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Luz thought she had grown out of her fantasy mindset during her stay in the Boiling Isles, and throughout her whole life up to this point, but there had always been one that bit at her heels: the concept of Happily Ever After, of riding off into the sunset with the woman she loved and living the rest of their lives with sunshine and rainbows. It must’ve been why fate decided to smack her with reality in the cruelest way.
Everything about it was Luz’s fault. The decision to hold their wedding in the human world and the decision to have Luz drive the car were both hers and hers alone. Even those wouldn’t have mattered if she had just kept her eyes on the road, but she was too much of an excitable person when happy.
Nothing hurts more than having what should be a great and beautiful day ruined. Luz was dressed in a tuxedo and Amity wore the most adorable wedding dress, her family no doubt using its vast wealth to make her look the prettiest thing in the universe. Their friends were smiling, Camila and Eda were crying, and they celebrated for so long that it was nightfall by the time the two newlyweds drove off.
Luz should’ve paid attention to the road.
Luz kept taking her eyes off of the road as she drove, speaking with Amity, planning their future, or just staring at her to admire her beautiful fiancé. She will never forget the sight she saw after running that red light, Amity’s smiling face getting devoured by the high beams of an eighteen-wheeled semi-truck before it made impact.
The very same church where they held their wedding was the same one where Amity’s funeral was held.
Luz couldn’t go because of the injuries she sustained in the crash.
That’s where Luz was now, driving down the road as she thought back to all these events. The pain caused her to break down and swerve off the road, leaning her forehead against the steering wheel as she wept to herself. Luz’s crying was interrupted by her phone blowing up, calls and texts from Camila, Eda, Gus, Willow, Hunter, and all her friends and family created a cacophony in the car that caused Luz to scream, grab her phone, and chuck it out the open window.
With the phone cracking against a nearby tree, all was silent once again.
“Hello, Luz.”
Luz closed her eyes and sighed, looking to the passenger seat to see Emperor Belos himself, Philip Wittebane.
“You’re not real,” Luz said.
“Oh, of course, I’m not,” Philip answered.
“So what?” Luz asked, bitterly. “Here to be the devil on my shoulder?”
“Don’t need to.” Philip shook his head. “You already made the decision a long time ago.”
Luz looked into the rearview mirror, eyes falling on a bag that she had tossed in the backseat.
“Then what are you here for?” Luz asked.
“You’ll figure it out soon enough.” Philip smiled. “Don’t you have an appointment with Miss Blight? You don’t want to keep her waiting, you already failed her once, after all.”
Luz winced, but kept driving, regardless.
Eventually, Luz reached the Gravesfield Cemetery. The Blight family agreed to have Amity buried here so it would be easier for Luz to visit. She hadn’t gone to the Boiling Isles since the accident.
Luz got out of her car and went back to open the trunk, revealing a shovel and flashlight. Slamming the trunk shut, she grabbed the bag from the back seat and trekked into the cemetery. Luz didn’t need the flashlight, she had visited Amity’s grave so many times, even at night, she could tell where it was by heart. Either or, she wanted to be sure considering what she planned to do. When she finally found Amity’s grave, she shined her flashlight on it to read the name in its entirety.
Amity Blight
Cherished Daughter, Sister, and Wife
Luz winced once more, remembering how heartbroken Edric and Emira were at Amity’s funeral. Yet, despite it all, no one blamed her for Amity’s death.
“Makes you feel worse, doesn’t it?” Philip asked. “To know you’re so alone in your blame?”
“How do you know what I’m thinking?”
“Because I’m in your head, stupid,” Philip sneered.
Luz put her flashlight in her bag and began to dig. As she did so, Philip mocked her all the way through.
“How ironic, the great Luz Noceda, hero of the Boiling Isles, dying alone in a grave,” Philip noted, cruelly. “Not the hero’s death you expect, hmm?”
Luz tried her best to ignore Philip, to keep digging. Then she hit it, Amity’s coffin. With that, she pulled a crowbar from the bag and pulled the coffin open.
Despite their only visible differences being the ears, humans and witches were far more different anatomy-wise. Willow once confirmed to Luz that a real which would survive dissection when they were chatting about their Hexside days. Luz was grateful, as Amity’s body looked as beautiful as the day she killed her, with not even a stench despite being dead for months.
“This is it, isn’t it?” Philip asked.
“Shut up.” Luz dropped a crowbar and pulled a green, glowing vial from her bag.
It was something Eda had stolen years ago but never had the nerve to try and sell, Luz had snatched it when she visited Eda and the Boiling Isles one last time. A vial filled with poison usually used by the most sadistic of assassins in the Boiling Isles. It kills slowly and agonizingly, something Luz had felt she deserved.
Falling to her knees, Luz held Amity’s body in her arms as she popped open the vial and downed the whole thing. The process was as slow and painful as Luz was promised, but she didn’t make a sound, she just held Amity’s body as she slipped into the coffin beside her. Luz looked up at the moon, trying to find comfort in her last moments, only for Philip’s silhouette to walk into view.
Luz finally understood why Philip was there. In her self-loathing, she punished herself not only physically by giving herself a painful death, but also physiologically, by making sure the person who was standing over her in her last moments was the man she hated as much as she loved Amity.