BREAKING THE FANTASY
Written by Gwendolyn Frost.
Chilling at the edge of town were Masha and their human friends while sitting on the grass under the shade of a tree - the exact same group of misfits that Vee spent summer camp with last year.
"Hey guys! They're doing another stream!" Masha exclaimed, as they all gathered around them before playing a video on their phone.
"Ooo, nice!" One of them replied as they had some ice cream under the summer heat.
On the very edge of the screen there was the word LIVE written in red which meant the video was streamed in real time. However, the quality left much to be desired. But Masha and friends believed this to be on purpose, all part of the show for an online ARG account named Haunting Grounds .
"Where are they heading now? They were all perfectly safe in that Hotel." One friend who's hair was covering their eyes said, referring to the characters' in the video.
"Bro, that Hotel was full of ghosts, do you call that safe?" A different friend with short orange hair and glasses said.
"Ghosts can't hurt you!" He defended his statement. "With the exception of the Snow Man, of course."
"Well, I still firmly believe in the 'this is an alternative reality Gravesfield' theory." A fourth friend said which caused the groan of the other two.
"Seriously?" The friend with the hair-covered eyes said. "You're bringing this up again? Now Masha is going to lecture us again, man!"
"It is not an alternative reality to Gravesfield." Masha exclaimed, pulling their eyes away from their phone.
"See what you did?" The third friend with the orange hair and glasses said while sighing.
"It is, Masha!" The fourth friend shouted. "It is called an alternative reality for a reason. It is not ours, obviously. Do you see any snow around?"
"It's not!" Masha said in frustration. "I work at the museum, I've done my research, I know every place in Gravesfield and as far as I'm concerned, there was never a Hotel called El Mirador and the school they were using as a shelter for the past months doesn't exist in Gravesfield. You guys know I play chess. I have gone to compete in every school here and none of them have an otter as their mascot." Masha explained while the two other friends rolled their eyes and ignored them while trying to watch the stream on Masha's phone.
"Again, they call it an alternative reality for a reason." The fourth friend said while crossing their arms.
"Bruh, it is not just these locations that are sus. There's also that Japanese shrine of the Snow Man Ghost, the lamp posts on the streets have a European-esque look to them, there is a beach… we don't have a beach!" Masha almost screamed which brought all four to start shouting at each other.
"Would you guys please shut up!"
"We're surrounded by a huge forest!"
"So, I said I believe in the theory, I admit it's not perfect - I never said that it was bullet proof!"
"I cannot listen, please shut up!"
"There is no way this is Gravesfield."
"It is!"
"It's not! The only location connected to Gravesfield is the Ledger Manor and that's it!"
"Not this again!"
"Shut up!"
"Are you even listening to yourself!"
Out of a sudden, a scream coming from the phone pierced through the heated discussion that made everyone fall in complete silence.
"Is that Hendrix?" The friend with the glasses said while the others gasped as they listened to the characters on the screen mourn their lost friend.
"No way… the Snow Man did get to them." The friend with the hair-covered eyes said while pulling out a lighter in dramatic fashion.
"Your poncho will be missed…" The friend that started the argument said while sniffing slightly.
"Rest in peace, you sweet beautiful weirdo. You gave us laughs, you made us cry, you'll never be forgotten." Masha said while the others nodded.
"Hey, don't mean to ruin the mood, but I predicted this was going to happen." The orange haired friend said which brought the rest to go off into another long discussion between all parties.
But just as soon as the arguing started, it was once again wiped out of existence when the characters on the screen screamed for the name:
"Misao!"
"Wait, what?! Misao is alive!" Masha exclaimed while smiling from ear to ear.
"Let's goooo! I also predicted this." The orange haired friend said with a grin on their face.
"You know…" The theorist friend spoke. "I also believe in the theory of…"
"No! Stop. No more theories, let us have this." The friend with the hair-covered eyes said while the others nodded in agreement.
They all stopped arguing for good and simply enjoyed the bittersweet moment together as friends. But, Masha soon got distracted when from the corner of their eyes they were able to spot a familiar group of people they knew heading into the forest ahead.
"Vee? Luz? Amity? Where are you guys heading now?" Masha whispered with a soft sigh as they watched the other group of misfits being swallowed by the green maw of Herlock Woods.
THE LOOKING GLASS
Chapter 8.
Luz and her friends first made a quick visit to their shack, the same one in which Luz embarked herself into the world of witches and met Eda - the most powerful witch in all the Boiling Isles. Unbeknown to them, the shack was in fact built by the late Caleb Wittebane hundred of years ago. It was the place where he lived with his younger brother Philippe -Emperor Belos- and where he would meet with his secret lover away from the eyes and ears of Gravesfield.
