Chapter Text
How do you look like a Blight, Amity?
Amity has been a Blight for as long as she could remember. She has known about how her family came into fame and fortune. She knows about the dirty tricks that her family uses to get what they want. She has always known the name that follows her first.
Amity is a Blight .
But she remembers the day, only over a year ago, she remembers dark brown locks with matching dark brown eyes. Eyes filled to the brim with wonder and unlimited amounts of kindness. Irises that just seem to glow and light up even the darkest of places on earth. Perhaps they actually could, considering those same eyes along with the girl who bore them could use actual, freaking , magic !
And as Amity was suddenly getting lost in the mysterious girl’s eyes, an action that she had found herself doing a lot recently, she was suddenly jolted back into reality as she looked over to her right to see Emira with her chin being held by her palm.
Something that Amity found herself doing as she straightened out her back to put on a formal posture as she faced her sister, “Emira! What are you doing here!?”
Emira only looked at her sister, before looking forward, and mimicking a dreamy sigh, before turning back to her younger sister, “Oh nothing Baby-Mittens, just doing exactly what you were doing, for about five minutes,”
Amity’s blush rose up her cheeks like no tomorrow, before turning around and looking at her other side where Edric was, copying his twin’s posture.
Amity stood up from where she was previously seated at her desk, and sat down on her bed with a pout on her face, “Well I’m done now, so you are free to excuse yourselves out of my room,”
Emira and Edric got up in the same twin fashion as they always do, before following her to her bed and sitting next to her covering her sides.
“Well, we could,”
“Or,” Edric interrupted, “We could question you about who could possibly be on your mind,”
“Or, you can just leave me alone!”
Edric and Emira looked towards each other, before turning to Amity and spoke in perfect unison, “Nope!”
Amity only groaned and flopped on her back against the covers of her bed, her siblings following suit with the same groan and flopping in the same dramatic fashion, “Come on Mittens, I’m your big brother! So it’s my job to decide if whoever you're thinking of is even worth your time!”
“And because your big brother is so dense sometimes-”
“Hey!”
“-I have to help him figure out who is on your mind because we rarely see any other person outside the house!”
With that said, Amity only picked up a pillow above her head, before covering her face with it, muffling any of her words.
“What was that baby sister?”
Amity sighed into her pillow before removing it from her face, “You already met them before,”
This got the twins’ attention, before suddenly barraging Amity with questions, “Are they a girl?”
“Are they a boy?”
“How tall are they?”
“What’s their hair color?”
“Do they have the prettiest of eyes?”
“Or the smoothest of skins?”
“Or did they just catch your attention with a simple smile?”
“Or did they trip over you while we were at the mall?”
“Do you know if they live around here?”
“Are they out of state?”
“Are you going to see them again?”
I hope so .
With that thought in mind, she saw her wrist slowly glow, before quickly grabbing her pillow and covering her wrist.
I will see them again, she promised me.
The sudden action of covering her wrist quickly caught her sister’s attention, before snatching the pillow away to see what was hidden underneath.
Luckily for Amity, it was nothing.
“Hm, well, either way, tell us who is it?”
Amity looked to the side where her third volume of the Azura book series laid. Her twins noticed the book, looked back towards each other, before slowly grinning from ear to ear and speaking in unison again, “Is it the girl from the bookstore?”
Amity’s blush only deepened right after it had slowly lightened up. Sadly for her, it gave her twins enough to answer their question, “Aww! It’s been only a year sis. And besides, you said she was visiting her aunt back then right? Maybe if we are lucky, we might see her again! If we haven’t already,”
Amity would know if she saw Luz again, she could never forget her eyes, not mentioning the spell that would lay constant on her wrist.
Besides, out of everyone she has seen, no one could match her smile that seemed to light up the darkest of rooms on Earth.
She felt herself blush again, as she covered her face with the pillow once more, already hearing her siblings’ teasing before they opened their mouths.
Emira only chuckled, before her voice grew serious, “But in all seriousness, you know you can come to us right? We might always be teasing you, but we are your older siblings,”
“Which means you can always count on coming to us for advice for anything,”
“Including love advice!”
Certain that her face is absolutely burning right now and feeling her chest about to combust, she quickly yells from the pillow, “Get out of my room!” in hopes that her screaming will deter her siblings from bothering her any longer.
Her siblings just laugh and leave her side on the bed as they head towards the exit, but Emira stops suddenly, “Oh right, um, before we leave, we actually came her to tell you something,”
Even through the muffled sound of the pillow covering Amity’s ears, she can still hear the worry in her sister’s tone, causing Amity to sit up straight.
