Before and After
Today was a special day, or at least it was meant to be special, because truth to be told Amity couldn't wait to get it over with. Today, January twenty-eight, a certain green-haired witch turned sixteen years old. Amity thought that today was going to be different, that the twins would not push her down the stair and make her land into a cake that said 'closer than you think' with a tombstone, that her parents would at least be home for breakfast, or that Boscha wouldn't make her her moving target and break her arm and nose. Life sure was a party, and Amity was the piñata. Why did the Titan hate her so? Had she behaved badly? Or was she just cursed to be that unlucky?
Amity tried to move up her arm in hopes that the pain would go away, but even the thought of moving it stung. The sixteen-year-old witch could feel her face tickle from tears rolling down her red cheeks, or perhaps it was blood that was rolling down, she didn't know, and Amity couldn't bring herself to care either. She knew that she was a mess, her face and neck were full of cuts and bruises, her arms, chest, and stomach were probably even worse, and she could hardly see anymore or much less stand, but she had to keep moving, she couldn't just pass out in the middle of the market, that would just make her parents even angrier. They were already going to kill her... no, she'd be lucky if they decided to kill her, it seemed that the only good luck she'd have on her birthday was if her parents made it her death day. She couldn't go home, not now, as much as Amity just wanted to get her life over with, some part of her didn't want that, she didn't want to go home and be punished by her parents, she didn't want to go home and be mocked and hit by Edric and Emira, she just wanted to go home and be lock herself in her room and read Azura, but in order to do that she had to face the other Blights.
Amity sighed and looked around, witches and demons alike roamed the streets, some would stop and look at her weirdly, but none one stopped to help her, they saw her struggling to even breathe, and yet none one cared enough to help. If Amity were to be Edric or Emira then everybody would start gushing over her and try to help her, but she wasn't Ed or Em, she was a disappointment and an embarrassment, she didn't have their people's skills nor their looks, all she had was an anomalously powerful bile sack and an extraordinary magical capability, but that wasn't taking her anywhere, was it. What should she do then? If nobody was going to help her then what was she supposed to do? Her first thought was to go to healers, but they would contact her parents who were going to make her current injuries pale in comparison with what they would do, and then they would call Boscha's mother and the pink-haired witch was going to make all of her wish that her parents had killed her. If she couldn't go to a healer then maybe she should try to heal herself, granted, she didn't know how to, but maybe she could go to her secret hideout and read a book about it, it was a library, after all, there had to be something that would help her, she was a quick learner, so maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe she would wake up and find out it was all just a bad dream, and maybe when she woke up Ed and Em would be nice to her, maybe Boscha would finally let her play Grudgby and invite her to a moonlight conjuring, maybe it was just a bad dream. It wasn't a bad dream and Amity knew it, but if dreams couldn't come true, then she was fine pretending.
***
Sneaking into the library was easier than Amity thought, or maybe the head librarian did saw her and just pretended he didn't, but Amity liked to think that her stealth abilities got her in instead of pity. Entering her secret hideout Amity collapsed into the first thing she saw, which was one of the many beanbags she had sneaked in. Just how good did sitting down felt, it was possibly the best feeling she had felt since she woke up. Amity closed her eyes and tried to relax, she needed to be calm in order to perform the spell to heal herself, she needed to, otherwise she was going to get punished. It was so calm and relaxing, it seemed that her secret hideout had a spell that managed to calm Amity down no matter what, those small four walls made her feel more at home than at her actual home, it was so sad, and yet Amity was fine with it, she hoped with all her heart that one day it would all change, she hoped her family would one day love her and that the maze prison she called her home would one day be welcoming, but it was little more than wishful thinking.
Minutes passed, or had it been hours? Amity couldn't tell, she wasn't sure she could. All that could be heard around the small room was the witch's heartbeat, she found comfort in how it changed from erratic to calming in a matter of just arriving, just how pathetic was that. Amity opened her dark golden eyes and sat up on the bean bag, her broken body ached and she wanted to just lay down and let the comfort and warmth of the chair lull her asleep, but she couldn't afford that.
