A Hollow Home

Chapter 1

Author's note: This chapter contains depictions of alcohol use and violence and for those reasons, reader discretion is advised.

I want to give a big shout out to my good friend and fellow author/artist @SelahNoel for beta reading the first chunk of this chapter. He is currently authoring an amazing lumity fic called, "Cost of a Cure", which I highly recommend you check out!

All that said, I hope you enjoy chapter 1 and since it's been a minute, a little recap of where we left off with "Here to Help" can be found below!

Recap👇🏼

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Here to Help ended with Luz and Amity returning to the human world after Alador and Belos sent guards to raid the clinic Amity was recovering in on suspicion of her being connected to Odalia's death. Having had her legs shot out by Odalia to prevent her from running away, Amity was spared death when Eda swooped in to fight Odalia. Subsequently, Odalia was killed by Eda following an attack on Lilith.

Edric and Emira, who was paralyzed by Alador from the waist down, left the clinic with Jerbo and Viney prior to the raid and are unaware of Luz and Amity's departure. Lilith remained at the clinic in critical condition with Eda arranging for a friend to fly in to help her recover while Eda prepares to leave the Isles to lay low.

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"Mami!" a voice cried out in the night, pulling Camila from an elusive, dead sleep. "Mami, please!" the voice called, the familiar sound sending a shiver down the older woman's spine that the cold rain tapping on the window could not rival. A banging on the door following on the footsteps of the plea, Camila threw the covers from her body, her racing heart outpacing her legs as she fumbled down the stairs to the front door.

"Mami! Please, I need help! We..." Camila heard shouted before the sound of thunder interjected. Standing on trembling legs as the rhythmic banging outside her home's entrance continued, Camila took a deep breath as she extended a nervous hand, apprehensive of what lay ahead.

"Mami!" her daughter cried, emotions spilling through the threshold of the open door accompanied by drops of rain.

"Luz..." Camila whispered, the tears streaming down her face quickly mixed with raindrops as she ran down the front porch steps to meet her grief stricken daughter - a reunion the older woman was starting to believe she'd never see.

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At least she's home now, Camila thought to herself as her tired eyes drifted over the sleeping form of her daughter and the injured friend she had returned home with. Sipping coffee as she leaned against the door frame leading to Luz's room, Camila released a heavily troubled yet relieved sigh as the thoughts that pulled her from an elusive sleep at 3am continued to race.

Two and a half months. It had been two and a half months since the summer camp Luz had supposedly embarked to had called to let her know that her daughter had never arrived. The emergency call at work having pulled her from the middle of a routine surgery, the anxious mother found her once precise and still hands shaking as panic and dread overtook her mind and filled the space around her. Thrust into the midst of a living nightmare, Camila's days were soon filled with meetings with the police - disinterested officers refusing to take the frantic mother's pleas for help seriously as their investigation carelessly dragged.

Bound and determined to find her daughter regardless of the half-assed law enforcement effort, the neurosurgeon soon found herself further and further away from the operating room, her days spent passing out fliers on the street, pleading for any information anyone might know about her daughter's whereabouts. Though accompanied in her search by her ex-husband and his partner, Camila couldn't help but feel increasingly alone in her anguish. Despite the comfort the pair offered, the worried mother could only feign agreement at the good natured optimism the two men offered, every "it's going to be okay, we'll find her, cariño," watering the seed of doubt rooting in the pit of her stomach.