Luz could have had a better day.
It was the objective truth, and she would fight anyone who said otherwise.
The day had started well enough, but halfway through, everything went downhill fast.
And not one bit was her fault.
Ok. Maybe she bears a fraction of the blame for pushing slightly too far, but overall, her retaliation was fully justified. Dumping two kilograms of dirt on Clara's head might seem extreme, but that's what she gets for mocking her adorable snakes.
The Principal and her mother didn't share her mindset.
Thankfully, he was more lenient than usual for some reason and only gave her a few weeks of detention.
This, oddly enough, was the only good thing that happened today because once in the sanctuary of her mother's car, she was quickly informed that, while she still had a few hours of work, by the time Canila got home Luz's phone and tablet must be on the table in the kitchen.
Which, in Luz's humble opinion, was a punishment worse than death, but even that was nothing compared to being locked in place by the unmistakable shimmer of disappointment reflecting from her mother's gaze.
She doesn't reply, suddenly feeling her clothes were too stiff and suffocating, any retort dying on her tongue, forcing her to merely hug her knees tighter. Before she realized it, she pinched the flesh of her leg, the skin turning red as the subtle pain managed to push back the stinging tears that threatened to fall.
All her life, she had been forced to deal with the oppressing sneers or pitting gazes of the people surrounding her, but when it came to her mother, the only one who always loved and cared for her, Luz could do nothing but want to curl in a dark spot and never come out again, because nothing is worse than disappointing the only person that still loves you.
It felt like an eternity, but at last, they finally pulled into the driveway, and before her mother could muster another word, Luz booked it out of the car, her legs aching and spasming from the sudden effort placed on them.
Nonetheless, she forced her body to run until the hardened cement under her feet gave away to wet grass, and the grass turned to the parquet of her porch. Grasping the cold knob with trembling fingers, she flung the door wide open and closed it with a loud thud not a second later, as by the time a tear droplet began breaching through the surface of her eyelid, she was already making her way up the stairs.
However, unbeknownst to Luz, this moment will be the dawn of a new chapter in her life and mark a radical change to her very essence, setting the foundation of a new reality that will mutate her very being, making her mourn the past where disappointing her mother was the epitome of Luz's fears.
Perhaps if it wasn't for the spindly fingers of shame and guilt that pressed down her throat like serrated knives that split her skin, she could have been able to focus on her surroundings.
If only she had been more careful and paid more attention in her dazed state, then the fate of Luz and everyone around her might have been altered.
If tears hadn't blurred her eyesight, she would have seen the duck toy lying on the ground.
But those are just 'What Ifs' not worth taking into consideration.
After all, one can never defy the path paved by the Hunter with just favorable scenarios.
For that reason, in mere seconds of her foot stepping on the rubber duck, her line of vision shifted from the large window to the ground, and Luz could do nothing as her skull smashed against the corner of her desk.
Fear of darkness is something inherited from their very first ancestors. From the beginning, the primitive and undeveloped ape brain declared that they shall fight the darkness that surrounded them with fire and light.
Their fear was irrational, and they had no one but themself to blame. No other shared their unreasonable terror regarding such a fundamental element of the world as animals are not mentally capable enough to be concerned by such trivial matters, and in another dimension, witches and demons alike perceive darkness as nothing more than a part of their everyday lives.
It is the unfounded assumption that humans are plagued by, believing something sinister lurks in the deepest depths of darkness, curling its figurative teeth at those who trek too far into the unknown.
But despite being shown time and time again that no monsters hide underneath the cover of their bed and no gloomy figures stalk them just around the corner of their eyesight, they keep believing, not even realizing that the monsters they fear are as cruel as their species.
Do you now begin to understand Luz Noceda?
Monsters concealing themselves behind the cover of darkness are nothing more than vivid creations formed by terror-soaked imaginations. Darkness has and will always be nothing more than a concept brought into existence by Life azure flame, so no monster will ever be stupid enough to conceal themself with something so intimately tied to the existence they loathe the most.
Silence, however, is another matter entirely.
Before her body could even muster itself to brace, Luz's consciousness crashed against the confines of her mind, compelling her body to jerk unevenly across weathered planks of the cold floor
A choked gasp forced its way up her trachea, which was quickly overshadowed by the almost primal need to breathe. For a few moments, Luz remained stuck in an involuntary action of inhaling, almost feeling like she was trying to fill a never-ending void.
Slowly and meticulously, the tension under her skin subsided, and her pulse returned to normal levels, as her heart settled down to the moderate beating of a human heart.
