Similar But Different

The portal

It wasn't too late on the day, it was about the time where most students at Hexside would leave towards their home or go to an afterschool activity, the soft summer breeze picked up leaves that had fallen from their place and bird, if you could call them that, sang their somewhat annoying song. It barely felt like summer, Luz had upon arriving at the Boiling Isles realized that living there was like living in a perpetual autumn, except when it snowed, she had also found out about the two temperatures, it was either hot enough to melt rocks or cold enough to freeze someone on the spot, there was no in-between. The human witch apprentice was taking a scroll through the woods, quietly praying to all the gods of every religion she knew for Emperor Coven guards not to attack her, at least not today. After her encounter with the emperor, he had only sent more guards to kill them, which was reasonable, and the human didn't really know what she was expecting anyways. She just wanted one, only one day of peace to spend with her friends. They had been spending less and less time together after she had withdrawn from Hexside, having to work up a plan to meet without anyone seeing them. Luz was happy to be able to see Gus and Willow, yet she was still sad she could barely see Amity anymore, her parents had limited how long she was allowed to go outside and monitored every step she took, for safety they claimed, yet deep down they both knew that Alador and Odalia could care less about Amity's safety, instead, they only cared about where and with who she took their name with. But today was different, today Amity and Luz were going to collect something Eda asked her to collect, to which she may or may not have forgotten to ask what, and bond over the experience.

A loud noise from a bush startled the human, she quietly took a branch from the floor and slowly made her way to the bush. She knew that if whoever was behind the bush was someone from the emperor's then she was as good as dead. The noise only continued and Luz took a step forward, finally running towards the Bush and breaking the tree branch over the person's head, causing them to scream out in pain. Luz was about to give a speech that she had carefully written for her enemies, about not messing with Luz Noceda or Eda and stuff. Yet she didn't have the chance once she saw who she had hitten. "Amity! Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to!" Stammered, helping Amity sit up, looking for any injuries she may have caused. "It's fine, I'm fine," Amity answered rubbing her head, while she didn't sound angry she didn't sound happy. Luz wanted to ask her why, but opted not to, she knew she would not be happy if someone broke a branch on her head with all their force. "Sorry! I thought you were an emperor's guard or something!" Luz apologized again, rubbing the back of her hair. Amity's face lost all its color once Luz spoke, her eyebrows frowning in a way that she looked like she was about to cry. "Yeah... Well, I'm not from the emperor's coven! I was just here to meet my friend and learn new spells." Amity laughed nervously, shooting up from her sitting position, hoping and praying to the titan for Luz to continue to be oblivious. "Oh! Okay!" Luz said happily, taking Amity's hand and leading her to their secret hideout, forgetting completely about what Eda told her to pick up at the mention of the word spell. Luz was looking ahead, thankfully not seeing how her friend's soul slowly left her body, every nerve in Amity's body reacting to the soft touch of their hands. Neither of them said anything as they walked, Luz was too busy thinking about what type of new spells and magic they were going to learn today, she had somehow managed to convince Amity, Gus, and Willow to let her help them with their homework, but it still wasn't the same as when she attended school. On the other hand, Amity was too busy hearing wedding bells, imagining how nice it would be to kiss Luz's lips and how their children would look like, which she thought about that a lot, especially when her leg was broken and all she had were her Luz plagued thoughts.

"And we're here!" Luz announced, breaking their hand contact to open the curtain that led to the inside of their secret hideout, or the Owlet Schack, as Luz liked to call it. Amity would be lying if she said she wasn't feeling disappointed when Luz's hand left her own, but she forced a smile and entered the small room on the other side of the curtain. Good witch Azura posters, cushions, books, and papers were smeared across the small room. How could a room be so small yet so messy? Amity didn't have time to think before she was thrown down by a second time that day. "What spell are we gonna learn!? Is it a sleeping spell!? Or an abomination spell? Or maybe a transformation spell!?" Luz asked excitedly, causing Amity to chuckle, all worries leaving her tense body, all thanks to the girl in front of her. "We're learning a teletransportation spell." As she said that the witch heard the human oohing and almost falling out of her cushion in excitement. "But first we need to study how it's done before." Luz nodded, forgetting about everything that wasn't the fact that they were learning a new spell, granted, Amity was the only one who would able to cast it until she found a glyph for it, but she was excited none the less. Amity took a book out of her bag and the two began reading, Luz had scooped closely to Amity, taking notes and talking to her. But the teal haired girl wasn't listening, she had to scold herself for that and force herself to read and take notes, trying her hardest to ignore just how warm Luz was or the exotic yet strangely nice smell of her hair. "So all you have to do is cast the spell and think of where you wanna go, then a portal appears and you can transport yourself there?" Luz questioned. Amity was taken out of her reverie and thought about the question. "Yes. But since this is my first time casting the spell we'll have to start slow, like teletransporting small objects closely before we stall teletransporting witches or animals." She stated, refusing to look at how adorable the human looked. "And when do you think you can cast it?" The human asked again. Amity wanted to tell her that she couldn't cast it without supervision, but she didn't want to see Luz's disappointed face if she did so. She seemed so excited and Amity didn't want to ruin her happiness, especially seeing how sad she had been recently. Plus, it was only a teletransportation spell, just how bad could she screw up?

