BREAKING THE FANTASY
Written by Gwendolyn Frost.
Luz oriented herself with the fire lookout tower on the horizon that she was able to see even from the tall grass that surrounded her and her friends. While still holding onto Amity's hand, they were soon able to find the end of that long section of pasture where they found themselves in front of a large lake standing in their way.
Luz and Amity stopped in awe when their gazes upon the wide peaceful lake that was once used in the past as a fishing stop, a notion they could deduct thanks to the unkept and abandoned boats on the very edge of a short bridge which wooden planks were mostly rotten and broken down.
They were soon joined by Gus, Willow and Vee as they walked past the tall grass, stopping just as bewildered and enchanted like the pair of girlfriends by the beautiful landscape they ran into by pure accident.
"It's water… safe water?" Amity asked as if she was unsure of what she was looking at. For Luz -a human- who has taken things like these for granted her whole life, this question made her to grin and almost laugh out loud – until she realized where the question came from.
"Yeah, it is safe water, you can bathe in this. It's not boiling, I promise." Luz said with a smile.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Gus said as he rushed past them and threw himself on the lake without a care in the world. "Cowabunga!" He yelled like those green retro frog ninja mutants he loved watching on sunday mornings.
"Gus!" Willow exclaimed before screaming in a panic alongside Amity when Gus splashed water towards them. "Why did you do that?!" The both of them soon calmed down when they realized the water was… cold? Fresh!
Luz and Vee were both giggling to themselves before the two witches glared at the both of them. "It's not funny, you two!" Amity said.
"It is kinda funny!" Luz said before leaning in to kiss Amity. "And cute."
The pink-haired witch blushed at the kiss and sighed. "Fiiiine… I guess you did warned us beforehand."
"Hey! Are you guys diving in or what?!" Gus yelled as he floated in the lake as if he had known how to swim his whole life. "The water is amazing!"
"Gus, this isn't the time to be messing around!" Amity yelled back at him with Willow standing near her with her arms crossed in agreement. "We have much more important things to do."
"Also, you might catch a cold. You didn't even brought dry clothing with you!" Luz pointed out while still grinning, admiring Gus' sense of discovery.
"I'll be fine!" Gus said while grinning back at her, slowly getting back to the edge as he tried to pull himself back up on the old bridge before he gasped when yet another plank broke down and forced back into the lake which made everyone yell 'Gus!' in surprise.
Willow used plant magic to make some roots to grow out of the soil to grab onto Gus to bring back towards the grass as he coughed water out of his mouth. "You dummy!" She exclaimed. "Don't you ever do that again, we're not back home! We're in unknown territory!"
"You're right, cough! Back home… cough, we cannot swim in lakes like these…" Gus said while still expelling water out of his lungs with a smile on his face, clearly not regretting it whatsoever.
"You got me worried!" Willow exclaimed before she cooled down and asked out of curiosity. "H-how did it felt?" Both she and Amity had a glint in their eyes, as if they wished they had dived in as well but were too nervous to do so themselves.
"Guys, this is the best thing ever! I want to dive back in!" Gus said with the largest smile they've ever seen.
Hearing him talk some more about his experience, Luz took a long look at the lake before she started to picture the idea of them getting to swim in the lake at some point in time. A large smile, just like Gus', drew itself on her face as she did so before she interrupted the conversation they were having with a promise. "When all of this is over, when the Shapeless is gone… I promise you guys, we will swim at this lake." She said with determination in her eyes which caught her friends by surprise, but made them smile back at her until…
"Wait, guys. Something's wrong…" Willow said as she looked around them before asking. "Where is Hunter?"
Just as soon as they finished that sentence, Flapjack flew down from the sky chirping worriedly at them. "Flapjack!" Luz exclaimed. "What happened?"
The poor palisman kept chirping with worried eyes before Willow cut him off with a question. "Did something happened to Hunter?"
Flapjack nodded before the green-haired witch pulled out her own palisman -Clover- to use them as a staff to ride into the sky as she yelled at Flapjack. "Show me where you last saw him!"
