It Started With a Spinny

Time to Run

Vee slithers through the forest, green head in her scaled hands groaning morosely! She knows its dangerous to be out here like this, even with that crazy Wanna Be Witch Hunter scared off, it's still dangerous for her to be out here as herself! As a monster!

Amity and Luz had finally talked, finally talked, about what was really wrong and how they were going to work together to fix it and everything was going to be okay! Except it wasn't Luz, it was her! She stares down at her green hands, the claws, the scales, the tears catching in her open palms.

She clenches her fists. This is what basilisks do: they deceive, they lie, they steal, they hurt people! They pretend to be your friend so you'll let your guard down, let them get close enough to drain your magic, take what doesn't belong to them, what they have no right to, what she shouldn't want so much it hurts! And she is hurting people, hurting people who think they're her friends, who took her in, saved her - and to thank them she's deceiving them into letting their guards down so she can steal their relationship, their secret looks, their affection, their desire, their warmth, their hugs.

Vee comes to a stop, standing there holding her own arms, her hearts racing. The way Amity had talked to her, the things she'd described, the wonderful, intense, wonderful things! The way she'd talked about kissing her, so much, in so many ways!

She's never been kissed before.

And she's never going to be.

She holds her wet cheek where Luz kissed her when she was wearing that damnable dress, holds lower at the spot on her mulberry lips where Amity had kissed the corner of Luz's lips.

Had that counted?

Had that been her first kiss?

How could it have been when it wasn't even her lips!

She cries out and slithers forward, ignoring the growing ache in her tail as the incline gets steeper, slithering faster just to spite it without even knowing where she's going, just knowing that she shouldn't be here! She should run again, leave all this behind, leave behind Amity, Luz, Camila, her home! She heaves out more tears, angrily swipes them away: it isn't even her home, she's just stealing that too! If she runs away everything will be better for everyone, everything will be okay, they'll be better off without her!

Except Amity will be left waiting for Luz to talk to her.

Maybe that's for the best too, maybe Luz is nervous, maybe she does need Amity to be patient? Vee violently shakes her head: no, no Luz will just worry that Amity is avoiding her! She'll just worry that Amity doesn't like her anymore, and Amity will worry that Luz is scared of her and will keep giving her space and they won't talk about it because they already did that and it wasn't Luz it was her and it was all her and now it's all going to fall apart and it's all be her fault! If she stays she'll keep stealing from them and if she runs away it'll all fall apart!

"No!" She states, looking down panting, holding onto the last tree, not letting herself take another slither forward. "No." No she can't run, she won't run! Not before she's made this right!

She looks up, and gasps. The tree she holds is the last at the edge of a clearing, the hill rising to a rounded point where one lone tree stands above the rest of the forest. And Luz is sitting back against it, staring down at nothing. She's wearing her usual clothes: her violet trackpants, beige and grey jacket and all, the clothes Vee was wearing when she talked to Amity as Luz. When she stole that conversation. And there Luz is, her hazel eyes staring at nothing, her dark burgundy hair catching the sunlight. She's holding her teracotta cap in her hands, looking down at it, not seeing the pins proudly identifying herself, not seeing anything. She looks so alone, so sad, so defeated.