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In the middle of the night, and the comfort of the Noceda’s house are four occupants, two humans, one basilisk, and one palisman.
Luz mumbles under her breath sleepily in her spot on the bottom bunk, clinging onto her blanket.
For the past few months, she has been having trouble sleeping due to…
Well, let’s just say that she was not ready for trauma when she first said it.
But, little by little, Luz has been getting better at sleeping with the help of Vee, her Mama, and her friends, and just overcoming her traumas.
Although she has been getting about four to five hours of sleep, she hasn’t had a nightmare since.
So that is good.
Tonight, Luz is sleeping peacefully with no nightmares on sigh—
Something feels off…
Luz knows it.
Slowly, she opens her eyes and…
She lets out a gasp.
She is in the Boiling Isles, in the middle of the woods but it looks grimy and brooding.
The sky is a neutral blue-gray instead of a beautiful purple hue with dark gray clouds surrounding everywhere.
She slowly stands on her feet and cups her hands to her mouth, calling out. “Hello! I-Is someone here?”
No response.
Just the still quietness of the air and the light breeze rustling the tree’s leaves.
With nothing else to do, Luz walks forward and nervously fidgets with her fingers, hoping to at least get out of the lost woods.
After a few minutes of walking, she hears something in the distance.
It sounds like someone is calling her.
She moves closer and closer and…
Luz freezes, gasping at the familiar, raspy voice.
It’s Vee, her sister.
And she is crying out with dread, yelling, “Luz! Help!”
That is enough for Luz to start running towards where the voice is coming from.
“I’m coming, Vee!” She shouts back, pushing away the tree branches and ducking them.
She jumps over a large log and sees an opening at the end covered by two big leaves.
She pushes them away and…
Luz lets out a horrified gasp.
Right in front of her is Vee in her basilisk form.
She is shakily, trembling and scared of her mind.
Why?
Because Belos is behind her.
His gloved hand is squeezing the back of her neck, a tight grip to keep her from escaping.
“Hello, Luz…”
She freezes briefly when she hears Belos’s chilling voice again.
But she puts up a tough façade, showing no fear and looking at Belos with a distasteful face.
“Hijo de puta!” Luz curses out, rage already filling her up. “You keep your hands off of my sister!”
She runs towards Vee with a fire glyph ready at hand.
But she lets out a yelp when she feels something pulling her back, keeping her in place.
She looks down and notices the red glob arms from Belos’ castle, tightly wrapped around both of her wrists.
Luz grunts frustratingly, trying to break free from them.
But it is not used.
“I swear to Titan, if you do anything to her, I will burn the living hell out of yo—”
Belos’ menacing chuckle is what interrupts Luz, making her more angry at the laugh.
“Cute, but I actually wanted to thank you.”
Her head cocks back in confusion. “W-What?”
Belos hums lowly. “Witches were a curse to humanity. To the world. To God himself. I knew that I had to get rid of them. But I didn’t know how. That is when I discovered a draining spell that a basilisk can only produce. So I brought them back from extinction. To figure out the spell.”
Vee whimpers under his grasp, unable to stop shaking.
“And once I figured out how to recreate that spell, every basilisk will be exterminated for good, as they once were. Gone forever.”
Luz lets out a shaky breath, eyes wide with fear.
“Now I must put her out of her mercy,” Belos remarks coldly.
His arm slowly warps into a sharp blade.
“No no no no! Wait! D-Don’t! I-I’ll do anything! Please!” Luz pleads.
“Oh, Luz, I’m afraid it’s too late for that…”
He draws his arm back and fatally stabs Vee in her midsection.
The basilisk lets out a choked breath.
“No!” Luz yells out desperately, tears streaming down.
Belos removes the blade from her stomach, blood flying in the air and leaving droplets on his white cloak.
His goop arm returns to normal and he tosses Vee like a rag doll.
She rolls across the ground and her back collides against a log, screaming in pain.
“You son of a bitch! I’m going to k-kill you!” Luz seethes, thrusting wildly against the restraints.
Belos chuckles. “Good luck with that, Luz.”
With that, he vanishes out of thin air as he warps his entire body.
At the same time, the arms surrounding Luz’s wrist slither back to the ground, releasing her.
Immediately, she runs after her sister.
