BREAKING THE FANTASY

Written by Gwendolyn Frost. The Shapeless is a creation of mine and my intellectual property.

On the outskirts of Herlock Woods, where Luz brought Amity to eat french fries the week before – Masha was sharing those same treats with one of their friends; the one with short orange hair and glasses. The both of them were sitting in front of the Zanuff's Chips food truck while they shared ideas about the dead body that was found the day before.

"None of the news blogs have mentioned the black ink we saw yesterday in the site where the body was allegedly found. More importantly, every single news blog I've read is structured in the same way, they all spout the same BS as the police." Masha said while they sipped from their soda as their friend gave them a smirk.

"So, are you implying that they're all covering something up? Both the police and the media?"

Masha laughed out loud. "Ok, chill. Not everything is a conspiracy. But…"

"It's all very sus." Their friend finished Masha's sentence before they ate some more fries with a grin on their face.

"Exactly." Masha said while rolling their eyes with a smirk of their own.

"But what if it turns out to be?" The orange haired friend asked while adjusting their glasses smugly.

"If it happens to be a real-life conspiracy, I'd say that it all points to the Greene House Foundation. The Greenes are the shadiest people in town." Masha said as they ate some more fries themselves.

"Also, needless to say – they have the money to both delete someone and cover it up." The friend said rather ominously.

"True." Masha took a deep breath rather uncomfortably.

"What are you going to do with the shard you found? Are you really not handing it to the police?"

"I don't know…" Masha said with a shrug. "If I had the money to get the black ink into a lab and get it analyzed, I'd do it. Then again… if the police finds out…" Masha said while they lowered their voice, despite most of the tables around them were vacant.

"You'd be in a lot of trouble, for sure." The friend whispered back before they changed the subject. "Anyway, have you heard the latest news about the missing girl?"

"The Michiru waitress? No, what about it?" Masha asked, relaxing on their seat while drinking some more soda.

"Like, not only was her whole life completely leaked this morning – but it all stems from the unsettling security cam recordings that were released this morning." The orange haired friend said as they leaned forward.

"Ok, interesting." Masha said as they reached for their phone to search for those recordings. They didn't have to look hard enough, some of those blogs they ranted about had already made a piece on them.

Masha's friend enjoyed watching them react to the recordings. Their expression starting with intrigue and slowly becoming puzzled as they watched each video. The goth saw on their phone as the waitress -Koume- was caught by several security cameras heading towards Herlock Woods. It all happened between 7:41 to 7:48 pm. There were three recordings, all varying in quality. The first one was good enough, being able to define the girl's features as she walked with a wide smile on her face walking past the gas station that recorded her. The next was somewhat blurry taken by a small store where she was now seen walking in a hurry. The last one had the best quality, this was a home security camera – placed on the entrance to a house near the outskirts of Herlock Woods where the girl was now seen sprinting towards the line of trees never to be seen again…

"Quite odd. Have they started a search for her, yet?" Masha asked.

"Nope." Their friend bluntly said. "The whole situation with 'the bear' that killed Bret has put a search on hold."

"Seriously?!" Masha exclaimed in disbelief.

"The police say that until the bear is taken care of, no one should head into the woods. Yet…" The friend said as they looked straight at the woods a few feet away from them. "They're doing no effort to let people wander off into it… I mean, we're surrounded by nothing but forest, but still."

"Yeah, I get it." Masha sighed.

"Like I said, a lot of people have opened up about her online. Mostly classmates, friends, etc. Only a selected group of people have announced they're planning to do a search for her tomorrow. It's all on the Michiru owners' socials, they're leading the search – even though the whole drama that happened in the restaurant."

"Wait, what drama?" Masha asked while raising their eyebrow.

"Oh? Have you not seen the Michiru video?"

"No, what do you mean? What happened in Michiru?"

