Chapter Text
The moment they finished the seventh and last trial, skipping the whole ordeal of the wish granting, they had to walk up, up, up a stairwell hidden under a pentacle-shaped door. Teen was halfway through the stairs and a thought about how hidden stairs were becoming super redundant when he remembered a pretty important detail he’d stashed away in the back of his mind before taking the Road. It had been ten days since he’d given Eddie, or his parents, or anybody any sign of life. Swallowing down the urge to just run up to the basement and leave the other Witches behind, he at least took on a pace that could match Agatha’s.
—
The thing with the Witches’ Road is that you can’t just change your intentions halfway. The books called it a “wish”, what you get at the end, but it was less of that and more of it rewarding you with what you wanted the most when you set foot upon it. So Teen stepped on The Road with the intention of gaining power, and even if the ones he already had came out of dormancy in the middle of it, he couldn’t change what he originally wanted. He entered the coven with only the practical side of magic to show for his hardwork and left with powers that could almost rival those of his mother.
And what a bummer that was.
At first he’d been angry. He already had enough power to control minds– that whole ordeal after Alice’s death proved it– what good would more do him? He’d have been much happier if the Road had brought back his mother, or his father, or his brother.
Or Alice.
And maybe Nicholas
Plus, even though he was the Scarlett Witch’s son, he was still sixteen years old . His body could barely keep the amount of magick coursing through it on the inside. Apparently the Road was helping him with control, and the second he stepped foot back into Agatha’s basement he exploded a chandelier. Blue seemed to be spilling out of his hands at any moment, and his fingers were permanently blackened.
The coven promised they’d help him. After seven near-death experiences spent together, it seemed it wouldn’t have mattered if he was the son of the Devil himself (which, in Agatha’s opinion, he practically was). Sure, Lillia and jen were afraid of the amount of power he had, but they also were of Agatha’s and Rio’s, and they weren’t stepping away from them either. No, they couldn’t separate, not yet. They weren’t complete. “A coven is the greatest form of sisterhood”, he had said before. And that was true, wasn’t it?
He vaguely remembered promising Agatha he’d do everything in his power to bring Nicholas back. He didn’t want her to leave him, to hate him, because of his mother.
He seemed so sincere. For a second, Rio thought they could do it. She didn’t say it.
Still, his poor control over his newly found powers meant he couldn’t really step out of the experienced Witches’ sight for more than a second. It’d do him no good to deny it; He was dangerous, and he really did not want to accidentally hurt non-Witchfolk with an unexpected hex or curse. Or Witchfolk, actually.
Presently, he was looking at his phone so hard it probably would’ve exploded if he wasn’t kept at bay by Rio’s bound on him (They’d found that the best way to hold him back. Teen thought she was kinda amazing, even through the creepy). His earlier excitement at showing everybody he cared about he was still alive had died down about five minutes inside the house.
They weren’t Witches. What was he supposed to tell them?
He’d left without a word. And he couldn’t even come back.
He’d decided Eddie would be an easier enemy to tackle first. Sure, he was skeptical, but Eddie loved him and he loved Eddie. A different kind of love than he felt for Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan, now that he remembered Wanda. They wouldn’t understand. Eddie might.
Finger hanging over the ‘call’ button of his screen, the quasi-word ‘Boyf’ was nearly taunting him. Where was he supposed to start? What the fuck could he say to him? Maybe he should’ve gone for his parents first. This was such a bad idea. Eddie didn’t believe in magick, he hated that stuff, he wouldn’t get it, Agatha would be pissed–
He was so focused on his self-conscious, power-hatred-induced trance (a doctor might’ve called it the beginning of a panic attack) he didn’t hear a certain green witch coming behind him.