Luz and Amity looked at each other in confusion before the pink-haired witch asked. "What do we do?"
"Follow them, of course! We've got to help Hunter!" Luz exclaimed as Amity nodded and pulled out her own staff to ride onto with her girlfriend. Soon after, Gus followed them with Vee on his own staff as they put their plans on hold to search for their missing friend.
THE LOOKING GLASS
Chapter: The In-Between.
The group flew above the large mass of trees where they could barely see the streets of Gravesfield in the far distance. They were led by Flapjack who began descending towards the ground exactly where they entered the tall grass.
Just as soon as the palisman moved down, the rest followed suit in confusion. "Are you sure this is where you last saw him?" Willow asked at the worried-looking palisman flapping his wings while chirping and nodding.
All of them were still floating above ground on their staffs as they looked around with their gazes in order to see a clue as to Hunter's whereabouts.
"Amity, can you take us back to the sky?" Luz asked while her arms were tightly holding onto her pink-haired witch girlfriend.
"Oh, of course!" She replied before taking off into the air while they got a better view of their surroundings. Luz started to look in all directions while squinting her eyes trying to see anything remotely suspicious until…
"I see someone!" Luz was able to see a figure moving rapidly through the trees moving northeast towards the outskirts of Herlock Woods. "Guys, I see someone! Follow us!" She shouted at their friends before tightening her grip around Amity. "Over there, do you see them?"
"Yup!" The pink-haired witch before she swiftly flew towards that dark shape moving through the lines of trees while Willow and Gus with Vee followed behind on their respective staffs.
The shape kept moving, quickening their pace as if they've just realized they were pursued by the group of witches flying above them. "I'm starting to think that's not Hunter…" Luz whispered to her girlfriend who nodded in agreement.
"They're not…" The pink-haired witch whispered back. "Why is he running away from us if he was? What if we're flying towards a trap?"
"Hm, stay above the trees while we are certain of who they are." Luz said as they all had to slow down when they lost sight of the shape.
"Hey, what are we looking for?" Willow asked as she flew closer to the pair of girlfriends before Luz replied to her. "Did you saw Hunter?"
"I'm not sure what I saw. We believe it's not Hunter, there is no reason for him to escape from us…"
"What if that thing got to him?" Gus asked as he joined them in the air before he got Willow's glare piercing through his own making him gulp.
"Don't you dare say that again! He's not… he shouldn't be… there's no way…" Willow then blurted out in frustration as she was unable to come up with something to say that would make her feel better. "He can take care of himself, alright?!"
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Gus said nervously.
They got distracted for a short moment before Luz was able to pick up the shape moving once more as if they were waiting for their chance to make a run for it. "There! Over there! It's on the move again!"
"On it!" Amity exclaimed as they flew off towards that figure moving swiftly on the ground, running desperately away from them.
Willow and Amity were flying closely to one another while Gus and Vee were flying a few feet away from them in the pursue. It was then that Vee got a better look at the shape escaping from them that she began to feel like… she knew who they were after.
"Guys…!" Vee tried to shout towards Luz and the rest but they were a bit far behind that her voice got lost in transit. "Guys!"
"Something wrong?" Gus asked.
Vee didn't answered Gus right away, taking a moment to take a better look at the figure running on the ground as they were able to caught up to them before she realized… "That's my friend! That's Masha!"
"Huh?!" Gus gasped before he tried his best to catch up to their friends so that Vee would warn them.
"Guys! Stop! That's Masha!" Vee shouted as Gus was able to get a few feet closer to them.
"WHAT?!" Luz and Amity exclaimed.
Before they were able to stop, however, they watched as the figure wearing dark clothing stumbled upon a few rocks on their way and rolled down on a small hill covered by a wide set of trees where they lost sight of them.
"MASHA!" Vee screamed as she watched her friend violently rolling down the hill before she jumped off Gus' staff and transformed in mid-air into her Basilisk form to glide swiftly onto the ground.