Some residual pain still lingered persistently across a portion of her face, her frontal lob throbbing at random intervals, but all in all, she felt far better now than when she had been painfully aroused from her dreamless sleep.
Taking in her surroundings, it quickly dawned on her she was obviously still in her room, but strangely enough, something felt off. Almost everything stood right where she left them, but unbeknownst to her, that was only partly true as her skittish mind overlooked the empty place where her desk should have been.
"Mum, are you home?"
There was no response from downstairs, silence remaining her only companion. Instead of screaming for her mother again, she crawled off the cold floor and approached her door with frantic steps, the strange dullness permeating her room instilling a disquieting sensation that bloomed in the core of her being, which was ironic considering that she always loved spending time in her room.
Grabbing the knob with shaky hands, she gradually turned it to the left in a single motion, the lock producing an inaudible click as the door yawned open with a groan, allowing her eyes to gaze across the terrain beyond.
For an impossible moment, one that could have stretched to infinity and more, her gaze stood transfixed on what lay before her door, what should have been the gloomy halfway stretching from her room now replaced by a Forest.
Rather than pristine and framed photographs displaying beloved moments of their lives frozen in time of her family unmarred by the imperfections and cruelty of the future, enormous trees taller than anything should be sprouted from the ground and stretching endlessly into the atmosphere, blanking the sky with their innumerous and leafless branches.
To call them actual tress was also a tad bit misleading, her mind diluting their unhallowed by reducing them to just trees, refusing to acknowledge the incomprehensible giants whose unseen height could only be possibly reached by meticulously piling each infinitesimal gram of dust, each iron star and celestial body scattered across the vast corners of a universe atop one another in the arrangement of an inconceivable spire.
They towered over the girl indifferently, stuck in their eternal bliss, far away from the simple crises of humans and other lower life forms.
No darkness was present to block her vision or light to guide her way, and yet, she could still perceive every detail with absolute clarity, things only being even more bizarre when she considered that her body was still casting a shadow.
Luz's breath ceased in its tracks, cloning her air pipe for a moment before forcing its way down the way it came, hiding between her ribs, anxious and heavy. Her amber eyes widened in bafflement, unconsciously stepping back as her ape brain grappled with the futile attempts to apply some naive logic to the illogical, to comprehend how something like this could exist just outside her humble abode.
It was something pulled out of sci-fi literature, only existing between the worn-out cover of a book, and weighing as much as the paper it was written on, yet she couldn't deny what stood before her.
Multiple unanswered questions meshed and gritted haphazardly in esoteric patterns that made her brain ache, the sudden discomfort only subsiding when everything clicked in her mind.
She was dreaming.
Such a simple explanation quickly became apparent, and with that line of thought in mind and a few minutes of debating whether she should close the door and hide under her blanket, she decided against following the rational but meek voice screaming in her mind to stop and trekked forward.
After all, this was nothing more than a dream.
A dream only for a Nightmare
With tender steps, she moved past the door and onto the snow-covered ground, the snow clinging to her feet uncomfortably tight, reminding her of the first time she went to the beach and drenched her finger into the soggy sand, but the feeling was overshadowed by a burst of relief as she didn't feel any coldness radiating from the snow, proving her hypothesis that she was indeed dreaming.
Her hunched shoulders relaxed as she breathed in solace and began treading through the never-ending woods, leaving the room she woke up behind with only a gram of hesitation to cast its weight onto her heart.
At first, it wasn't that noticeable, but as time passed, it became more apparent that despite the Forest not having an end or beginning, it was completely bare of anything living. No creatures were hiding in the shadow that permeated the ground—which again should be impossible due to the lack of light and darkness, no insects buzzing in the air, and there was no wind to gently flutter her clothes.
Everything was oddly...peaceful, in some bizarre and unorthodox way, that somehow managed to make her feel at ease.
Sure, she was petrified at first because who wouldn't be, but the tranquility of the hollow world was captivating.
There were no aggravating teachers, stuck-up colleagues to bother her, and no mother to disappoint, creating an abnormal and strange slice of heaven but a slice of heaven nonetheless.
But as always, things never went Luz's way, now do they?
Thud
Like a comet falling from the stratosphere, something far away slammed into the ground, sending a tremor through the land that almost made her crumble to the floor. Her eyes widened in growing panic as the trees around her began to shudder and strain under the pressure, cracks forming upon their unblemished surface.
Once the trembling subsides, a deafening silence swallows the alien world around her.
