray voice from the crowd shouted.
I paused for a moment, my recurring doubt and hopelessness rearing its head once again. I didn't have a plan. It's not as if I could confidently tell all the witches in front of me exactly how we could break our peers free. But there was one thing I could tell them for sure.
"I'm going back".
The crowd went ballistic. Some students were yelling, some were crying in fear… and some began to echo what I said.
"I'm going back too!" Willow yowled.
"Are you nuts?!" Boscha snapped from beside her. "Or are you just really stupid?!".
"He no longer has the right to kill us". The plant witch argued while standing up and facing the crowd. "That contract principal Bump signed is now null and void".
"What good will going back do any of us?" Cat asked. "Do you know a way we can help them escape?".
Cat, along with Bo, gapped at Willow in anticipation. They looked ready to follow her lead. Boscha, on the other hand, seemed skeptical. Yet the three eyed witch patiently waited for Willow to respond.
"No," the shorter witchling answered reluctantly before her surety rebounded. "But wouldn't it be easier to think of a plan if we could talk to Luz and the others?". Cat and Bo turned towards Boscha, their eyes asking for her opinion. She held her gaze to the ground, her sight focused on her own thoughts.
"Okay" she finally muttered after a sigh. "I guess we're going back".
"Who else is coming with us?" I called to everyone in front of me. They all nervously remained silent, the one response being principal Bumps'.
"It's just you five," he yelled. The older witch walked closer to me and started whispering. "I must admit, I knew you and Willow would be running back to help Luz as soon as you were healed. I've already brought it up to your teachers and they've come up with a plan as to how you can make up for all the work you are going to miss. I don't know if you'll be able to convince your parents to let you go back, but you'll be with the Clawthornes, I assume, and I trust they will keep you safe. You have my okay".
I didn't need his okay. Ever since I shouted it into the microphone, there was nothing stopping me from going back. But principal Bump's approval was going to really come in handy when trying to get my dad to let me go back I suppose.
Excitedly, I leapt off of the stage and landed right in front of Willow, Boscha, Bo, and Cat. Once their startle wore off, all of them faced me eagerly. I soaked in their conviction; it brought me a new-found energy.
"Pack your bags everyone. Let's go see what Luz has been up to".