"Why did I agree to this?" I muttered as my pointer finger tapped against the table. My ears flattened as annoyance covered me like a tarp. "It's only been five minutes and I already can't stand this cesspit".
"It definitely hasn't gotten prettier since we left" Cat agreed while her own annoyance showed. "It's gonna take more than a new coat of paint to fix this place up".
"I can't believe that Amelia and Skara have to live here" Bo added with a sliver of unease in her dark brown eyes. "And they might be here forever".
My friend struck a nerve with that last sentence. As it shot through me like lightning, my bitterness turned to a sharp anger.
"Shut up, Bo! We're gonna get them out of here! That's why we're here!".
"And how do we do that?". Cat stared at me, uncertain. Her own brown eyes asked me for direction while they grew large.
Well… I… Okay, fine! I didn't have a clue! But we had to think of something! I did not go back to that damn hotel just to leave without the two witches we came for!
"I can answer that".
Great. I'd only been there for around an hour, and I already had to deal with the leader of the Luz-ers. Just the thought of her made me want to gag myself. It shouldn't have. She was just some dork who mistakenly thought she belonged in this realm. But she somehow convinced nearly all of Hexide that she wasn't.
In spite of my many attempts to teach that stupid human her place, she still walked around like she was more than just a nobody that stumbled onto the isles when her mom threw her away.
"Hey, Luz," Cat welcomed with a smile.
"How have you been holding up?" Bo added gently.
See? Instead of treating her like the loser she was, they talked to the human like she was a normal witch.
"I…". Said human had to stop herself before any of her actual feelings slipped out. "I've been doing… alright… I suppose".
"Yeah," I huffed. "Like that's not a sorry excuse for a lie".
The look Luz gave me in response was honestly concerning. Her brown eyes lit with raw ire, her face scrunching as she fought the urge to lash out. It was really unlike her.
"What a great observation" she growled viciously. "Who could've guessed that the person who discovered their girlfriend's dead lifeless body would be less than alright!".
The human's angry shout alerted the other two living Luz-ers. From a table next to the kitchen door, Willow and Gus rushed over. Willow put her hand on Luz's arm supportively, her touch causing her friend to turn and look into the plant witch's eyes. Gus's one-eyed gaze, on the other hand, was plastered on me.
"Back off, Boscha! Don't you think Luz is going through enough without all your griffin shit?!".
"I told her not to make that deal with the killer. It's not my fault dumbass didn't listen" I replied with a scoff and a roll of my eyes.
"That deal is the reason more people didn't die!" the young illusionist spat back.
"It didn't have to be. We had that bastard pinned, literally! But then the human had to pretend to be a hero and blow it!".
Luz shrank back like I had physically shoved her. Shame radiated off of her in strong waves, the lines on her face growing even deeper than they already were. That prompted Willow to jump into the argument.
"We wouldn't have had the killer pinned if Luz didn't trick him," she commandingly snarled. "Besides, we don't know how it would've played out if we kept using force on the hotel owner. But we do know that, when Luz agreed to stay here, it resulted in the rest of us being released. Now let's think about our next step instead of arguing over the last one, shall we".
I sighed out all of my urge to argue back. I still think we could've taken the killer on, even after finding Amity. There were five of us and only one of him. Who's to say we couldn't have pinned him down again?
But Willow was unfortunately right. The human's shitty decision was in the past and bitching about it wasn't going to help us free Skara and Amelia.
"You said you had a plan, Luz?" Cat asked as a way to move the conversation forwards.
"It's not my plan, actually". Luz's voice slightly wavered. You could obviously tell that she was trying her best not to snap. "Emira came up with the idea".
"Emira?!" I spat as if her name tasted bitter. "The witch with her brains scrambled? Is that the Emira you're talking about?".
"She's had good ideas before" Bo piped in. "Isn't she the one who told you we could eat the rats".
"She showed me," Luz corrected. "She ate one in front of all the other rats and then I got the idea to scare them off with the flares".
