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Chapter Text

A thought flashed in Luz’s mind, ‘My body hurts’ when Belos grabbed her body with his elongated mud hand. “Eat dirt Belos!” she shouted. “It's Philip, and despite our differences, I want to help you Luz. I can send you home. I have just enough titans blood for one more trip”. Luz’s eyes shifted to the door, her first thought was ‘Mama’ before she looked back at Belos, anger coming back to her. “Please, I don’t want another human life destroyed by this place,” Belos said, the desperation in his voice sounding genuine. That pissed Luz off, she wouldn’t fall for his tricks.

“You're such a hypocrite. You talk big about protecting humanity, but after everything you’ve done, you're barely human yourself.” As soon as those words left her mouth, she internally regretted it, not because she didn't believe she went too far, but because his green scar came back, and that couldn’t be good. “I do pity you. These monsters have warped your sense of reality. Perhaps it’d be merciful to put you out of your misery.”

Luz suddenly couldn’t feel her feet, and looking down made her blood run cold. Oh, titian was he going to petrify her?! No no, she’ll die if she can’t stop him, but how can she if she’s wrapped around his hand?! “NO WAIT, WAIT. YOU– You can’t! You..!”

Shoot, how does she convince him not to kill her?! She frantically looked around, but sadly there was nothing around she could use to trick him. She suddenly looked at Belos, seeing his clothes. They looked the same as when she traveled to the past, how old was he anyway? Then an idea hit her, and she hated it, but she didn’t want to die, so she had to say it.

“Y-you do realize you've been gone from the human realm for centuries? Times have changed. You wanna be known as the emperor of the witch hunters right?” “Witch Hunter General.” “Sure, Sure. Witch Hunter General. But those aren’t a thing anymore. No one is gonna take you seriously if you start ranting about the demon realm. Not to mention a fashion sense like that?”. Belos looked down at his clothes, suddenly a bit self-conscious. “Yikes, my dude.” Okay, maybe she didn't have to say that, it was mean, but he was still turning her into stone, so it was okay. But maybe it wasn’t worth it when he lunged her across the room after that remark. As Luz was trying to get up, Belos looked down at her, almost amused while the stone went higher and higher.

“So what, you're offering to be my modern-day guide?” “I’m not offering anything. But I would like to make a deal.” Belos looked intrigued, and Luz decided that was her cue to continue. “I can’t beat you, I know that. So I will return to the human realm and be your guide if you spare everyone.” He didn’t look convinced, Luz was thinking quickly, what would convince him? “Come on, you will not be able to survive the world now. You’d do anything to save humanity. Well, I’d do anything to save the people I love. Please.”

It was getting hard to breathe. Her lungs must be stone by now, and it felt like her throat was closing up. Was she going to die, and the last face she sees is Belos’s? “Philip…”. And her last words were going to be his name? Luz didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that realization. And suddenly, she felt as though she was taking a deep breath of air after being underwater, as the stone suddenly disappeared, she felt relieved that she could feel her body parts again.

“Fine, I accept your offer.” Luz raised her hand, trying desperately to hide the tremble of her hand. She can’t tell if he noticed or simply didn’t care. “Before we do, we must do something before we seal the deal.” “What do we need to do?” Luz asked.

“I want this deal to be an enteral oath, that you swear to be my human guide until I say so, and that any method of betrayal will break the oath, and thus I will be allowed to continue my original mission and can hurt you if need be.” Suddenly Belos raised his hand, but with his magic, he formed a red circle around it. Luz took back her hand. Did she want to do this? She’ll be stuck with the same man who wouldn’t hesitate to murder her loved ones and tried to murder Hunter and her back in the mindscape! But then her hand reached for her jacket- No, Eda’s jacket. Her mentor, her second mother. And suddenly everyone she met in the boiling isles flashed in her mind. Willow and Gus, people who were her first true friends. Lilith, once enemy and now cool aunt, Hooty, was annoyingly loving and a loyal house demon to the end. Despite their rough start, Hunter is now one of her closest allies. And Amity… her awesome girlfriend who she loved with all her heart, who she just had her first kiss with just a few hours ago.