"Right now if you want," Amity answered, the rational part of her brain was screaming and scolding her, but she chose to ignore it. She had said it and now she couldn't take it back, not when Luz's eyes had light up with so much wonder. "Really!? Let's go!" Luz cheered, taking Amity's hand for a second time that day. The human led them outside of the Schack and waited, not being able to stay still in her spot, and beginning to stim with her hands. Amity smiled before she went serious again. She looked around and tried to memorize the landscape, taking in everything, from the shape of the trees to the color of the grass to the rock formations. Taking a deep breath the witch casted a small spell circle, she grabbed a small rock with her trembling hand and thought about where she wanted it to go, dropping the rock inside the circle, both girls waited patiently until Luz yelped in surprise. Rubbing the top of her head where a small rock had previously landed. "That's payback for hitting me earlier!" The witch teased sticking out her tongue. Luz laughed and moved next to Amity, wrapping the teal haired girl in a tight hug. "That was awesome!" She beamed, not noticing how Amity was slowly dying inside. It had indeed been awesome. The witch was surprised that she had managed to perform the spell correctly. Feeling brave the witch broke the hug and did another spell circle, she grabbed a bigger rock and dropped it inside the circle. A spell circle appeared out of the sky, dropping a rock in front of them. Amity felt so proud of herself, she couldn't wait to get back home to show it off to Ed and Em. "Do it again!" Luz exclaimed. Amity noded and the two spent almost all the afternoon transporting rocks from one place to the other. Amity was starting to become tired, and she felt her magical energy be drained, but she didn't say anything.

"You okay? You look kinda tired." Luz asked, excitement still in her voice, yet now she sounded worried. Amity laughed nervously, not wanting to admit she was drained. "I'm fine!" It wasn't enough to convince her friend, who was now more worried. "Amity, if you're tired we can just stop." She had sounded so worried and now so sad that all Amity wanted to do was hug and comfort the human. "I said I'm fine!" It had come out harsher than the witch had intended, making the human take a step back in slight fear. Amity wanted to punch herself then. "I'm sorry Luz. I didn't mean to sound like that. But I'm fine." The witch forced a smile and did another spell circle, miscalculating the size and losing her balance, making the spell circle be more like an oval. The witch became worried for a second, but it couldn't be that bad, all she had to do was dismiss it. As she tried to break the spell, it only grew bigger and bigger, changing from pink to gold. "Uhhh... Amity?" Luz gulped. Amity was currently freaking out, she couldn't dismiss whatever spell she had done,  which was most definitely not a teletransportation spell. "Amity what is that?!" Luz asked nervously. Amity tried to desperately find an answer, yet she had no idea what was going on. "Amity!? It's getting bigger! Why is it getting bigger!?" The human asked, anxiety eating her alive, she had become so pale that it was almost scary. Amity looked at the spell, it was now way bigger than the last time she saw it, now the size of a door, its inside was no longer transparent and now light was shining from the inside of the circle. Amity was about to answer, to try and think of an answer, but was silenced by an explosion of light that took place beside them, blinding both girls.

Were they dead? Luz didn't know how to answer that. At that moment she wished she was dead, the bright lights made her cry out in pain, having to close her eyes not to let them burn. Yet the human wasn't only crying because of the lights hitting her eyes. She was also crying because the portal and blinding lights had been so similar to the ones in the owl door, the door that allowed her to go back home, home with her mami, the door that she had burned. "Luz? Luz!? Are you okay?! Where are you!? Answer me!" She heard Amity ask, desperate to know where she was, not being able to see what was going on. "I-i... here." Luz's answer came in the form of a whisper, not having the strength to say it louder. Amity's hands began to touch Luz, the witch let out a sigh when she found her. "I'm sorry!" Amity cried. Luz didn't say anything for a minute, trying desperately to make the 'bad thoughts' leave her mind and organize the messy and sad space inside her brain. She didn't have time to, two sets of footsteps startled the girls. Amity didn't have the strength to be able to defend them if an enemy came, she was also blind for the moment and so was Luz. The human slowly opened and closed her eyes, the natural light hitting painfully against her oversensitive eyes. She could make two female silhouettes in front of the portal, they were both much taller than Amity and her. She didn't know if she was hallucinating, but she could swear they looked like the older Amity and herself. No. That couldn't be true. Witches couldn't travel in time. It was magically impossible. Those girls had to be someone else.

"Holy shit!" Luz tensed immediately after hearing that. "What the fuck you asshole?! Told you it was a bad idea!" Luz felt herself about to cry once again. If those girls weren't Luz and Amity... then why did they have their voice?