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Hexside. Why did it have to be Hexside?
That was a question they’d all been asking since they finally stepped through the portal. Willow suggested that the school and the portal from the Gravesfield cemetery were connected in the same way the old portal and the house they’d been hanging out in were. Gus suggested it was built over an old burial ground, two cemeteries connected somehow. Both were reminded by Amity that they’d learned exactly how the school had been built in history class.
Luz remembered that class. It was fun. She had fun in that class, not just learning about how the school was built, but about how everything that happened in the Boiling Isles happened, she even did research into the history that wouldn’t get her extra credit. She remembered her teacher’s high praise of her, how Luz was her favorite student, even if her enthusiasm sometimes made her muddle facts and lose focus on the lesson and learn something from a lesson she’d planned ahead.
Luz had looked forward to that class, to coming to this school. She’d looked forward to bringing her mother here some day, of introducing her to all her teachers, to show her that she really was applying herself all that time. That she just needed the right teachers. Teachers to see her for who she really was.
Now she couldn’t do any of that. The four of them had prepared for the night. Wanting to get some rest before they confronted whatever the Collector had done to the Boiling Isles while they were gone.
Four currently at least. Her mother and Hunter had left to check the school for anything useful.
“At… least they kept the day and night cycle going, that’s… good?” Gus tentatively asked, trying to squeeze any sense of positivity out of the uncertain situation. “May- maybe they have some restraint!”
“More likely they just want their naptime.” Amity muttered in response, a dejected tone in her voice.
“They did look weirdly childlike, right? It wasn’t just me?” Willow asked as murmurs and nods were her only reply. “Maybe that’s why Hexside’s been untouched? Cause he’s a kid and he doesn’t like school?”
Gus and Amity couldn’t even manage to work up the strength to murmur in response to Willow’s question, and the plant witch went quiet as she turned her head down.
The tapping of chalk against a nearby wall drew everyone’s attention. “Oh- come on you- um- please? Mister… magic door? Kids! Can someone open this?” Camila’s voice called behind the wall and Luz silently rose.
Despite being made of concrete, the wall was pushed open by Luz as easily as she would have opened a window, and Camila thanked her with a brief kiss on the head before moving into the center of the room, a steaming tray of food in her hand.
“I still don’t really know what you guys eat, sorry. So I just cooked a little of everything I could find in the cafeteria. Should be enough left there to last us a few days.” Camila cheerily told the group as the three witches took deep breaths of the familiar food.
Quickly digging into the food, they were stopped as Camila held up a hand and gently held out plastic cutlery, which the three bashfully took, their hands still partially full of food as the tray was set down.
“Luz,” Camila leaned toward her daughter with a whisper, “what can we eat again?” A doubtful, worried look crossed her face as she wearily glanced at the various demonic foods.
“Try the griffon eggs, they’re great.” With a reassuring pat, Luz kneeled beside her mother.
“We made sure not to touch the eggs for you two.” Gus held up a plate of griffon eggs in various forms.
They were poached, sunny side up, and scrambled griffon eggs. While Camila was hesitant, as soon as she bit into it fully, she hummed in delight. “Does it always have that strangely meaty taste?” With mouths full, the four nodded in response.
“Here, Luz, you should eat too.” Amity handed Luz a plate of her own, a wavering smile on her face.
“Thanks Ams. Are… are you okay?” Luz tentatively took the plate and furrowed her brow with worry as Amity’s smile wavered harder from the question.
“What!? Me!? Okay? Of course! I- I’m fine.” Amity waved her hands erratically in a desperate attempt to reassure Luz, but only drew everyone else’s gaze. “I am! I- I’m fine…” Her voice cracked at the end and Luz felt her heart sink.
“You’re mad. I get it.” Luz put her plate down as she stared at her hands.
“What? No! No no no. Not… not mad … not exactly.” As Amity’s smile fell away completely, she fiddled with her hair. “I’m just- wondering why… Why did you take so long to tell me?”
“Me and Hunter weren’t ready.” Luz’s response was simple, but the complexity behind it was evident as she refused to meet Amity’s gaze.
