BREAKING THE FANTASY

Written by Gwendolyn Frost.

Please READ! I got an important message for you guys! Recently, I was cleaning my messages in my email and realized a couple of you left me inbox messages a long time ago. FF didn't let me know there were unread messages in my inbox. The reason I'm making this message public its because one of those people have left FF. I'm so sorry! I hope that I didn't lost you guys, I never checked my inbox because it always appeared empty! From now on, I'm checking every time I log in. Thank you, I'm so sorry again. T_T


That morning, most of the gang were watching a movie in the basement. Gus was sitting in front of the TV while watching it intently and with a stressful look on his face. "No, no, no, no! Don't go to the factory! That's where the Face Snatcher came from!" The witch shouted at the TV as if the characters on the screen would listen to his advice.

"But wait!" A woman's voice spoke in the movie, the sound and her voice all had a magnetic-like tone to them, a common trait of watching old movies on an old VHS tape. "Isn't here where the creature came from?"

"That's what I said!" Gus screamed once again. Behind him were Willow and Hunter sitting on the couch trying to watch the TV as well, sometimes they had to peer over Gus' head since he got in the way every so often to argue with the characters on screen.

"Oh, that's right…" A male character replied to the female lead. "But it's fine, I think we're safe now. We gotta search for clues on how to deal with this thing…"

"Don't…" Gus sighed as he shook his head in disapproval. "Do not say you should split up!"

"We should split up…" The guy said.

"No, you dingus! You're going to get killed! That's how everyone gets killed in every movie!" Gus said out loud while Willow and Hunter couldn't help but chuckle a little bit in silence.

"It's far more entertaining watching him react to the movie, right?" Willow whispered while Hunter nodded in agreement.

"True, if he ever becomes a Utuber, I'll be the first one to subscribe to his reaction channel." Hunter said while trying to hold his laughter.

Shortly, both Willow and Hunter jumped on their seats during a sudden jumpscare from a character on the screen that popped out of nowhere. Gus on the other hand, was unfazed by the cheap trick and continued to watch the movie without paying attention to them. Hunter at this point realized that he was closer to Willow, but before the green-haired witch was able to look at the huge blush on the blonde's face he leaped up onto his feet and nervously mumbled some excuse to leave the basement. "Hey, you want popcorn? I want popcorn! I'm going to go get some popcorn! POPCORN! Ha ha!"

As Hunter was making his way out of the basement, he ran into Luz and Amity who were walking down the stairs holding hands. "Hey, guys. Can we talk?"

"Uh…" Hunter's blush was wiped off his face the moment he looked at the serious look on both girls. "Ok."

"What's up?" Willow asked from the couch.

"It happened again." Luz said as they both saw Amity holding a bag of ice over her head like the day before.

"Hey, Gus…" Willow said. "Would you mind turning that off?"

"Huh?" Gus mumbled as his eyes were still glued to the TV while listening to the weird sound of the character that jumpscared everyone before.

"It's me, Bella… don't you… tsk tsk… recognize me?"

"Oh, shoot. That's the Face Snatcher!" Gus shouted before Willow turned the TV off without warning. "Huh?! Why did you do that?! It was getting to the good stuff!"

"Sorry, Gus." Luz said as she helped Amity to take a seat on the couch. "But we have a few important things to discuss with you guys."

THE LOOKING GLASS

Chapter 7: The Briefing.


The group gathered around the couch while listening to Luz and Amity about their findings from the previous day. Even their palismans were there as well. Shortly after, Vee joined them downstairs in the basement when everyone was caught up to speed. It was then that Amity revealed to them what she had experienced using Oracle Magic.

Afterwards, Gus found himself staring at the TV that he brought from the arcade days before. "So, you think that this TV is making you experience all these things?"

"Seems like a normal TV for me." Willow added as she raised an eyebrow.

"I know it sounds whack. But it is not me that's doing Oracle Magic." Amity said, petting Ghost on her lap while holding the bag of ice on the left side of her head. "I learned a few things in the past, but nothing at this level."

"Did the owner of the arcade tell you something about the TV, Gus?" Luz asked, staring at the strange TV sitting on the corner of the room just like the rest of the gang.

