BREAKING THE FANTASY
Written by Gwendolyn Frost. The Concept of the Shapeless is a original creation of mine and my intellectual property.
While Luz and her friends tried their best to relax with Camila watching movies and eating snacks or even playing a board game or two during breaks – none of them were able to shake off the uneasy feeling of being stalked by the thing they refer to as the Face Snatcher.
They took turns leaving the safety of the basement with a made up excuse to check on their palismans guarding the house upstairs. But not once did they met with any danger, there has not being a single evidence of that monster's intrusion within the area.
Camila did noticed that some of them seemed on edge, but it didn't crossed her mind that it had anything to do with a well kept secret that only she was not aware of. Instead, associated it with the disturbing events that took place that morning. The adult tried not to speak about it, oblivious to the truth – believing that Luz's witch friends are still children, ignoring the fact that their world may be far more dangerous than her own. Ignoring the fact that Luz has been exposed and dealt with dangers such as these on a daily basis when living under the Owl House's roof.
On the other hand, Amity, Gus, Willow and Hunter felt on edge due to the fact that their magic is now limited to the one that their own hearts can produce. The only thing that can extend their magic is their palismans, which is also limited. Facing a threat like this in the Human Realm never felt so dangerous.
When the night fell and shrouded the Noceda home in darkness, Camila brought some extra sleeping bags so they would all sleep downstairs in the basement.
Camila was the first to fall asleep, of course. Having accumulated restless nights working extra shifts for weeks. The rest… had a hard time trying to go to sleep. Particularly Luz, who even though was cuddled up to Amity at the time was not able to get to rest. Carefully, she unwrapped Amity's arms from hers – posing no resistance whatsoever, because unbeknownst to Luz… Amity was awake too.
As sneakily as she could, Luz tiptoed her way out while her pink-haired girlfriend watched her leave her side to walk up the stairs into the living room. While Amity didn't blamed Luz for what was happening, the witch felt powerless to protect her. Her mind was filled with thoughts like:
'Why didn't I learned any other form of magic?'
'Why am I not able to create Abominations without ingredients?'
'Was there something I could do to prevent… this?'
Just as soon as her last thought got lost in the void of her own mind, the witch heard it once more… as if taunting her, as if it was able to hear her thoughts.
White noise…
The strange TV from before still laying on the ground a few feet from her was emitting that obnoxious noise, illuminating her face with the non-stop raining of gray pixels on the screen.
Glaring with frustration at the TV, Amity took a deep breath and whispered.
"What do you want now?"
In response… she heard a familiar message that only made her raise one of her eyebrows. The message was spoken… in her own voice, as if it was a recording of sorts – complete with the breaking audio of the TV's reception:
'We zzzshould follow the zzshmoke!'
"You said that already. What do you mean by that?" Amity whispered with rolling eyes.
To her surprise… she heard more, as if the TV was 'rewinding' a tape – it then played more voices before hers.
'W-where did it zzzzshtook her? One minute she w-wa-was zzzshthere and the next zzzsh one, poof! She's gone.' She was able to recognize Willow's voice.
'It must zzzzzsssshnot happened long ago. I rememberzzzzzZZZzzzssssh…' The audio broke but Amity was able to recognize this was Hunter's voice.
'What do zzzzssshwe do now?' Gus voice picked up.
'We should zzzzsssshfollow the smoke…' Amity was able to recognize her own voice reciting these words again, but the tone was different, she sounded puzzled.
'What? How do you zzzzzzZZzzshknow?' Willow's voice questioned her own.
'We zzzshould follow the zzshmoke! I need to follow the zzzzssshmoke to find Luz!' Amity's desperate voice was cut off by the TV shutting itself down abruptly shortly after shouting Luz's name.
As quietly as she could, Amity rushed as she could while avoiding stepping on her friends to reach the TV and demanded an answer with her desperate whispering.
"You jerk! Are you serious?! Don't you just drop something like that and leave! Tell me what all of this was! Is this some twisted joke of yours! Who are you! What do you want from me?! Why are you doing this?! Is this… is this…" Amity didn't dared to say it, but as tears formed on her eyes she whispered those words she couldn't believe. "Is this… our future?"