“Were you ever going to be?” Willow cut through the brief tension with a question of her own, simple and innocent.
Luz was quiet for a long time, refusing to talk, and refusing to look at anyone. When fiddling with her hands wasn’t enough to distract her, she began to fiddle with her Azura costume. When fiddling with her costume wasn’t enough to distract her, she pulled the hat from her head harshly, and clenched it in her hand, crumpling it.
As she released it she stood to her feet. “I’m not hungry.” Luz’s voice was weak, and she continued to look at her feet, not noticing the worried looks in everyone’s eyes, but feeling them. “I- I’m gonna go check on Hunter.” Pointing a thumb to where her mother had just come through, Luz turned to leave.
“Luz-”
“Hunter’s in the gymnasium mija- or whatever the Demon Realm equivalent is- come back soon.” Luz silently thanked her mother for stopping Amity.
Even having her back to the girl made Luz’s heart twist itself into painful knots, and Luz knew she couldn’t look at the girl without breaking down.
As Luz pushed the wall open again, she paused as her foot hit the outside floor. “You’re allowed to be mad at me Ams.”
Without another word, Luz closed the wall behind her and sank to the floor as she let sobs wrack her body. Quickly sniffling and wiping at her eyes and nose, she forced one foot in front of the other, and her footsteps echoed down the hall of her would be alma mater.
She briefly remembered their group’s crash landing into the school. When she first realized where they were, a desperate surge of hope filled her heart. That maybe others were here too, waiting for them to come back, or hiding from the Collector in relative safety. Viney, Barcus, Jerbo, Skara, maybe Alador and the twins or Bump. Luz would have even been thankful to see Boscha in the halls, in the moment, even a familiar face like the three-eyed girl would have been enough to make Luz hug her. Even though she was certain she’d immediately be pushed off and dismissed with some snide comment.
But as she rushed down the hallways, screaming names, asking if anyone was there, her echo was the only thing that responded to her, and that brief surge of hope went quiet.
Her head banging into something snapped Luz out of her thoughts and made her recoil. Looking up, she saw the double doors of the gymnasium in front of her. Shaking her head to try and clear her mind, Luz pushed the doors open into the vast empty room.
As a brief draft swept through the room, she shivered as she remembered why they had chosen the secret place between the walls of the school to set up camp. Not only was it far warmer than the rest of the school, it felt like extra protection against whatever was outside. Everyone had mentioned at some point that they should check the windows to see what was outside, but none of them had the strength to face whatever bitter truth lay in wait for them.
The sound of shifting, heavy fabric pulled Luz’s attention to the other side of the hall. Hunter was pulling out large, blue gym mats from where they were stored, but the way he moved made Luz’s heart sink. It was mechanical, automatic, like he wasn’t even really aware of what he was doing.
“Hunter?” Luz called his name as she began to approach, not wanting to startle the boy. When he didn’t respond, Luz called again, slightly louder, but trying to keep her tone light.
When he still didn’t answer, Luz’s steps grew shorter and softer as she approached, flashes of him standing ominously still, talking in a way that didn’t sound like him. Why didn’t she realize sooner? Why didn’t she help him?
“Hey, Luz.” His voice was weak and soft as he finally responded, startling Luz in the same way she’d hoped to not startle him.
She might have been able to find humor in the situation if the boy in front of her didn’t sound so broken.
“Here, let me help you.” Luz moved beside him and reached up towards the mat he was slowly shuffling towards himself.
Their hands briefly knocked together and brushed against each other as the squishy mat pressed them together. With a firm yank, the mat came away from whatever it was caught on, and Luz felt its momentum suddenly stop as Hunter braced against it before continuing to pull it out slowly.
The two continued this process again and again, one mat after another. Luz wasn’t sure why, but the previous nervousness slowly drained from her now that she was beside the boy. She remembered their brief excursion into the depths of the house, and the memory of him in the owl mask and her in the skull mask brought a smile to her face, even if it was small and fleeting.
With a heavy thud, the last mat landed on the floor and Luz began to pant, not realizing how heavy they were until she’d dropped them.
