#ft eilonwy the loml

[halfawitch-willow]

There's Only So Far You Can Bend ❁ WSoH 7 (Pre-Finale)

Willow gets ready in the restricted greenhouse for Emira and Kleo's Halloween party, but the hybrid is determined to keep her there and keep her safe... Takes place Oct 31st 1 // What Do You Want From Me, Blood? 2 // Someone Tell Lady Luck I’m Stuck Here 3 // Long As You Don't Make A Habit Out Of It 4 // Does This Look Inanimate To You? 5 // Show A Little ‘nitiative, Work Up Some Guts Interlude // Most Innocent and Unlikely Of Places 6 // Make a Ship-Shape Showplace of Our Little Shop ft. dialogue by @eilonwy-notjustgirl TW: blood, mild gore, injury, violence, thorns, panic attack, neck trauma, hanging (not graphic but just in case), abusive dynamic with a plant again But Worse ((This is,,,, rough, y'all. Also, welcome to the horror show~))

“Where are you going, little bloom?”

The voice and the words were her Dad’s, but it was the hybrid that spoke. Willow was used to it by now; how it would hop between impersonating all of the people she knew, borrowing their voices to speak to her. It was getting really smart, which under regular circumstances would have made her frightfully nervous. It had, originally. It was why she’d gone to Amity for help.

But now, it felt like she couldn’t feel panic at all. Any negative emotion, really. Every time she felt them welling up, the flowers and plants around her would wash it away with a flood of warm emotions, leaving Willow to just float along. When she went back to the dorms, the world felt so much bigger and scarier. All of her worries threatened to crush her. She felt like she was on the verge of a panic attack all the time at Pride U and the Court.

All of that to say she was spending a lot of time at the Garden Grove. Not tonight, however.

Willow smiled to herself, digging through her bag to grab the pieces of her costume. “There’s a Halloween party tonight at the dorms,” she explained happily. “It’s a big costume party, and I’m prepared this time!”

A couple of people had asked Willow if she was going to the party, which made her feel bubbly and warm. They actually wanted her there! The fact that the party was being thrown by Emira Blight made her a little nervous, but she had survived Edric’s party and had learned a couple of very important lessons: stay on theme and only two jello shots allowed.

She’d gotten the last piece of her costume while on her lunch break, and now she was ready! It was actually kind of similar to what she used to wear on the Boiling Isles, only dialed up to really emphasize the costume-yness of it all. And the color scheme was far from the old grays and purples she’d worn then.

“A party? With whom?” the hybrid asked, this time using her Papa’s voice.

“My friends from uni,” Willow said easily, before stopping. The word had passed her lips so easily, for all she had done to avoid it for so long, but she really couldn’t deny it. She’d made friends! Willow’s tail was practically wagging as she beamed at her costume. Yeah. She was going out with her friends.

The flowers in the greenhouse all opened up beautifully with her excitement, chattering over each other and wanting to see her costume. The hybrid was oddly quiet as Willow ducked into a corner and conjured a curtain of leaves to change behind. When she walked out, she was dressed in creams and greens, silver accessories shimmering in the rising moonlight. The skirts flared out away from her as she spun for all the flowers, the layered skirt rippling like long grass in a breeze. The Gazing Narcissus matched the shifting hues of green and Willow applauded them.

“Will it be safe?” The hybrid was using Jessica’s voice now. Willow walked to the table to put her day clothes in her bag. She’d drop them off in her dorm before heading to the party. Hopefully the illusions Emira had been setting up this afternoon when Willow left wouldn’t obscure the door.

“Yeah, of course it’ll be safe,” Willow reassured. She picked up her phone and smiled at the picture that Eilonwy had sent of her and the rest of her costume group. Willow wasn’t a big comic books fan, but Eilonwy had explained all of the characters to her so she knew basically who they were supposed to be. Willow had opted out of the group because she didn’t want to risk being off-theme and upsetting another Blight sibling. “Eilonwy and Edward will be there, plus the rest of our friends.” There were a few people Willow wouldn’t exactly call friends, but more so acquaintances, that she knew would be there too. Phineas seemed to like her well enough from their conversation at the concert-turned-debate (and ooooh, she was still grumpy about being blindsided there) and both Mim and Riley had been nice to her, though they didn’t really interact outside of big groups.