"That sounds more like her having a snack than her having an idea" I responded sardonically.
"Well, this time, it's her idea. She got it after talking to the dead".
"And what is this idea, Luz?" Willow prodded.
"Well," she began while she ran back to her table and grabbed something. She dropped a couple of notebooks in front of us, one labeled Skara while the other had Amelia's name on it. "She said that the bears would get their memories back if they "befriended ink". And what better way to do that than to have a pen pal?".
"So that's the plan? We… wait. What did you call them?".
"We're calling all of the undead Hexide students "bears", short for "those who bear fabric flesh". That was also Emira's idea".
"How will talking to them help get their memories back?" Gus asked from beside the human. "We can't just tell them the truth. Edric tried that and Amity didn't believe him".
"Well, they aren't going to believe us right out of the gate. But Amiyah got used to the whole demon thing really quickly, and a lot of her memories are still there, they're just human-fied. If we can get them to believe they're actually witches, then it'll be easier to fill in all the gaps".
The human's poor excuse sent fear running through me. "Fill in all the gaps"? That didn't sound like they would get their memories back. That sounded like the "bears" would go the rest of their lives pretending to be the witches they used to be.
"I would hardly call that them getting their memories back!" I snapped, my worry fueling my fiery anger. "They would still just be a bunch of clueless humans pretending to be witches, just like you!".
"Just because they're humans now doesn't mean they're not the same witches they were before they were killed!" Luz barked back as her anger began to rise too. "All our friends still act and think like they used to!".
"Except they don't remember who we are! All of your "friends" aren't your friends anymore! They're all strangers! And Amity?! You two aren't dating anymore!". I had clearly made my point, there's no doubt about that, but I wanted to go further. I wanted to knock some sense into the human, teach her a much-needed lesson.
"You hear me, human?! Amity doesn't love you anymore!".
"At least Amity used to care about me!" Luz roared. "Despite being forced to be around you, she never actually liked you! Because you have and always will be nothing but a dumb insufferable jerk!".
"And why should I care about what Amity thought of me?! She was just a two-faced hellhound who decided to become a loser! I mean, thank titan I won't have to deal with her sorry fake ass anymore!".
Everything after Luz's thunderous cry in rage left me stunned. Like some sort of rabid animal, the human leapt across the table and pushed me to the ground with her entire body. She kneeled on top of my chest as her hands latched onto my throat.
I don't think I'd ever seen so much hatred in someone's eyes. Their tired sunken look projected her pain, while the fire in them promised to make me hurt just as bad.
"AMITY WAS A THOUSAND TIMES THE WITCH YOU'LL EVER BE!".
I didn't notice the two teens that rushed across the lobby and pulled the ravage human off of me, nor did I notice the many voices frantically asking if I was alright. Luz's attack wasn't really that strong, I could have thrown her off of me if I had tried, but holy titan! I just didn't expect that!
Luz wasn't the violent type. She was all about being nice and giving people second chances. I never thought someone like that could get so savage-like!
"What's going on, Luz? What happened?" one of the two bystanders who came to my aid questioned.
Looks like we said Amity's name too much. We ended up summoning her.
"I'm sorry, Amiyah" the real human sighed while slowly cooling down. "Boscha and I got into a fight about this witch we used to know, and, well, I sort of lost it".
"Amity, right?". Luz gawked at her former girlfriend, her old name stabbing her like a bunch of knives.
"How…How did you–".
"You said her name out loud, first of all" the bear answered before Luz could stammer anymore. "But also, everyone kind of talks about her a lot. It's like everyone I've met knows her in some way shape or form".
"Not everyone," the other bear stepped in. "Whose, Amity?".
Bo, Cat, and I, we couldn't move. She may have been in different skin and believed she was from an entirely different realm, but we all couldn't help but see Skara standing there in front of us.
It was Skara. It wasn't but it was. She no longer knew anything about who she was or what she was, but part of that human puppet and that soul inside of it was my friend, titandammit!