“Tik tok Luzura, the draining spell may take a while but if you keep thinking about it then there won’t be enough time to stop it.” Belos taunted. With that final sentence, Luz outstretched her hand and shook it with Belos’s, determination overshadowing her sorrows. If this is the way to save everyone, then so be it. She’d do anything for them. With both hands in between the glowing red circle, it shined brightly and faded just as quickly.

"Now can we go?" Belos said. Luz protested "Hey wait! You need to stop the spell". There was a quick pause, as Belos sealed up his green scar again and rolled his eyes. “I still can’t believe you want to save these horrible creatures, but since it was part of the oath I must abide by it.”

Suddenly Belos raised his staff, before plunging it down and starting to create a very complex glyph combo, Luz could barely keep track of it all. Suddenly looking down at the discarded items thrown on the floor she saw a piece of paper and a pen. Belos was still going so she decided to write a quick message, who knows if anyone will find it but it was worth a shot. She wrote:
To whoever finds this,
I’m sorry for abandoning you all and leaving you with a mess to clean up. But this was the only way. Please take care.
-Luz the Human
By the time she was done writing, Belos was done as well. He slammed his staff down one more time, and suddenly a bright light overtook the entire room, both Luz and Belos had to shield their eyes from it. Suddenly the sky wasn’t red, she heard no faraway screams and even the air seemed fresher. It was calm. Then the door started flickering, the glow flashing slowly. “Quickly Luzura, we must make haste. There was barely any titans blood left, it wasn't enough to keep the portal stable for long.” “Wait but I need to check to see if everyone is okay!” The glow started flickering faster, and Belos looked genuinely desperate. “Belos wait-“ “LUZURA PLEASE”.

Before she could react, he grabbed her hand and dragged her to the portal door. Belos opened the door and despite his desperation, he looked in awe at the rain. It was the first time he saw non-boiling rain in centuries. He crossed the door with a look of genuine happiness, and slowly pulled Luz through the door. Unlike him, she was struggling to stay in the demon realm side, she didn’t want to leave, not yet! Her efforts were fruitless, as she was forced to slowly step through the door, and when she was on the other side Belos slammed the door shut, Luz miserably looked at the spot where the door once was, fully realizing that her fate was sealed, she was to be Belos’s guide.

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Amity was the first to arrive at the head of the titan, with the rest following right behind her. She was desperate to reach Luz on time, who knows what could be happening when she’s at the mercy of a genocidal tyrant. Amity knew that Luz was strong, but this was Belos, and she was unsure if she could hold him off for long. Just as the rest landed, Hunter collapsed to the ground, clutching his right arm.

“Hunter!” Willow yelled. That made Amity stop moving forward, with Gus running back to help Hunter stand back on his feet. Willow stated, “I can stay with Hunter, while you guys can go ahead.” Shakily, Hunter rose back to his feet and said, “I’ll be fine, but Luz won’t be if we stay here.” Before anyone could protest, he started running towards the huge double doors and everyone followed. Everyone assumed they would hear shouting, blasts of magic, running, anything that would indicate there were people, but no—only silence. They opened the doors and were met with a strange sight. The only window showed a clear purplish sky, suddenly the screams of everyone faded away, and the air seemed cooler. The strange part was these things started to flicker, the sky changing from purple to red, the air changing pressure, and the screams slowly coming back every other second.

“What happened here?” asked Amity. Gus used the glass illusion tool he took from Adrian and activated it, forming a huge circle, and suddenly the sky went back to red and the screams could be heard again. “Seems like a huge illusion, but why was this even here?” “That doesn't explain the air changing,” Amity said.