"No." Gus said while scratching the back of his head. "Mr. Litwak is an old man and he was very nice to us. Hunter and I asked if we could take the TV with us since they had it sitting in the corner like this. Mr. Litwak didn't mention anything about there being something off with the TV, only that it didn't seem to work."

"Yeah." Hunter said while adding. "I was there, he said something along the lines that it came with a bunch of old TVs for one of their weekly events. It was the only one they couldn't get to work."

"Welp. That's kind of sus." Willow said.

Luz couldn't help but let out a nervous laugh after hearing Willow. "Yeah…" She turned to ask her girlfriend: "Do you think it's safe for us to keep it? Like… do you think it's like… cursed or something?"

"I don't know." Amity said with a shrug. "I think… there's a spirit in there. I remember that Thomas Morton said in my dream that he didn't bring me to the Ranch, but… a squared-headed man did. And…" The witch pointed at the TV shaped like a square. "I know it sounds funny but I'm telling the truth."

"Oh, no, no! I completely believe in you, Amity." Luz said while leaning in to hold Amity's cheeks. "But I'm worried about this."

"What do you mean?" Amity asked.

"What do we do with it? Is it helping you or… does it want something?" Luz asked.

"I don't know. I've not been able to communicate with them. It has only done so through my dreams and even so, not directly but through the voice sigh of my mom…" Amity rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Oh great spirit of the TV!" Gus exclaimed as he walked towards the unsettling dormant TV sitting on the corner of the basement. "Give us a sign? Are you here to help us?"

"Really, Gus?" Willow asked with a sigh before being shushed by the younger witch.

The whole basement became dead silent for a solid minute. The TV remained with its screen pitch black, covered by dust. There was no sign of any kind, just silence.

"Maybe… Amity is the only one that they want to communicate with?" Gus suggested.

Looking at Amity, Luz asked in the form of a whisper. "You think you can try?"

"To be honest…" Amity sighed. "I really don't want to. I did so last night for you. But if it's alright with you guys, I would rather not mess with it for the time being."

"Oh, completely understandable." Luz said with a nervous chuckle, feeling a little guilty for the whole situation. "If you want… we could get rid of it." They all gave the TV one more look before looking back at Amity who simply shook her head.

"No, that's ok. We could keep it, for now. If I'm correct and it is this TV that's doing Oracle Magic then it means it's drawing magic from somewhere." Amity said while petting Ghost some more who purred on her lap trying to make her feel a little better by nuzzling against her chest.

"Well, that's one more unsolved mystery for us." Gus said while taking a picture of the TV with his old camera which expelled the snap in the form of a plastic rectangle like the picture he took from Amity at the arcade.

Luz clapped her hands. "Ok, so… I guess we should move onto the next topic, Herlock Woods. If Amity's vision from last night is correct, then there's a couple of places we could check out for more clues."

"Yeah…" Willow said while adding. "Again, we're forgetting about the one other element that could pose a threat finding these clues; The Unknown."

"Seriously? Are we really calling it The Unknown?" Gus asked while bringing a board into the room where he started to stick some of those pictures he took with tape.

Luz chuckled softly. "Well, we don't know what it is and it sounds ominous and intriguing, so unless you have a better name for it - let's hear it."

"Ok…" Gus grinned before writing in chalk onto the board that he brought the name:

THE FACE SNATCHER!

They all looked at him while he proudly nodded at them. "Like the monster from the movie we just watched?" Willow asked shortly.

"Well, it is a Face Snatcher!" Gus exclaimed.

"Ok, question though…" Hunter raised his hand like many times before as if he was in school asking for permission to speak. "What're you doing with that board?" He asked, curious as to why there were the pictures of Amity and the TV taped on the board.

"Oh, this? I'm setting up our first murder board!" Gus said proudly.

"What?" Willow asked while displaying a face of disbelief. "Gus, no one has been murdered. What're you talking about?"

"Well, I'm glad you asked." Gus said with a smirk. "I know that the name murder board is sort of morbid, but every good detective I know has one of these."

"You don't know any detectives, Gus." Hunter pointed out.

"Well, not technically. But I've watched a handful of shows about them. Trust me guys, we need to get our clues and ideas sorted out so that we can solve this mystery together!"

"Ok." Luz chuckled softly. "So… how does this work, exactly?"