True silence was a concept never truly possible to achieve in the mortal plane, but at this very moment, the thickness of the air was so great that Luz had a hard time hearing even her thoughts. It was like all creation had been muted by the hand of an uncaring God, deafening even the eruption of a volcano and the thundering screeches of a vicious storm.
THUD
Then the silence is broken by a second boom that shatters the Forest into rough fragments.
If the first time she was able to keep her balance, Luz could now do nothing but helplessly tumble to the floor, feeling the uneven ground cut mercilessly into her knees and eliciting a pathetic and vulnerable cry.
Blood flowed from the searing punctures, and before she could have a moment to nurse the newly acquired wounds, from all directions, thunderous footsteps rang through the Forest like gunshots in a peaceful night, making the girl almost jump out of her skin. Earthquakes of high altitude shook the land with relentless power, resulting in fissures forming across the snowy ground that stretched like apertures carved into a struggling body.
If that wasn't bad enough, despite the indescribable silence that muted all but the footsteps, she couldn't block the foreign sound of trees crashing to the ground or straight up being ripped from their roots by an unseen force.
And that is what honestly scared her.
Because ever since she arrived in this strange dream world, she couldn't even begin to understand how a tree could reach such enormous heights, blackening the sky by simply existing, and for something to tear them simply by moving?
Well, that sent shivers down her spine even though she knew deep down it was just a dream (Because this was just a dream... r-right?)
The ground wailed in pain as the booming footsteps barreled closer, and Luz could do nothing but lie helplessly and monitor her surroundings anxiously, eyes rapidly darting across all directions until they stung. She desired nothing more than to flee away from the impending danger, to run until her legs gave away into exhaustion, but the terror and anticipation had already built too much for her to handle, so with an inaudible and pathetic whimper, Luz put her hand above her head and curls onto herself waiting for the dre-nightmare to end.
Louder than everything had the right to be, she almost felt more than heard the trees in front of her being vaporized in a single blow, the splintering sound of wood evaporating into ash resonating all around her, leaving only a raw and gaping gap into the landscape. The simple act of rending through the trees like they were nothing more than sticks of warm butter created enough pressure to feel like she'd been transported to the base of a mountain, the weight of a million tons pushing into her back with tremendous force.
Clenching her hands until her knuckles turned white, the girl felt terror poling into her heart like the viscous liquid of a toxic ocean, eyelids pressing tightly against one another as she braced herself for whatever was to come.
But to her utmost surprise, nothing happened.
No monster came barreling toward her, ready to pound on her helpless body and set her free from the nightmare.
After several moments of laying in a fetal position, she finally pulled herself from the ground and opened her eyes, using the last remnants of the insignificant amount of courage still somehow left in her body to give herself enough boldness to rise to a standing posture.
Hearing the devastation caused by what could only be described as a calamity is one thing, but to see the destruction with her own eyes was on another level.
Bloated and splintered remains of what once were majestic trees lay broken on the shattered floor like nothing more than unused toys. Canions whose length dwarf the trees a dozen times over could be spotted with the naked eye, nothing more than footprints of the creature that lay waste on the Forest.
Not even a modicum amount of order was left in what was once a peaceful land.
Before her dazed mind could catch up to her body, she began to back up automatically, but that was short-lived as her back collided with one of the trees left standing.
Or what she thought was a tree.
A bristling wave of frigid air rushed past her, infecting the atmosphere with the smell of rotten copper and that of a decomposed carcass left in the searing sun, so potent that she could taste it on her tongue.
Like poppies blooming onto a putrid battlefield, fear and insignificant took root inside her chest and curled around her heart. Tears spilled down her face in revolting gushes, her most basic instincts leaving her side, forced away by the presence of the Nightmare behind her.
It was a miserable sight, to feel your own mind desire to punish itself, to pull at her skin until she bled for being so stupid to let herself get into this situation even though she had little fault in getting where she was.
There was no courage left to be empowered by, no willpower to even dare to fight against something not even the Forest or Life could stop, something that could make death look like a heaven-given blessing. Every iota of her being confirmed that statement, an undisputed truth that could not be combated.
And one might ask, what could such a Nightmare do that was worse than death?
They croon.
Like the eruption and extinction of all the life across the stars, a scratching sound that could only be described as a chorus of silent throats, a howl of broken screams that bloated into the air like gas. An outcry that could bend reality and enslave it to its will, forcing any enemy, be it a bug, human, or god, to have never been born to begin with.
The Roar of Finality, from which entropy was birthed.
The Pale Song, a maddening impersonation of sounds that deteriorates life as if it were nothing more than an annoyance, mocking concepts like light and darkness and leaving its wake glistening trails of indescribable distance and shattered nothingness. For in a world where the Roar of Finality is left alone to play its tune, all physical and esoteric laws would simmer into dust.
