Here to Help

Chapter 11

Note: This chapter discusses recovering from instances of abuse and as such, I want to preface by saying that everyone's experience with abuse and recovery from it is different. This chapter is based on some personal thoughts and conversations I've had with friends as someone who has dealt with varying degrees of emotional abuse and has been in a "friendship" laced with physical abuse as a teenager that I am just now able to really try and work through as an adult. I in no way intend to present this chapter as the be all, end all way of coping because yeah, everyone's recovery journey is different. Your experiences are valid. With that, please read at your own discretion and thank you for taking the time to read this note.

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"It's called pac-man!" Luz explained as Amity stared at the small device in Luz's hands. "The point of the game is to get the little yellow guy to eat all the dots."

"And what about those blobby things?" Amity questioned, pointing at the screen.

"Those are ghosts," Luz answered as she jerked her head to the side to see around Amity's hand. "You want to avoid them because if they catch you, they will eat you and then you lose a life."

"And this is something humans do for fun?" Amity asked through a soft smile as she stared at Luz, admiring the concentration etched in the human's face. It had been two weeks since she had woken up at the healer's office and a week since moving into the owl house. The recovery process had been a slow one, the green haired girl spending much of her time in bed as the world moved on around her. Though she missed going to school, there was something about the opportunity to rest without repercussion that she felt eternally grateful for.

Back at the Blight Manor in times past, rest was not a luxury she was afforded regardless of how bad she was hurt. As such, she often found herself in a vicious cycle of abuse, being forced to perform at the top of her class at school but often too distracted by the pain and anguish suffered at home to give 100%, the resulting failures of which were often punished in a way that only furthered the problem. The owl house, on the other hand, offered a care and comfort unfamiliar to the girl. Eda, King, Luz - even the dreaded bird tube, Hooty, with whom she admittedly had gotten off on the wrong foot - had shown her a vast amount of concern and compassion as she worked through the trauma she had suffered. For the first time in her life, she felt like she could begin to let her guard down; like she could take the time and space she needed to process everything that had happened to her. For the first time, she felt like she could heal without worrying that in doing so, she would risk failure; instead, she felt safe and loved.

"Argh!" Luz groaned, as Amity watched a blob engulfed the yellow dot she had been moving across the screen, a humorously sad sound of defeat escaping the device. "Yeah, video games are something a lot of humans do for fun. There are so many different kinds! I like adventure games where you can strike out on a journey and save everyone!" Luz exclaimed, certainty and conviction in her voice.

"Sounds pretty fun," Amity chuckled as she stared lovingly at the brunette.

"Haha, yeah. I used to play them quite a bit. I didn't exactly have a lot of friends back in the human world but playing games..." Luz chuckled as she ruffled her own hair, a deep red blush crawling across her cheeks, melancholy in her eyes, "gave me some, even if they weren't real..." Silence filling the space between the pair, Luz studied Amity's face for any sign of judgement as she felt embarrassment washing over her. Despite finding none, Luz couldn't help but feel the need to downplay what the memory of those games - those animated friends - meant to her. "I guess it's pretty silly, you know? Having video game characters as friends... Pretty sad, right?" the human chuckled weakly.

"I don't think its silly or sad at all," Amity hummed as she closed her eyes, leaning further into the pillows proper behind her as she gently caressed her side.