“Okay, now we just have to drag them back to the others.” Hunter spoke casually as he began stacking the mats on top of each other before preparing to drag them.
“Wait, you’re gonna just carry those all back to everyone?” Placing a hand over the mats to stop him, Hunter looked up at her, and Luz felt her heart sink further at the expressionless face that turned to look at her.
“We- we need mattresses. These were the best thing I could think of. I’d read about them before…” His voice trailed off, and Luz felt tears prick her eyes as she remembered his vehement, hate-filled words towards the man that possessed him.
“That’s… that’s a great idea, Hunter, but you should have let us all help.” Luz now sat on the mats, and Hunter heavily sat down too, his face still not changing.
Hugging his legs to his chest, Hunter pressed his cheek to his knees. “I wanted to be alone.”
“You’re not alone now.” Luz reached forward and this time held onto his hand purposefully as she sought it out and gently wrapped her fingers around it.
Hunter’s hand was limp in hers, but he looked up at her, and a glint sparked in his eyes. As he looked at her, Luz saw a litany of emotions flash through his face, and she winced as she saw that they were all bad, but none of them were mad.
Like before, Luz’s eyes fell away from Hunter towards the ground. Only instead of fiddling with her own hands, Luz realized she’d been running her thumb across one of Hunter’s new scars and tugged her hand back, panic rushing through her.
“Hunter! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean-”
Her apology was cut off as Hunter practically lunged at her, his head falling into the mat as he clasped both his trembling hands back over hers.
“Please don’t let me go…” His words were held back by the sobs she could tell he was just barely holding back. “Please, Luz, I don’t- I don’t want you to go-” The sobs finally beat Hunter, finally broke him, as they spilled forth into a torrent of tears and wails.
Moving forward, Luz held his hand close to her stomach, letting him feel as much of her warmth as she could as she tried to comfort the boy.
One of his hands swiftly unclasped from her and gripped her elbow. Bringing down her other hand she held onto whatever part of him her hand landed on.
His cheek.
She briefly pulled her hand back, but as she heard him whimper from her pulling away, she placed her hand back on his cheek, and gently let her thumb trace up and down the new scar.
Luz cursed herself, she felt like she was invading his personal space. But as his hands pulled away from her for an instant again, only to land higher up her arms to pull her closer to him, she allowed her constant curiosity to continue feeling the new marks of scarred skin.
“Your hands are warm.” His words came out half-broken through sobs and tears, but Luz heard them loud and clear, and they made a bittersweet smile spread across her face as she pulled him closer, into her lap.
“So are yours.” She whispered back softly, in a tone she hoped was reassuring as she slowly trailed her hand up his face, but never pulled away from it.
Her hands gently traced up his pallid skin and found their way into the shaggy, pale blonde locks of his hair. The soft tresses parted for her fingers as she passed them through the hair and across his scalp again and again, and as his small whimpers and shivers began to fade, she allowed herself the smallest of smiles.
Luz heard a soft gasp from Hunter as she began to tremble and tears silently fell from her eyes too, landing on him. As she looked through tear-filled eyes at the grimwalker who held her so close, she reached down and grabbed as much of him as she could hold and pulled him into her. Her limbs trembled and shook against him as she held him tightly.
As Luz felt Hunter slowly bring his hands around her and hold onto her as well, she let out a choked gasp at the sensation. She felt like she were smoke, and that he were the only thing holding her together.
“You too!” She managed to choke the words out with as much determination as her sobs would allow her. When she heard a confused hum in response she moved her hands back up to his hair and gripped it as she leaned into him. “You have to promise not to let me go too!” Tears burned her face as they ran down her cheek, and Luz could feel Hunter start to tremble against her too. Pulling away from him, Luz felt her brows shift into a glare as she tried to get in as much air as she could. “At the lake, you knew you couldn’t swim! You knew Belos wouldn’t be able to swim either! That’s why you threw the Titan’s Blood, isn’t it!?”