To her surprise, the TV turned itself back on. Its white noise and blinding bright screen forced the pink-haired witch to jump a step away from it before she heard the entity living inside the TV speak for the first time with its own voice, an inorganic voice – reminiscent of those metallic abominations from human science fiction that Gus loves to watch so much.
'THERE IS NO WAY TO CHANGE YOUR PAST. THERE IS NO WAY TO STOP WHAT'S COMING FOR YOU. SHE WILL NOT STOP PURSUING THIS PATH. WITH THIS VARIABLE I GRANT YOU, YOUR CHANCES OF SAVING HER WILL BE SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH FOR YOU TO FIND HER BEFORE IT DOES. I CANNOT SHARE MORE WITH YOU, LESS OTHER FACTORS INTERFERE. EVERYTHING MUST PLAY OUT ORGANICALLY.'
Amity stared into the rain of pixels for a moment before she asks the question once more. "Who… are you?"
'NOT YET. ALL IN DUE TIME.' The TV said before it shut itself off once more, never to do so for the rest of the night.
THE LOOKING GLASS
Chapter 15: The Witching World of Gravesfield.
Upstairs in the living room were the witches' palismans -still guarding the Noceda residence- gathered in front of the large see-through sliding doors where Luz first met the Shape the night before.
While the palismans were in essence the work of long-forgotten witches from the past that carved them from wood, they weren't any less alive than the living animals they represent.
Ghost the cat, Emmeline the chameleon, Clover the bee and Flapjack looked a little exhausted when Luz walked up to them.
"Hey, guys." Luz greeted them with a smile, all looking at her in slight confusion. "You can go to rest now. I know what your companions said. But it's alright. I'll take it from here. Don't worry."
They all looked at each other, unsure and timidly – but they were also really tired to argue. So they moved away into the hallway to head to Luz's bedroom so they could lay down for a bit.
Luz took a seat on her couch. Staring into the see-through sliding doors trying to catch something outside that looked even slightly misplaced – only for her to realize how paranoid she felt. She looked around the couch to see her baseball bat still sitting on the wall next to it where she left it hours ago when they arrived back home. She brought it with her, sitting it on her lap as she leaned back on the couch.
Moments later, she caught something by the corner of her right eye that made her jump off the couch as she held the bat with both hands, startling her girlfriend who was now standing nearby.
"Luz, it's me!" Amity shouted as she held her arms close to her face.
Gladly, Luz was able to react in time.
"I'm so sorry! I didn't meant to… I wasn't going to…!" Luz lowered the baseball bat immediately while trying to find the words to apologize to Amity.
The pink-haired witch brought her arms back down and shook her head. "No, no. It's me who should be apologizing. I shouldn't have walked up to you like this… my feet are so light." She tried her best to lighten the mood a bit as she cracked a soft chuckle, but Luz didn't cracked a smile of her own. "Luz… I know you're stressed…"
"I'm sorry." Luz forced a smile on her face. "For bringing you all into this mess."
"Luz, it's not your fault. There was no way we could have predicted this." Amity said as she walked up to her girlfriend to hold her hands.
"I was selfish. That's what I'm sorry for." Luz said, her forced smile shedding light into the sadness in her eyes as she explained. "I want to get back to Eda. I want to get back to King. I want to help them. I want us to be together again. That's why I did all of this. I wanted to find a door, any door that would lead me to them and didn't thought of the consequences and I put you all in danger…" Tears began to rain down her cheeks as her lip broke the forced smile due to its non-stop shaking.
Amity reached out to embrace Luz, who sobbed and cling onto her with all her might – letting all out on her, wetting her shoulder while Amity rubbed Luz's back, helping her to to take a seat before her legs would give in like they always do in these sort of circumstances.
The sobbing and heart-breaking cries from Luz in tandem with Amity's humming to reassure her continued for a while longer as they embraced each other in the poorly lit room until Luz was able to calm down.
"I'm so sorry…" Luz blew her nose on a napkin that Amity offered her.
