Stuck: An Owl House Story

4. Hunter's Story

Ari POV

I put my camera on my bedside table and place my bag on top of the cupboard. That's the last of the things I have put away.

Sitting down on the bed, I pull out my ringing phone. It's my mother. Sighing, I place my phone down next to me, and wait for the ringing to stop. I know I have a death wish doing this, but how can I explain to her that I'm nowhere near home.

The ringing finally stops, and I hear a pin. Picking my phone up, I see 13 missed calls, all from my mother and the same number of voicemails. I listen to the latest one.

"ARIELLA-JUNE HAILEY JAMIE! WHERE ARE YOU! YOU'LL BE DEAD WHEN I FIND YOU!" Blasts through my phone speaker into my ear. My breathing quickens as memories start to flood into my brain. I stand up, turning off the phone and throwing it onto my bed and take a few steps back. Closing my eyes, I squeeze my hands into fists and take some deep breaths, shoving the memories away. Once my breathing slows down, and I can think properly, I open my eyes.

"You ok?" I jump. I then notice the Hunter dude standing at the door.

"Crikey man, you scared me."

"Sorry about that."

"How long have you been standing there?" I ask, scared that Hunter saw what happened.

"Long enough to hear what came through the speakers on your phone." He speaks.

"Crap..... it was.... it was nothing, "I lie.

"Yeah, and I'm human." I sit down, busted. "Listen, I know how it feels to be terrified of someone, to have been hurt, both physically and mentally, and not be able to do anything about it." I raise one eyebrow at that. There's no way that he understands. I scoff.

"As if. You don't know what you're talking about." He shakes his head and grabs the chair in front of Luz's desk. Placing the chair opposite me, he sits down.

"I know more than you think I do. Remember how I said that I got possessed?" I nod. "Well, the person who possessed me was my Uncle, Belos. He used to be the Emperor of this land, an evil one I might add. I was his right hand man, known as the Golden Guard. I grew up with that job, doing what he asks of me, no questions asked. He abused me the moment I did something wrong, or broke one of his rules. Because I grew up away from others, I didn't know what was right or wrong. One day, Luz and I got trapped in his mind. That's when I learned the truth. I'm not a normal witch, and he wasn't a normal Emperor. He was in fact, Phillip Wittebane, a human, who killed his older brother, Caleb. I learnt that my 'family' wasn't killed by wild magic, it was Belos himself that did it. And I was just a recreation of his brother, a grimwalker.

Once I learnt all that, I ran away. I hid in Hexside, which is a school. When the guard came and found me, I ran from them, terrified of what Belos would do. Eventually, I fought him, with Luz, Amity, Willow and Gus, and then we escaped into the human realm.

A few months later, we found him there, he possessed me, gave me these scars, killed me. I was revived by my palismen, Flapjack, who's gone now. We fought Belos once more back here in the demon realm and won. He's gone for good now, thank Titan. It took me like 2 years to get fully used to the trauma he gave me, it still affects me now, but I've gotten used to it.

And that's my story."

Hunter POV

I look up at Ari, I started to look down at my hands about 2 sentences into my telling the story.

I smile and laugh a little, she's fallen asleep. Kinda cute.

I put the chair back where it was, switched the light off, and pulled the door to shut it, but I leave it open a little bit.

I walk into the kitchen, just as Luz is about to leave.

"She fell asleep," I say, earning an 'oh' from her.

The front door opens, and in comes Raine and King.

"Seems to be a party in the kitchen." Raine says. King runs up to Eda and gives her a hug, before going to Luz.

"Dinner's ready, so everyone at the table!" Amity exclaims. We all sit down and start to fill our plates with the chicken alfredo in front of us.

"So anything interesting happen today?" Raine asks.

We all shared a look.

"Well......" Luz says, "We have a bit of a story to tell you both..." 

I don't know how or why, but I've got the sudden urge to write stories. So lucky you, 2 in one day!

- Bel 12.5.23 (829 words)