Amity carefully passed through the pages of the healing book, she wasn't in so much pain anymore, she couldn't feel her arm anymore, and her face felt like someone had taped it, most of her pain was coming from her chest, stomach, and back, but at least it wasn't her whole body anymore. The more pages she passed the more desperate she became, her heartbeat became faster and more erratic the more minutes passed.
"Here!" Amity sighed and smiled.
She moved her index finger along the letters of the old yellowish page, it was a guide on how to fix broken bones, she'll just heal her arm and nose and then put some ice on the rest of her bruises, Boscha was nice enough to hit her where most people wouldn't see, all she had to do was wear long-sleeved clothes, it was winter so nobody would suspect anything.
Amity placed a finger over her arm and began to think of the instructions. Doing a spell circle over the limb Amity waited, and waited... and it didn't work. 'Just try again.' A voice inside Amity's head pleaded, it was her first time performing the spell, so it was prone to not work. Amity closed her eyes and did another circle, yet she felt nothing, she didn't open her eyes, she feared if she did then she was going to break down. A sudden burning sensation made Amity gasp out loud, it wasn't a pleasant burning sensation, like the potions she would drink to make herself want to even live would make her feel, it was painful, much more painful than the previous feeling of her arm. Amity opened her eyes to see what was happening, she saw her broken arm start to fix and go back in place, but a large burning scar was making itself present at the same time. The book did say something about having a scar, but it said it would be a small almost visible scar the size of a pea, not a large red one that took at least three-fourths of her arm and forearm, and it didn't say anything about the piercing pain she was currently feeling either.
The green-haired teen bit a pillow as hard as she could to keep herself from screaming out loud, it would all just be over in a second. Amity looked around and found her Otabin plush, it was old, broken, and in immediate need of a clean, but it was her only true friend and it was perfect no matter what.
"H-hey fr-friend." Amity smiled and took the toy, sitting it on her lap the witch smiled, but her smile faded off her face when the plush fell down. Maybe she could use a little of the wailing star dust on her Otabin book to make him come alive... looking over to where she kept the most powerful items Amity shook her head. It was too far and Amity was far too tired to even attempt to get it. She'll just have to do with what she had.
What was she supposed to do now? Her arm was 'fixed', sure, but what about her nose and face? Amity couldn't see it, but she knew that she had little cuts over her cheeks, lips, and foreheads and a black eye, since she could hardly see from her left eye. She couldn't go home like this and she doubted her current condition allowed her to sneak in into the manor. Should she just sleep here and bribe Viney into healing her? She knew the detention track teen was taking healing classes, maybe if she bribed her with getting her out of detention then she would fix her. But that would have to be tomorrow when school starts since she had no idea where the brunette lived. That didn't seem like a bad plan at all, nobody would even notice she wasn't there. Her parents would come home at unholy hours and the twins were probably out causing mayhem or making out with some poor soul. Amity didn't know how to feel, some part she was happy, happy that her plan would work and she wouldn't be punished, but some part of her was extremely sad, sad because nobody would notice she wasn't there. It was only going to be for one day, but what if something bad happened to her? What if she was kidnapped or attacked or even killed, would anybody notice? Would anybody care?
A buzz caught Amity's attention, it was a notification on her scroll. Amity was hopeful for a minute, maybe Ed or Em had realized she wasn't home yet and were worried for her. It wasn't a message or a call from her siblings, it was much worse, it was a penstagram notification from Boscha's accounts, they were on a party with the caption 'Full gang' on the bottom. Amity stared at the picture until it went black, on the screen she could see her reflection. She indeed was full of cuts and bruises, her trembling lips full of blood and most notably was her eye, it was so swollen the golden was barely visible anymore. Amity made her scroll disappear and stared at the wall in front of her, where her Azura books were displayed. Amity slowly moved, her bones cracking as she did so, she moved Otabin in front of her and hugged it. He truly was her only friend.