"You don't have to be sorry. You needed this." Amity said with a wide smile, rubbing Luz's back some more as she took a seat next to her once more. "You've been holding onto those emotions for so long that it was inevitable they were going to burst out of you eventually."
Luz gave a soft chuckle. "They did… big time. Ugh… I can't believe you've seen me like this." Luz said with a huge blush on her face.
"Honestly, it was pretty cute." Amity couldn't help but give a soft laugh.
Luz gave a playful glare at her and laughed as well. "Oh, I'll show you…!"
"But in all seriousness." Amity said, making Luz look back at her as their gazes met. "If I was able to save you a tear. I would do anything so that you don't have to feel this way ever again." Amity's yellow eyes were filled with pure honesty and care for Luz as they looked into each other's eyes.
Luz smiled and gently placed her head down on Amity's shoulder which she had been crying into moments before.
Amity's face blushed hotly, but gently wrapped her arm around Luz while rubbing Luz's shoulder slightly. She didn't dared to say anything, even though she wanted to. She wanted to tell Luz what happened earlier with the TV. But she knew it wasn't the time. At some point, she rested her own head on Luz's, enjoying the moment for as much as they were able to before Luz broke the peace they've built with a simple question…
"What is it that you want to tell me?"
Amity choked on her own breath, not expecting Luz to read her mind like that! "How did you…?!"
Before she was able to finish that sentence, Luz grinned. "I think we've been together long enough for me to know when you're upset." Luz giggled. "It's your foot… you're tapping it on the floor every so often."
The pink-haired witch looked down on her naked foot before she stopped her little tick and blushed heavily once more. "The TV…" Amity blurted out, bringing a face of confusion upon Luz.
"Huh?"
"The entity inside the TV… spoke to me." Amity's blush stayed while she rubbed the back of her head with frustration. "I know it sounds weird. I know none of you have witnessed it turned itself on. But this thing… played our voices, as if it was a moment in time in the far distance. Where we lost you. That you went missing." Amity looked at Luz with worrying eyes. "That it took you."
"The Face Snatcher?" Luz asked gulping uneasily.
Amity nodded, narrating what happened after Luz left the basement before she sighed.
"I should have told you guys of the first time it played my voice but… I didn't know what to make of it."
"It's ok." Luz smiled sweetly before she asked. "But why didn't it just told you how I got lost so we're prepared for it?"
"Luz…" Amity let out a huge sigh. "I've tried reasoning with them. They speak to me whenever they please, they do what they want! Honestly… I'm starting to think I have no Oracle powers at all, that this is all the work of this TV. I know how that sounds. But why now? Why did I started to show talents for this when they didn't exist at all!"
"Hold on, Amity! I believe you!" Luz said as she held onto Amity's shoulders to stop her rambling.
The pink-haired witch sighed as she gently placed her hands above Luz's still attached to her shoulders. "All they said was that everything must play out organically, unless other factors might interfere."
"Ok." Luz said with a smile. "Well… we should make good use of this information. Regardless of whether it turns out to be true or not."
"Or…" Amity said before biting her lip. "We could not engage in it's game."
"I can't do that, Amity." Luz said with a determined look on her face. "That thing has been… consuming so many people over the years. From the sound of it, humans and witches alike. Whether Flor is right, that it seeks for a specific sort of victim like Eda or myself – the fact is, it won't stop. And someone must stop it."
"Well, alright." Amity said with a soft chuckle as the memory of the inorganic voice played out in her thoughts.
'THERE'S NO WAY TO STOP WHAT'S COMING FOR YOU. SHE WILL NOT STOP PURSUING THIS PATH.'
"What's so funny?" Luz asked, raising an eyebrow and tilting her head slightly in confusion.
"Nothing. It's just that…" Amity said as she looked at Luz with a her cheeks burning a little bit. "I like this about you. I'm worried sick, of course. But even when the odds are against you… even when you're scared… you always find the strength to help others. Even when those others did not appreciate you in the first place. Like me."
"What do you mean by that?" Luz asked with a soft laugh, blushing a lot more than Amity when hearing the compliment. "Well, sure we didn't see eye to eye at first… but we've overcome that already."
