BREAKING THE FANTASY
Written by Gwendolyn Frost.
The more Luz and her friends walked deep into the forest, the darkest it became. Light was still seeping through the leaves above their heads, but it was barely enough to lit their way. For most of them, the woods has become a dense fog of darkness in which every tree and bush looked the same. But for Masha, who was an experienced hiker in this forest, they still knew their way around – even at this late hour.
"You still know the way, right?" Luz had to ask midway, which made the goth look back at her with a grin on their face.
"Of course. I've been here once or twice this late, but I'll need a flashlight when the sun finally comes down. Do you happen to carry one?"
"Oh! Pff… of course not!" Luz laughed softly with a carefree look on her face which made Masha worried.
"What?! Did you just seriously jumped into the woods with the idea of fighting this thing without coming prepared!?" They raised their voice in the middle of the forest which density swallowed their voice the faster the sound traveled through its dominions.
"Oh, we are prepared, alright!" Luz said with conviction. "We've got magic!"
"Huh?" Masha exclaimed as they raised their eyebrow.
"Didn't we agreed we shouldn't be wasting magic this lightly?" Willow said as she sped up to catch up to Luz, making her human friend to chuckle nervously.
"Well, shouldn't one light spell be enough?"
"Hey, the same way that a fire burns out oxygen – light spells burn magic." The green haired witch said with a lightly upset tone in her voice. "We're not in the Boiling Isles, so the only magic source that the light spells can draw magic from is from our hearts or our staffs, and that is a problem. From what Hunter told us when he confronted that thing, every bit of magic might count in our upcoming fight."
"Ok, ok." Luz said with a soft sigh while rubbing the back of her head.
"Hey guys, please stop fighting." Amity said as she suggested. "Hear me out, since I'm pretty much useless without Abomination Magic, I should be the one using the light spells."
"But you still got that fire spell you've been practicing lately." Gus said as he caught up to them. "That could be useful."
"Yeah, about that…" Amity sighed. "I'm not sure if it's a good idea. That should be a spell I'd use as last resource granted we're in the middle of the forest. I do not want to start a fire that we can't contain."
"Oh, that is a good point!" Gus exclaimed with a soft chuckle.
While the witches walking behind Masha and Vee were still discussing about their resources, the two looked at them with uncertainty in their faces.
"So, are they always like this?" Masha asked their Basilisk friend.
"Well…" Vee laughed softly. "Luz can be impulsive sometimes."
"I see that… no offense, but that might bite her in the butt one of these days."
"Yeah." Vee sighed. "Amity usually tries to reason with her, but since they're in a relationship, she usually ends up supporting her instead of talking her out of danger."
"Heh, figures." Masha said with a soft chuckle. "What about the others?"
"Well, Willow is usually calm and sweet, but she can be explosive and intimidating when she wants to – I'd say she is probably the strongest one of us all. Gus is the relaxed one, usually staying out of most discussions. But granted his expertise in Illusion Magic, he has a keen eye – so he can come up with solutions to problems we overlooked. Last but not least, Hunter, he is most likely the most disciplined one, often making sure the group stays focused – so you see now that his absence is noticeable, right?"
"Yeah, that sums them all up." Masha laughed. "What about you? Where do you fit in in this group of misfits?"
"Oh… me?" Vee blushed while looking away. "All you've heard comes from what I've heard in the stories they've lived through in the Boiling Isles. This is the first time that they've brought me into a situation like this."
"Ok, I do not wish to cross a line here… but I'm your friend and I care for you… I'm just surprised that your mom allows you to do all of this. From what you've told me, she sounds like a reasonable and caring mom. I'd bet she would be worried sick."
"Oh… well, that's because… she doesn't know." Vee said while biting on her lower lip.
"You're joking, right?" Masha exclaimed.
"No, but you're right. She is a reasonable and caring person. She has been selflessly helping them to try and find a way back home in the Boiling Isles but Luz believes that if she were to be exposed to these kind of dangers she might not be as understanding."
"Well, makes sense. But lying to her is probably not the best idea. I'd wish I had a mom like yours that's so supportive of you. Not that my mom isn't. But then again, she did sent me to that reality-check summer camp."
"Yeah, I get it…" Vee said with a smile.
"Ok, we're here." Masha said as they all reached the tall grass from earlier where the mirror used to be. On the ground there were still shards lying down reflecting what little light seeped through the trees above them.