An anathema of everything and nothingness, of Life and its mortals, of the Forest and its monsters
There was no place to hide or time to brace before the sound slammed into her. It crashes against her like a tidal wave of hate and malevolence, ripping her atom by atom and permeating the air with anguish. Skin, muscle, and nerves are either pulverized or stripped clean off her bones, as her internal organs are one by one crushed ruthlessly into a viscous paste.
Blood spills from her mouth like a rancid waterfall, the metallic taste of the liquid making the girl puke. Bile mixed with other fluid splatters on the ground, turning the white of the snow into a sickly combination of toxic green and putrid red.
Yet the physical pain is nothing more than an afterthought as her skinless, trembling hands scrape desperately against her ears, ripping the nonexistent pavilion of her ears in a hopeless yearning to block out the incoherent howl. That was hopelessly ineffective as even though the cochlea in her inner ears was vaporizing, alongside all her auditory receptors, she could still hear that sickening melody just as clearly.
The colossal trees surrounding her hummed in tune with the Pale Song, even as their jet-black bark corroded and shriveled under its influence before combusting like deflated balloons, only for instead of fear, they almost looked delighted in their own eradication, chanting gleefully alongside their Prophet Hymn.
She could not see much on account of the fact that she had no eyes to do so, but she could vaguely feel the ground under her giving away, leaving her to tumble blindly. She blacks out momentarily as her body collides against something unseen before being forcefully awakened as the Roar yanks her from unconsciousness.
The moment could have lasted a nanosecond or until every sentient civilization collapsed into an apocalyptic wasteland. Eons could have gone past her, hundreds of lifetimes could have transpired, and she would have been left clueless.
Her existence was stuck in a constant state of pain-riddled inertia. But at last, the misery slowly, so painfully slow, subsides as something foreign disrupts the Pale Song.
The collision garners enough force to shake the fabric of reality like it was nothing more than wet paper in the maw of a raging fire. Air splinters and shudders under insurmountable pressure, quickly sizzling away as a rightful light pushed against the melody of the Hunter.
The new force is all but a droplet compared to the ocean that is the Roar of Finality, yet it manages to hold its ground, giving the girl enough time to take her first breath after what felt like eons. The air is intoxicated by malice and hatred and lacks the necessary chemicals to be fully breathable, but she yearns for it nonetheless. Like a fearful predator, the gulp of air nestles uncomfortably in her lungs, feeling like barbed wire stuck in the internal walls of her body.
Relief does not come even as the pressure of the Roar of Finality lessens, for even if the existential dread becomes nothing more than an echo at the back of her mind, that doesn't mean the pain of having her entire being ripped to shreds magically dissipates.
Her skull pounds and throbs ruthlessly as shards of ice sail through her spinal cord like frozen mercury, burying into her bone marrow.
She wants to scream, but she has no tongue to do so, leaving her to cough and suffocate helplessly on her own blood stuck in the lungs she did not possess.
The conflict around her remained utterly ignorant of the state the girl was in, as right above her, what could only be described as a ray of light fought against a toxic ocean of verdant lighting.
But if there was any hope that the horror and pain inflicted on the innocent mind of Luz were over, then the same hope was instantly trampled on as the Hunter retracted the silver of attention spared toward the newcomer, their gaze shifting toward her again.
Invisible bone-like tendrils shot through the air, pushing past the ethereal being holding the Hunter at bay, infiltrating Luz's skull and coiling like a ravenous snake around her mind.
All different frequencies surge to life through a cacophony of inaudible sounds and voices spoken in languages that had never been and will never be, her mind, almost no different than a sponge, absorbing the information, slowly being infected by the memories that couldn't possibly be hers, but that was just a lie her mind must strive to believe.
For the Hunter is many things, but a liar is not.
The world topples, swerves, and breaks all around her, and Luz Noceda is forced to close her eyes and let the truth cleanse the world
The first moment they opened their eyes, their senses were assaulted by the fluorescent light burning away the shadows in the room, and their nose were irked by the permeating antiseptic smell with undertones of artificial fragrance that tainted the air.
Such a rude awakening would only contribute to the hate that will soon take root and blossom into horrid malice.
Even if they were born mere seconds ago, like a child perceiving their mother, they could see the power they are destined to possess, which made it even more aggravating when their line of vision shifts, their body carefully lifted in the air by a life dweller of all things. Her face, so fragile and dimensional, was contorted into a tired smile, and her eyes glimmered with multiple emotions that would have made them retch if they had a stomach to begin with.