"That went viral yesterday, she got fired for smashing the bathroom mirror. It all happened before the security feed you just watched." The friend explained. "Several clients in Michiru streamed and posted the video of her getting yelled at by the owners after she smashed the bathroom mirror in front of a few people. And today, under the hashtags – several people that know her started sharing how she has controlling parents, how unhappy she was, how because of her Michiru was getting reviewed bombed… how she was failing at community college… every detail of her life has been shared online. If she ever comes back, it'd be a nightmare to live in her shoes. Everyone decided she's mental and no one wants to help the Michiru owners and their family search for her. Not even HER parents."

"Yikes." Masha blurted out before regretting it. "I do not mean that disrespectfully, I was agreeing with you. If this was not the result of a mental breakdown, the fact her whole life is public would certainly break someone."

"Exactly."

"Do you think…" Masha said as they began to ponder on an idea. "That both cases are related?"

"You mean Bret's and the waitress'? Bruh, Bret was one of those influencers that jumped into the professional boxing bandwagon for clout and money. That dude was a beefcake! I don't see a world where the waitress killed him."

"Not that!" Masha exclaimed. "I mean…" Masha then lowered their voice once more. "What if she saw something she shouldn't have? I mean… Bret was killed in the woods and she got lost in the woods…"

"So, are we considering the conspiracy angle?" The friend asked with a smirk.

Masha rolled their eyes while a grin drew itself on their face. "Maybe! I guess. Honestly… I'd join the people searching for her tomorrow but… I don't want to be the one that finds her… y'know, not alive."

"Same. You shouldn't be wandering into the woods like you usually do."

"I'm not planning to. Trust me." Masha said with a soft laugh.

"By the way, didn't you said Vee was joining us today?" The friend asked with curiosity, while they eyed their surroundings looking for the tanned girl with the blonde and blue hair.

"No, I said that I was going to invite her but she declined the offer. She says she's staying all day indoors with her sister."

"Oh, ok then." The orange haired friend said as they nibbled on their lower lip before asking. "Are you sure she's not like… mad at us or something? It's been a while since she's hanged out with us."

"No." Masha said before they scratched the back of their head nervously. "At least, I don't think so."

"Not to kick the dead horse some more, but her sister Luz used to hang with us at summer camp and whenever I wave at her – I feel like she's pretending she doesn't know who we are. But it's so weird she doesn't hang with us anymore. Now it turns out to be Vee is her sister and… she's kind of brushing us away now."

"Ok, I get it. But you've got to chill on those thoughts, though. I doubt they're brushing us off, I don't feel Vee is being rude, at least. But they're definitely hiding something, though." Masha said with a worried look on their eyes mixed with genuine frustration.

"Ok…" Masha's friend said rather sadly.

"It's nothing. We did our best to include them." Masha said as they reached to squeeze their friend's hand with a forced smile on their face. "If they don't want to be our friends, their loss."

"Yeah…" Masha's friend said with a faint smile of their own. "I should head home now or else mom is going to yell at me because of the curfew."

"No worries, I should be heading home soon since the museum closed until further notice." Masha said as they ate some of the leftover fries in their shared plate while their friend was getting back on their feet.

"Ok, take care!" Their friend said as they head off past the food trucks and into the streets to catch the bus home, leaving Masha with their thoughts… until a certain group of people caught their attention through their peripheral view.

That group… was Luz's. With Vee and Amity by her side -and a few other new faces- they were about 50 feet from Masha walking into the nearest forest trail. "You got to be joking." Masha said under their breath, reaching for their phone to start typing a few words towards Vee to confront her about lying to them until… the sudden anger was dissipated by a genuine thought of concern.

"Vee, why are you doing this?" They whispered once more as they watched the group -led by Luz- disappeared into the forest.

Millions of thoughts began to cross their mind: What if the police is right and there is a dangerous bear lurking in the woods? What if they ran into another dead body? What if they get lost? What if… she gets lost? What if she gets hurt?! More and more stressful thoughts began to fill the goth's mind until they placed their phone back into their pocket before they began to follow the group deep into the unknown…

THE LOOKING GLASS

Chapter 17: Hunted.

