Witches Among Humans (TOH)

Chapter 18: A Dumpster of Secrets

Luz woke up with a start. She was sweating and trembling, her heart racing. She had just had a terrible nightmare.

She had dreamt that she was back in the Boiling Isles, fighting against Emperor Belos and his army. She was completely surrounded by enemies. Belos told her to stand down. She wanted to keep fighting. But when he gestured that she had lost, she finally looked around to see what had happened to her friends and allies.

Eda was in a cage, being turned into stone. A petrification spell slowly crept up her body. She saw King being ripped apart by a giant trash slug. His screams echoed in her ears. Gus and Willow were being burned alive by fire magic. Their skin blistered and charred. Her mother's dead body lay in front of her. Her eyes were wide open and blood stained her clothes. Amity was being held by Belos. He held a knife to her throat.

Belos's voice was still echoed in her mind. "Surrender yourself, Luz. Or the girl dies along with the rest of your friends."

Luz screamed at him that she would never give in. She tried. She tried her hardest to save them, but she was too late. She was powerless. She was helpless. Luz pinned down by the Golden Guard and was forced to watch as Belos threatened Amity's life.

She closed her eyes as she screamed thrashed from underneath the Golden Guard, but no one heard her. She felt a sharp pain in her neck and realized that Belos had grabbed her from behind. He whispered in her ear: "This is all your fault. You brought this upon them. You are the reason they suffered. You are the reason they had to die."

He positioned his hands on either side of her head.

Before anything more could happen, she woke with a start.

Luz gasped for air and looked around. She was in her room, in the Owl House, in the human world. It was just a dream. A horrible, awful dream.

But it felt so real. So vivid. So painful.

Luz curled up on the bed, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. She felt a surge of guilt and fear. What if it wasn't just a dream? What if it was a vision of the future? What if she had doomed everyone she loved by coming to the human realm? What if she had made things worse?

***

Monday morning arrived too soon. Luz felt like she had barely slept after the whirlwind of events that had happened over the weekend. Her date with Amity had gone horribly wrong. Luz doubted that Amity would ever want to talk to her again. Then she had gone to the astral plane and found out that her mom was alive. But she was not okay, nor was she safe. She was in the conformatorium, tortured and transformed by Belos. Luz shuddered at the memory.

She had shared the news with Eda, who had listened and supported her. Eda had promised to help her rescue her mom, no matter what with a baseball in hand. Luz smiled at the thought of Eda wielding a baseball bat against Belos. But then she remembered the nightmare she had last night. She had seen all her friends and allies die at Belos's hands. She had felt his breath on her neck as he whispered that it was all her fault. She had woken up in a cold sweat, trembling and crying.Luz smiled at the memory, but a frown replaced it when images flashed in her mind of that horrid nightmare she had. She didn't want to think about it, she couldn't bring herself to talk about it. Eda had noticed that something wasn't right with Luz that morning. Luz had played it off, saying it was just the memories of her mother. Eda knew Luz was lying again. Luz knew that.

She didn't tell Eda about the nightmare. She just said that she was upset about her mom. Eda seemed to buy it.

Luz walked into the school, feeling like everyone was staring at her. She wanted to avoid any trouble today. She wanted to get through the day and then go to the library. Maybe she could find some information on how to create a working portal back to her world.