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When a fox seriously injures its leg, it's often better to amputate it. A fox won't stop to let it heal, Its instincts are to hide the pain and keep going as normal.
Hunter felt like a fox.
It had been only an hour since the graveyard before they entered the demon realm again, seeing the Isles. The Titans skull was nowhere to be found. Only a floating palace in the sky. The rest of the isles seemed in tack though...but no one was there.
It's only been an hour since Hunter told Camila that he was okay.
That nothing hurt.
And that he was fine.
It wasn't really a lie though. The shock was a contributing factor, doing its part to stop Hunter from feeling the pain. But the shock was wearing off now. And Hunter could feel it all at once.
He could still feel Belos pulling him into his subconscious. How everything became muffled and he just watched as he attacked his friends.
How he watched himself crush his best friend-
Hunter shuddered at the memory but kept walking on. There wasn't time for him to have a breakdown. Not now. Besides, it already hurt to breathe already, and he did not want to deal with a 'panic attack' (What Luz had called them) right now. Each step began to feel agonizing. Like he was sitting in the boiling seas. But he had to keep going. Belos could be anywhere, and he didn't want to push them behind even more with his pain. They needed to find Belos. His friends needed to find their families.
"You okay cariño?" Camila asked softly walking up to Hunter. The boy had been silent ever since they entered the portal, which scared her. Because the Hunter she knew was never this quiet. Even if he was sad, he always talked to the other kids.
His head slowly turned to her "I'm okay." There was that word again. The word he blindly used. Hunter wondered if she even believed what he said. It wouldn't be time.
Luz was saying it from the beginning. He was seeing things. It was all in his head. And it was true, just in a different way. Belos was never there. He was just in his head.
He continued to walk, trying to ignore how the pain slowly built up. Sooner or later it would be unbearable. Hunter knew that. But for now, he could still be useful, he could still help.
In his deep concentration on ignoring the pain, he seemed to ignore a rock in front of him. Hunter's foot hit it, and he felt himself falling forwards and a hand quickly was placed on his chest. Pain surged forwards and his legs buckled, sending him down with the other.
A panicked voice called out from in front of him and he felt multiple hands gripping his arms and chest. Too many hands. It hurt. It hurt so much. The feeling on his arms felt like Belos was swarming him all over again. It was too much.
Stop it stop it stopstop
Let go of me let go of me please-!
Their hands immediately retracted from him and he pushed himself back, hitting a wall. Hunter gritted his teeth as the pain shot through him again. It was the worst pain he felt in his life. It crept from his legs to his back, chest, arms, neck, and face.
Belos was everywhere .
"Mijó, hey, hey can you hear me?" A voice echoed through his mind, stopping his thoughts from spiraling. It was like the sun piercing through a rainy day.
"Hm?" Was all Hunter could muster out, looking up. Finally, he took in everything. Camila was in front of him, looking worried. Behind her was Willow, covering her mouth in fear and sadness. She looked so heartbroken. He didnt want her to worry. Next to her were Amity and Luz, their faces haunted. And then Gus.
Poor Gus.
He was just frozen, looking at Hunter with a scared face.
"Hey baby, look at me okay?" The woman smiled, crouching down next to him. "I'm no human doctor, but I know a few things about scars. Mind if I have a look? Just your arms if that's alright with you"
He nodded slowly at that, moving to extend it outwards. Hunter shut his eyes tightly as a bolt of pain shot through his shoulder. "They don't hurt." He said, rather quickly.
Camila didn't believe that. Not even for a moment. Hunter was good at masking his pain. Scarily good. But she was a mother. And a mother was even better at spotting pain.
She looked over the new scarring, being careful to not touch it. One was covering most of his arm, from what seemed to be the same large scar on his face snaking down to his wrist. Another scar covered the entirety of one finger moving down to his palm. Taking a closer look Camila noticed old healed scars all over his hand, more on the palms than anything. They looked like slashes.