Luz and her friends walked past the trail, heading towards the Morton Ranch – except they branched out to reach a different place that Luz said they needed to visit first. They ran into a different trail, the same exact one that had a bunch of mirrors that were tied to a bunch of trees.

Luz began to untie some of those mirrors from the trees while Amity helped her by holding them still. As they did so, Hunter was examining the one that Luz handed to him just a moment ago. The mirror had uneven sides -as a matter of fact- as he looked at Willow's and Gus' mirrors shortly after – he noticed they all looked the same… as if they were all shards of one big looking glass.

"Ok, so you want us to use these?" Hunter asked Luz as she untied the next shard with Amity's help.

"It's what the book says, that the Shapeless can be held off with a mirror." Luz said as she placed the shard down on the grass for the time being as she untied the very last one.

"You got to refresh my memory, how does it work exactly?" Hunter asked in confusion.

Amity sighed as she held the mirror Luz was untying still as she replied. "The book says that some Native Americans were able to make the creature retreat with a mirror. It doesn't reveal any details about it… but… Luz says there's a world beyond the mirrors.

"It's called the In-Between!" Luz said as she finished untying the looking glass that Amity now held in her hands.

"That's how you were able to communicate with me, right?" Vee asked as she stood closer to them.

"Right!" Luz said with a small smile.

"The book says that the Shapeless has made this world it's domain. It literally goes through mirrors, somehow." Amity explained. "If I'm right, maybe we could use it's own magic against it and send it back there."

"Ok. But these are a little small, don't you think?" Hunter pointed out, making Luz roll her eyes.

"Yeah, individually. But as a whole, maybe we stand a chance!"

"Maybe." Amity said nervously before they were all surprised by a sudden noise coming from the woods, like someone had just stepped on a branch lying on the floor – startling them.

Just as soon as Hunter began to shush them so that he would investigate, they saw a brown furred rabbit rushing past them.

"Goodness…! It's just a bunny!" Luz exclaimed before they all chuckled softly, trying to shake off the feeling of being watched.

Unbeknownst to them, hiding behind some trees was Masha – who's heart was racing to what they felt were a thousand beats per second. They tapped their forehead in silence while they whispered the word 'stupid' over and over for almost blowing their cover.

Hunter wasn't entirely convinced, but before he was able to request Flapjack -his palisman- to fly over the trees to scan the area, he felt Amity's hand on his shoulder. "Do you hear that…?" She asked.

"Huh?" Hunter tried to hear what the pink-haired witch was talking about as his ears were filled with the sounds of nature.

"I believe that is our cue to know if the Shapeless is close. Every time that it has been nearby, the whole forest goes silent. As if the animals know there's a dangerous predator out there."

"Makes sense." Hunter said before they all looked at Luz when she raised her voice.

"Guys, I know we don't have a solid plan right now. But I can't thank you enough for helping me fight this thing." Luz said with a serious look on her face.

"It's ok, Luz. We all want the best for you." Willow said with a smile.

"No shape shifting monster intimidates my girlfriend and gets away with it." Amity says with a hint of blushing on her cheeks while smiling widely at Luz.

The hidden goth -Masha- was listening to their conversation, whilst unable to make out all the details – when hearing the words 'shape shifting monster' they raised their eyebrow in confusion. "Are they… larping or something?" They whispered before they shut their mouth with their left hand and decided to use their inner voice from now on.

"It's ok, Luz. Not sure we can defeat it using raw force. But if you are right and we can trap it in this In-Between world, then it's worth the shot." Hunter said with a smile.

'Definitely larping…' Masha thought while face-palming themselves. 'I can't believe you're ignoring my warnings for some dumb roleplay, Vee!' They clenched down on their teeth with anger once more before they heard Luz speak up once more.

"Thanks." Luz said, blushing a little bit due to Amity's comment, but brought something else into the conversation. "For now, we should be looking for that other shack in which Flor was attacked by that thing."