She looked so similar to her witch version but the tiniest details he changed drove me crazy. The silver in both Skara's hair and eyes were gone, replaced by blonde and hazel. The human realm authentic clothes the killer got for her to wear were the ugliest pieces of fabric I'd ever seen. And her ears. He made them round.
We all knew he would. She was supposed to be a human, after all. But the sight of them still bothered me. What did that rat bastard do to my friend?
He killed her, that's what. He killed her and then he changed her.
"Amity was a good friend of ours," Gus explained somberly. "Her and Luz had just started dating before… well…".
"...before she was killed" Luz finished while she quickly swallowed her grief.
Amity's human puppet turned towards me. Her sad but supported gaze morphed into a protective one. Her hair and ears may have changed, but that pissy look in her eye sure didn't.
"And you started disrespecting the dead in front of their loved ones. Is that what happened?".
"I'm not going to start praising Amity just because she died," I hmphed. "Dead or alive she's still–".
"Just so you know, Boscha," Amiyah humorlessly laughed. "If you piss Luz off again, I'm just going to let her rip you to shreds this time."
"Like she could," I laughed right back.
"You know damn well she could" Willow gnarled, half warningly and half defensively.
My stare found Luz. It tempted her to attack me again and see what would happen.
"That's up to you, human. You want to try to defend your ex-girlfriend again?".
As soon as I began to speak, everyone around me prepared for Luz's reaction. The human herself was about to take me on my offer, while her aforementioned girlfriend looked ready to join in. Willow and Gus reached out towards the two, about to latch onto them and hold them back. Cat and Bo stood up from their seats as they anticipated the upcoming chaos.
But before anyone could do anything, Skara spoke up.
"Leave her alone".
"Wh…what?" I stammered while my mouth hung open.
"Don't joke about her losing someone she cares about. That's crossing a line".
She didn't sound nearly as ferocious as Luz and Amiyah did, but Skara was still able to shake me. My friend had never not been on my side before. Even if she thought I was being a little too cruel, she always understood that I needed to show my dominance.
"In most cases, it would be. But you obviously don't remember Amity, do you?" I hmphed. I didn't notice the mistake I'd just made until Skara pointed it out.
"Remember? I'd never met Amity".
"Like I said. You didn't know Amity" I moved on like I hadn't screwed up. "Everyone's acting like she was the best witch in the world, all because she's dead now. But she was actually just a poser".
"That's not how I remember her" a familiar voice stepped in. I turned to see Bo staring back at me. She looked both confused and slightly saddened. "Why are you so angry at Amity anyway?".
"What do you mean, why am I so angry with Amity?" I spat incredulously. "She literally sided against us and started hanging out with a bunch of losers".
"I wouldn't call them losers," Cat argued. "Once you get to know them, they seem pretty fun. And let's not forget about everything they did for us a few weeks ago".
"Cat's right," Gus agreed. "Didn't Willow fight the killer, without any weapons, just to save you? And how many times did Luz save all our asses?".
As much as I hated admitting it, Agustus had a point. The hotel owner would've easily killed me had Willow not intervened. And look, I may not have liked the witch, but I had to give her credit. She was stronger than we all initially thought.
But that didn't make Amity ditching us okay.
"I can clearly see why Amity wanted to hang out with them," Cat continued. "I mean, can you blame her?".
"Are you two joking?!" I snarled in disbelief. "After all the years we hung out with her, she chose them over us!".
"You forced her to make that choice," Willow uttered. "You knew the two of us had a past. Did you really think she was comfortable with you always making fun of me?".
"She always was until she went soft".
"She didn't go soft; she became a better witch. I of all witches know that she was cruel. But, unlike you, she cared about how much she was hurting people, so she started to change into someone who'd cause a lot less damage. And she couldn't have done that and hung out with someone as hateful as you at the same time".