Faster than lightning strikes, hatred, and disgust overwhelm all other emotions like a sweet poison, commanding them to paint the world crimson.
This was their first moment alive, their first moment surrounded by the living, and they desired nothing more than to rip them limb from limb, crush the skull, tear her skin with their bare teeth, and suck the marrow from her-
The world snaps back to absurd normality, the battle of two impossible beings still ragging on in the background and sending shockwaves powerful enough to cleave through the cosmos.
But Luz can't focus on that as she feels her soul and mind sizzling like they were on fire. The foremost was for screaming her non-existent guts out, and the latter was caused by the crushing guilt and shame that almost felt like sledgehammers colliding with her body.
She always loved her mother more than anyone else, and even through their hardship, there was not one person to hold so close to her heart and to see and feel h̸e̸r̸the creature's hate and desire to kill the only person who still loved Luz, it sickened her to her core.
Despite the insurmountable pain that she had faced in a span of such little time, Luz still held dearly to the idea that this was nothing more than a vivid nightmare that would be forgotten once she awoke from her slumber.
But those revolting memories made it impossible to deny it all.
For how could she be able to do that when the truth that could threaten to bring down all the pillars of existence was now and always been engraved in every inch of her bones, every blood stem cell circulates through her bone marrow singing a terrible tune.
R̶e̶m̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶ ̶w̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶y̶, t̶h̶e̶ ̶l̶i̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶k̶e̶e̶p̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶o̶n̶s̶e̶c̶r̶a̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶ ̶g̶o̶i̶n̶g̶
Just like the tendril of the Hunter, a new, foreign voice that was no louder than a whisper pierces through her dazed mind. It resonated in different frequencies, but surprisingly, its tone was almost kind and reassuring in ways only her mother had ever talked to her.
Maybe it was her lack of options or the hopeless belief that the end was so close, but she does precisely what she's told.
My name is Luz Noceda
T̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ The Hunter's memories intensify and the world shifts to their will.
In a candlelit room, the only sound permitting the air was the hum of prayers sung in tandem. To their side, the progenitor of their prison lays with her head bowed, clutching their meager hand tightly. They would growl if they could, but instead, they focused on their surroundings, hoping it would help them saturate some irritation.
The atmosphere around them was soaked to the brim with uncontested belief as humans of all ages and sizes bowed their heads in reverence toward an unseen god. Past their flesh and bones, trapped in a mortal coil, they could glimpse their devoted soul that radiated their uncontested belief.
They couldn't help but let out a small chuckle, which went unnoticed by those around them.
It was...amusing to see all these mortals have so much faith in a deity they had no fathomable proof it existed. Even more entertaining was their naive hope an ethereal god would be kind or stupid enough to save them from their fate.
Quite amusing indeed.
daughter of a loving and caring mother, Camila Noceda
Finally, after so long, they were free.
Laughter bubbles and boils just beneath the surface, its rumbling intensity cracking the window to its left.
So many years trapped in a flesh and muscle prison, and a single crack was enough to partially release them.
Their true form was still imprisoned far from this little domain of light and darkness, but even a few minutes of partial freedom was enough to bring forth insurmountable amounts of ecstasy.
The room they resided in was dusty and crammed, the ceiling too close to the ground for them to stretch out, but it would suffice for now.
Their gaze shifted onto the white wooden desk resting in the corner, and in a swift move, their arm shot forward, curling their razor-sharp claws around it and pulling it from the ground like a paper ball.
The simple wooden desk edges were barely sharp, yet they effortlessly smashed through their prison flesh and muscles.
It was pathetic
Wood splinters exploded in all directions, the desk turning into liquified mush and sawdust.
born in a small town named Gravefield
Lies are the second thing they hate the most.
By a lie, their body was shackled and imprisoned in a place beyond death, locked away at the bottom of the Forest.
A lie, a concept created by mortal creatures, could hold them at bay. A mere human invention that started a paradox powerful enough to banish a creature fated to be the end of all things.
It was ridiculous, truly ludicrous, but here they were.
Yet, things are changing. The wheels of fate were slowly turning, and it will not be long before truth emerges in all its glory, and soon, they shall all bathe in their hymn.
d̸e̸s̸t̸i̸n̸e̸d̸ t̸o̸ b̸e̸c̸o̸m̸e̸ t̸h̸e̸ n̸e̸x̸t̸ Go̸o̸d̸ Wi̸t̸c̸h̸ Az̸u̸r̸a̸, a̸ w̸a̸r̸r̸i̸o̸r̸ o̸f̸ p̸e̸a̸c̸e̸ a̸n̸d̸ j̸u̸s̸t̸i̸c̸e̸.
destined to become the Hunter, the antithesis of life.