'Flor? Did she just said, Flor?' Masha thought while peeping from the safety of the tree that they stood behind. 'Is she on it, too? Wait… that doesn't make any sense. Why would Flor insert herself into a live action roleplay that's based on her own traumatic experience? That's messed up!'

"Unfortunately, I was unable to orient myself in my vision of the event." Amity explained. "Who knows what we may find there, but we could occasionally fly with our staffs to both save us some time and magic."

'This is not happening…' Masha kept glooming behind the tree in disbelief. 'What did I got myself into! Is this really their secret?! This is so dumb… I should head home… no wait, what if they do get lost? Ugh! Vee! Why are you doing this to me?!'

Vee sneezed, obliviously to the ordeal that Masha is going through.

"That's a good idea!" Luz said with a large grin. "I wish I had my own staff, though."

"You know you can ride on mine." Amity said with a smile.

"Oh, of course! I know I can always count on you. But I meant that…" Luz said while Masha was having an inner conflict with themselves.

'This is madness. Flying on their staffs, what staffs?! Y'know what… I should stop this at once! They may be ashamed that they like larping like this… but someone was killed yesterday! Why are they taking this so lightly?! I should interfere! Make sure they're able to come back home safely.' They thought while leaning against the tree as the conversation soon faded away.

"We should go so we can cover more land." Luz said as her group started to leave the scene while Masha got lost in their thoughts.

'Sorry, Vee. I know you and Luz didn't want me to find out your secret this way, but you should know better than to get yourself lost in the woods for a silly live action roleplay.' Masha took a deep breath and then started to walk out of their hideout while raising their voice. "Ok, guys! The gig is up! You shouldn't have… huh?!"

By the time Masha had come out, Luz and her friends were gone and far enough that no one heard them.

"Where did they go?! GUYS!" Masha shouted.

Further away, Luz's party have reached a large open area with long pasture lands where they were able to spot a large fire tower emerging from a wide mass of trees in the fair distance. "That should be another landmark for us." Luz said.

"What is that?" Willow asked.

"That is a watch tower, or fire tower… humans have these so that we can act in time before a fire spreads."

"I see. Cool." The green-haired witch said.

"Do you wish to check that place out?" Amity asked her girlfriend who pondered on the idea.

"Perhaps… I mean, it wouldn't hurt – right? If we're able to look from that spot, then we would be able to save magic and maybe even find that shack we were talking about."

"Question!" Hunter said as he raised his hand as if he's sitting behind his desk in school.

"Yes, Hunter?" Luz asked in confusion.

"You sure we're allowed to look around that thing? Wouldn't we run into other humans?"

Luz became worried after Hunter raised a good point. "I think so, but Masha said that Herlock Woods is a paranormal hot spot. Is it possible there's still people working there?" She said as she looked up at the fire tower looking down on them.

"We can still use our staffs to fly around." Gus suggested.

"No…" Luz said. "We should be saving our resources. I think we'll be fine if we're pretending we're lost and looking for directions. But just in case… we can count on you using Illusion Magic for a distraction?"

Gus nodded with a smile. "Of course, leave it to me!"

"Ok, finally – a plan!" Hunter said with a soft chuckle. "You guys go on ahead. I'm going to ask Flapjack to fly above so that he scouts the area for us."

"Good idea." Luz said with a wink and giving him the thumbs up. Shortly after, she -still locked hand in hand with her girlfriend- delved into the long pastures with the rest of their friends.

"Ok, buddy! You've heard me, right?" Hunter asked Flapjack as it jumped down from his shoulder to his left hand as he whispered. "Go on ahead and make sure none of them gets lost, ok?"

Flapjack chirped happily in response before he flew off above the pasture lands to get ahead from the rest and lead them to safety before Hunter heard the voice of Luz not far away.

"Hunter! Hurry up, we're waiting for you!"

"Oh, coming!" Hunter shouted before he dived into the long pasture lands to find Luz and the rest.