She lets out a soft, pained whimper, her arms shaking and stuck with her face stained with tears.
“Vee!” Luz kneels behind her and gasps at how much blood is flowing out of the wounded hole, a pool forming on the floor.
“L-Luz…”
“Y-You’re gonna be okay, Vee. J-Just stay with me…” Luz whispers frantically, slowly holding her and picking her up.
She applies pressure to the wound, and her hands are slowly being covered in blood.
Vee yelps in pain, clutching onto Luz.
“I know, I-I know, Vee…” Luz swallows hard.
She glances back to her sister’s face and notices that she is fighting to stay awake, her eyelids slowly closing.
“L-Luz, I’m tired…” Vee murmurs, voice hoarse.
“No, no, no, no. Stay with me, Vee. Keep your eyes open. P-Please,” Luz pleads.
But Vee ignores her, continuing with a slight tremble in her tone. “T-Thank you… For everything, Luz. You were the best sister I could ever have.”
Luz can’t say anything, unable to produce a sound through her vocal cords.
“I-I love you…”
And just that, Vee releases her final breath as her pupils dilate.
Her sister is dead…
Luz stares at the sunken body for several minutes, in shock and tears running down her cheeks.
Then, she lets out a blood-curdling, anguished scream and…
Luz bolts upright from her bed, a frightened gasp escaping.
She is breathing heavily and sweating profusely after witnessing that nightmare.
Slowly, she focuses on getting her breathing right, using the technique from Willow.
Breath in for four and out for four…
In for four…
Out for four…
In and out…
A couple of minutes have passed, and Luz exhales a soft breath.
She is feeling a little bit better.
But she still has that nightmare in her mind, and it is something she doesn’t want to see.
Luz flinches when she feels a wet, cold nose pressing on her cheeks.
She glances to the side and notices that it is Stringbean, her tongue flicking with worry.
She hisses. [Are you okay?]
“I’m alright, girl…” Luz replies with a whisper, petting her small head.
[Nightmare?]
Luz nods slowly. “Yeah.”
Slowly, Stringbean wraps her body around Luz’s neck.
She sighs softly, feeling calmer now that she has her palisman on her side.
But she still wants to check on her sister.
Just to know that she is there.
Luz brushes off the blanket and gets off her bed, slowly climbing up the stairs.
She stops once she can fully see her sister, Vee, sleeping peacefully on the top bunk.
However, a low creaking sound comes from the stairs, causing Luz to freeze in place.
It may be a low sound, but it is deafening in a quiet atmosphere.
Because of this, Vee lets out a sleepy groan as she stirs around the bed, slowly fluttering her eyes open.
“Luz?” She mutters, rubbing her eyelids. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up. I just w-wanted to check on you.”
Vee pauses for a few moments, looking down. “Did you have a nightmare?”
Luz nods slowly, biting her bottom lip.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Vee offers. “You don’t have to, you know.”
“I-I…” Luz swallows, tears slowly forming. “I saw you dying a-and… I couldn’t save you f-from him.”
That is all Luz can say.
She doesn’t want to relive that nightmare again.
It is already too much for her to even think about her sister dying.
“Hey…” Vee slowly moves towards where Luz is and places a hand on her shoulder. “It’s just a nightmare, okay? It’s not real and I am right here.”
Luz nods in reassurance. “Yeah, I know…”
Vee smiles softly and makes space on her bed. “Do you want to sleep here tonight?”
“C-Can I?”
“Yes, you can. You don’t need to ask,” Vee replies gently.
Slowly, Luz climbs onto the top bunk and lies down on the left side of the bed.
Vee grabs the blankets and covers both of them with the blanket.
She brings Luz into her chest and wraps her arms around her body, her tail slowly wrapping her legs.
“Is this okay?”
“Yes, it is…” Luz nods within her chest, breathing in softly. “Thank you, Vee.”
Vee smiles and slides her curls back. “No problem, Luz.”
The basilisk softly kisses her forehead and places her chin on her hair. “Goodnight, Luz…”
“Goodnight, Vee… I-I love you.”
“I love you, too…”
With that, Luz sleeps peacefully from within Vee’s embrace.
She is grateful that she has Vee, her one and only sister.
They may not share the same blood.
But that doesn’t matter because they will forever be sisters at heart…