Stuck: An Owl House Story

6:

Luz POV

Ari and I leave the Owl House. Stringbean turns into staff mode, which scared Ari a little bit, before her face feel into a state of awe and curiosity. 

I hop onto Stringbean, and pat the spot next to me. Ari's face drops as she realises what's about to happen.

"I promise you, you won't fall off. You'll be fine, Stringbean and I are safe flyers."

She shook her head, took a deep breath and hopped on in front of me.

I start flying towards the Bonesborough market, and shortly after, we arrived.

There's not many people around, which I guess is good, considering Ari seems to be shy.

We get off Stringbean, and she rests on my shoulder. 

We walk around the market, shopping, an after about 3 hours, we stop.

"Well, I reckon we've got everything. Let's head back now." Ari nods at my comment.

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I help Ari put all her things away. I place the final pieces of clothing in her drawers and close them.

I notice Ari staring at her phone whilst sitting on her bed. I notice that it is turned off still.

"You ok?" I ask. Ari looks up at me.

"I um... I want to check my phone... but at the same time I don't..."

I sigh and nod. "I know the feeling. I'm going to go down to the lounge room, will you be ok in here?"

"I'm just going to sit here for a bit... I'll come down soon."

"Ok, take your time. There is no need to rush Ari." I see her head nod.

I walk out of the room and head to the lounge room, sitting on the couch next to Amity and wrapping my arm around her.

I look around the room, until my eyes land on Hunter.

"I think you might be right. About the fact that she wasn't treated properly. I saw the cut on her neck, the one you said you spotted yesterday." I look at Amity and Eda. "What do you guys think we should do?"

"First off, we shouldn't force her to do anything she doesn't want to, and be gentle wit her. We don't want to trigger anything or scare her." Hunter speaks. We all nod with that then Amity speaks up.

"Maybe when she comes down here, we can ask if we can patch it up?"

"That seems like a good idea, sweet potato."

We all nod and start talking about other things.

Ari's POV

I sit on my bed, staring down at the black screen on my phone, tossing up whether I should turn it on and check it, or not. If i turn it on, then i might have to deal with her, but if I don't, then I'll just make it worse for when i get home. 

I shake my head and turn on my phone. The screen lights up, and starts blowing up with notifications. 27 missed calls, 67 text messages, and 3 notifications from discord. I open up y discord ones, deciding to ignore the voicemails and messages.

I spot who messaged me on discord and I freeze. My brother, David, the one who hasn't contacted me in just over a month. I read the messages. 

"Ari, I got a call from the police, saying you're missing, what's going on?" 

"Sis, are you ok? Has Jess done something?" 

"I'm flying back to Australia, to help the police. They're suspecting that Jess has done something to you. Message me when you can, please Ari."

I tear up at the messages. He's coming home to try and find me. My fingers hover over the keyboard, trying to figure out what to type and how to say that I'm in another world. I think before typing a message.

"So the way to get you to contact me is to disappear? good to know. Don't worry, I'm ok. I'm just staying with some mates for a while."

I send the text and close discord. I turn off my phone, not wanting to check my texts or voicemails, I know that all of those are from my mother, and that it wouldn't end well.

I place my phone on the bedside table and run my fingers over the cut on my neck, reminding myself of it. Shit, I forgot about that. Did they spot it? What if they're worse than my mother?

I shake my head and sit on my hands, to clear my thoughts and stop me from picking at the scab. I take a deep breath and stand up. I walk out of the room and down the stairs, heading to the lounge room, where Luz said she'd be.

Sorry this chapter took so long. If I'm honest, I completely forgot about this. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll start working on the next chapter asap. Hope you're all doing well!

- Bel 10.2.24 (790 words)