Gus used the chalk on his hand to circle around the name of 'The Face Snatcher' on the board before drawing some lines to connect them to several other circles he drew after. "We got a general idea that this creature could be protecting a… portal." He said while writing the word on one of those circles.

"Right…" Amity said as she removed the bag of ice from her face.

Luz pondered on an idea before offering it to Gus. "This portal has been sought out by the Onlookers. They called it The Looking Glass."

"Good stuff! Keep them coming!" Gus said while writing those words under the word 'Portal' while adding the name of 'The Onlookers' on another circle.

"The only surviving member of this group is Flor del Bosque…" Amity added which made Gus write it down under the Onlookers section.

"Yeah, yeah…" Luz snapped her fingers so that she would remember more things to say. "And this group seemed to believe that our world is connected to other Realms. They might have known of other places like the Boiling Isles and… that Flor person told us that she came from… ah what was it?" She snapped her fingers some more. "Tellus! She said she came from a place called Tellus."

When hearing this, Amity gave Luz a funny look. "You don't believe that is true, right? She did experience something truly awful but sometimes this woman sounds kinda… imaginative."

"Ok, she might be a little… ditzy, but like Gus said, we're just sorting our ideas on that board." Luz said with a nervous chuckle.

"Hm." Vee raised her green arm up in the air before sharing some more information on Flor. "I believe that this human might know more than we give her credit for. When you left me alone with her, she… made me feel as if she was reading my mind. As if she knew what I've been through."

"Yeah." Luz nodded in agreement. "She did that to me, too. Like… it's like she has some sort of psychic ability that allows her to feel our emotions to some degree."

Amity bit her lower lip and stared at the floor with a look of dread on her face while Ghost meowed at her as if she was able to tell how uncomfortable Amity was. "She also said that during the time that she was chased by this thing, she was able to feel its emotions." Amity looked up at Gus while the rest all had their eyes fixed on her. "How she felt that it wanted to do her harm."

"Did you feel the same way in your vision?" Willow asked after breaking that short period of silence that Amity left.

"To some extent." The pink-haired witch replied while petting Ghost some more, at the same time having flashbacks of that vision in her head, seeing that strange human shape stalking Flor in the darkness. "It wanted to hurt her… and did so. I wasn't able to do anything but listen to her screams of agony when it took her into that shack."

"She survived though." Luz said while offering her girlfriend a smile. "But Thomas Morton and others might not have been so lucky."

"Well, didn't you guys say that this Morton guy… ended himself?" Hunter pointed out.

"Yeah…" Amity sighed as she shut her eyes while a flashback of hearing that gunshot in her vision played out in her thoughts.

"What does this thing want?" Willow asked. "From what you two told us, it stalked that farmer for years without breaking into his home."

"Maybe it's like vampire rules, it needs to be invited in?" Luz suggested.

"Luz… that's fiction." Willow said with a soft chuckle. "Hate to break it to you, but you humans have a lot of imagination when it comes to making sense of things you don't understand."

"Hey!" Luz frowned. "I… well, we…" Luz tried to come up with something to say before Willow added.

"If it wanted to be inside that house, it should have done so. Unless that farmer was secretly a witch and had protected his home with a barrier spell then that would be a different story."

"Willow has a point, Luz." Amity said as she shared her own insight. "That thing was chasing Flor for hours and it just not easily kept up with her, it knew where she was hiding. I don't know why it took it so long to attack her, maybe it was luring her to that shack."

Luz frowned some more before sighing in defeat. "Is it possible… that it just… wanted to kill? I know it sounds awful, but… what if this thing enjoys… hunting. Like a predator of sorts?"

"It does sound gruesome, but it makes more sense." Willow said.

"I remember that it likes to ask things." Amity said while thinking of her vision once more. "Does it like talking to humans?"

"Get to know them, maybe?" Hunter suggested.

"Learn from them?" Luz added before turning her face around to face Vee. "I hate to ask you this… but if it's possible that this thing could be… a Basilisk, do you think it's trying to learn how to be a human?"

Vee pondered on it before she looked back at her with a grim look on her face. "Maybe… I learned from Camila, I mean… mom. And from Masha and their friends in summer camp. But why has it been doing this for centuries? It should be among us in Gravesfield by now… unless…"

"It does…" Luz finished that thought, which made everyone in the room gulp.

