Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A blank screen, that’s what she’s been staring at for the past several hours.

She itched to draw, to pour her creativity into a piece of art and lose herself in the process while she looks for the correct tones to depict precisely what kind of feeling she needed to show. 

But, when she opened her art program, she had nothing to work on. She’d completed her work in progress arts a few days ago, before deciding to take a rest and relax her aching wrist. She’s even searched online for drawing inspirations, but absolutely none of them managed to grab her attention enough to turn it into a complete piece. 

The only thing lighting the room was the screen illuminating the dark bedroom, projecting grayish blue sparkles that coordinates her current mindset. Millions of indecipherable thoughts race through her mind, each attempting to give her something to draw before she inevitably gives up. It was becoming overwhelming.

Luz sighs and taps her pen on the side of the table for the hundredth time that day, switching to another tab to continue scrolling. Maybe if she keeps looking, she’ll find something . 

Her phone vibrates next to her and her eyes dart down to the corner of the screen, brows pulling together when she sees the time. Her mother shouldn’t be on her way home for another four to five hours, and she has a specific notification tone set for the group chat she’s on with her friends.

“Probably a scam text…” Luz mutters, setting her pen down to grab her phone. She clicks it on and immediately notices the unfamiliar number on the screen. Using her fingerprint, she unlocks her phone and opens the text, her finger hovering over the trash bin button at the corner of the screen.

She pauses.

The first thing she sees is bright mint green brushed to the side delicately, revealing the auburn roots that were beginning to grow back out, stretching down to just below the girl’s ears. 

Dazzling golden eyes are the next to catch Luz’s attention, gazing up at the camera with an unreadable expression that Luz would rather call ‘curiosity’.

The girl is wearing a black, off-the-shoulder shirt with a golden crescent moon hanging around her neck, just below a black choker; a pair of velvet pink leggings complete the outfit.

“Eres preciosa. ”

Luz shakes her head and looks at the message down below, clearly not meant for her. It reads: ‘How is this outfit for next week?’

She must’ve intended to send it to her boyfriend. Luz stares at the text for a moment, debating whether or not she should answer, or tell her that she has the wrong number. A thought comes to her and she reaches over to turn the light on, a small voice in the back of her head scolding her as she opens her phone’s camera.

Luz uses her reflection in the screen to fix her short, brown hair into something that looked at least a little stylish. She poses with a playful expression and captures the picture, texting back with a caption that says: ‘I think it looks hot!’

She presses the arrow for the picture to send and trepidation immediately bites at her spine, a voice in her head reprimanding her for what she’d just pulled. “Why did I do that?!” She shouts out loud, hysterically moving to attempt to prevent the content from sending. 

Her stomach plummets. It was sent. 

Well now she looked like a creep! Who does that?! “Bad Luz.” She scolds herself verbally, shaky hands grabbing her phone when it vibrates again. The artist closes her eyes and prays for the best before reluctantly opening her text messages again, she closes one eye and grimaces as she peeks out of the other, reading the new text below.

‘You’re not Emira…’

Three dots dance at the bottom of the screen.

‘Actually, you’re kind of cute. Do you have a name?’ 

Luz swears her whole world was turned upside down as she processes the text she’d just read. She has to be imagining it. The beautiful, wrong-text girl did not just call her cute. She was dreaming, she has to be, she would wake up any second now.

Nope.

Not dreaming…

She starts texting back before panic settles in, swallowing her nerves and taking on a confident act. ‘How do you know I like girls? ’

A few seconds later, another image is sent and Luz only barely manages to stop herself from beating her head against the wall. ‘Good job!’ She mutters to herself. The picture was a screenshot of the bi flag strung up behind her; well, the edge of it, but it was still recognizable. 

Recovering, she returns to her phone and finally answers. ‘Touche. My name’s Luz, what’s yours, angel? ’ She can feel her consciousness biting at her the moment she sends the message, and her inner voice groaning in exasperation while another side is poking at her to see just how far she can go.

The three dots dance at the bottom of the screen again. 

‘ Charming. ’

Well, she wasn’t repulsed! That’s a start. A spark of excitement grows within her and she messages back happily. ‘I try. ’

Luz scrolls back up to the picture that started all of this, tapping on the picture and sending it through the search on the internet. She wanted to be sure she wasn’t talking to a catfish, because there was absolutely no way-

Her stomach grows cold when the results appear on her screen, as well as the text that drops down above. How did she not recognize the girl sooner…? They had to be a catfish, a predator, because there was no way in Hell that Amity Blight herself was texting her. 

She was internet famous! Her blog hit over a million views in less than a month only half-a-year ago and her content has been sky-rocketing since then. For nearly four weeks, she was all the talk in school.

Three months ago, she turned eighteen years old and confidently revealed her sexuality to the world in rebuttal to some boys who manage to squeeze themselves into her DMs. 

The disgusted look on the pale girl’s face when she mentioned some of the pictures she’d been sent was hilarious. It’d become a meme for a good six weeks or so.

That’s why there was no way that the person texting her was Amity Blight. It couldn’t be. 

She just has to prove it.

Maybe she could expose them for their lies by finding the exact picture they’d sent her. Report them to for attempted identity theft. Luz scrolls through the girl’s Instagram account, hope swelling within her as she descends further in search of the picture. 

She stops, noticing that the influencer’s appearance has changed drastically since her older posts. Luz’s eyes flicker up to the top of the screen. The tanned girl smirks and opens Amity’s Instagram on her computer, sitting back into her chair and texting back via her phone.

‘No way you’re Amity Blight...’

A moment later, Amity’s profile icon lit up with a circle around it, announcing that she’d just posted a new story. Luz clicks it and she’s momentarily taken aback, seeing the green-haired sitting with a hand under her chin and a smug look on her face. The caption read ‘yes I am’.

Luz shakes her head. ‘That was a coincidence. ’ She presses send, unconvinced.

The message is read.

The IG profile pic lights up again and Luz reopens it, leaning back again when the girl is seen wearing an amused, but bewildered look on her face. 

That one couldn’t be a coincidence. ‘Not convinced. ’

Luz stares at the icon for a minute or two, waiting for the notification to show up again. As if on cue, it turns purple and she clicks, nearly dropping her phone from her spare hand upon seeing the first picture sent to Luz. The caption states ‘I’ve been told I look hot in this outfit.’

Was she toying with her? Luz unlocks her phone and quickly texts back. ‘What? No. That doesn’t count. A lot of people say she’s hot. No proof. ’ She slams her phone back on the desk, her eyes widening when she becomes aware of her action. She turns her phone over to check the screen. “Okay, we're good.” She looks back up when the icon draws a circle around it and her brows pull together, she cautiously taps the picture. It was a video. 

Amity raises a brow at the camera and points above her, where Luz’s text has been cropped into a single picture to conceal her identity. 

Stiffly, Luz rises to her feet and ambles over to her bed with a blank expression. She tilts herself forward and she falls horizontally across the sheets, she grabs a pillow with one hand and stuffs her face into it. Luz lets out a scream.

Her phone is vibrating.

She frowns suspiciously and leans over to grab it from her chair, she taps the green button, raising the phone to her ear and expecting the worst. 

“How’s that for proof?” The angelic voice laughs from the other end of the line, washing away all of Luz’s doubts and insecurities. 

This was Amity Blight.

Luz smiles a little and leans back comfortably, excitement coursing through her and causing her to feel slightly restless. She stands up to pace the room. “Are you sure you should be calling strangers, Blight?” She teases. “They could have bad intentions.”

Amity answers almost immediately, sounding thoroughly amused. “Do you have bad intentions? I know five different ways to kill someone and efficiently hide a body without the media ever finding out.”

Luz stops, rethinking the young lady from the photos she'd seen. She'd looked so sweet, timid, and honest! ‘That’s kind of hot.’  Her subconscious mutters in awe, Luz has never wanted to beat herself up more. “No?” She finally responds.

The other girl giggles, “Then I have nothing to worry about, do I?”

How did a wrong text turn out so wonderfully?

Chapter Text

Luz’s heart flutters as she watches the green-haired girl dance across the screen, the romantic music playing in the background becomes permanently engraved into her memory, as well as the white and black caption across the center of the video. 

Golden eyes look back up at the camera as the video comes to an end; it closes with a playful wink and a kiss blown, intended for one person in particular.

“Not so subtle, are you?” Luz whispers in amusement. “Ha! ‘Oh I’ll keep it subtle’ she says, yeah right.” She mocks. “What kind of subtle is that?”

She swipes up to view the comments and lets out a snort when she sees that most of them were written in all caps, announcing their excitement or their astonishment at the clear-as-day reveal that Amity Blight has a girlfriend, while some remain bewildered about the heavy implication behind the video.

They’ve been dating for three months now and just recently, Amity decided it was time to let the world know. 

The video was recorded about a week ago, but the app stated that it was broadcasted live. Thank God for technological advancement… 

Luz scrolls back up to rewatch the video and a small smile tugs at the corner of her lips when the kiss was blown again. She’d been holding the phone, as requested by her girlfriend. She suggested editing it out, but it only added to the mysterious vibe they wanted to display, so they kept it.

A presence appears behind her and Luz glances over her shoulder, rolling her eyes when she sees a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl with way too much eyeliner staring back at her with a smug grin. “Ah, you watch Amity Blight?” She asks, “You hear that she has a girlfriend?”

“Well, if the video is anything to go off of,” Luz clicks her phone off when a notification flashes at the top of the screen, “then yes. I have.”

“I saw you smiling.” The girl coos harshly, “You like her, don’t you, Noceda?” Luz rolls her eyes and faces away from her, not wanting to deal with her crap. She pauses when she hears her bully’s brother speak up, sounding just as condescending as his sister.

“Haha! Too bad she’s way out of your league!”

His sister elbows him, “You’re not even anywhere near her league,” she scoffs and brushes her blonde hair back, placing a hand on her hip, “but he’s right. Besides,” her voice becomes taunting and irritates to swell inside of Luz’s chest, “she’s already got a girlfriend! As if she would ever like someone like you.”

Luz just smiles in response, not allowing her annoyance to show through. “Okay.”

She leaves and releases a sigh of exasperation as she steps off campus, quickening her pace and removing her phone from her pocket to finally answer the text she’d received.

‘ Waiting at your car. ’

Well, technically it was her mother’s car until she could afford to rent one of her own. ‘ On my way, had to deal with Emily again. ’

She clicks her phone off as she comes around the corner of the school building to approach the parking lot. Luz slides her hands into her pockets, the phone still in hand, and looks up to see a girl with long, dark raven hair leaning up against an old Chevrolet. 

Considering Luz didn’t want her identity out to the media, Amity had suggested using a disguise for herself whenever they meet up. So far, it was working well. Only, they had to struggle to come up with a cover name when Luz’s aunt (figuratively) Eda found out.

A cover name didn’t work for long as Eda had her suspicions and caught them alone when Amity wasn’t wearing her wig. She promised not to tell anybody and supported them fully, but she didn’t pass up the opportunity to tease Luz about it.

Golden eyes snap upwards as Luz approaches and she gives a flirtatious grin, it was answered with an amused smirk and one brown brow raised in greeting. 

“Well, hello to you, too.” Amity laughs as Luz throws her arms around her, she melts into the hug and rests her chin on Luz’s shoulder. “Are you sure you don’t want me to do anything about this… Emily?” 

Ever since they started dating, Amity has become rather protective of her. In a good way.

She wasn’t possessive, she just didn’t seem to like the idea of anything bad happening to her. That includes her everyday school bullies. 

“I’m positive,” Luz responds, stepping around the vehicle to open the driver’s door. “Also, no, you can’t call her out on her crap on Instagram like you did Dustin.”

Amity ducks into the passenger’s side, removing her wig with a relieved sigh. “I thought it was Justin?” Her voice barely reaches Luz’s ears as she is fixated on the auburn roots starting to spill around her girlfriend’s shoulders, contrasting the mint green.

“Luz?”

She mentally slaps herself back to reality.

“No, that’s his brother,” Luz answers quickly, clearing her throat to start the vehicle. “I don’t understand why parents name their twins names that sound alike… If I had a twin and my Mom named us similar sounding names, I’d be so mad.”

The pale girl looks over at her and a moment of silence fills the vehicle, replaced by the vehicle whirring to life. The car starts rolling forward.  “I have two siblings,” Amity confesses as Luz pulls out of the parking lot, her voice sounds bitter, yet sad. “Emira and Edric, they’re twins…” 

“See? Their names sound nothing alike.” Luz catches onto her solemn tone immediately, hoping to make her smile again. “Imagine if your brother was named Emeric. Or Emira was named Erica.” 

“Oh, they’d hate that.” The brunette scoffs with a happy smile, rolling her eyes. “But, their names both start with ‘E’, I think that’s close enough.”

Luz stays quiet, processing the information. “Good point.”  She shakes her head, brushing the conversation aside and pulling out onto the road. Amity has gone quiet, and the silence is unsettling. She breaks it;  “You want some food?”

Amity doesn’t answer.

“Amity?” She glances over at her, noticing the girl staring out of the side mirror with wide eyes. Luz looks into the rearview mirror and sees a black mustang pulling up behind them. The windows are tinted so they cannot see who is inside. “Do you know them?”

Her brows crease together in irritation and her lip curls.

“No.” 

She was lying.

“So, um,” Luz speaks to break the silence and hopefully ease the tension that had floated into the car, Amity’s gaze is still fixed on the car behind them, her body stiff. “I got some money to spare, you wanna eat out?”

A loud thud reverberates through the car as Amity slams herself against the door, her eyes wide and her face as red as a tomato. “What?!” 

“I asked what you wanted to eat…” Luz prepares herself for yet another shriek. She’s met by silence. Amity blinks several times and she slowly relaxes as realization washes over her delicate features. “What did you think I said?”

The brunette’s breath audibly hitches and she faces away from Luz, staring at the road in front of them with an expression of humiliation and horror. She says nothing, Luz doesn’t even hear her breathing. “Amity,” golden eyes glance at her in acknowledgment, the look on her face doesn’t change, “breathe.” She lets out a breath through her nose and her eyelids flutter closed.

“Whatever’s fine with me, food-wise.” She murmurs at last and Luz turns on her blinker, getting into the turn lane as they approach the red light. “They’re still behind us, by the way…” Luz looks into the rearview mirror and grumbles as the mustang rolls up behind them again. She frowns.

Amity has her wig off. Oh, of course, she should’ve seen this coming.

“Think they may be a stalker?” She utters quietly, as though the people behind them would hear what she’s saying. “They could’ve seen you take the wig off… Didn’t you say there’s been someone following you?”

For the last several weeks, Amity admitted to noticing strange figures following her around everywhere she goes. One time, they followed her back to her apartment, but she can never get a good look at them to give any sort of description.

Amity nods cautiously. “Should I call the police?”

Luz bites her lip, conflict growing inside her chest. On her side of town, the police didn’t seem to care about you or what was happening to you unless you were white, bonus points if you’re straight. Luz was neither of those things… 

Her last run-in with a cop resulted in nearly being taken to jail. The reason? Her vehicle matched a description of another that was spotted fleeing the scene of an attempted murder, the cops hadn’t exactly been too gentle.

Unless you call having a gun pointed at you, slung to the ground, and handcuffed because you reached for your driver’s license ‘gentle’. 

“I don’t trust the police…” Luz finally admits, turning into the drive-through of a McDonald’s and stopping behind an SUV. “But you can if you want to, I won’t stop you.”

Amity sends her a puzzled look. “Why don’t you trust them…?” She sounds worried but wary. “They saved my brother when he was being held at gunpoint…”

Luz raises a brow, “Is your brother a straight white male, rich by any chance?” 

Amity hesitates. “Well, for the most part…”

“Exactly. They don’t care about people like me or people of color in general.” Amity’s grip around her phone tightens, and Luz continues. “Their first assumption upon seeing us would be that I’m kidnapping you and you’re referring to me, they’d probably even be asking you in private if you need help escaping. Why? Because you’re white.” 

“Then, who do you call when you’re in trouble…?”

Luz offers her a sad smile. “It depends on the situation… Some of us just close our eyes and hope for the best.”

Amity sighs and sets her phone on her lap, seemingly regretting her suggestion. The vehicle in front of them moves forward and Luz drives around to the intercom, quickly giving her order and asking Amity what she wanted. The brunette just smiles and Luz asks for two of the same order, she could tell that the woman didn’t want to say anything.

She pulls forward to the paying window. She pays and the window shuts, they’re left waiting for the other car to leave so they can receive their food. A couple of eyes dart at Amity questioningly, but no comments are said. 

“I’m sorry…” Amity’s voice is meek, yet cautious. Luz looks over at her, confused.  “I’ve been told my whole life that cops are the good guys.”

“It’s alright,” Luz responds in understanding, “if you trust them to help, then call them. I may not trust them, but I trust you.”

Amity shakes her head, she sounds bitter when she speaks. “I don’t want them to possibly hurt you.” She rubs her forehead and looks out the rearview mirror, groaning in annoyance at something that Luz is unable to see. Stupid blind spot. “Besides, I don’t think they are any danger… Depending on what they want.”

Luz’s brows pull together in bewilderment as she approaches the window, she thanks the man handing them their food and offers Amity’s bag to her. “Should I pull over? Do you know them?” 

Amity nods and she turns the wheel to position the car in a parking space. She shuts the engine off and leans back to open the bag, the passenger door opens and she looks over to see her girlfriend stepping out.

She’s still not wearing her wig. It was a miracle the workers hadn’t said anything.

“Ames?” She calls, not daring to get out of the vehicle in case of being spotted. “Where are you-”

“So this is the cutie that Mittens was always gushing about.” 

Luz’s head whips around to see a tall, slender woman with dark green hair braided over her shoulder. Her golden eyes match Amity’s, “Um, hello.” She greets, puzzled. This girl was rather attractive… Another figure catches her attention and notices another boy approaching them with a smug smile, Amity’s behind him, her hair is disheveled and she’s wearing a look of pure agitation. 

Man, if looks could kill… 

“Luz, right?” He greets her, and she nods. “I’m Edric, Mittens’ older brother.”

The ponytail girl steps up next to him, Luz is momentarily taken back. They looked identical, yet so different… Was she seeing double or not? “And I’m Emira.”

Damn, were all the Blight siblings good-looking? Is that even legal? 

Edric’s face suddenly becomes very serious, his voice is quiet. Luz can barely hear him, but his tone is threatening. “But if you hurt our baby sister, we’ll make sure your body is never found.” 

A tremor of fear races up Luz’s spine.

“We are not losing another one,” Emira adds.

“And you two can leave now, you’ve met her.” Amity’s irritated voice interrupts and she steps between them, that only seems to fuel the smug looks on her siblings’ faces. 

“Aw, Mittens! I’m hurt!” Edric exclaims dramatically, Luz can’t help but snort when she sees Amity’s face slowly turning red with rage. “We only want to make sure our baby sister is safe!”

Emira steps in this time, feigning concern. “Can you blame us? You’ve been sneaking around so much recently.” She smirks, “Then we discover that you have a sweetheart you haven’t told us about! We were worried!”

Luz has never seen Amity so mad before. Her lip quirks up and she folds her arms beneath her, leaning outside of the car window. 

“Gatita,” Amity’s eyes snap towards her, daring her to say another word, “you only told me about your siblings a few minutes ago. Why are you keeping secrets from us, hm?” Edric lets out a bark of laughter, and Emira is giggling in amusement. Amity, on the other hand, looks like she’s already planned out three different ways to murder her. “Don’t look at me like that, you know you love me.”

Amity growls at her. “I’m seriously starting to regret it, too.”

Edric and Emira suddenly step in front of her and Luz lifts her head. “Come on, Mittens, that’s no way to talk to your girlfriend.” Edric scolds light-heartedly. 

“Well, since you treat her so badly,” Emira pats Luz’s head mockingly and she leans back, unsure how to feel about it upon seeing the look of jealousy on her girlfriend’s face, “perhaps we could take her off your hands?”

“Get. Out!” Amity snaps, taking a forceful step toward them. “You got what you wanted! Now leave!”

The twins laugh and amble away from the vehicle, “Alright, alright, we’re going!” Edric calls back, jogging over to the black mustang. 

Emira stops and looks back at them. “I like this one. Keep her, Amity.” The named girl growls again and the older girl just rolls her eyes, “Don’t worry. We’re happy for you!” She looks back at Luz, “See you around!” With that, she quickly leaves to join her brother.

Luz chuckles as Amity stomps around to get into the passenger’s side, slamming the door as she sits down. “Wow, I’ve never seen you so mad!” Amity glares at her and Luz holds her hands up in defense, “Look, I’m sorry, but I really don’t think your siblings were trying to be mean…”

“You don’t know them,” Amity grumbles.

“You’re right, I don’t.” Luz agrees, “But, I can tell that they care about you… I mean, it’s weird, but they care.” She starts the car again, reaching for one of her fries. “If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t have bothered with any of this…” Is anything she was saying making sense? “You didn’t tell them where you were going, nor that you had a girlfriend. If they didn’t care, they wouldn’t have wanted to find out whether or not you were safe.”

Amity sighs, “They just keep butting in on my personal life, acting like they’re so perfect…”

Luz closes her eyes, her hands tightening around the steering wheel as she lets out a breath, shuddering. “Amity, just be happy that your siblings are here, okay?”

Amity looks at her, concerned. Luz shakes her head once, trying to refocus on the road. She wasn’t ready to tell her, not yet.

Chapter Text

Luz opens her eyes and she sits up with an audible grunt, flexing her right arm as it begins to tingle back to life, feeling like a thousand bees thrumming against her nerves. Her eyes find the alarm clock and she lets out a heavy, tired sigh when sees that she has twenty minutes left until it goes off to signal that it is time for school.

Morning light filters through her purple-ish curtains, casting a glow across her small, yet very decorated bedroom. The window had been left slightly ajar to allow cool air to flow freely through the room, she can hear birds chirping outside as the morning slowly breaks. 

The sound of breathing grabs her attention and she leans over the edge of her bed, letting out a chuckle of amusement and reaching for her phone beneath her pillow. Amity slept on the floor, curled up in a fetal position with a loose blanket tucked around her front and splaying across the carpet. The pillow was long forgotten behind her.

Clicking for a picture, Luz shuts her phone off and leans down to tap the girl’s shoulder. Amity doesn’t budge, she’s still sound asleep. As much as she wished not to disturb her, she had to if she didn’t want to be late for school. Amity was a Straight A’s student after all. 

“Ames.” She whispers, shaking the brunette’s shoulder and causing her to jolt awake, immediately going into defense mode. Amity was about to attack before she looked up through bleary golden eyes, seemingly recognizing Luz and visibly relaxing. “Sorry.” Luz apologizes with a shy smile, “It’s 6:01, we need to get ready for school.”

Amity hums and sits up, stretching before pulling herself to stand up, using the bed as leverage. She stumbles briefly, holding her arms out to regain her balance. Amity finally turns back to Luz, now a little more awake. “You need to prepare for school,” she murmurs tiredly, “we don’t return until the 13th.”

Luz scoffs incrediculity. “Lucky!”

“Not really.” Amity grabs her bag from next to Luz’s beanbag and swings it over her shoulder tiredly. “I’m going to get a shower to wake myself up a little more, then I’ll head home.”

Wait.

The tanned girl scrambles off the bed and scampers in front of the door, blocking Amity’s exit as adrenaline shoots through her veins like a bullet. 

“My mother may be down there,” she informs her quietly as though the mentioned woman was listening, Amity raises a brow curiously. “I can’t let her know that I had anyone over without her permission! She’ll kill me!”

Amity sighs and glances towards the window. “Want me to leave through there?” She asks genuinely.

Luz blinks several times, processing the request. “What?” She shakes her head, “No! She’ll definitely see you if she’s in the lounge!” She gestures for Amity to follow and quietly creaks the door open, “Come on, I’ll try to sneak you out.” 

“Try to sneak who out?”

Her blood turns cold as dread settles inside and Luz stiffly turns around to see her mother standing in the hallway, carrying a laundry basket with an annoyed expression on her face. 

“Mamá!” She greets nervously, straightening her posture and folding her hands behind her back with an all-too-innocent smile on her face. Luz laughs, “I wasn’t trying to sneak naybody-” She pauses, processing what she’d just said. “Anybody! I wasn’t trying to sneak anybody out!”

Her mother raises a brow in disbelief and Luz sees Amity retreating to the window out of the corner of her eye. “What do you take me for? A fool?” She sets the clothes basket down, a tremor of fear races up the teenager’s spine and she shrinks under the woman’s hard glare. “Move.” 

Luz swallows hard and reluctantly steps out of her way, allowing her to enter the room.

Amity stops just at the window and her eyes meet with Camila’s, she carefully steps down from the windowsill. She moves as though one wrong step will cost her her life. “Hello,” she greets apprehensively, Amity raises her hands and glances at Luz as if asking for help. “We didn’t do anything, I promise. It was just a sleep-”

Camila turns back to Luz, who immediately cowers away. “You brought a girl over without discussing it with me first? Sabes mejor que hacer eso! ” The tone of her voice was like venom. “ ¿Recuerdas lo que pasó con tu hermana ?”

Well, hopefully she’ll have a nice funeral.

“I-I remember.” Luz whispers meekly, taking the quiet sigh her mother released as her cue to move. She approaches Amity, who is watching them warily. “Mamá.” The woman looks at them and Luz offers a tiny smile an attempt to lighten the situation, “ Esta es mi novia … Amity.”

“ Tu novia ?” Camila repeats in disbelief, but Luz just nods in response and the woman’s face becomes unreadable as she looks at Amity. The brunette meets her eyes and her own expression becomes hardened, almost as if she’s preparing for the worst. It was so… practiced.

Finally, Camila comes forward, looking at Luz. “Although I do not like being lied to about having a stranger in my home, I will allow it to slide this one time .” Luz sighs in relief and a weight lifts up off of her shoulders, her mother looks at Amity. “You may call me Camila, I figured my daughter was seeing somebody, but I didn’t suspect that it would be you.”

“What do you mean?” Luz asks carefully.

Camila gives her a weird look. “I work in a hospital and most of my patients are children. You think I do not know Amity Blight?”

Amity interrupts, her golden eyes wide. “You work at the hospital? Clear Hope?”

Camila smiles broadly, “ Si ! Have for many years before I had children of my own!” She makes a small gesture towards Amity, politely speaking to her now that the tension in the room has faded. “You read to the children, no?”

Wait, what?

The brunette giggles sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck as heat rises to her pale cheeks. “Um, yeah, I do…” Well if that isn’t the most adorable thing in the world, she doesn’t know what is. “I was actually hoping that nobody would recognize me.”

“You created yourself a name there amongst them, they look forward to it.” Camila informs her and Amity grins happily, the woman’s gaze softens and she lets out a sigh, turning back to Luz. “Next time she comes over, give me a call first. Amity, stay as long as you’d like.” She suddenly becomes serious and a thick tension fills the air around her. “But if I learn that you girls are doing anything you shouldn’t be doing in my home-”

Luz cuts her off. “No worries! We won’t! I promise!” She shoos her mother towards the door with Amity following close behind her, “Amity has to go home now anyway.”

“I have to start moving in, actually.” Amity corrects quietly, placing her hand on Luz’s shoulder. “I got the apartment I told you that I applied for,” she looks at Camila, “my parents refuse to help me and my siblings are who knows where… So, I was going to ask Luz, but perhaps the two of you could help me? After school, of course.”

The tan girl immediately looks at her mother for her response, eagerly waiting to hear a positive answer. 

“Very well,” Camila sighs in defeat.

Amity’s apartment was the equivalent of a condo, which makes considering that it was built in an expensive apartment complex. 

Just as you walk in, there are two large glass windows across from the door with a pristine white floor and a gentle, silverish brown texture across the walls, giving it a marbled appearance. To the right was a spacious lounge, a circular room that breaks off into a hallway leading to the black and white kitchen. At their left were two bedrooms, the bathroom, and the laundry room.

The bedrooms were both white with a polished wooden floor, the master bedroom has a balcony stretching out to overlook the rest of the city, while offering a nice view of the mountains in the distance.

The best part? It wasn’t too far from Luz’s home, it’s only about a twenty minute walk!

“So!” Luz grins as she bounces up to Amity’s side, briefly startling the star. Amity shakes her head, returning herself to reality. “What’s first, Chief?” She asks, making a gesture to the unopened boxes that they’d just finished bringing in. Her mother was organizing them in the corner, agitated by the disorder of the way they’d brought them in.

“Decorations,” Amity smirks, “we can get the furniture later. I have some ideas I want to do before I forget.” She says, strolling over to cut open a box on top of the stack Camila was building. 

Camila speaks up, “I would wait to do the decorations later. That way you can work around the furniture.”

Amity smiles politely, “No need, you two can head on home. Thank you for your help!” She answers as she removes a folded banner from the box, “I’m decorating my studio first, the only furniture in there will be my desk.” 

The woman looks over at Luz as Amity walks away to approach the guest bedroom, the room she’d claimed as her shooting studio for her blog. “Studio?” Her mother asks in bewilderment. “What does she mean?”

Ah, so she didn’t know.

“Amity is an internet star,” Luz explains, picking up the box to carry it to Amity.

Camila’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“She runs her own blog, has nearly a million followers on Instagram, and she’ll be collabing with a famous Youtuber here soon.” She’d been informed of this yesterday, while they’d been up all night discussing whatever came to mind. “She’s planning on starting her own channel.” Luz laughs heartily. “How do you think she could afford this apartment?”

“She’s famous?” Camila repeats.

Luz nods, “Yeah. Her name is becoming big, too! I can’t wait to see where it takes her.” She nudges the door open with her foot. “Anyway, I’ll stay here and help Amity for a few. Okay?” 

“Are you sure?” Camila sounds worried.

“I’ll call you when I start heading home,” Luz promises, “I won’t be long.” She tells her, turning to enter the studio just as Amity sets her phone down. The brunette glances up as she walks into the room. “Where do you want everything?”  Luz asks as she sets the box down next to the girl, who raises a brow in confusion.

“I said you could-”

Luz cuts her off, “You did, but I wanna help.” She informs her genuinely, “If you really want me to leave, I will.”

Amity sighs, “No, it’s alright. ” She makes a small gesture around the room, “I wanted to post my new studio reveal on my blog, but,” the brunette chuckles happily, “I suppose I could allow my girlfriend to assist behind the scenes.”

“Well!” Luz claps her hands together, “Let’s get to work!”

Three hours later, the studio was mostly complete. The only thing missing was Amity’s desk, which she would set up alone with her own programming after it arrived.

Across from where the desk would be, there was a Girl In Red poster on the center of the wall, surrounded with little trinkets that Amity has received in her recently opened fanmail, such as an ornament that one of her dedicated followers had made for her out of stained glass; Amity in chibi form with the lesbian flag flying behind her.

