Amity Blight is a lonesome water-witch-wannabe with parents that have no time for her. In the middle of summer, the Blight family moves into a part of an old house with a large garden and eccentric neighbors. Soon she meets Luz Noceda, a strange gir...
It was too hot in the car. While her dad broke every traffic law known to man in an attempt to get to their new house before the moving company, Amity pressed up against the backseat window. They'd driven an awful long way now - of course she had looked up where they were going, but it had looked much closer on the map...
Ashland... Oregon... about two-thousand miles away from her friends, her school.
A long sigh escaped her, looking over the vast nothingness that led up to their "new home". Yeah, right. As if she would ever call this dreadful place home. Dad pulled up onto the driveway, the view now revealing an old, rough and eerie-looking mansion. Just past the front garden stood a sign that read:
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It suit the mansion well, Amity thought. The walls were painted an awfully bold pink, with creamy white accents and a dark auburn roof. From the right side of the porch ran a set of stairs. They looked creaky and rusty, not quite stable and like they didn't belong to the mansion. From what Amity could tell, there were three - no, maybe four - floors, but she knew both the upper and lower floors were occupied by their new neighbors. In the distance she spotted an old, decrepit shed, surrounded by a sprinkling of pine trees and dead brushes. To the side stood a large hill, wild and unsafe. The paths in the front garden were paved with brick, accenting the muddy, sad colors of unkept, muddy terrain perfectly.
It came as no surprise to her mother that Amity was not impressed. The two exchanged a look, but that was about it on the subject of moving here. Their conversations were rarely more than this. Amity pouted, running her fingers through her hair - it was comprised of various shades of aquamarine, all except for the roots, which is where her natural brown hair poked through. She'd dyed it herself after her mother forced her to cut it - it now hung just above her shoulders, hiding the uppercut she'd also given herself. The front strands hung in her golden-yellow eyes often, and she had to wipe or blow them away whenever they did. It had become an awful tick she'd get scolded for again and again.
Her parents hadn't gone as hard on her siblings - Emira and Edrick - whom were now both living on their own. They'd been twins, which meant they at least had each other to lean on... When they moved out, Amity had no one anymore. They'd cut ties with her parents, but every once in a while Amity received a text from them. She ignored most of them, but not enough to make them give up on trying to reach their little sister. They were both successful chemists now, thriving despite their upbringing... She could only hope the same would happen to her once she moved out of this crappy place.
Mother and father stepped out of the car while Amity moped for a bit. When they'd retrieved their luggage from the trunk and disappeared into the mansion, leaving only her bright-yellow raincoat and matching boots behind, Amity decided it was at least time to explore this place for a bit.
She hopped out the car, wandering off to the back of the mansion where she was told lay a large garden. Well, they hadn't been lying; it was large alright, but the plants that once stood there were taken care of no more and had died and withered. It was a sad picture, perhaps even more so than the front garden, but at least it gave her something to do for the future, once her gardening equipment would be found in the many, many moving boxes.
For now, Amity continued onwards, following a path that led her beyond the hill - all the while, she felt the awful feeling of someone watching her. From a nearby bush she ripped a twig that doubled as her dowsing rod. She held it up, closing her eyes, pretending it would lead her to where she needed to go.
And lead her it did, to a stone well... Now, this was interesting. She'd heard nothing of a well, and therefore it was interesting it was here. Well, at least more interesting than all she already knew. She made her way to it carefully, eyes darting to something higher-up on the hill. She could've sworn she saw something move... No matter, the curiosity consumed her and she leaned over the edge of the wall when;
"Careful now!"
A high voice, just slightly accented, rang through the still air - piercing flesh and bone as it scared the living bejeezus out of Amity. The wannabe witch stumbled backwards, dropping her dowsing rod as she fell to the ground ass-first.
"oh, sorry about that! ~ you okay?"
The same voice, now closer, called out. It had a youth to it, chipper and friendly, but it mattered not anymore. Amity was already pissed off before she could lay eyes upon the culprit - the fiend that had frightened her so! Her hands became fists, her brows knitting together in an ugly frown.
"You're very lucky I didn't fall head-first into that stupid well - you, you idiot!"
Only now could she see the silhouette of someone - about the same height as her, dressed sloppily in a ripped, black jacket that reached all the way to their knees. They were wearing gloves and a strange, three-eyed mask. Only some dark brown hair could be spotted, and the fact they were wearing trainers that probably had been white before, but were now a dirty mix of browns, blacks and greens. In the distance she saw a bike.
Safe to say, the assumed kid was a strange appearance to say the least - enough to take away from Amity's rage just long enough to pique interest. The kid laughed, appearing to not take her comments or concerns to heart.
"Lucky indeed - my abuelita says, if you fall in that well and look up from the bottom, you'd see a sky full of stars in the middle of the day."
Amity's brow raised in confusion and intrigue. She cleared her throat. "Who would believe such kind of nonsense anyway?"She scoffed, faking it every step of the way. It sounded interesting, but she refused to give this... this creep any kind of positive attention. Pulling up her nose, and then the rest of her body, Amity stood up and slapped her jacket clean of dirt. She picked up her makeshift dowsing rod and started to go back home.
"I believe it."The kid responded. "But, you can prove me wrong if you want." They added mischievously, jokingly. Amity was already half-way back to the path that had led her there, cursing her dowsing rod under her breath for bringing her here.
When she looked back to the stranger, they'd taken off their mask to reveal a face of youthful, round features - spikey, unkept brown hair sweeping just over her forehead. It looked like she'd cut it herself. She looked Spanish, with hazel eyes and a strangely out of place bulge on her right shoulder.
"No thanks, I have nothing to prove to you."She responded. This was how a Blight was supposed to act in these kind of situations - it wasn't like it was a real challenge on the table. It was just a stupid dare, one that would get her killed if she attempted it. There was no point in even amusing the idea of her jumping in there.
Then the girl started shivering and contorting, seemingly birthing the bulge on her shoulder to reveal a strange-looking creature. Its head was white, with two black circles around its eyes and a torn ear. It was the most beaten-up cat Amity had ever seen, popping out of the girl's jacket, probably to inspect all the ruckus. "Oh great." Said Amity. "There are two of you."
The girl just smiled, stroking the thing that could barely be called a cat on its head. "Oh this? This is just King. He's the lord of all demons - aren't ya, my little terror-inducing menace?" She answered, making cute faces as King purred and rubbed his head all over the girl's chest. It wasn't long before the girl noticed Amity again, who rolled her eyes. "I'm Luz, by the way. Luz Noceda."