Before Vee could react, Gus had taken a picture of her with that old camera which left her blind with the swift flashing light hitting her face. "Oww, why?!"

"Sorry, Vee. I just needed a picture for our murder board." Gus said while taking the plastic square that the camera expelled.

Luz raised an eyebrow as she inspected that camera with her eyes. "Where do you keep finding these things?" She asked, referring to the fact that he brought an old CRT-TV and an old-timey looking camera in the same week.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know." Gus grinned before taping the picture of Vee on the board under the name of ' The Face Snatcher' and wrote above Vee's picture the word 'suspects.'

"What do you mean by saying that Vee is a suspect?" Luz asked.

"Not Vee, but a Basilisk. That's one of our theories so far." Gus replied. "Has anyone come up with something else?"

"Well, there's this thing I read at the library…" Luz said while scratching her head. "Have you guys ever heard of a Skinwalker?"

"What's that?" Willow asked.

"Well, the native americans believed in something they called a Skinwalker." Luz frowned a little bit. "They sometimes also describe it as a witch with shapeshifting powers who was corrupted after eating… people."

"Huh?" Amity gave her a look of disgust. "You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting, right?"

Luz bit her lower lip some more before she faced Amity once more. "Many centuries ago, witches visited our Realm. And humans have encountered some form of witches throughout history."

"Ugh…" Amity face-palmed herself. "You know, I just borrowed some books from the library that are supposed to be for children. And there's a handful of stories that were about cannibalistic witches. It's already ridiculous how humans believe in vampires and their nonsensical rules and also come up with harmful stereotypes about witches describing them like old hags with hunger for flesh living out there in the woods luring unsuspecting victims. Name me one witch you ever knew in the Boiling Isles that liked the taste of flesh, just one."

Luz looked at Amity with a serious look on her face before she replied. "Remember that Wizard that used to sell potions like Eda; his name was Adegast. Eda ate the guy. She literally ate her competition."

Everyone went silent for a brief second after the revelation before Hunter broke the silence.

"I cannot believe that this conversation somehow took a darker turn."

"Well, to be fair…" Willow said. "That does sound like an Eda move."

Amity swiftly turned her head around to glare at Willow.

"I'm just saying that Luz has a point." Willow said nervously. "Not every witch in our Realm is good."

Amity sighed in defeat. "Ok, all give you guys this one. I know Eda can be gross sometimes… but I'm still not happy about the Human Realm having these wrong stereotypes of my kind."

Luz leaned forward to rest her hand over her girlfriend's shoulder. "On behalf of my people, I apologize to you for everything we've said about your kind. But… there's the Good Witch Azura. We've come a long way since then!"

Amity crossed her arms and rolled her eyes before smiling. "Apology accepted."

Luz grinned and leaned in to kiss Amity which made everyone else in the room roll their eyes.

"Ok, so can we go back to the flesh-eating monster in the woods." Gus said while taking more notes on the board, specifically adding Amity's picture on the suspects area of the board where he wrote one theory of the Face Snatcher being a shapeshifting witch.

Luz and Amity shared a soft laugh before they held hands and nodded. "Yeah, sorry about that." Luz said.

Gus gave them both a look before asking the group. "So, we've got two suspects now. Do we have any other ideas to propose?"

"Well." Amity said while squeezing Luz's hand a little tighter. "If we're pointing fingers at this being the work of a witch, it's only fair that I nominate; another human."

Luz chuckled nervously. "Y-you're not letting this go anytime soon, huh?"

"Mhmh." Amity shook her head with her eyes shut.

"Do you know what this means?" Gus asked Luz as he walked up to her.

"That she's still mad at me?" Luz replied before she watched Gus raising that camera up to her face. "W-wait, no! Don't shoot!" Then she got blinded like everyone else before by that huge flash which made Luz hiss at Gus like a wild animal.

"There we go." Gus said while he taped the picture of Luz on the board under the word 'human' on the suspects section. "Now we've got three suspects, although I don't see the logic in a human living this long. So this one is just for Amity."

The pink-haired witch smiled with a victorious nod while Luz was rubbing her eyes some more after the picture.

"It could be another cursed human like Belos, y'know?" Willow proposed, which made Luz to glare at her like Amity did before.

"Hey!"