The birth of her daughter was the most significant change in her life, and she wouldn't like it any other way. Indeed, she could no longer be the carefree woman she prided herself on being, but if it meant she would raise her child right, then the absence of her freedom would not even register to her.
When her husband left to join their ancestors, leaving an ever-large void in her heart, her entire existence gradually began to only revolve around Luz. It was Luz who pushed her to look forward even though the future was looming darkly over their head, and it was Luz's smile that could make all her worry dissipate.
Even as America quickly reverted to its 'old' ways, for her precious child she would push forward no matter the obstacle. Whether working multiple shifts for not even a tenth of her boss's weekly salary or losing contact with all her friends, it will all be worth it if it means Luz can keep smiling.
Was it healthy?
Absolutely not. But sacrifices are a must nowadays if she wants to keep a roof above their head.
This lifestyle had obviously cost her social life and her physical and mental health. However, something ironic was that in her attempt to not go bankrupt, Camila had also thrown a ranch in her relationship with Luz, the unrelenting stress experienced by the women only furthering the strain between them.
Quite ironic, indeed
This is why receiving a call from Luz's school that she needs to pick her up, coupled with the fact that she was in the middle of another monotonous shift ...well, made her react in a way she was ashamed to do. It was oddly reminiscent of her mother's techniques in "educating" children on how to behave, which didn't help improve Camila's mood at all.
Though 'love' and all of that bullshit
Shaking her head in exasperation and tiredness, she closed her car door and moved toward her home porch, mud, and rainwater leaping in all directions as her thrift store boots stepped onto the wet and soggy grass. The scent of grass and the afternoon breeze seeped into her nose, providing a slight reprieve and easing her nerves ever so slightly
Shacking her boots to remove dirt and mud still left in the crevices of her shoe's outsole, she moved onto her porch, grasped the metallic doorknob, and twisted it.
The sun behind her finally showed its presence after an entire day of non-stop rain, its blinding circumference peering through gassy and water-soaked clouds. A warm glow enveloped the world, the bold rays of light bathing the land in heat, overwhelming the humid atmosphere of Autumn.
Yet, even with that in mind, it was not enough to combat the frigid cold that escaped through her door as she pushed it open, swallowing the heat in its path like a black hole. The air was harsh and oily, and Camila couldn't contain her shudder as icy shards went down her spine.
The moment she stepped into her home, blistering winds nibbled at any ounce of exposed flesh on her hands, forcing Camila to cup them in her jacket pocket.
"Luz?"
Her voice traveled a few feet in front of her before drowning helplessly in unsettling silence, leaving silence as her only companion. The house was as still as a corpse, the rhythmic throb of her heartbeat persisted as the sole sound left, its unsteady cadence reverberating in her ear.
No response ever returned—worsening her fear, each passing moment standing in the eerie hall filling her gut and lungs with ice. In the blink of an eye, following nothing more than her maternal instincts, she dashed past the opened entrance up the stairs.
And if the woman didn't love her daughter so much, maybe, just maybe, she would have realized that even though the stairs were older than her, the wood didn't creek once
There was a significant chance she was overreacting, and her daughter was just taking a nap, but if there was even a slight chance that something bad had indeed happened, Camila would never forgive herself.
She rushed through the small hallway brimming with family photos and reached Luz's room in three leaps, her boots leaving small stains of dirt on the carpet as she went. Even though the hinges had begun to slowly rust, no sound was emitted from them as Camila pulled the door open with enough force to form a slight breeze.
Stepping into the room, the disgusting and eerie glow of crimson liquid that sipped into the pink carpet and cascaded over the worn-down parquet stood out to first. The scene was something ripped out of a generic mid-nineties slasher movie, but her mind had a few moments to digest the idea before her eyes landed on the crunch-down figure of Luz.
She felt the entire room shudder as her knees hit the floor, drawing small amounts of blood by scraping against the wood splinter sprouting from the ground and the glass shards glistening under the sun rays seeping through the remains of the broken window.
The pain was unapologetically ignored as she scanned and inspected every inch of her daughter's fragile body, her hands carefully protruding and checking for any open wound across her skin.