“I mean, worse comes to worse I hide behind Hunter again,” she said with a shrug. The mention of him made her stomach twist. She really needed to talk to him, especially after she failed to over those brownies. Not tonight, a party really wasn’t conducive to that kind of conversation, but soon. After midterms, maybe? They could make pancakes and then she’d rip off the bandage. And then… maybe Eilonwy and Edward? She could trust them. Like she trusted Amity.

Her stomach twisted more.

“You’re scared,” the hybrid whispered with Flower’s voice, petals twitching in agitation. It had gotten so big, taking up nearly half the wall with the shrub of black leaves spilling over onto the floor and across the entire wall. Willow honestly didn’t know where it was getting all the nutrients from.

She balked. “No I’m not,” she lied.

“Of them.” The hybrid spoke in four-part harmony with itself; Amity, Eilonwy, Edward, and Hunter.

“Stop it,” Willow said firmly. “I’m not scared of them. I just… I’ve lied to them. For a while. They might not be okay with that,” she whispered. She hadn’t lied to Amity, technically, but the history there was enough that she felt like a wild card to Willow. And that wasn’t even touching on the whole half-fairy business. Edward was the only non-sorcerer of the bunch, but he would likely follow Eilonwy’s lead- good or bad. 

She wanted so badly to trust in their kindness. In their acceptance. But if she was wrong, as she often was…

There was nowhere else to run.

“I’m not worrying about it right now,” Willow said firmly, shaking her head as if she could shake her worries right out of her head. She should have asked her Papa for a potion for that. She could feel the flowers start to push calming emotions towards her, and she pushed back a little. It made her head hazy, and she knew she could end up missing the party entirely if she gave in. 

She went to grab her concealment stone, but a vine got there first and yanked it into the air. “Hey!” she cried out, turning to glare at the hybrid. “Come on, I need that!”

“Don’t go,” it countered in her Dad’s voice. “Stay here. Safe.”

“I want to go!”

Willow’s phone chirped and she picked it up to look at the text from Eilonwy. She was checking to see if Willow had left yet, and Willow sent back a quick ‘Leaving soon’ before looking back at the hybrid. The petals were rippling as the flower opened and closed repeatedly, and Willow felt a prick of dread go down her spine.

“Please give me my necklace” Willow asked gently, holding out her hand. 

“They won’t keep you safe,” it hissed in Amity’s voice.

“Yes they will. They have.”

“Even once you tell them?” Hunter’s voice asked, and Willow winced. “Would they want to?” Head Witch Clawthorne’s voice snarled.

“Stop, you’re being cruel,” Willow bit back. “I will put you to sleep if I have to.”

The hybrid keened, a tangle of voices all warbling in distress, before it started to howl. It made Willow flinch and cover her ears, stumbling away from the flower.

“NonononONONO! Stay! STAY! MINEMINEMINE-” the hybrid howled, and Willow cried out in pain as the rest of the flowers in the greenhouse all writhed and screamed in her head. There was no floating, unaware bliss when the flowers washed their emotions over hers this time. There was just possessive rage and jealousy. She would leave them!? To be with people who didn’t know her!? Who didn’t want her!?

Willow turned for the door, ready to run out without her concealment stone if it meant getting away from the hybrid, but she only made it halfway across the greenhouse before a vine wrapped around her ankle. The thorns bit into her leg like fangs and Willow went to the ground with a scream. Her phone skittered across the stone.

“YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME! STAYSTAYSTAY-” the hybrid screamed in her dads’ voices.