By now, the shack was a little runned down, especially after the visit of the Modern Age Witch Hunters when they were hunting Belos not long ago. The reason they were now standing there was because Luz needed to orient herself using the shack in order to find the Morton Ranch without having to ask Masha to bring them there.
"So, I remember that I looked to my left and recognized that trail over there. I think that way will lead us to the Ranch." Luz said while everyone gathered behind her.
"Why are we even visiting the Ranch, anyway? Aren't we looking for the door?" Hunter asked.
"Or that other shack that Amity saw in her dream." Willow added.
"We have no idea where to look." Luz explained. "We could get lost without some more information. I was hoping we could head to the Ranch so that Amity would pick up on something we could use to find those things. If that's alright with you, Amity?" Luz asked her pink-haired girlfriend as she caught her looking around the woods, her eyes lost and unaware of what the conversation was about. Which caused Luz to nervously call for her attention again. "Amity?"
But Amity was absentmindedly peering towards the depths of the woods as if she was looking for that smoke that her own voice referred to that came out of the TV earlier in the morning.
'We should follow the smoke.'
Was all that echoed in Amity's mind while the voices of her friends calling her out landed in deaf ears. That was… until Luz reached for Amity's hand which caused her to snap out of her trance.
"Amity?"
Startled, Amity jumped out of surprise and looked at Luz straight in the eyes before she blurted out: "Huh? What?"
"You… are you ok? Were you having a vision?" Luz asked while the others watched them both with worried eyes.
"No, no. That's not it…" Amity said while rubbing the side of her head which got Luz to ask her next:
"Oh, are you still having a headache?"
"Yeah!" Amity exclaimed with a nervous smile. "That's it. Sorry, it's just…"
"It's ok. I'm sorry if we're pushing this waaay too fast, do you want to call the search off…?" Luz asked, apprehensive of doing so, Amity could see in her eyes that she wanted nothing more than to find that door.
"No." Amity said with a sigh and a smile. "No, I'm fine."
"You sure?" Luz asked while holding both of Amity's hands.
"Yeah." Amity said while nodding at her girlfriend, which finally got Luz to nod back and smile.
"Ok, let's head to the Ranch."
Nodding, Amity followed Luz's lead alongside the rest of their friends. However, her mind was still absent during the trip while she pondered on what the cursed TV showed her.
Was it trying to mess with my head? Was it showing me a glimpse of the future? The more she thought about it, the more questions she asked to herself. Because what she feared the most was the reasoning as to why the entity trapped in that object has. If she were in the Boiling Isles, she would have sought the help of her kind in order to solve this conundrum. But she was all alone, with friends who were still just as green in the arts of magic as she was.
If only my mother was here…
NO! Amity screamed in her mind while rage drew itself on her face. She betrayed me, she betrayed my family. She was going to let my friends die in order to save herself. I DON'T need her!
But she is the best Oracle I've ever known…
STOP! Amity tried to reason with the thoughts that materialized in her head out of nowhere. She could be the best witch to ever exist for all I care, I don't need her help. Her touch is poisonous. She says all she ever did was for us but I know… if Belos would have made her choose between us and her…
The memory of her siblings and father began to fill her thoughts as she finished her inner monologue. She would have chosen herself over us.
Soon, Amity's thoughts were interrupted when Luz stopped in her tracks when they ran into the Ranch's fence laying on the ground undisturbed like days ago.
"Here we are." Luz said with a smile as the rest of her friends saw with awe the abandoned house sitting in the middle of Herlock Woods, ominously looking back at them from a few feet away.
"Cool." Gus said while raising his camera up in the air and took a picture of the place.
"Ok, Clover. Are you ready?" Willow asked her bee palisman as it buzzed on her shoulder before they turned into a magic staff for Willow to hold.
Hunter and Flapjack watched them before they looked at each other. "Hm, should we as well?" Hunter asked before he got a chirping response from his palisman.
Luz watched her witch friends all have their palismans become staffs while she looked at the baseball bat she brought with her. She sighed softly as she thought of Eda and King when they brought that piece of wood she carved her own palisman with. Thinking of when her own palisman would be ready…
"Shall we go inside?" Gus asked while holding his own staff with Emmeline now sitting on the tip.
"Oh!" Luz exclaimed and nodded. "Sure."
The gang head inside the Ranch's house, the door was still missing on the front and so they simply walked inside and explored the place in the lookout for some clues that would lead them to the portal they're looking for.
Once inside, the gang scattered around. Gus took pictures of the inside of the house with his camera in one room. Luz found herself wandering around before she heard the voice of Hunter while he was standing in one of the bedrooms…
"Gone to the doctor. Be back in five minutes." Hunter said as he rubbed his chin.
