Keloids
A cloaked figure walked across the mansion grounds, intent on their task. They entered the house, and found their way to the library, where the two owners of the house had gathered.
“Now I’m aware of how much your reputation means to you, so it would greatly concern you what I have been able to find.” His voice whispered in a strong way, a gloved hand reaching from inside his coat and pulling out an envelope, he opened it and approached the table to which the people were sitting. The pictures dumped out.
The pictures featured a group of kids, smiling, laughing. Just the attendees of Hexside, having fun together. “Who is that girl? Why have we not heard of her?” The man pointed his pale finger at the tanned girl who stood close to the target.
“Dear look at her ears… she's…” The two locked golden eyes, “Human.”
“Fraternizing with a human? That is not possible.”
“It's more than that, ma’am.” He pulled out the last picture in the pile, featuring only two hands, one tanned, one pale with black nail polish, intertwined in a gentile grip.
“No…” The woman ran her long fingers through her green hair, “Alador, we mustn’t let this go further.”
Alador looked at the woman, Odalia. He nodded in agreement. They needed to do it.
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“Amity!” Luz ran up to the pale witch who stood at the end of the hall, she almost lost her footing and skid the rest of the way to face her friend.
Amity giggled uselessly. She loved how careless that girl could be.
It had been a long school day, she was exhausted from it. Amity had two tests today and a study hall for a third test. It seemed the closer they got to winter the more teachers had been trying to pack the classes with as much knowledge as possible. It was expected though, trilogy tests were coming up and no one was excited for that. Luz helped ease her mind, though, maybe she would ask to hang out and Amity could finally unwind.
“Lilith, King, and Eda went on some trip to get information today, do you maybe want to hang out so I don't have to spend 12 hours alone with Hooty?”
Amity shivered at the thought. Even ten minutes alone with Hooty would be torture.
“Yeah, sure! I don't have anything to do anyways.” She hoped she didn't sound too eager, although she really was that. Eager.
Luz squealed with delight, “Yay!”
The two gathered their things and headed out of the school, blissfully unaware of the figure that stood in the bushes.
The teens walked down and into a familiar path in the forest. Amity watched as Luz kicked a rock down the path, each time she came across it again she would kick it. Until she eventually kicked it off the path and left Luz with nothing else to play soccer with.
“Sooo Amity…. You've been writing any Azura fanfiction lately?”
Amity turned bright red, “Luz!” She playfully pushed Luz with her shoulder.
“Alright alright!” Luz laughed, “It's nothing to be ashamed of! Everyone does it! Did you know Romeo and Juliet was originally a fanfiction?”
“Romeo and who?”
“Oh right, it's some old terribly boring “love” story between this kid and this prince or whatever. It's old. But the point is, everyone worshipped it, and they still do. But it was fanfiction!” Luz’s hands went into the air as she yelled that last part, making Amity chuckle.
They continued on walking, there was a little clearing up ahead. They had found that spot earlier in the month when Lilith was first living with Luz and Eda, Luz had to sort out her feelings for the woman, because she was Eda’s sister, but also caused Luz a lot of pain. They would sit there for a bit, talking about Lilith, school, and life back home.
They found their way to a little spot in the grass, where fall flowers began to bloom. Luz had noticed Amity’s stressful nature lately and asked her what was wrong. It took a bit but Amity opened up a little about her stressful parents. She loved them but… she didn’t respect them, she explained.
“It's complicated,” she had said, while pulling a tuft of grass out from the ground.
“I get it,” Luz paused, “Well, I don't. My Mamá does though.”
Amity looked up out of curiosity.
“My mom’s parents, my abuela and abuelo, they were very strict. They worked hard to get into America from their country, and they always were mean to my mom. I don't think they meant to, but they were so worried for her future that they forgot they were parents. They became controlling and… abusive. So my mom left, when she was 17. She went to college and everything to make a life for herself. Then she had me.”
Luz looked up then, Amity was intrigued to say the least.
“My abuela, she was so worried when my mom had me, she insisted I would come every month or so to stay with them. She would…”
Amity saw Luz tearing up as she hyperfocused on a flower petal. Intent on stripping every fiber from the bud. The pale witch tentatively placed her hand on the girl's knee.
“She would get mad at me sometimes, she wanted what was best for me, she always said. She would yell that I would end up throwing my life away like my mother… The last time I visited her I called my mom to pick me up, she was scaring me. She overheard me and grabbed my wrist. Real hard.”
Luz held out her left hand, and Amity could see a long keloid. Surrounded by a slightly darker spot.
“Bruises don't last that long do they?”
Luz sighed, rolling her sleeve back down, “They do when it breaks bones, I guess.”
“Oh.”
“Anyways, I think sometimes parents get so worked up, they forget that their goal isn't to scare their kids, but to comfort them and guide them through whatever they need. Like your parents. I'm sure they love you, but they're so worked up about your future. It feels weird to love them, I guess. It's hard to explain. But it's okay to not love them, and it's okay to love them. You don't need to explain yourself. You just need to do whatever you think you need to do. ”
Amity teared up, “Thanks Luz, that was good to hear.”
Luz brushed the grass stains off her pants as she stood up, attempting to tighten the cowl over herself as a cold breeze shifted through the trees. Amity attempted to get up, taking Luz’s outstretched hand and pulling herself up. She almost went too far, her forehead bonking against the tanned girls’, she stayed there for a bit, looking closely into Luz’s brown eyes. They were both smiling.
“You really gotta work on that, Amity.” She giggled, and Amity swayed, she smelled like lemon. Lemon and cinnamon.
Then, everything around them went black.
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“Amity Odalia Blight!” A voice shook the two to their core.
“Amity what’s happening?” Luz tightened her grip onto Amity, shifting so she was holding her hand and the other hand protectively on the pale girl’s shoulder.