"Over here!" Luz's voice caught Hunter by surprise, startling him somewhat.

"I'm coming!" Hunter exclaimed. "You guys alright over there?"

The sounds of rustling filled Hunter's somewhat pointy ears before he was able to hear Luz's voice once more.

"Hunter! You've got to see this! We've found something!"

The blonde raised his eyebrow while he hurried up and began to head into the direction in which he heard Luz's voice. The rustling continued, becoming louder and louder – preventing from listening to anything else.

"Hold on! Stay put in the meantime!" Hunter exclaimed as he delved himself deeper into the pastures until he was able to reach an opening in which he found himself standing in front of a large rectangular mirror sitting vertically on the ground. However, the mirror did not showed his reflection but rather a wooden home room, somewhat decayed, neglected and dirty. "Luz…?! Guys…?!" Hunter didn't dare to take a single step, but his eyes were fixed on the mirror until something odd began to peer from the other side.

What Hunter saw was brown hair that slowly moved from the left side inside the mirror, then a tanned forehead, then a set of eyes that he was able to recognize as… Luz's?

"Luz?" Hunter asked both in confusion and somewhat nervously.

"Surprise!" Luz exclaimed as she jumped from the left to stand in front of the other side of the mirror in that wooden floored room.

"Stop messing around, you scared me for a bit!" Hunter growled at her, taking a few steps forward but keeping his distance from the mirror as he looked at Luz. "Where are the others?"

"They're looking around on the other rooms, this place is huge!"

Hunter still kept his distance from the mirror as he circled around it. The mirror was placed vertically on the grass, without holding against anything. Is as if magic was keeping it sitting still. "It's yet another cursed mirror like the one we found in the Ranch."

"Eeeyup!" Luz said on the other side of the mirror as Hunter was looking at the backside of the mirror that was covered slightly by odd-looking brown roots that seemed… alive? They were moving, ever so slightly. But other than that, behind those 'roots' he was able to see his own reflection. "Hey, are you done looking around? Give me a hand!"

"Huh?! Oh, yeah…" Hunter said as he circled back around to face Luz who was now trying to open a hatch on the floor, which was close shut by a lock. "H-how did you got inside the mirror?" Hunter asked as he stop before he even dared to lay a finger on it.

"Uh, we just did…" Luz said as she looked down on the lock as she tried to force it off the hatch on the floor.

The blonde was hesitant to move further, instead – his eyes began to look at Luz on the other side. Same face, same eyes, same hair covered in that red beanie of hers, same green jacket, same black tight pants… everything seemed normal yet… different.

"Are you helping me, or what?" Luz asked with a confused look on her face as she moved away from the lock to stare into Hunter's eyes.

"Luz…" Hunter stepped just enough so that he could peer inside that mirror. "Where is Amity?" He asked, finding it strange that Amity let her wander off when she was adamant of not letting her go on her own.

"I told you, they're looking around this place." Luz said with a soft sigh. "Are you… ok?" She asked while rubbing the back of her head.

Hunter took a step back and shook his head. "Tell her to come back here, now." He demanded while his senses came to when he noticed the unnerving silence in the forest.

Before, Hunter was able to keep his cool, his eyes fixed on Luz's with a strong glare until it was wiped away when Luz's expression changed and the bravery he showed before was replaced by a worried look when Luz's face was no longer showing confusion but a taunting grin.

"Amity is the pink one, right?"

"You're not Luz…" Hunter felt a chill down his spine and tried to swiftly turn back and run but he was stopped instantly by a bunch of those odd-looking roots -except these were much larger- that pulled him into the mirror against his will. "Gah!"

Thrown inside the mirror by those fleshy roots, he landed hard on the floor… but when Hunter raised his eyes to look at his surroundings – there was no wooden home. No hatch… no Luz. The Shapeless standing in front of the large mirror in the In-Between was now expanding into a different shape. The fleshy roots began to envelope the shape and it soon took the form of Koume -the missing waitress- complete with the same attire she wore in the restaurant, with her long blue hair tied in a ponytail that was skillfully placed above her head, making it look like her hair was a large blue hand just like Kikimura's hairstyle.