Most of the group knelt down to examine those shards while Vee and Masha stood a few feet away from them. It was then that the Basilisk was able to notice Masha's erratic behavior. Their head kept moving from side to side, sometimes even looking behind their back. Their hands were shaking and their eyes were wide open – they were clearly disturbed. The idea of coming back to the place where they saw the Shapeless was stressing them out to the point that they could no longer conceal their fear.
"Don't worry…" Vee said as she leaned in with her green hand to gently hold Masha's own human hand. "You're safe with us."
The goth was taken by surprise when she felt the Basilisk's hand, it was far different from a human hand like theirs, but they could fear the warmth that was slowly making them to calm down. "Y-yeah… ok." They said as they squeezed the Basilisk's hand with theirs.
Meanwhile, Luz and the others were still examining the mess that the Shapeless made out of the mirror they smashed earlier. Under all the shards were a bunch of roots that were once connected to the mirror. As Luz took several shards she realized that her hand was oily with a substance that came from those very same roots lying on the floor.
When she leaned in to touch it, those roots felt rather soft to the touch and slimy with the dark red stuff that was smeared on her hands. Wiping it off on her pants she came to notice something else… "These roots smell funny… watch out, they're oily as well." She warned her friends still examining the shards on the grass.
Amity inspected those roots closer alongside Willow, the both of them looked at each other as they got their fingers soaked with that reddish dark substance and the pink-haired witch simply shook her head at her green-haired friend so that she wouldn't say a word.
"Is this what I think it is?" Unfortunately, Gus was also kneeling down on the floor and realized what the other witches had just figured out.
"What is it?" Luz asked with curiosity in her eyes. "Is this a plant from the Boiling Isles?"
"What? No, this is no plant, nor are they roots of some kind. It's…"
"STOP!" The other two witches exclaimed to stop their friend from breaking the truth to Luz who simply looked at them in confusion.
"What are you guys hiding from me?" She asked.
"Luz, I'm not sure you'd like to know what it is." Amity said with a nervous look on her face.
The human-witch looked at her girlfriend with a serious look on her face as if she was trying to read her mind. "Gus, what is it?" She faced the other witch for an answer to which Gus replied with a nervous tone in his voice.
"Uh…" He gave the other two witches a look before sighing softly. "I'm sorry guys, but we cannot hide this from her. She'll figure it out eventually."
"Please, don't…" Amity pleaded to him.
"Gus… what is it?" Luz asked once more as she took a step closer to him.
"It's flesh." Gus blurted out before the others could stop him again, to which Luz reacted with a raised eyebrow.
"No, no. What? This can't be… then… what is this…? Red… stuff?" Luz said, her eyes widening in horror as she looked at her hands stained with…
"Blood."
THE LOOKING GLASS
Chapter 21: The Lich Spell.
With the truth revealed, Luz was not able to resist the sudden urge to throw up. With her girlfriend rubbing her back behind a tree, she tried her best to wipe the blood off her hands as much as she could – although some of it was still trapped under her nails which she obsessively stared at trying to clean off.
On the other side, Willow scolded Gus with a smack on the back of his head. "Dude!"
"I know, I know! Oww…" Gus said as he rubbed the back of his head with a slight hissing sound.
"Yeah, but you could have been a bit more delicate than that!"
"You know there is no delicate way to reveal such a thing…" Gus said with a sigh.
Meanwhile, Vee and Masha were standing further away from the scene after the reveal. With the young Basilisk trying to reassure her human friend.
"Hey, are you ok?" She asked as Masha was leaning against a different tree than Luz and Amity with a horrified look on their face.
"Yeah, yeah…! I'm fine… I visited the scene where that influencer got killed yesterday… and I saw no blood there. I was ready to look at a bloody mess, but there wasn't… this just caught me by surprise." Their expression suddenly changed as they had a memory flashed before their eyes… when the waitress -Koume- used similar looking flesh-roots to snap a branch on a tree.
While the goth got lost in their thoughts, Vee simply stared at them with a confused look on her face. The shapeshifter did not know what to do in this case, but she tried to reassure them the same way Amity did with her girlfriend, by rubbing their back softly.
When Luz had calmed down, Amity gently leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek before she whispered. "This is why I didn't want to tell you…"
"Why… why are you taking this so lightly?" Luz asked, still disturbed from what she has seen.