Looking at Emira clearly, she can see her sister in obvious distress, “Um, Mother told us to come and get you,”
Amity’s stomach dropped at the mention of her mother calling for her. Questions running through her mind going at thousands of miles per hour in her head. Asking questions about her actions, her choice of words, any books she has been reading, her studies, anything to lighten the load that was suddenly placed on her shoulders.
Emira, looking at Amity’s face pale and her arms shaking, quickly rushed over to her sister to hold her shoulder gently, “Hey, hey, do you need me and Ed to come with you? We can only take you to her and then we’ll have to leave, but know that we will be right outside your door when you need us,”
Amity looked up at her sister, a pleading look in her eyes, before nodding at her sister’s suggestion, “Please,”
Emira nodded, stepping outside shouting a hushed whisper at someone across the hallway, before she came back into the room to move beside Amity with Edric in tow.
Slowly, they moved out of the safety of Amity’s room, and into the depths of the hallways, slowly, slowly, making their way into the room where Odalia Blight is.
Her father’s study.
By this point, however, it should be Odalia’s, but Odalia would never admit that because she is supposed to be the housewife , and her husband is the one that works. It’s a system in the Blight household. Everyone had their role.
Odalia and Alador Blight are one of the strongest families in California, and probably the strongest in Southern California. They are a big name with their big company and big money, and have a system.
They would always show off their power and money whenever they have the chance. Whether it would be a christmas event, even if it didn’t snow in California, or during New Year’s Eve, or during any other big holiday that means they can even hold a big fancy party in their house. Or in their houses, depending on which one they are currently in.
But with it, it also means that if it’s someone’s birthday, it just gives them another excuse.
And for 9, almost 10 years, Amity Blight has been kept a secret.
Edric and Emira Blight were announced the moment they were born. Twins, no less, would give the family even more to their name, especially since they seemed to take on their father’s eyes and their mother’s hair. Hazel, almost golden eyes, were what Odalia saw when the twin’s first opened their eyes. It was a joyous occasion, the family were given gifts that exceeded the number Odalia was given during her baby shower, of course, which was also another wealth show.
So when her third child was born with her father’s eyes, you would think that it would also be a momentous occasion to celebrate. But unlike the twins, there was one key difference in appearance.
Amity was also born with her father’s hair.
Dark brown turning light near the ends as she grew up. Milk-chocolate waves of hair would swish around when she was a toddler, looking at everything new, like all the different houses, her father’s company, and anything she hasn’t seen before when she was cooped up in her big fancy house.
Amity was naturally a curious girl. She was filled with a wonderment that could never be satisfied, an imagination that none of the other Blights had. While Edirc and Emira had each other to keep one another grounded to the life of realistic ideals, Amity was free, untethered. Nothing was keeping her low to the ground, her mind always in the sky.
Amity missed those days.
But she remembered the day where her parents came back from their business trip last year, more than a month since she had met Luz, that wonderful mysterious witch at the bookstore.
She wished she never left the bookstore, wished she never left Luz .
“Amity,”
Amity looked up from her desk, her lamp light on. Her mother was behind the door that protected Amity from the outside world, from the rest of California.
From her parents.
She quickly looked at the time, 18:47, it wasn’t near late enough to be scolded for staying up too late, and they only finished eating 17 minutes ago.
So was her mother here?
“Amity, I’m waiting,”
Quickly, she got up from her chair seated at the desk. While papers were thrown around with a pencil next to it, she wasn’t studying at all. She was too busy looking at the glowing circle encasing her left wrist to finish her latest homework.
Luckily, her homework wasn’t due until next week.
However her daydreaming about the girl with the bronze eye-key quickly faded as she patted herself down to look presentable, and with rushed but poised footsteps, came in front of her door where her mother was waiting behind it, “You may come in, Mother,”
Odalia came through the door, her back straight, stance perfect. Everything a Blight should be.
Everything Amity was not.
“Hello, Amity, I feel as though we should be addressing something today that we couldn’t address during our family dinner,”
Amity gulped nervously, almost choking on her own spit. She couldn’t show weakness now, however, couldn’t show weakness. She was a Blight , Blights do not show weakness. They don’t show any sort of flaw in their form. She doesn’t show them in front of Odalia Blight. She can’t.
Amity nodded, “Of course, Mother. What do you wish to talk about?”