Apparently it’d almost made her breakdown into tears after seeing how much positivity came out of revealing everything. Amity treasured the item like it was a priceless family heirloom. 

“There’s one thing left to open.” Luz announces, breaking out her stupor and drawing Amity’s attention to her. She grabs a bag from the door and her girlfriend visibly tenses, sighing as she takes it from her and hesitantly opens it. The gift was from her siblings, dropped off while they were decorating. Amity had been avoiding it.

“It’s probably some sort of prank.” She mutters, tossing the bag inside to unwrap something that had obviously been delicately handled. Amity pauses when she rips the first layer of wrapper off and her expression becomes one of grief and realization mixed into one. “Oh my God…”

Shaky fingers peel the rest of the paper off and she stretches the item out to reveal a handmade lesbian banner with the words ‘let’s get one thing straight, I’m not’ printed on the front of it. 

“I like it!” Luz grins, “See? They do care!” Her smile fades when Amity doesn’t reciprocate, instead staring at the banner as though she’d seen a ghost. “Amity…?”

“They shouldn’t have touched it.” Amity’s voice drips venom, “they shouldn’t have touched anything of hers…” She shakes her head, rubbing her forehead with two fingers while grasping the loose banner in her spare hand. Amity seems to relax. “Can you grab me the chair, please?”

Luz nods and rushes over to grab the chair, taking it back to her and setting it to where Amity points. “Who is ‘her’?” 

Amity glances at her and steps onto the chair, using thumbtacks to hang the item up above her poster where it would be front and center. “It’s nothing.” She doesn’t sound so sure. “It’s just that they were thoughtless. Again.”

Luz shrugs, “I don’t know,” she motions to the banner, “seems pretty thoughtful to me.”

“I suppose they tried…” Amity finally admits defeat, stepping down and setting the chair out of the way. Seemingly deciding to brush the subject aside she grabs her phone from an empty box and unlocks it. Her eyes widen, she looks up at Luz. “Are you going to head home?” 

She probably should, it’s getting late and she still has homework to do. But, she doesn’t want to leave Amity in the mood she is in. “Maybe.”

“Alright, well,” Amity turns back to her, displaying her phone screen for Luz to see. “Apparently with the story I just posted, I caught you entering the room. I didn’t see it, but my viewers did.” She zooms in at the door to reveal the edge of the box and Luz’s shoe stepping around the corner. “They’re asking if the person in the background is my girlfriend.”

“Are you going to tell them?” 

The other girl hums, “I was thinking… Why don’t we continue teasing them for a while?” Luz raises a brow, asking a silent question that Amity understands. “I mean, post little things every now and then, but never enough for them to figure out who you are.”

Luz’s eyes light up and she practically bounces over to her girlfriend’s side, scrolling through the comments. “Oooo! Mystery!” She says in awe. “Yeah! Totally! I’m in!” 

“Excellent.” Amity laughs, stepping back towards the pile of blankets she’d arranged in the corner. She grabs Luz’s arm and pulls her down, resituating them so that she could curl comfortably against her and still look at her phone. “In that case, I won’t confirm, nor deny anything.”

Luz lifts one hand and places it on Amity’s forehead, brushing her brown bangs down into her eyes and holding them there, giggling as Amity attempts to claw her hand off of her face. 

“You have immobilized my legs, I am only getting my revenge.” Her only response was Amity sticking her tongue out at her, she just scoffs in amusement and Amity swats at her with her spare hand. Luz moves her hand down to thread her fingers through the other girl’s hair. 

“The identity thing.” She circles back around to their previous topic, “Brutal. I love it.” Luz pauses abruptly and she reaches into her jacket to grab her phone. “I should probably tell my Mom we’re keeping it a secret! Otherwise she’ll tell everybody she knows.”

Meaning, the entire hospital...

Chapter Text

Some time has passed since they’ve agreed to keep Luz’s identity a secret, Amity’s notifications on her blog, her Instagram, and her Twitter have been blowing up. Ever since she started her YouTube channel a few days ago, she’s been receiving comments there too. 

Keeping them on their toes, Amity posts little pictures and sayings, going in a roundabout and watching her viewers dig through the internet to try and locate her possible girlfriend. Several people claimed that they knew it was Boscha, Amity’s former-friend-now-rival, saying that they had managed to renew their friendship and ‘fell in love’.

The named girl was making no moves to deny this ridiculous theory, despite Amity stating several times that it was not Boscha. 

But, the internet was full of wild and preposterous theories. One person even had the gall to say that Amity had a boyfriend that she was keeping from the world, because she’s ‘not really a lesbian’. 

That comment enraged the brunette. It took prying the phone out of her hand, dragging her down onto the couch and trapping her in a cuddle for her to calm down. Well, actually, she fell asleep, but the point stands. 

Luz, on the other hand, is enjoying the mystery. She’s offered to participate in some of the pictures.

One of her favorites was when they got coffee only days prior, Luz was wearing gloves (don’t ask why, that’s not important, she was just helping Willow with something), and Amity snapped a picture of their drinks.

She’d captioned the photo with a sweet message saying ‘you got my heart, don’t know how you did it, but I love that you did’.

It was scheduled to be posted in only a few days, and Luz couldn’t wait to see everybody’s reactions to it. This one would prove that the secret girlfriend was definitely not Boscha, but then again, Luz has never met the girl.

They had a plan. Only one or two pictures that hint toward Luz’s identity before circling back towards Amity’s regular content; today’s post will be some of the clothes that a new fashion brand that Emira suggested to them. The company was more than happy to collaborate.

Except, some of the samples they sent didn’t exactly sit right with Luz. 

“Are you sure you want this picture to be scheduled to post?” 

Luz glares at the picture on the screen with a look of jealousy and discomfort, she shifts her weight to her other leg and clicks the phone off to look at her girlfriend. Amity gives an affirmative noise, pulling her old, black t-shirt over her head. 

They’d just finished taking a photoshoot in Amity’s bedroom at her new apartment, there were several boxes stacked up around the little place, untouched. The bedroom was the only room that was fully furnished.

“What’s wrong with it?” Amity asks, folding a pink t-shirt and laying it inside an open dresser drawer. She nudges an unopened box aside, revealing a wall outlet behind it,  strolling over and taking her phone from her girlfriend, repositioning the picture on her schedule and setting a date.

“They said this outfit should be one of the best, and you said you liked it?” 

Under her breath, Amity whispers that her phone is dying. The phone is set down next to her while she searches for her charger. 

“Oh I do like it,” Luz confirms with a soft smile, strolling over and delicately embracing the brunette from behind and resting her chin on her shoulder. Amity glances over her shoulder. “It’s just that…” She trails off, glaring down at the fading screen as a notification comes in. “What if they like it a little too much…?”

Amity grits her teeth in momentary disgust before closing her eyes, accepting the situation. “Well, there’s always going to be those kinds of people, Luz. There’s nothing we can do. Besides, the picture isn’t even explicit.” 

Amity carefully slides her arms from around her waist, and she picks up her phone charger with a blank expression. There’s no light in her eyes, there’s nothing, just completely devoid of anything. She’s moody. That’s not okay. Luz needs to make her smile somehow. 

With Amity momentarily caught off guard, Luz swiftly moves forward and wraps her arms around the other girl again, giggling when she yelps in surprise and tilting themselves back onto the queen-sized bed behind them. 

She releases her and Amity twists around to hover over her, she’s wearing an unreadable glare on her face. “No.” She says harshly, pushing herself up and off of her. “I’m not in the mood.”

Yep, that didn’t work. If a cuddle attack wouldn’t achieve anything, nothing will.

“Psch,” Luz scoffs, “yes, you’ve been moody all day. It’s like talking to a brick wall that bites when you touch it.”

Amity sighs heavily, she puts her phone on charge and turns around to lay next to Luz, crossing her arms beneath her chin. Luz rolls over on her side to look at her, but Amity doesn’t make eye contact. Something is bothering her. 

“I’m sorry,” she apologizes sincerely, voice cracking. She’s quiet for another second, regaining her composure. “Something’s been weighing on my mind recently, this month has never been easy for me. It hasn’t been for the last few years.”

“Why is that?” Luz asks curiously, setting her own grief aside and focusing on her stressed girlfriend. She reaches out to touch Amity’s arm, but she doesn’t react. It’s like she doesn’t even remember that she’s there.  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” 

There’s a minute or two of complete silence, Luz can hear the clock ticking as it’s the only sound in the room. 

Finally, Amity speaks. 

“Something bad happened to someone I care about.” 

Oh, the irony… 

Luz sits up, “Do you wanna talk about it?” She inquiries in hope that it’ll relieve whatever has been bothering her. She can only fake that smile for so long until the world around her begins to crumble, Luz knows from experience. 

Amity shakes her head and pushes herself up to sit on her knees. “Not right now,” she answers, sliding off the bed, “you should probably head home. My Mother and Father are coming by later… I don’t want them knowing who you are.”

Well, that’s curious. She doesn’t mention her parents often.

“Are they racist?” Luz questions. 

“No…” She’s partially lying. “They’re homophobic , and they would rather have a dead-” She cuts herself off, choking on her own words. Amity’s hand turns into a fist and she becomes tense, nails digging into her palms. “Just go home, Luz, please.”

She was pleading…

Luz nods silently, “Okay.” She agrees reluctantly.  “See you tomorrow?”

“Maybe.” Amity replies, not bothering to look at Luz as she exits the room. Luz pauses at the entryway to look at the pale girl, whose arms are tight around her sides as if trying to offer herself some sort of consolation. 

“I’m here if you wanna talk, okay?” Luz whispers, hoping Amity would hear her. “I just wanna help…” 

Amity doesn’t answer. Luz sighs and heads outside, stepping into the apartment building hallway and heading towards the lobby. 

Something was bothering Amity, and Luz was going to find out what it was, whether she spoke to her or not. What if it was something involving her parents? She could be in danger, judging by the way she spoke of them. 

No, maybe she shouldn’t pry into this. It seems rather personal… Although, she couldn’t help but to worry. 

She hears the lobby door bell sounding off as she approaches, and glances up before moving out of the couple’s path. As they brush past her, Luz withdraws her phone to call her mother, wanting to let her know that she’ll be coming home early. 

“You!” A woman practically shrieks.

Luz stops in her tracks and looks over her shoulder, coming eye-to-eye with a pale-green haired woman. She raised a brow, noticing that the elder was looking straight at her with an expression of pure, unadulterated rage.

“How are you alive?! You should be dead! Killed for what you did!”

She was speaking to her, the words of the woman cut deep into her soul, despite being unaware of the meaning behind them. She had a pretty good idea, though. “Ma’am, I- I don’t even-”

“Odalia.” The woman’s husband places himself between them, shielding Luz from his wife’s ire. “She isn’t The Girl, the one you speak of isn’t among us anymore. The police made sure of that.” That seems to calm the fire in the woman’s eyes, but she still glares at Luz. “Come on, let’s go.” He gives her a nudge and she finally looks away from Luz, seeming to deem her unworthy of her time. 

Whomever the woman saw in her, she must bear a heavy resemblance to them.

The ride home was tense and quiet, driving through the neighborhood where the incident occurred was never easy, but it was always like a breath of fresh air when she returned home. 

Her mother should be getting up to head to work now, she’d taken up night shifts after what happened.

Luz swings the front door shut with the edge of her foot and slides her jacket off, hanging it haphazardly on the coat rack. Smelling something cooking in the kitchen, she strolls towards the room and smiles in greeting when her mother tiredly looks up at her, she’d just woken up to get ready for work.

But, apparently she insisted on wanting to make supper first. Which was needless considering Luz could cook something for herself. 

“What’re you making?” She asks, leaning over the countertop.

“La Bandera.” Camila answers, “Your sister’s favorite.”

Luz’s heart tightens upon the mention of her sibling, she was trying her best to forget that the anniversary of her death was just around the corner. She still hasn’t fully accepted that she’s gone, it just doesn’t feel real . 

Luz breathes in a shaky breath and she sits down, her legs are unstable. 

“Do you think they were telling the truth? About Lucia?” She asks quietly, Camila looks up at her through a glare. The teenager holds up her hands in defense and continues. “She would never do such a thing, but, what if she did…?”

“Luz.”

She looks up at her mother. “Do you really believe that Lucia would kidnap someone?”

“No.” Luz answers honestly.

Three years ago, Luz and her mother had been woken up in the middle of the night by someone knocking on the door. Camila answered it while Luz listened from around the corner, she wasn’t supposed to be out of bed and her mother would’ve been furious to see that she was. 

Standing outside their house had been a group of policemen, their faces wearing a practiced look of sympathy. Luz had immediately felt the dread when they addressed her mother, asking her a few questions, but she hadn’t been prepared to hear what she did.

The story they were given is that her older sister, Lucia, had kidnapped a white girl and was preventing the police from rescuing her. They claimed that she became violent when they attempted to help the other girl. But, they never revealed the name of her supposed victim.

Her sister may have had some temper issues, and she had a troubled past due to their grandfather, but she wasn’t a bad person in general. She only became violent when someone she cares about was at risk, and she would never kidnap anybody. Lucia had known what it was like to be forcibly taken away from her family…

The story they were given doesn’t add up… The authorities insist that she was killed out of self defense, but their only evidence was their words. Apparently the other girl was killed, too, because she’d attacked moments after Lucia was shot down. 

Wait a minute.

Luz’s eyes widen and she slams her hands down onto the table. “Why would the girl attack them if Lucia had put her in danger?!” 

Camila is pulling a plate down now, there’s hidden grief in her dark eyes. “I’m not saying she did kidnap the girl,” Camila slides the plate over to Luz and moves to leave the room, “but consider that she did do it, perhaps the authorities misjudged and girl just wanted Lucia to be punished by the law, not killed…”

That doesn’t make the story any less clear.

“Now, I’m heading to work. Call me if you need anything.” Camila tells her, grabbing her bag and kissing the teenager’s head. 

She leaves the room and Luz grabs her plate, approaching the stove. She waits until the front door has shut before withdrawing her phone. If she couldn’t figure this out on her own, she would need some help. 

“Hey, Willow, I need a favor.”

Amity knew that things would become unreasonably stressful the moment her parents walked through the door, but she was not prepared to have been sat down in her own lounge and lectured. She only expected complaining about her apartment, the size of it, her decorations, and especially the banner in her studio.

They haven’t even walked out of the lounge yet.

Her parents had learned about her girlfriend through her blog and were demanding to meet her, but when she informed them that she was not here, they insisted that she call her and invite her over. Managing to talk herself out of that, not wanting Luz to meet them, they shifted to attempting to convince her to find a boyfriend. They used her twin siblings as examples, unaware that they were dating a partner of the same gender. 

They could help each other. Emira’s girlfriend pretends to be Edric’s partner, and Edric’s boyfriend fakes being Emira’s lover. 

The snapping of fingers pulls her attention back to her mother standing next to her with a hand on her hips. Her lime colored eyes glare down at the young woman in disapproval. 

“Your sister dated a girl , a lowlife. Do you recall what happened to her?” Her mother raises a brow. “Your sister came out as homosexual , she ran away with a girl, and that resulted in her death because she fought back when the police tried to bring her home.” 

Amity scowls at her mother, rage bubbling inside of her. The woman didn’t deserve to mention her sister, she didn’t even have the right to think about her. She didn’t grieve for their family’s loss, she was only thankful that the embarrassment was taken care of. 

Amity’s father, on the other hand, mourned on his own, away from everybody.

“She didn’t like boys , mother.” She reminds her in annoyance, standing up to meet her gaze with a sturdy stance. “And, neither do I. You can accept it, or you can get out of my home and never mention my sister, or speak to me, ever again.”

“Amity,” her father addresses her and she turns her head to look at him, “you don’t speak to your mother that way. We simply do not want a repeat of what happened with your sister.” He sounds genuine, but she can’t bring herself to believe him. 

She shakes her head. “That’s not going to happen.” She promises. A chime comes from somewhere in the room.

“How can you be so sure?” Odalia demands, raising her voice. “Why can’t you be more like your brother and your sister, Amity? They have a stable future and-” 

Alador quietly approaches his wife’s side and holds his phone in front of her, the woman looks down and her lip curls in distaste. 

“We will be back next week. By then, you better have dumped that girlfriend of yours…” 

With that said, she spins on her heel and stalks towards the door with her head held high. Alador exchanges a silent look with Amity before following his wife out, bidding her farewell and shutting the door.

Amity releases a shaky breath that she didn’t realize she’d been holding. The sound of her phone ringing drags her attention towards the coffee table, she swipes the green button. “Hey, Luz.” She greets, not bothering to hide the irritation and exhaustion in her voice.

“Hey,” Luz answers, sounding just as tired as herself, “do you mind if I come over and stay the night?”

Maybe it would help to have Luz here, she needed to talk about the weight on her shoulders. 

“Yeah, sure. Come on over.”

Chapter Text

Luz still couldn’t sleep.

She stares up at the ceiling almost unblinking, the blankets draped across her waist as Amity had stolen most of the blankets, curled up at the side of the bed.

She doesn’t seem to be sleeping very well either, if constant movement was anything to consider.

A light illuminates the other side of the bed and Luz turns her head, sighing when she sees that Amity was scrolling through her notifications. Luz rolls over and shifts her rests her head on Amity’s side, the girl’s spare hand descends and delicate fingers run through her short, messy hair affectionately. 

“I thought you were asleep.” The brunette murmurs to the tanned girl, “Did I wake you?” Judging by the tiredness in her voice, she didn’t get a wink of sleep. 

“I was awake,” Luz tells her sleepily, she reaches up to take Amity’s hand and curls her fingers around her own, pulling it back down to lay across Amity's abdomen. “Why aren’t you asleep…?” 

Amity sighs and sits up, Luz grunts from the sudden movement and readjusts her position so that she can fold her legs beneath her. 

“My parents came over earlier,” she tells her, shutting off her phone and laying it in her lap, “they just made the whole situation worse .” She knows that Amity’s parents are terrible, but something seems to be really bothering her. It was blatantly obvious that it wasn’t her parents, judging by the faraway look in her eyes. 

She needs to change the subject.

“Hey, Amity?” Golden eyes glance at Luz as she moves to sit next to the other girl, “What made you want to become internet famous?”

Amity visibly hesitates, tensing up and gritting her teeth. Luz can see the tears in her eyes through the illuminated light, her heart tightens when she realized that she'd unintentionally pressed harder into whatever was bothering Amity. She reaches up to cup the woman’s cheek, "Amity?" Said girl pulls away and Luz retracts her hand, the brunette’s words are nearly inaudible. 

“My sister…” 

Luz tilts her head in confusion, barely registering the words in her mind. “Emira?”

Amity shakes her head, a tiny, sad smile coming to her lips. “No, Amelia.” 

She’s never heard that name before. Matter of fact, she didn’t even know Amity had another sister. “How come I’ve never heard of Amelia?” Luz questions cautiously, knowing that she was treading on thin ice. 

Amity’s response lets her know that she was in the clear. She perks up when Amity starts to speak, an excited sparkle flows through her. 'Yay! Backstory!'

“She was my oldest sibling. I don’t really remember much about how she was when I was younger, but Emira and Edric tell me that she was formerly Mother and Father’s Golden Child.” 

That must mean she was their favorite, there really wasn’t any other meaning that it could have. 

“She was basically Little Miss Perfect, but there was a flaw that completely changed Mother and Father’s opinion on her…”

Realization settles in like deadweight. Amity told her that her parents are anti-lgbt. The oldest, most gifted child of a wealthy family, there’s only one thing that could change how they viewed her.

“She was gay?”

Amity nods quietly. “Actually, all of us are… But, while the other three of us hid in fear of Mother and Father, Amelia wore it with pride.” 

The tanned girl grins, “Hey, I already like her!”

Amity lets loose a restrained laugh and starts fumbling with her thumbs, “Anyway, I was nine and she was thirteen, I hardly remember what happened,” she hesitates for a moment, gritting her teeth, “but word got out to our parents that she had a crush on one of her classmates. Her crush was a girl a grade or two above her.” Amity scoffs, rolling her eyes. “Well, to be fair, it was more of an admiration, but, that girl told our parents.”

Luz frowns. “I hate her.”

“She discovered that one thing changed her parent’s opinion on her, learned that her sexuality defines whether or not they love her,” Amity’s fists tightens, “so she broke away from the ‘Perfect Child’ behavior, rebelled.” Amity laughs a little bit, lightening up a bit. “During her freshman year at Hexide, she walked into the office while the Seniors were doing morning announcements, she grabbed the microphone, and I’m going to let you guess what she said.”

Luz raises a brow, “She told the school she’s gay?”

“Sort of.” Amity chuckles, “The principal tells me that she confidently grabbed the mic from the Seniors, and said: ‘I’m gay, so if all you boys could kindly fuck off, that would be great. ” 

She rubs her forehead in exasperation, “Then she said: ‘If you don’t, I will tear your eyeballs out and shove them down your throat so you can see me making you eat your own nasty’... ” Amity trails off, “You know…”

“Oh god.” Luz flinches, her hands shooting down to shield her own crotch, shivering as the thought formulates an image in her head. “I’m not a boy and that hurts to think about!”

Amity giggles, “Yeah, Amelia was a sweet girl, but she also was one to be feared.”

“What… happened to her?” Luz asks, shuddering the picture away and refocusing on the problem at hand.

Amity sighs. The air around them becomes stiff.

“A few days before she disappeared, Emira and Edric found her sneaking around with another girl, and so they reported what they’d found to our parents. Mother and Father were not happy, and the moment Amelia got home, things spiraled downhill quicker than any of us could’ve expected…” 

Amity did say that her parents were homophobic, so Luz has a pretty good idea of what happened.

“They insulted her, called her names, crushed her spirit, and to finalize it all, they were going to betroth her to the son of another wealthy family.” Amity tenses and her hands turn into fists, clutching the bedsheets. “They said they would rather have a dead daughter than a gay daughter.” 

What kind of parent would do such a thing...? It was unimaginable. 

“I found her sneaking out of the manor one night, the day she disappeared,” Amity starts pulling at the sheets with trembling fingers, “she wasn’t herself… She was broken, I could see it in her eyes when she looked at me… Amelia told me that she was leaving, but she promised that she would come back for me as soon as she could.” 

Amity’s voice is now devoid of emotion, “I didn’t tell anybody. I keep thinking, maybe if I had told someone, she wouldn’t’ve been killed that day…”

Luz rests her hand on Amity’s leg, “That’s not your fault, though… It was her decision to run away.” 

The internet star sighs, “I sometimes wish I’d gone with her… I looked up to her.”

Time to change the mood. Things were too sad in this room. 

Luz rolls over on her back, resting her head in her girlfriend’s lap, and she reaches up to playfully poke Amity’s nose. The girl blinks several times, returning to her senses and snapping her out of her stupor, Luz giggles at the cute sight. “Aww, does Amity wanna be a bad girl?”

Amity thumps her in the forehead and Luz squeaks in protest. “Shush, you.”

“Do not shush me, I shall shush you.” Luz answers, poking her in the nose again. “You have been shushed.” 

The girl stares down at her with one brow raised and her lips pulled back into an amused smile. 

Luz grins. “Never underestimate the power of the Shush!”

Amity laughs again, this time genuinely. A kaleidoscope of butterflies erupts through Luz’s chest. “Oh, you’re so easy to keep happy.” She murmurs, brushing the tanned girl’s dark bangs out of her face, “I like it when you smile.”

"Thank you!" Luz giggles. Mission accomplished. She softens her voice, “Well, anyway, did you at least see what the girl looked like? The one she left with?”

“Yeah,” her girlfriend responds, now with a more chipper tone, “I mean, kind of? I didn’t really get a good look at her, but I think I’d recognize her if I ever see her again.” Her brows crease together in thought, as if reliving the moment. “She was tall, lanky, but strong… She was wearing an old, green jacket with a bright red beanie on her head.”

The description hits Luz like a ton of bricks, creating an image in her head that replicated her sister. The light-hearted joy she’d been feeling over moments ago is replaced by an empty, hollowness inside. “By any chance, did the jacket have the bi flag on the shoulder?”

Amity nods, “Now that you mention it, yeah, I think so…” She shifts and slides off the bed, stretching her arms above her head, she leans down and kisses Luz’s forehead. “Anyway, thank you for listening… But, it’s five in the morning. Emira, Edric, and I have a long drive, so I’ll be in the shower.”

"Yeah." Luz’s gaze drops down to the sheets as Amity walks away, struggling to comprehend the story she was told. 

‘Lucia?’

Due to not having a ride, Luz was forced to walk to school. Her mother had the vehicle today and she would’ve taken the bus; Amity’s apartment was in the opposite direction, putting another fifteen minutes between herself and school. 

In all truthfulness, walking home from school didn’t sound so bad now. 

When she arrived, everybody had already gone inside. She was only tardy by five minutes, so that wasn’t so bad.

Thankfully, school would be coming to a close for the summer in a week or so, and the seniors, Luz and her grade, would be graduating soon afterwards if it wasn’t rescheduled. It shouldn’t matter too much if it’s a one time thing.

Or at least, she hopes that it doesn’t. 

The cool air of the building was relaxing, like a breath of fresh air against her dark, overheated skin. It was only a few minutes until the bell rang for classes, so she would have time to stop by her locker first to fetch her textbooks for the first two classes. 

Ascending the staircase with the muscles in her legs aching for relief, she quickly strolls towards her locker at the end of the hall. Her first class was on the right from the staircase, thankfully. Hopefully she will be able to focus on her classes today, but with her groggy mind at the moment, she has a hunch that she’ll be struggling not to fall asleep. 

Luz stops at her locker and clicks the combination in, swinging it open and sliding her backpack to her shoulder. With one hand, she holds it open and uses the other to retrieve her Social Studies and English textbooks. Moving her sketchbook aside, she carelessly drops them inside and zips her bag closed. Luz shuts her locker with a quick fwip of her fingers-

“You’re late.”

She swears her soul left her body as a cold feeling of shock sweeps over her, startled by her friend’s sudden appearance behind the locker door. Relaxing, she secures her locker and faces the dark-haired girl.

“Hey, Willow… Yeah, I slept in.” Luz answers, but the other girl doesn’t seem convinced. “Did you get what I asked?”

“Of course.” Willow smiles, extending an object in a ziplock bag. Luz reaches to grab it and the girl snatches it away before Luz can get her fingers on her, hiding it behind her back. “But first,” green eyes look up and down the tanned girl, examining her, “what happened to it?”

She knows exactly what she’s referring to, but she dodges the question. She has a secret to keep, after all. Luz raises a questioning brow, “You mean the cat-eared hoodie? I outgrew-”

Willow gives her an exasperated look. “The red jacket with your initials on the back.” Willow interrupts, unbelievingly. “The one you’re always wearing to school, but you’re not wearing it today.”

She could easily lie, but she has a feeling that her friend would be able to detect the truth no matter how good the bluff is. Besides, she wouldn’t confront her about this if she didn’t already know. Willow is her best friend, she has to tell her… 

But, she also doesn’t want word to get out to everybody. 

“What do you know?”

Her friend smiles knowingly and she unlocks her phone one-handedly, revealing the screen to Luz and causing butterflies to erupt inside of her chest. It was a picture on Emira’s IG page, showing Amity strolling in the background behind her, wearing a familiar black jacket with her hands in the pockets and her attention focused on something off camera.

She could make any sort of clothing work, couldn’t she? 

“I want you to tell me,” Willow begins, “why Amity is wearing your jacket.”

Luz’s jaw sets firm. “That’s not my jacket.”

Exactly why had she chosen to lie? 

Willow scoffs. “Okay, why is it not your jacket?”

A feigned look of confusion forms on Luz’s face, having already decided on her response. “Why would Amity be wearing my jacket?” Yeah, that was a good comeback. She mentally gives herself a pat on the back. 

“Because, maybe,” she turns around to see Gus stepping into a view with a grin that matches Willow’s, “maybe you’re the secret girlfriend.”

Her mind was screaming at her bail, begging the bell to ring so she could run to class and think up a believable answer. Unfortunately, the universe was not on her side today and left her stranded. She would have to come up with a decent excuse on the spot, and she was not good at that. It doesn’t help that Willow can see right through her lies more than half of the time.

“Fine…” She relents. “You got me.”

Gus’s jaw falls out, as if he hadn’t expected her to confirm anything.

Willow chuckles and extends the bag to Luz, who takes it and carefully stores it away in her backpack. 

“How’d you score that?” Willow asks, elbowing Gus and reeling him back to reality. “Last time I checked, you’re not exactly…” She trails off, rubbing her chin in thought as she examines the tanned girl, “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Willow places a reassuring hand on Luz’s shoulder, “but you’re Luz. And she’s… Amity.”

Gus speaks up in agreement, “You’re not afraid that she might be using you? Not tryna intrude or anything, we just wanna look out for you.”

Luz smiles in relief, unhurt by her friends’ words. She knew that they didn’t mean any real harm by it, and that they would have her back shall anything go wrong. “I can assure you that you have nothing to worry about,” she informs them with a grateful, but confident grin, “I had my doubts at first, too. She proved me wrong.”

Willow exchanges an unsure look with Gus.

“Guys. You can trust her, I promise.”

Her friends sigh and Willow nods, seemingly trusting Luz’s word. “I hope you’re right, Luz,” she whispers solemnly, “because that thing I gave you… What you told me to find? It might have something to do with Amity’s family.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am not one-hundred percent sure, but you can discuss that with Amity, she might know. Perhaps it’ll clear some things up.”

Luz looks at her. “I think I might already know.”

Chapter Text

“Who the hell is she?!”

A hand slams down on the table in front of Amity, but the girl doesn’t flinch and nonchalantly raises her head to look at a pink-haired girl standing above her with a scowl on her face. She’s wearing a red and cream Rugby jacket with her initials and their school’s logo printed on the left side. A group of girls stand idly behind her, watching the interaction with curious and worried eyes.

“Hello, Boscha.” Amity greets, clicking her phone off and rising to her feet to stand eye-to-eye with the considerably taller athlete. “Wow, your nasty personality has not changed at all, has it?” 

Ever since ending their supposed friendship, Amity has kept her distance from the girl by sitting on the other side of the classroom, arriving early, and leaving as soon as the bell rang. She was careful not to find herself cornered by Boscha, or her little clique.

“Don’t try to act nice, Blight.” Boscha spat, rage flickering through her blue eyes. Amity couldn’t tell if her face was turning red from anger, or if it was her skin’s natural hue. “Who the hell is she? How did you meet her?”

Amity crosses her arms and shifts her weight to one leg, lifting a brow with a bored look on her face. “Remind me. Why does anything involving my relationship concern you ?”

