Chapter 11: Realization

Human OrphanWords: 14842

Interesting chapter..?? I think so... Poor Luz though... this girl is going through some stuff I'll tell you that.

ENJOY<3

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King, Willow and Gus have been waiting by Luz for a while now.

"Do you think they're ok? They've been in there for a while." Willow breaks the tension in the room.

King looks up while holding Luz's hand "I wouldn't worry. Eda is the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. If anyone can do it she can."

Willow looks at King, thanking him with her eyes when all of the sudden a blinding light fills the room. "Ah! Who are- oh wait. Luz's friends. Sorry, I forgot you guys were here for a minute." Eda is regaining her balance as she readjusts from Luz's mind.

The room is silent. All eyes are on Eda who seems to be just fine. King has the courage to speak for everyone in the room "Umm Eda? I'm really happy you're here and all... but where's the green-haired girl?"

"Oh that one? Yeah she's still in there. But don't worry she's fine." Eda leaves the room to 'get some apple blood'.

Willow and Gus shrug off Eda's behavior and turn their attention back to Luz. But King however follows Eda to the kitchen. "Ok, what's up. I'm trying to remember a time I last saw you this worried. What did you see I there."

Eda pours a glass of apple blood, and drinks from the bottle "Let's just say I did not like what I saw. At. All." Eda is now holding her head and is contemplating on what her next move is. "Maybe it's time to reconnect with my sister."

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Amity is now following Inner Luz. Amity is lost in her own thoughts, looking around, glancing at all of Luz's memories. She feels uneasy looking at the emperor over and over again in different situations.

At this single moment, Amity is thankful for her parents. Thankful that she was allowed to leave her own house. Thankful they've never laid a hand on her. Sure they manipulate her life, but they just want her to succeed and be on top.

While Amity is contemplating her own life, Inner Luz comes to a stop "Before we wake up Luz, I need you to see this memory." She points to a picture with Luz and Belos in it.

Amity is scared but doesn't hesitate. She wants to help Luz in anyway she can. And if that means seeing a memory of the emperor, then so be it.

As Amity steps through the memory, she takes in her surroundings. "Ok Blight, remember it's just a memory. Now, what do we have here... ok it's Luz and the emperor at dinner. Aw Luz looks so cute right now eating with him. NO BLIGHT FOCUS!!!" Amity's thoughts are interrupted by Luz's memory beginning.

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"So, how were your friends today?"

"Dad. I know you don't care about that. What you're really wondering is what I did today. Well, we just went to Bonesburrow and shopped all day."

"You know me all to well child. And are you enjoying school?"

"I love school. It's really fun and I've met a lot of amazing people there."

"Luz what have I said about showing emotions. It's a weakness. Love is no exception. In fact, Love is the weakest emotion of them all."

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Amity's jaw dropped at Belos' comment. "Love is not a weakness. It's a witches greatest strength." She continued to watch the memory

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"Oh dad no! Not like that. I've just made really great friends. One of them wanting to be in the emperors' coven. She's the top student at Hexside."

"Oh good. Love is the worst emotion, Luz. Do not fall to its prey. And I like how you make friends with the strongest witches. I have taught you well."

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The Blight girl leaves the memory feeling sorry for Luz. She starts to rant to Inner Luz "How could he just say that! Emotions are what make witches, witches. In Luz's case, they're what make her human! What a miserable life that will be. Every time she feels any emotion, she feels like she fails and that's not true! Ever since she's entered my life, it's been ten times better because I love her!!! That's not weakness. That's strength!" Amity is now crying and out of breath. She wanted to run to Luz and give her the biggest hug in the world and hold her forever.

As Amity cries, the inner Luz starts to glow a little. For the first time she shows an emotion. She walks up to the crying witch and puts her hand on her shoulder "See why she needs you. She feels the same way. But she just doesn't know it. And she feels guilt every time she's with you. But instead of giving in to the guilt, she continues to be around you. You have to teach her how to love. You're the key to her humanity, or else she'll just be as ruthless as Belos."

Amity stops crying, and processes what inner Luz just told her "She... loves me.?.?.? WAIT WILL LUZ REMEMBER THIS BECAUSE THIS IS HER HEAD. DID I JUST CONFESS MY LOVE TO THE ACTUAL LUZ?" Amity's face is now bright red.

"Come on. We have to go wake her up now." Inner Luz grabs Amity's hand and walks to a door at the end of the memory forest. "Here we are. The creature that trapped her put a spell on this door. You won't be able to leave until Luz breaks the barrier. Only she can do it."