"What?" Luz blinked in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
Hunter faced her before he pointed at the wall. "That's what it says."
Luz walked inside the bedroom and looked at the wall Hunter pointed at and saw a sign drawn on the wall that said: Gone to the doctor. Be back in five minutes. ~P
"What…?" Luz said while raising an eyebrow.
"I mean… all those weird spooky messages on the rest of the house are something. But this… just seems out of place." Hunter said.
"Last time we were here, there was a cartoon drawn on this wall." Luz told Hunter before she looked under the sign drawn on the wall before she pointed at the spot where there was a message there too; now gone. "There was also a name here… like… it said… the name of someone and it's real. What was it… oh yeah! It was Ph…"
Before Luz was able to finish saying what the message said, she was stopped by a screaming Vee.
"Don't say their name!"
"Huh?" Hunter looked at the both of them alongside Flapjack who was still sitting on his shoulder.
"It's not real, Vee. Masha and I were just joking that day." Luz explained with a frustrated look on her face.
"Well, I'm not risking it!" Vee responded with a worried look on her face which made Luz sigh.
"It's clear that whoever is vandalizing this house has a sense of humor, I wouldn't be worried about it." Luz told Hunter before he shrugged it off with a soft chuckle.
"I guess."
"Let's keep looking." Luz suggested before the two of them stopped and heard the sound of wood snapping followed by the voice of Willow exclaiming.
"Oh crap!"
"Willow!" Hunter rushed past Luz while she and Vee ran after him to find Willow trying to get her right foot from a hole on the floor. "Let me help you!"
"What happened?" Luz asked while moving to Willow's side opposite of Hunter while they both successfully pulled Willow away from the floor.
"Thanks guys…" Willow sighed as she leaned against the wall. "I was just looking around when my foot sinked on that floor. I think there's another room past it, maybe a basement…? There's definitely something under us."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Luz said while rubbing the back of her neck. "Last time we were here, Masha told me this room is a little unstable. But you're right… there's definitely something down there…" Luz said while they all stare down into the hole that Willow's foot left behind.
"Well, there's a door over there." Hunter pointed out while they all stared at it from the safety of the hallway. The door was dusty and covered in the ramblings of Thomas Morton before he died. It was open slightly, but not enough for them to take a peak to what was past it.
"Maybe… we could fly over there?" Luz asked as she pointed at Willow's staff.
"Hm…" Willow thought about it. "Ok… but just you and me."
"Great!" Luz exclaimed before she handed her baseball bat to Vee.
Hunter leaned over to Willow and whispered: "Hey, are you sure you want to do this after a traumatic event?"
Willow heard Hunter and faced him with a raised eyebrow. "Traumatic event? Hunter… my foot was stuck on the floor for less than a minute. What're you talking about, dude?"
"I'm just saying that… well… y'know I'm worried about you." Hunter said while his cheeks flushed out of a sudden.
"That's cute, Hunter." Willow said with a soft chuckle. "But I'm fine. Relax. Why don't you stay up here and keep a lookout."
Hunter blushed a little more but smiled sheepishly. "Sure…"
Before Willow would comment to Hunter about his sudden blushing, she heard Luz asking to her side.
"Shall we?"
"Oh, right." Willow held her staff before she mounted it and gave it a few taps. "Ok, Clover. Do your thing." Suddenly, the staff lifted Willow up in the air while she helped Luz to hop on it as well.
"Whoa…" Luz laughed softly as she held onto Willow tightly. "I really missed this."
"Yup, me too." Willow said while she tapped onto the staff gently. "Easy, Clover." She commanded her palisman to fly slowly towards the door in the other end of the room and when they reached it, she looked back at Luz. "You ready?"
"Ready!" Luz said excitedly.
Willow reached for the doorknob and pulled from it to get it open slowly, they heard a loud creaking which caused Willow to take a small pause before she continued. Once open they began to descend the stairs behind that door while they were still mounting that staff.
"Here goes nothing…" Luz whispered nervously.
While Luz and the rest were inside the Morton Ranch's House, outside was Amity in the company of her palisman Ghost staring into the horizon from the very spot in which allegedly Thomas Morton took his own life. There on the steps, Amity dared to sit down with Ghost jumping onto her lap soon after.
"Hey, Ghost. The Witch that carved you didn't happen to infuse you with any Oracle Magic, right?" Amity asked her palisman as she gently gave the white feline a few pets.
In response, Ghost meowed with a frown, as if she was trying to say sorry.
"That's what I thought." Amity sighed.