She shuddered at that thought. Hunter's old scar on his face looked just like these old ones, but bigger. This was Belos's doing. The monster her kids had been fighting for months. The monster Hunter lived with for years did this to him.
He needed attention to them. They weren't open wounds and had no risk of being opened again, but they were still irritated and could get infected especially after Hunter had fallen on the ground.
"Think you can move?" She asked again, and Hunter nodded.
Of course, he could! He didn't wanna drag the group down. Slowly with the help of Camila, he tried to stand. Bolts of pain-inducing agony shot through his legs and he crumpled back down again. He let out a pained yelp, gripping Camila's arms for support.
"Oh, baby..." Camila looked heartbroken, adjusting her hold on Hunter. "It's okay, I got you" She coo ed softly. "Mijá, We need to stop soon. For Hunter's sake and for us as well." He heard the women speak presumably to Luz.
"I-im fine. We need to look keep for everyone." Hunter swallowed as his legs shook. It was something about the Isles. He was talking and opening up to everyone in the human realm, talking and being happy, but the moment they came back here. The moment he was away from his home, he reverted back.
"Not in the state you're in Hunter. We can't look for anyone if you can't even walk. You need rest. Mamá right, we all need rest as well" Luz f rowned softly as everyone looked back to Hunter.
His breath hitched. Titan. All eyes were on him. They were staring at him. He shut his eyes at looking away. Stop looking at me. Stop looking at me like I'm some caged bird. Stopitstopitstopit
"Hunter, hey, look at me," Camila spoke softly, moving in front of his view, blocking the others "It's just you and me here. Okay?"
"O-okay" Hunter swallowed, feeling his mind already fog back up again. Nothing else existed in this world. Only him and Camila. It was nice this way. Just like how it was in the human realm. He remembered asking her a month in the human realm what mijó meant whenever she called him that.
“It means son, Hunter.”
“Oh.”
He sobbed to Gus that night, not out of sadness, But out of joy and love.
"Good, just keep focusing on me baby, no one else. It's just you and me" Camila said, gently placing a hand on the back of his head, holding him closer.
"There's an old house just over that hill, we can rest in there..." He heard Luz speak, but faintly. She seemed far away in the fog of his hazy mind.
"Do you think you can walk with my help?" Camila asked gently. "Please don't lie to me mijó"
Hunter opened his mouth and closed it again. He couldn't walk. He really couldn't. If the scars were this bad on his arms then he didn't want to even think about the ones under his clothes. "I can't." The teen whispered. "I can't walk..."
"That's okay honey, want me to carry you?" Camila asked.
Hunter nodded weakly. "Y-yeah..."
"Okay, I'll be gentle, let me know if its too much" she smiled, gently wrapping an arm around Hunter's back and legs pulling him up in her arms. Hunter let a gasp out, gritting his teeth. "Titan-" he breathed out. Titan that hurts.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah-Its fine-” He breathed out.
He hated this. He hated feeling this way! How his whole body could break down at any moment and he couldn't do anything. How he still felt the ghost of the touch of his uncle's goo covering him. The feeling was suffocating. This was worse pain than figuring out he was a grimwalker and going into his Uncles mind.
That was nothing compared to this. At least with that, he had Flapjack with him. At least with that, he was still his own person. He could choose to be his own person. Even if he was created. He was still his own person.
But this? This was worse. Much worse than ever before. Belos was a part of him. He became a part of Hunter. His goo infected him like a parasite, Using his body like a host just to leave it when Hunter was on the brink of death. Or worse. He had already died.
He would never be his person ever again. The scars that proved it will remain on him forever.
She helped lay Hunter down on the couch as softy as she could.
Wait. Couch? When did they get in the house? Weren't they just outside?
He let a hiss out again as his back pressed into the soft cushion.
"I know baby. I know it hurts." Camila said running a hand through his hair. "You did so good. You were so strong." She smiled kissing his head. "But you need to rest now. That will help with the pain until we can find something."