"You guys should stop looking at me like that! I'm just sharing my unbiased opinion." Willow groaned.

"That is… a good point, Willow. Good job!" Gus said while grinning at her before writing it down on the board.

"Why thank you, Augustus. There's at least somebody that appreciates my genius!" Willow bowed and gave the other two a raspberry which made them both laugh.

"Do we have anything else?" Gus asked the group before Hunter raised his hand again.

"Have you considered that it could be none of the options?"

"True, that could be a possibility. Which would make it a lot scarier not knowing what we're up against." Gus said as he drew a circle with a question mark on the board with his chalk.

"Which is why The Unknown is a more fitting name for this creature, don't you think?" Luz said while crossing her arms.

"Nope! We're calling it the Face Snatcher now. It's on the board already!" Gus said while shaking his head.

"Ugh… fine." Luz said in defeat.

"So… what else do we know about this thing? Just facts now, not theories." Gus said while writing things on the board once they proposed.

"It can mimic voices." Amity said.

"From dead people, apparently." Luz added.

"It has a tendency to ask questions, personal questions, right?" Willow asked Amity who nodded.

"It's definitely a shapeshifter from the sounds of it." Hunter said.

"And large…" Vee sighed. "Like house-shaking large."

"Well, if we're fighting this thing…" Gus was saying before he was cut off by Luz.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, we're fighting this thing?"

"You want to find the portal, don't you?" Hunter asked.

Luz sighed while rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah… but I didn't think of having to fight this thing. I mean… I cannot do glyph magic in my Realm."

"I warned you about this…" Amity said. "I would like to add that I don't have the ingredients to create Abominations. So I'm just relying on Ghost now."

"We all have our palismans, I believe." Gus stated. "I still can do Illusion Magic, but I also have Emmeline here that will allow me to expand my arsenal of tricks." He said while petting the chameleon-like palisman sitting above the board.

"What about you Willow? Are you still able to do Plant Magic?" Luz suggested, which made Willow to chuckle softly.

"Of course, but just like Amity, I'm only able to do as much magic as my heart and Clover over here can produce." Willow said while nuzzling her bee-like palisman buzzing on her shoulder.

"Great!" Luz said before she glanced at Hunter when he started to raise his hand to get everyone's attention.

"Not sure if I could be of any help in fighting, since you guys all know that I can't do magic unless Flapjack helps me. But there's a way I can help you track this thing since I have experience from my time in the Emperor's Coven." Hunter said while Flapjack was happily chirping in his shoulder.

Luz smiled at her friends before she walked around the basement looking for something. Once she spotted a red colored baseball bat she picked it up and swung it once before grinning at them. "Well, I'm aware this doesn't look as much. For now, we should just head out into Herlock Woods for a reconnaissance trip before coming up with a plan of attack. Hunter… you think you are able to follow our tracks to find our way back?"

"Yeah. I think so." Hunter smiled with his tooth-gapped smile.

"Great! I'll be upstairs customizing my weapon of choice, lemme know when you guys are ready!" Luz said while storming off up the stairs with her bat.

"I wanna eat something before we go." Hunter said while taking Flapjack with him.

"Ditto." Willow said while Clover buzzed on her shoulder.

"You coming, Amity?" Gus asked as he walked next to Vee upstairs to join Hunter and Willow.

"I'm going to lay down for a bit, wake me up if I fall asleep." Amity said while resting on the couch in the company of Ghost as she listened to her friends walking up and closing the door behind them.

For a few minutes, the pink-haired witch and her cat palisman tried to take a nap on the couch, only to be interrupted by the unmistakable sound of white noise. Ghost meowed at Amity as they both watched the strange cursed TV emit that disturbing buzzing sound towards them.

"How convenient of you to start working once everyone left." Amity sighed. "What do you want now?"

The TV replied this time… with Amity's voice coming from it saying: "We zzzshould follow the smoke…"

"What?" Amity glared at the TV.

"We zzshould f…llow the zzzshhhhsmoke."

"When did I ever said that?!"

"We should follow the smoke." The TV emitted that message one more time in the clearest way possible before shutting itself off swiftly, leaving nothing but a black dormant screen once more.

"Great…" Amity sighed and laid back down on the couch. "Now I can't sleep."

End of the Chapter.