Chapter 18
Luz POV:
“Amity!” my voice echoes against the walls of the empty cave. It’s dark, and the only light I see comes from the end of a seemingly endless tunnel. I am running. My feet are running, but I am moving nowhere, stuck in the same spot.
“Amity!” I call out again. I don’t know why. Shrill laughter surrounds me bouncing back in a torturous echo, and for a moment, I think it is my own, but when my own mouth lets out a shrill shriek, I know it is not.
As if I am a movie, left on pause, I stand, frozen for a long moment until someone presses play. Then I am running again, only this time the walls around me move too, blurring as I pass them by. I head for the light in the tunnel, but it only gets further away the closer I get to it.
This doesn’t make sense. None of this makes sense.
As I turn the corner, my feet give out beneath me and I tumble to the ground. Only, I keep falling, falling down into the darkness that surrounds me. I let out another strangled shout, my voice swallowed by the nothingness around me. I close my eyes tightly shut, holding my hands out to soften the inevitable blow as I hit the ground. There is none.
The distant sound of birds chirping makes me open my eyes again. A soft breeze caresses my cheek, ruffling through my hair. I can tell from the blue skies, decorated with fluffy white clouds, that I am back home. The human world never looked so beautiful. The grass beneath me is stained a luscious green, and it serves as a soft mattress that I lie down on, watching the clouds drift along the sky.
It takes me a long moment for me to notice the gentle laughter beside me, the soft skin of another’s fingers entwined with my own.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” she asks me between her giggles. Her golden eyes are laced with love and a joy that I’ve never seen in her before. She tucks a strand of green hair behind her ear with her spare hand, the smile never leaving her face.
“Eres hermosa.” I tell her, a smile finding its way onto my own face. She turns her head to look at me, and our eyes meet. As I feel her squeeze my hand gently, I know that I am safe here with her. It is so comfortable, so warm.
I blink and it is gone, the dream carried away on the breeze just as quickly as it came. I sit up quickly in my makeshift bed, my eyes looking quickly around the room. Amity’s bed lies empty on the far side of the room. Just as I am about to stand up, a worried expression etched onto my face, I catch sight of something across the room. A wooden rocking chair is positioned strategically by the window, a chair that I know isn’t supposed to be there. In it sits a figure, only a silhouette in the darkness, but her eyes glow a red that seems to pierce my soul. She stands up slowly, walking towards me. The moonlight that seeps through the open window lights up her face for a moment, revealing to me dark skin, round ears and a tired face. She wears blue nurses scrubs and holds a pile of papers in her hand.
“Mamá?” my voice comes out quiet and hoarse, but she hears it. She stops walking, her glowing eyes staring down at me. She has moved away from the moonlight now, and is nothing more than a black shadowy outline.
“Te quiero!” she cries out, almost in fear. The voice is not my mother’s. “Te quiero!”
With that, the shadow folds in on itself, morphing down, shrinking, shifting shape. I watch the moonlight reflect off Willow’s glasses that sit at the edge of her nose. Scrambling to my feet, I retreat quickly, trying to get away from the shadow that chases me.
“What are you doing, kid?” the silhouette asks me, its long black hair impersonating Eda’s. It holds a grey staff in its hand, while a shadowy palisman flies alongside it.
I trip in my desperation to escape, falling onto my stomach with a thud. Turning onto my back, I watch the demon floating just above me, eyes still glowing red. The breath catches in my throat, but I manage to drag in the air that I need, filling my lungs about halfway. The shadow changes again, but I don’t want to watch, so I close my eyes, praying for it to go away.
I don’t open them when I feel a warm hand press against my cheek. I don’t open them when I hear my name being softly whispered. I don’t open them because this is all a cruel trick, a joke or a dream.
“Luz, wake up!”
Someone shakes me softly with one hand, the other still touching my face.
Cautiously, I open one eye.
The sunlight that invades the room hurts my eyes at first, but I blink away the pain, instead focusing my eyes on the figure in front of me. Amity leans over me, her green hair tied back in a half ponytail. Her golden eyes are framed with concern, and she keeps her hands close to me. She sits back a little when she realises I’m awake.
“Amity!” I throw my arms around her neck before thinking, overwhelmed by my relief to see something that I know to be real. “I just had the craziest dream!”
“I know,” she laughs, sounding a little bemused. “You talk in your sleep.”
I pull away from her, noticing the pink that dusts her cheeks. I smile up at her where she sits, just above me. Her eyes are still laced with confusion, but she smiles back. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
I laugh as she lies down beside me on her stomach. She props her chin up on the palms of her hands to listen.
“It was weird.” I tell her. “Like, I was running from something, but I’m not sure what.” I blush, remembering the feeling of lying in the grass with Amity, watching the clouds move through the blue sky above us. I remember how at peace we were, how right it felt. “Maybe I was running towards something.”
Amity shifts her weight, turning onto her back. She blinks up at me with big eyes as I now lean over her. After a moment of hesitation, I tilt towards her, moving my hands to touch her face. Her breathing hitches as I stop, my lips so close to hers I can almost taste them.
I pull back quickly, suddenly aware of myself again. “I’m sorry.” I tell her, quickly. “That was- I’m sorry.” I say again.
Her golden eyes blink back at me as I feel her hands reach out to me. She says nothing as they find my shirt, pulling me back into her.
This time, our lips touch. This time I don’t pull away.
My hand finds its way around her waist, pulling her even closer to me as I close my eyes. I feel hers in my hair, the other still clutching onto my shirt like a lifeline. She tastes just like I imagined she would and her lips are soft as I feel her smile against my mouth.
I open my eyes again, expecting to see green hair spread out beneath her, her golden eyes looking up at me. I expect to see her smiling up at me with pink cheeks.
Instead, I see a dark room.
I sit up quickly, confused. I can see through the window that the sun is just starting to rise over the mountains. Some of the early rising birds have started their morning songs already, but I can’t hear much else.
A noise from the other side of the room drags my attention away from the window. I stand up slowly, stretching out from the night’s sleep as I make my way over to the bed in the far corner of the room. As I draw closer, I see pale skin, green hair and soft parted lips letting out soft breaths. Bringing a hand to my mouth, I remember the feeling of her soft kisses, so lifelike it feels almost like a memory, now nothing more than a beautiful dream.
She looks so peaceful as she sleeps, her chest rising and falling with every breath. I think about slipping down into the bed beside her, but I don’t know how she would react to that. Instead, I bend down, reaching my hand out towards her. Gently, I tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She fusses, rolling over onto her back, but doesn’t wake. I smile and stand up, turning away from her to walk back towards the door.
As my footsteps echo down the stairs, I think of her waist length wavy green hair, the golden of her eyes sparkling in the sunlight, the sound of her voice as it plays on loop in my head. Somehow, I know I will never see her in the same way again.