“Just do it”, Rio said without announcing her presence whatsoever, making Teen jump out of his skin. He looked at her for a second, her grinning face staring back at his. Clad in her crumpled green cloak, black hair unruly on her shoulders. The eyeliner he did on her earlier smudged. Rio seldom cared about much other than Agatha– that was a known fact in their little coven. Her appearance, morals, other people… that came second to Her Scar. They never said it, Agatha and Rio, but they were in love. That seemed to be all that mattered to the Witch. And hoesntly, Teen understood; the woman was so close to omnipotence, or at least some twisted version of it with her connection to Death, it would be hard to care about anything else. She’d seen stuff, she’d done stuff. Yet Teen knew under all that, she was still just a woman who wanted to love, to be loved. Maybe once she cared about her girlfriend’s son dared to cross the back of his mind quickly.
But he wasn’t Nicholas. He wasn’t Agatha’s boy, no, he was the boy of the woman whom Agatha lost everything to, if he understood the story right.
Agatha said Wanda bound her. She bound him too, but for his safety, and he knew the pain now. Feeling like something’s missing, but you just can’t tell what.
(And if he hated his mother a little bit for that, well nobody could blame him, right? Because Wanda was a good mother, but then why did she go insane?)
So Wanda Maximoff was his mother. Then why was Rio bothering with his troubles? His, compared to what she’d seen, probably tiny troubles?
Rio read him like an open book. She looked at him and guessed his inner monologue in a second. The Witch was just as quick to answer his question.
“I couldn’t care less about your teenage heartache, really. I’ve seen love stories much more complicated than this one, and I barely care about other people's love. I could barely care about you.” Teen smiled awkwardly. Of course. Though he detected a lie in her sentence, and he couldn’t tell where it was.
Rio sighed
“But Agatha cares about you. Despite all that your mother did to her, she cares about you.”
The woman paused.
“She’s soft sometimes. She still thinks you’re her boy. So I’ve got to care, or I'll hurt her.”
And I’m sure as hell not gonna hurt her, not when she doesn’t hate me anymore, Rio thought, feeling like a lovesick fool.
“And helping with your stupid little couple quarry is such an easy way to care. Look, I’m encouraging you.” The Witch grinned a wide, insincere smile. “So, do it. Quick, because my gracious kindness is withering as quickly as my patience right now.” She ran a hand through her hair, flipping it dramatically and sending the boy the fakest puppy eyes he’d ever seen. He scoffed.
“Alright, because you’ve been so kind to me” Teen replied sarcastically. Honestly, he’d lost his fear of angering the woman about four trials ago. Rio pumped her fist in the air, then turned on her heels, shouting “Yeah, Agatha’s gonna be so proud! ‘Hey, Aggie, your pet loves me! I’m basically his new mommy.’” and the boy wondered if anything remotely sincere ever came out of this woman’s mouth.
And he was alone again, in the middle of Agatha’s living room while the rest of the Coven was celebrating with unpoisoned wine in the kitchen.
He looked at Eddie's face on his phone, the call button on the right of the screen. His smile faded slightly. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say a cosmic force was preventing him from calling. Maybe that’s what it was, the ghost of his dead mother haunting him from Hell. Huh.
Having made up his mind, Teen let out a long (slightly overdramatic, maybe he was learning from Rio) sigh, then pressed the deadly button.
It barely rang a second.
“Billy!?” Eddie screamed so loudly into the phone Teen was half-convinced the other witches had heard it through the walls. He winced, then decided to wing it. This could not be worse than getting a shrapnel wound while playing guitar in the middle of a demonic house-fire. Wow, relationship problems weren’t so scary anymore.
Sucks that this problem wasn’t really their typical one, like no I don’t want to watch a romcom and come on, Billy, it’s so much better than superhero movies!
“Hey, Eds. How are you?” Riiight , because that was so smooth. Nice one, acting as if nothing happened. It’s not like you’ve been literally missing for more than a week Billy, the rational part of his brain told him, dripping in sarcasm he usually reserved for other more annoying people.
Though he felt pretty annoying right now.
“How am I!? William, you’ve been missing ! Like, actually, sincerely, police-involved kinda missing! Oh my God, where are you?!” It barely took a second for Eddie’s voice to break through the phone. With a pang in the heart (nice, he could still feel guilt), Teen figured the boy was crying.