"It just...hurts right now" Hunter mumbled, "It really hurts." He slowly admitted, blinking back tears. It was odd. It felt like the pain got worse when he was finally admitted. Maybe that was his body's way of knowing that his brain stopped holding back down.
"I can help" a soft voice came from behind Camila.
Amity.
"I know... it's not a lot but my sister taught me a few healing spells?" She offered.
"That would be wonderful dear, thank you Amity. Camila said. Hunter, watched her move away before Amity walked to him silently, drawing the spell circle. If he looked close enough he could still see the tears in her eyes.
To be honest, the two were getting closer since the human realm, but there was always a wall between them. More than likely that wall was there because of Eclipse Lake. Even if they forgive each other that will always be there. He threatened Luz, and that's something he'd never forgive himself for.
A sharp stab-like pain shot through his arm and he jerked back, gritting his teeth.
"Sorry! Sorry-" He heard Amity. "It's- its gonna hurt a bit. Sorry I didn't tell you. I can't...heal them, I don't know any healing spells that strong, but I can try to help ease the pain." She said softly moving up his left arm.
He breathed out. "Its-okay," Hunter said shutting his eyes again. "I can take it."
The spell circle vanished and Amity let a soft sob out. "It's not okay Hunter! You got possessed! You could have died! You- You weren't moving or breathing-" She wiped her eyes. "I care for you, Hunter. You're not- Luz, she told me about Belos's mind."
Oh.
Oh no.
"She told me that Belos sucked you into his subconscious, and how she was cornered by Belos before you came back out and saved her. Without you, she would have been dead." Amity sniffed. " You told us about the Day of Unity and saved my dad. You ran away from the coven, risking the chance Graye could of brought you back. And yet you still helped Gus and all the other students. So I care for you, and seeing you like this? It-” She stifled a sob.
Hunter was quiet at that, staring at the girl as she wiped tears away.
"Over these last few months, I've seen you as a friend Hunter. You went through something that none of us could have imagined. You lost Fl-"
"Don't." Hunter interrupted her. "Please don't say her name."
"But-"
"I can't handle this pain and her right now." He moved to grip his shirt. "Please."
Hunter would grieve. He wasn't pushing Flapjack away. And what he said was true. His body could only handle so much, and processing fully what happened to Flapjack would break him even more. He cried for her, took her home, and knew she was with him. That's all he was able to do for now.
And he swore.
Hunter swore he could hear Flapjack telling him that it was okay, that he needed to rest first, and that she knew he would grieve her later.
"Okay..." Amity softly, the spell circle forming again as she moved over to Hunter's other arm silently.
Hunter swallowed, letting a grunt out as another bolt of pain shot through.
"I'm just gonna get the visible ones," She said quietly, moving to his neck. The scar wrapped around his back, and probably below his shirt.
"That's okay" Hunter laughed weakly. "I probably couldn't move anyways for you to get the others."
Amity chuckled sadly as that, moving to his face. "Done" She hummed after a minute stepping back. "How's that?"
Hunter looked over at his arms and moved one slowly up and down, before turning his head to the side, touching the scar on his face. "A lot better" He smiled. "Still...hurts a bit, but it's bearable. Thank you." Hunter said, feeling his eyes begin to grow heavy as he lowered his arm.
"Of course Hunter" She smiled softly, looking back at her as the door creaked. "Oh, um-" Amity laughed looking back to Hunter "We weren't...sure if you wanted to sleep alone, or have people here with you so-"
But Hunter didn't hear that, a familiar warmth in his chest had eased him to sleep, and a soft whistle escaped between the gap in his teeth.
And while he didn't hear the quiet wood creaking and whispers of multiple people, nor didn't feel a soft blanket covering him, or feel the hand of Camila moving hair out of his face. Deep down in his sleep Hunter knew. He could just know that he wasn't alone and that his friends were there.
When a fox seriously injures its leg, it's often better to amputate it. A fox won't stop to let it heal, Its instincts are to hide the pain and keep going as normal.
Hunter was not going to be a fox anymore.