𝐺𝒉𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡

𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑒

Amity huffed as she brought the cup of apple blood to her lips, sipping on it while surreptitiously looking around the Owl House. Over the past three years, ever since the human Luz Noceda had stumbled into their lives, she had come to see this place as a second home. Heck, she might even argue it was her first-ever home, since the mansion held memories too bleak to really remember with any semblance of fondness, even a year after her parents had been shoved in the Conformatorium.

The living room was much the same as it always had been. Piles of garbage, both human and magical, lined some of the walls, which breathed; Amity would never get used to that. A few pictures hung beside the door. One was of Eda, King, and Hooty posing in front of the house. Another, larger one was of Luz and Eda in the middle of a game of Hexas Hold’em, at which the former was presumably losing spectacularly. A third photo depicted Luz and Amity holding hands, sitting on the very couch Amity occupied right now. She stared at it for a few moments, remembering.

It had been a beautiful night. Luz had suggested they have a sleepover in the living room, which Amity had been unable to refuse. It hadn’t taken long for her parents to find out about her relationship with Luz and promptly kick her out. Eda had been graceful enough to let her stay with them for as long as she needed to, and Luz, ever the ball of sunshine, had been ecstatic. She had asked Eda to take that photo with her… tiny scroll rectangle thing to commemorate the occasion.

It surprised her how nostalgic one picture made her, and before long she was wiping a single tear off her face. Would they have kept adding photos onto the wall had Luz been here today? It pained her to think of the memories they missed out on ever since… No, she could not get distracted.

Not today.

Today, she had a mission.

It was, as Eda had put it, the culmination of everything they had worked so hard for over the past eight months. It had to go perfectly; otherwise, the entire thing could be set back months. She had to do this.

For Luz…

“Something on your mind, Boots?” Eda’s voice broke through her train of thought, and she shot her a groggy frown. “Boy, you look terrible.”

Amity let out a humorless laugh. “Thanks for the honesty,” she said, finding her voice much raspier than she would have thought after half a cup of apple blood. “I’m just nervous.”

Any teasing tone left Eda’s voice as she put a comforting hand on the young witch’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s gonna go great,” she said softly, sitting down on the couch beside her. Eda would deny it to her dying day, but she had really grown into her maternal role ever since meeting Luz. “You want me to come with you for backup?”

The seventeen-year-old shook her head. “I have to do this alone,” she muttered.

“You do know I miss Luz too, right?” Eda said, which was honestly kind of a low blow, but she pushed the thought aside. If they could just get the new portal working…

“I know, Eda,” she said, shaking her head. “I just… I promised I’d do this. Besides, one person will be better for stealth.”

The Owl Lady looked like she wanted to protest but she pursed her lips and stood up, nodding. She made her way back to the kitchen. Before she closed the door behind her, she turned to Amity and offered the little witch an encouraging smile, her golden fang glinting. “Luz would be proud of how hard you’re working to get there. She did always want to show you around the Human Realm.”

Amity found she did not have a response to that, so she just smiled and turned back to her cup, now almost empty. She stirred its dwindling contents with a spoon absently, lost in thought. It wasn’t that she did not want Eda there. In fact, she knew the Owl Lady was still a force to be reckoned with, even after losing her magic, and thus would be a fine partner in this particular journey. But if being a Blight had taught her anything at all was that keeping your word was important. Over the past year, she had battled her inner self over how best to fulfill that promise. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to go about it, but it was the only way she knew how.