Amity didn't try to stay silent this time, she sobbed as she hugged the plush as hard as she could. Why?! Why couldn't Boscha like her? Had she done anything to her? All Amity wanted was to be her friend... all Amity wanted was a friend, a real friend that wasn't a toy. She didn't want money or anything, she didn't want things, she just wanted love. She wanted Ed and Em to love her, she wanted her parents to at least not hate her... was that too much to ask? Why did they hate her anyway? For just existing? Or was it something she did that they didn't like? Maybe they didn't like the way she talked, or how she couldn't understand the things they would say? Maybe if she changed they would like her... but she didn't want that, she wanted Boscha and her group to like Amity, and not some mask she would disguise herself under. Maybe there was someone out there who would like Amity, maybe there was someone, somewhere, that would want to be her friend.
***
Amity had been hearing rumors recently, rumors about a human in the isles. At first, she didn't believe them, because how come human would have even ended in a place like this, but then more people started talking about it and she caught a thing or two about the human, it was a she and she ended here because of the weird owl lady that sold human merchandise in the day market, Amity didn't personally know Eda, she was a criminal and Amity was a Blight, but the green-haired witch knew that anything, no matter how crazy it appeared, was possible if the gray-haired woman was involved. With the new information, it started making sense about how a human could end up here, the hows were what she didn't know. Amity wasn't sure why but she had a weird feeling about the human, it was very overwhelming and so she chose to not think about it too much.
"H-hey Will- Half a witch!" Amity mumbled and walked towards the dark-haired witch, tripping and nearly falling over a vine on the floor.
"Good morning Amity, how are you?" Willow smiled.
"I am great, how are you? I mean I hate you and you are dumb!"
Willow stood silent after that, she smiled awkwardly and looked around.
"I-is that your abomination? May I see it?" Amity asked excitedly when she saw Willow's cauldron. Most witches in the abomination track used them to carry around their creatures, but since Amity was much more advanced than them she could summon abominations out of nothing instead of having to manually make them.
"Uhh... I don't know. It's not really good." The shorter girl mumbled.
"Oh. That is alright... Wait no! I am a bully like Boscha... I demand you show me your abomination Half a witch." Amity demanded.
"Abomination, rise," Willow commanded, the lid of the cauldron opened and a purple looking goo fell towards the floor, you could see its eyes out of their sockets and sort of make out some limbs, but other than that it resembled nothing about an abomination.
"It is not a good abomination, but we can fix it, the reason why it does not hold together is because of the ingredients you used, you should use spider silk instead of slider tears to make it more stable, you should focus on making it the basic shape and making sure it is stable before focusing on the rest. I have more detailed notes, I could share them with you if you want." Amity explained, and did a spell circle, the abomination stood up from the ground and fixed itself from goo and eyes into an actual A plus abomination. "There! That is more like it!" Amity smiled.
"Thanks, Amity! I would have probably failed if it wasn't for you." Willow stated, making a spell that placed the monster back in the cauldron.
"You are welcome, Oh school started. I hope you have a nice day... wait that is not right." Amity's face dropped so much that Willow couldn't help but feel bad for her.
"You can always try again, tomorrow. I have to get going, have a nice day, and be careful with that vine- nevermind." Willow spoke, and ran towards Amity who had tripped and fallen over the exact same vine as before, Willow extended her hand, Amity stared at Willow for a second before she stood up herself.
"I-i am a bad girl, yo-you need to be scared of me! Not help me." Amity pouted.
"I am... scared of you?"
"Really!?" Amity beamed.
"Really... uh... I have to get going to class, it's too scary being here..." Willow mumbled and took the wheelbarrow, beginning to walk away.
Amity pouted and looked away, she wasn't precisely great at understanding people, which is the nicest way of saying she had no idea what was happening ninety-seven percent of the time, but she could definitely tell that Willow wasn't crumbling in fear... or really scared of her in any way, the most fear she got out of her was when she fell, but that was because she was worried. But she could always try again the next day.