"Wait, Vee! What're you doing?!" Luz exclaimed in horror as she watched her little sister jump off Gus' staff before watching her descend onto the woods safely. "What…?! She can glide?!"
"Don't you remember the Basilisk that attacked Hexside? She could glide too. It may be an ability they can unlock thanks to the magic they consume." Amity said before Luz face-palmed herself.
"Oh, I see." Luz sighed while tightly holding onto her own chest as her heart paced at top speed from the shock of watching Vee jump off. "Go down, we got to check on them."
"Yeah, ok." Amity said as she descended on her staff alongside Willow and Gus until they were back down on the ground.
About 20 feet away was Vee holding onto Masha's unconscious body while screaming desperately at them and shaking them ever so slightly. "Wake up, Masha! Please, wake up!" She was genuinely shaken, her eyes watering before a set of tears rolled down her cheeks shortly.
Luz hurried up and got down to check on Masha's vitals, first her pulse which seemed ok. Then she moved her head closer to their face to feel their breathing before she rested the side of her head closely to their chest to hear their heartbeat. "They're ok, just out of it." Luz said to reassure Vee who was now transforming into her human self.
"Who is this?" Willow asked.
"This is Masha, the human that I've told you we can trust." Luz said.
"Luz… please move away from them." Amity said rather ominously before Luz tilted her head in confusion when she saw Amity raising her staff at Masha still lying on the ground while resting their head on Vee's lap.
"Move away from them, please!" Amity said with a nervous gaze locked on the unconscious human.
"Wait, lower that down! What're you doing?!" Luz exclaimed.
"I know how insane this sounds, but what if this is a trap? What if this… isn't Masha?" Amity said which made Vee swiftly protest.
"Are you serious?!" The usually quiet and nervous mess of a Basilisk screamed at the pink haired witch, still with tears flowing down her face. "This is my friend!"
"I know that, Vee! I do not mean to upset you, but you've got to understand!" Amity said, still refusing to set down her staff. "That day at the sushi restaurant, we saw that creature posing as a waitress that we have seen just moments before. We couldn't tell them apart. It looked just exactly like her! Are you certain that this is Masha?! Can you tell them apart?!"
Vee glared at Amity with watery eyes, still upset, but doubt started to fill her thoughts as she looked down at her unconscious friend. Out of everyone, she should be the one who should be able to tell shapeshifters apart but… then again, this wasn't a shapeshifter like her. The Basilisk took her time to examine Masha's features; same kind of make up with heavy eyeliner, same dark clothing she wears outside of her job, the same boots she wore the other day when they brought them to the Morton Ranch. Everything seemed to be in place. She heard a noise in one of Masha's pockets, her phone got a notification from their Discourse app coming from one of their friends at school. The Basilisk unlocked the phone by holding close to Masha's face and she was able to see that in their chat… there was an unsend message still saved which says:
Masha: you lied to me, you said you were going to stay indoors today and Im literally watching you go into the woods right now
"This is their phone! Guys…" Vee said with a horrified look on her face. "They were following us!"
"WHAT?!" Luz exclaimed just as shocked. "Do you think they saw us… fly? Is that why they were running away from us?"
Vee didn't answer, she was too in shock as her breathing became so heavy and uncontrollable while she was trying to remember if she didn't do anything sus during the time they were being followed. "I don't want her to find out I'm a Basilisk like this!" She exclaimed.
"Ok, Vee. Calm down, you only transformed right now! They didn't saw you… the real you, I mean." Luz tried to calm the poor Basilisk down as Amity finally put the staff away.
"I'm so sorry, Vee!" The pink-haired witch said.
"Guys!" Willow screamed which caught everyone's attention. "What do we do now?! Hunter is still missing!"
Somewhere in the In-Between…
Hunter has liberated himself from the roots in which he was trapped by the Shapeless and was now wandering around the long endless space that is the Realm of the In-Between; a place that exists and works as a connection In-Between Realms.