Surprisingly, despite the terrifying amount of blood on the floor, there was nothing visibly wrong with her daughter besides the pale scar that spread like a tumor across the right side of her forehead. Some parents might have been relieved by that information, but after years of working at the local veterinarian, Camila knew there was a significant possibility that there could still be internal bleeding that she was not able to perceive, so with that in mind, she began foraging for her phone in the purse that dangled and held for dear life on her shoulder.
Just in time to see L̷u̷z̷ 's eyelid flutter open.
The world slows to a halt as the body of Luz comes to life, freezing as if waiting for the impossible to happen.
Like the purging radiation oozing from the core of a nuclear plant, the final and first silence began spewing into the world. This is the silence of anticipation, a warning that something wrong has breached the living realm and that the world has to mute it. For those unlucky enough to stand in such silence, may god and the devil have mercy on their souls, for the Hunter has no such things.
Inside the eye socket of the child, two pinpoints swallow the cornea and pupil ravenously, consuming the color around it until only a green orb in the right socket and a brown one in the left socket remain floating over an ocean of nothingness. Even though it could be called creepy, the hazel one still retains the love and kindness her daughter always radiates, going in and out as the ocean of nothingness threatens to swallow it whole.
The other one, though
The room temperature falls tremendously, and the sun's warm rays shy away from the room as her daughter's body twitches for a moment before rising from the ground, her leg bones piercing the skin and engulfing her flesh, covering half of her leg and dragging her motionless arms across the messy floor.
Churning like liquid, the appendages force Luz's body to her feet, the bones twisting and tearing into her flesh as they orient themselves to stand before Camila.
The woman's muscles turn to jelly, her legs collapsing under her body's weight, causing her to fall helplessly to the ground, more bits of wood digging their way into her skin. Every molecule of ease or courage was crushed painfully by the oppressing gaze of the bloated and all-consuming toxic pinhole that had replaced her daughter's iris, leaving Camila in an undulated state of dread that made her body tremble and breath hitch, a vibrating terror coursing from her core to every cell of her body.
Guided by something lurking underneath the inky depth of her eyes, Luz's body takes a step forward, the bones shifting at hard angles, breaking through the frail trappings of reality and disappearing in a flash before reforming once again and finishing the step.
Her frantic mind goes blank for a second, her consciousness wrested away from her grasp by the icy terror circulating through her veins. But the control is quickly forced back into her limbs and mind as her back collides with the wall on the other side of the room.
Frigid air hung muted as t̶h̶e̶ ̶H̶u̶n̶t̶e̶r̶ they remained undisturbed by her mental breakdown, slowly and meticulously cornering their prey, each step being taken with tender care. Thoughtlessly, their cracked lips parted away like the gates of hell, showcasing continuous rows of teeth that elongated endlessly. The fangs are long, so long in fact that they pierce through the roof of the mouth and let crimson blood flow seamlessly from their mouth.
When there was no more than a single foot between them, it stretched its arm toward Camila, making her watch in horror as flesh and muscle peeled away, leaving only bare bone, or whatever the appendages were trying to mimic. With gentleness a creature like them should never possess, they grasp the delicate skin of the human face softly, forcing her eyes to peek into theirs, watching with ecstasy as her fear turns to irreparable despair.
Their desire to shred into her body burns hotter than the blinding core of the sun, to be able to croon to her the Roar of Finality and watch as every molecule in her body combusts into a lovely firework. But the cut dealt to their prison was too shallow for them to exert their power.
That, however, did not mean the human would escape unscathed. Tightening their grip on her skull to hold it in place, they stretched one phalange in the air and dragged it across her face in an oblique arc. The red-tinted frame of the glasses gave away under pressure, which was swiftly followed by flesh and muscles.
A pained cry escaped the woman's throat as her left side was set aflame, her eye gouged out in a single strike and her face desecrated by a deep scar.
They have yearned to squeeze any semblance of despair from the living for many years, but it was always beyond their reach. And now that they had finally tasted it, it filled them with an all-encompassing euphoria, feeling more potent than any drug humanity had ever brewed.
They wanted more nay, they needed more.
Then, like Life herself was mocking them, standing mere inches away from taking what was theirs to possess, they found themself in the bottomless void under the Forest. Confusion overloaded their sense for a moment before the cruel realization settled in.
Like an earthquake encompassing everything in its path, the Immaterium began to vibrate like a sheet of paper in the maw of a raging storm. With the weight of the heretical eruption of endless dwarf stars, the howl of the Nightmare at the bottom of the Forest sliced those who dared hear their haunting melody.
The Hunter screamed, trashed, screamed, and screamed again until the boundless Forest above him fractured, and the graveyard of rotten gods that nourished and sustained the Forest busted into oceans of ethereal blood. They screamed until the Roar of Finality burned away everything there was, perpetuating the Hunter's desire, leaving only themselves and the chain that keeps them locked away.