My three eyes moved all around me. I glanced over at Cat and Bo to see that their expressions hadn't changed. They both silently asked for my response, to give a good reason for having spider-beef with the youngest Blight. Then I looked over at Skara, almost pleadingly. I wanted her to back me up. If anyone understood how I felt it would be her, right? But just like everyone else, she just continued to sit there and gawk at me.
Before I could respond to Willow, a loud scream for help resonated from the first-floor hallways. I was able to tell who it came from without even seeing her, and so were Bo and Cat.
"Amelia!" the former shouted, as we all ran to the undead witch.
In the small nook of the hallway that led to the elevator and first-floor laundry room, a tall witch dressed in a black cloak was slamming the bear's head into the ice machine. A large part of Amelia's now mahogany colored hair was drenched in her blood, her green eyes just as soaked in her tears. She wriggled around violently as she tried to rip herself out of the killer's grasp, but her squirming barely phased him.
The other humans, witches, and demons surrounding him didn't bother him either. In fact, I thought I could see his smile get bigger when the crowd showed up.
"I'm sort of impressed" he purred overdramatically. "I thought your feeble little head would have busted by now".
The older witch bashed Amelia's head against the metal box again. She let out another cry, but it was cut short when the killer struck her with his other hand.
It was hard to just sit there and watch that bastard torture anyone, let alone my friend. If I could've, I'd have walked up to that no-good son of a hellhound and broken his nose. Then I'd break the rest of him, too. But, if I had done that, he would've kicked me out of his hotel immediately and I'd have no way to help the bears escape.
All I could do was remind myself that she would come back. Her human costume would repair itself and it would be like she'd never been murdered at all, just like the first time.
Titan the first time. I'll admit it, seeing both Skara and Amelia the first time they'd been killed was…just…agonizing! It hurt so titandamn much! I couldn't sleep that night because when I closed my eyes their remains were all I saw!
"Amiyah!" Skara suddenly shouted commandingly. "Go for the shoulder!".
No! They weren't going to–!
"Right!" Amiyah roared.
The two of them shot towards the killer with a thunderous war cry! Instead of doing what Skara said, Amiyah went for the witch's calves. She rammed her foot into his legs making her enemy stumble. In an attempt to protect his shoulder, he bent in a way that exposed his soft spot. Skara punched him in the side, making him loosen his hold on Amelia.
It was a beautiful attack, perfectly planned and everything. Yes, Amiyah didn't do as she was told, but she wasn't supposed to. It was all a trick to make the killer try to focus on the wrong parts of him, a trick I'd seen on the grudgby field many times before.
That still didn't extinguish my panic. Nobody could see it yet, but the killer was armed! He had to have had those stupid pair of garden shears! And they weren't armed, just like in the basement!
The killer rebounded quickly. He reached to his side, and, out from his cloak, he unsheathed his weapon of choice. As he did so, he knocked Amiyah to the floor with his arm. She hit the wall with a loud thud, a small cracking noise could be heard.
He didn't waste any time turning his attention to Skara. The killer held the two blades high, silently daring her to run. But she couldn't move, she was frozen still by the dire situation. She could outrun that bastard, sure, but the bear had nowhere to run to.
It was my turn to act. While the killer swung, I latched onto Skara and shielded her with my back. The pain that followed nearly brought me to my knees. His blade just had to have hit right where Amity had injured me. It was just starting to feel better too, though it was still hard to bend it.
My howl was covered by the gasps of the crowd around me. They silently watched in awe as the killer attacked the three bears, but I wasn't one of the fake humans on display. In spite of it seeming like my fault, the hotel owner had just attacked one of his guests and that got all of the other guests talking.
The frightened chatter of all the witches and demons made the killer pause. He was heavily tempted to bring the show to a halt and console all of his customers, but his attention was brought back to Amelia as she tried to crawl away.
Skara knew what the killer was thinking just by the way his body language changed. With all of her might, she tried to race to where the injured human laid. But my will was just a bit stronger. I fearfully held her back despite all of her protest.
"Let me go!" She squealed.
"No! He'll kill you too!".