Boscha laughs incrediculousy, straightening her posture as her expression becomes smug. “O-o-oh! I see!” She says with an irritating, high-pitched chuckle, “Now that you’ve become all famous, you believe that you are above me! Well, let’s correct this right now…”

She scowls at her and comes closer, Amity can feel her breath against her ear and she wants to jolt away, her hand clenches at her side and her jaw becomes firm. “I helped you protect your interest in girls for many years, Amity. I am the only reason you were not kicked out of your home. Your way of showing gratitude?” Boscha steps back, their eyes meet. “You go and you stab me in the back like the ungrateful bitch you are.”

Amity knows that Boscha is trying to get under her skin. She wasn’t going to let her.

“Oh, what a terrible person I am!” She answers in a falsely cheerful voice, causing Boscha to step back in shock. Amity claps her hands together, knowing she’s drawn the attention of the whole coffee shop. “Say, aren’t you supposed to be training for the competition?” 

Boscha lets out a strangled noise of protest.

Amity continues. “I may not have played on the team for quite a few years, but I do still remember the schedule. So, instead of worrying about what I do with my free time,” she shoos the pink-haired girl out with a gesture of her hands, “you should be worrying about losing your place as Team Captain, skipping practice like that.” 

“Psch, whatever. Come along, girls.” Boscha scoffs and pulls at the collar of her jacket, as if she were flexing her rank. She clears her throat and turns away, her head held high and her ridiculous ponytail bouncing behind her as she strolls out of the establishment. 

“Goodbye!” Amity calls after them with a voice of feigned sweetness. 

As soon as the glass door closes, she drops her act and her shoulders deflate as her lip curls in disgust. She grumbles in annoyance and sits back down at the table, seizing her coffee with one hand to take an aggressive sip.

Everywhere she turns, Boscha is there waiting with one of her rude, snide remarks. The most annoying thing is that the girl acts like she owns her, holding their previous agreement over her head like bait. Sure, Boscha did a favor for her once, but her debt has already been repaid. Boscha is the Team Captain, isn’t she? That’s exactly what she wanted, what more could she possibly desire?

Amity’s love life was none of her concern. Why did that girl even care , anyway?

Suddenly, two more people appear to Amity and she glances up, recognizing them as her siblings. Ah, right, she’d come here because she’d received a text regarding some important information that they couldn’t reveal unless it was in person.

“First of all,” Emira starts as she sets her coffee down and folds her hands beneath her on the table, “Boscha is a bitch and I don’t like her, never have.”

Amity snorts in amusement. 

Of course they’d seen everything. Well, it was refreshing to know that they would’ve had her back had she needed them. Sometimes, they were less annoying than usual. Tolerable. 

“Secondly,” Edric lifts a paper up and lays it down in front of Amity, “we got in contact with that person you’re shooting the video with. They’re rescheduling it to the 23rd.”

“Yeah, right.” Amity takes the paper from him and skims it over to ensure that it was authentic, recognizing the lady’s signature at the bottom, she slides it back over to him with a nod. “It’s true…” She hasn’t checked her emails today, and the lady doesn’t have her phone number, so she must’ve run into the Twins and requested that they relay the message for her.

Wow, she should really turn on notifications for her emails. Who knows how many messages are sitting in there unread?

“Lastly.” The Twins share a solemn look and Emira continues speaking with a quiet voice, “We found where Amelia was buried…” 

Her blood runs cold at the mention of deceased sister’s name. She hasn’t heard it in so long… Not since the day they were informed of her death. 

Amity could never forget that day, it was the one night she regrets staying up so late. Had she been in bed, perhaps the weight in her stomach wouldn’t be as heavy as it is.

Although she doesn’t have the full story, she knew more than the Twins did. Their parents lied to them the next morning, informing them that Amelia had been found and became aggressive when they tried to bring her home, she attacked a cop and as a result…

“Where is Amelia’s grave...?”

Amity can barely hear her own voice over the thundering of her heart. 

Edric opens his mouth to answer, but all that comes out is a choked sob. He covers his eyes with his hand and turns his face away from his sisters, attempting to pull himself back together.

Emira clears her throat, her voice is shaky. “The reason we couldn’t find it for the last three years is because… Mother and Father didn’t put her name on it, they just completely erased her existence from everything, even death certificates.” 

“Then, how did you find her…?”

Edric is the one to speak up this time, “We asked around after we found the unnamed gravestone… We managed to find someone who knew her, they told us that the grave was hers, their uncle was at the scene of the crime and came to inform them…” 

Amity’s hand clutches the edge of the table.

“We can go see her tonight.” Emira promises, “Decorate it the gravestone, too…” Amity just nods her agreement.

After three years, they finally knew where their sister was laid to rest… Hopefully, this would bring them one step closer to discovering what had happened to her.

“Take the high road, we’ll be out of their sights.”

“No, that’s where they’ll be laying an ambush! We take the lowland.” 

Luz’s fingers rapidly move the controls, her eyes locked on the screen as her character sneaks forward into the lowland after Willow’s character. “But, we’ll be spotted more easily this way,” she tells her friend, who just scoffs in response, causing Luz to roll her eyes, “alright, fine, I have the weapons.”

Willow’s character appears next to her with a golden aura circling them, “I got the potions, but I don’t think this is their actual-”

A loud shriek erupts from Gus as a thundering noise echoes through the game, causing the controllers to vibrate and the three of them to jump back in surprise. “Gus?” Luz calls, moving her character towards her friend, only to find his character’s corpse laying at her feet. 

Across from her, the boy is gazing at his screen with a paralyzed expression, his eyes wide and his controller slipping from his hands. Willow snaps her fingers close to his ears and it reels him back to the real world.

“Yo, what happened?” Luz asks in confusion, “You just-”

Movement across her own screen grabs her attention and she’s a moment too late to react, hearing the wet slicing of a weapon she watches her character drop to the ground. Willow’s own character falls just as her screen is fading to black.

“You said we would’ve been safe!” Gus sets his controller down in defeat. “Man, we were so far in! We just had one level to beat!”

Willow blinks as an attempt to bring herself back to her senses. “But, Wionna said that the lowland was safe… They’ve beat this game so many times…”

Luz leans to the side to look past Gus and lifts a brow, unwilling to believe what she’d just heard. “And you believed them?” 

“I see your point, don’t rub it in.” Willow moans in irritation.

“Well that’s done.” Gus grumbles, pushing the gaming controller to the side and standing up. Luz and Willow follow in suit, turning off the televisions and the gaming console.  “We’ll just have to start all over again, so what now?” 

“My Dads won’t be home for another hour, so we could make a pizza!” Willow suggests with a shrug of her shoulders. “We gotta hold off on the movies until three, because it’s the-”

Gus shudders and he wraps himself in his blanket, “The haunted hour.” He finishes, Luz and Willow laugh in agreement at the boy’s reaction. 

“I still say we should go to Spring Falls’ Cemetery.” Luz sits down next to her friend, Willow seating herself on his other side. Gus lets out an ‘eep’ and cuddles deeper into his blanket. Luz grins devilishly and her voice drops down to a spooky whisper.  “My sister used to tell me that the spirit of Rosetta Diaz still roams there in search of her lost love.”

Willow leans over, “Do you know what he looks like?”

Gus squeaks. “What?”

Willow nods to Luz and the tanned girl slowly moves away from the boy, stepping out of his line of view as he is focused on their friend. “Well,” Willow begins, “he had dark, chocolatey skin…” Luz creeps forward from behind Gus, keeping her footsteps silent. “His hair was black and he had an afro with sideburns.” Luz extends her hands in claw-like motions, “He also had eyes that were nearly as black as night…”

“But, that’s almost like describing me!” Gus whimpers.

“You’re right!” Willow mock gasps with a hand on her chest, “You know what, maybe you shouldn’t go. You know what happens to those matching His description…” Luz gives a slight nod to Willow and the other girl smirks, “Once Rosetta sees them, she comes up to them and she grabs them! Nobody ever hears their screams, and nobody ever finds their body.”

Gus was trembling now. “But, that won’t happen to-”

Luz launches herself forward with a loud warcry and she tackles her friend over, her hands clamping over his mouth in the process and muffling his terrified scream. Gus starts thrashing and she releases him in fear of being kicked in the stomach. 

She and Willow break into laughter as Gus slowly returns to his senses, realizing that he was unharmed and that he was safe. “You guys are so mean to me!” He groans, momentarily causing the other two’s giggling to cut short, wondering if they’d actually hurt his feelings. A wide grin crosses his face and his dark eyes light up, “Do it again!” 

“Maybe later when you’re not expecting it.” Willow chuckles, exchanging a grateful look with Luz. “Actually, going to the cemetery doesn’t sound like such a bad idea now. What time is it?”

“I’ll check.” Luz climbs to her feet and strolls across the room quickly to check her phone, reading the time as 11:37. She relays the time to Willow and the girl claps her hands together, finalizing their decision.

Concern hits Luz like a cold wave when she sees that her notifications are blank. Amity hasn’t called or messaged her all day… She was worried, Amity hasn’t been her usual self for the last few days, it always seems like there’s something eating at her.

She wanted to help, but how could she when she doesn’t even know what’s going on?  She didn’t want to pry into her privacy, that sort of thing was important to Amity. 

“Awww,” Willow laughs from behind her and Luz turns around with a smirk, “didja girlfriend text you?”

Willow has  been teasing Luz relentlessly since she figured out that she and Amity were dating. 

Luz sets her phone back down, “Aww, did you have to say it like that?” She mocks. “No, she didn’t-” Luz is cut off by the sound of her phone ringing, she looks back and a nervous smile crosses her face. “Speak of the devil…”

It was Amity. A sense of relief tugs at her heart, thankful that her girlfriend was alright. 

“Please no flirting over the phone.” Gus pleads with his mouth full of cookies.

“Bet!” Luz responds and the boy groans, Luz giggles and answers her phone, strolling out of the room to avoid Willow eavesdropping. 

“Luz?” Amity asks carefully as if thinking she were talking to someone else.

“Amity?” Luz says into the phone quietly, stepping into the bathroom and leaning against the door. “It’s almost twelve, what do you-”

Amity interrupts, her voice wary and shaky. “Are you free?” 

She was currently at Willow’s house, they were having a sleepover that they’d been planning for the last week or so. “It kind of depends,” Luz replies hesitantly, “what do you need?” She doesn’t want to bail so early on into the night, but she would if Amity needs her. Her friends would understand.

“If you’re busy, I can just call back later? It’s not a big deal.” Now that was unacceptable.

“No, no, Amity, it’s okay.” Luz tries to reassure her, now worried about the other girl; Amity was being avoidant and cautious, Luz didn’t like that. “I’m here, just tell me what you need.”

Amity is quiet for a moment. “I don’t want to be alone right now.” 

Wait, what?

“I saw that you were with your siblings earlier, what happened?” Was it something to do with her parents again? Luz would fight them if she has to if they keep upsetting her girlfriend.

“It’s nothing bad, I promise.” Amity tells her before she can jump to conclusions, “I’ve just had a long, emotional day. I could use some company.”

Luz sighs and her hand tightens around her phone. Well, Amity was her girlfriend, she could invite her over here, right? Surely her friends would be accepting of her. Maybe they can even learn that she’s genuinely a good person.

The tanned girl swings the bathroom door open with a twist of the knob and quickly locates Willow in the kitchen, “Hey, Willow!” Her friend’s head snaps up in acknowledgement. “Is it okay if I bring Amity here? She's had a bad day.”

A sputtering noise erupts from Amity’s side of the phone, a mixture of incohesive words of protest.

Uncertainty flashes through Willow’s eyes and she bites her lip in thought. She sighs, “Alright.” She relents almost reluctantly, “But only because you care about her, okay?”

Luz nods, “Understood.” She grins her thanks and rushes out the door, grabbing her keys in the process.

[next morning]

“Bye, Willow!” Luz calls, jogging out of her friend’s house to join Amity, who was already waiting outside for her. She gives her girlfriend a light jab in the side with her elbow and nods towards Willow, who is leaned up against the door, watching them expectantly.

Amity glares at Luz and reluctantly turns to face Willow, “Thank you for your hospitality.” 

There was an obvious tension between Amity and Willow, and despite how desperately Luz wants to figure out why, she has another task on her mind at her moment. But, it’s been put onto her mental to-do list with a red underline. 

As if she hadn’t been expecting to hear it, Willow bows her head in silent acknowledgement and faces away from them, letting the door close behind her as the two begin to walk away. 

The two of them walk in silence for a few minutes, Luz quietly allowing her girlfriend to slowly destress. She can see her shoulders relaxing the longer they walk, and her gaze softening from their guarded glare. 

During the whole time Amity was at Willow’s place, she hadn’t said a word and instead kept to herself, she’d seemed to be more focused on her phone than anything else in the room. She’d looked like she was in deep thought, but sometimes her expression would become completely unreadable.

Luz had asked if jerks on Instagram were bothering her again, and Amity denied with a shake of her head, she’d had to trust that it were true. Now that they were alone, maybe she can convince her to open up about whatever happened. She has a strong hunch that whatever it was, it revolved around what happened to Amelia. 

They stop at light, Amity staring ahead unblinkingly as cars pass back and forth in front of them. Luz rocks on the heels of her shoes, trying to figure out how to ask her unspoken question.

‘I haven’t had the chance to tell her about-’

Amity’s sudden question brings Luz’s mind to a screeching halt. 

“Did you have a sister named Lucia?”

Chapter Text

She can’t believe it. It was true. Her suspicions were true. 

Wide brown eyes stare at her computer screen, her jaw agape and her brows pulled together in near disbelief. Her heart’s pounding loudly in her ears, her throat is dry and tight. She can barely breathe. Her hand tightens around the arm of her chair, she closes her mouth firmly and grit her teeth as she breathes in through her nose, reassuring herself that she’s still breathing.

Luz hears a door open and she turns her head slightly in acknowledgement, her gaze never leaving the screen. A pair of pale arms wrap around her shoulders and neck, a warm, sweet, and somewhat delicious smell embraces her senses. She likes it, but she can’t seem to place a name to the aroma.

“What’s that smell?” Luz asks, tilting her head back so that she could rest against her girlfriend standing behind her. 

“Acai Berry.” Amity answers softly, “Emira bought it for me.”

“I like it.” 

Amity hums her agreement, changing the subject with a gentle gesture to the screen. “You found pictures of them?”

Luz has finally opened the CD that Willow had given her, inserting it into her computer and discovering that it was full of pictures. High school pictures, most of them taken at what Luz recognized to be Hexide, while some of the others were taken in secret, unfamiliar locations.

She assumed that they were midnight parties.

“Willow’s sibling had a collection.” Luz informs her, “Apparently, despite being a sketchy person, they’re a very talented photographer.” She clicks to the next picture, which is a photo of an event set up in the hallways of Hexide. “They were in the same grade, so they used their classmates and Seniors only events to practice their photographing.”

Amity leans in, “I remember this,” she murmurs, she points towards the barely noticeable banner in the background, “that was Senior Prom! Mother and Father were pestering Amelia for weeks about it, trying to convince her to get a date. She never did.”

Luz scoffs in amusement. “Oh, yes she did.” She corrects her, sitting up to click the next picture. “I’m surprised your family didn’t know…” The picture causes a solemn look to cross both of their faces, a weight settling inside of their chests as unspoken grief hangs, unmentioned, in the air. “They weren’t exactly… Subtle.”

The gym of Hexide consists of various colors and people, some of them having their backs turned to the camera while others wildly dance under the flashing lights above them. The girls’ have their hair styled and they wear a beautiful, glamorous gown, revealing their shoulders and collarbone. The boys’ wear expensive, nice tuxedos with colors to match their partner. A few couples were same sex, evident by the clear display of affection between them.

But, front and center, stood two very familiar girls.

One has bright, unruly mint green hair with wild auburn brown roots, she’s wearing a light pink dress, accompanied by black leggings and high heels. She has her arm draped loosely around her partner’s waist, while her other arm hangs limply with a red cup slipping from between her fingers, she has her head tilted up and there’s a warm smile of endearment on her face, her eyes are closed.

The other stands an inch or so above her, she has dark hair that’s been neatly groomed and brushed back, clearly only for the event. She wears a dull green jacket, blue jeans, and black sneakers. The girl has a single arm wrapped around the other girl’s midsection, her spare hand is delicately tilting the girl’s chin up towards her. Her hair hides most of her face.

It doesn’t look like they knew whether or not a picture was being taken, but they don’t appear to care as they’re too lost in each other to pay the world around them any mind.

“Amelia’s date…” Amity starts, breathless.

Luz finishes for her, “...was Lucia.”

Her heart sinks at the sight of her older sister being so happy. The thought of her strong, unbreakable sister being a fragile, vulnerable spot in such a heartwarming way causes grief to tear Luz’s heart. Lucia had been in love, very much so judging by the pictures she’s seen. She’d been in love, and that had been so brutally and unfairly taken away from her.

Movement catches her eye and she sees Amity step from behind her, she taps a few buttons on the keyboard, exiting out of the picture and bringing up the gallery. Small icons litter the screen, barely recognizable by color and shape. The mouse slides across the screen and suddenly the monitor turns black. 

Amity steps back again and she glances behind her, sliding into Luz’s lap and hanging her legs across the arm of the chair. Luz grumbles in momentary displeasure before resting her arms across Amity’s lap, now comfortable. 

Amity speaks. “I saw Lucia’s grave… Amelia’s is in the same vicinity.” She comments gently, her words careful and tedious.  “Mother and Father didn’t want anything to do with Amelia’s death, including her final resting place,” she absentmindedly plays with the tips of Luz’s fingers to distract herself. “So Amelia’s friends and old classmates got together and managed to have her buried in the same location as Lucia…” She sighs. “But they were not allowed to mark the grave. My siblings are having it processed right now.”

Luz remains quiet.

“I had a feeling when I saw the tombstone, but… Do you mind me asking how she died?”

She’s been wanting to tell her for a while now anyway. She needs to get this off of her chest. The only people who knew were herself and her mother, she’s never had the courage to explain what happened to her friends. Luz hadn’t wanted their pity, it would’ve made her feel worse.

“At first, she was happier than usual, so Mom and I had suspected that she’d met someone, but Mom didn’t want me to mention it.” Luz starts carefully, “So we were waiting for her to tell us, but suddenly, she became distant and paranoid, she always had to triple check to see if someone was following her before she left home. 

“Food started disappearing too, and Mom wasn’t happy because Lucia was basically stealing from her, so she confronted her.” 

Luz tenses, Amity gently grasps her hand and her thumb rubs comforting circles across her knuckles as an attempt to offer silent solace. 

“I remember Mom shouting, and I remember Lucia begging her to calm down, saying that she’ll explain everything when she can, she promised that she’s not stealing for her own wellbeing…”

She’s reliving the moment, the scene, the memory is playing out before her very eyes. The image of her mother yelling across the table, and the sorrowful, yet desperate look on her sister’s face. She remembers the bothered and distressed air around Lucia, and the pure rage and disappointment around her mother.

“One day, Lucia just vanished all together. It’s normal for her to leave and not come back for a few days, but she always let Mom know that she was safe every night. For three days, she never contacted us at all. Then, the day she died...” 

Tears start stinging at her eyes, her chest and her throat restricting as pain swells up inside of her. 

“She texted Mom to say… to say that she was coming home, asking her not to ask any questions because she’ll answer them all in the morning. So, we were waiting for her to come home. She never did… That night, the police arrived on our doorstep and told us what happened.”

She grits her teeth. 

“They faked being sympathetic and insisted that Lucia had kidnapped someone, they said they were trying to save her victim and Lucia became aggressive, lashing out at them, so they… they claim they reacted in self-defense. I know Lucia, she wouldn’t become violent unless someone she loves is in the way of harm…” 

Realization seems to flicker through Amity’s eyes, implying that they have the same train of thought.

“They never told us the girl’s identity, but they told us that she had been killed too… I’ve been thinking about that, too. The pictures we just saw confirmed it…”

Amity interrupts, her voice soft and mournful. “We were told that Amelia resisted being brought home, became aggressive and attacked the police officer with a knife, so she was… Killed.” She sits up, “I think that the girl in Lucia’s story might be Amelia .”

“Highly likely…” Luz agrees. “Do you think my Mom would’ve liked Amelia?”

Amity giggles and throws her head back with a loud sigh, “No,” she answers truthfully, “like I said before, she was a sweet girl, but she had a wild side. She would have accidentally overstepped and irate your Mom.”

Luz smirks, “Okay, would Eda have liked her?”

Amity hums in thought for a moment. “Definitely.”

“Who would I like?” 

Luz swivels her chair around as Amity scrambles out of her lap, they locate a tall woman with grey hair standing at the doorway with a cup of coffee in hand. “Eda!” Luz panics, giggles escaping her lips nervously. “How-how long have you been standing there?” 

Eda raises a brow and leans up against the door, taking a sip of her steaming hot coffee before responding. “I asked a question first, Kid.”

Amity steps up to stand next to Luz, her hand gripping her arm tightly. “My sister.” She answers for Luz, “We were talking about our sisters, and Luz asked if-”

Eda cuts her off by raising her hand and gently gesturing for her to be quiet. Luz grips the arm of her chair and Amity’s mouth clamps shut, they exchange an unsure glance. “I met your sister, Kiddo.” Eda informs them with a sad smile, “The girl needed a place to crash after running away from home, so Lucia offered her a place there. She was an interesting girl, I’ll say that much,” she chuckles a little bit, “but to this day, I fail to see what Lucia saw in her.”

Luz turns her attention back to her computer, the image previously displayed on the screen flashing through her mind. She smiles. 

“Someone who cares for her...” 

Amity and Eda both turn to look at her as Luz faces them again, “She found… love.” She spares a small glance at Amity, who is watching her with a puzzled expression. Luz’s words are soft, her girlfriend steps towards her and gently grasps her hand, interlocking their fingers. “She found someone she loved, and someone who cared for her just as much.”

She wonders, just for a moment, whether or not her sister would’ve been okay with her dating Amity. Would she have laughed at her, meaning no harm by it, for having an attraction towards the girl? Would she have approved? Would she have liked Amity? 

She hopes so. 

“Alright, Kid, you’re making me mushy.” Eda snorts and she gestures towards the door with her spare hand, amusement in her eyes. “I don’t believe your little girlfriend is supposed to be over, so I suggest the two of you leave.”

Right. Despite her mother liking Amity, she made it explicitly clear that she doesn’t want her over without her permission. Luz had broken that rule, unintentionally of course, and she was not about to stay around and face the consequences. 

Eda would cover for her.

“Come on,” Luz stands up as Eda exits the room, taking another sip of her coffee and letting the door swing shut behind her. “I’ll walk you home.”

Amity giggles, “It’s alright, Luz, I can fend for myself, remember?”

Still, she doesn’t want her walking the streets alone at night. Who knows what could happen to her? The chances of her being abducted were especially higher since she’s become famous on the internet. 

“Amity,” Luz murmurs as she gently pulls Amity towards her, she can feel her breath, “I don’t want anything happening to you… What if they catch you off guard?”

Her girlfriend sighs, “Alright, if you insist, my Fearless Champion.” She taps her forehead against Luz’s playfully, their noses brushing and causing butterflies to explode through her heart. How dare she be criminally adorable? This should be illegal! 

Her heart needs a break. 

The next day was the day of the Youtube Collaboration, they’d woken up at four in the morning and drove six hours to reach the other person’s recording studio. 

Upon arriving at the Youtuber’s house, she greeted Amity enthusiastically and explained how they would be doing the video to her. Luz hid in the vehicle, thankful that the tinted windows hid her enough that she wasn’t recognizable. 

Luz remained in the car while they recorded the video, not wanting to interrupt or cause any distractions for her girlfriend considering she was told that she needed to be focused on the challenge at hand.

Two hours and a quick forty-five minute nap later, Amity finally exits the house and makes her way to the vehicle. Luz glances towards her as the car door opens, she greets her with a soft smile that Amity returns.

“So!”

Luz clasps her hands together as her girlfriend sits down next to her, “How’d the video go?” She asks, the brunette groans a heavy sigh and brushes her auburn bangs back out of her face. Amity has her hair down and it’s sticking messily to her overheated skin, her chest rises and falls with tired breaths, she looks exhausted. “That bad?”

Amity shakes her head, “No, it was enjoyable,” she answers as she sits back up and lets out a ‘wooh’, “it was tiring, though. I’m just ready to go home now.” 

She was tired. Luz could wait to watch the video when it’s released. 

Maybe.

Probably not.

“What did you guys record?” 

Nope.

Luz starts the vehicle as Amity tilts her seat back to relax, draping her arm across her eyes to block out the light. “A video.” Amity answers with a smirk, peeking one eye open and giggling when Luz sticks her tongue out at her mockingly. “Be patient, love, just because you’re my girlfriend doesn’t mean you can get special treatment.”

The tanned girl scoffs in false offense, the vehicle starts moving. “Well then, would being your wife get me special treatment?”

“Perhaps, it depends.” 

“Okay, let’s try it, we’re married now.” Luz states, the brunette sitting next to her lets out a boisterous laugh, her face heating up as she sheepishly covers her face again. Luz pokes Amity in the side,  “Come on, we need honesty to keep a marriage.”

“Ah, honesty to keep a marriage?” Amity sits up and brushes her bangs out of her face again, pulling her shoulder-length hair up into a ponytail, sighing a breath of relief when the cool air meets her neck and shoulders. “We also need trust and patience. You really wanna know?”

Luz tears her eyes away from her girlfriend and fixes her attention on the road, “No, I can wait.” She lies. “You win.”

“Good,” Amity replies tiredly, “because I just feel like taking a nap right now…” With that said, she lays back again and closes her eyes, relaxing almost immediately.

The drive home was only ten minutes, but Luz could take a detour… Or two.

Chapter Text

The first thing on Luz’s to-do list when she got home was show the pictures to her Mother, who should already be home from work.

Unfortunately, it slipped her mind as she’d gotten distracted while carrying on a conversation with Amity. The topic was only mentioned when her Mother entered the lounge and asked about the CD left on her desk.

“Luz! What is this?” Camila sounds tired, but curious. She knows that if it was left on her desk, it was important, and she would make time for it. 

The air in the room becomes tense almost immediately, Amity and Luz exchange nervous glances before the tanned girl tentatively takes the CD from her Mother. “It’s… About Lucia.” She murmurs, inserting it into her laptop, “Willow’s sibling took a photoshoot, these were some of the pictures.” Luz informs, bringing up the pictures and nudging the computer over to her bewildered Mother. 

A heartbroken gasp fills the silence in the room, followed by hesitant clicking. Luz can see her Mother’s fingers shaking as she attempts to keep her composure.

“Their deaths were linked, Miss Noceda,” Amity whispers as the woman clicks through the pictures, tears gathering in her eyes, “Luz and I, we believe that Lucia was protecting my sister, Amelia, from being brought back to an abusive household…” As Amity says this, the nurse stops and reaches up to remove her glasses, placing a hand over her eyes.

The picture lastly displayed on the screen is one of Lucia, maybe a year younger, sitting on the Hexide bleachers. She’s wearing her signature, oversized green jacket and hair is grown out around her shoulders; she’s hunched with her arms crossed over her knees and she’s wearing a slightly annoyed, but amused smile on her face.

Above her, Amelia is leaned up against her with her elbow using Lucia’s head as an armrest, her hair is a natural auburn, wild and unruly, the girl is sporting a playful smirk and she’s wearing what looks to be a soccer uniform. 

Lucia’s expression matches up with the situation, almost reading ‘yes, this is my girlfriend, don’t ask why’. 

Camila lets out a choked laugh, her voice laced with grief and heartache. “Protecting someone she cares about… That sounds just like her.” She says with a forcefully happy tone, she puts her glasses back on and dark eyes stare at the picture on the screen. Luz follows her gaze and releases a sigh, Amity rests her hand on her back to offer silent support.

What they believed to be the truth was out.

That’s the closure they’ve been needing.

The day after the collaboration, approximately two hours into the new day, a new topic quickly spread through the internet regarding Amity Blight’s secret girlfriend. The chatter extends to the schools and made their way to several other social media platforms, sharing the new picture that the girl had posted to every website they could get access to as an attempt to locate someone, anyone , who may recognize her even in the slightest.

Amity’s blog has been receiving email after email, some people forcing themselves into their DMs and claiming that they know who the silhouette in the picture is. All of them were wrong, of course, but Amity wouldn’t have even responded had they been right. 

The picture in question was one Amity had taken with Luz at Wingston Cliffs, overlooking both of their cities. 

The familiar silhouette of Amity stands facing the mysterious girl, whose shadow was too dark to be recognizable by those who do not know her personally, with her arms draped loosely around her shoulders. The other girl has her arms around Amity, but due to the lighting of the picture and the darkened filter that Amity had applied, they were not as noticeable. 

Both of them had their backs towards their hometown, Amity and her city, Boiling Isles, on the right, and her partner on the left with her own town behind her.

The next picture, swiping right, is taken from a further distance, the bright orange light contrasting their dark silhouettes and making it more difficult for the mystery girl to be recognized. The photo was taken just as the two of them separated from what appeared to be a dance, their arms ascending into the air with their fingers delicately interlocked, Amity facing away from the girl mid-spin as her hair flows like a veil behind her. 

The toxic side of Amity’s fanbase downloaded the photos and tried to increase the lighting quality to reveal Luz’s identity, but when the photos were posted, they both came to realize that the ones trying to expose her were not exactly good at photoshop.

Amity’s siblings had commented on the pictures, making a light, playful jab at Amity, and in return, they were questioned whether or not they knew of the Mystery Girl’s identity. Emira and Edric, being the pranksters they are, both lead the people on and use reverse psychology, confusing them and spreading conspiracy theories.

Meanwhile, Luz just sat back and watched the internet run wild. She sits in the middle of it, overhearing her classmates’ conversations regarding the photos, and occasionally being asked if she was aware of the new pictures. Willow and Gus looked like they wanted to say something when they were questioned, but they’d made a promise to help and keep the secret. 

Keeping a secret seemed to be eating away at Gus’s conscience, though.

“Yo, Ronan, my dude, how do you feel about Luzer getting a girl before you?”

Luz stops in her tracks and subtly turns her head to listen to the group gathered at the lockers, a chill racing up her spine in fear that someone had figured out that she was the mystery girl.

Another boy with dusty blonde snorts his response, elbowing his brunette twin in the gut. “We don’t know that it’s actually Luz, Eli.”

Luz frowns and steps away casually, keeping herself out of their sight, but within earshot. She pulls out her phone and pretends to scroll through it.

“Tiffany and I saw in one picture that Amity was wearing a jacket that looks like Luz’s.” 