"Oh, well. I'm from the Boiling Isles… remember?" Amity said as she scratched her cheek with her index finger with a nervous look on her face. "Before you enrolled at Hexside… we kind of… dissected monsters in class."
"Oh… right." Luz said with disgust on her face. "You almost got me dissected too…" She blurted out, expecting her girlfriend to become defensive and or try to apologize for it but instead… she saw her pink-haired girlfriend look down with a sad look on her face. She could almost hear how her heart was tearing apart. "I'm sorry… that was insensitive of me."
"No, it's fine."
Luz gently reached for and held onto Amity's cheeks as she placed a small kiss on her lips. "It's not fine. I'm sorry. I do not hold it against you, I was just…"
"I get it, Luz. You don't have to apologize to me. You just saw something you were not prepared for." Amity said as she forced a smile on her face. "All I care for is to keep you safe. And I'm not doing a good job at it."
"Huh? You're the best girlfriend in the whole wide world. What're you even talking about?" Luz said with a soft chuckle that died down shortly. "As a matter of fact, I'm not being the best girlfriend myself. Putting you all at risk because I want to fight this thing…"
The pink-haired witch couldn't help but burst into a short laughter. "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry!"
Luz looked at her girlfriend with a raised eyebrow. "What's so funny?"
"It's nothing. It's just that… can we just agree that we're both a mess?"
Luz couldn't help but to draw a wide grin on her face before she let out a soft laugh herself. "Yeah, I guess we are. We… do need to work out on some things."
"Yeah…"
"Guys?" The two of them heard Masha's voice before they walked away from the tree to join their group as they listened to what Masha had to say. "I got something to tell you about this… Shapeless thing."
"Hm, what is it?" Luz asked as she held onto Amity's hand gently, listening to the goth tell them what happened in this place earlier.
"Well, when that thing smashed that mirror, it reached for a branch by dissecting its flesh into… tentacles of some form. This flesh on the ground looks exactly like it…"
"Huh?" The group exclaimed in unison as they looked down at that flesh that looked the innards of some animal or… person lying on the grass.
"By the way…" Willow raised her voice. "I came to notice that the flesh looks like its coming out of the ground rather than lying on it."
"Yeah." Masha said before adding. "I couldn't take a closer look to the mirror before that thing smashed it but I do remember seeing roots holding it still. It may have been this flesh this whole time."
"Wait… I think I've seen this before." Luz said as an idea materialized itself in her head. "Yeah! In the Boiling Isles, I found a spell that was able to make flesh to come out from the ground. But I stopped messing with it because it reminded me of… Bellos."
"You mean that Bellos was capable of using that spell too?" Amity asked.
"Yeah. When I came to Eda's rescue from being petrified by Bellos, I fought him underneath his throne room which was full of corpses. Which… he used to fight me."
"Wait, we could ask Hunter about it." Willow said as she reached for the mirror shard in her pocket. "H, you still there?"
"Yeah, I've been listening to you guys this whole time." Hunter said while sighing softly. "There's not much to do in this place."
"What can you tell us about Bellos' magic?" Luz asked as the whole group gathered around Willow to communicate with Hunter in the In-Between Realm.
"Well, not much – but you are correct about the throne room being loaded with corpses. The Coven and me were ordered by Bellos to fill the room with corpses from his experiments so that they can be given some purpose which we all now know of. Other thing I can say is that he called this the Lich spell."
"The Lich Spell?" Luz asked. "That sounds like it came from a D&D campaign. But wait… does that mean that the Shapeless might be a witch after all?"
"Not sure, but I guess it is possible." Hunter said before he swiftly moved his head around when hearing the faint sound of something in the distance…
'Fu fu fu fu…'
"Hm, Hunter? Something wrong?" Luz asked as she and the rest watched the blonde witch look at different directions within the boundaries of the In-Between.
"No, sorry. I thought I heard something." Hunter said as he turned back to face his friends. "Probably from those mirrors that the Shapeless was moving around earlier."
"Oh, right! Have they moved yet?" Luz asked as Hunter shook his head in response.
"No, they have not. I don't like this, Luz…"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Luz asked in confusion as everyone listened to what Hunter thought about this.