"Yeah, but I never said sorry. And I think this is the time I should be saying this to you. I'm sorry, Luz. You proved me wrong." Amity said before leaning to give her girlfriend a tender kiss on her lips that lasted about a second before they parted ways. "You're the strongest, most headstrong and brave witch I know."
Luz couldn't help but to blush heavily after this. Not because of the kiss, they've kissed plenty of times – but because of what Amity said, that she was wrong and sorry for saying all those mean things towards her in the past, meant so much to her. "You didn't have to say this, but… thank you."
"I did need to say it. I may not be able to change what I said in the past, but I've learned from my mistakes and you deserve an apology and recognition for all the hard work you've put to become the witch you are." Amity said as she leaned in to reach for Luz's hand and intertwined that hand's fingers with her own.
Luz smiled towards Amity, with her cheeks still burning hot as she squeezed her girlfriend's hand gently.
"You feel better?" Amity smiled back at her. "You ready to kick Face Snatcher butt?"
Luz laughed out loud and so did Amity. "Oh, yeah! We can do this!"
"We can do this together!" Amity added, reminding Luz of that time in Willow's mind.
"We can do this together." Luz repeated with a decisive tone in her voice, making Amity's cheeks burn just as hotly as hers.
The pink-haired witch cleared her throat slightly before asking. "Since we're still up, you want to check that book?"
Luz blinked and nodded. "Sure. I'm curious to find something helpful. Though, I should lower my expectations." Luz said as she brought herself up and went to turn on the lights in the living room while Amity went to pick up the book in Luz's room.
Soon enough, they were both sitting in front of the coffee table as they looked at the book laying on top of it with the title:
'The Witching World of Gravesfield: Scary Stories and Whispered Tales by Professor Howard Phillips.'
The book's cover had a photograph of the Wittebane brothers' statue. When they opened the book, the very first thing they encountered were the following lines written in a page that was mostly blank that said:
'I dedicate this book to My Muse. You, who my imagination fuels. Finding you helped me overcome death. You are forever, my secret well-kept.'
"Huh…" Amity blurted out, making Luz to tilt her head.
"What is it?"
"It just that… this sounds familiar…" Amity said before a memory flashed in her mind when she saw that old lady in the Morton house talking in front of the mirror.
'Oh, My Muse. This is wonderful!'
Luz raised her eyebrow in confusion when Amity told her of this memory shortly after. "You think they're talking about the same… Muse? Maybe this guy is talking about his wife."
"Yeah…" Amity said before shaking her head with a soft chuckle. "Yeah, I shouldn't be overthinking this." She said as she turned the page and they were both greeted with a picture of the Professor in a About the Author section.
The picture showed a man sitting in front of a window which made Luz crack a soft giggle.
"What?"
"I had this exact picture type of picture of mine saved in case I became an author myself." Luz said laughing a little bit, which made Amity join in the laughter.
"Ok."
However, as Luz inspected the picture closely she tapped at the man's hand with a ring on it. "See, he's married. Or… was married."
They stared at the picture a bit longer, as quirky as it was – posing for the picture in a similar way like Luz had done before. They… felt uncomfortable. The man with semi-long brown hair with the wide gentle smile, wearing a simple white-shirt with it's sleeves rolled-up to his elbows seemed innocent enough but without another word, they simply turned the page and were met with a table of contents with multiple subjects covered in the book.
"Introduction. Gravesfield. Witching History. Native American Stories. Hughmond Ledger the Curse Collector. The Metal Wizard. The Wandering Sleep Walkers. Phobos The Wall Crawler. The Onlookers and Other Worlds. The Shapeless Other…" Amity recited before she was interrupted by Luz.
"Hold on. The Onlookers… let's start there."
"Ok then." Amity said as she turned the pages towards that section.
When they reached that page, they began to read out loud together:
Long before I moved into this magical place with my Esther, the Onlookers walked out of Herlock Woods last century during a bright sunny day.