She recognizes the voice as Layla, the redhead and the cheerleader of the group. Tiffany, the black-haired girl, speaks up next in agreement. “Yeah, and Luz lost that jacket around the same time the picture was posted.”

Eli groans and pushes himself up off the lockers, “ Luzer is not Blight’s girlfriend. Here, I’ll prove it to you.” Amber-colored eyes quickly find Luz as the crowds in the hallway begin to become sparse. “Hey! Weirdo!”

Luz lifts her head, falsely startled by the boy approaching her. “Yo.” She flashes the peace sign with two fingers as a light-hearted greeting.

“Cut the bullshit,” Eli tells her, coming to loom over her, “did you see Blight’s photo last night?”

“Yup.” Luz answers.

“Any idea who it is?” He presses.

“Nope.”

Layla appears at his side suddenly and Luz shifts her attention to her, keeping her face stoic and neutral as an attempt to hide the amusement swelling inside. “Then why does Amity have your jacket, huh?” Layla claims with a voice as if she’d just busted the world’s biggest secret.

Luz raises an unimpressed brow, “My jacket? The green one?”

Tiffany jumps to Layla’s other side. “Yeah! Explain that!”

Luz scoffs. “Simple. Not my jacket. Mine has the bi flag on the collar. That one does not.” She turns away from them and pulls her bag over her shoulder, dismissing them. “Goodbye.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Layla and Tiffany shake their heads and return to Ronan. Eli, however, follows after her, wanting to get the last word. Annoyance pricks at her, she grits her teeth in displeasure. Luz stops and the boy moves to stand in front of her intimidatingly, she stares at him with a questioning brow raised. 

“Yes?”

“Ha, I knew it.” He rests himself up against the wall with smugly grins at her, his lips pulled back to reveal pearly white teeth and his brows lift up. The look on his face was almost punchable. Luz bites back the urge and brushes past him, heading towards the lunch room. “You are so way out of her league. Why would Blight like a Weirdo like you who can’t pick a side?”

Luz pauses, and against her better judgement, she spins around to face him with a friendly smile. She claps her hands together once, “You’re right! Why would she like someone like me? Why would she even consider me an option?” She takes a step towards the taller jock, “It seems to me like you feel threatened by the mere thought.” She hums, tapping her chin and gesturing at him as she speaks. “Hm, such a pity, because if anyone is out of her league, it’s you. You’re not even anywhere near it, anyway! So, I don’t understand the concern.”

The boy sputters for a moment, taken aback by her sudden confidence.

“Buuut, whoever it is, they should feel lucky.” Luz spreads her arms out and shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly before letting them drop back to her sides, “That girl is a damn good kisser,” she winks as she says this and faces away from him, waving dismissively, “I mean, I’m assuming.” Luz glances back over her shoulder, relishing in the shocked look on Eli's face, “considering I’m not her girlfriend.”

Eli’s reaction is immediate. “See?!” He shouts back to his friends, pointing accusingly at Luz, who turns around innocently. “Did anybody hear that?” The confusion on their faces is laughable, and Luz matches it to make her act more authentic. “You guys heard that, right?!” He faces Luz again, “Did you say what I think you said?”

She tilts her head, “What’d I say?”

He gapes at her. “You know what you said!”

Luz lets out a puzzled noise, glancing between his friends and Eli. “That I’m not her girlfriend, in that case-”

The jock cuts her off, “No! The part before that!”

Luz’s brows crease together, but internally she’s laughing so loudly she can feel it reverberating through her mind. The look on his face was absolutely priceless. “What part before that?”

Eli spins back to his friends, “You guys heard that, right?! Say you heard that!”

They exchange a bewildered look amongst themselves, and quietly utter a ‘no’, which seems to enrage and confuse the boy even more. “I know what I heard!” He points at Luz again, “You! This isn’t over!”

“Of course it isn’t.” She nudges his finger out of her face, smirking. “See you tomorrow.”

With that said, she turns on her heel and walks away, her giggles becoming louder as she puts distance between herself and Eli.

She can feel Tiffany’s eyes watching her.

Amity’s golden eyes stare down at the text before her, her feet gliding quickly and angrily across the wet sidewalk as irritation swells within her, reading the words repeatedly with a scowl on her face. 

‘I’ll be late today for our date.’ That part was perfectly fine, she didn’t mind waiting a few minutes for her girlfriend to show up, just so long as she’s informed beforehand. The text that causes annoyance to sting at her every time she looks at it was the one beneath it, and she was going to take care of it. 

‘Do you mind me asking why?’Amity had replied, wondering if they’d need to reschedule. She was willing to do so if Luz was too stressed, she wouldn’t mind just lounging around, watching cheesy movies. 

She reads over the last text. ‘Nothing too bad, I promise.’

‘No, it’s okay. You’re at Eda’s right? I’m on my way.’

She switches her phone off and pauses to wait for the streetlight to change. She can barely hear the roaring of the cars passing up and down the road over the boiling, seething rage building up inside like a volcano waiting to erupt. 

Ever since the picture has been released, Luz has told her several times about how her classmates were beginning to take their jealousy out on Luz, despite having absolutely no confirmation of anything. Apparently some girl named Tiffany spread out a rumor across the school, one that happened to be true, but the amount of backlash her girlfriend had received was unbelievable. 

Amity had read some of the texts Luz had gotten. Even if nobody seemed to believe the rumor, they saw it as an opportunity to bully her for her ‘blatantly obvious crush on Amity Blight, the constant harassment was starting to weigh the bullied girl down. 

“I am going to destroy you.” Amity mutters under her breath, tense as a rock, her blood boiling in anger, as she pictures the girl responsible for the rumors at the front of her mind. “But first...” She sighs and her shoulders untense, she stares at the house she’s approaching.

The girl stops in front of a familiar door with an owl etched into the wood, she breathes in deeply and lifts her hand to knock. The door opens smoothly and she lifts her head to see a tall, scrawny woman with unruly white hair standing in front of her with a tired expression, tension clearly visible across her features. 

She recognizes her as Eda.

“Um, hello…” 

“Ah, the Blight girl. I saw you coming from a mile away.” Eda mutters flatly.

She steps outside and stretches her arms above her head with an audible crack, an exasperating sound that makes Amity grimace. 

“Luz is inside. She’s fine. Anyway, you take care of the Kid. I need to,” she hesitates, glancing around nervously and tightening her lips, an unfamiliar expression comes and goes in a second, “I need to just run some errands. Don’t do anything I would do.”

It takes a moment for the words to process in the young girl’s head, and once it registers, a dark red blush heats up her face and her heart starts beating erratically. 

Her breath catches and she clears her throat, stuttering her words out in response, “Oh! Well, uh, you don’t… No need to worry about that! We’re just- we’re not-” she turns away and stiffly faces the house, “Okay bye!”

Amity quickly enters the house, adrenaline pumping through her veins and causing her to tremble. She leans against the door and releases a quiet sigh, breathing in and out deeply as her body slowly begins to relax. 

Nobody else needs to know what runs through her mind. Especially not Luz.

She lifts her head up from the wood of the door, hearing a faint music drifting through the old house. Amity pushes herself up off the door and follows it, recognizing the music as one of her girlfriend’s favorite songs.

The house smells of pine, and there’s something eerie about the way the walls are decorated, but she swallows her discomfort. If Luz felt safe here, so should she.  All she really needs to do is give this place a chance. 

Coming to stand in front of an oak, wooden door, Amity gently nudges it open with her knuckles and peeks inside. The lights are off and the blinds are shut, the only thing illuminating the dark room is the flickering phone screen towards the center of the room where a mattress is laid out on the floor, blankets haphazardly strung across it. 

Recognizing the lump beneath the blankets as Luz, Amity steps into the room and shuts the door behind her with two fingers. It softly slides shut, leaving only a sliver of space between the frame and the door. 

“Luz?”

When the girl doesn’t reply, Amity approaches the mattress and kneels down, leaning so that she could gently drape herself over her. 

Luz is laying on her side with her legs pulled close to her chest, her hair is oily and the darker blotches on the girl’s face indicate the mud that she had apparently been shoved into. Amity props herself up with her palms and leans down, brushing the dark hair out of Luz’s face.

Brown eyes briefly glance at her before shifting back to the phone screen as the opening of another music video begins to play. 

“Hey.” Luz finally greets, her voice is quiet and timid. “Why’re you here?”

The words startle the brunette. Hadn’t she gotten her text? 

“I came to see you.” Amity answers casually, “My girlfriend is upset, you think I wouldn’t care?” 

She rests herself across the other girl, Luz grunts and shifts a little bit to accommodate the extra weight, slightly turning over on her back and extending her legs so that Amity could comfortably lay between them. 

“Tell me what’s wrong?” Amity requests sweetly as she reaches up with one hand to touch her partner’s cheek. Luz still isn’t looking at her. “Did Tiffany, Emily, or this ‘Eli’ boy do something?”

Luz turns her eyes towards her and stares at her for a long minute. A breath escapes her lips, “Tiffany saw the pictures you posted and combined it with the school’s crack theory that I was your girlfriend.”

Amity tilts her head, “But, it’s true. What’s so hurtful about that?”

Luz hesitates, tensing up and gritting her teeth. “...They don’t believe it.” She replies with a pained hiss. “I didn’t expect them to, but they said I’m so in love with you that I learned ballet. Then, they remind me that someone like me wouldn’t even have a chance ...” 

The way Luz speaks causes irritation to stir inside of Amity’s chest. They were mocking her, using her ‘crush’ as evidence as they thoroughly didn’t believe that Luz is anything to Amity. 

When in reality, she’s one of the most important people in her life. Why did her classmates care so much about whether or not Luz dated her or not? It’s none of their business! 

“It made me wonder why you’re actually with me…”

The words cut through Amity’s bitter thoughts like a blade, briefly stinging at her heart. Amity sighs and pushes herself up, shifting her weight to one hand as she reaches up and she subtly grasps Luz’s chin to look at her. 

“I’m with you because you’re the most amazing person I know, and I care about you.” She leans down and her lips connect with Luz’s forehead in a quick, loving kiss. Amity then taps her forehead against Luz’s playfully, she smiles  “I’ll take care of it, okay? Why don’t you go get cleaned up?”  

The other girl’s fingers brush across the back of her neck affectionately; Amity ignores the brief shudder that crawls up her spine and leans back so that she could look Luz in the eyes again. The faint sparkle is back in her brown eyes, but there’s still sorrow written in her expression.

Amity would destroy the person responsible for this.

 “Okay…” Luz replies at last. 

Amity sits up off of her, folding her knees beneath her with her hands resting in her lap. The other girl rolls over, detangling herself from the blankets with little difficulty. She kicks the blankets back onto the mattress and starts for the door. 

She walks with a heaviness in her step.

Once Luz is out of the room, Amity reaches for her phone and unlocks it. She glances between two apps before opening her blog, tapping on the mobile screen recorder icon she’d installed on the front of her page. She waits a few minutes, watching the numbers of viewers increase as her live recording is spread from platform to platform. 

After another minute or two, she finally looks up at the camera and narrows her brows. “First of all, you all want to know who my girlfriend is?” She practically says with an annoyed voice. “Fine. I’ll reveal at approximately three-thirty, tomorrow.”

Cheers immediately erupt through the chat.

“Secondly…”

Chapter Text

“Where are we going?”

“Shhh!” 

Luz giggles as she pulls her half asleep girlfriend down the street, glancing over her shoulder and lifting a finger to her lips to make a shushing sound when Amity lets out a tired groan. “Just a little further, mi amor, I promise.” 

Amity just hums her acknowledgement and Luz gives her wrist another gentle tug, Amity obediently follows, despite knowing she could pull her hand away with little to no effort.

Even exhausted, the other girl was the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen; the way her messy brown bangs fell into her eyes, heavy from rainwater, the sparkle in her sleep-deprived eyes when she looked at her, the way her wet, mint green and brown hair sticks to her exposed shoulders and neck, how her creamy white skin practically glows beneath the streetlights.

Her orange, white, and pink tank top clings to her thin frame, while her lighter pink sweatshorts sag from the gathering rain. She’s walking bear foot, the soles of her feet softly splashing through the puddles of water as Luz pulls her along. 

The wind gently blows through the street and Luz feels a subtle shudder,  reminding herself to change out of these soaking wet clothes as soon as possible. 

But, cold wind or not, the rains during a hot summer night was one of the perfect times of the year. This time, she has someone very special to share it with. 

“Where are we going?” Amity asks, stopping in her steps and wrapping her own fingers around Luz’s wrist. Luz barely has a moment to turn around before she’s jerked towards the now more awake brunette. “I am tired, it’s dark, and it’s raining. Why couldn’t I bring an umbrella?”

Well, they should be far enough now.

“Because!” Luz chirps, “We couldn’t go out into the rain earlier today because of the secret, but we can play now!” She laughs and jumps back, her feet gliding over the street before landing on the wet pavement. Amity tilts her head in a silent question, Luz giggles and bows down, spreading her feet apart and mimicking the human version of a dog’s play bow. 

A tiny smirk crosses her girlfriend’s lips, mischief flickers through her bright golden eyes and Luz pushes off the soles of her feet and towards Amity. Droplets of water fly up from beneath her shoes and splashes in front of her as she skids one shoe through a crevice in the side of the road, stopping herself just in front of the brunette. She looks up at Amity again and a wave of shame hits her when she notices that the girl hasn’t flinched.

“Hmm.” Amity raises a brow in amusement and leans down, taking the few inches of height that the sidewalk gave her towards her advantage. Delicate fingers take Luz’s chin and tilts her head up to meet Amity’s golden eyes, Luz smiles sheepishly and the other girl grins devilishly. “Ah, so she wants to play?”

Luz knows that the expression her girlfriend is wearing is meant for subtle intimidation, but she can’t help but to focus on the droplets of rain caressing the girl’s face. Her heart is soaring, affection spreading through her chest as another realization courses through her being, clouding her thoughts. 

This beautiful, goddess of a girl, loves her . She wants to be with her . Out of all the other girls in the world, Amity had chosen her . What had she done to deserve Amity?

Luz is ripped from her thoughts when a sweet, but momentary, wet kiss is placed on her lips. Soft fingers drop from her chin and the world begins rebuilding itself around her, she turns to look at Amity as the girl skips away, Luz remains in a daze. The brunette pauses and looks behind her, giggling and copying Luz’s playful stance from only a minute prior.

“Well, come on!” Amity invites with a musical laugh. There’s light in her eyes, any exhaustion she’d been feeling since they left the house has been forgotten. “You’re the one who wanted to play, dunce!”

Seeing Amity so carefree was strange, but the look of absolute joy on her face in this very moment will be permanently imprinted into Luz’s memory. 

So, she followed her.

She splashes through the water and a light-hearted shout escapes her when Amity spins around on her heel to run, grinning at her from over her shoulder as Luz lunges for her. “Try again!” Amity’s bare feet collide with the wet ground with a loud clap, signalling to Luz that she was just behind her. 

“Not fair!”

Luz whips around as quickly as she can, seeing Amity standing behind her with a wide, victorious smile; the tanned girl reaches for her again, groaning in false annoyance when her fingers brush across Amity’s side as she dodges the grab.

The sound of the rain hitting against the cement and rolling off the shingles of the roofs intertwine with the happy laughter being carried in the soft wind blowing around them.

They break into a chase. 

Amity races down the street swiftly and Luz immediately follows behind her, “Hey!” She calls to her, increasing her pace to catch the other girl. “I’m not as fast as you, you dang jock !”

Amity doesn’t look behind her and Luz’s jaw drops when the brunette slams one foot onto the ground firmly and kicks off with a new burst of speed, slinging water up behind her like dust. 

“Amity!”

Did she just become faster ?! There’s no way she can catch her! Amity was definitely a jock, and she seems to keep herself in shape, judging by her toned, athletic legs.

‘Nope!’ The tanned girl abruptly jerks herself from her thoughts before they could descend further and she looks up, slowing down when she sees that Amity has stopped under a street light. The girl’s chest is barely rising and falling with shallow breaths, she doesn’t even look tired. 

There’s a mist in the air now, rising from the warm pavement. The few trees on the road and the flowers growing across the sidewalk are a bright green, contrasting the seemingly gloomy colors that the street lights and the night rain gave them. It makes the girl standing in front of her far more stunning.

“Tired?” Amity asks quietly as Luz approaches, she gasps an affirmative answer and Amity giggles. The sound is angelic.  “I’m sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to just…” Her eyes are glowing. “To just run .”

In that moment, Luz swears that Amity was an angel sent from the skies above. She sees movement and is shaken out of her thoughts when Amity walks slowly, the way the girl moves is like a slow dance, hypnotizing, seductive yet playful. Her mind can not comprehend as she once again goes into a subtle daze.

A pair of arms embrace her from behind and Luz lets out a small yelp, startled, while another body is gently pressed against her back, sending cold chills up her spine while she slowly recovers from the shock. She can feel her heart thundering loudly in her chest, overpowering the rain. The only other sound she can hear is soft breathing and affectionate whispers from the girl pressed against herself.

“Amity?” She asks, worried. 

“I’m alright,” Amity reassures her with a sweet kiss to the back of her neck. The rain has decreased to a drizzle, and the fog is rising up to their knees. “So,” her arms tighten around the girl’s abdomen, “why’d you bring me out here?” her voice barely a whisper against her girlfriend’s neck. 

Luz hums and intertwines her fingers with Amity’s, bringing one hand up and placing a kiss to the back of her warm fist. “Exactly for this...” she answers, looking up at the dark sky and grinning at the sight of the grey clouds. 

“I’ve always wanted to just… Play in the rain with someone. A friend, a lover, it didn’t matter.” she says in a gentle manner as she turns her head to look at Amity, but stops noticing a girl with pink hair watching them around the corner. 

She blinks, about to mention her to her girlfriend. But when she gestures towards the girl, she finds that she has disappeared.

A loud clap of thunder causes a tremor to race up Luz’s spine and Amity jerks away from her abruptly, their eyes ascend to the skies above them to see the grey clouds darkening. The drizzle of rain was beginning to pick up again.

“Come on,” Amity whispers, taking Luz’s wrist and sending butterflies through her stomach again, “my apartment isn’t far from here. We can rest there.”

Luz follows obediently, mesmerized. 

They reach the apartment building just before the rain begins to pour down, Luz can feel the spray from the rain crawling up her soaked back as she races towards the doors. 

Amity, having reached the door before she did, manages to get it unlocked and Luz charges inside, only breaking her speed when her wet shoes skid across the marble floor.

She falls with a loud crash and a shout of surprise as the door shuts, she hears quick footsteps across the floor and she sits up, her vision clearing just enough to see Amity kneeling above her. Luz’s bangs are brushed out of her face as Amity cups her cheeks, worriedly speaking to her in a rushed voice that Luz can barely understand. 

“ Estoy bien, amor, cálmate. ” Luz reassures. Although Amity cannot understand, she registers the calmness in her words and visibly relaxes. 

“You startled me.” Amity murmurs worriedly, pressing her forehead against Luz’s. One of the other girl’s hands finds her hips, Luz readjusts her sitting position so that their position is more comfortable; Amity leans in for a loving kiss.

“I’m alright.” The tanned girl repeats as soft kisses begin to pepper her wet skin.

Luz can feel her warm breath against her collarbone when she rests her forehead against her shoulder. Amity’s voice is sweet and delicate, “Let’s get out of these clothes, you look cold.”

Seconds tick by like hours and the day progresses slowly, the world seems to be moving in slow motion and minutes feel like an eternity. Luz holds her breath for most of the day, constantly checking the time on her phone while the anxiety in her chest swells as she impatiently awaits the scheduled time for the photo to be uploaded.

Tapping her fingers across the desk, she can feel her classmates’ eyes boring holes into the back of her head. They’re giggling and sniggering about how she’s ‘so afraid of what will happen when they figure out she’s not really dating Amity Blight’.

In reality, it was the complete opposite. She’s already had a few people make a few snide comments towards her regarding the topic, she swears one of them was a subtly implied threat, but she dares not to report them in case it was empty. 

However, she remains on edge, ready to defend herself if she absolutely needs to. 

She clicks her phone screen on again and her anxiety spikes upon seeing that they have precisely ten minutes until the picture is uploaded for the world to see. 

“Nervous, Luzer?” Luz doesn’t bother to look up, recognizing the voice as Emily’s. “Scared that we’re gonna find out that you’ve been bluffing?”

Luz clears her throat, “I haven’t confirmed or denied anything.” She reminds her with a shaky voice, staring at her phone screen as her knee bounces anxiously. Her eyes widen in horror when her screen lights up again with Amity’s contact picture at the side. Panic rushes through her like a lightning bolt and she slams her hand down over the phone, shielding it from being noticed by the girl standing over her.

“Who was that?” Emily demands suspiciously. Luz finally looks up and her jaw becomes firm, she doesn’t cower under the annoyance in the girl’s blue eyes. A smirk tugs at her classmates’ mouth, “Awww, was it your Mommy?” 

Oh, how badly she wanted to wipe that smirk off Emily’s face by turning her cherry red lips into a blood red.

“That’s none of your concern.” Luz answers with a cool voice, lifting her phone front-face up and clicking it off.

Nine minutes.

“Miss Bowell!” The teacher calls from the back of the classroom, the student groans and pushes away from Luz’s desk to approach.

They have two days until school lets out for the summer, which means she only has two days left to deal with her classmates. But, by how they take the news in the next few minutes, it would either be the worst two days of her entire life, or the most awkward. 

Luz sighs and sinks down across her desk, letting her phone dangle from her hand as she tucks one arm beneath her chin. She stares boredly up at the clock in the center of the room, watching as seconds tick by and the small hand slowly glides behind it. The chattering in the classroom overpowers the ticking of the clock, so there’s nothing to help cool her nerves.

‘Amity.’ 

She pulls her phone back to her face, decreasing the screen brightness and glancing around before she opens her text messages. 

Seeing the text from her girlfriend immediately brings a smile to her face.

‘Are you ready?’

Eight minutes. 

Her thumbs test their agility by quickly swiping over her keyboard to form a cohesive response, her heart thundering in her chest. They were really going through with this. The butterflies in her heart multiply by thousands and a dorky smile comes to her face, she knows that she has the expression of a lovesick idiot, but who wouldn’t when they have a partner who genuinely cares for them?

Besides, Amity had agreed and scheduled for the public to know exactly who her romantic partner was. She cares not for one’s money, prestige, or looks, but instead who they are .

Luz still can’t believe that it was her . Only she has been allowed to see the girl in her most vulnerable moments, she’s the one who makes her laugh. She’s the reason that those golden eyes dance .

‘I’m ready.’Luz replies.

Seven minutes.

She hesitates, typing another message.

‘But, would you mind coming down here? I’m not sure if some will take the news well.’

Three little dots appear at the bottom of the screen almost instantly, Luz releases a grateful breath when she sees Amity’s affirmative response, informing her that she’ll be there in five minutes. Luz sits up and looks at the clock, mentally marking what time it was and starting the countdown for Amity’s arrival. 

“Hey! Who’s ready for the reveal?” A boy shouts across the classroom just before the bell rings. Whoops erupt through the small room, Luz can hear the teacher laughing in amusement at the class’s excitement. “Join me outside and we can watch the broadcast if you can’t access it!” He calls as everybody scrambles to get their things.

Luz doesn’t move, watching the clock intently without looking behind her. She can hear books being dropped into backpacks and papers being crammed into the smallest crevice in the bag, causing a slight irked feeling to sting at her chest. They could at least try to be more organized… 

A hand claps on her back and she flinches, looking up to see Eli and his crew standing above her. She keeps her expression unreadable, glaring into the boy’s almost knowing, menacing eyes. She doesn’t budge, matching the scowl on his face and snickering when he scoffs and turns, leading his friends away from her.

Six minutes.

Having everything already packed, Luz stands from her desk and reaches to grab her own book bag from the back of her chair in one motion. She slips it over her shoulder and swiftly walks out of the room, keeping to the side of the hall and navigating through the crowds of people stopping by their lockers. A few of them were found liplocked in the middle of the hallway.

“Get a room!” Someone shouts at the couples, Luz giggles in amusement. Ah, one of the perks of not attending a school with your girlfriend. No embarrassing stories about your highschool sweetheart to tell your kids. 

Luz descends the staircase, her footsteps instinctively quickening and keeping her balanced as she needed. She looks up as she reaches the first floor, looking past the excited students and silently following them.

Five minutes.

As she steps outside, gasps erupt through the lot and her eyes quickly find a familiar girl with brown and green hair towards the other side of the road, leaned up against a maroon and black motorcycle.

Luz’s heart skips a beat, noticing the new, red leather jacket Amity is wearing; she looks closer and recognizes the lesbian flag colors stretching down the sleeves in a meteor-like pattern. She’s wearing a black pair of leggings and her hair is loose, falling beautifully around her shoulders. Her natural brown hair is beginning to fade the green tips, pulling her new look together in a stunning, asymmetric way.

Golden eyes locate her and the girl flashes a small smile, lifting a hand to her lips and blowing her a kiss before turning to another student approaching her, greeting the girl with a chipper ‘hello’.

“Who was that for?” Luz hears someone ask.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Amity responds with a giggle.

Luz seats herself outside of the doors, out of the way of the students clambering through the halls to greet the internet celebrity. Word must’ve spread quickly. She can hear bits and pieces of rumors steadily being spread through campus. 

Four minutes.

People gather around Amity like a flock of birds hunting for bread crumbs, some taking group pictures with her while others ask for a solo. Autographs are signed and questions go unanswered. 

Not everybody approaches her, though. From where she’s sitting, Luz can perfectly hear a few people from a grade below her talking bad about the pale girl, but she tunes them out and focuses on the crowd a few feet away from her.

Three minutes.

Suddenly, the crowd breaks apart.

Luz glances up to see Amity approaching her with a subtle sway of her hips, her hands clasped together behind her back; there’s a playful, flirtatious glint in her eyes that prompts Luz’s heartbeat to pick up.

The chatter decreases to intrigued whispers, all eyes watching them. 

Her voice is high-pitched and flirty, almost musical. “Why hello, beautiful.” Amity greets confidently when she stops in front of Luz, standing over her and leaning down; she’s sporting a charming grin and making direct eye contact with her. One brow lifts in amusement when Luz doesn’t respond, the tanned girl is waiting for her to make the first move.

“You’re kind of cute, do you have a name?” That nearly silences their audience.

Two minutes.

Luz knows exactly how to answer that question. “Careful there, Blight.” She replied with one hand curled beneath her chin, her elbow resting on her knee. “How do you know I like girls?”

“The bi flag on your shoulder,” comes her playful response, Amity moves delicately behind her and Luz’s eyes follow her as the pale girl circles her. She makes her movement slow, making sure to brush her fingers across her chin to her cheek, the pads of her fingertips are soft against her mocha-colored skin. 

Butterflies explode through her heart at the gentle touch and she leans into it, relishing in the single moment that Amity allows to linger.

Luz giggles, giving the girl a wink when she stops in front of her again. Amity just giggles. “Touche.” 

Amity kneels down to her level, their audience long forgotten. She hadn’t taken her for one to enjoy PDA. “Are you ready?”

Hesitation rises up again and she swallows hard, anxiety spreading through her being and causing a numbing feeling to overtake her. 

Thirty seconds. 

She shouldn’t have agreed to this. The whole school will turn against her in jealousy.

Her knee begins bouncing and she averts her gaze, Amity rests her hand on the tanned girl’s knee and soothes the fear pounding through Luz’s veins. “Luz,” her voice pulls her from her muddled thoughts, she looks at her again, “it’s too late to turn back now. But, I’m here… Everything’s alright.”

She’s right. Amity is right here for her. It doesn’t matter what the others think. It’s none of their business. Luz releases a shaky breath and relaxes her jittery nerves. “I’m ready.” She murmurs after a long moment.

They hear notification tones going off around them and Luz impulsively glances at her own phone, opening the notification and glaring up at Amity when she hears her laugh at her. 

The picture displayed on everyone’s screens causes a chatter to grow amongst the students. 

“Luz Noceda.” She says loud and confidently, for sure knowing she has everyone’s attention now. Amity smiles at her, affection dancing in her eyes. She starts leaning in, Luz doesn’t move, allowing her to take the lead. 

Luz’s heartbeat picks up again, roaring in her chest and thundering in her ears. 

“I love you.”

Fireworks erupt through the girl and she abruptly reaches up, acting on instinct and pulling Amity down and closer to her by the collar of her red jacket; Amity’s grasp on her knee becomes more firm, balancing herself above her. Their eyes meet and Luz chuckles, seeing the momentary confusion in her girlfriend’s eyes.

She doesn’t care about the others watching them in either wonder or complete, utter shock. The only thing she sees is Amity . Amity is the only person around her who matters . 

Amity loves her . All she needs to do… is say it back.

“I love you, too.” 

Chapter Text

“He is absolutely splendid!”

She stares at the well-dressed boy standing before her, wearing a blank and unimpressed expression on her face. She grimaces when the boy glances at her and offers a kind smile, she knows that he means no ill will, but the very reason for their meet has already tainted her view of him.

Her parents were searching for a boy to play a love interest in the script they’d written for their neighborhood festival; a story of a rich, young girl falling in love with a measly peasant boy. 

She, of course, was given the lead role. 

The couple’s first choice was her father’s best friend’s thirteen-year old son. She has met the child before, but never under these circumstances. She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about him playing her love interest, or any boy, really. 

A pair of hands tightly grasp her shoulder expectantly, “Isn’t he great, Amelia?” She hears her mother’s voice addressing her and she gives a brief nod, not trusting herself to speak in fear of being lectured. “Perfect!” Amelia glares at her mother as the woman approaches the lady standing next to the boy, “Why don’t we rehearse tonight at our place?”

Amelia grits her teeth upon the thought of the boy stepping foot into their home, and quite possibly, her bedroom. 

Her golden eyes meet with the boy’s and she sneers at him, worry fills his dark eyes and he looks towards her mother.  “Mrs. Blight?” He asks worriedly, sparing her a concerned glance, “Amelia doesn’t look-”

The woman brushes him off with a wave of her hand, “She is twelve, she still believes that boys have cooties. She will get over it.” She turns to face the boy’s mother and smiles sweetly, gesturing for the other woman to follow her. “Now, Mrs. Kryston, shall we talk about our rehearsal schedule?”

Amelia scowls at her mother’s back as she walks away, rage boiling up inside of her like a volcano and threatening to erupt. How dare she? She bites the inside of her lip to keep from shouting at the woman and locks her anger beneath the surface.

Irritation sweeps through her when a hand is placed on her shoulder, she turns and she looks the boy directly in the eyes, rolling her shoulder and stepping away from him abruptly.  “Never touch me.” She warns with an annoyed glare.