By now, the silence was getting to him. Since he has been living in the Human Realm, he has become used to the non-stop sound of electronics that are only audible in the late hours of the night. Sometimes these sounds have been rather annoying to sleep-through, but lately, he has been able to tolerate them to some extent. In the In-Between, however, there was hardly sound other than the echo of his own steps pacing through.
"I hope everyone is alright." Hunter spoke out loud to himself, trying to fill the void of sound with his own voice.
'Tap tap tap tap…' The sound of his own steps were back with a vengeance, almost as if they were making up for the short second they did not flooded his ears with their stressful march.
"Where can I find an exit in this place!" Hunter exclaimed before covering his ears, trying to block the sound of his own shoes with his hands.
'Tap tap tap tap…' The noise was distant, almost numbed down substantially, but still audible enough to drive him insane.
"Luz, you better be ok! Next time, because I know there will be a next time… I'm making sure we come up with a proper plan…" While he moved forward, he maneuvered around a large cube that popped out of nowhere on his way which he has seen floating around before but never quite felt curious enough to examine these closely. This wasn't an exception, as he walked past it without a care in the world…
'Tap tap tap tap…' Hunter pressed his hands harder than before, making the sound of his steps to be numbed down even more.
"Also, I'm having a word with Amity when I'm back in the Human Realm…" Hunter said out loud once more, yet another cube materialized itself on his way which he walked around to avoid before walking past it. "Out of everyone, she's usually the more mature and responsible one, but she really has to stop enabling Luz into these deadly quests she embarks us on. I know she has to be supportive for her girlfriend… but she should know better than to allow Luz to wander off into danger like this!" Hunter ranted to nobody in particular.
As those hands pressed harder onto his skull, Hunter was forced to remove them for the time being as it felt painful after several minutes of doing so. While the sound still felt numb to some degree, his ears began to be slowly filled with those steps once more.
"Now… Gus…" Hunter brought up Gus' name just to keep the rant going just so that the sound of his own feet would get lost with the sound of his own voice. "I have no complaints about Gus… but I must remember to tell him there will be a Ducktective marathon this weekend."
'Tap tap tap tap…' Yet another cube materialized in his way which he also walked past.
As he tried to think of something else to say, Hunter's mind began to be filled with the memory of Willow, allowing him to be distracted from the sound of his own pacing. However, he started to feel scared of never seeing Willow again, making him question if there is a way out of this place?
"There has to be a way out of here! I cannot be stuck here! I must help my friends! I must get back… to Willow." Hunter whispered to himself before yet another cube popped up in front of him… and as he began to walk around it like he has done with other cubes before… this time… the sudden sound of Willow's voice made him stop.
"Guys! What do we do now?! Hunter is still missing!"
"WILLOW?!" Hunter exclaimed, looking back to see where the voice came from.
"What was that?" Luz's voice filled the blonde's ears this time.
"I think I heard… Hunter?" Amity said.
"Luz?! Willow?! Amity?! Can you guys hear me?!" Hunter screamed, figuring out that the voices were emitted by those cubes that he has been ignoring this whole time.
"Hunter?! Where are you?!" Willow's worried voice filled Hunter's ears once more.
"I'm here!" Hunter said as he pressed himself against the cube.
"Wait, I think the sound is coming from your bag." Luz suggested to Willow before the green-haired witch began to look into her bag to find the mirror shard they kept there. Only then was Hunter able to see the Human Realm through the cube that he was now holding onto.
"Hunter? Is that you? Where are you?" Willow asked while holding the shard away from her face, giving the blonde a better view.
"I'm fine, I think I'm in this famous In-Between Realm that Luz talked about earlier." Hunter said as he too moved away from the cube so that his friends were able to get a better view of him in the void of space that is the In-Between.
"Dude, what happened?" Willow asked.
"Well…" Hunter took a few minutes explaining what happened to him, which made everyone feel frustrated by allowing that to take place.
"I'm so sorry, Hunter." Luz said with guilt in her voice.
