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1.
The first time it happened, it was just a slap on the wrist.
Amity was walking home from school. There were puddles lining the sidewalk after yesterday’s rainstorm that had yet to evaporate. The seven-year-old skipped along the path, holding her brand new copy of The Good Witch Azura she had saved up enough of her allowance to buy.
She didn’t know where Edric and Emira had run off to. They normally walked home together, but she had been so lost in reading her book on the front steps of Hexside that she must have missed them and they walked off without her. So she ran along the sidewalk, jumping over the smaller puddles, and going around the bigger ones.
She turned a corner and was now walking through the forest that led up to the Blight Manor. She looked up and spotted two green heads up ahead of her. She smiled and picked up her pace, running towards the twins.
“Ah!” Amity screamed as she tripped over a tree root. She fell down onto the forest floor, book flying out of her hands and a good three feet away from her.
“Amity!” Edric and Emira exclaimed, running back down the path towards their fallen little sister. Edric carefully helped pick her up and Emira brushed off her uniform.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Amity blinked away her tears and nodded. Her knee was scraped through her leggings and she could see a scratch on her arm.
“My book!” Amity pointed towards her book that had landed in a puddle. Emira gasped and picked it up. Dirty water dripped off of it and it looked ruined. Amity began to cry.
“It’s okay Mittens, I’ll help you clean it up. Come on, if we hurry we can make it home before Mother and Father!” Edric took Amity’s hand and the trio ran the rest of the way up to the manor.
Emira pulled Amity into her bathroom when they reached the top of the stairs. She set the soaked book on the counter and opened the top drawer of her vanity and pulled out her hairdryer. She plugged it in and began to dry off the book. Thankfully it was hardcover and therefore easier to dry. Amity wiped at her eyes and sniffled as Emira dried to fix the book.
Edric stood at the doorway to the bathroom, keeping watch of sorts.
“What time is it?!” Emira called to Edric over the noise of the hairdryer. Edric looked up towards the clock.
“Four-thirty!” Emira nodded and kicked up the speed of her hairdryer.
They had the book about halfway dry when they heard footsteps coming up the stairs. Emira’s eyes widened and she shut off her hairdryer. All three siblings went still.
“Emira? Was that your hairdryer?” Odalia Blight asked as she stood outside Emira’s bedroom door.
“Uh- yes Mother! I was just drying a blanket I spilled water on!” Emira bit her lip, Edric held is breath, and Amity gripped the hem of her skirt.
“Emira, you have to be more careful! Why didn’t you just throw it in the dryer?” Odalia came into the bedroom and found all three of her kids gathered in the bathroom. She raised an eyebrow as she spotted the book.
“Lying to me? I thought you knew better, Emira, what happened?” Odalia put on her ‘i’m very angry’ smile. Emira gulped.
“Well, Amity fell and her book got wet, so I was trying to clean it…” Emira looked down at her shoes. Odalia clenched her fists.
“That is Amity’s problem that she needs to deal with herself. Emira, go downstairs to the living room. Edric and Amity, return to your rooms.” The three kids exchanged a look before Amity grabbed her book and ran out of the room before she could cry in front of her mother.
Emira left the bathroom with her head down, hands behind her back. Edric did the same, returning to his room.
Amity laid on her bed, book hugged to her chest, as she listened to Emira walk down the stairs and their Mother follow her. She felt tears running down her face. She didn’t mean to get Emira in trouble. She really should have just been paying attention to where she was going.
She just didn’t understand. Why was Emira getting in trouble for helping her? It didn’t make any sense. She was just being a good sister.
Amity sighed and buried her face into her pillow and cried herself to sleep.
2.
The second time, it was definitely Amity’s fault.
Amity felt good today. Her homework was done, she had studied for her test, and she had just finished rereading The Good Witch Azura. She was now headed downstairs for lunch. She had a skip in her step and was smiling.
That was until she tripped on the second step and tumbled all the way to the bottom of the staircase.
She landed on the floor and almost immediately banged her head against the wall. Her natural reaction was to cry out in pain. She laid on the floor, body aching, while she cried.
Amity could hear footsteps behind her and soon gentle hands were pulling her into a hug and cradling her. She looked up and found that Emira was the one holding her. She curled up into her chest.
“Shhh, it’s okay Mittens, it’s okay. Don’t cry. You’re okay,” Emira hushed her, a slightly urgent tone in her voice. Amity bit down her sobs and clutched the back of Emira’s shirt. Emira stroked her hair and cradled her head until the pain went away.
“Amity?! Emira?! What are you doing?!” Both girls’ heads shot up to see their father standing in front of them.
“Uh, Amity fell down the stairs, so I was helping her up!” Emira grabbed Amity’s wrist and yanked them both into a standing position.
Alador glared at Amity.
“You must be more careful, Amity. And you mustn’t treat her like a little kid anymore, Emira. She needs to learn for herself. Now come along, lunch is ready.”
The two girls nodded solemnly and followed their father to the dining room. Amity mentally kicked herself. Once again Emira was getting reprimanded because she messed up.
It wasn’t fair.
3.
The third time was when Amity realized that it was all her parent’s fault.
Amity was seething with anger as she sobbed on her bedroom floor. Her parents couldn’t do that! They couldn’t just make her stop being friends with Willow! Willow didn’t do anything wrong!
Amity curled up in a ball and hugged her knees to her chest while she rocked herself. She cried and cried and didn’t seem to be able to stop. She wanted to punch something. It was her eighth birthday and she was sobbing on her bedroom floor after losing her only friend. Amity let out a strangled scream into a nearby pillow.
Her bedroom door opened and Edric slipped in. He tiptoed around the ruined birthday decorations and kneeled down beside Amity.