The boy stares at her for a moment before nodding respectfully. 

“Amelia! Come!”

The named girl sighs heavily. Why exactly did he have to play her love interest? His older sister was quite pretty, and she wants to be an actress, wouldn’t she be more suitable for the role? 

“Yes, Mother.”

She has to trust her mother.

Three weeks later was the night of the performance, her family arrived early to ensure that the props and costumes were up to tier. Amelia’s younger siblings are left in a room together while she is sent to practice for her rehearsal. With her mother hovering over her shoulder, the child tried her best to put her heart into it.

The time for the play came agonizingly slow and Amelia felt like she crawled through the performance, she was tired and she just wanted to climb into bed and sleep. 

Once the play came to a close, the crowd went wild with cheers and praise, but Amelia never once felt satisfied, only relieved and ready to return home. Unfortunately, they stayed for hours after the play.

Her mother claimed that she and the boy would make an adorable couple once they were older, insisting that he had a thing for her judging by the look on his face. The thought of dating him romantically causes her stomach to churn with queasiness. 

She never said anything. She was young. Perhaps she would develop feelings for him once she was older. 

After a year, Amelia was pressured into accepting the boy’s offer to take her out on a date, and despite having not enjoyed herself, she begrudgingly accepted to be his girlfriend; her siblings, especially her little brother and sister, often teased her about supposedly liking the boy when she accepted.

There was always an unexplainable nausea in her belly when she looked at him. Thankfully, the boy never forced her into anything. He’d even make sure it was completely okay with her before asking his parents to pay for their second date. It wasn’t okay with her, she only said yes because her mother was staring holes into her back.

He somehow knew.

“Whoo! What a rush!”

Amelia glances over at him boredly as he pumps his fist in the air, he looks at her and his arms sink back down to his sides, “Amelia, are you sure you’re alright?” He makes no move to touch her, much to her gratitude. 

“I’m fine,” she lies, avoiding eye contact with him and fixing her attention on anything around the amusement park but him, “so, um, what’s… Wow.” 

Amelia’s words trails off into a whisper as a girl walks by them, she watches her intently with her mouth slightly agape. The girl’s long, wavy red hair flies delicately behind her in the wind. She’s wearing a crop top t-shirt with shredded shorts that show off her toned, pale and slender legs, her features are narrow, yet sharp with bright, lime green eyes. 

Her friend laughs from somewhere behind her and his voice suddenly appears at her side. “Yes, she is very wow , I agree.”

Amelia’s mouth moves before she can comprehend that she’s speaking; “She’s hot.”

Her friend never judged her, he only laughed his agreement and called off the date, suggesting that they spend the rest of the day as friends. He promised that it would stay their secret, and he never once considered exposing her to their parents. 

A few months later, she developed a crush on an older girl at her school, the only person she told about her infatuation was her friend, he was the only one she trusted. He congratulated her and tried to convince her to ask the girl on a date, but she chickened out and decided to admire the girl from afar.

Her excuse? ‘What if it isn’t a crush?’

Trusting her friend turned out to be the worst mistake she’s ever made, he told the girl of her crush and in turn, the girl reported it to her parents. 

“We will NOT have a lesbian for a daughter! You know that homosexuality is a sin.”

A loud slap pops through the room, followed by a thud as Amelia’s body collides harshly with the floor. Tears gathering in her eyes, she looks up at her mother and her heart twists upon seeing the absolute hatred and disgust on the woman’s face. Her father, however, remained silent, not daring to look at her.

“Mother…”

The look of rage on her mother’s face when she was addressed causes her to cower away, but her mother kneels down and grabs her chin roughly, forcing her to keep direct eye contact. “No, you may not call me Mother until you have atoned for your disgusting ways. I’m not accepting this. Not ever! I’d rather have a dead daughter than a gay child!”

Her whole world had come crashing down around her like a landslide. The shining light she would usually see around her mother and father was gone, replaced by darkness that causes bitterness to swell inside of her. 

Her mother meant it, and she would never think otherwise. Her father offers her a sympathetic look as her mother angrily left, but he didn’t say a word and followed behind the woman.

As her mother leaves, Amelia sees the horrified expressions of her three siblings peeking around the corner. 

She didn’t have the strength to look them in the eyes. 

Her mother never bothered to celebrate her fourteenth birthday, Amelia didn’t even receive a ‘happy birthday’ from her mother, but her father wished her in private and brought her a gift. She thanks him, but a part of her resents him for never standing up to her in front of her mother when she needed him most, she resents him for allowing her to walk through Hell alone.

But, thanks to him giving her the cold shoulder, Amelia quickly learns how to shield her emotions and begins to rebel.  She stops dying her hair to fit her mother’s color-coordinated rule, and she begins to choose her own clothes, breaking away from the certain ‘look’ that their family has.  

She found music that she thoroughly enjoyed, songs about girls that are sung by girls. When her youngest sister insisted on wanting to spend time with her, Amelia showed Amity some of her favorite songs and grinned when the ten-year old’s eyes lit up like fireworks.

“Oh, you like these songs?” Amelia asks with a large grin, giggling when the child nods meekly, as if she wasn’t supposed to like them. “You know they’re songs about sapphics, right?” Amity sends her a questioning look, “Sapphic is another word for girls who romantically like other girls, better used when one or both are not lesbian.”

Amity’s eyes grow wide with fear upon hearing the last word, “Les- no. I can’t- Mother says that-”

Amelia cuts her off, “Fuck what Odalia says,” her sister wears an unsure expression and Amelia sighs, placing her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “It’s okay to like other girls, don’t listen to our mother… If you have any problems, come to me. I’ll protect you.” 

She would keep that promise to the best of her ability.

Some time before her fifteenth birthday, Amelia got a girlfriend whom she believed she harbored feelings for; her first thing she does to go against her parents, or more specifically, her mother, was kissing the girl in front of her mother’s very eyes.

The rush of serotonin she’d felt was indescribable; she and the girl went their separate ways a few weeks later, but Amelia had gotten the confirmation that she’d craved oh-so badly.

She liked girls, and kissing was fun.

When she returned to school, she activated her charm, using cliche and cheesy crap she’d found online as a starter pack. As she became more original and more egoistic, she managed to at least fluster half of the girls in her grade. 

A new level of confidence struck her and she slowly began to up her game.

She begins with subtle, at-a-distance flirts and winks, testing the girls’ reaction to those before deciding to go a step further by directly flirting with them. She carefully works her way up the ladder, always willing to descend a few steps if the other girl was visibly uncomfortable. 

There were quite a few times where she had to backtrack when she saw unsettled looks on their faces, she genuinely apologizes and makes no move to approach again.

Her last step, once she’s gained the girl’s trust, was pinning the girl against the school’s bathroom stall door and kissing her. She harbors no feelings for any of the girls, and oftentimes find that the other end was more passionate; not wanting to break their hearts worse than she will in the end, she never allows it to go too far and breaks it off, leaving her victim flustered and confused as she leaves the stall without looking back. 

Several moments, she nearly forgets that she’s only fifteen as the situation she’s in causes her to feel much older. Who could blame her? She has half of the schoolgirls wrapped around her finger, even some of the straight girls approached her, willing to experiment.

With those, she allows them to choose the pace and offers them several chances to leave, she never kisses them without their complete consent. If she’s told to stop, she will without hesitation.  

Unsurprisingly, quite a few of them later came out as either pansexual or bisexual. Some admitted that they’d been questioning it for some time, but was fighting their own internalized homophobia.

By sixteen, she was titled the Hexide Heartbreaker. Fortunately, her parents and her family knew nothing about her acts outside of the manor.

“The new girl is here!”

Amelia breaks away from the girl she has pinned against the wall and turns her head,  releasing the girl’s wrists and stepping away from her. She slides the stall door open watching outside of the bathroom as students gather around someone further down the hall.

‘New girl?’ Amelia muses, ‘Wonder if she’s cute.’ 

Feeling a kiss and teeth scrape across her collarbone, Amelia is jerked back to her senses and she slams the girl back against the wall with her forearm, snarling at her. “You should know the rules by now, Paige .” 

The girl is reeled to reality and begins to apologize profusely, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just- I got caught up in the moment, and-” Amelia retracts her arm from Paige and steps back, already seeing the confession in the brunette’s eyes. “...I love you.”

She’s heard this many times by now. And each time, she has to break their hearts.

“Too bad. I’m not looking for a girlfriend.” She murmurs coldly as she turns away, refusing to look back at the girl’s heartbroken expression. Amelia sighs, “I’m sorry.” She apologizes genuinely before exiting the bathroom, her head bowed as an attempt to hide her eyes.

She was lying. Every confession she’s heard is only out of the heat of the moment, it’s an empty, meaningless confession, and Amelia knows it. She wants someone to love, she wants someone who truly cares about her, someone she could show vulnerability around and they would never spill her secrets, nor would they judge her. 

But, such a person does not exist.

“You must be Hexide’s resident heartbreaker?” Amelia  lifts her eyes to see a tall, tanned girl approaching her with a curious smirk on her dark features. She’s wearing a fresh, bright green jacket and a purple beanie on her head, concealing the unruly brown hair that Amelia knows hides beneath.

This must be the new girl. ‘Goddamn it, she’s cute.’

“I am!” Amelia answers proudly, retrieving her book out of her locker and shutting it. She could use someone new to play with, and besides, this girl approached her first, she could jump to phase two. “What’s your name, cutie?”

The girl chuckles in amusement. “Lucia.”

She takes on a sweet, flirty tone and puts extra emphasis on certain words. “Well, Lucia… ” She says the name with honey on her tongue, but doesn’t seem to faze Lucia. “My schedule is full, but I’m sure I can make an extra space for a beautiful girl like you. Second place, perhaps?” Her voice changes into a persuasive sing-song, “I’ll give special treatment, considering you’re new and all.”

“Second place? Aw, and I was going to make you my first priority.” Lucia only winks at her, “I’ll have to take you up on that someday.”

Had she known what Lucia’s affect on her would’ve been, she would have never accepted the girl into her life. 

She never managed to charm Lucia like she could easily sweep the other girls off their feet, she’d even brought the girl out on a date to attempt to break through her walls, but, somehow, Amelia found herself being the one to swoon. 

The more time she spends around the girl, the more she finds herself staring in admiration, and Lucia knows, she’s never thought to mention it.

Amelia’s heart thunders loudly in her chest whenever she’s around the girl, her pulse quickens and a warmth spreads through her chest. She has a crush. Amelia Blight, the Hexide Heartbreaker, has developed affections for a girl she barely knows.

She decided that the only reason that she’s attracted to her was because of how Lucia treated her like a normal person, instead of clamoring over the other girls trying to seduce or win her heart. 

One day, they met up at the beach by accident and her new friends offered to spend the rest of the day with her, wanting to provide Amelia with some much-needed company.

It was the first time she’d ever spoken to someone so seriously.

“So, you just walk around town until midnight…?” Lucia asks worriedly, walking alongside the brunette as they stroll down the street with a calm pace. “Bad ‘Lia… Something could happen to you!” Amelia’s heart stutters and a kaleidoscope of butterflies erupt through her being, she feels like she’s floating. A crooked, lopsided grin tugs at her lips and she averts eye contact. 

Pulling herself back together, knowing the strings holding her in one piece could snap at any moment, Amelia gives Lucia a nudge with her shoulder and playfully smirks at her. “Aw, are you worrying about me?”

Lucia scoffs, stepping onto the pavement to approach the other side of the street. Amelia can hear a vehicle approaching from the distance, but they’re far enough away that they’ll be able to cross the road before they come close. 

“Anyway, um… Amelia, listen...” Lucia hesitates and looks away, fiddling with her fingers and slowing her pace to walk next to Amelia.

The sound of an engine rumbling grabs the brunette’s attention.

Golden eyes dart behind Lucia as the girl begins to talk, her eyes widen and she glances between her friend and the quickly oncoming vehicle. Of course… Lucia’s skin color… They’re going to try and kill her… Lucia’s so invested in her story that she doesn’t even hear it coming.

Dread pools in Amelia’s belly as fear wracks her being. She can’t allow Lucia to get hurt.  But, how can she get her out of the way without herself getting injured?

The vehicle is coming closer, and fast.

No, fuck it.  She doesn’t have time. She doesn’t care if she gets hurt.

Time slows down and she turns her head back to Lucia, whose dark eyes are glancing back at her. The world falls deaf and she sees Lucia’s mouth shape her name; Amelia kicks off one foot and charges at the girl. 

“MOVE!” Reality clicks and the world speeds up, slamming her entire weight into Lucia’s front and shoving her out of the way of the oncoming vehicle.

Her hands collide with the rough surface of the street and she feels the wind of the vehicle rushing by behind her, the ground shakes as they pass and Amelia finds herself leaning forward to bury her face into Lucia’s neck. 

“I’m okay.” She hears the tanned girl murmur to her reassuringly, wrapping her strong, long arms around her and holding her delicately.  “I’m okay.”

Had she hesitated a moment longer, Lucia would be dead. She wouldn’t have been able to protect her. Oh, she couldn’t bear the thought. 

A sob wracks her frame and she nestles deeper into her friend’s body, releasing quiet, heart-wrenching cries as grief and agony swells around her heart. She’s never felt this before, the strong urge to protect someone even at the cost of her own life, the absolute, shredding, pain she feels upon the mere thought of losing them. 

“Amelia…?” Lucia asks quietly, pulling her legs closer and sitting up, Amelia’s trapped her in a hug, refusing to let go of her. “I’m okay… What’s wrong? Talk to me…”

Amelia reluctantly parts from the embrace, looking the girl in the eyes. Her heart erupts into a thousand butterflies and ascends towards the heavens, seeing that her crush is alright. The words slip out before she can even process what she’s saying.

“I love you.”

She pushes away and runs home.

Amelia had locked herself in her bedroom and climbed into her bed, she’d ignored her sibling’s questions when she burst through the front doors and raced up the staircase as quickly as she could. The brunette secured herself in a cocooned blanket and held her pillow close, trying and failing to hold back the tears threatening to escape. 

She’d fallen from her throne, and she would never reclaim it…

How could she, Hexide’s resident Heartbreaker, have fallen in love so easily ? She’d locked gates around her heart to ensure that no one would dare to enter, but somehow, this girl had effortlessly walked through and now had full control over her affections.

She would use them against her.

In the morning, Amelia would be building a barricade around her heart again. Nobody will enter again, she’d make sure of it. 

Her phone’s notification ringtone goes off and Amelia rolls over, grabbing the small device while keeping herself swaddled in her blankets.

Her heart falls.

Lucia: ‘Meet me outside at my car. Please.’

So, she untangled herself from her blankets and trudged out the door, pausing only for a moment to greet her youngest sister, who only waves with the tips of her fingers. The child is invested in a pile of homework, hyperfocusing on the papers at hand  and completely disregarding the supper that had been brought to her.

Amelia sighs and steps outside, knowing she could do nothing to drag Amity away. Now that Amelia isn’t the Perfect Daughter anymore, Emira and Edric have become their favorites, which means they’re almost always disappointed in Amity and show it by putting her siblings on a pedestal.

Amelia closes the door behind her and breaks into a jog, rounding the corner of their property and sliding through the gate. She looks to her right and sees Lucia quietly approaching her, she swallows hard and prepares herself for the worst. 

“You needed some…” Lucia stops in front of her with an unreadable expression, “...thing? Lucia?”

The tanned girl steps closer and cups Amelia’s cheeks softly, her fingers spreading to caress just below her chin and relaxing her with only her touch. Lucia leans in, whispering into the brunette’s ear, and Amelia’s heart comes to a screeching halt. 

“I love you, too.”

Lucia’s lips meet hers in a willing, passionate kiss. Amelia’s brain takes a moment to register what’s happening; she’s kissing her. Lucia is kissing her .

The other girl pulls away, looking almost dejected. Amelia’s heart screams with guilt and she reaches up, grasping the back of her friend-girlfriend’s(?) neck and beckoning her closer.

She pulls her into another kiss, pouring all of her unspoken affections into it as her heart and soul ascend towards the skies, leaving only a content, happy feeling being and sparkling through her entire body.

“Say it again.” Amelia murmurs with a giggle, “Say it again, say it again…” 

“I love you.” Lucia hums and leans forward again, speaking between sweet, momentary kisses that send electrical sparks coursing through Amelia’s regenerating soul. “I love you, I love you.” 

Perhaps… This kind of person does exist.

Unfortunately, Lucia was only a two-week transfer student and by the next Monday, she had to return to her former school on the other side of the city. Amelia was prepared not to see her girlfriend until the weekends, but somehow, Lucia managed to show up at Hexide five minutes after the classes are let out for the day. 

Much to her surprise, Lucia continues to meet her after school and eventually, all eyes are on them, watching with interest. All of them were curious about the girl who managed to tame the Hexide Heartbreaker’s wild heart. 

She most definitely didn’t mind the public display of affection.

During her Sophomore year, things began to get serious. She found herself and Lucia bickering over some of the smallest, stupidest things that didn’t even matter. On instinct, Amelia often did exactly what her father does during arguments and simply walked out, not expecting the other girl to follow her and accept that she’d won.

She’d expected her to at least strike her when she talked back, or even leave, but she never did.

Imagine her surprise when Lucia one day wrapped her arms around her and whispered sweet apologies to her, saying she’d never meant to make her so upset. 

“I don’t like it when we fight.” Amelia admits quietly, turning around to lean into Lucia’s embrace more comfortably. 

“I don’t either.” Lucia agrees, she steps away from her and gently grasps the brunette’s arms, “Wanna go walking?”

Walking the streets of their city became a regular thing, goofing off and wasting time until Amelia had to go home. She would often see Lucia on her phone, texting someone, and she’d be lying if she hadn’t become at least a little bit worried. So, she asked and the girl responded that she was only letting her mother know where she was and that she was alright.

“Your Mother cares about where you are?” Amelia asks, astonished. 

Lucia sends her a strange look, lifting one brow in confusion. “Of course.” She replies, “If I don’t tell her where I am, she’ll be worried sick. Your Mom checks in on you, right?”

This is something she’d never wanted to tell anybody; she could trust Lucia, though. “Odalia disowned me when I was thirteen,” she confesses without emotion, averting eye contact with her girlfriend. “I am not allowed to call her ‘Mother’ anymore, and my Father doesn’t bother.”

Lucia only smiles and rests her hand on her shoulder supportively, “Come,” she says softly, “I want you to meet somebody.” 

She brought her to meet a woman named Eda Clawthorne, and upon first meeting, Amelia immediately decided that she liked her. Turns out, she’d been disowned by her family, too. The only family she has left worth calling family is her sister, whom she rarely sees considering she became a law enforcer, and Eda didn’t care too much for the law.

The woman wasn’t exactly motherly, but she practically radiated the ‘cool aunt’ vibe; she took her in almost instantly and taught her how to cook her own meals, made time for her and even showed her how to ride a motorcycle. She became the parental figure Amelia needed. Though, she would never admit it, she had begun to look up to the woman.

After learning that Amelia hasn’t celebrated her birthday in years, Eda even gave her a little party of her own. Of course, she passed it off as if it were Lucia’s idea, and Lucia accepted it to save a little bit of the woman’s pride.

Her life had changed around for the better, and she was actually looking forward to the day she can finally move out of her parents’ home. Eda helped her find a job at seventeen and Amelia started putting back money to spend on herself.

Before she knew it, she was eighteen and had bought her own motorcycle with a little help from Eda.

She kept it from her parents by leaving it at Eda’s place, and made sure not to ride around or anywhere near her parents’ neighborhood. Amelia upgraded the motorcycle by making the primary color a dark maroon with a black seat and painting the lesbian flag like flames across the body of it.

At school, many of her classmates had begun to talk about eventually settling down and having families. Most of them planned to marry whomever would be their Senior Prom date. 

As Prom was just around the corner, Amelia’s parents had re-entered her life by force and were pestering her to find a date, preferably a man. It was yet another thing she could add to her list to piss her mother off, because she already knows who she’s going to ask; she’s going to ask the beautiful girl cradled in her arms.

Once she wakes up, of course. As of right now, she looks far too peaceful to even consider disturbing her.

Unsurprisingly, Lucia willingly accepts and asks when Prom is; receiving a date and time, she promises that she’ll be there. Matching outfits is something they both knew would never happen, but so long as they’re happy and having fun, why does it matter how they dress? 

Prom comes and goes quickly, several pictures were taken during the occasion by one of their classmates, Wionna Park. Sometime during the photoshoot, Lucia managed to befriend them and a few days afterwards, they began to hang around the couple. 

A year later, when she was nineteen, things spiraled downhill like the equivalent to a landslide, or an avalanche. 

Her younger siblings were now in Highschool and were only a few grades below her, it was only a matter of time before they found Lucia with Amelia. She only hoped that would respect her privacy and keep their mouths shut.

She was wrong to have hoped for such a thing… 

“What the hell is this?!” Her mother shouts as she shoves the phone into her face, Amelia growls and leans back so that she could see the picture she was being shown, “Emira and Edric told me that you were hanging around some girl! A colored girl! Explain!”

Amelia scowls at the image of herself and her girlfriend, a photo taken oh-so discreetly by her twin siblings. In the picture, she’s leaning into Lucia’s embrace, she has her pinned against the wall while the girl is draping her green jacket around her shoulders with an amused, cocky grin on her face. 

“She’s my girlfriend, what the fuck do you think it is?” Amelia turns away from Odalia, “It’s not up-” She’s cut off by a hand roughly grabbing the back of her shirt, her collar becomes tight around her neck and she snatched back;  her shoulder collides with the china cabinet forcefully, shattering one of the glass windows and knocking over the expensive plates inside. 

The glass definitely broke some skin… 

Amelia pushes herself up  and faces Odalia again, ire flickering in her eyes as pain sears through her side and shoulder. Her mother lifts a cane to her throat, keeping her at bay. “Do you recall what I did to you when you told me you were gay ?”

She grits her teeth. Of course she does, how could she forget?

“Would you like me to start treating your sister that way?” A scary grin pulls across the woman’s lips and Amelia’s body begins to tremble with both dread and rage. “How about I have your little girlfriend-”

The girl swiftly grabs the end of the cane and jabs it forward with all of the strength she could muster, slamming the heavy end of it into the woman’s jaw with an audible pop. Amelia easily rips the cane out of Odalia’s grasp when she flinches, wielding it as a weapon and stepping forward. “You stay your bitchass away from them.” Amelia warns calmly, pointing the cane at the woman. “You’re lucky that I don’t-”

“Amelia?”

She turns her head and her posture slackens, seeing Emira and Edric leaning around the corner, watching her with horror on their faces. They’d seen her attack their mother, and apparently for no reason. “No,” she steps towards them, unconsciously letting the cane drop, but her siblings only move away from her, “Em, Ed, wait-”

Their eyes widen again and a shriek sounding like her name escapes her brother’s mouth, she barely has time to register the noise before she feels something heavy cracking across her skull.

“You’ll come get me…?”

Amelia’s in pain. Her body aches all over and her head is throbbing, she’s pretty sure that her eye is swelling up as well. She’d managed to fight back after her mother attempted to knock her out with her cane, but they were separated by her father forcing himself between them and gently advising her to return to her room to treat her wounds. 

“Of course… I’ll let you know when I’m pulling into the driveway. In the meantime, stay safe, okay?” Lucia murmurs from the other end of the line, sounding distraught and worried. Amelia promised that she was alright, but her girlfriend didn’t seem to believe her. 

The call disconnects and Amelia moves her attention to the window, impatiently waiting for the familiar golden headlights to pull into the driveway. 

She didn’t have any fighting spirit left.

Her siblings saw her as a bad guy, they were terrified of her. Her father never came to check up on her, despite knowing that she could’ve been severely injured. Her mother, additionally, essentially threatened the lives of the ones she loved, while mercilessly beating her in the process. 

She couldn’t endure it any longer. 

There was nothing left for her here. 

Amelia lifts her head, seeing the headlights coming down the road, and she slides out of her bed with a singular bag in hand. She pauses and takes one last look at her bedroom, an indescribable feeling of freedom swelling in her chest. She spins on her heel and quickly strolls down the hall-

A door open and she stops in her tracks, her gaze meeting with a tired Amity’s. Confusion crosses the child’s face and Amelia’s brows pull together in hesitation, recalling the promise that she’d made to her. She wants to protect her, she needs to, but… she doesn’t have the strength. 

“Amelia?” She mutters sleepily. “Where are you going?”

Amelia cracks a tiny, sorrowful smile and moves towards her, pulling her into a one-armed embrace. “I’m leaving for a little while, okay? I’ll come back for you… I promise.” She kneels down to look her in the eyes, guilt twisting in her chest like a thousand knives. “Go back to sleep before Odal- Mother finds out that you’re awake. You know she won’t be happy.”

Hesitation flashes across Amity’s face, but she nods and silently returns to her room, shutting the door behind her. 

As soon as the door shuts, Amelia breaks into a quiet sprint and jogs down the staircase as discreetly as she could manage. She unlocks the large, oak doors and quietly slips outside.

“Lucia…” She greets gratefully, unaware of her little sister peeking out of her bedroom window above her. 

Lucia smiles sadly, “Let’s go.”

As predicted, her mother filed an abduction report, using the security footage as evidence. Lucia’s vehicle was located on the other side of the city, crashed into a ditch and abandoned.

They disappeared.

“Aren’t you Amelia Blight?”

“Who the fuck’s asking?”

Lucia should have never stepped between them. 

Amelia had known what would happen the very moment the policeman put his hand on his pistol, ordering Lucia to step away from Amelia and put her hands in the air. Amelia came to her defense and got her girlfriend behind her, attempting to protect her. 

When Amelia refused to come with them, wanting to know exactly what charges they had against her girlfriend to take her into custody, the policeman threatened to arrest her for uncooperative mannerisms. Unafraid of him, she’d replied with a cocky response and the man approached with handcuffs, about to place her under arrest.

Lucia wouldn’t allow him to come close, wary of the unreadable look in his eyes when he looked at Amelia.

Things escalated quickly, going from a simple arrest to a suspected abduction, using Lucia’s protectiveness over her as an excuse to claim that she was becoming hostile, holding Amelia hostage. 

“Dispatch, we have a girl being held hostage by a colored person on road 527, Anderson street. Requesting backup.”

Lucia scoffs, “Hostage? Are you kidding me?” She sighs and leans against the wall, “We’ll be here a while,” she reaches into her pocket, “you know what? I’m gonna-”

Time slowed down. Amelia saw the policeman rapidly lifting his pistol and pointing it at her girlfriend just as she removed her phone from her pocket. 

Three loud, ear shattering bangs erupt through the air. 

“ NO !” A shriek escapes her lips as she attempts to put herself between Lucia and the incoming bullets. She’s too slow to move. 

When reality clicks around her again, her girlfriend is gone. Forever.

Anguish swells in her chest and she turns back to the policeman, stepping over Lucia’s body as he approaches, gun still in hand. He’s reaching for handcuffs. 

He’d killed someone.

He didn’t even care.

Tears obscure her vision, the distress within her gets overpowering, throbbing and making every last bit of her being shake from its strength. She wants to collapse, cry, she wants to scream and wail. She wants to reverse time.

She wants to be the one who had taken the hit. He’d killed her. Things weren’t supposed to end up like this. Her thoughts are incohesive, the only words repeating through her mind was ‘he killed her’. 

“Miss Blight-” The police officer says calmly. 

Rage snaps at a lightning-fast speed, resembling a bullet shooting through her body and leaving only anger in its wake. She reaches behind her and into her back pocket, retrieving a pocket knife and flipping it open.

He’s not wearing any protective gear. He turns away from her.

“We will be taking you home-”

“You killed her!” 

She lunges forward with an ungodly scream, catching the man completely off guard and taking advantage of his momentary vulnerability by thrusting her blade through. She feels the rip of flesh against her knife, embedding itself into the man’s aorta. She twists the hilt of it to ensure that it guarantees the most excruciating pain.

The man doubles over in shock.

She snatches the knife out just as another vehicle pulls up. The blade barely manages to penetrate his flesh before two more gunshots emit through the air.

The next thing she’s conscious of, there’s pain in her shoulder and in her abdomen. She’s laying on the ground, she can feel life slowly leaving her. 

She’d been shot, but she was still alive. 

She can hear ambulance sirens, part of her knows that her life can’t be saved. 

Through blurry eyes, she locates Lucia across from her. She can barely make her out, but she’s recognizable. Lifting a nearly limp hand, she reaches over and lays her hand into Lucia’s, weakly intertwining her fingers with hers.

“Don’t you dare…” She wheezes out, “...leave without me, Noceda…” She gives her hand a squeeze, “Wait… for me.”

As her vision begins to swim with darkness, a bright light fills her vision, a warmth embraces her, and a sweet, familiar voice whispers to her. 

“I’m here.”

Chapter Text

“So, how is your brother doing?”

Amity stares down at her coffee and slowly stirs the creamer with her straw, glancing up at her friend when she finally registers that the woman was speaking to her. Amity takes a moment to process Willow’s question and sits up, clearing her throat to reply without her voice cracking, “He’s doing alright,” she answers, “he’s making some progress with his physical therapy.”

Nearly a month ago, her brother had been involved in an almost deadly car crash after a car swerved at him in the dark, pouring down rain. They ended up sending him speeding off the road without brakes and causing the car to roll forward into a tree, crushing the windshield and the top of the vehicle and throwing her brother to the back. 

He’d broken his collarbone and was hospitalized for three weeks, he spent two days unconscious and the doctors say it was a miracle he wasn’t paralyzed. After awakening and passing a few exams, he was released into a rehabilitation center last week. 

“That’s good!” Willow smiles, but her smile falters just a little as a heavy weight settles on both of their shoulders. The silent question hangs in the hair, begging to remain unspoken, but Willow reluctantly breaks the silence tentatively.  “So, has Emira gone to see him since the crash?”

Amity sighs, wishing she hadn’t been reminded of the freshly broken bond between her siblings. Amity shakes her head, “No…” She confesses with an equally careful voice, “I’d honestly be surprised if she goes to see him at all this year. She’s pretty upset.”

Willow hums in understanding, absentmindedly playing with the tip of her straw.  “Well, Edric did sleep with her girlfriend, so it’s perfectly understandable.”

The brunette rolls her eyes and cringes as a wave of disgust runs through her like a cold chill, “Yeah,” she mutters in hesitant agreement, “from what he told me, he doesn’t remember.”

Her dark-haired friend lets out a scoff across from her, taking a sip of her coffee to settle her thoughts, “Sounds to me like he’s trying to cover up what he did by lying.”

Amity shrugs, “True.”