Suddenly an annoyingly familiar voice could be heard. “That's because the emperor decided to make sure everything looked to be changed so the Human would go with him,” Kikimora stated. Everyone turned quickly, facing the little red demon, who seemed to struggle to stay awake.
“Kikimora, what are you doing here” Hunter hissed “And what do you mean, ‘so the human would go with him’, do you mean Luz?” Amity questioned. “What other human is there? Yes, I mean her. The human made a deal with Emperor Belos, that he would stop the draining spell and in return, the human would join him and become his guide. But she was naive to think that would stop him from fulfilling his goal. He lied and then dragged the human with him, and then they were gone. Belos can’t stop the spell any more than you can, he doesn't have that power, only the collector has that power.”

“Who is The Collector?” King asked while the rest of the gang looked lost. Kikimora continued, “Neither witch nor demon, a child from the stars. Belos only talked to him when he thought no one was around, but I was always there. And Belos was afraid of him”. “Take us to him!” Amity shouted. Suddenly Kikimora raised her abomination machine to rise and spoke once more. “If it means making Belo's sacrifices worthless, gladly”

All of them started going down the deep stairs quickly, they were unsure how long the draining spell would take. However, they paused when they saw skulls, so many skulls, with cracked and discolored golden masks. Hunter in particular looked nauseous seeing them. He never wanted to reveal he was a grimwalker, but if he had to tell them, he didn't want it to be like this.

“Hunter, you okay?” Willow asked. “Yeah, I’m fine, what is this place anyway?” Kikimora hissed out “Where the failures go.” Hunter felt small when Kikimora looked directly at him and she spoke that sentence, did she know? Is that why she always treated him like he was replaceable, because she knew that if he died unc- Belos would create a new golden guard?

King walked up to a blueish-black disk with a crescent in the middle and touched it. It briefly glowed, and everyone looked up and saw a black and gray shadow appear, who looked angry. “Leave me alone! I don't associate with fibbers!” they then blew a raspberry at them. However when they opened their eyes they were surprised to see not Belos, but instead four witches and one demon, but they could feel there was someone else.

“Wait why can’t I see all of you? I can feel it. But why can't I see you?” Willow looked around and saw King, glowing. “King, your collar, I think it's you.” King then took it off, and that elicited a gasp from the collector. “You look like that bully who put me in here! No way are you his little titian baby!” “Titian?” Kikimora asked while Gus and Amity stood at the sides of King, readying up their spell circles in case the collector tried something. “I always wanted to play with you, but your dumb pops hid you. Hey, do you guys like hide and seek? I'll hide first!”

“Wait Collector sir, we need you to stop this draining spell!” Amity exclaimed. “Sir? Ugh, you are so boring.” The gang was terrified, they had no time to play games, and their loved ones were at stake. But what can they do? Suddenly King spoke up.

“Well, you know what's better than hide and seek? A game called The uh, Owl House!” That caught the Collector's attention. “Ooh, how do you play?" He asked. “Oh, it's so fun, like the most fun! And we can show you if you want!” King exclaimed. The rest caught on and then joined in the lie. “It's so fun I play it every day!” Exclaimed Amity “I play it every hour!” Willow added. Hunter couldn't say anything, his arm was in too much pain, but tried to squeal in happiness. “I play it all the time! But if you wanna play with us, then we’re going to need a lot of players, like a whole island worth, but…” Gus shouted, hoping that the collector believed them. King seemed relieved they caught on, and the collector noticed they all went quiet.
“What’s wrong?” The Collector asked. “Well, gee, everyone is going to perish because of this ding dang draining spell. Guess we can’t play that awesome game after all. Man, it was fun though.” King said sadly. “Wait if you’re a titian, you can let me out. I can stop the spell. And then we can play together!” the Collector protested. “Wow, you’d do that for us?” Willow asked “Wait, you're not making me do your chores like Philip are you?” the Collector asked. “We would never!” Amity said. “Pinky swear!” King added, and everyone else raised their pinkies (except Hunter, who was too weak to raise it). The collector suddenly had a huge grin, laughing at the whole situation.

