I Think I Found You
Amity stepped out of the portal, opening her eyes to a dense forest. The sun was just beginning to set, painting the sky in an array of warm colors. Amity gasped at the beauty of it, fumbling slightly with her staff before regaining her composure and looked for her companions. They stood just at the bottom of a rickety wooden staircase. It took Amity a second to realize that she wasn’t standing on grass, instead she was standing on top of a wooden porch of sorts. A quick glance behind her confirmed that she had just exited an old shed, with peeling paint and broken windows. The glow of the portal faded into blackness, revealing an empty room. Amity turned away from the shed with a shiver, it was quite a bit colder here than it was in the Boiling Isles, the witch was beginning to wish she had brought a coat.
“Hurry up Ames!” Edric complained. Amity rolled her eyes and stepped carefully down, the wooden stairs squealed in protest, Amity was half certain they were going to collapse. When she reached the ground Willow stepped to her side and laid a hand gently on her arm.
“I think you should leave Fiona here.” WIllow said softly. Amity knew this was coming, but had hoped that no one else would realize that her staff was extremely powerful and could easily give away who they actually were. Amity looked down at her staff, and gently patted the cat on the head. The wooden figure immediately sprang to life, leaping onto Amity’s shoulder and rubbing against her cheek.
“Sorry Fi, but you have to stay here, I doubt any humans have seen an animate wooden cat before.” The cat, seeming to understand her, jumped down from her shoulder and curled up in a ball on the stairs. Amity ducked low and gave Fiona a gentle stroke, before tucking the rest of the staff under the house. She stood up, brushed a few clumps of dirt from her dress, and turned back to the group.
“I still don’t know why you brought her,” Emira began, “it’s not like you would have been able to use her anyway.” Amity and Willow exchanged glances, so Emira hadn’t noticed Fiona’s assistance with the panic attack. Amity felt a rush of relief.
“I didn’t know if we would need her, I just wanted to be careful.” Emira shrugged and turned to face away from the shed.
“So, where to now?” Edric asked, looking around nervously. Amity knew they would have trouble finding their way around, but with the sky slowly darkening the panic began to set in again. Amity forced herself to take a deep breath, then she counted to ten.
“We should go straight,” she said pointing directly away from the shed, “The path from the stairs goes that way so it should lead to something.”
The rest of the group agreed and they began walking. It was a strange feeling, knowing that Luz was in this world, that she may even be in walking distance from Amity. The witch silently scolded herself for getting her hopes up, after 6 years of absolutely no communication, their chances of finding Luz was little to none. Even so Amity couldn’t help but imagine it, what would she look like. Did she let her hair grow out, or did she cut it again? What was she doing as a career, did she still live with her mom? Did she have her own place? Did she have a roommate? Was she in a romantic relationship with someone? The thought of Luz being with someone else stirred up a lot of strong emotions, mostly jealousy, but also some guilt. It had been 6 years, Amity had no right to feel about Luz the way she did. Now that she was thinking about it, it was stupid that she still had feelings for Luz at all. The human left the Isles, left Amity. It’s likely she never wanted to see her again, the idea alone was enough to make Amity’s skin crawl.
The witch was so lost in her thoughts she nearly ran into Edric, who had stopped short. Amity let out a huff of displeasure and stepped around her brother to see what the fuss was about. Her heart fluttered, they had reached the end of the forest and were looking out over a dimly lit street. Boxy houses lined the road, a friendly glow illuminating several windows.
“We should follow the road.” Willow suggested, and they did. They walked a few blocks, the others pointing out odd human things they didn’t recognize. Amity felt a surge of pride, she recognized several of the objects, but her heart sank again when she remembered who had taught her about all those human things. They had been walking for a while when Willow let out a small gasp. They all turned to her quizzically, she just pointed, her face frozen in that startled state.
Amity followed WIllow’s gaze, and when she saw what had made the other witch stop she too froze. She couldn’t believe it, it couldn’t be real. For, hanging on a line in the yard of one of the houses, were several sheets of paper. Each one decorated with a painted glyph, the same glyphs Luz had used to do magic.
“That’s her, it has to be,” Emira whispered. Before Amity could think she began to approach the house.
“Ames, wait!” Edric grabbed her arm, “your ears.” Amity was about to protest, but then realized he was right. She reached up and touched her pointed ears.
“Here let me,” Edric made a small circle with his finger, then smiled, “Just in case there are any other humans.”
Amity felt her ear again and found that it was rounded.
“Thank you.” He nodded again. Amity then turned and began to make her way towards the house again. But was interrupted once more by a hand on her shoulder. She turned again annoyed, but this time it was Willow.
“Just think about this for a second Amity, there’s no point in going in without a plan.”
“It’s just Luz.”
“Yes, who you haven’t seen in six years, think about it.” Amity paused, scrunching her eyebrows in frustration.
“I want to do this.” She finally said, “I need to do this.” Willow stepped back and nodded. Amity turned back to the house, hopefully for the last time.
Each step threatened to tip her over onto the sidewalk. Gods, she was shaking so bad. She grabbed her dress and squeezed counting her breaths, trying to slow her beating heart. She glanced back nervously at the rest of the group, only to see that they weren’t there. Had they left her? Did they not want to see Luz again? Stop. Amity told herself, Edric and Emira probably cast an illusion spell to hide them. Yeah, that was it.
Amity turned her attention back to the house. The light in the front window was on, and the sidewalk was lined with several blooming flowers. It was warm and welcoming, and had an aura of happiness that helped calm her nerves. She felt like a kid again, after she had first met Luz. Happy-go-lucky, barely any worries whatsoever. Constantly accompanied by a giddy feeling that nothing could ever go wrong.
Amity smiled to herself, and took the last step. She was standing in front of the door now. She raised a shaking hand, trying to ignore the voice in her head telling her this was a bad idea, and knocked. Once, twice, three times.
Silence, no sound other than her beating heart.
And then... Foot steps.
A click.
The door handle turned.
And the door swung open.