cutting yourself!”

“I’m fine!” Hunter spat, rolling his eyes as he looked down at his little sister, who looked up at him with a concerned look. Luz then stood up, sitting down on his bed right beside him immediately after.

“Hunter, please. I want to help you, I care about you so, so much. But I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong,” she uttered sadly, looking at him with empathetic eyes.

Hunter stared at her, frowning, before averting his gaze down towards the floor.

Luz placed a hand on his shoulder as she then mumbled, “...Is it about Belos..?”

He sighed, nodding subtly. At this point, there’d been so many times where he’d had a panic attack or a mental breakdown due to his traumatic past in the Emperor’s Coven working for his uncle, Emperor Belos himself, who’d inflicted most of his emotional, mental, and physical wounds, not counting the cuts Hunter inflicted on himself. It was like second nature for Luz to guess that it was about his past but never made it her job to assume it’s always that and let him tell her if she was correct.

She continued. “...Is it about your self-worth?”

He nodded again, to Luz’s disappointment, but not towards her brother, but towards Belos. It was a shame he’d put him through so much, all

of that talk about ‘having a use’ just made Hunter’s self-loathing way worse.

“I thought so…” she sighed, slowly shaking her head. Hunter didn’t look up at her, just stared at the ground. Lil’ Rascal hopped into his line of vision, chirping a few times as the tiny red cardinal palisman flew up to his knee, rubbing up against him comfortingly.

“Hunter… You do know that you’re safe, right? You’re not with Belos anymore, he can’t hurt you anymore,” Luz questioned.

Hunter frowned as he looked at her, his eyes clouded with trauma and grief and fear that his past would come back to, not haunt, but hurt him.

“I… I don’t want to be replaced. I want to be able to help in any way I can… You guys are so nice to me, but I just… I don’t think I deserve it, you helped me when I needed it the most and all I did was trick and deceive. I want to be someone worthy of the kindness you showed me…” he admitted depressingly.

Luz waited a moment, processing everything before she pulled him into a tight and sudden hug, slightly startling her brother, though he didn’t physically respond to it.

“You,” she began, “are absolutely worthy of being shown kindness, no matter what you did in your past. We’ve all forgiven you, Hunter. (Continue)