A Valeween Night To Remember

Hurt

Time felt like it passed at a snail's pace as Luz made her way back to the Owl house. Far, far too many emotions and thoughts were spinning through her head for time to feel like it was proceeding at a normal pace. Things felt slow, and sluggish.

Even walking down the path back to Bonesbrough and to the Owl House - Paths that she had taken a thousand times before - Felt alien, and time-dilated to the absolute slowest possible point.

Not at all helping was feeling like there was a giant ball of lead in her stomach.

Eventually though, she made her way back to the Owl House, though what probably amounted to an hour long walk felt like it had taken three days. She didn't know how she looked, but she could only assume that it was like a mess. She certainly felt like one. Mercifully, Hooty didn't say a word to her as she approached, like he was able to himself see the state that she was in, and opted not to risk making it worse.

When the Human entered, Eda could immediately see that something was bothering the young Human, but could tell by the look on her face, and the way that she carried herself meant that more than anything else, she didn't want to talk about it. It was one of those things that one had to pick up by observing Luz, and the way her body language communicated a wide number of things, mostly in what it didn't show - When Luz was fine, she was expressive and energized. She wasn't now.

Most of the answers to the few questions that Eda shot her way came in the form of nods or shakes of the head, and maybe a hum. But barely two words outside of that. Eda made sure to keep her questions non-specific, letting Luz answer as much or as little as she wanted to.

Sometimes there were things that adults just needed to let kids sort out on their own. This was one of those things, Eda could already tell, and she would let Luz handle whatever it was on her own. Unless she asked for help, of course.

That, and the unfortunate reality was that Valeween was upon them come tomorrow. They really didn't have the time for a whole 'emotional arc' right now. And she doubted Luz would want to anyway.

"Dinner'll be ready in a few." She informed her student. "You want it now, or should I stasis it for you? Er, thumbs up for now, down for later." She got her answer a few seconds later. Thumbs down. "Gotcha. I'll leave it on the side for you. Get it whenever you're ready for it."

"...Thanks, Eda." Luz nodded.

"You know where everything is. Just... Come grab it when you need it, okay?"

Once more, Luz nodded, thankful that Eda didn't make any effort to pry, so that she didn't need to put any effort into pretending things were fine.

With that, she made her way up the stairs, and to her room. As soon as she saw her bed, she all but collapsed at the side of it, and let her torso sprawl out over the side of the bed. Her hands gripped the duvet, and it took just about all of Luz's self restraint to not scream into the void then and there.

Luz had screwed up. Big time. And she was acutely, oh-so-very aware of just how badly she had screwed up.

Initially, she had actually been angry at Amity - Like, legitimate, self-righteous anger fuelled her for probably the first time in her life. Because she didn't know where... All of that had come from. It felt like it had come out of nowhere, out of a day that had seemed to be going so well.

Like she had been attacked for no good reason by her friend.

And it hurt. How Amity had spoken to her, the things that she had said... It all hurt. And the natural response to that was supposed to be anger.

Part of Luz wanted to be angry - Anger would have been easier to deal with. It would have been easier for her to imagine that Amity had gone off on her the way that she had for no reason whatsoever. She hadn't done anything to warrant the way Amity had spoken to her!...