Well, he was the idiot who left in the middle of the night without telling Mr and Mrs Kaplan, wasn’t he? Though, in his defense, he was also the idiot who had successfully cast a spell to enter Agatha’s mindscape even though he was definitely not expecting it to work.
And then he was the idiot who was kidnapped and shoved in a closet, sure, but that’s all detail for another time.
“Okay, Eddie, I know I have no right to tell you that, but I’m gonna need you to calm down. I’m fine. Well, as fine as I could be.” And he couldn’t figure out whether that was the truth or a lie. He did almost die, like, seven times, and he did nearly kill Lillia, Jen and Agatha in a moment of blinding rage. But physically, he was fine, right? Other than the literal God-like amount of power running through every fiber of his being at this very moment, he was totally fine.
Eddie called bullshit.
“What the fuck does that mean?! Where are you?!” His boyfriend took in a shaky breath. “Come home, Will, Oh my God. Your parents are so worried.”
Teen furrowed his brow in nerve-wracking guilt. Yep, he really, really could still feel guilt.
“I can’t come home. Not right now. Just…”, A bad idea. Teen thought about it, super heard. For, like, a second. Then he cracked, “Fuck it. Promise you won’t tell my parents and I’ll tell you where to find me.” The Coven’s gonna be pissed. Well, they should know about my tendency to sneak around by now, so really, it’s kinda their fault if they don’t catch me. Right?
“Okay, ignoring how insane that sounds, because why the fuck can’t you just come home , it doesn’t matter whether I tell them or not! The police are tracking your phone, Billy! The fact that you’ve called me means you have service. They’ll be able to find you. Which, honestly, I want them to! You realize me not telling anybody you called right about now is kind of a crime, right? Like, I know you’re into some sketchy shit, but I’m not a criminal, Billy!” The poor boy said all that in one breath, not stopping for even a second. Teen knew he was worried– No shit he’s worried, you’ve been missing for ten days , that annoying part of his brain said again.
Problem was, Eddie was wrong. The second she stepped back into her house with her powers, Agatha placed a charm over her house. You know the thing with Hogwarts, how it can’t be seen by non-magical folk? Kinda like that, except it’s with electronic tracking and all that stuff... Honestly, it made his head hurt when he thought about it too much, because how the hell does Wifi react to magic, right? so he didn’t think about it too much. At all.
Though, How’s he gonna explain that to Eddie? Eddie, his skeptical Eddie, who barely believes in the existence of The Avengers, let alone magic?
That's all just bullshit, Billy. CGI. Most of it is anyways. Or science, or tech! Like, The Hulk is just science, right? And I bet the Scarlett Witch is just some electromagnetic kinda stuff.
Sweet, super sweet. Also super impractical for the predicament Teen was finding himself in at this very moment.
“Okay, listen to me. They won’t find me. Just– Believe me, Edward, the cops won’t find me. I’m not that far away. Come, and I’ll explain everything.”
Silence at the other end of the line. Then,
“...Everything?”
“Everything.”
Eddie sighed, sniffled.
“Fuck, I can’t believe I’m doing this. You and your thrilly stuff. Okay. Okay, I’ll come, shit. Text me the address or whatever. Fuck.”
Teen smiled apologetically even if Eddie couldn’t see it through the phone. Well, he probably could hear it.
“Thank you. Please, come at night. Like, 1 A.M.?” He winced at the thought that he’d just asked Eddie to drive through Eastview in the middle of the night. Salem-Seven-invaded Eastview. Fuck, he’d have to be careful. Still. they actually seemed to have stepped back since the Coven regained power and Rio decided not to slaughter her ex-now-not-ex-girlfriend.
Eddie sighed again. He seemed to do that a lot now.
“Of course you wanna meet in the night like burglars or some shit.” Teen internally recoiled at the mention of burglary, remembering being spiritually hit by a car. Projected through Agatha’s mindscape or not, that hurt. “Alright, I’ll be there. But you gotta promise you’ll call your parents after!” And, well that was a battle for another day, so Teen just agreed.
He was lying a lot lately, wasn’t he?
—