"This seems off. The fact that these mirrors have not moved makes me think there's a reason for it. They are placed in a triangle formation facing each other. But I cannot see anything other than forest. You said that the In-Between shows me what others are doing in the Human Realm through the Looking Glasses, right? Then… why does the name Koume only shows me these mirrors? And why can't I see her?"
"I have no idea… but I did not spent too long in that Realm. Maybe…" Luz's eyes widened before she suggested an idea. "Is it possible that Koume is still alive?"
"How come she's still alive when her face and arm were dissected into meat strings by this thing?" Masha popped into the conversation with a good point.
"I don't know…" Luz said with a nervous tone in her voice. "But… what if she's around the mirror and that's why she's not moving. Like…"
"So… I think I get what you're getting at." Amity jumped in. "What if the Shapeless is using a different… person this time?"
"Like an avatar of sorts?" Gus asked.
"Exactly!" The pink-haired witch exclaimed.
"Well, if that's the case, then it could be anywhere in the forest right now." Willow said with a sigh.
"Like I said, I don't like this…" Hunter said with an ominous tone in his voice as he drew everyone's attention back to the mirror shard that Willow held on her hand. "This thing is beyond anything I've hunted for the Emperor's Coven. It's highly intelligent, resourceful and strong. This is the first time that any Beast has made me feel like a prey… y'know."
The group gulped when hearing those words before a minute of silence reigned among them.
"Ok, so what now?" Gus broke the silence, making everyone else to snap out of their thoughts.
"We need to look for that other cabin…" Luz said as Amity looked at the sky above them which was now fully tainted with a dark orange glow.
"It's late, Luz… shouldn't we go back home?"
"We're so close now… we just need to head to that Fire Lookout Tower so we can get a better view of Herlock Woods…" The Human Witch said as she pointed at that large structure they were once heading up to a hour ago.
"But… it's getting dark now." Luz's girlfriend tried to reason with her as the rest look at them argue, but they were all clearly on Amity's side. "We won't be able to see where we're going…"
Luz looked back at them with a serious look on her face. "I can't go back now. It is looking for me. It got Hunter trapped in the In-Between. And if we come back… it might come for me at home like it did not long ago. I don't want my mom to get involved."
"Guys…" Hunter's voice brought them back to look down at Willow's mirror shard. "You don't have to worry about me. I can wait… Luz, please go back home."
"No! I can't, I don't want to go back right now. I'm not going to leave you behind, Hunter! You are my family now! Like you all are!" Luz said as she took a deep breath. "If you guys want to go back, you are free to do so. I'm facing this thing…"
Everyone stayed silent for a short second before Masha of all people raised their voice. "I hate the idea of you getting lost in these woods or worse… getting killed by that thing. So, I'm staying with you."
"What?! Are you serious?!" Vee exclaimed as she looked at her friend in disbelief.
"Don't get me wrong… I'm still scared of this thing…" The goth explained as they looked down at the grass under their boots. "But the more I hear about this thing… the more answers I want. What if… this thing took my dad… I want to know."
The next one that raised her voice was Willow. "I'll stay too. This is the forest, my magic is strong here. So you need me." She said with a wide smile on her face.
"Who else is getting you out of trouble but me. You need my Illusion Magic too!" Gus exclaimed next with a grin. "It might not be useful in combats but it could help us make a retreat."
"Hehe, thanks guys!" Luz said with a smile before she looked over to Vee and Amity who's faces were not as confident as Willow's and Gus'.
"Luz…" Hunter's voice brought the human-witch to look down at the shard that Willow held on her hand as he spoke to her. "Look… I appreciate that you consider me family. I really do… I never knew what that word meant until I met you guys." The blonde said as his eyes watered a bit. "I still think you should go back… but… I'm not there. I'm powerless to stop you."
"I'm not leaving you behind, Hunter, I promise." Luz said with a determined look on her face.
"I'll go too." Vee whispered, making Masha to look down at her with uncertainty.
"Are you sure?" They asked.
"Yeah…" Vee sighed. "I have a friend who knows my secret and accepts me for it." She smiled.
"Heh, ok." Masha said with a grin on their face.
"What about you?" Luz asked her girlfriend as she finally walked up to her. "Are you really not coming?" The human-witch asked with a frown as the pink-haired witch seemed lost in her thoughts.
"I…" Amity whispered as her eyes narrowed when a buzzing sound in her ear was numbing her mind. The sound amplified shortly, which made her eyes to shut down immediately in pain.