***
She saw the human... she was... interesting. What was she doing at Hexside? She clearly didn't belong here nor could do any magic, and she was in a school of magic... should she stop her and tell her to get out? She could get seriously hurt, and she needed to get out before Boscha and her friends got to her. Who knew what they would do to her once they found her? She needed to tell her to leave. Amity stared around the hallways as she passed through students, she could hear them murmuring between themselves about the human, and Amity couldn't help but to ear drop some of their conversations. She didn't get any new information she didn't already know, the only new thing she did hear was her name, which was Luz. It was a pretty name... Amity saw 'Luz' in the hallway before, it was for merely a second, but she saw her... she was really pretty.
"Well, well, well. Look who's here." Amity tensed the second she heard that voice. She was ready to be hit, but it didn't happen.
"Uhh... hello?"
"Uhh hello? Is that all you stupid human have to say?" Boscha laughed. Amity walked towards where the sound was coming from and found Boscha and her gang cornering Luz.
"I don't really know what you want me to say, and I don't know you, so yeah... hello," Luz mumbled and looked around awkwardly.
"Ugh, you are so annoying, like... how does a human even end up here- don't even tell me, I don't care, how are you even alive? Damn, I'm going to feel bad for the poor hungry monster that has to eat trash like you." Boscha mocked, and her gang laughed, meanwhile Luz just looked over with, not like Boscha's victims did, who crumbled in fear, Luz looked unfazed.
"Is that all? Can I leave now?" Luz asked. Boscha stopped laughing and stared at Luz for a second, then she grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and pushed her against the wall.
"Listen here you little-"
"Leave her alone!" Amity yelled and walked over towards Luz, Boscha was so surprised she had let her go. Oh fuck... Amity was going to die.
"She did not do anything to you! Why are you so mean?" Amity asked, stepping in front of Luz. She didn't know why she was doing this, she didn't know why she was protecting the human she didn't even know. Amity looked back and ran away before Boscha could do anything. Amity ran as fast as she could and locked herself in the bathroom. She was so dead.
Why? Why did she have to protect the human? Now she was going to be the laugh of the school... even more now than before. Just why did she do that? It wasn't like they knew each other, hell, she had never seen her before, and yet she felt so familiar. Not familiar as in knowing her before, more like she could see herself knowing her and all the warmth and tingly feeling that came with it... she was also really cute, which made her stomach even more tingly, though that type of tingliness was something Amity avoided even thinking about, she avoided it because even as a hormonal sixteen-year-old she was scared of thinking and feeling about... that, if she did than that meant that she was growing and becoming an adult, and the youngest Blight didn't want to grow up. But that was no reason to put her whole reputation at stake, as if she had one to begin with. Now everyone was going to mock her about protecting the human and Luz was also probably going to thank her or something. What should she do? She didn't want to bully Luz because A, she didn't think she was able to, and B, she was just bad at being bad. Luz was too weird and overwhelming... maybe she should just ignore her. Ignoring her and running away seemed like the best she could do in this situation, when everything else fails cowardice is always an option that Amity was all too happy to take. Just avoid her and act like she doesn't exist and everything will be fine. She could think and gush about how cute the human was in the security of her room or secret hideout while avoiding impure thoughts like a plague, but at least nobody would be there to mock her for it.
***
Amity sat down next to Luz on her bed. The human didn't seem to realize she was there at all, and if she did then she chose to ignore her and instead kept looking at her rectangle scroll thingie.
"Hey, Luz." The human moved her eyes from her human scroll and looked at Amity, a broken smile over her lips.
"Oh hey there! Didn't hear you come in." Luz mumbled and placed the scroll away. Amity moved even closer to her girlfriend and took her hands. Luz stared curiously at her for a second.
