𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐛𝐢𝐞 | 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝

[54]: 𝙇𝙖𝙗𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙝 𝙍𝙪𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨

"Uh- haha, uh... sorry, I- I... I was trying to be funny but, I just ended up being horrifying," She looked down before looking at Gus again. "I- I thought I was the only one that hid here."

"Ugh, who's that?" The illusion of his partner's friend scoffed. 

"He might as well just do her homework now," His assignment partner scoffed, Gus frowning. "Get it over with."

"Go away," Gus frowned, covering his eyes.

"Are you... talking to me?" Willow frowned, pointing at herself questioningly.

"All of you!" Gus buried his head further into his knees, gripping his head tight.

Willow smiled softly, walking through the illusion as it thrummed. She sat beside the small boy gently.

"Hey," She spoke to him softly. "Sometimes I get wrapped up in my own thoughts too."

Gus lifted his head, his glowing eyes looking at her. She placed a hand on his back, smiling at him encouragingly.

"But my dads taught me a little trick to quiet the voices," She sat up straight, taking in a deep breath as she held her fingers up for four seconds. She then exhaled, counting for seconds once more.

She repeated the little trick, Gus following her example as he shut his eyes. When he opened them again, they had stopped glowing, the two illusioned figures in front of him panicking slightly once they realised that they were about to disappear.

They both let screamed as they disappeared in a swirl, the forest-like surroundings disappearing as well Gus smiled to himself, Willow smiling beside him.

"I'm Willow," She grinned, holding her hand out.

"Augustus," He smiled back, shaking her hand.

–––

Mattholomule walked out of a room, smiling smugly to himself as he looked down at his mixed coven-track uniform, seeing his illusion-themed sleeves. He walked ahead as the Blight twins smiled at their new uniforms behind him.

Edric smiled at Emira at his potion-illusion and beast-keeping themed mix, Emira holding her hand up for a high-five with her healing-illusion outfit.

The two clapped hands as they walked out of the principal's office, Bump going through some files as the Illusion-track teacher smiled at the students who walked out of the room.

"It's nice to see the kids embracing multi-tracks," She hummed. "I remember giving up everything for illusions."

"To be honest, I thought this would be more trouble than it's worth," Bump smiled. "But I haven't seen students this enthusiastic... ever!"

Footsteps from behind them caught their attention as the two adults spotted another person walking through the doorway, his tail swaying.

"Well," The cloaked figure sighed, holding up an illusion-coven badge. "Trouble might be closer than you think."

–––

"These are the last messages I got from Luz," Amity frowned, holding up her little Tamagotchi-like device. "She must have typed them quickly because all I could decipher was, 'Learned a lotta "bad stuff"', something, something 'Day of Unity', something, something and... 'Don't scare him away'?"

She looked over to her three other friends, Willow, Gus and Georgia looking over at Amity in confusion as they sat at their regular lunch table by the window.

Georgia picked up a crumb of her food as she fed it to her palisman, Talon, who perched on her shoulder. She then dusted a few rogue crumbs off of her skirt, looking at her beast-keeping themed pants with slight pride.