Y̶̗͚̯͆͒̎͂͘͜Ơ̵̖̫̙̟͎̭̈́͆̈́̓͆̑U̵͕̦̜̞͕̿͝ I̴͚͍̬̹̙̲̪͂M̵̛̜̮̟̼̂̌̓̈́̈̀͑͐P̵̣͎̹̻̣̈́͊̌͛͒͝Ŗ̷̛͚̝̯͉̫͈͚͋͗͌̈́̋̈́́͝U̴̡̲̭͈̐͐̾̏̉͂D̶̛͍̥͒́͂̉̐Ë̵͍̳̬́N̴͓̄̈́̀̒̉͝T̸̡̖͓̰̮ Ṣ̴͉̞̊̀̾̂̿̿͘Ḱ̸͕̱͉͕̰͖̫͜I̸̡̻͓̹͔̠̯̗͉͎̒̿̑̎N̸̛̛̻̬̤͉̮̦̂̓̐͒̒͑ P̶̨̡̞̠͈̣̩͗͗̓͗Ǜ̸̲̣͝P̷͖̥̱̬͕̐͠P̸̪̥͒̓́̾̔̉̿͑̈Ẽ̶̞̓̀͂͘͜T̷̢̮͙̫͉͚͙͙͌̊̈́
Back in the material world, undefinable distances away from the Youngest Nightmare, Luz was instantly yanked back into her own body as the influence of the Hunter faded away like a deep mist.
Inhaling a considerable gulf of ordinary air, she was quickly hit by the pain of her bruised temple and bleeding mouth that crashed into her without mercy.
The misery inflicted in her "dream" was now mere phantom pain locked alongside the Hunter.
Moving her body into a sitting position, she nursed her bleeding mouth, yelping in pain as her trembling fingers made contact with her severed gums.
Just in time for the fucking million times today for her world to shatter.
Her mother's trembling and hyperventilating form stood before her, back propped onto the wall. Her eyes were wide with emotions such as remorse, pain, relief, and fear reflected from her brown irises.
A small gash ran from the top of her forehead across her now blind left eye, ending under her lower lip, slowly hemorrhaging small amounts of blood.
A flash of confusion covered her face, not too dissimilar to her counterpart, but when the realization settled in, instead of the sizzling rage that burned inside the Hunter's hollow core, irreparable guilt bloomed inside her heart.
She had hurt Mom.
It was the last straw in the bucket as ugly and distorted sobs ripped and pushed themself out of her chest. She had suffered what could be described as other worst torture in existence, being stripped away atom by atom by the melody of the nightmare hiding under her skin, and yet, the guilt that came from hurting her mother so severely ravaged everything in its path with enough force to make her want to vomit once again.
"I'm s-sorry." Luz's voice was barely above a whisper, the words feeling like barbed wire pushing through her mouth. Just with those words, the walls that kept her together crumpled under an unseen weight like those of a sand castle.
Tears stream freely onto her cheeks as the world collapses into static, the only thing holding her grounded being the reassuring but quivering hand of her mother running across her back.
Do you understand now, Luz Noceda? You may not remember anything from this night, your ravaged mind burning away all memory to keep itself from fracturing beyond repair.
Nonetheless, despite the pain it may bring, you must engrave these four rules deep inside your brain to unconsciously recite them every second of your life, or else all shall fall prey to the Hunter.
Fear the Forest
For it is where the Hunter dwells
Fear the Silence
For it is the only indication the Hunter walks the sane world of men
Fear the Truth
For it can unravel the tapestry that holds Creation together
But most importantly, Luz Noceda, fear yourself
And the Hunter you are destined to become.
Notes:
Hello, and be welcome to one of the strangest AU in the Owl House fandom. Before you go, don't forget to check out the obligatory checklist that describes the entirety of this fic in a few sentences.
Lovecraftian horror: &check
Traumatized children: &check
Badass Camila actually has a more critical role in the story: &check
All characters are far more powerful than in Cannon: &check
Eda could blow an entire mountain because she is cool like that: &check
Belos will blow an entire continent because he is a powerful prick but a prick nonetheless.: &check
With great power comes a lot of body horror: &check
More angst than a doctor would prescribe: &check
Blood and gore feel at home: &check
Did I mention Lovecraftian horror?: &check
With the checklist done, I hope you enjoy the madness I created, and if you are still here, why don't you leave a comment about what you like or dislike about the fanfic?