“Let me go!” Willow snarled, her magic lashing across the room. Some of the smaller flowers wilted and bent to her, caught up in her sway, but the hybrid just sobbed.

“Nonononono!”

More purple vines slithered towards her, and Willow knew that if they got her, she was a goner. She thrust her hand out at her ankle and the vine that was holding her down withered until she could kick herself free and scramble for her phone. She kicked one foot into the air as she dove for it, droplets of dark blood splattering across the nearest raised bed, and a thick shrub grew over her.

If she ran for the door, she’d get caught by the vines in no time. Willow unlocked her phone with trembling fingers, pressing the call button at the top of her conversation with Eilonwy. No time to be picky, her secrets wouldn’t matter if she was dead.

(Part of her still screamed, howling at her own stupidity. She didn't want this.)

"Come on,” she hissed, voice nearly lost under the sobbing from the hybrid. “Lony, please pick up!”

The phone picked up after only two rings. “Hey Willow! Are you almost here?” 

“I’m trapped in the greenhouse behind the Grove!” Willow said quickly, fear and panic thick in her voice. “You need to find Amity and tell her the hybrid went mad!”

“YOU CAN’T TELL!” the hybrid howled in a chorus of voices, and Willow screamed as a vine shot through the branches of the shrub she was hiding behind. She withered it to dust with the hand that wasn’t clutching onto her phone for dear life.

“Willow? Willow! Just hold on, we’ll be right there, okay? We’re coming for you! I promise!” Slightly softer as if she had turned away from the phone, “Edward, can you see Amity, I need her now.”

Willow was crying now, her vision going fuzzy and green on the edges. She could feel herself slipping into the same state of panicked survival mode that she had discovered during the demon attack, and pulled on it as much as she could. There wasn’t as much pixie dust in the restricted greenhouse as the main ones, and Willow knew it wouldn’t be enough. 

“I’m so sorry,�� Willow sobbed. “Flower left some pixie dust behind the register, grab it if you can!”

The hybrid howled, and Willow dropped her phone to cover her ears with a cry. Vines covered in thorns shredded her shrub before launching at her, and Willow screamed as they wrapped around her calves and waist. Her bodice protected her torso, but her legs felt like they’d been shredded. They yanked on her, and Willow slid across the floor.

“No! Nonono! LONY!” Willow screamed, scrambling for purchase against the stone floor.

“WILLOW!” On the other end of the phone, the sound of panting could be heard like the person on the other end had started to run. “I’m coming, I’m coming, I promise, I’m right here.” 

More vines wrapped around Willow’s arms and neck, and she grabbed onto them and tried to yank them off. They withered away where she touched them but more quickly replaced them, and Willow could feel the lifeforce of the flower that was dragging her back. It was thick with demonic and fairy magic, as well as the magic from Swynlake, and she could feel the roots that had broken through the bottom of the greenhouse and spread wide under the ground.

“Mine,” the hybrid practically cooed in young Amity’s voice, tinged with hysteria. “I’ll keep you safe, Willow.” 

“Let me go!” Willow sobbed as it yanked her into the air. She scrambled for anything, any help at all, and some of the flowers still under her control tried to follow her into the air. The Wolfshowls were tearing at any of the hybrid’s vines that were close enough and the Sunbursts were burning hot enough that Willow could feel sweat beading on her forehead. 

In the actual shop, at the edge of Willow’s perception, the plants were practically rioting, shaking and writhing with fear and fury. The hanging vines that had curled around Willow when Eilonwy had visited her wrapped around the pouch of emergency pixie dust and lifted it into the air, clearly visible to anyone who came into the shop.

"They can't hurt you," the hybrid promised in its sweet, husky Willow voice. "I won't let them."

Willow screamed as the hybrid flooded her brain with its emotions- possession, jealousy, rage, fear. Most of all, love. Love for the half-fairy that created it. Love for the girl that had trusted it. Love so great it made every other thought go quiet.

Green crawled over Willow's vision, and she felt nothing else.