Odalia walked over to sit on Amity’s neatly made bed. She made it after she ate.
“Please, Amity, take a seat,” Odalia gestured to Amity’s chair on her desk. Her desk with papers she hasn’t finished yet.
Amity nodded, grabbing the chair by the back before lifting it over the ground and placing it down where she could face her mother, face to face.
“Now, darling, as you know, we have been keeping you a secret from our business years since you were born,”
Odalia waited for a response, to which Amity only nodded.
“But lately, me and your father have been thinking about showing you to the world, and joining your brother and sister at their private school during the months they go as well. There are many children over there with powerful families we both feel as though you should acquaint yourself with. Don’t you agree, Amity?”
Amity has indeed heard about these families. Heard about them when her brother and sister attended, heard about how when Amity also goes to school, she is expected to do the same thing. How her siblings were warning her.
How Amity was told she was merely a pawn in the Blight Kingdom.
“Of course family, anything to ensure my future you have given me a chance to live,”
Odalia scrunched her face for hardly a millisecond, before cooling her expression into that of indifference, “Of course Amity, anything for your future. But, before we do show you to everyone, there is one thing we must, change, about your appearance,”
Amity was afraid of this, afraid of what her mother might say. Because she could take a gander that this has something to do with her siblings.
“What do I need to change, Mother?”
Her Mother, Odalia Blight, looked at Amity like she was prey. She didn’t smile or smirk, but her eyes, her horrifying eyes told Amity everything.
Amity was going to be eaten up.
“Your hair, Amity,”
What do you do in order to be a Blight, Amity?
It has been almost over a year since that conversation. It hardly lasted an hour. An hour of Amity almost choking on the air she was supposed to breathe in. Almost suffocated on the tension in the room that would last as long as her presence was within 10 feet of Amity.
Amity didn’t cry that night. But she couldn’t sleep either. Knowing that one day, she would be forced to dye her hair to match her siblings, match her mother, match the Blight name. She almost felt like a toy, a toy that was supposed to be returned for a new one, but couldn’t. So instead, they had to fix her. Fix her hair, her posture, her words. So that she could work, so that could please Mother.
But Amity didn’t want to be fixed, didn’t feel as though she was broken like Mother made her feel.
But this is Odalia Blight, and you never disagree with Odalia Blight on anything .
So here is Amity, shocked back into the present where she was gripping on the door handle so tightly her knuckles and fingers turned white.
Emira laid a tentative hand on Amity’s shoulder, making Amity to remind herself to relax before she makes her hand go limp.
Amity slowly released the handle to her father’s study. Where her parents are in, patiently waiting for her.
But they never had that much patience to begin with.
“Thank you guys, for bringing me. But I can handle the rest on my own. You two can just stay out here, it won’t be long,”
Edric looked about ready to argue with Amity, but Emira held his arm, nodding towards Amity as Edric, stubborn, but nodded as well.
They both marched off in perfect synchronization, walking towards the door before taking a sharp right and standing right by the entrance. No doubt they would be able to listen in on the entire conversation, but perhaps that thought is more comforting to Amity, more than she would like to admit.
Amity gave them a nervous smile, before bracing her hands on the handles of the door, opening them enough to let herself in, and closing them behind her.
Emira likes to think she’s a good sister.
She wants to be a good sister. She won’t give herself unrealistic ideals and say she can be the best sister. She can’t, and she isn’t sure if she ever will. A good sister would be able to protect Amity from danger. To be with her, to talk with her whenever she is troubled, and to be the shoulder Amity can lean on when she needs to.
But she hasn’t been a good sister, and she doesn’t know why.
Ever since the bookstore event, Amity has been more guarded, more isolated.
Emira and Edric aren’t able to visit Amity in her room at night, at least not as much as they used to. Emira knows that during the night, it’s the only time Amity can be in the house unguarded, and she doesn't have to hide away. Because when the daylight is burning, the staff is running around doing the errands they are paid to do. But only when the moon is out with the stars as company, Amity can be herself.
Granted, she has to lower her voice during the times she gets excited, but Emira loves her excitement. She loves the wild imagination Amity can show through her amber eyes with the smallest hint of mischief in her smile.
But lately, during those nights, she would stay in her room, read her Azura book, even though she has the latest volume, and stare at her wrist like a lost love, a love Emira doesn’t know, and a stare Emira has never seen before now.