Hunter -being a trained soldier- took this chance as the Shapeless was still giving the final touches to it's disguise and made a run for it to reach the mirror and get back into the Human Realm but was stopped by Koume's strong kick which he reacted to just in time by raising his arms to successfully block that attack.

"I knew you were going to give me trouble!" Koume's voice came out from that unfinished shape where some of those fleshy roots had not morphed into skin. "Hence why I decided to start with you!"

"Gah!" Hunter grunted softly as he jumped back to gain some space but The Shape sprinted swiftly towards him and began throwing him kicks and punches before he found an opening and both tackled and incapacitated Koume with a bear hug from behind. "You won't get away with this, you freak!"

"Oh, yeah?!" The Shape laughed out loud using Koume's voice as it then began to unravel some of those fleshy roots its made of to break the hug and kick Hunter on the chest to force him away.

"You're not touching my friends!" Hunter exclaimed as he took this chance to run back to the mirror before he was stopped by those large roots starting to tangle him up once more. Putting up a fight against them, he fell on the floor and rolled over and jumped back up to his feet before he saw those same tentacle-like roots starting to try and squash him down on the floor without success thanks to his training.

"Y'know, if only you were a little bit more charismatic, maybe I'd have considered assimilating you instead of Luz."

The Shapeless said with a soft sinister giggle as it split Koume's chest open wide to reveal more of those long tentacles that pushed Hunter further away from the mirror.

"If you think I'm going down without a fight, you'll be massively disappointed. I've fought larger monsters before!" Hunter screamed as he ran in a circle to avoid those tentacles try to squash him once more.

"You have spunk, kid. I'll give you that!" Koume laughed some more before it watched as Hunter leaped high into the air to land a kick on the Shapeless that forced it down to their knees. But before Hunter dared to throw a punch at it in it's vulnearable state, Koume's smug face changed to a scared one that made Hunter stop himself. It was then that the Shapeless grinned once more and laughed. "Oh, you're such a loser!" It teased before it swiftly raised back up to it's feet and headbutted him down to his knees.

"Gah!" Hunter grunted as felt a bunch of those tentacle-like roots keeping him still on his knees as The Shapeless looked down on him with a large sinister grin using Koume's face.

"But seriously, kid. You've got attitude, I like that. But Luz is the only one I have my eyes on right now. You've got strong emotions too. But unlike Luz, yours… are a bit sadder than hers. You almost feel… like a broken toy to me. Whatever you lived through may have been such a rollercoaster. Let's leave you on a maybe, for now…" It laughed. "Now if you'll excuse, with you out of the way, they'll get lost." The Shapeless said as it began to walk away and through that mirror where Hunter could see the woods he stood on before.

"Wait!" Hunter tried to free himself from the roots in the void that is the In-Between as the Shapeless that now posed as Koume waved at him before it used some of those tentacles to break a branch off a tree.

"Sorry, but I can't leave doors open. Have fun finding a way out!" Koume grinned before it swung that branch to shatter the mirror, leaving Hunter inside the large emptyness of the In-Between.

"NO!"

Back in the Human Realm, The Shapeless smashed the mirror to pieces until it was satisfied. But then… they looked at their left to see a poor bystander leaning against a tree in pure horror and confusion. It was Masha…

"Hm…" Koume smiled. "Go home, Masha. Shoo…" It said as it dismissed them with it's hand as if Masha was not worth the effort.

"H-how… h-how… do y-you know my name…?!" Masha stuttered.

"You've been coming to these woods for most of your life." The Shapeless grinned. "But I've just never taken an interest in you." It giggled before it split it's face open to growl at Masha to force them to run away screaming.

End of the chapter.

Note: sorry for the delay, all the next updates should go back to the regular schedule!