"I know you are not okay, Luz. You do not need to be strong all the time." Amity said, she watched as Luz's face changed from shock to confusion before finally landing in despair. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but Amity didn't have time to study her face, Luz threw herself over Amity and started to loudly cry into her shoulder. The green-haired witch didn't know what to tell her, and so she chose to just hold her close. Amity never liked hugs, or people touching her, but she had found that she didn't have much of an issue with Luz hugging her, she actually loved it when her girlfriend would hug her.
Hours had passed, it had probably just been around half an hour, but who was counting. Luz's sobs had dissolved into hiccups, and she wasn't holding unto Amity for dear life. Amity still couldn't see her face, but she could guess about how sad it might look, Amity didn't want to see Luz sad, it hurt her more than everything Boscha had done to her combined, and if Amity could take away all of Luz's pain then she would, but there was little to nothing Amity could do.
"I am sure we will find a way to get you back," Amity mumbled and saying those words stung.
"I... I want to go back with my mama... yo quiero que me abrase y disculparme y decierle que la amo... Yo quiero a mi mama." Luz sobbed, she began trembling and crying once again. Amity moved her hand to Luz's short pixie cut and began playing with her brown curls... she had no idea what Luz was going through. If something similar happened to Amity she doesn't think she would be half as devastated as her girlfriend was, but Luz's mother loved her, Amity's parents didn't. Amity led Luz cry, she cuddled her closer and passed her fingers along her dark flawless skin and hair.
After a while Luz calmed down once again, Amity didn't say anything this time, instead, she led the flow of time pass and just enjoyed the warmth she was getting from Luz. The Latina moved her head down and placed her head in Amity's heart, they usually did this the other way, Amity would sit on Luz's lap and just hear the human's heart while Luz would read a book and kiss her hair. But now it was the other way around, Amity moved her hand to Luz's curls once again and softly massaged her head. The two teens stayed in the position for a while, neither daring to move a finger.
"Is hot, I need to take my sweater out," Amity said after a while, she loved the position they were in, but the heat was just killing her at this point. Luz moved her head up and blushed, her eyes almost as red as her cheeks.
"Uhh... I have a shirt if you want or-"
"I have a shirt underneath." Amity cut in.
"Of course," Luz mumbled and looked around.
Amity took off the black sweater, leaving herself in a pink spaghetti striped shirt. Luz's gaze immediately fixated on her arm, and Amity could tell why.
"What happened to your arm?" Luz asked and moved closer, she looked like she wanted to touch it, but didn't dare to ask. Should she tell her? Amity didn't want Luz to pity her, and feel bad, she was already feeling bad about destroying the portal, she didn't want her to feel worse and burden her with her problems.
"Boscha broke my arm a while before you came, I was too scared to go to a healer and tried a spell to fix it and it worked, but I ended up with this scar," Amity explained.
Luz didn't look away from her arm, and it made Amity feel slightly uncomfortable, but she didn't say anything.
"You know, the day I came here, I forgot to tell my mom that I loved her and give her a kiss. I, Luz Noceda, promise you that I will always kiss you every morning and tell you that I love you, I promise that I won't let anybody hurt you." Luz said, at first her voice was full of strength that gradually deteriorated, her voice began craking more than it usually did and tears rolled down her cheeks.
Amity didn't know how to feel after that declaration. She felt so overwhelmed, so many feelings were rushing inside of her that she wasn't sure what to feel anymore. Nobody had ever told her that... nobody had ever promised to keep her safe, and now here was Luz, a girl she met two months ago, giving her more love than she had received in all her sixteen years of life. Luz moved forward and hugged Amity, the witch moved her hands behind the human and tugged her shirt. Luz moved forward and sealed their lips like a promise. Amity closed her eyes and let her all too conflicting emotions wash over her.
"I would fight a thousand slitherbeasts for you, I would slay the most powerful of dragons for you and bring you all of its treasures, I would kill anybody that dares to hurt you, I wo-"
"You do not need to. Being in your arms is enough to make me feel safe." Amity smiled and moved into another kiss, and another, and another after that one, all while Luz would sob about how much she loved her and Amity would reply with the same sentiment. Amity had never felt so loved.