Amity’s older sister, Emira, had been dating a rather questionable woman that she met in college; they had been put into several of the same classes as they were both studying for the same degree. Emira had never been attracted to anyone before so she had fully expected to live out her college years and move on with her life, but she confessed that something had pulled her towards this woman, almost like a magical call, and she found herself falling for her.

Needless to say, it didn’t last very long. The story is that Edric, who had chosen not to attend college, had managed to seduce Emira’s girlfriend as the girl was found in Edric’s bedroom when the couple was visiting.

Amity didn’t quite believe the story. She was torn between her siblings. Edric was too loyal and loved his sisters too much to do that, but Emira did seem quite pissed off and she would never make a claim like that without solid evidence.

Willow sighs heavily, pulling Amity back to reality by the sudden noise and movement as the dark-haired woman pushes to stand to her feet and exits the booth. “We should leave.”

Amity withdraws her wallet and places two dollars on the table, scurrying out of the restaurant so that she wasn’t left behind. “Honestly, I never thought I would see those two apart.” Willow says earnestly as the brunette returns to her side.

Amity has to admit that it is a little weird without her siblings being side-by-side… She’d grown up being left out of the loop due to how close the duo were, she always believed that they would continue to be that way. But, of course, people grow up and things happen.

“I agree,” Amity lowers her head, taking another sip of her coffee, “Edric hasn’t been coping very well with it, unfortunately…”She lowers her voice, her belly growing cold. “He always feared we would abandon him someday and he would be left alone. Emira proved him right.”

“Well, yeah,” Willow frowns, sending her friend a strange look, “sleeping with your twin sister’s girlfriend is a very good way to have them never speak to you again.”

The brunette only hums in acknowledgement, “It genuinely seems like he doesn’t remember,” she says under her breath thoughtfully , “I mean, I thought he was lying to try and get back on her good side, but after that crash…” Amity pauses and turns to face her friend, a bewildered expression on her face, “Willow, what if he actually doesn’t remember? He doesn’t even remember meeting the girl.”

“Emira remembers,” Willow reminds her. “Would she lie to you like that?”

“Ugh, true.”

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to believe her brother, her gut was telling her that he was telling the truth and honestly doesn’t remember ever meeting Emira’s girlfriend, much less sleeping with her. However, she wants to trust Emira when she says that he’s lying to them. Amity’s never been torn between the two before, and it was a scary feeling.

Perhaps, she should try and see if Edric is telling the truth about not remembering the girl. If he’s lying, well, she’ll learn that her brother isn’t the man she thought he was.

“I’m going to visit Edric,” Amity confesses, “there’s nobody to go and see him except me, he gets lonely… I’m afraid that’ll do more damage than good.”

Willow sighs, “Do you want me to drive you there? I can pick you up, too.”

Amity laughs a little bit, “You’ll have to. You’re my ride home, and you have my car.”

Her friend didn’t own a vehicle, however, so she was using Amity’s until she was able to get one of her own. She was originally using her Dad’s truck, but she had chosen to leave it at home in case he needs it when his husband is away.

Willow rolls her eyes, lifting her hand and jingling the keys as they approach the little maroon car,  “Ah, but I have the keys!”

“Because I gave them to you, duh.” Amity points out playfully, parting ways with Willow to step around to the passenger’s side as her friend unlocks the car and gets into the driver’s seat.

“Mind reminding me where that facility is, again?” Willow requests as Amity gets in and shuts the door, the dark-haired woman starts the car up and glances into her rearview mirror before backing out of her parking space. 

The brunette’s shoulders fall, she lets out a humming noise of thought, retracing the path in her head. “Across from the old theater in Grandview. The place in Connecticut.” 

Willow lets out an amused noise, turning into the road and stopping at the redlight to look at her friend. “Gravesfield.”

Amity’s response is immediate, “Yes! Gravesfield!” Her voice lowers into a confused tone, “Why did I say Grandview?”

Willow makes a snort-like noise. “How do you forget the name of the place where your own fiancee grew up?”

Amity frowns at her, “I don’t know! My brain is fuzzy these days!” She rubs her forehead, “Ever since I shut down my Instagram, my old fans have been going berserk! I literally can’t go anywhere without someone walking up to me ‘hey why did you shut down your page?’ and it’s getting overwhelming!”

The other woman sighs, “You shouldn’t have to explain yourself.”

Golden eyes stare down at her hands, her heart growing heavy. “Yeah… I just want to relax, spend time with my partner without people running up to me and asking for pictures all the time…” 

“And that’s valid,” Willow agrees with a chirp, “especially if you plan on marrying her-” Green eyes widen in horror, “-Them! Listen, if Luz asks, I said ‘them’ okay? Nothing happened, nothing slipped.”

Amity giggles, “Willow, you can use ‘her’, you’re her friend, remember?”

“I’m practicing so I don’t slip up in front of people who are not their friends.” Willow informs her with a shrug, “I don’t want someone to misgender Luz because I messed up.”

Amity nods in understanding, “That makes sense.”

Willow pulls the vehicle into a large parking lot in front of a three-story tall brick red building resembling a modern day hospital facility; the lobby is made up of strong, heavy-duty, two-sided glass that will reflect on the outside, yet you can view the outside world while lounging around on the inside.

The vehicle drives around to the front entrance and Willow slows to a stop, allowing Amity to get out at the front door. “Thank you, Willow.” Amity retreats from the car as the other woman drives off, she opens the door and walks to locate the front desk.

Most of the patients were hanging out in the lounge just behind the front desk; she can feel several eyes watching her, some with curiosity as they’ve never seen her before, and others looking up to see who walked in before returning to whatever they were doing.

Only visitors were allowed to enter the lounge from the lobby to prevent the more unstable patients from escaping, but that didn’t stop patients from attempting to escape the staff’s line of view and trying to run through the front doors before they’re caught.

As Amity approaches the front desk, a lady with dark hair and lime-green eyes exits out from the office to greet her politely. 

“Hello, ma’am! Here to visit someone?” 

Amity smiles, “Yes, I’m here to see my brother, Edric Blight?”

The woman’s eyes briefly spark with recognition, “He is currently finishing up a therapy session, but you can wait for him in the lounge, if you like?” She offers, gesturing back to the space behind the front desk. “It should be about ten more minutes before he’ll be released, I’ll let his therapist know he has a visitor.”Amity nods,  “Thank you, ma’am.”  

The woman moves to the keyboard and rapidly punches something into the desktop, Amity’s eyes move to a door between the desk and the wall as the red light on the lock turns green. Amity pushes the waist-high door open and passes through, allowing it to swing shut and lock manually behind her. 

Now, to find somewhere to sit and wait on her brother without being bothered. Man, she should’ve brought a book or something. 

Locating a table to the far corner of the lounge, she swiftly approaches it, avoiding eye contact with the patients staring at her. She could tell some of them haven’t had any visitors in a long time, judging by the way they were sitting by themselves and watching her with hope in their eyes.

There were numerous stares of recognition. Amity quietly thanks whatever holy existence there is that none of them stood up to talk to her.

She takes her seat and withdraws her phone, clicking the button to turn the lock screen on. A tiny smile forms on her lips when the picture of her favorite ship, two girls from two different worlds, appears on the screen. Her brother always teased her for it, claiming they would never be an official ship, but here recently, Amity had the opportunity to prove that he was wrong.

They were canon! Well, sort of! They both liked each other, and now all they have to do is confess! Oh, she couldn’t wait for the new episode.

It was simply torture!

But, it was airing on a Saturday and Luz would be spending the day with her mother, they would have to watch it at night, hours afterwards. It’d be difficult to avoid spoilers.

Amity pulls herself out of her thoughts and uses her fingerprint to unlock her phone, her background revealing to be one of the girls from her lockscreen waving the orange, white, and pink lesbian flag behind her proudly.

Amity pulls her knees up into the seat and rests them to the side comfortably, opening one of her downloaded books and resuming where she had left off. The book was about a gay couple trying to find their place in the world, and some of it hits very close to home.

Growing up, she’d known she wasn’t attracted to the opposite sex from a very early age, finding herself to be more drawn to the girl in whatever show or book she was interested in at the moment. 

She hadn’t quite understood herself before she gained access to the internet, exploring a fandom’s content and discovering LGBTQ+ people and characters when she was ten. Wanting to learn more about it, she dug deeper and found labels, confused by what some of them meant, she continued to read and eventually found a label that felt like her own identity. The term felt right, it felt like her , it’s who she is. 

Amity informed her siblings, and the twins were both excited that Amity had trusted them enough to inform them. Her eldest sister just smiled as if she’d already known.

Eleven years later, she waves her identity proudly, despite some of her haters online attempting to ‘change’ her. 

Her partner was always willing to throw hands with them too, it was thoroughly amusing seeing how protective Luz has become of her in the past year. Somewhat concerning too, considering Luz could get into trouble.

“Well, someone finally decided to visit me!”

Amity looks up and smiles when she sees her brother approaching her with a set of crutches, seeming very delighted that he has company. The doctors had informed them that he may have to walk with crutches for the next few months, his left leg was mangled during the crash and thankfully it was salvageable. However, it would take some time for it to heal properly enough for him to walk on it.

“Sorry I haven’t been around,” Amity apologizes as her brother sits down next to her, resting his crutches to the side and propping his foot up in the chair across from him. The man waves his hand dismissively, attempting to seem unfazed by being alone.

Amity knows it’s affecting him, and it makes her sad that he didn’t have anybody else to visit him. He’ll be heartbroken when he finally realizes Emira might never come see him. 

“So what made you stop by?” Edric asks with an upbeat voice, causing dread to form like a cold wave in Amity’s chest. 

She clears her throat and shifts to face him, her voice becoming serious. “I came by to ask you if you remembered Emira’s partner…”

The man nods, confused by her question. “I don’t recall their name, but yes, I remember.” He squints at her, growing suspicious, “Why…? Did they hurt her?”

The question causes the world around Amity to crack, she lets out a heavy sigh and prepares herself for her next inquiry, there’s still a chance that he could be playing stupid. “Do you remember sleeping with them?”

The question causes Edric’s eyes to grow wide and he jolts up, appearing offended. “No!” He exclaims loudly, one hand slamming down on the table in aggravation, “Why do you people keep saying I did?!” He asks, sounding hurt by the accusation, “I wouldn’t do that, Emira is my sister and they’re her partner! I wouldn’t do that to her! Not on purpose!”

Amity wants to believe him, she really does, but the paranoia in the back of her mind prevents her from doing so.

“Not on purpose?” She pushes as Edric leans over, his hand brushing through his hair in frustration, his breathing has grown heavy. Someone must’ve mentioned this same subject to him earlier, his therapist, perhaps. “Then, what do you remember…? Look me in the eyes and tell me.”

She has to know, and she’ll be able to tell if he’s lying or not depending on if he’s able to keep direct eye contact with her. 

Edric takes in a deep breath and lifts his head, his slightly darker golden eyes meeting with Amity’s. Amity frowns, waiting for him to speak and look away. “I remember waiting for Emira at that bar… I’d already had a few drinks before she got there. Emira had someone with her, but I can’t recall who…” 

He looks down in thought, “Who was it..?” He clears his throat and looks her in the eyes again, his voice becoming serious. “But, I promise you, all I remember is waking up to Emira screaming at me.”

He’d kept eye contact with her, his voice was genuine. Amity closes her eyes and takes a moment to process her brother’s explanation, somewhat grateful that the entire incident hadn’t been his fault. Edric was horrible at lying, he avoided eye contact and twitched too much to be believable, but he was serious about this… 

Amity opens her eyes and stands up, “Okay,” she decides, “I believe you.”

“Really?” Edric murmurs in shock, “You do?”

It hurts, actually. He looks so thankful that she believes him, there’s tears in his eyes. “Yeah,” Amity confirms with a small, reassuring smile, “I have no reason to believe you’d intentionally hurt our sister like that.”

“...Thank you,” Edric whispers with a watery grin, he grabs his crutches and heaves himself to stand upright, “can you tell Emira that, please?”

Amity knows it will take some time for Emira to believe him, if she ever will. “I’ll try,” she promises with a nod, turning away and heading towards the exit, “I’m sorry, but I really have to go. It’s late, and Willow’s waiting for me outside.”

“Can you come visit me tomorrow?” Edric calls after her, Amity lets out an amused snort when her assumption was proven to be right. “I’m so bored ! They have like… Nothing to do here! Bring some games!”

“Okay!” Amity answers without looking over her shoulder, laughing and shaking her head when she hears a shout of excitement behind her. 

The lady at the desk notices her approaching, she smiles in greeting and turns around to unlock the door for Amity’s exit. “Leaving so soon?” 

Honestly, she was getting tired of the stares she was receiving.

“Unfortunately so,” Amity answers with her hand on the door,  “my friend is outside waiting on me, she wants to be home before dark.” 

She quickens her pace and strolls out of the building, ignoring the cold wind that attacks her bare, unprotected pale skin as she exits through the doors. The sun has started going down, which is understandable enough considering winter is coming. 

She stops at the road, golden eyes searching the parking lot for her maroon vehicle.

“Did she fucking abandon me?”

Headlights flashing from the end of the parking lot reassures her that she hadn’t been abandoned, the vehicle moves from the parking lot and Amity stops to wait on her friend. The bright headlights make their way around the concrete barrier between the building entrance and the lot, stopping with the passenger side facing Amity.

“I thought you left!” Amity scolds as she gets into the car, Willow laughs again. “No, it’s not funny!” 

“It is to me!” Willow says happily, pulling out of the parking lot to head home.

Amity huffs, “I’m telling Luz that you tried to abandon me.” She says in an exaggerated, hurt voice. Willow just laughs again.

“You do that.”

Chapter Text

Amity kept to her weekly routine of waking up, heading to work, visiting her brother, coming home, and spending the rest of her time with her partner. Luz was looking for work as well, and it caused the couple to have some concerns about their relationship.

What if their job schedules prevented each other from spending time together? They live together, sure, but it’s not the same as relaxing and just existing with each other. 

After some discussion, Luz eventually decided that she would search for a job that had the same hours as Amity’s job at the library, that way they would still have time for movie night after work. Tonight’s movie was a tragic love story, one that Luz had picked out to watch weeks ago.

“Miss Amity!”

The woman’s attention jerks down to see a little girl with blonde hair rushing towards her with a frown on her tiny face, she giggles in acknowledgment and turns back to organizing the books spread out across her desk. 

She’s been working at this library since she was fourteen, she was offered a position higher when she was eighteen, but Amity rejected it as she wouldn’t be working in the kids’ section anymore. One of the best things about her day was the stories these kids would make up in an attempt to be creative. 

Once, a three-year-old little boy had tried to tell her a story about his magical, flying, wish-granting dog, but it turned into a tale about a dragon somehow. 

The child slams her small hands down on the desk and Amity raises a brow in amusement upon seeing the angry look on her face, “May I help you?” She asks, folding one hand beneath her chin and smiling. 

“Daddy says you don’t…” The child stutters, “You don’t  have kids because you are not… not married!” She exclaims, frowning seriously. 

Amity refrains from scoffing, “He’s right.” She confirms, taking one of the storybooks off the highest stack and flipping through the pages to ensure that they were all there. She grimaces, finding two pages stuck together by an old, chewed piece of gum.

Ah, the downside of working with kids is that they can be quite disgusting… Especially when the parents don’t bother to correct their cleanliness behaviors.  

“I don’t want you to marry!” Amity looks up at the child again, who is pouting in annoyance now, her lip sticking out and her arms crossed. “Aunty got married! And- and she’s boring now! She never wants to play no more! She don’t… She don’t like me no more!”

“Oh?” Amity sets the book aside for the librarian to decide what to do with it. “Why do you think she doesn’t love you anymore?” Children could be quite dramatic. Sometimes, it was funny, and other times it was pretty bothersome, it was never their fault, of course. Most just don’t know how to express their frustration.

The child huffs, “She don’t play with me no more!” Her voice becomes louder, “Daddy says it because she has a huz-... hub-... hus… Daddy says it because she has a boy now!”

Amity’s eye twitches in brief annoyance. She’s heard several stories about how adults practically neglect children, even their own, in favor of a partner. It never fails to tick her off. 

“Boys are icky!” The four-year-old exclaims.

The brunette has to cough back a bark of laughter and clear her throat several times to respond cleanly, “You are absolutely right. Boys are icky.”

“Yeah! Marrying is gross too! Right?”

Amity sighs heavily and places her hand gently atop the little girl’s head, smiling warmly and keeping her voice soft, “Don’t worry, I won’t be getting married any time soon.” 

The child beams, “Good!”

Amity’s smile falters a little, “But, I will marry someday, okay?” The girl’s grin fades, appearing hopeless. “You’ll be a little older, but I promise that it won’t be soon.”

She huffs again, “I’ll protect you from boys!” She exclaims almost proudly,

Amity laughs, amused by the girl’s declaration. “Why, thank you!” She smirks a little, “Do you remember the person who came here and read the silly voices for you?”

Confused as to how it was relevant, the child nods.

“That person happens to be my fiancee,” Amity informs the little girl.

“What’s a finansay?” The child asks.

Amity giggles, “It means I’m going to marry them someday,” the child frowns in disappointment, “but not any time soon; like I said.”

She looks up as the child’s mother enters the room, nodding in greeting to the brunette, “Alright, sweetheart,” the mother calls, “it’s time to go home!”

The little girl spins around on her heel and scrambles toward her mother as fast as her feet could carry her. “Mommy, Mommy! Guess what!”

The mother’s eyes widen in false surprise as she turns to walk out of the room, “What is it?” She asks, “Did you make a new friend?”

“No!” She answers excitedly, bouncing in place, “I’m gonna protect Miss Amity from icky boys! Like her finan- fin- fee- I’m gonna protect her from icky boys!”

Amity isn’t able to contain the snort of laughter that escapes, amused by the child’s eagerness and determination to ‘protect her’. The little girl’s mother lifts her head, hearing Amity’s barely muffled giggles and glancing over to the multicolored flag placed to the side of her desk. “Oh, I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

The brunette clears her throat as the mother nudges the child on the back, pushing her out of the room, Amity gives a small wave as the little girl exits the room, giggling at the announcement that she had made just before walking out of the room. She’ll understand someday.

Now that the room is empty, Amity can focus on cleaning up and reorganizing the books. Then, she can head to the asylum and see her brother. 

She gathers the books in hand and rises from her desk, walking around the room and picking up the scattered books from tables and on the floor. She grimaces, picking one book by the edge upon noticing that it’s had some sort of juice spilled all over it.

“This is why we have a designated lunch area…” Amity mutters, setting the book with the one stuck together by chewed gum, “Now I’m going to have to replace that.” Normally, she’d have the kids’ parents pay for the damaged book, but she doesn’t know which one of the ten kids may have damaged it, so she would have to pay for it and replace it herself.

Kneeling, Amity begins to place and rearrange the books in alphabetical order, leaning a few books against the other to hold them up before sliding in another behind it. “You’re not supposed to be here.” She withdraws a thicker book from the shelf, recognizing it as one from the young adult section. “How did you even get in-”

“Amity!”

The woman looks up to see her boss, Malphas, strolling towards her with a stack of books in hand. The man is a short, stout middle-aged man with a long, bushy, gray mustache just below his awkwardly pointed nose. His eyes are a bright golden. 

“Malphas,” she greets kindly, “what do you need?”

“I heard your brother was injured in a wreck! So, so sad… How is he doing?” Malphas asks with a hipster-like drawl, setting the books down on the table, “I was told he’s in the Gravesfield facility. We donate books there! Could you, like, drop these off during your next visitation?”

Oh, of course.

Amity nods. “Yes, Sir.” 

Malphas grins, “Thank you, lass!” He turns away and Amity glances at the stack of books, silently wondering how she would be able to squeeze them all into the trunk of her motorcycle. “Oh! Say hi to Luz and your brother for me!”

The man walks away. A tightness in her chest causes Amity to realize she’d been holding her breath when her boss approached. 

“Okay… Finish organizing these books,” her heart flutters with affection, like butterflies dancing around within her, “and go home.”

It’d taken her at least fifteen minutes to finish organizing the books in the kids’ section, discarding those that had been ruined, and checking over the list of returns. Noticing one returned book was damaged with ripped pages, she’d checked the cost of the book and wrote out a notice to be sent to the address the book was returned from. It was a rather new addition to the library, so, unfortunately, she couldn’t allow it to slide.

This happened quite often with kids. Their parents allowed them to check out a book, using the kids’ library card, and the book would be used as a toy as they would not be under supervision. One time, a book was returned with paint all over the pages, and another one was returned after being used as a snot rag. 

She’d seen that it happens more frequently with the children who stayed at the library’s daycare the longest. She wondered if the kids ever received any attention at home.

“Ah, Amity, you’re leaving so soon?”

Amity raises her gaze to the lady at the counter. “Oh, yes. I cleaned up the kids’ section.” She responds with a polite smile, pausing to converse with her coworker. “I told Luz that I’d be home early tonight. We’ve got plans.”

“Oh, do you now?” The lady says, raising her brow with a sly smile. 

Amity feels a shiver run down her spine. “Not those kinds of plans!” 

“Yes, yes,” the librarian laughs in amusement, having gotten a reaction out of the young woman, “anyway, tell them I said hello! They should definitely come back sometime soon!”

“I will.”

Every light in the apartment was turned on.

Amity had noticed the golden lights coming through the curtains while she was in the parking lot. Annoyance swells within her chest as she approaches her apartment door, one hand balancing the books and the other opening the door.

She walks in and is met by pure silence. But, she was correct, all the lights were on and no one appeared to be home.

“Luz?” Amity calls, placing the books on the table beside her and slamming the front door shut with her heel. She makes her way to the kitchen, turning off the living room light as she crosses the threshold and searches for her fiancee. “Luz, I swear if you walked out of here and left all these lights on…”

She comes to a halt at the kitchen table, her gaze landing on an open envelope that she recognizes. They were late paying their apartment rent bill, and she still hasn’t paid the month’s mortgage on her car! She’ll have to pay for one of them later…

“Amity!”

Amity glances up as Luz comes running down the hallway, their dark hair still damp from a recent shower. “I have a-” brown eyes flicker between Amity and the envelope, “-oh, don’t worry about that, I took care of it already.” 

“Oh,” Amity mutters, grabbing the paper off the table to throw it in the garbage. “Well, thank you.”

“No problem.” Luz answers quickly, “Anyway, I have a sitchiation!” 

Dropping the paper into the bin, Amity turns back to Luz and lifts a brow. 

Understanding the gesture, Luz speaks fast, “Okay so, you know I was with Mom and Vee yesterday, right?” They don’t provide Amity a moment to respond, “I come home, I take a shower, I go to bed, I wake up, I get ready, I head out to get food, I come home, and…” They slam their hands down on the table, “Take a wild freaking guess what I lost!”

Amity has to restrain a laugh. “What?”

“My ring!” Luz elaborates, “I don’t know where I lost it! I took it off before I got in the shower and I thought I put it back on-”

Amity nonchalantly reaches into her jacket pocket to collect the mentioned item.

“-and now I can’t find it and I think I might’ve…” Luz’s voice comes to a halt, their eyes locking on the ring being presented to them. They visibly relax, “Oh thank God, where did you find it?!”

“Below the sink.” Amity answers with a small smile, “I figured you might be looking for it later, but I wanted to see how long it’d take you to notice.”

Luz frowns at her, carefully taking the small, metal band from Amity’s palm. “That’s cold, Blight.” They huff, crossing their arms with a false pout on their face. “I paid your bill for you and this is how you repay me.”

Wait a second.

“Speaking of…” Amity murmurs as she withdraws her phone and opens her bank account. “How did you pay off the bill?” She questions, her stomach sinking upon seeing the low numbers beneath her account number. “We only have one-eighty-one in the bank, and that’s our joint account!” 

“I got take-out, too,” Luz reminds her. 

Irritation stings her chest. As Luz leaves the kitchen to approach another envelope on the couch, Amity takes a deep breath and speaks softly. “Luz, that’s around two-hundred that we don’t have…” 

Luz picks up the thick envelope, “Ah, about that…” They grin almost devilishly as they unfold the envelope to reveal neatly-tied wads of cash.  “Your mother sent you nineteen-hundred through the mail. In cash.”

Yeah, that sounds like something Odalia would do to try and get in touch with her. “What’s her reason this time?”

Luz points to a letter on the arm of the couch. “Trying to bribe you into dumping me.” 

Amity sighs, stroking her irritated brow. She can feel a headache coming on

“So,” Luz chirps, “I was like ‘oh, free money’! Paid the bill and got us dinner!”

Amity looks up, puzzled. “Us?” 

“Yeah!” Luz answers, moving around her to dash into the kitchen. Amity follows, raising an eyebrow when Luz opens the refrigerator and pulls out a large bag from the bottom shelf. Her heart skips a beat as Luz sets it on the counter, removing the contents from the bag to reveal a black, styrofoam box. “Mexican!”

Amity laughs softly and crosses the room to accept the box from her fiancee. “I’m breaking up with you if you forgot the dip”

“Good thing I didn’t, huh?” Her partner answers with a smile, handing her another box to put in the microwave atop theirs. 

Amity shuts the microwave and presses for one minute, she turns to Luz as they ball up the bag to throw it away. “So,” Amity starts as Luz pulls the trashcan out, “have you found anything?”

Their body seems to tense as they drop the bag into the can, pushing it back under the counter. They clear their throat, wringing their hands nervously. “Well, I have , in a way.” Amity lifts a brow, and Luz continues. “Mom offered me a spot at her office, and said I could train on the job.”

“Are you going to take it?” Amity asks.

Luz throws their hands up, “I don’t know!” Their elbows hit the counter and they bury their face in their hands. “I want to help you at the library, but being a paramedic sounds cool because you get to help people, and being a vet is also cool because you get to see so many cute animals!” Luz groans, “Paramedic and Vet pay well, but what if I don’t have the passion ?!”

“Well-”

Luz holds up a hand, “Do not tell me to try a restaurant. That’s not an option. I’ll become a pilot before I do that.”

“Relax,” Amity says calmly and reassuringly, “I was going to say you can always find something else if what you’re doing doesn’t suit you…”

“Amity,” Luz says, their hands folded beneath their chin, dread in their eyes, “you only make thirty-thousand dollars a year with your work… I need to help you.”

“Luz-”

Luz shakes their head, “I want to help you, Amity. That’s why I need a well-paying job.”

“Okay…” Amity sighs, “At the very least, let me help you narrow down your options.”

“Yeah, okay. We can do that while watching reruns…” Luz says, smiling slightly.

The microwave beeps and Amity pulls the take-out boxes from inside, handing the bottom one to Luz as they approach the living room. Luz flops down on the couch and tucks their knees beneath them, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV with their free hand.

“What do you want to start with?” Amity asks, leaning her back against the cushions and opening the box. The smell of dip and empanadas hits her and her belly churns with hunger. She hadn’t eaten anything all day.

“How about…” Luz drums their fingertips against the box lid.  “Can we start with the pros and cons of being a paramedic? That one sounds like the difficult one.”

Amity gives a nod.

Chapter Text

-6 Months Ago-

“What do you mean we’re getting evicted…?” 

Amity’s hands tremble as she rereads the eviction notice she’d received on her front door. Luz’s concerned voice barely reaches her ears, she can hardly hear anything over the painful pounding at the back of her head, maneuvering its way to her forehead. Her eyes sting with unshed tears, her heart aching like it’d been trampled by a herd of wildebeests. 

A few months ago, she shut down her blog and, unfortunately, cut off her income. She’d gotten a job at her local library, and prayed dearly that her salary would be able to keep up with the apartment’s outrageous rent. She had not thought this through at all when she first moved out. She’d been so desperate to get away from her mother, so wrapped up in her fame, that she hadn’t planned out her ‘what ifs’. 

Now, she was two months behind on rent, and due to having taken in a new pet, she was being evicted for housing violations. Nowhere in her contract did it say animals were not allowed, so of course, she’d thought adopting Ghost as a companion wouldn’t be a problem!

However, her landlord happened to be doing visits and noticed Ghost relaxing in the window. Amity confirmed the feline was hers after the confrontation, this leading to the main reason for her eviction. 

“Amity…?”

They didn’t have anywhere to go! She could barely afford groceries, how was she supposed to find them a new home on such short notice?!

Amity runs her hand through her hair, her fingers clenching into a fist with strands of hair locked between her fingers. Her voice quivers as she speaks, “What am I gonna do…?” 

“Hey…” A soft voice whispers, followed by a gentle touch against her cheek, wiping away a stray tear. Amity lifts her head, her golden eyes meeting with Luz’s worried pair of dark brown. “It’s gonna be okay, mi amor .”

“No,” Amity looks away, her heart hammering in her chest as sweat forms at her brow, “no it’s not okay, Luz… It’s not okay.”

She turns away from her girlfriend, clutching the paper tightly. Her soul felt like it’d been anchored to the very depths of the ocean. 

“But it will be…” Luz insists, sounding as if they were trying to convince themself as well. “We can stay with my Mom, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.” They say sweetly, returning to Amity’s side and placing their hand comfortingly on her shoulder. 

“Luz, this is my home !” Amity answers quickly, panic overtaking her. Her heart began to race erratically, her breathing slowly falling out of rhythm. “What’ve I done? What am I going to do !?” Her feet, once frozen to the floor, move with heaviness in her step as she paces through the lounge. 

“Amity…” Luz murmurs.

“I can’t go back there ! I can’t! I won’t !”

“Amity,” Luz says more firmly.

A fire of rage shoots through her, spreading throughout her chest uncontrollably and rising upwards. Amity’s teeth grit together, her chest rising and falling with harsh breaths. “What?!” 

Luz remains unfazed by her outbursts. Their brows pull together with concern, their eyes are soft and affectionate. “Amity,” they speak with a calm voice, taking a slow step forward to prevent the brunette from relapsing, “it’s okay…” They place their hand at Amity’s, running their fingers across her knuckles to relax her fist before carefully taking the paper from Amity’s hands. 

“But-”

“No buts.” Luz taps Amity’s nose with a playful smile on their face. They hold up their ring finger, their expression soft and their voice laced with love.  “ Home is whatever we make it, so long as we’re together .”

Amity lets out a sigh, her body no longer feeling as if she were going to explode from anxiety. Cold chills run through her veins as the adrenaline dies away. “You’re right…” She whispers, tucking her head into the crook of Luz’s neck, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

It’s that time of the year when the sun is scorching hot, the heat is overwhelming and reflects off of the pavement and sidewalk; it’s hard to breathe freely without the gentle blow of wind cooling down your overheated skin and refreshing the dry air. 