Of course, this could all be traced to that girl in the bookstore. Because ever since that incident, all of these new changes in Amity were rising to the surface of her Blight facade. Sure, she tried to convince herself, they were always there. She is barely turning ten, and it might have only shown because Luz- she thinks her name was, -was her only friend outside-
Actually, she was probably her only friend other than us.
So perhaps Emira isn’t as crazy as she might have thought. She took a glance at her brother standing right beside her, arms behind his back, standing like a soldier with perfect posture, just like Odalia thought them.
And because of a sudden moment of spite towards their Mother , Emira took a squat on the floor, her top leading forward as her legs bent, resting her elbows on her knees. Edric looked down at the sudden action, before sighing and resting his back gently on the wall next to the door of the Alador’s study, before sliding down dramatically, back slouched with one leg out, and the other one bended.
So here they were. The infamous Blight twins pouting and slouching on the ground of their father’s study, sitting with the absolute worst posture imaginable. They both were sure that if their mother walked out to see the twins’ dead look in their eyes as they stared back, unfazed by what has to be the most uncomfortable position to sit in, their mother would go into cardiac arrest, dying in the most dramatic way possible. Her last words would be about the Blight name, the fortune, and how undeserving she is to have these kids be related to her. Finally she would stiff right up, a hand clutched to her chest, before flopping to the ground on her back.
Good.
Emira’s feet and quads were finally starting to catch up with the way she was sitting, slowly starting the burn at the strain Emira is putting on her legs to keep her posture as she is squatting unbearably low to the ground.
“Em, if you keep sitting like that, you’re gonna cut off the circulation to your legs, and you really will collapse,”
Emira only signed dramatically, before shifting her body so that she is sitting on her butt instead of cutting off her circulation to her legs. Her leg muscles, finally able to be given room to breathe, she instantly relaxed against the wall, slouching, as her burning muscles started cooling down into a comfortable soreness.
“What was that by the way? You just popped into a squat like in those weird, anime gangster movies,”
Em looked towards her brother, a confused expression on his face, before sighing, dramatically of course, and looking forwards, “It was a moment of spite,”
Ed only blinked, then nodded, as if understanding the entire thing. To his credit, he could at least piece together half of that response, the other half was what she thought of to act in that moment of spite.
He kind of wanted to ask, and he also didn’t because his sister looked about ready to slap a bitch.
Edric only looked back towards the study, before looking back towards Em, a contemplating expression on her face.
Edric was about to ask what was on his sister’s mind until Emira spoke, “Do you think I’m a good sister?”
Ed was taken aback by the sudden question, his mind drawing a blank as he thought over her question.
Were they good siblings?
Emira was starting to fidget nervously on her buttoned up shirt. Which only made her realize that even in the house, Odalia expected them to dress formally like they were going to school.
She loosened her tie at the thought, unbuttoning the first two buttons and uncuffing her sleeves to roll them up at the elbow.
Ed looked over, before doing the same.
They would always copy one another, it was natural. They were together, they would stay together.
It was a dumb though, and a dumb promise. They were babysitting Amity at the rightful age of 5 when their baby sister was 3.
“You know Ed, since we were born together that means that we would always stay together, right?”
Ed only nodded, Of course, he thought, They would always be together, forever and always .
Em nodded, “That means we always do everything together, right?”
Ed only nodded again.
“So when we take care of Ammi, that means we have to take care of her together,”
Ed looked towards Amity, where she was trying to wobble over to them over the carpet of the living room. Her brown hair with slight curls at the ends of it, hardly longer than her chin.
As Amity finally made their way over to the twins, she was babbling, “Ed! Em!”
Em looked over before playing with baby-Amity’s arms before Ed responded, “Yeah, we’ll take care of her. Together,”
It took a while before they decided to try and mold their sides to the door of the study room, trying to listen and understand the conversation beyond those mahogany doors.
“Am I understood, Amity?”
“Yes mother, anything to better my future and for the Blight name,”
Damn, they just missed it.
They both heard footsteps going to the door. The twins looked at each other before they swiftly, but silently, walked towards the wall across the door, with their backs straight and arm’s behind them.
“And remember, dear, be ready on Wednesday, oh and make sure you tell your sister to be ready by then too. We need her as an example after all,”
The twins flinched, Why do they need Emira for? What did she and Amity talk about?
Amity only nodded, before looking down and facing the twins. Merely walking passed them. As the twins followed suit, they heard the door close as Odalia talked to her husband, Ed and Em only hearing the fleeting words of the hallway as they made their way back towards their rooms, “Isn’t this exciting, Alador. Finally, she’ll look like a Blight,”