“It’s okay, Mittens. I’m here. Come here.” Edric pulled her into his arms and leaned up against the wall, letting her cry into him.
“It’s not fair! It’s not fair!” Amity repeated over and over again. Edric nodded.
“I know it isn’t. I know.” He rubbed her back up and down as she cried into his shoulder.
“I-I-I” Amity stuttered but couldn’t think of what to say. Edric just hugged her tighter.
The moment was ruined when the door slammed open.
“Amity?” Odalia Blight said as she stepped into the room. Both siblings went still.
“Edric Blight. Stand up. You know better than to give in to your sister’s pathetic crying.” Edric carefully pried Amity off of him and scrambled to his feet. Amity sat on the floor, sobbing still. “Dry those tears, Amity. A Blight does not cry over minuscule things.” Amity sniffled and wiped at her eyes.
“Edric, you know our rules. Downstairs, now.” Alador said, coming into the room. Edric nodded and shot Amity one last sympathetic glance as Alador led him out of the room and downstairs to receive his punishment.
Odalia followed the two of them out, leaving Amity sitting on her floor, face covered in tears and snot with nobody to comfort her.
4.
The fourth time was when Amity finally started to accept that this was just how her life worked.
Amity was struggling with her homework, to say the least. She was only nine, the work her parents had put in front of her was for 12-year-olds! She didn’t understand anything on the page. She was still using premade abomination goo, she didn’t know any of the formulas or volumes or even most of the ingredients!
Amity let out a groan of frustration that sounded more like a cry for help. She threw her pencil on the floor and pushed her chair back. She stood up and began to pace around her room.
She didn’t know how much time had passed before her door opened slowly.
“Amity? You okay in here?” Amity stopped and spun around to face her brother. She looked distressed. “What’s wrong?” he asked, coming into the room and shutting the door.
“I-I got a B on my last exam so Mother and Father are making me do really hard homework and I don’t understand it!” Amity almost wailed. Edric’s face scrunched up and he shook his head.
“Show me what you don’t understand.” Amity sniffled and nodded, coming over and taking his hand into hers. Her brother’s touch made her feel safe. She brought him over to her desk where her homework was sitting.
Edric studied the page for a minute. He hummed. Amity didn’t know how he could help, he was an eleven-year-old illusionist after all.
“Where’s that book you go for your birthday? The one with all the different colored abominations on the cover?” Edric asked. Amity’s eyes lit up and she ran to her bookshelf.
She struggled to carry the book it was so massive compared to her small body. She heaved it up onto the desk and Edric flipped it open, reading through the table on contents.
Together, they went through the book and answered the questions on her homework. Amity sat on the desk and wrote down the answers while Edric sat in the chair and read from the book to her.
They were almost done when there was a demanding knock at the door. It swung open before Amity could answer.
“Edric?! What are you doing in here?” Alador demanded. Edric paled.
“Uh, uh…” Emira was the smart one. She was the one who always had a lie on the tip of her tongue. She was good at getting out of trouble. Edric had been caught red-handed and had no idea how to work his way out of it. Amity didn’t know what to do either.
Alador stormed into the room and slammed the book shut, slamming it onto Edric’s hand in the process. Edric yelped, yanking his hand back. Alador grabbed the homework from Amity’s hands.
“This is meant to be a punishment for your sister. She doesn’t need your help.” Alador hit Edric in the back of the head. It wasn’t hard, but it still hurt. He then ripped the homework into eight pieces.
“Stop hurting him!” Amity cried. Alador ignored her and grabbed Edric’s hand, pulling him out of the seat and dragging him out of Amity’s bedroom. Amity watched them go and winced as the door slammed. Tears welled up in her eyes.
She hated it here.
+1
The fifth time was when Amity realized that she deserved it.
Odalia stood behind Amity, smiling at her in the mirror.
“Doesn’t it look so much better now?” she asked. Amity nodded even though she thought it looked ugly.
“Yes, Mother.” Odalia ran a hand through Amity’s now green hair. Odalia smiled. “Now you fit in perfectly.” Their hair matched each other. Amity put on a fake smile.
“Thank you, Mother,” she said politely.
Odalia patted her head and then walked away without any more words. Amity let out a sigh, tears welling up in her eyes. She wanted to punch the mirror in front of her. She wanted to shatter the glass and ruin the reflection of the girl who had to artificially change herself to fit in.
She looked at a picture sitting on her dresser. It was of her, Mother and Father, and Edric and Emira. It was one of the family portraits they had done every year.
Mother, Edric, and Emira all had green hair. And now Amity did too. She was perfect, she fit in.
But she didn’t feel that way.
She sunk to the floor and curled up into a ball on her rug. She began to cry into her knees. Her hair was still damp from the dying process. She hated it. She hated the feeling. She shook her head back and forth as if it would lift the dye.
She heard footsteps, but she couldn’t stop her shaking hands, tears, and quick breathing.
“Mittens?” the soft voice she recognized as her sister’s spoke quietly to her. She heard shuffling and felt a hand card through her hair.
“What happened to her?” Edric asked from farther back.
“I-I don’t know,” Emira responded. She continued to stroke Amity’s hair, in shock at what she was seeing.
Edric shut the door and walked over to kneel down next to Emira in front of Amity. Eventually, Amity was able to pick herself up a bit and move into Emira’s arms.
She cried into her older sister’s chest, shaking and sobbing.
“Shh, it’s okay, you’re okay,” Emira soothed, rocking her. She kissed the top of her head.
Amity sniffled and hiccupped. Emira and Edric exchanged a look.
“I swear Mittens, one day, we’ll get you out of here.”