Missing

Chapter 1: Offline

At least that's what she wanted to think.

Surprisingly, she was able to get out of the house very easily. Usually she would've been caught by her siblings or her parents before she would've been able to get far. More so now because of her broken leg, but no one spotted her. She figured everyone was busy with their own agendas. Not that she cared about, although she did make a mental note to be quick. She didn't want her sibling, or her parents questioning her about being out of bed. 

The Manor to the Owl House wasn't a long walk in of itself, but because of her leg, it did take a little longer to traverse the ground. 

During the walk, Amity started thinking again, thinking about Luz. She couldn't shake the thought away of her being in trouble or hurt. It pained her at the constant thought that Luz was possibly in danger. Ever since their encounter up on the Knee, Amity started seeing Luz more positively, and was more open to her. Then Amity's attempt at erasing Willow's memories of her, and the work she and Luz had to do to fix her memory. As much as it pained her, seeing all the damage she caused, the indirect and voluntary damage, she had Luz by her side, motivating her to push forwards. 
 
Grom then happened and Amity started feeling for the human much more than before. She knew that she was being obvious, she knew that there were people that possibly saw it too. She was surprised, but also thankful that Luz hasn't caught on yet. As much as Amity likes Luz, she's still too scared to reveal her feelings directly. The fear she had since grom hasn't vanished yet, and it would be too much to bear if it came true. 

All of her thoughts helped her get to the house faster, and she soon found herself in the forest. She knew she was close, just past the tree lining and she would see the house. At this point, she managed to calm her nerve a tiny bit. She rationalized her thoughts, thinking that maybe things were fine. Maybe it was just some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe Luz and them went out suddenly. Maybe Luz was teaching Eda and Lilith her spell methods. She shouldn't have to worry. All she was doing was checking in, seeing what was happening. Amity wanted to believe it was just a misunderstanding, and she kept that thought in front of her the entire time.
 
Once she passed the opening of the tree lining, she squinted her eyes and looked in the direction of the house. As she got closer, she heard her thoughts scramble. Her heartbeat picked up and she found herself staring onwards, fear plastered all over her face. In front of her, she saw the house, heavily damaged. From the outside, she could see that the walls were cracked and blackened. The roof looked to have taken heavy damage as well. She looked towards the door and saw that it was on the ground, broken off its hinges. Seeing all of this, Amity's fears started to manifest once again.

Picking up her pace, Amity rushed over to the front door. She looked at the little owl that she didn't have too much fun with before. She noticed that he wasn't moving or greeting her with the same annoying way he typically greeted her before. This time, he sat on the ground, silent. There were Xs where his eyes would be. Hooty was out cold. Passing him, she rushed in and saw the horrors within.

The first thing she noticed was how torn up the place was. The walls had the same cracks and black marks all over. Wooden beams that supported the house were on the ground, broken in pieces. The couch was half burnt and broken in half. All the windows were broken and glass littered the ground. Parts of the roof were caved in the house. There was a lot of damage in front of her, but the thing that she noticed the most was the lack of noise. She didn't hear anybody. There wasn't even any background noise of some sort. The place was quiet, and that made her nerves spike up 100 times more.

"Luz! Luz! Eda! Lilith! Anybody in here?" Amity shouted, looking frantically at some kind of hint of life anywhere, but she didn't find anything. She noticed the stairs to her left and figured to check there. As she stumbled up the stairs, she noticed something. Stopping in her tracks, she leaned down towards the stairs, looking at a smudge. Casting a light spell, she shined over the stairs and gasped in shock. On the stairs, she saw a dark, thick, red substance litter the staircase from the top to the middle step she was at. Blood. She thought about Luz immediately and she felt sick to her stomach. It looked like she got injured.  
 
Or hurt.
 
Passing the blood, Amity rushed up to Luz's room, hoping that by some miracle, that all of this was something else. Something other than what her mind was screaming. She just wanted to see the human safe, and pleaded that when she opened the doors, she would see everybody in there, safe and sound.