She pressed her finger into Hunter’s chest with each exclamation. She leaned closer to him with each exclamation. Her voice got weaker and weaker, even as she tried to yell at the stupidly sweet boy who had tried to stupidly, selfishly save them. Her anger fell away into sorrow again as she cried against his chest.
Now she felt selfish, he had cried to her, been vulnerable to her, let her comfort him, and now she was the one silently asking to be comforted.
Soon, Luz was out of sobs to let out, and out of tears to cry and she simply laid into the grimwalker and let him hold her. She let her tired, idle mind listen to his soft heartbeat against his chest, and took comfort in simply being reassured with every beat that he was still here, with her.
Eventually, Luz sat back up, and wiped away any stray tears, feeling strangely cold as Hunter’s hands fell away from her. Looking up and meeting Hunter’s eyes, Luz didn’t even have the strength to gasp anymore, her lips simply parting slightly as she felt her eyes tremble at the sight. Slowly, she brought her hand towards Hunter’s face again. He flinched, and she paused. As he glanced at her hand, he took a visible breath and leaned forward, into her touch.
“Hunter…” Instead of his scar, Luz brushed her thumb against the side of his eyes. His brown eyes. Brown eyes like Flapjack’s. As her thumb caressed his face, he let out a wheezing gasp like he was in physical pain, as he clenched her hand in his. “I’m sorry…” Luz forced the words out through the sadness that threatened to overwhelm her again. “I’m sorry, Hunter…” She swallowed the heavy lump in her throat as she brought her other hand gently onto his face. “ For all of it.”
Luz sharply inhaled as she felt his hands on her face too, and squeezed her eyes shut. She was ready for them all to be angry at her, Hunter had as much reason as the others. But again, they defied her expectations as Hunter’s thumb caressed her cheek as gently as she did his.
“I miss him, Luz…” Hunter’s words were hollow, and empty, devoid of emotion, like he was a dead man talking, as if the emotions were too much for him to convey.
But the words were carried to Luz on a soft sadness, and as she felt his hand try to guide her to him, for comfort again, she refused and pulled him down into her chest and wrapped her arms around his head and held him tight.
He briefly shifted against her hold, but as his hands found their way around her again, his body began to shake again as he cried into her costume without any sobs this time.
“I mis- I miss hi- I miss him Luz!” Hunter cried the words into Luz costume as he clenched his fists tighter and tighter, bundling up the fabric more and more.
Luz didn’t know what to say. There wasn’t anything to say. Hunter had lost Flapjack, and Luz could do nothing to stop it. So she simply held him tighter as he cried.
She briefly ran her hands up and down his arms, briefly tracing over the trembling, scarred flesh as new wounds marked where Belos’ possession had sunk deepest into him.
Luz felt a dampness start to seep into her costume and as she turned to look, she gasped as she saw Hunter’s nails digging so deeply into his palms that they’d started to bleed. Pulling his hands away, Luz held them in front of her gently, and pressed her hands over his palm, to stop him from digging any further into them.
“I killed him.” Hunter raised his head from her chest and looked down at his hands as his face shifted between a glare he shot at his hands and the sadness that continued to swell in him. “I did it… and now he’s gone.” Luz gripped her fingers over Hunter’s, linking them as she rested her forehead against his.
“He died because he loved you Hunter. Cause he didn’t want you to die. Because he knew how great you really are.” Luz felt Hunter’s fingers go slack in her grasp and pulled a hand away to rest it on his cheek again.
She opened her eyes narrowly, and her gaze followed the line of the scar, how it had stretched up from his cheek and crossed over his face and nose.
“How great can I be? I couldn’t even save my best friend.” His lips trembled as his lids fell heavily, but he seemed too tired to cry anymore as he tried to look away from Luz, only for her to guide him back each time.
“You saved me. You saved me from Kikimora at Latissa, and you saved me from Belos’ mind- well actually that was a team effort.” Luz felt a sad smile grow on her face as she heard Hunter let out a noise that sounded like a bitter mix of a chuckle and a whimper. “You saved Gus and Willow and Amity from when the coven attacked the school. You- I know you were fighting Belos too back then. But we all lost. I’m the one who should have done something, I should have noticed you were acting weird and realized, I should have run with Flapjack but I couldn’t just leave-” A thumb brushed beside her eye and wiped away the tear that had started to form as Luz pressed her lips together in a line for nearly breaking again.