Even though the mornings are unbearably hot, the lingering heat from the previous day seems to stand in the night and join with the day’s sun when it begins to rise. Although, the mornings were considerably cooler and this was the perfect time to go out and get things done before the heat settles in; a bad chore for people who prefer to sleep late.

Golden eyes blink open groggily when the sound of the door creaking open reaches her ears. It’s a familiar, yet welcoming noise. It means her girlfriend is awake

Accepting that she won’t be able to sleep in, Amity lifts her head and moves her attention toward the open window. There’s an orange glow casting outside and providing light that brushes away the shadows of their apartment with ease. 

She recognizes it as sunrise, which means that in a few hours, the apartment will become a victim of the fierce sun’s heat.

She has errands to run, otherwise, their cupboards will remain empty today and they’ll be forced to order takeout like yesterday.

Amity grumbles in annoyance and rolls her stiff body over to push herself to her feet, her tired muscles cramp, and groan in protest. The back of her palm rubs at her heavy eyes as she ambles out of the room, stepping onto a cool tiled floor that she registers as the bathroom, she can hear Luz fumbling with something in another room of the apartment.

She locates her pink toothbrush sitting in the cup next to her toothpaste, a purple one is placed next to the sink with another tube a few inches away. Her brow twitches when she notices that the cap hadn’t been screwed back on. 

Sighing, she places the cap near the tube and sets the toothbrush next to it. Luz would notice and put them up the next time they enter the bathroom.

Before she can turn the faucet on, a loud crash echoes through the small apartment and panic grips Amity’s heart, her toothbrush collides with the porcelain sink harshly as her foot kicks off the floor with a burst of speed.

“Luz?!” She calls frantically, Amity comes around the corner to their living room and finds her girlfriend sitting on the couch with an open cardboard box. Amity pauses and she steps closer, examining Luz at a distance to make sure they were unharmed. “Are you alright…?” 

Luz looks up abruptly, brows pulling together in befuddlement before their eyes widen with realization. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine.”

“What are you doing?” Amity asks, stepping over to the mess.

“Looking,” Luz answers, lifting an old, dusty book and brushing the cover clean. They stare at it for a second before discarding it into a stack they’d set aside.

Amity lifts a brow, sitting down on the couch next to her partner. “What would that be?”

A faint hint of grief crosses their face. Luz smiles a little and leaning back with their arms propped up behind them, they tilt their head back. Amity watches as the dark wisps of their hair ruffle from the fan oscillating in the corner of the bedroom. 

“Some pictures Mom gave me last year…” Luz answers, eyes closed. “I didn’t really look at them, but I figured since I’m home all day, hey, why don’t I browse through ‘em?” Their eyes open and Luz shrugs, “I don’t have a job, so what am I supposed to do? Stare at a wall?”

Amity lets out a light giggle of amusement, “I suppose our talk last night didn’t help much?”

Luz looks at her, there’s a familiar sparkle in their eyes. “Actually, it kinda did.” 

“So, what do you have in mind?” Amity questions, leaning against the couch and pulling her knees to her chest. 

“Definitely not a paramedic…” Luz replies with a harsh, derisive laugh. “Vet sounds good, but,” their upper lip curls, and they hum in dissatisfaction, “I love Mom and all, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not completely sure I could work with her, y’know?”

“I know.” Amity agrees, “So, do you want to work with me at the library?” 

Luz’s eyes widen and their lips are pursed, they avert their gaze and their posture becomes stiff. “Well…”

Amity smiles, “Luz, it’s okay if you don’t want to. I’m not going to be hurt.”

Luz sighs heavily, their shoulders deflating. “I mean, I want to…” They say quietly, emphasizing the want to help Amity. “But it’s so quiet sometimes. I don’t know how anybody can focus like that!”

“The quiet is peaceful, and welcomed, to some of us.” The brunette informs her gently, “I work in the kids’ section, so it’s hardly ever really quiet. But, I can’t guarantee we’ll be working on the same side of the library all the time.” 

“Well,” Luz mutters with visible disappointment, “I guess that’s out.”

There’s tension in Luz’s posture again, and their voice is laced with subtle hints of stress. They would be stressing themselves out over finding a job all day if Amity would let them. Thankfully, she has the day off. 

Amity leans over, gently placing her hand over Luz’s. Luz turns their hand slightly to intertwine their fingers. “Why don’t we head into town and visit Ed?” Amity says softly, giving Luz’s hand a gentle squeeze. “While we’re there, you can look for places hiring in the area.” Amity lifts a brow mischievously. “Maybe even trick Emira into coming with us?”

“Yeah…” Luz laughs a little. “Okay, that should be interesting.”

They managed to convince Emira, who was sitting at home alone, to accompany them into the city by persuading her with the promise of food afterward. Running some errands to throw her off and make her less suspicious of their intentions was successful.

Emira had even run into an old friend, Viney. She brushes off any mention of the animal lover having a romantic interest in her, finding the idea to be preposterous. 

“Come on, girl, she likes you!” Luz insists excitedly as Emira rolls her eyes in exasperation.

Amity chuckles, “She did give you her number.” She agrees, her focus remained on the road.

“She gave me her number because we used to be friends ,” Emira emphasizes, leaning up with her elbows against the seats. She stays quiet for a long minute, the other two understanding the silence as a request not to push the subject. “I don’t know, I just…” Emira starts quietly, her hand beneath her chin. “I don’t feel that way about her, or anyone, really?”

A tickle of irritation stirs within Amity’s chest. 

“Oh?” Luz asks, curious.

Emira’s brows pull together, thinking aloud. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt that way.” Amity’s hands tighten on the steering wheel. “I don’t think I even loved my girlfriend.”

White-hot rage snaps through the brunette like a whip. “Then why do you keep making Edric feel like shit for something he didn’t even do ?!” Golden eyes dart up into the rearview mirror, unfazed by the guilt and realization dawning on her sister’s face.

“Wow… Yeah, that does sound foolish…” Emira murmurs shamefully.

“No shit ?!” Amity half-yells, frustration bubbling over. 

“To be fair,” Emira shakes her head, ridding herself of the guilt, “it is pretty clear he slept with her, so why should I-”

Amity interrupts. “Who told you that?! Your girlfriend ?!”

“Okay. Pull over. I’m driving.” Luz mutters blankly as the vehicle slowly begins to veer off the road. Amity releases a strained sigh and carefully pulls the car to the curb, putting it in the park to switch seats with Luz.

Amity was too annoyed with her sister to pay attention, or rather, she was overwhelmed with the whole situation.

One sibling was complaining to her about why the other one was so bad and doesn’t deserve forgiveness, and the one being talked bad about is wondering why their sister won’t have anything to do with him.

That was why she was dragging Emira to the facility to work things out, keeping her under the impression that they were visiting a friend of theirs.

The plan had gone well, they’d gotten Emira into the building and past the counter before she realized exactly where she was. Luz stood near the door, keeping her in the room until Edric made his appearance.

Edric’s eyes lit up with unriddled joy upon seeing his sister, thinking she’d finally come to see him and talk things out. Being informed that Emira had been tricked into coming lessened his excitement, but he was still happy to see his sister, nonetheless. 

However, the feeling was not at all mutual…

“No! I’m not talking to him anymore!”

“At least hear him out, Emira…” Amity attempts to persuade, staying next to her brother’s side to offer emotional support. 

Fire flashes through the older woman’s eyes. “My brother slept with my girlfriend !” Emira snaps rather loudly. “I don’t care how much he begs me to forgive him, I can’t!”

Amity sighs, rubbing at her forehead as her cranium begins to pound with irritation. It requires every ounce of her willpower to keep her voice level. “You mean the girlfriend you didn’t even love ?” She asks, lifting her head to make direct eye contact with her sister.

Edric looks over at her, stunned. “What…?” 

Emira averts her gaze.

“Emira, please, you know just as well as I do that Edric would never do that. It’s not like him. At least hear him out.” Amity continues as Edric sits back down, processing the situation.

“He’s not even interested in girls,” Luz piques up from the door,  “and he is an awful liar.”

Emira remains quiet, her expression unreadable.

“It’s been a month ,” Amity reminds her gently, “if Edric slept with her, he would have confessed already.”

“Emira, I swear!” Edric’s voice cracks as Emira turns away from him, tears gathering at the edges of his eyes. “I didn’t sleep with your girlfriend, I promise!” He calls after her as the woman briskly walks away. 

“You’re lying,” Emira mutters, her words devoid of emotion.

Edric’s eyes widened. “I’m not!” He insists, standing from his chair, grabbing his crutches, and quickly wobbling after his sister. “Emira, wait!” Emira stops, glaring at her brother as he hobbles up to her, relying heavily on his crutches. “I wouldn’t do that to you…” He explains painfully, “I’d never want to break your trust. Not after what we did to Amelia…”

Wait, what?

Ice runs through Amity’s veins. “ What ?” She rises from the couch, the anchor in her chest sinking as she approaches her siblings. The twins exchange a glance as Amity pauses in front of them. Her voice shakes, “What do you mean…? What did you do to Amelia?”

Edric clears his throat, “N-nothing!”

Emira steps up to agree, “Yeah, it was years ago. It’s not-”

Amity interrupts, “What did you two do ?!”

If Emira had stepped in, despite how much she claims she despises her brother, then something big had definitely happened. Something irreversible. 

There’s a heavy silence in the air. Edric bows his head, turning his eyes to his twin and Emira lets out a sigh, grief and regret etched on her face. Amity’s heart thunders in her ears, she’s barely able to hear her. 

“We’re the reason she’s dead… It’s our fault.”

Amity swears she felt her heart stop.

“What?”

Chapter Text

“I wish that guy wasn’t so stupid just to walk into the murderer’s house…” Edric mutters, reaching his hand into his bag of chips with audible rustling and withdrawing with a handful of Cheetos. “Like, who does that?” He shoves the powdery snacks into his mouth with soft crunching noises.

“You,” Emira answers, taking a long sip from her soda before setting it between her legs. She sits with one leg folded beneath her and the other lazily hanging off the side of their velvety couch, her eyes fixed on the TV screen in front of them.

Edric has his back slouched against the cushions and his legs spread to house his bag of chips. “I am  not  that stupid.” He protests with a mouthful, coughing and swallowing before speaking again. “There was a car in the driveway. Hot-wire it and go!”

“Like you know how to hot-wire a car.” Emira scoffs, extending her hand in a silent gesture for some chips. Edric groans and drops the smallest handful of Cheetos he can find into her hand. Emira doesn’t seem to mind. “Why do they always go inside the house or something?” She asks, popping the Cheetos into her mouth one by one. “I mean seriously. For all we know, the keys could  conveniently  be in the car. Sometimes it’s even running!”

A loud clap echoes through the room, and Edric points at her. “Right?! I know it’s a movie, but how stupid can you be?!”

“Their survival instincts are zero point negative two.”

Golden eyes glance up as their older sister walks by, her focus locked on her phone as she approaches the front door. She doesn’t look up at them, “Just like you two would be if you’re left somewhere on the streets of New York without  Mommy  or your phones to guide you.”

“Hey! We wouldn’t be like that!” Edric cries in offense, jolting up off the couch and causing their sister to look up with a blank expression. 

“We could find our way back home.” Emira agrees, “And even if we couldn’t, it’s not like you’re any better off, Amelia!”

There’s a heavy pause in the air. A small smirk forms on the older girl’s face in an almost creepy-like manner. A mischievous glint flickers through her eyes. Edric cautiously sits back down, his attention never moving from Amelia. He somehow feels unsafe. 

Amelia opens the front door with a silent turn of the handle, laying her phone on the shelf adjacent to the entrance and exposing both hands to reveal that she carries no electronics on her body. “Watch me.” She walks out of the house and the door is closed.

“Uh…” Edric hums, uncomfortable. Emira rewinds the movie. “Should we be worried about her going out there alone?”

Emira shrugs, “Nah. We’ll just send Salix to find her when she inevitably gets lost.”

“You should be worried.”

The sound of their mother’s voice sends shocks down their spines. The movie is quickly paused and their eyes dart up to meet their mother’s ice-cold blue pair as she walks around to stand before them. 

“...Why?” Edric asks.

“I need you two to spy on your sister.”

They glance across the couch, meeting with a matching pair that mirror their befuddlement. They look back to their mother, who wears a neutral expression that silently dares the two of them to challenge her orders.

“What?” Emira asks, taken off guard by the command. She tries to deter the conversation. “Amity? Mother, she doesn’t do anything but-”

Her mother interrupts loudly, “Not Amity!  Amelia .” The woman sits down across from them, crossing one leg over the other and leaning back against her chair, glancing between the twins with a frown on her face.

“Mother, nobody can spy on Amelia. She’s like a ninja, she just  disappears .” Edric informs her cautiously. “Trust me, we’ve  tried ! It’s like she knows we’re there.”

“Try harder.” Odalia says without emotion, “I need the two of you to find out where that little  bitch  is going. We need to know what she’s doing to tarnish our family’s reputation.”

There was no way they could deny the order. The tone of her voice and the look in her eyes depletes any chance of it.

The siblings exchange another quiet look before respectfully turning back to their mother. “Yes ma’am.”

The woman nods approvingly, rising from her chair and walking away from the duo, her head held high and her steps light with a sense of purpose and satisfaction. 

Edric lowers his voice and leans in close to his sister, speaking as quietly as he can manage. “How are we supposed to follow someone who can disappear at the speed of light?”

Emira shrugs, conflict evident in her eyes. “We follow whatever traces we can manage to find, I guess.”

They’d been out searching for their sister all night before finally caving and asking Salix, Willow’s older sibling, for assistance. They had managed to locate Amelia for Edric and Emira in less than twenty minutes before smugly demanding their payment and leaving.

Amelia, that night, outside of a nightclub, the way she steps and the slight giggle in her voice indicated that the girl has consumed alcohol. However, she does not appear to be drunk-silly, she seems to be aware of her surroundings and those around her. 

Salix had informed them that Amelia was a frequent here, along with some girl. 

Edric and Emira hide around the corner of the building, their bodies heavy with exhaustion and their eyes begging to be closed. 

“Are you feeling any better?”

Emira turns her head and her eyes widen to see a person wearing a dark green jacket and a red beanie leaning against the brick building with their foot hiked up and their back slouched. Edric removes his phone, hesitating with a sigh before clicking the camera on. 

“Never been better!” Amelia chirps in response, giggling as she strolls over to the person. “Ah, fuck, my head hurts.” 

“That’s quite contradictory there,  Leona .”

Edric zooms the video in as Amelia rests her body against the other girl’s tucking her head into the girl’s shoulder. “Shut up.”

“Luna and I tried to get you to stop drinking after the first three,” the dark-haired girl laughs a little, lifting her hand to reveal a white jacket she’s been holding and draping it across Amelia’s back, “come on, Lia, let’s get you to the car.”

“Oh?” Amelia’s tone changes into a suggestive one that causes shivers of disgust to race through the twins’ skin. “I’m not sayin’ no, but I gotta remind you that I didn’t bring an extra pair of -”

“Good, because I don’t plan on any of that.” The girl interrupts, sounding exasperated and in amusement. She takes Amelia’s arm and Edric clicks his phone off and ducks back around the corner as the girl pulls their sister away. 

Emira slips away as they approach the car, she leans against the wall and Edric’s gaze meets hers questioningly. “Should we even tell Mom?” He asks.

Conflict tugs at her heart. “I… Don’t know.”

“She’ll be mad that Amelia’s been drinking…” He points out.

“Even more upset about that girl…” Emira adds.

Edric bites his lip, clearing his throat as his hands begin to quiver. “B-but she’ll be  very  pissed if we  don’t  tell her…”

“...Yeah.” Emira agrees, reluctantly.

The boy sinks to the ground, disregarding the filthy concrete below him. Emira looks down at him, concerned. “Do you think Mother hurts her?” He asks, his voice trembling. “That noise we hear sometimes… What if Amelia isn’t screaming at Mother just to be a bitch, like Mother says she is?”

Emira’s back hits the wall and she slides down to sit beside her brother. There’s a tense silence in the air as she processes the question. Emira clears her throat, “Now that you mention it… I’ve never seen a cut or a bruise on Mother.”

“...Just her.” Edric agrees.

Ever since they were young, their sister has been getting into physical fights with their mother. Odalia’s explanation for the commotion was that Amelia was rebelling, and treating her family like shit because she was hanging out with the wrong crowd.

But, exactly how  true  was that? Their mother always came out of the fight unscathed. 

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell her…” Emira murmurs. “Amelia seems…”

“...Happy.”

“Yeah…”

Edric coughs, pulling his knees up to his chest as his phone slips into his lap. “But, Em, what if she does that to us because we didn’t do what she told us to do?”

Emira’s eyes widened, “B-but she wouldn’t!” Pain stings her chest, fearing being wrong. “And we can’t defend ourselves.”

“So if we don’t tell her…” Her brother looks at her with an unreadable expression. “Amelia would protect us, right?”

“Maybe.” 

“In the end,” Edric concludes with a heavy sigh, “it’s going to be bad either way… If we tell her, Amelia would understand. She knows how Mom can be.”

Emira sighs. “I hope so…”

They were wrong. The very moment Amelia learned of what they had done, it seemed that all hell had broken loose. 

She wasn’t their protective, loving, and understanding sister anymore. She was… Someone entirely different. It scared them.

“You  told  Odalia?!” 

Edric cowers away behind his twin, who steps back in mild surprise. Emira raises her head and straightens her back, “I’m sorry,” she apologizes genuinely, her voice shaking as fire flashes through their sister’s eyes, “we were-”

“How  could  you?!” Amelia shouts at the top of her lungs, causing the younger duo to move a few footsteps away from her. 

“We were scared!” Edric answers loudly, tightly gripping Emira’s arm in an attempt to hold himself together. “We didn’t have a-”

Amelia doesn’t even consider offering them the opportunity to explain themselves. “Scared?!” She snaps, bitter. “Scared of  what ?!”

“Mom!” Emira elaborates desperately, her heart pounding in her ears. “We were scared of Mom! I’m sorry, we-”

“Odalia would never harm her precious children! I’m the one who should be scared!” Amelia yells her lip curling into a snarl. “And you know what?!  I am !”

Amelia was  scared . She was never scared. She didn’t even know the meaning of the word, right? Why would she be scared? Unless… She was a victim, likely in a worse sense than they are.

“We didn’t mean for you to be so upset…” Edric mutters.

“ Upset ?! Hell no, I’m fucking  pissed !”

The atmosphere becomes tighter. Fear anchors to the twins’ hearts. Amelia’s golden eyes were nearly red with rage and betrayal; there was not an ounce of sympathy to be seen. She’s never looked at them like this before. She’s been mad at them numerous times in the past, but she  hates  them.

“Do you have any idea what she’ll do to me?! What she might do to  her ?!

“Amelia-!” Emira tries to interrupt.

“ Why  would you tell  that bitch ?!”

“We had to!” Edric tries to stand up for himself, but his voice quickly wavers into a whisper when Amelia’s attention snaps toward him. Fire seems to erupt around her and she takes a menacing step toward him, hatred burning in her eyes.

Amelia repeats his words, each pronunciation dripping with death-like venom. “ Had to ?” Edric moves back to Emira’s side, pressing his back against the wall behind them as Emira shakily stands protectively at his side. “I didn’t  have to  stand up for you all those years,” Amelia practically spits, “I didn’t  have  to take the blame when you broke your mother’s most prized possession.”

Amelia has always stood up for them. She’s always understood. So, why didn’t she understand now?

“H-hey, in our defense, we didn’t think Mother would be that upset about your friend…” Edric lies.

Emira elbows him in the gut.

“Holy fuck, you are denser than a sack of fucking rocks,” Amelia mutters, her shoulders deflating momentarily in brief surprise. Edric winces as pain tugs at his heart, Emira’s brows furrowing together and her lip curling to match Amelia’s snarl. “I  love  her!”

The twins feel coldness settle in the pit of their stomachs. 

“...She’s your  girlfriend ?”

Amelia lets out a snarl-like noise. “No, she’s the Lord of the Rings. Of course, she’s my girlfriend, asshole!”

“ Amelia !”

Odalia’s voice rang up the staircase loudly, reverberating off the walls and settling within their minds. Golden eyes widen and the fire burning with them quickly vanquishes, replaced by an unfamiliar sight dread, and  fear . 

Amelia turns away from them, a low rumble and a vehement cry escaping from her throat just before her fist collide with the wall. Emira flinches away as Edric presses into her back, “Amelia-”

“Shut up!” Amelia snaps without looking at them. The atmosphere tightens again and the twins hold their breath, their chests aching like a snake constricting around their hearts. “Go to your  goddamned  rooms and don’t you  ever  fucking talk to me again!”

The brunette disappears down the staircase and Edric lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. He looks to Emira, who meets his gaze with a matching expression of shock and masked relief that the infuriated woman had left.

Edric clears his throat, wincing as a shout erupts from downstairs. He doesn’t move, and Emira stays by his side in an attempt to offer support.

“I didn’t know she was  in love …” Edric admits, his voice just barely higher than a whisper. “I-I mean she’s… She’s like that with all the girls in school!” He elaborates, “Or at least she  was ! How was I supposed to know-”

“I knew.”

Edric frowns, “You did…?”

Emira hums, “I’ve known for a while… She was always sneaking out at night, and wouldn’t come back until the break of dawn…” She holds her arm, “Sometimes even later.”

Edric looks down at the floor, his eyes fixed on his shoes. “We messed up, didn’t we?”

There’s a tense moment of silence between them. Emira forces a smile, “She’ll forgive us, she always does.” She sounds as if she were trying to convince herself of the same thing.

Not five seconds after their conversation, they heard a loud crash and a shout from downstairs. Recognizing the voice as their sister’s, the twins found themselves racing down the staircase to investigate, disregarding the anxiety that had shot through them like fire.

They skid to a stop at the bottom of the staircase, Emira extending both arms to catch her brother and prevent him from barreling into her. Their eyes widen at the sight of their sister wielding their mother’s cane as a bat, ready to crack it against the woman’s head if she dared to step any closer.

“Amelia…?” Edric murmurs.

Golden eyes glance over at them and the cane hits the floor. The brunette steps towards them and the twins step back, horrified. 

Everything slows down as their mother grabs her cane, positioning it behind the unaware brunette. Odalia’s lip pulls into a snarl and her expression is almost murderous.

“ Amelia !”

A loud crack sounds through the room.

Their hearts plummeted when they saw their sister hit the floor, the collision momentarily seeming to daze her. Hearing a click from upstairs, Edric turns on his heel and races up to slam his hands against their younger sister’s bedroom door. Emira can faintly hear the arguing between her brother and sister. 

Emira feels her gut churn as Odalia approaches Amelia, the cane tight in her hand. She still has not noticed Emira. 

The woman kneels to Amelia, keeping her still with one foot firm on her stomach and ignoring the feral-like growl that erupts from the younger girl’s throat. “Do not underestimate the influence I have beneath my grasp,” Odalia says cooly as she grabs Amelia’s chin, forcing the brunette to look her in the eyes, “I can have that precious  girlfriend  of yours killed within a matter of days, and stage it to look like an accident.”

There’s a change in the air. Hostile. Emira’s nails dig into her palms, unable to look away from the commotion. Her heart pounds like thunder in her ears.

“I would advise you to-”

Odalia is cut off by a loud gag as Amelia’s hand shoots out, grabbing the woman’s throat with her nails digging into her flesh, like claws. Emira feels shivers of fear race down her spine when Amelia speaks, her voice laced with resentment and animosity. “Listen here, you little  son of a bitch … There is only  one  person who can pin me down, and that person is not your  bitchass .” Her knee collides harshly with Odalia’s abdomen, causing the woman to double over and release her grip on her. 

“Emira!” Edric hisses from behind her.

Emira rips her gaze away from the other two as Amelia rises to her feet, appearing disoriented.

“I need some help with Amity!” Edric’s words are no higher than a whisper. 

Right.

Emira faces away from Odalia and Amelia, glancing over her shoulder briefly to second-guess her decision. She closes her eyes, swallowing the hard lump in her throat, and swiftly moves upstairs. 

She can’t help Amelia without putting herself in the way of harm.

But she can prevent Amity from knowing about any of this.

“After that… We saw her heading back to her room,” Emira murmured, leaning against Edric’s room door, her arms crossed and her leg propping her up, “we tried to talk to her.

“She wouldn’t listen to us,” Edric pitches in, his voice heavy with regret, “she wouldn’t even  look  at us. But she looked…”

Emira finishes for him, “Tired… The next thing we heard about Amelia was when Mother told us she was dead…”

“...You killed her.”

The comment rings through the room, joined by a thick silence in response. 

Amity steps away from her siblings. “She was my sister…” Amity murmurs, tears in her eyes. She can barely hear her voice over the thudding of her heart. “ Our  sister…”

“I know,” Emira agrees quietly, avoiding eye contact with the brunette, “it’s not like we did this to purposely  hurt  her, Amity. We were just-”

Amity cuts her off, her voice increasing in volume. “You were saving your entitled ass!”

“Amity…” Edric tries to interject, pushing himself up to his feet using his crutches. “You know how Mom is-”

Amity’s eyes snap towards the man, her voice rising in volume. “ Your  Mom!” Amity reminds him harshly, causing the boy to jerk back in response and briefly stumble. His crutches hit the floor and he braces himself against his twin. “She has not been  my mother  in five years!” 

Emira catches him, helping him regain his balance before turning back to face Amity. “Mittens, listen-” she ignores the familiar feral-like growl that erupts from the younger girl’s throat, “-we didn’t know what Mother…” She hesitates, “ Odalia  would do to us if we didn’t tell her, and-”

“Excuses!” Amity spat, “You could have  lied ! She would have had no way to prove it!”

The older girl pauses her expression hardening as regret and guilt flash through her eyes. Her voice cracks when she speaks, “Amity, if we could reverse time and take back what we did, we would…”

“But you can’t…” The brunette reminds them, sounding almost unforgiving. “My sister is dead, because of you.” 

There’s a crack in the atmosphere around them, her words had struck the twins through the heart like a burning arrow. 

“You know…”

All eyes turn to Luz, finding them standing at the furthest corner of the room in an attempt to keep themself out of the siblings’ bickering. Their eyes are fixed on the white tile floor beneath their feet, their arms crossed.

“The fact you reported her to your mother caused her to reach out to  my sister , so, indirectly, that would mean that you killed her as well…”

A heavy silence fills the air.

“But, I also acknowledge that Lucia had  problems ,” Luz murmurs, avoiding eye contact with the other three, “for all I know, she escalated the situation and got  herself  killed.”

The same would make sense for Amelia, but Amity couldn’t bring herself to listen to the voices of logic inside her head. All she understood was that her siblings had a hand in Amelia’s disappearance that just so happened to lead up to her death. 

Her sister was gone. 

A light pressure pushes at her heart and she feels something break inside of her. Amity steps back toward the door and Luz looks at her, their eyes briefly meet and Amity’s chest tightens. Luz seems to understand the conveyed message and they approach the door, whispering something to the brunette. 

Amity didn’t hear her. She has to leave, she can’t be here anymore. She can’t be near  them  anymore.

She has to  go .

She shoves the door open and speed-walks down the hall, making to leave the building. The path inside her mind has already been laid out, guiding her out of the facility and to the vehicle with Luz jogging after her.

An image paints itself inside her mind. A concrete slab with a familiar name is carved into the stone. There’s a tug at her heart.

She has to go to the graveyard.

Chapter Text

“Amity…?”

One golden eye cracks open and flitters to her dark-haired fiancee a few feet away from her, wearing a familiar maroon jacket with a striped shirt and a red beanie. Their eyes hold the subtlety of worry, but they tilt their head back slightly to gesture to the gray skies above them.

Amity can smell the rain in the cool wind, drifting through the pine trees and mixing with the humid, hot air lingering about. A low rumble sounds in the distance. Amity averts her eyes, refocusing on the prickly, emerald-green wisps of grass at her knees. 

Luz speaks gently, making no move to approach her. “ Gatita … It’s about to storm.” 

A flash of lightning erupts through Amity’s mind, her eyes widen as the picture paints itself before her. She was standing inside a vaguely familiar room, dark and spacious. She could feel her siblings’ presence. 

It’s quick, almost too quick for her to comprehend.

“...Storm?” Amity murmurs.

Luz tilts their head slightly, “It’s gonna be a bad one. We need to head home before-”

Amity interrupts, “Did I ever tell you that storms frightened me as a child?” Luz remains silent, propping themselves against a fence post and crossing their legs patiently. Amity doesn’t look at them. “I don’t know why it did, but I was terrified of them… I suppose it reminded me of Mother somehow…”

She lets out a breath, closing her eyes as another clap of thunder erupts through the clouds. “Emira would make fun of me, so I went to Amelia…”

Luz’s gaze focuses on the name engraved into the stone before them.

Amity continues, “She told me that you can tell how far away a storm is by how many seconds is between each clap, so we would count the seconds until the storm had blown over. Then, she said that most view storms as a sign of chaos, negativity, and weakness…” 

A heavy breath is released.

“She was right… But, she also said that storms represent change and transition because they are temporary. Even if the aftermath of a storm is pure destruction, new life will often bloom in its wake.”

Thick silence fills the air. Luz moves to approach, kneeling next to their girlfriend and folding their knees beneath them, not caring that the freshly cut green grass would stain their jeans. 

A warm presence embraces them and Luz sighs, their hand finding Amity’s and intertwining their fingers. Amity squeezes their hand in an attempt to comfort herself. 

“What made you unafraid of them?” Luz asks, curious. 

Amity stares at the grass. Her voice cracks as she speaks, heavy with pent-up grief. “...Amelia died. I figured if she was not afraid, I shouldn’t be either.” She clears her throat, letting out a choked laugh as she wipes a tear from her eye. “I don’t think I was really afraid, I just liked that she would spend time with me during a storm, even if she’d had the worst day possible…”

Luz scoffs a little, “If I tried to do that, Lucia would have thrown me out the door within seconds.”

Amity smiles, “That was Amelia with Edric and Emira.” She looks away, her gaze focusing on her sister’s headstone. “The only time I remember them being in her room is when Mother and Father were having a bad argument, and Amelia let us take shelter with her…”

She vividly remembers being grouped in her sister’s bedroom, huddled together on the bed with the lights shut off, illuminated only by the street light’s faintly orange glow. 

Amity can still hear the movie playing in the background, Amelia’s attempt to drown out their parent’s screaming for the other three to fall asleep.

The door was locked, but despite that, Amelia had remained on guard. She was gone by the time they had all woken up.

“I imagine that was often…” Luz murmurs tentatively.

It was one time, but it was a memory that she held dear to her heart.

“Not so bad that we couldn’t hide in our rooms,” Amity reassures her. “Did you notice that it stormed on the day they died?”

