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The dark of the house proved difficult for Hunter to navigate. With sleep spinning around his head and dryness creeping up his throat, he wanted nothing more than to find some water and slip back into bed. A minute of blind stumbling and feeling his way along the walls got him to the kitchen, where the pale light from the window made things much easier. He fumbled a glass out of the cabinet, cranked the tap, and began to fill it. He drank it and went for a second round before he finally heard it. Gibbering.
He flicked off the water so he could listen unimpeded. It was faint, but unmistakable close. His eyes checked the walls from left to right. Just by the exit to the kitchen, there was a figure pressed up against the hallway wall. It was shorter than him. Though its head was slightly obscured by the corner, its eyes caught the little light in the room and shimmered with a bright yellow hue. The near-mute mumbles were undeniably coming from them.
Hunter tensed. He peered closer, desperate for any more information the dark would allow him. There simply wasn’t more to see in these conditions. He set his glass down as silently as he could. Then, on weightless feet, he grabbed a broom on his way to the light switch. The figure didn’t follow, nor did its gaze. Clutching the makeshift staff tightly, he hit the light.
“Vee?” he asked with surprise.
She was stuck in between her two forms; Half basilisk, half human. Her hair was a mess that covered the top half of her face. One of her hands, which was busy scratching at the strings of her pajama bottoms, had fully developed skin. The other was sharp and partially green. This pattern continued across all of her visible body. Splotches of wet green warring with neighboring patches of more human flash. She paid absolutely no mind to Hunter. Rather, she was absorbed with her eerie ramblings and gripping at her head.
Hunter tossed the broom aside, a bit guilty that he was wielding against his sister in the first place, and stepped closer. “Vee, what’s with you? Are you alright?”
No response. He considered shaking her by the shoulder, but he dropped the idea early. This was new territory, at least for him, and he didn’t want to risk scaring her. He found himself staring for a moment longer, considering his next move.
“Stay here,” he ordered, “I’ll go get Luz. Be right back.”
She didn’t respond. He took a deep breath and walked around her. It felt rude, somehow. In fact, nothing felt right. He kept an eye on her as he walked the few feet it took to reach Luz’s door. He shook the frame of her bed.
“Psst. Luz.”
Luz opened her eyes slowly. “Wha iz it?” she slurred.
“Get up. Somethings wrong with Vee.”
Her tired face twisted with concern. She skittered down the latter, rubbed her eyes and followed Hunter to the hall without another word. He let her go first, but stayed close. When she spotted Vee, her shoulders slackened and her worry melted into sympathy. She calmly turned around and walked back towards the bedroom. “She’s okay. This happens sometimes,” she explained.
It took Hunter a second to process. Still reluctant to take his eyes off of Vee, he watched Luz return and drape a blanket over her shoulders. “Why? What’s wrong with her?”
Luz caringly tucked Vee’s arms under the blanket and brushed the hair out of her eyes, still receiving no reaction from the girl. “There’s nothing wrong with her,” she assured. “Sometimes she just gets spacy and confused. Especially when she wakes up. It’s been a while since it last happened, actually.”
“Sorry. I-I didn’t mean, like, ‘wrong’ wrong.”
“Nah, it’s okay. Thanks for looking out for her. I didn’t hear her get out of bed.”
Luz turned her attention back to her sister, rubbing her back through the sheet. “Hey, Vee. You’re out of bed right now.”
“L-Luz?” she asked breathlessly. Something about it hurt Hunter’s heart a bit. He finally walked up to join them. Even with one clear word out, Vee continued to mumble something indecipherable under her tongue. Her eyes were now wildly scanning the floor.
“Yep. I’m here, sis. It’s okay.”
“I d-didn’t mean to,” she wept. “It wasn’t mine. It-it wasn’t mine.”
“Nothing happened, Vee. You’re in the kitchen right now. We’re here for you. Okay?”
She seemed to calm slightly. Her head tipped and rested on Luz’s shoulder. She tugged the wrapping tighter. Hunter waited for her body to regulate--to pick either lizard or teenager--but it never did.
Luz caught him staring again and nodded. “Vee, Hunter’s here, too. Hunter, would you help me walk Vee to bed?”
He was grateful to have something to do. “Of course.” He quickly made his way to Vee’s other side, offering his arm. She looked at it blankly for a moment before awkwardly gripping on to his wrist.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s alright, Vee,” he promised. He searched vainly for anything else to say. He simply repeated, “It’s alright.”
They made their way to the bunkbed and helped Vee onto the bottom mattress. She feverishly pulled the blankets over and around her, shaking her head at something on the ceiling. Luz took one of her two pillows off of her bed and placed it by Vee, who soon was squeezing it between her arms.
“She is going to be okay, right?” Hunter questioned.
“Yeah,” Luz answered. “She’s not sick or anything, just… struggling, I guess. She’s always perfectly fine in the morning.”
Hunter watched Vee slowly quit stirring. Luz sat beside her bed for a minute, and he stayed with her. Eventually, Vee fell asleep. When she did, her body morphed back into its familiar human shape. There was no sign that the last five minutes had transpired the way that they did. Not so much as a twitch in her face or a curled claw on her hand.
He turned stiffly to Luz, his mouth hung open, as his mind ran. “Would it be rude to ask questions?”
“Go ahead. I don’t have many answers, though.”
“I never saw anything like this growing up. Does this happen a lot?”
“I’m not surprised the Emperor's Coven wasn’t exactly rushing to teach you anything about mental health. In Vee’s case, this is like a once-a-month thing, only it’s been about three since the last time I noticed.”
“Does Camila Know?”
“Now she does. Thankfully she never noticed back when I was stuck in the Demon Realm. That probably wouldn’t have been a good way to learn she was living with a basilisk.” Luz laughed awkwardly, then frowned. “No, she’s really understanding with this kind of stuff. I used to lock up in public or under stress sometimes, so she’s familiar. We would have gotten Vee diagnosed if, well, we had non-human doctors to go to right now.”
Hunter nodded. “Is this not a basilisk thing?”
Luz stood up, gesturing for him to follow. They both walked to the kitchen before she continued. “It’s a Vee thing, buddy. Lots of people deal with this kind of stuff. Humans, witches–we all just get wired a little differently.”
“That makes sense. Thanks for telling me. Really. It feels kinda important.”
She smiled. “Any time. Wait, what time is it?”
He checked the microwave clock. “3:57.”
Luz puffed out a long breath while rubbing her face. “Shoot, you don’t get up for another thirty minutes,” she joked. “Let’s both get back to bed.”
Hunter chuckled and yawned. “Sounds like a plan. G’night.”
He didn’t keep her any longer. She dragged her feet back to bed. He flicked off the light and returned to the basement, glass of water in hand.