The Ranch seemed noisier and livelier than the time when Masha gave them a tour. They could hear the sounds of animals in the distance, from chirping to squeaking to other sorts of insects like crickets and to the loud buzzing of cicadas. A light breeze made Amity's pink hair wave towards the north which made her look in that direction into the depths of the forest past these lands.
"Do not judge me for what I'm about to do…" Amity told Ghost as her palisman companion meowed in confusion.
Closing her eyes, Amity tried to communicate with… Thomas Morton.
"If you're still around… I need your help. You said there's a door out there in Herlock Woods and that I need to destroy it… if you know where this door is, give me a sign." She whispered.
But minutes passed by and she didn't hear anything but the sounds of nature and the meowing of her cat as she hopped off her lap and started to play with some bug she found.
Whilst her eyes were still closed, Amity tried once more. "I know you said that the spirit in the box brought us together. But I wish to speak to you on my own… please, help me and my friends find this door."
Nothing happened, at least nothing that she could read into the sign she asked for. But for some reason… without warning, she felt something. Not the foreign emotions of spirits like Thomas Morton or the live people like Flor… these were her own emotions, the unsettling feeling of dread she felt when she knew she was being observed by an unknown looker.
Her eyes open in an instant. But the more she scanned her surroundings, she couldn't see what could be causing that dread she felt.
Ghost was nearby, but was too distracted chasing a butterfly around.
She looked back but she saw none of her friends standing in the doorway… so Amity looked at the woods once more before she realized that… the lively sounds of animals in the woods were gone.
Her heart was beating against her chest, Ghost was done playing with the butterfly when she looked at the now disturbed Amity staring into the strange forest that claimed so many lives before.
"Is it here?" Amity whispered as if she was still talking to Thomas Morton to which this time… she got a response in the form of a loud thump on the wood under her feet that sent shivers down her spine.
Even at this point, Ghost was able to feel the presence as well. The pale-white palisman turned around swiftly and hissed in the direction of the breeze before Amity called to her. "Ghost, come over here."
The palisman ran up to her and quickly transformed into a staff which Amity held high.
"Hey, Amity!" The voice of Luz made Amity yelp and point the staff at her to which Luz reacted with a yelp of her own. "Wait, no! Don't shoot! It's me, Amity."
"Oh, Luz…" Amity sighed in relief before she faced the woods again only to be surprised by the sounds of nature filling the air almost instantly. "Is it gone…?"
"What?" Luz asked. "What's happening, Amity? Why are you on edge?"
"It was here. The Unknown was here, Luz." The pink haired witch replied with a tone of urgency. "We gotta go now!"
"Wait, what? Are you sure?" Luz gulped. "Did you felt something like before?"
"Yeah, something like that." Amity said before looking at her girlfriend once more. "Gather the rest, we got to go."
"Wait, no. Not yet, we found something." Luz exclaimed.
"What?" Amity asked.
"You gotta see this." Luz said while a large smile drew itself on her face.
"I don't think this is a good time to stay here." Amity replied with worried eyes but she could see that look on Luz's face, she didn't need Oracle Magic to read her emotions when she was displaying them so well. Knowing perfectly well that no matter what she said, Luz wouldn't budge.
"Please, Amity. You gotta see this first before we go. It'll be quick, I promise."
With a soft sigh, the pink haired witch nodded in defeat. "Quick."
Luz gleefully smiled and held onto Amity's hand to lead her inside the Morton House. Soon, they were descending down the stairs into the basement where the rest were gathered down there while illuminating the room with light spells coming from their palismans.
"What did you find?" Amity asked as she looked around the barely illuminated room where she could see nothing but webs and dust particles floating.
But soon enough, Amity was brought towards the far end of the room. In which she could see something glaring on the wall thanks to the light.
A mirror.
But this wasn't the kind of mirror that you would expect in someone's home. This was a mirror that reflected everything in the room, from the webs, the dust, the old furniture sitting on the opposite side to that wall, the old frames on the walls to the left and right… but there was something it was not reflecting: Them.
"You see?" Luz asked with the biggest grin that her girlfriend has ever seen.
"Is it magic?" Amity asked.
"It has to be, right?" Willow said.
"There's only one way to find out…" Gus said while he walked up to the mirror and reached for it with his hand but everyone in the room stopped him from doing so by unanimously screaming at him the word:
"STOP!"
"We don't know if this thing is dangerous…" Luz added.
Gus stared at them for a brief second before reaching out once more to touch the mirror anyway. "Boop." But nothing happened.
"That was very irresponsible, Gus." Willow said while crossing her arms.
