Hoodwinked

8: Bug Demons Scare the Crap Outta Me

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Your door bursts open, and Ed comes running in. You close your textbook in confusion, pulling out an earphone to hear what he was saying.
"(reader)! (reader), (reader), (reader)!" he says before falling flat on his face. You snicker,
"What? I'm not going anywhere, Ed."
He picks himself right back up, a sunny grin painted on his lips. "Wanna help me prepare for my date next week?"
Your eyes widen and you pull the book off your lap, rushing over to your brother. "You've got a partner already!?"
"He does!" Emira grins, popping her head into your doorframe. In a flash, you're asking questions, left and right, "How? Where'd you meet them? Is it someone we know?"
"Ed doesn't want to tell us," Emira says, shaking her head, emerald curls swaying.
"Not until Amity's here, okay?" he chortles.
"Anyway, what do you need to prepare?" you ask. Ed begins to list down things with his fingers, "Skincare, outfit ideas, what to say during it. All of them I bet we can find in the Witches Weekly magazine — they released a new issue this week!"
You tilt your head, "Wait, aren't you two banned from the library?"
Em shrugs, "Amity asked her employer to unban us, and surprisingly he did! So, are you in?"
You grin. "I'll grab my coat."

•─────⋅
"Amity!" you beam, surprising your younger sister. She jolts, and the books in her hands launch around.
"Oh, hey, (reader)." amity says, before glancing around. "The, uh, twins aren't here with you, are they?"
You open your mouth to answer, but the books glow a light blue and stack themselves neatly, placing themselves back in Amity's arms.
"Hey, Mittens," Emira winks, the spell circle still visible. It breaks away as the books drop. "Fancy seeing you here."
"I work here." she groans. "Let me guess, you're here for the Witches Weekly issue?"
The two nod ecstatically. "I'm only here to help Ed with his date!" you announce.
"Wait, date?"
You nod, "I know! Like someone would hang out with him willingly, right?" you joked.
"You know, Ed actually sent a poem for them to their mom accidentally!" Emira giggles. Ed reddens, "Why do you feel the need to spread that around?"
You lean in to whisper into Emira's ear, "Send the poem to me."
"I heard that!"
Amity sighs, and points to the magazine racks. "I'm working right now, but during dinner you are telling me every detail."
"Yes, ma'am!" Ed pretends to be meek as he salutes her. She rolls her eyes and glances to you, "Make sure they aren't causing any trouble, won't you? My shift's nearly over, and I told Luz I'd hang out with her in the owl house."
"Luz, eh?" you raise an eyebrow as she turns red, "Alone, I suppose?"
She hits your arm gently, "Go to the twins already, Titan."
You chuckle before following your verdant-haired siblings to the Teens section.

Helping Edric find skincare tips was more boring than you anticipated. They were literally just skimming through the Teen Witches magazines, then jotting them down.
You lean on the wall as Edric and Emira huddle with each other, discussing what to buy in the cosmetics store a few blocks down.
"Guys, I'll just return this book, okay?" you conjure the borrowed abominations book and they barely glance up. "Oh, okay. Meet us at the cosmetics store in ten minutes, alright?"
"Alright," you agree, then walk away to throw the book into the 'returned' chute.

You groan in frustration, peeking at the long line in front of you. You had to go through all this just to return a little book? Bogus.
Man, they should really fix up the library system in Bonesburough. You had a brother to help, for Titan's sake!
You hum, tapping your feet across the floor. You crack your knuckles.
The line is still unmoving. You hated long lines—-you had so much to do, this was only slowing you down!
You hear a distant roar, and your eyes widen. "What was that?" you ask the man behind you, but he looks unfazed. "A couple o' demon hunters probably rounded up a few of 'em beasts from the forests, no biggie."
You nod hesitantly, before the roar sounds again. Okay, you were getting a little concerned, and some random man wasn't comforting your panic!
You weave your way out of the line and the man casts you a weird look before muttering, "more line for me, I guess."
You shoot out the door, and your eyes widen at the chaos that was in front of you.
What in the Titan's left ballsack is happening here?
The streets are in chaos, masked people running amok. You look around frantically. The smell of smoke fills your lungs.
There's about a dozen huge ratworms causing discord, eating people's shirts, chasing witches around. Some even had riders, who seemed to be fully encouraging the behavior! Actually, they seemed to be the cause of it.
A green, huge worm demon shoots out of the ground, its yellow eyes flicking around. It takes you a while to notice the person hanging off of its back, as if holding on for dear life.
But it takes you no time to notice who it was.
A flash of gold glinted.