“Sometimes… I almost forget what happened. I half expect to hear him tweeting somewhere. But he never does, and I remember that I’m never gonna see him again.” Hunter clasped his hand over the larger of the two scars that crossed his face as he gripped his skin tightly.
“He’s still here, Hunter.” Luz brushed her hand against Hunter, gently pushing it away as she moved her hand across his closed eye. “It’s like… it’s like he’s still watching you.”
“That’s why I can’t even look in the mirror anymore…” For seemingly the first time since Belos had left his body, Hunter peered down at himself, taking in all the scars and ran a hand through his hair. “Because I’m scared that I’m gonna remember him every time I do.”
Luz paused briefly as she thought of how Hunter could be talking about either Belos or Flapjack.
Steeling herself, Luz gently pushed on Hunter’s face, and his brown eyes met hers. “Just… try to remember how much Flap loved you… just try, okay?” Luz tried to force herself to smile, to reassure him in any way she could.
His lips trembled again as he brought his hands away from her for the first time since she’d come into the gymnasium and hugged himself as he silently nodded to her request.
As his head shook, his forelock swayed back and forth, and Luz tentatively brushed against it, drawing Hunter’s attention again.
“I like your hair.” She leaned forward again as she ran her hands through his hair, and she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face. She glanced down and noticed how close she’d gotten and quickly moved back. “You- you um- you look good with long hair. It suits you.”
Hunter brushed against his forelock, staring at it with a wistful look as he gently tugged on it. “I- I don’t know if I want to cut it. I… I did kind of miss this old hair. But I liked the way Willow cut it, and I don’t know if something will happen again if I try to cut it again-”
As Hunter’s tone picked up a tint of panic, Luz rested her hand over his, making him go quiet. “I won’t let anything happen to you again Hunter, I promise.”
The two stared into each other’s eyes for a long time, and their breathing slowly settled as their racing hearts calmed down, until the pleasant silence from before finally began to settle again.
“It’s the eyes, isn’t it?” Despite breaking the silence, the pleasant, comfortable air remained between the two as Hunter indicated to himself. “I- I’m still trying to get used to them myself. I keep catching myself in a reflection and just… zone out, for a few minutes. It’s already happened like, half a dozen times tonight.”
“Well then, I’ll help stop that from happening.” Taking his hand fully in hers, Luz smiled up at Hunter who stared back at her.
“How? It just kind of… happens sometimes.” Hunter had a dismissive tone to his voice, but it wasn’t unkind, it was like what he was saying was inevitable.
“Well, you said you don’t want me to go, right? So I won’t. I’ll be here. When you need me.” Hunter’s eyes widened slightly at Luz’s words, his shoulders seemingly relaxing for the first time.
“But- the others…” Hunter glanced sadly back at the door and the mats beneath them.
“We’re back, Hunter. We’re finally back.” Luz grabbed Hunter’s other hand and entwined their fingers, staring down at where they connected. “Gus and Amity and Willow are gonna find their families again. I have my mom. And now, you have me.” Luz chirped happily, though she felt a bitter chill pass across her heart at the conflict she saw briefly go on behind Hunter’s eyes.
The grimwalker boy slowly shut his eyes, and Luz feared another bout of sobs, but was pleasantly surprised to see the weakest smile she’d seen on the boy fight to make its way onto his face as he turned back up.
“Thank you, Luz.”
“It’s okay, Hunter. It’ll all be okay” Bringing her hands around Hunter again, Luz let her head rest against his chest again.
Gently, Hunter brought his hands around Luz as well as the two embraced again, not holding each other as tightly as they had before, but with just as much fondness, and Luz let her head rest in the crook of Hunter’s neck, and he let his face rest in the soft tresses of her hair.
“You’re still here. And I’m still here. We are still here. So we’ll be okay.”