"C'mon, y'all wanted to touch it too!" Gus said with a grin before putting both hands on the mirror, on the other side there should be another Gus looking back at him; but there wasn't. "For a cursed mirror, this was a little bit underwhelming." He said before he pulled out his camera and took a picture of it.
"What's its purpose, tho?" Willow asked.
By now, most of them have moved forward to touch the mirror themselves, including Vee and Hunter. "In all my years in the Emperor's Coven, I've never seen something quite like this. And there is a market for cursed items in the Boiling Isles!" Hunter said while running his hand all over the glass and even pressed his forehead against it as if trying to see what was beyond it.
"I know, right?" Willow said with a soft chuckle.
Luz soon found herself a step away from the mirror, while apprehensive at first, she reached for the glass and touched it while smiling back at her girlfriend. "I'm a little disappointed that this isn't the portal we were looking for… but I'm happy to know that there's at least magic in my realm too."
"Well, I'm glad you're seeing things the bright way." Amity said with a smile before staring at the mirror for a little bit more, curiosity getting the best of her like anyone else in the room.
"Don't lose hope yet, Luz." Gus said while taking a few more pictures of the room. "There are still a lot of places left to explore in these woods, the Onlookers disappeared somewhere and that somewhere might be that door they were searching for.
While Luz and Gus discussed, Amity had taken a few more steps closer to the mirror.
"Yeah, I know." Luz said. "But the door they were looking for was called the Looking Glass and this has to be it."
Raising her hand, Amity reached for the Looking Glass but stopped midway.
"It could be or not. We don't know that yet. We can't discard the possibility that there could be a real portal out there." Gus said.
Gently, Amity removed her hand away from the mirror whilst her eyes remained fixed on it.
"Ok, guys… theory time." Hunter said. "What if it's a window into another world?"
"It can't be." Willow replied. "The mirror is reflecting our light spells but not us or our staffs."
"Maybe it's not really reflecting the spells, maybe it could be just a glare on the glass." Vee suggested.
"There's roots ingrained on it." Luz pointed out to Gus as they kneeled down to take a closer look.
Amity was not listening to any of them by now, the voices of her friends and girlfriend were vanishing as the pink-haired witch decided whether or not to touch the mirror. A part of her was curious about it, while another was hesitant to mess with it. But at some point… her hand pressed against that glass and what happened next extinguished the arguments taking place around her.
The young witch's eyes became white, glowing with light even. Her friends were pushed away by a sudden burst of wind. By the time that Amity could open her eyes, she was no longer in that basement but above in the first floor of the Morton House, except… she was seeing through the eyes of someone else.
She couldn't move, she could only observe as the person that walked through the house greeted the rest of their family who all seemed to be wearing clothing from the 1700s. At some point, she even saw Thomas Morton but when he was alive.
When the person that Amity was seeing things through reached the basement door, they reached for a candlelight first which allowed the witch to see their wrinkly old hand. Shortly after, they opened and closed the door of the basement behind them as the candlelight illuminated their path down the stairs in which Amity was able to notice a long skirt of a dress that indicated that this was an old woman.
To Amity's surprise, when the woman stood in front of the mirror it was showing her reflection, however, there was no evidence of her decaying age but the beautiful face of a woman who has their whole life ahead of them.
"Oh, My Muse! This is wonderful! The spell is finally working!" The woman exclaimed whilst she was touching her face.
There was no one else in the room, as far as Amity was able to see in the dark basement. But the old woman kept speaking to the void as if it was going to answer back, which made her question her sanity.
"Soon, the Looking Glass will be reflecting the age I'm supposed to be." The woman gave a soft chuckle. "Are you sure that the Witch Hunters won't ever find out…? I must be honest, I'm worried about them finding out. My family got a few friends in their guild… if only they could see the unlimited potential of magic… instead they wish to eradicate it from our world."
No response, by now, Amity was able to have a glimpse of the woman's wrinkly hands once more when she pressed them against the mirror, which gave away how old this woman truly was. Whatever this so-called spell was doing, it definitely was only visible on the other side of the mirror.
"How much longer will I have to wait, My Muse?" She asked.
But this time… there was a response.
Soon.
The voice that Amity heard came from inches away from the woman's face, on the mirror there was no reflection. It was a whisper… an eerie deadly whisper that sent shivers down her spine and soon enough she was brought back to reality where she was surrounded by her friends outside of the Morton House laying on the grass.
"Amity… you're awake!" Luz exclaimed before hugging her tightly.
"Luz… you were right." Amity said, which made Luz pull away from the hug.
"What do you mean…?" She asked, everyone around listening to Amity while she replied with a fearful look on her face.
"I think this whole thing is the work of a witch…"
End of the Chapter.