Lumity - The witch and the well

The Discovery

Her fingers traced the illustration of the mysterious book, every line scratchy and without sophistication. The colors were murky and it smelt of dust. It was clear the book was very old, but then... Why were they on the cover of it?

A girl with green hair and a yellow raincoat, a girl with brown hair and a strange mask - even King the cat was on it, weaving his way through their legs as they stood before a large pine tree. She examined every detail of the cover intensively, her frown deepening as she continued. 

"Pretty creepy huh, Blighty? I found it in abuelita's old chest - same goes for the mask."

"Then... the mask is merely a fan prop of the book? but then why..." Trailed Amity.

"Then why does the other girl look like you so much?  I don't know, but the minute I saw you... I knew we were destined to meet."

It was too much to be a coincidence, even though she wished with all her heart it was. It couldn't be them - like Luz said, the most characteristic thing about her was her mask, and that belonged with the book. So what if the other girl had her green hair, swampers and raincoat. It didn't mean anything, it certainly didn't mean adventure and destiny like Luz was probably hoping for.

"What's the book about?" Amity asked nervously. "That's the eeriest part - the pages are blank. I tried it with black light and even above candlelight - almost set my room ablaze with that little stunt." Luz explained pretty calmly given the situation. Amity didn't understand and flipped through the book eagerly. Sure enough, the pages were as white and untouched as fresh snowfall in the morning - the contents of the book either erased or non-existent to begin with. It didn't help that the book had no description nor title - perhaps it was a journal more so than anything else. It would explain the lack of writing, title and description - but still, not the mask nor why Luz and her appeared on its cover.

Luz looked at her expectantly. "Look, I don't have any answers - and you seem to have a lack of leads. Maybe the right thing to do is to put the book back in the chest and forget about it."

"And ignore the call of destiny?! Of adventure and daring quests?!" Luz asked, appalled by the notion. "nononono - NO - we can't stand by while this mystery is waiting to be unraveled, please Amity, it's my dying wish to know what this is all about!"

"First of all, you're not dying. Second of all, there is no 'we'."  Amity insisted harshly, pulling up her nose. "It's all fiddlesticks, so just... get it out of your head." Yes, she was scared she might find out something she didn't want to - but, without any words in the book, or journal, or whatever it was, there was no chance of them ever finding out why the cover was so peculiar. It surely had nothing to do with her, and she liked it that way. For once she just wanted to exist peacefully and be left alone - or perhaps she was just so used to it by now that it was all she felt comfortable with.

"Fine!" Luz replied, angrily. Amity understood why she might react emotionally, but it was unnecessary. She didn't need her help to solve this... whatever it was, she seemed to have enough imagination to conjure up something that would satisfy her many curiosities.

"Perhaps you're not the girl on the cover at all - I imagined she'd be more willing to help someone out. I sure expected at least a decent adventurer, someone with the slightest interest for the unknown - just a boring ol' water witch."

She spoke as if she was practicing a speech as she collected her belongings off the floor, stuffing them carelessly in her bag again and swinging it over a shoulder. Amity was frozen. She hadn't meant to hurt her feelings that badly, but she couldn't see how she'd be of any use. The hair tie around her wrist felt tighter than it did before, burning into her flesh out of guilt and, in a way, shame. Shame because she could not muster up the courage to be curious, nor the courage to stop Luz from climbing out her window again.

She disappeared into the stillness of the night, her footsteps the last sign of her existence in Amity's life. Luz was right, she wasn't the girl on the cover. That girl looked far more interesting than anything Amity could ever even dream to be.