With no one there to stop him, he sent his weapon straight through Amelia's back. She let out one last whimper before going rigid then completely still. Amiyah and Skara both mournfully hollered, the latter breaking out of my arms and dropping to the floor.
The killer stepped forwards, ready to attack his grieving self-made human, though stopped once he saw my glare. I could only keep one of my eyes open. The other two were tightly shut so tears of pain wouldn't spill out of them.
He took another moment, this time a much longer one, to think about how to handle the situation.
"Luz!" he finally called. "Bring her to your mother. Have her look at this young lady's wounds". Then, right before he left, he added, "and please folks, don't get too close to the weapons. They may be of human origin, but they truly are dangerous".
…
With every move I made, my back burned. Even after being dressed and bandaged up by Luz's mother, my gash still hurt just as much as the moment I got it. I could barely sit up let alone write a response to the letter in front of me.
If it were for any other witch, I wouldn't have bothered. I still doubted that the whole pen pal thing would actually help any, after all. But this was for the oldest friend I had.
Just like I had told Luz, I meant nothing to Skara. She didn't remember who I was and, though I did technically save her life, my first impression didn't impress her in the slightest. I was a stranger to her now.
But she wasn't a stranger to me. Believe it or not but I cared about Skara. Before her first death, she was my wing-witch, my second in command… She was my best friend. And even though she wasn't by my side anymore, I still gave a shit about her.
If I had to write her a bunch of letters to get her back, I would write an entire novel.
I opened up the notebook in front of me, but I didn't look into it right away. I was kind of nervous to see what she put in there. It was possible I could've seen something bad written about me in there. I had to force myself to look down and read what she wrote.
"Dear mystery person,
I honestly don't know where to start. Today was just insane and so is this entire hotel. Killer inside it aside, some of the witches I met today said some pretty weird things. One of them thought I knew another witch that died in this very hotel. Obviously, I had never met her before but, when they started talking about her more, I got a weird feeling of nostalgia. Like I didn't know who they were talking about, but I knew what they were talking about.
And then there was the other thing that happened today. Someone died today, right in front of me. Amiyah and I tried our hardest to stop him, but he ended up killing her in the end. Nobody around us did anything about it! In fact, one of the witches from earlier stopped me from trying to help her…".
I stopped reading for a moment and looked away. I knew she'd mention me. Once again, I fought myself fang and nail to keep reading.
"... I don't blame her for stopping me. She had actually just taken a hit to the back for me. And I was really surprised she did. The last time I talked to her, she was making fun of the witch who died in the elevator.
But something deep inside of me told me she was the key to surviving the moment I met her. And I guess that something is right.
For now, I'm just focusing on surviving the night. I've got a few things barricading the door and I'll be sleeping somewhere the killer will never find me.
Stay Safe,
Skyler Turner".
Her letter went a lot better than I expected. There wasn't a huge shit storm about the evil witch that stopped her from saving one of her own. She still said some bad things, sure, but her gut seemed to have vouched for me.
Did that mean she did remember me, then? I wouldn't call it remember, but there was definitely more than just the "human-fied" memories Luz talked about. She may not have known who I was, but she still somewhat knew we were friends.
I shoved that childish feeling of hope to the side. I couldn't make this a bigger deal than it was. Just because she had an odd feeling that I would help her did not mean she saw me as a friend.
But, like I said, I still saw her as a friend. Which meant I had to get writing.
"Hey Skyler.
First of all, you can ditch the formality. You're chatting with someone, not conversing with a coven head. Second of all, I wouldn't worry about the weird conversation with the witches this morning. You are literally trapped with a killer. There are bigger things to worry about than an already dead witch. And third…".
I paused. I thought very hard about what to say next.
"... I think I know the witch you're talking about. The one that saved you.
I'm positive you can trust her. Yes, she may seem a bit hellhound-ish, but do you really think she would take that really painful hit to the back to save you if she was not going to help you survive?
Talk to her some more tomorrow. You'll see that she's not so bad.
Sincerely, A friendly stranger".