Two looming figures came into view, Amity knew exactly what was going on, but she never had expected it. It was only from nightmares.
Luz could feel Amity start to shake terribly, her hand squeezing Luz’s so hard she was afraid it might break. She had never seen Amity so scared. Her jaw was clenched, and Luz could have sworn she heard a tooth crack. A vein showed itself on the witches' temple, the temple that sweat already made its way down.
“Get away from Amity, human.” The voice belonged to a woman, it was cold, and frightening. Luz wanted to get away, but the fear she felt was only miniscule compared to Amity's, who stood frozen in place.
Luz stepped between the figures as they began to step closer. She held the witch behind her with an outstretched arm. “Don't you come near us.”
They seemed to discard her statement and continued to step so Luz could make out their faces, they looked familiar.
“Don't touch her!” Luz stepped back toward Amity, but the woman acted quickly. Her staff summoned from nowhere and swung in an sideways motion until it made purchase with Luz’s throat.
Luz went down and to the side, choking and coughing from the impact on her esophagus. She tried to breathe in but something wouldn't let her. She felt like she was suffocating.
“Luz!” Amity stepped toward her but the man drew a circle in the air, making Amity’s body glow yellow. She couldn't move.
Luz finally got a suck of air in as she dropped from her knees to flat on her face in the grass. She could see Amity in her frozen state, being talked to by who Luz deduced were her parents.
“Why would you associate with the likes of her? Blights do not hold hands with Humans.” Odalia spat out the last word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.
“Mother-” Amity attempted to speak but her father cut her off.
“Have we not given enough to you? We made sure you had a good room to study in, we gave you good friends to be with, we even let you have some alone time, we wouldn't even mention when you stayed after school late. I should've known you would betray us like this.”
“Luz isn't bad! Father, she's my friend!”
Odalia gasped, “Talking back to your father? No doubt something this human taught you-” her palisman’s eyes glowed green and she extended the staff to Luz, who was now attempting to rise from the floor. A green bolt protruded from the staff and surrounded the tanned girl, lifting her a foot above the ground and began to glow horrifyingly.
Luz screamed in agony as she felt electricity, or some witch equivalent, coursing through her body. It caused her to bite at her own lip, blood quickly forming from the sheer force. Her body shook violently and her muscles began to cramp from moving too quickly all at once for too long.
“Mother stop! Please stop!” Amity's screams were hardly heard over the sound of Odalia's magic, her father watched as Amity sobbed, uselessly trying to talk to her mother.
Odalia’s eyes kept focused on the human girl, the girl's eyes focusing and unfocusing now, her breaths shallow and her screams guttural. Eventually succumbing to choked sobs. The green-haired witch finally stopped and let Luz to the ground. The girl couldn't do anything but lay in a fetal position in the grass. She wasn't sure when she could see the trees instead of the dome of darkness she was in before. She didn't even care, her whole body hurt, her headache, and her throat still was damaged.
“Why should I stop, Amity? This girl is nothing more than a bother. Didn’t she make you lose your position as top student? Why would you defend someone of that stature?”
Alador's grasp on Amity had long been released, but she couldn't tell. She stepped towards her mother, glaring with piercing gold eyes.
“She’s my friend!”
Luz closed her eyes now, she couldn’t focus on what anyone was saying. She couldn't even remember what she had been doing.
“Why would you be friends with someone so incapable? She has no special qualities, she has nothing to offer, she's a worthless human. You disregard all the friends I pick out for you, you disobey my order to cut ties with Willow Park, and now you pick this human to protect?”
“Luz isn't a worthless human!” Amity stepped between her mother and the girl laying in the grass, her whole body still making little convulsions.
“What's so special about her? Shes a dumb human,”
“She-”
“The human pet cant even do basic magic without help,”
“Luz is-”
“Why do you care about someone of her stature?”
“BECAUSE I'M IN LOVE WITH HER.”
Amity's chest rose and fell from the sudden burst of adrenaline. She had never raised her voice at her mother, and she saw as her mother's golden eyes turned stormy. There was silence for a few minutes, almost similar to when birds stop singing before a storm.
Odalias nostrils flared and she looked between her daughter, and the human. She brought the staff down on Amity this time, making contact with her left eye. Amity immediately saw stars on that side, it took everything she had to not pass out.
“In love with a girl human?”
Amity licked her lips and pursed them together, she was still reeling from that statement.
“Disgusting. A disdain. This simply won't do.” Odalia muttered to herself.
“..Amity…” Luz whimpered reaching out to her friend.
Amity started towards her when Luz was once again caught in a green light, a magic hand held her still. The young pale witch looked back at her mother, who looked at her back with abhorrence.
“It's worse than I thought.”
Luz gasped as the hand tightened around her waist and abdomen, she kicked and flailed uselessly as she scratched at the magic hand that held her. Amity watched, in horror, as the hand holding Luz flung her right into the biggest tree in the clearing. Luz’s body hit the tree with a deafening crack and she fell the six feet to the ground where she lay, unmoving.
“Luz! Luz please move!” Amity started towards her but she felt her father’s hold on her again, and her mother muttered as she cast one of her famous sleep spells. "Luz! Please you have to wake up... get up... you cant... Luz..." She was getting tired, the weight of her mothers spell landed on her fully. "Luz come on, get up, you never give up... you have to get up... you cant just... L-luz."
The pale girl wiggled and winced under the spell, but it had its hold, Amity watched as another figure came out from the woods, picking up the teenaged girl that lay feet away. The figure made some conversation with her parents, but she couldn't hear what. It was already draining to see at all. All she could do was watch as Luz was carried away, and Amity floated behind her parents. That was all she could muster as she let herself slip into nothingness.