Luz looks over at Amity, puzzled. 

“Well, it did here, anyway. Mother claimed that the storm was the reason we were not holding a funeral,” Amity elaborates, ignoring the stabbing of pain at her heart, “but now I realize that she just wanted to erase her existence.” Luz remains quiet, noticing the faraway look in their fiancee’s golden eyes. “I remember when she told us Amelia would not be coming home… She didn’t even  care .”

“ There you three are. Amelia will not be coming home, she’s dead .”

Amity’s soul felt like it was being dragged to the depths of the deepest sea. “She just caught us hanging out in Emira’s room, casually told us Amelia’s dead, and went on… I was in disbelief. I knew Mother was telling the truth, but I think a part of me was waiting for her to come home.”

“Amity…”

“ I’m leaving for a little while, okay? I’ll come back for you… I promise .”

Her chest tightens like a coiling snake. “She made a promise… She’d  never  broken them before.” Amity’s voice breaks as tears sting at the corners of her eyes. Agony washes through her soul like a violent wave, crashing through every nerve and bone in her body mercilessly. A muscle in her jaw feathers and she closes her eyes, her brows pulling together as she grits her teeth. She releases a strained, choked breath. “But she never came back…”

Amity had never been particularly close to her oldest sister, but she had always quietly admired her. 

Luz leans into her, their arms wrapped over her shoulders. It was evident they didn’t. know what to say, but that was fine. Amity’s stiff stance relaxes as she is overcome with heaviness. Her eyes flutter open, concentrating on the gravestone. 

When she reads the name, another wave of pain washes over her. She collapses into Luz’s arms, her weight dependent on Luz to hold her upright.

“What would you tell her if she was alive?”

The sound of Luz’s voice was enough to break through the buzzing reverberating through her mind.

“What?”

Luz hums, avoiding eye contact. Their voice is gentle. “When my Dad died, Mom told Vee and me that our loved ones can hear us from beyond the grave. I talk to Dad and Lucia all the time…” They smile a little, “Sometimes, I think I can feel them there. Listening.”

“Luz-”

“What would you tell Amelia, if you could rewind time?”

Her sister was able to stand back up after she’d been knocked down. She would take a devastating hit, emotional and physical, but manage to come back even stronger. She was able to let things roll off her back and learned not to take them to heart. 

She was  strong .

“... I would tell her I love her,” Amity murmurs after a minute, twisting slightly to rest her face on Luz’s shoulder. Amity’s eyes were wet with tears, she was trembling. It hurts to breathe. She lets out a small cough-sigh-like laugh. “She would probably give me a weird look and pull my hair into my eyes, but I’d mean it…”

Luz chuckles a little, sounding strained. “Lucia would call me a nerd and shut the door in my face.”

Amity quietly continues. “I never told her… I just always assumed that Amelia would be there, as she always was.” It requires all of her willpower not to break down and cry, but her voice cracks again and her throat tightens. “I… I never thought about it... I didn’t… I never thought I would  lose  her!”

She had never been allowed to grieve for her sister. She suppressed her emotions when she moved out, attempting to act as though Amelia never even existed.

But, Gods, she misses her so much.

Luz rests their head against Amity’s, holding her close. “Nobody thinks they’ll lose their loved one.” Luz answers, sounding lost in thought. “Not so soon, anyway… Not like that.”

A raindrop hits her shoulder and Amity weakly lifts her head, golden eyes focusing on the dark clouds rolling in above them. Droplets of water begin to splash down around them, but they do not move.

The brunette’s chest tightens with grief. Amity speaks barely higher than a whisper. “Please, don’t ever leave me…”

Luz tightens her arms around her. “I won't.”

The couple returned to their vehicle when the rain began to pour so hard that it soaked them to the bone, sending chills throughout their bodies as if ice had settled inside of their souls. The heat rolling through the car’s system didn’t help much, but thankfully their apartment wasn’t but a fifteen-minute drive from the graveyard if they didn’t take the road through town.

However, considering neither felt like heading home, instead of immediately returning to their apartment, the couple waited in a parking space in the city, watching vehicles rush by and people walk beneath the street lights as the sun began to set. 

By pure coincidence, they had managed to find a spare set of clothes freshly washed in the back of the car, beneath the seats. They had forgotten to take them out after their trip to meet the rest of Luz’s family a few months prior. 

Amity stares down at the notebook paper in her lap while twirling the pen in hand, she leans up against the door with her feet in the seat and her knees pulled close to her chest so that the notepad could rest against it.

“So…” She starts quietly, glancing up as Luz looks over at her curiously. Amity clears her throat and continues her train of thought; “How exactly do you play this game?” 

Luz scoots over to her and rests one hand on Amity’s knee, they tap at the paper where their names have been written down next to several listed items. “Each person has to look for a certain few things going down the road. I altered it a bit since we’re staying in one spot.”

Amity listens intently, wanting to fully understand before they begin the game.

Luz continues; “For example, you are to find a blue car; it doesn’t matter if it’s parked or not. Once you find one, you confirm it and mark it off.”

Amity nods in understanding, “Yeah,” she taps the pen against the paper, “Yeah I think I got it.”

Luz grins and sits back, clapping their hands together once. “And, begin!”

Right at that moment, a vehicle speeds by, and Amity casually points in front of her with a bored look on her face. “Blue car.” She announces dully. 

“You got lucky!” Luz protests playfully. “What items do I have?”

Amity scans the paper briefly before looking up. “Trampoline is the first one.”

Luz blinks slowly as the words register. “I wrote that down for  this  game? A trampoline?” Arms gesture around them wildly. “How am I supposed to find one of those in-”

Luz is cut off by the roar of a truck passing them. Brown eyes immediately recognize the object on the trailer the other vehicle is pulling and they lift a finger slowly to point at it. “Oh. Wow. Would you look at that?”

Amity just giggles in amusement and marks it off the list, “That was cute.” She comments lightly, “You’re cute.”

Luz smiles back at her, “You’re beautiful,” they reply affectionately, “that’s all I can say.”

The brunette scoffs with a light-hearted roll of her eyes. Luz moves forward, tucking their head into the pale girl’s neck and giggling; Amity rests her hand across Luz’s waist as they turn to lean against Amity’s front. “Charming.”

“What’s next?” Luz asks, now comfortable in their girlfriend’s arms.

“I have a red car to find.” Amity answers. “Does it matter what kind of vehicle?”

“Nope.” Luz informs her, “Just a red vehicle. I would’ve specified.”

“Well, would you like to help me?” Amity offers with a soft smile. 

Luz’s eyes widened and they bat the brunette’s bangs into her eyes. “The opposing teams cannot work together!”

“But what if my fiancee is on the opposing team?” Amity counters.

Luz remains quiet. They let out a falsely annoyed huff and Amity giggles. “Oh, all right. But only because I love you.”

Their vehicle is parked a few parking spaces away from the building’s overhang. Shoes splash through the puddles of water as they race to stand beneath the shelter and unlock the apartment door. 

After a particularly warm shower and dinner that ended up being pizza was ordered and delivered to their apartment door within the span of an hour, the day’s events finally settled in and Luz excused herself to bed while Amity remained on the couch.

The bedroom door shuts and Amity leans her head back against the couch. “They can hear us from beyond the grave, huh?” Seeming to sense her shift in mood, Ghost hops up into her lap and curls into her side.

“I don’t know if you can hear me, but…” Amity closes her eyes, releasing a soft breath as she strokes her fingers through Ghost’s fur. “I’m going to pretend that you can… Okay?”

She swears she feels a soft, welcoming presence envelope around her. Tears sting at the edges of her eyes and her chest tightens. Somehow, she feels as if she wasn’t alone.

“There are so many things I have wanted to tell you…”

Chapter Text

Months have come and gone since Amity’s last conversation with her siblings. Edric was supposedly released from the institution three weeks after their argument and moved back in with Emira. Amity gathered this by seeing their pictures on social media as she had yet to unfollow them.

They have attempted to contact her several times, even showing up at their door to talk to her, only to have Luz shut and lock it in response. Luz had already forgiven them, but Luz was not going to force Amity to have a relationship with her siblings after they indirectly killed her sister, and Luz seems to understand.

There were a few times when Luz attempted to persuade Amity to talk to them, reminding her that the twins are the only siblings she has. Amity couldn’t bring herself to do it, despite knowing Luz was right. 

Following a few heated discussions, the topic was never discussed again.

Around September, Luz managed to land a job at a nearby animation studio. It was a small business, focusing on little ads and short six-minute series, but those in charge were quite impressed by their skill and hired Luz to draw concept art. The pay was decent enough to allow them to help out with bills, and still spend some on themselves.

Thanks to the cost of living consistently going higher, and pay going lower, Amity got a secondary job at a restaurant, working weekends alongside her hours at the library. It temporarily put a strain on their relationship, resulting in several boiling disagreements and spouts of frustration.

At times, one of them had to leave the room to calm down. Luz even went to stay with Camila once. 

After a few weeks of near-consistent arguments, they settled down to talk about what was going on, both fearing they were driving their relationship to an end. 

Not wanting to lose each other, they agreed and decided to use a bit of their free time and dedicate it to each other. It could be as little as taking a nap together after work, but if they were together, they were fine.

Their temporary time apart caused Amity to notice quite a few things about her partner that she hadn’t noticed before. She even took notice of Luz’s irregular sleeping schedule. She’d known it was bad, but it was worse than she thought. Either that, it’s gotten worse in the past few weeks.

Sometimes, Luz could go a whole day without sleep. Amity hadn’t noticed because of work. For all she’d known, Luz was napping while she was working. Well, at least, that’s what she’d been hoping…

They were becoming low energy, in addition to zoning out while staring at either a blank page on their sketchbook or at worst, they could be in the middle of cooking supper. Luz’s temper was higher than usual on a bad day, and their sleep schedule was all out of whack. There were a few times Amity noticed that they never came to bed.

As the days creep by, approaching Luz’s birthday, their condition seemed to worsen.

Something was wrong. 

Disturbed by the alarm blaring at her bedside, Amity’s harshly pulled out of her thoughts. She looks down as Luz cuddles into her side, having slipped into a restless sleep. But at least they had relaxed enough to sleep. 

The brunette’s heart skips a beat, a tiny smile tugging at the edge of her lips. She lets out a hum, the tips of her fingers delicately playing with wisps of dark, curly hair. As much as she would love to lay here with her fiancee for the rest of the day, she had to get up and head to work at the restaurant. Screw the morning hours…

Amity reluctantly moves to get up, disturbing Luz as she slides out of the bed. A tight pair of arms slide around her abdomen and her fiancee moves to snuggle into her back. “No…”

“Luz, it’s 6:30.” Amity murmurs.

“Ugh.”

“Love, I have to go to work, and they want you in the studio by nine…” Amity reminds gently. Luz doesn’t budge, tired dark eyes staring blankly across the room and breathing shallow breaths. She hadn’t gotten any rest at all, her mind was still full and it was interfering with her sleep.

Amity sighs, deciding she wouldn’t move until Luz either let go or spoke to her about what was going on. “What’s wrong…? You haven’t been yourself in weeks.” She touches their head, allowing two fingers to play with their bedhead curls.

Luz answered her immediately, taking Amity by full surprise. “My birthday is next week… I’m going to be older than my sister when she died.”

Oh…

That would be a little strange to think about. Amity never considered that possibility. Amelia was always older than her, even now still in her conscience. 

Yeah, being older than their older sisters was weird. It should have never even been possible.

“Well-”

She’s interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing next to her. Luz lifts their head and shuffles away from her, allowing Amity to move and grab her phone. Her lip curls when she sees Edric’s contact. “Ugh, why can’t he stop-”

Her gaze momentarily meets Luz’s questioning pair.

Amity’s soul drops a little as realization dawns on her. She had never had the chance to say goodbye to Amelia, she had already lost one of her siblings. She didn’t need to be pushing the others away.

Luz had lost one sister, and the other was on a six-month cruise with her friends and her own partner. They didn’t talk much either due to the lack of cell service in certain areas. Luz was technically alone.

Edric and Emira were still around, and they were trying to reach out to Amity.

What if she lost them too?

“Go ahead, Amor …” Luz encourages. “I’ll get breakfast started.”

“Are you sure…?” Amity asks, not wanting Luz to feel ignored.

“Of course,” Luz smiles sadly, “they miss you, and I know you miss them…”

She lets out a reluctant breath and answers the phone on the last ring. The startled noise from the other end of the call almost causes her to smile, “Oh my god she answered. Amity! Amity, can you hear me?!”

“I can hear you, Ed,” Amity answers as Luz slides out of the bed, exiting the bedroom and leaving the door open. “What do you need…?”

“Well, uh, I didn’t think you’d answer so-” the line goes quiet for a second, “-since you’re talking to us… Wanna meet somewhere and, uh, talk?”

“When?”

That seems to throw him for another loop.

“Weather’s supposed to be bad later, so, maybe our place?” Edric suggests, sounding unsure and cautious as if he were inches away from stepping on a landmine. “We can order pizza! Or tacos, if you want! Or nothing, if you prefer!”

“That’s a place, Edric,” Amity informs, amused. “I asked when. I have work in an hour.”

“Oh! Uh, tonight, maybe?”

“Tonight works.” Amity responds, “I’ll stop by on my way home from the library.”

Edric’s voice changes, he’s excited and relieved. A pang of guilt hits Amity in the chest.  “Great! I’ll let Emira know!”

“See you tonight,” Amity murmurs, “and pizza will be fine…”

“Okay! Can’t wait! See ya!”

Amity ends the call and a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding forced its way out. She tilts her head back, brushing her faded violet bangs out of her eyes, relieving herself of the anxiety pumping through her veins.

She can smell something sizzling in the other room.

“Whatever you’re cooking, I hope it’s good enough to get me through the day because I am not going to have the appetite when lunch rolls around! Fuck anxiety!”

Luz laughs from the kitchen.

Amity had to leave early for work. Her car hadn’t wanted to start and she was forced to speed walk to the restaurant, clocking in ten minutes after she was scheduled to come in. Her manager had not been too happy with her.

Then again, he never was. He tolerated her presence and kept her around due to the lack of employees recently.

The day had crept by agonizingly slow, but with each passing minute, the meeting with her siblings came closer. She kept her mind focused on work. After clocking out from the restaurant, she walked three blocks down the street and started her shift at the library.

The kids in the nursery seemed to notice her distress and a few of them attempted to comfort her, much to her surprise.

One of them wanted to read her story, and once Amity accepted, the little kid created his own makeshift story about dinosaurs breathing fire. Or so she assumed… The ‘story’ had gotten so out of hand and lost so much consistency that Amity had forgotten what the initial idea was.

Either way, it’d made her day to see the kids she worked with actually care so much about her that they noticed things like that. She wasn’t going to burden them with the truth, as they were not even five, so she had only informed them that she was just a little unwell. They would believe her.

But, they would believe her if she told them she was a witch from another universe who plays with purple slime and lives on a rotting corpse.

Library hours came to a close and the kids returned home, one of them stopping on their way out to hug her and told her to get well soon. One of these days, she’d snap and Luz would have to pry her away from her phone to prevent Amity from adopting a child of her own.

She had to be financially stable first. She had at least promised herself that much if she and Luz decided to build a family one day.

Grateful that Emira and Edric didn’t live too far from the library, Amity left work and joined two of her coworkers on their walk home, splitting ways at the bus stop. She didn’t get two steps down the street when a loud voice broke her thoughts.

“ Petite fleur …?!”

Amity stops and looks up, finding three people staring at her from across the pavement, dressed in exaggerated flashy colors, glitter mascara, and bright-colored wigs. They looked as if they saw a ghost.

Grief flashes through the darker one’s green gaze and they quietly cross the road with the other two lagging behind them. Amity clears her throat, taking a few steps away from the trio and holding her bag close as if it were a weapon. “C-Can I help you?”

“You must be Amity…” The first one smiles remorsefully, “You look so much like your sister…”

“Uhm…”

“Weird question, but…” The paler one of the three is quick to stand by their taller partner, “Can you say fuck.”

Amity blinks in confusion. “...Fuck?”

The green-haired one scoffs with their hands on their hips. “Nope. She ain’t like her sister in that regard. Not at all.”

The pale one agrees, “She lacks the animosity.”

The darker one chuckles, their voice deep when they speak. “I apologize for the sudden approach. My name is Lunaye Clipse, these are my partners Jue Cee, and Ineva Tibble.”

‘...Okay?’

“We knew your sister.” Ineva, the green one, comments with a kind smile.

“Knew her?” Jue lifts a brow, waving their hand dismissively. “We practically raised that monster of a child!”

Realization clicks. They were talking about Amelia. They had known her sister.

“Amelia?” Amity asks, hopeful. “How did you-”

Lunaye interrupts, “Kid needed a place to hide from your bitchass mother.” They slam their fist into their palm, malice burning in their eyes. “Oh, how I’d love to turn that green-haired bitch ’s pretentious face into a pulp.”

“Anyway, she spoke of her siblings quite often,” Invea pitched in, “you’re Amity, the favorite.”

Amity’s brows pull together. “Favorite?”

“ Lia ’s favorite,” Jue winks, giggling when Ineva elbows them, “man, that girl would try to rip my head clean off my shoulders for calling her that.”

She needs to get going. Edric and Emira were waiting for her. But, her feet wouldn’t move and the curiosity was too much. “Why?”

Lunaye grins mischievously with a hand on their chest. “Why, only her Lucia could call her that! Absolutely nobody else!”

“How old are you, Kid?” Jue asks.

“Almost twenty.” Amity answers.

“If you want to, later, stop by our bar,” Ineva hands her a card with a smile, “we have plenty of stories about Amelia…”

If they truly knew her sister, she would love nothing more than to learn more about who she was. She barely remembered anything about her as a person.

Jue giggles a bit, “Some rather embarrassing.”

“May I bring my brother and sister?” Amity inquiries, “They would love to hear them.”

“Of course,” Lunaye smiles, “we’re open from nine at dark to five.”

Perhaps they would stop by sometime tonight.

“Amity! I was beginning to think something happened to you!” Edric cries upon her arrival, worry etched on his pale features and fear in his eyes. “There’s so much crime in the area right now! I thought they got you!”

Amity sets her bag by the door, shaking her arm a little to shake off the anxiety coursing through her body. It was the first time she’s been to her siblings’ house in months, and the last time she had spoken to them face-to-face resulted in the biggest fight they’d ever had. She was going to try, though… 

She offers her brother a reassuring smile, “Nah, I just got a little preoccupied.”

Emira makes a disgusted face from the couch, her lip curling. The tall girl shudders visibly, her twin making gagging noises to match her reaction and further push the idea.

“You two are revolting,” Amity mutters, unamused, “I was stopped by some people on the street. I wouldn’t tell you if I-”

“Ah, ah, ah!” Emira interrupts, shushing her with a finger.

Amity swats her hand away.  “Oh, grow up!”

“Lighten up!” Edric shoots back, jogging into the kitchen and grunting when his knee almost gives out below him.

“You’re not supposed to be running, stupid!” Emira calls from the couch. “You just had surgery two weeks ago! Let the thing heal!”

Edric walks out of the kitchen with a box of pizza and a cup of soda between his teeth. He makes noises in response, earning strange and amused looks from his sisters before he sets the box down on the coffee table. He takes the cup from his mouth, “I said… It’s healed enough!”

“Six weeks of recovery! Two months of rehab when your crutches are gone!” Emira holds up her fingers to count, “One hundred fifty dollars per session for two months! Without insurance! Do not test me!”

Edric and Amity share a look as Emira leans up to the coffee table, casually taking a slice of pizza from the box and biting into it.

“She sound familiar to you?” Edric asks with a small smile.

Her heart drops. The edges of her eyes sting, but she manages to will them away. She can’t cry. This is a lighthearted conversation, she shouldn’t ruin it.

“Dude, I remember that as clear as day… She was so pissed off.” Amity clears her throat, changing her voice into an exaggerated shout. “I have been working all night with asshole customers who don’t know how to take a fucking hint, don’t test me !”

‘I would give anything to hear her voice again.’

Edric whistles, “Man I thought she was gonna rip my head off just for looking at her.”

‘I doubt she really would have.’

“I know,” Amity agrees, shoving him on the shoulder as she walks by him, Edric gives her a suspicious look when she joins Emira on the couch.  “I was waiting for her to, and I was gonna catch it all on record.”

He scoffs. “Oh, lovely.”

“Speaking of…” Emira sets her pizza down and the air around them becomes tense as the peace has been disrupted.

‘No…’

“Amity… We didn’t mean for any of this to happen-”

Amity holds up a hand, cutting her off. “Don’t.”

“Amity…” Edric pleads, desperate. “Hear us out.”

“I don’t have to…” Amity murmurs, her shoulders sagging. Her blood begins to turn cold as her knee bounces. “All three of us messed up.” The twins develop a mirrored image of perplexity on their faces. Amity’s fingertips tremble, but she shields them. “You two got her in trouble, but… I saw her leaving the house the day she disappeared, and I said nothing.”

Emira puts on Amity’s knee in an attempt to soothe her. “Hey…”

Amity’s eyes blur. “She’s gone… She’s gone, and she’s never coming back…” 

“Amity…” Edric stands to approach her. 

“I should have stopped her… If I’d stopped-...” the brunette hiccups, she wraps her arms around her front to console herself, and her body trembles with unrestrained grief. It’s all my fault… I wasn’t- I wasn’t ready to lose her… I needed her. I needed her.”

She hadn’t been ready to let go.

“We all did…” Emira kneels next to the broken girl, brushing her hair out of her eyes and pulling her little sister into an embrace. “And it isn’t your fault…”

Amity chokes, “But it is… I was hoping so much that it was just a joke… I was hoping she’d come back, that she’d keep her promise… I should have said something… I should’ve-”

“We are the ones who got her in trouble.” Edric joins the embrace from the other side of Amity. He speaks as sorrowfully as his sister. “If it weren’t for us, none of this would have ever happened…”

“But it did…” Emira murmurs, her voice cracking as the edges of her eyes redden.  “And… We just have to accept that…”

“...It’s so hard.” Amity whispers, broken. “It’s been so long, why does it still hurt…?”

“That’s just… It-...” Edric removes his glasses to wipe his teary eyes. “My p-partner told me that’s… that’s how grief works… It never goes away…”

Emira nods, “It can grow in size, and it can shrink to the point you forget it’s there, but… It’s never going to completely fade…”

Amity presses herself deeper into Emira’s embrace. “I hate it,” she sobs as the green-haired girl rubs her back, “I hate it so much…”

“We miss her, too… If there was one thing I could do over…” Edric’s voice is taught. “If she lived… I think she would have come back for us. Eventually.”

“Yeah,” Emira agrees, smiling a little, “she definitely would have… I don’t think I ever remember her breaking her promises.” Her smile fades and she lets out a big sigh, “Not unless she didn’t have a choice… She loved us, and I hope she knows we loved her…”

Edric clears his throat, leaning away from his sisters and wiping his eyes again. “W-well… Uhm… Pizza’s getting cold, so… Uh…”

“Probably shouldn’t have ordered food beforehand,” Emira says lightly as Amity moves from her embrace, “and you should not have worn mascara. You look like an edgy punk rock singer now.”

Emira withdraws her phone, bringing up her camera to show the brunette her reflection. Amity scoffs in distaste, her hand twitching to reach up and wipe the tears from her eyes. She would only get it all over her hands and her sleeves, though. This warranted a bathroom trip-

“Stay here, I’ll get a wipe from my bedroom.” Emira gestures for her to stay on the couch and exits the room.

Edric grabs his crutches, favoring his right knee, and pulls him up to start for the kitchen. “I’ll get the other drinks ready!”

Emira returns as Edric rounds the corner, the taller girl sits back down and angles Amity’s chin down and toward her. Amity closes one eye. “What’re you-...” She falls quiet when the soft, slightly moist cotton touches the corner of her eye, carefully working to remove the smeared mascara.

Amity allows her body to relax and her eyes to fully close. It reminds her of when she was twelve and had just begun to experiment with makeup. Without proper tutorials and being too prideful to ask her sisters for assistance, she had walked out of the bathroom looking like a wet clown.

Much to her displeasure, Amelia, sixteen at the time, had been in the hallway on the way back to her bedroom when Amity opened the door.

“You were going to laugh! So was Emira! I was gonna ask Mother for help!”

“I’m not laughing. Okay, maybe a little, but we are not letting Em, or Ed, see this and get more blackmail. Back into the bathroom you go, stupid.”

That was when she started learning how to do her mascara the proper way, with Amelia’s help. She had thoroughly enjoyed it, having rarely ever spent time with the rough and tough sixteen-year-old. Amity had known her as closed off and devoid of emotion, but she had seen one of the first and last glimpses of her big sister. She still remembers how careful she had been to not hurt her feelings, and how gently she’d helped clean the excess makeup off from Amity’s first attempt.

She could still see the reflection of her sister’s proud smile in the mirror when she finally managed to apply mascara on her own. The amount of joy and satisfaction she’d felt that day overwhelmed her, and she’d felt her sister’s genuine hug for the first time. The sound of laughter and happy praises and giggles ring through her ears.

“I did it! And it looks good!”

“You did! Look at you! You’re all grown up!”

In retrospect, she had never noticed the hint of sorrow in the older girl’s voice. She was older and understood Amelia’s detachment better, and now she was able to piece together why she had sounded that way, and why she was masking.

She did that quite a lot. Even when the four of them were gathered in Amelia’s bedroom, hiding from their mother. Amelia would pretend she was okay, distract them from their parents’ arguments, and defend them when necessary.

She never expected anything in return. That was her responsibility as their sister.

“Okay, I think I got it all off.”

Emira’s voice pulls Amity back to her senses and she opens her eyes. Reality remains blurred for several moments before clicking into place. She meets Emira’s questioning gaze. Ever since Amelia had died, Emira had stepped up to take the burden that had fallen from their sister’s shoulders, and sometimes she struggled to carry it.

She was taking care of Amity while helping Edric rehabilitate from his crash. There was a heavy weight on her shoulders, constantly wondering if she was doing it right, and not knowing when to step in and when she shouldn’t.

But, she was trying.

“Thanks, Em…” Amity murmurs, grateful.

“Oh, no problem.” Emira moves to get up.

“I meant… Thanks for taking care of us.” Amity elaborates, causing Emira to halt for a moment. The woman visibly tenses, her jaw clenching momentarily before she smiles down at the brunette.

“I’m your sister…” She sounds thankful for the comment but doesn’t want to show it. “It’s my job.”

“Got the drinks!” Edric calls from the kitchen, struggling to get into the lounge with two cups in his hand and crutches beneath his arm. “Fanta Grape for Mittens,” he hands the cups to Emira when she speed-walks over, “Sprite for me, and a Mountain Dew for you.”

Emira scoffs, “Of course, you use up the last of the Sprite!” Edric sticks his tongue out at her.

She sets the drinks down, and Edric joins them on the couch and sets his crutches aside. “What’re we gonna watch?!”

Amity shrugs, “Anything’s fine with me as long as it doesn’t involve heteros.”

“All that kissing is disgusting anyway,” Emira mutters, turning the TV on. “How about NCIS?”

“Ehh… It’s not as good since they got rid of her.” Amity points out.

“New Orleans, then?” Emira suggests.

“Lasalle died.” Edric reminds her, biting into his pizza.

“Bones it is, then.”

Amity returned home late that night, expecting to climb into bed with an already passed-out Luz, but only to be grabbed and spun around two seconds after she walked in the door.

“Amity! Amity Amity! I have news!” Luz sets her down, and Amity takes a moment to reorientate herself, “I’m in charge of my first project, and it is a little five-minute animation about ADHD to raise awareness for kids who might not be doing well in school!”

Amity’s head snaps up with realization.

“Luz, that’s amazing!” Her excitement matches Luz’s own. “I’m so proud of you!” The brunette’s body suddenly collides with Luz’s and they fall with their back against the carpet. “I knew you could do it! When do you start?”

Luz giggles, “I start tomorrow! I’ll be making enough to help pay the bills, too!”

Amity gasps, the pitch revealing a realization. “Do you think we can finally get a better apartment?”

“Probably!” Luz encourages, “I mean, both of us are working! Maybe we can find one that accepts animals this time! We’re not even supposed to have Ghost!” 

Amity claps once, “Yes! Then we can adopt a kitty!”

“Or a dog,” Luz suggests playfully.

“Ghost needs a friend,” Amity insists. “I vote for kitty.”

Luz scoffs, amused. “Well, of course! You’re a lesbian!”

The other girl’s jaw drops in mock offense. “Is that the kind of joke I think it is?!” Luz merely sticks out their tongue, Amity swats at them. “You pervy little-! How dare you?!”

“I regret nothing!” Luz announces. 

“Careful, I might divorce you before we’re even wed.” Amity teases, lifting a brow challengingly.

“Ha!” Luz huffs, “Do it. Coward. You won’t.”

“Annoying.” Amity pushes away from them to stand up, but the smile on her face doesn’t go unnoticed. 

“You love me!” Luz calls.

“I do!” Amity answers, disappearing into the kitchen. “Now help me make breakfast!”

Luz quickly scurries after her.

Golden eyes watch the young trio at a distance, observing as the mood switches from light, to heavy, to light again. It made her smile to know that they still retained their dynamic.

She almost stepped in to comfort her grieving little sister and show her that she’s still here, that she never left and she never will. She’d broken her promise in life, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t still hold true to it.

Seeing her sister in so much pain hurts her. Having watched her siblings fight amongst themselves and fall apart went against everything she’d done to protect them. 

Sure, they reconciled, but the damage has been done. They would never get along like they used to, there would always be a rift between them, and that rift was her …

“Hey, you…”

A soft smile forms on her lips when she sees a tall woman with unruly dark hair and reddish brown eyes approaching her. “Hey…” 

“Watching your siblings again?” The taller one asks, draping one arm around the smaller one’s shoulders. The golden-eyed woman hums and leans into her girlfriend’s front, and the tension immediately begins to ease away. “How’re they doing?”

“Mittens had another breakdown… Edric and Emira helped her out of it…”

“That’s good. They’re recovering.” The darker woman hums. “Luz has been talking to me recently… I wish I could answer her.”

“Is she doing okay? She looked like she relapsed…” The brunette asks, worried.

The tanned one sighs, “She’ll be okay. She’s not… like Amity was… she just dreads her birthday because she’ll be older than me.”

“It does sound weird.” She agrees.

“She asked if I could do it over again if I’d still make the same decision.” 

The brunette tilts her head back to look at her, silently questioning the same inquiry. Her girlfriend giggles; she’s given a warm, loving smile and a sweet, endearing kiss on the forehead. 

“I would… Wherever you go, I’ll follow.”