"It's ok, Luz. You don't have to apologize." Hunter said with a soft sigh as he crossed his arms. "As a matter of fact, I'm relieved that whatever the TV predicted didn't happened. Now… how were you able to escape from this place?"
"Uh, well…" Luz said while nervously scratching the back of her head. "I was tied up to a rope that Eda wrapped around me when we used Titan Blood to open a botched door."
"I see… it all comes back to Titan Blood." Hunter said in frustration.
"Hunter. Can you hear me?" Amity's voice filled the blonde's ears as she came into view. "You said that the Shapeless brought you there through a mirror, right?"
"Yeah, that's correct."
"Wait!" Luz exclaimed as she had an idea. "Hunter, you can see through mirrors in that Realm!"
"Yeah, I know. It's literally happening as we speak." Hunter said with a raised eyebrow.
"Would you listen?" Luz said with a serious look on her face. "Whenever you name someone in the In-Between, it makes it possible for you to make contact with that someone through a mirror."
"Oh, wait. I get it!" Amity exclaimed.
"Perhaps you could see what the Shapeless is up to and maybe find a way out if it's using another mirror to move around town through the In-Between." Luz suggested.
"Ok, the problem is… what's the Shapeless' name?" Hunter asked.
Luz and Amity in the other side frowned at each other. "We don't know…"
"Great."
"Wait, guys. What about that girl's name?" Willow suggested.
"What girl?" Luz asked.
"Oh, right! Hunter said it was using the waitress' form when it attacked him." Amity pointed out.
"Right! Uh… let's see." Luz exclaimed as she used her phone to look up for the girl's name online since the news of her going missing were trending on social media. "It's… Koume Takamura."
"Komee Takamura, got it." Hunter said out loud but no cubes popped around him. "Nothing…"
"Maybe you're not pronouncing it right?" Luz said nervously.
"Ok, so how do I pronounce it right?" Hunter said with a frustrated sigh.
"Well, so Komee doesn't work. What if you try it this way; Ko-meh." Luz said with a light blush on her face, unsure if that is the right way to do it.
"Ko-meh Takamura?" Hunter repeated after Luz and this time a cube did showed up a few feet from him. "Wait… I see something." He rushed up to the cube.
"What can you see?"
A minute passed by when Hunter went silent, making everyone nervous until they finally heard him reply with a puzzling tone in his voice. "Guys… I think… its on the move."
"What do you mean?" Luz asked.
"All I see is trees, its moving so fast. Wait…" Hunter went silent for half a minute. "Hold on. It just stopped." They all gulped, the paranoia getting the best of the group as they looked around them to see if it was somewhere nearby. "Whoa…"
"What's happening?!" Luz exclaimed.
"There's two more cubes now." Hunter said.
"Huh?" Amity said. "What do you mean by that?"
Hunter rushed back to the cube connected to Willow's mirror shard, allowing his friends to see him once more. "I think it's using 3 mirrors for something. I don't see it, but those mirrors are no longer moving. Maybe it's protecting them. Remember, it smashed the mirror before leaving me here when it attacked me."
"Then… we'll find those mirrors." Luz said with a determined look on her face.
"But first, don't you think there's something we must deal with?" Amity said as she pointed at the unconscious Masha lying on the grass with their head still resting on Vee's lap.
"Oh, right…" Luz said with a nervous chuckle.
"Wait… what thing?" Hunter asked.
"Hold that thought, Hunter. Willow, keep in touch with him while we decide what to do with Masha." Luz said.
"Wait, what?!" Hunter exclaimed as the pair of girlfriends moved up to Vee holding Masha's head.
"I got an idea." Amity said as she knelt down. "Not sure it'll work… but it's our only shot."
"Ok." Luz said with puzzling eyes as she watched her girlfriend reach with her hands to hold Masha's face.
For a few moments… nothing seemed to happen, but a minute later… Amity's eyes began to glow with light, forcing her and Masha into a Oracle trance that connected both minds…
End of the chapter.