They identified themselves as a group of people that came from a distant land named Tellus. The locals were fast to label them as a bunch of fanatics. The police was unable to find any records of their existence prior to this very day. They've sent them somewhere else in the country so that they would deport them to their country of origin, but they simply couldn't find out where to place them. And so, they soon returned to our beloved town to love among nature deep in Herlock Woods. I reunited with them as soon as I heard of them. They were a nice hospitable bunch, I dinned, hiked and shared stories with them. When I gained their trust and were able to tell of my honest curiosity that they were willing to tell me… about other worlds.
Starting with the world of origin: Tellus. They described these lands as a interconnected place with several other realms like the large branches of one tree such as ours which they call: Midgard. Maybe the vikings were onto something, I thought. Regardless, the stories they shared sounded nothing like the Nordic folklore we know of. Tellus is referred to as The Neutral Grounds. Their civilization has learned to co-exist and depend of its vast nature, unlike us. Their magic, coming from two sources that merged together to create balance. There, the words we know of as 'change' and 'curse' are one and the same.
In order to wield its magic, would have to be done with utmost respect. Because unsettling the balance would be dire and deadly.
Of course, none of them were able to show me any form of spell or magic trick that would give credence to their stories, but I find them fascinating – nonetheless. Even when admitting that they… most likely be lying about it.
However, they disappeared one day. And the only remaining member of this group, was a young lady who I encountered dragging herself through the woods alongside my students years later. Her wound… was horrifying. Poor girl, suffered a rather grim fate that she spoke of not for many years. I carried her myself to town through over 30 kilometers. To this day, I have no idea where I got the strength from. All I cared was for her safety. For what happened to my lovely Esther, still haunts me. Not another, I promised to myself.
This girl will remain anonymous. But one day, she visited me while still recovering from that excruciating pain she endured that day.
That's when she told me the story of what happened to the Onlookers. They found a door deep in Herlock Woods. Leading into an in-between world where they encountered an old deadly force that consumed them whole. The Looking Glass is where it lives, place which it's domain. Where it has set its fleshy roots. Before she was able to cross into this door, she was saved by her grandfather before it consumed him too. She escaped and ran for days escaping from what she refers to as The Shapeless Other. A concept made real.
She says that the origins of The Shapeless are lost in time. So is its name and its true nature. There was this old civilization that she refers to as the Nebulites. They were the first that spoke of The Shapeless. Our existence, this very universe is connected to other planes. They believe The Shapeless Other to be the source of our discomfort with our own reflection. Sometimes it's really ourselves, looking back at us. Sometimes… it's the Shapeless. It's able to take our shape in the other side of the mirror.
Sometimes, it shows us our deepest desires. Our irrational fears allow it to interact with us. The moment we decide to acknowledge that its looking back at us from the other side, its when it breaks character. Which also allows it to cross that thin barrier…
I investigated this Shapeless creature in secret, following this girl's visit. I believe she speaks the truth. Not only was I able to uncover a large amount of people that probably ran into this thing in the past, but it also shed some light into the fates of the Mortons.
Those that have encountered it, but not taken – have a thing in common. It always poses as a deceased or lost figure. Probably people it consumed before.
Some native americans that lived here long ago, also spoke of a similar creature: The Skinwalker. Whether it truly wears the skin of its victims, I have no evidence for. As mentioned before, I reunited with some native americans that told me stories that may or may not be referring to The Shapeless, but they seemed to be able to hold off the creature with a mirror. That must explain why I found so many of them mounted on trees in Herlock Woods.
I will one day dive myself into the forest, hopefully… I will be able to make contact with it. Let us hope that you're able to hear from me if it happens.
The following pages spoke stories of the encounters with the creature, including Flor's full story… which they gave up on once they read the part where it wounded her, trying to rip through her spine with something sharp which rendered her unable to feel her legs.
Luz closed the book herself at that specific paragraph. Rubbing her face in disbelief.
"The Shapeless Other… so now we know what it is." Amity said, making Luz nod in agreement.
"You think that it's true? That we can hold it back with a mirror?" Luz asked.
"I don't know. We really have no creature quite like this in Bonesborough."
"Well… we're going to have to find out." Luz said before they both left the living room to join the rest back in the basement to have some sleep in order to have the strength to face this thing… tomorrow.
End of the chapter.