"Wait! So how does she break it? And who's the creature?" Amity looks back, but inner Luz is gone "Great. Ok. I guess I'm just going to wing it like a witch."  As Amity reaches for the door it opens by itself, very slowly. "That's not at all creepy," Amity says sarcastically but still continues through.

It's completely dark. Not an ounce of light. Amity casts a light spell and looks for Luz. "Luz!? Hello!? Luz, it's Amity!" Amity starts to worry because she can't see anything, including the human. "LUZZZ!" Amity is now becoming frantic, thinking of the worst "what if I'm too late?" Then she hears, crying? It's faint, but it's there. She begins to walk towards the sound when suddenly, she's in the throne room of Emperor Belos. Suddenly, everything has changed. The room, her clothes, the sounds. She's confused but still determined to find her human.

Amity notices she's in what seems to be a uniform, similar if not identical to what Lilith wears. Her hair is also longer and its natural color.

The witch looks up to see Luz on the throne with the pumping heart at a steady pace. She also had her empress gown on, with a staff

(the cover of the book)

similar to Belos' staff, and her eyes are glowing. Luz and Amity seem to be older, like their late 20s.

"LUZ! I'm so happy you're ok. This is all a dream we have to leave. Come on." Amity is now walking towards Luz when she starts to doubt if that even is Luz. "Luz?"

Although Luz's eyes were glowing pink, she still acted normal "Amity! Where have you been? I sent Steve after you but he couldn't find you. I've been worried sick for hours." Luz seems a little aggravated.

Amity stops in her tracks and raises an eyebrow "What? Luz what are you talking about. This is a dream. You have to wake up, none of this is real."

"Huh. Funny that you would say that. I'm going to ask you one more time and you better not lie to me. Where. Were. You." The heart above Luz grows a little quicker, showing Amity that Luz is getting angry.

Amity is also getting irritated "Luz I don't know what you're talking about. This is all a dream. Snap out of it." Amity is now gripping her staff ready to do what necessary to wake the human up.

The heart starts to pound filling the castle up with its beat "STOP LYING!!" Luz now stands up and grips her staff tightly. "I KNOW YOU WERE THE ONE THAT KILLED HIM! CONFESS!" Luz now raises her staff and brings it down with force, showing Amity she's not afraid to use it.

"What do I do. She obviously doesn't know this is a dream. I have to play this smart. If that staff makes Luz as powerful as the emperor, there's no way I can beat her. Think Blight! Think!" Amity suddenly perks her head up with an idea. "No Luz. Steve is the traitor. I've been spying on him for a while now and he's the one lying to you." Amity looks at Luz, praying to the Titan that worked "was that believable? I have no idea what I'm talking about."

Luz's attitude completely changed from angry to heartbroken. "Wha— what?... No. He wouldn't do that to me... he..." Luz lets a tear roll down her cheek only to explode in anger. "You're lying!!!"

Luz slams her staff, creating a monster to charge at Amity. Amity doges her attack, and throws fire a spell at monster to incinerate it. Amity then turns to Luz and spins her staff creating ropes around the broken human.

Amity then runs up to Luz and grabs her shoulder, only to shake some sense into her "LUZ YOU HAVE TO WAKE UP! WE ARE TRAPPED INSIDE YOUR MIND. NONE OF THIS IS REAL."

Luz's eyes stop glowing "A- Amity? What's going on. What am I wearing? Wh- Why do we both look different?" For a slight moment Amity sighs in relief, only to have Luz's eyes flicker back to the pink glow.

Luz breaks out of the spell and disappears into thin air. A trick she learned from Belos himself. Amity holds her staff in fighting position, looking all around her, waiting for Luz to strike. Then, lightning is cast at Amity. It strikes her down and tosses her back to the door of the throne room. She's down. Everything is hazy and spinning. Amity struggles to focus. All she can see is Luz walking menacingly up to her with an evil smirk. Luz kneels down "The human is lost. She has no one and never will. Give up and go while you still can."

Amity regains her sight and yells "NO! I won't give up on her! Why are you doing this. Who are you!?"

Luz stands over Amity and looks at her like she's proud "Hm. After everything that just happened, you still won't give up on the human?" Amity looks at possessed Luz with concern and determination in her eyes "Yes. You will do. Congratulations witch, you passed my test. All will be revealed soon. But not yet." Luz's eyes stop glowing, and she collapses on the ground.

