Someone Else Is Pulling at the Strings

Chapter 1 Was It Scary?

TW: Character injury, possession, psychological abuse

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Things couldn't have gone more perfectly. Belos had a new body that won't just fall apart or reject him–there was no one inside to fight back or at least they were imprisoned by the Collector. Luz and her friends finally arrived and the Collector was furious. This child was ready to destroy all of Belos' problems, hopefully destroying themself in the process.

Belos was standing on the edge of the cracked Titan skull, looking down at the two humans, three young witches and their palismen, and his latest failed Grimwalker–his rotten brother. How was he still alive? Belos would've sworn Hunter was dead when he left his body.

That didn't matter; this cheap magicless copy couldn't do much to meddle with his plans now. Everything was already set in motion. The Collector was floating above the skull, his eyes locked on the human–they were fuming. They snapped his fingers and an earthquake started.

The ground below Luz began to crack and suddenly shot to the sky. Luz's hand slipped out of Amity's grip as the Collector snatched her.

"Luz!" everyone called out. Without hesitation, Amity transformed Ghost into her staff form and was about to jump on her staff and fly up, but then a voice stopped her.

"Don't. This is between the human and me," the Collector's voice echoed through the skull. The child of the stars then turned his attention to Luz. "I just wanna play a little game."

"Fine. As long as you free the Boiling Isles if I win," Luz replied without hearing him out.

"Free?" The Collector tilted his head. "What are you talking about? Everyone is happy."

"Are they?" His eyes widened and traced away at her words. "Look, I just want my friends to be safe, all of them. Hooty, Eda, King-"

The Collector swung their arm, sending a huge purple star at her. The star broke the pillar she was standing on, causing her to start falling. She managed to mount her staff in time, keeping herself in the air.

"Luz!" Amity hopped onto her staff, but...

"No!" Luz yelled at her so everyone can hear her, "you heard him! It's between him and me! You guys head to the Archives!" She quickly dropped her fanny pack to them before turning her attention to the child god.

"Right!" Amity nodded as she caught the fanny pack, glancing at the others as their got on their staffs–Camila joined her and Hunter joined Willow. The group flew up to the crown, not aware that someone else was already on their way up there, and actually managed to get there faster than them.

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Belos made his way over to the Owl Beast's cage, searching Raine's memories to find its exact location. Walking through a dim corridor, he was sure this was the right place. The paintings on the walls were torn into pieces with claws, the other Coven Heads were lined up in front of huge broken bars.

Raine could feel their stomach drop. This was the place of their imprisonment after all, although, that wasn't what worried them the most. They knew exactly what Belos wanted here. ...yet they couldn't do anything about it...

Their body wouldn't listen to them, their voice wouldn't make a sound no matter how hard they tried.

Belos walked past the puppets and entered the cage.

In their hideout, the Clawthrone sisters were sitting by a fire while King was sleeping on Eda's lap, getting his back stroked. Eda's body fell to her right, leaning on Lilith and resting her head on her shoulder. She used to do that a lot as a kid and only now realized that Luz did too. Lilith smiled down at her.