Here to Help

Chapter 12

Note: This chapter has some discussion of abuse and mentions of injuries. Please read at your own discretion. Thank you!

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"Where is she, Edalyn?" a voice shouted over the sound of the front door slamming open.

"Hey take it easy will yah, sheesh! Hoot!" the bird tube whined as the door once briefly ajar slowly began to inch closed by pure force of gravity.

"What in the Boiling Isles is going on?" Eda questioned out loud, annoyed at the commotion that pulled her for a much needed nap, the witch exhausted having cared for two injured teens for going on a month. Making her way into the front room, cuss words spewing under her breath, the gray haired witch wondered what shenanigans the human and her girlfriend had gotten into now that could possibly require so much noise.

"Don't make me repeat myself!" Eda heard a familiar voice yell as she turned the the corner.

"Lilith..." Eda scoffed laying eyes on her sister, "to what do I owe the displeasure?"

"I'm here for the Blight girl," Lilith demanded.

"And what makes you so sure she's even here?" Eda questioned feeling her defenses rise inside of her.

"Don't play dumb with me, Edalyn. You and I both know I work directly for the Blights as part of the emperor's coven."

"And?" Eda countered.

"And they have informed me that my protégé has run away and must be returned immediately," Lilith growled as she moved further into the house, intent on retrieving the green haired witch even if it meant escalating a confrontation.

"Lilith, do you have any idea why, Amity ran away?" Eda questioned, anger lacing her voice at what she hoped was ignorance on her sister's part.

"Disobedience. Her parents told me her grades were slipping and that... that shes been spending time with the human..."

"Okay, and even if that were true, which it is absolutely not, whats wrong with it? Shes a kid Lily. Kids get bad grade. Kids have crushes. So what?" Eda retorted, refusing to budge from her position in protecting the green.

"Untrue? How would you know this to be untrue when it came from the mouths of her parents themselves?" Lilith questioned coyly. "I can only assume that to mean you've spoken to the young Blight. Now then..."

"Yes, Lilith. I have spoken to Amity and what I heard is not good," Eda interjected.

"That's enough of your games, Edalyn," Lilith huffed in frustration, angered at being cut off and for the entire situation to have progressed in the manner it did. "Now, I'll give you one last chance or I'll bring you back too... in chains," the blue haired witch threatened with a shout.

"She's in bed recovering, Lilith," Eda said flatly.

"Recovering?" Lilith questioned, mocking her younger sister's words. "What? Did she pick up some sort of disease from the human?"

"Don't you dare talk about Luz like that," Eda growled as she summoned her staff, preparing to defend the kids by any means necessary.

"Well then what is it?" Lilith asked once more, a faint hint of concern crossing her brow.

"Her parent's hurt her, Lily. They hurt her real bad..." Eda sighed, grip tightening around her staff in frustration.

"Wait, wh... what?" Lilith choked, wide-eyed and confused as to the words that had left her sister's mouth. "Surely you must be mistaken..."

"Lilith, Luz and I, were the ones that found her," Eda remarked, a slight sense of relief making its way through her mind at the realization that her sister was most likely ignorant of the atrocities committed by the elder Blights. At the very least, Eda thought, Lilith wasn't there with the intention of placing Amity physically back in harms way though emotionally, she reckoned, was another story.