"Amity?" Luz asked as she noticed her girlfriend was in pain. "Are you ok?"
The intensity of that sound reminded her of the white sound that the television emitted back home. Flashing images were blinding her from reality as her eyes became white under her eyelids. There was nothing but rubble around her as her sight adjusted to those flashing images. Amity saw a table in front of her and on the other side was the silhouette of a man with a squared-head holding a strange looking staff.
The man's head glowed with light, with that very same rain of pixels she saw in that strange TV that sits idle in the basement. It was hard for her to understand what the man said due to the white noise coming from his head. But she was able to make out what mattered…
'Enabling her to seek out danger is not being supportive. I'll help you to keep her alive… but once I'm gone… you'll have to decide what's more important… agreeing with her to please her or protect her for her poor choices.'
The voice faded out and Amity found herself screaming at the top of her lungs to the void making everyone around her in the real world to back down in surprise. "SHUT UP! You don't know her like I do!"
"Amity?" Luz asked once Amity opened her eyes to see the looks on her worried friends looking back at her. "What's wrong? Were you performing Oracle Magic?"
"Huh, what…?" The pink-haired witch panted heavily before shaking her head. "It was nothing… just some dumb voice in my head…"
"Well, ok." Luz said as she nibbled on her lower lip, wishing to ask her girlfriend something before she was cut off by Amity herself.
"I'm coming with you… wherever you go." Amity said with a smile.
Luz was not able to help smiling back at her as her eyes lit with happiness. "Thank you…"
Nodding, the pink-haired witch followed her girlfriend's lead into the dark forest… but she was not able to shake that vision off her head. Her smile faded and she pondered on the idea that she was enabling Luz like the voice said…
Before the sun was about to set down for the day, Camila Noceda came back to an empty home. She opened the door and her voice filled the living room. "Chicos, ya llegue! Traje la cena como les prometi! Oops… I brought back dinner! I'm sorry, I keep forgetting you guys are not spanish-fluent yet!"
Camila smiled widely as she walked up to the basement door, expecting them all to be down there when she heard no response coming from them in the living room.
"Chicos, I'm home. How about we do a movie marathon like last night?"
She said as she walked down the stairs, her smile fading once she saw nothing down there. Not Luz, not any of the witches or Vee even.
"Luz?!" Camila shouted as she ran up the stairs, trying to calm down as her heart started to race against her chest, now moving towards Luz's room and once she crossed the door she was met with dread.
They were not there either…
Worried, she hurried back to the living room and looked outside in the backyard… no one was there.
The bathroom… no one was there.
By the time she hurried back to the living room and took a seat on the couch, outside became dark as the sun finally disappeared in the horizon. Her hands shook and she thought of calling Luz or Vee, but once she did she got no response, the group have gone too deep into the woods that they have not realized they no longer had phone-reception.
For a moment Camila panicked when her mind was filled with all sorts of thoughts due to the strange things that have been taking place in Gravesfield. The death of one of their residents and the disappearance of another one.
Camila found herself trying to dial 911 when she stopped herself from doing so when she was reminded of the witches living under her roof. About Vee… the Basilisk that she has adopted… about Luz and how would she feel if she were to lose her friends to the Human Realm. She dropped her phone on the coffee table before her and tried her best to calm down.
"T-they… must have gone to the library again… it's ok. They'll come back soon. They have to…" Camila repeated to herself multiple times under her breath.
But as time passed… they did not showed up. 10 minutes… 20 minutes… half an hour… one hour… the poor adult jumped out of the couch whenever she heard a noise outside thinking it was them, for a brief solid second she felt relieved but once she looked outside from behind those curtains the dread was back bigger than ever.
"Luz… en donde te metiste? Adonde fueron…? Porque no regresas…?" She whispered as her eyes watered, tears formed and rained down on her cheeks, obsessively dialing Vee and Luz over and over until the sound of a hooting caught her attention.
When Camila raised her eyes from the phone she held on her hand, she looked in confusion at a strange looking owl looking straight at her on her backyard.
"Huh, what?" Camila cleaned her face as the owl hooted once more, once the moonlight shed light on them, she was able to see those white and purple feathers glow under the moon as a voice echoed in her mind with an urgent message:
'They are in danger… you must help them…'
End of the chapter.