Amity gets up with no damage done to her. Like the fight had never happened. She runs to her fallen friend "Luz!!! Luz wake up! Are you ok!!" Amity is now holding Luz in her arms shaking her. Amity is filling with fear at the sight of her unconscious human, when a door appears where the throne is supposed to be. Amity takes this as her chance to leave, and throws Luz over her shoulder, to carry her through.

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It's now 3:00 pm

Willow and Gus both left to go home due to Eda kicking them out. It was now just Eda and King waiting by Luz's side, waiting. Eda is playing the card game 'Hexes Hold'em' and King is reading up on his demonology.

The two are calm when suddenly Amity flashes into the room, back to her normal age, hair and clothes. Eda shoots up and drops all of the cards. King throws his book and stands as well.

Amity immediately goes up to Luz and sits down beside her. She looks at Luz like if she looked away, she would disappear and never reappear.

Eda goes up to Amity "What happened? Is she going to wake up?"

Amity stays silent and just stares at Luz. Eda and King both follow Amity's lead and sit down by Luz's side and just stare at her.

Then Luz's eyes start to open. As soon as she realizes what happened, she screams and sits up instantly. "AH. Wha- what.. what was that. Was that REAL!??!"

The three comfort Luz and try and calm her down "Kid calm down. Calm down. You're ok. You're awake and you're ok." Eda is grabbing a glass of water she brought earlier for when Luz woke up.

Amity waits for Luz to drink water and calm down "Luz, you were trapped in your own mind. Do you remember anything?"

Luz looks down like she's trying to remember "Umm. I remember a creature talking to me and touching my chest and feeling excruciating pain. It felt like, my heart was melting." Then Luz becomes very pale like she just remembered a memory. "And— and I remember..." a tear escapes Luz's eye, and she begins to shake. Amity immediately grabs her hand, to show that she's there for her "I remember my biological parents. I remember how happy we were and— and how my biological father died."

Amity embraced Luz into a hug. "Luz I'm so sorry you have to go through all of this. For someone as wonderful as you, you don't deserve all the hurt you constantly go through."

Eda then joins in the hug "She's right. Just remember you always have a family here."

Luz then leaves the hug confused "Wait. What are you guys talking about? What are you guys not telling me."

Amity and Eda exchange looks before Eda turns to Luz "Luz. To wake you up, we had to go into your mind and wake you up."

"WHAT!! YOU WENT INTO MY MIND!" Luz stood up and backed away from the demon and the two witches, terrified of what they've learned.

"We had to. You were in pain, and we didn't know what was happening. It was the only way." Amity now standing but staying in place, not crowding the frantic human.

Eda does the same and continues for Amity "She's right kid. But what we saw doesn't change anything."

"IT CHANGES EVERYTHING. He's going to be furious when he finds out. I'm never going to see the light of day again. I'll be lucky if I'll be ever to leave my room again." Luz is now in a full panic attack.

"KID! Calm down. Only me, King, and greenie know your secret. We won't tell another living soul. Don't worry." Eda is now keeping her distance not wanting to set off the human.

Luz is now having trouble breathing. Amity makes her way to her human and holds both her shoulders. She moves Luz's head to look at her and they both stare into each other's eyes. Amity then just takes deep breaths. Luz then mimics her breaths.

"Luz. Breath. You're ok. You can trust us to keep our mouths shut. Now it's 3:15 pm. You have about 4 hours till your dinner. What you're going to do is you're going to go home now. My parents work for the emperors coven, so you will go to my father Aldor, or my mother Odalia and invite yourself to dinner. You will tell the emper- your father that you were invited by a high ranking officer of the coven to dinner and that you've accepted. He will either grant you permission or deny it. Then we will go from there. Ok?" Amity was surprisingly very calm and prepared apparently.

Eda looked very impressed with the Blights composure and gave her a proud nod.

Luz nods. She doesn't say anything the rest of the time. All she does is hug Eda, King and Amity and grabs her staff to leave. She's in shock with all of the events that just occurred.

Instead of journeying all alone back to the castle, Luz takes a short trip to town and calls Steve to come and pick her up.

Steve picks Luz up and takes her home. Steve definitely notices Luz's sudden change in behavior, but just brushes it off, thinking that she didn't get much sleep last night due to it being her first sleepover. Little did he know, his human has just endured the most exhausting and life-changing sleepover ever. All that was said on the journey was by Luz thanking Steve for his distraction in the conformatorium.

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I know this chapter is out there. But do you like where the story is going? Any suggestions or notes? LMK!!