“I’ll even let you out right now! What do I need to do? Do-Do-Do you need my blood?” King stammered out. “No silly! Just, follow my lead.” And then the collector moved to be right behind the disk, instructing King on how to release him. Gus had a bad feeling about how this would be catastrophic for all, but he could only observe. Amity watched as Kikimora was slowly leaving them all, but before Amity could confront her, there was a bright light, suddenly the floor had the collector’s face on it and then a robe came out, laughing manically.

When the light dissipated, the Collector was in front of them. He was small, and half of his face was yellow in a crescent-moon shape, and the other half was purple, with dark purple freckles. He had yellow eyes with bright red irises which popped out more due to his outfit, a pajama set that was also half and half, the left was dark purple and the right was left purple. His sleeves were switched, the left was light purple with dark purple crescent moons, and vice versa on the right. He almost looked like a little kid, someone who was Gus’s age. The collector floated up, with the gang rushing back up the stairs. When they finally got back up, they saw the collector lift a finger and move the moon with a “Boop!”. Hunter could finally stand on his own again, and everything finally seemed calm. The collector looked around the head, thinking of something.

“If we’re going to play The Owl House, we’re going to need an Owl House!” The collector shouted excitedly. The head started to crack, the pieces of it starting to float with the flick of the wrist of the collector. The pieces broke and soon started to spiral into the air. The kids could only watch in horror as it started to crumble around them, “What are you guys doing down there, you pinkie promised to play with me, come on!” Suddenly, purple magic with pink and blue stars circled all of them, and they were risen to where the collector was, “I’m free!” the collector, shouted with stars, coming out of him when he extended outwards his arms.

The Collector grab both King and Willow’s hands and spun them around while shouting excitedly, “Oh, this is the best I felt in forever and ever! It’s like the whole world is singing!” The singing he was talking about, was, in fact, the screams of citizens below as they were running away in horror from all the shooting stars landing on them. But they didn’t want to correct him on his assumption.

“So tell me about this game, ‘The Owl House’, you all promised to teach me if I stopped the draining spell!” “Well, it’s um, like playing pretend, we get roles and go on adventures” king started to explain. Gus quickly joined in the conversation “But we can’t start playing right now because you’re freaking everyone out!” “Kids?!” a voice shouted. “What is happening?!” another voice shouted. Down below, they saw Lilith, and with her was Hooty. Amity had never been more glad to see that bird tube before.“I don’t know what you are but you better stay away from those kids!” Lilith declared, and with that Hooty and her started to fly near them. “Those are my best friends you’re talking to!” the Collector argued.

Suddenly from his fingertips, he was able to create a small moon shape and launched it at both Lilith and Hooty. Lilith didn’t have enough time to react, and Hoody turned into a ball around her. As the moon shape landed on him, he was unraveled and turned lifeless. “Hootisfer!” Lilith screamed. Suddenly, another moon crescent shape was thrown at her and transformed her into some type of puppet thing. “Lilith!” Amity screamed while the rest of the gang looked horrified at what they saw. Hunter was the first to reprimand him “You can't hurt people either!” “But they're not hurt, they're safe and sound in our new playground!” the Collector explained. And then he wrapped his arms around Willow and King. “Now, what role do I get to play?”

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Eda rose her head, and was very surprised when she saw… glowing stars falling from the sky? She didn't have much time to wonder when the unconscious bard finally woke up, looking exhausted but otherwise fine. The two shared a smile until Raine looked down and noticed Eda was missing her arm. Eda was about to reassure them that she was fine until she looked up and King, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter floating with a child. She had to check on them. With a quick nod from Raine, Eda transformed herself into her harpy form. She missed the gaze of amazement from Raine as Eda shot herself in the air, heading in the direction of the kids.

The kids could only watch as the collector spun himself, shooting magic left and right, up and down, and all around. They all held each other close, in fear of getting hit by the magic. They then noticed a figure heading towards them with enormous wings.

“Eda?” Amity asked, and the others noticed her. However, the collector noticed right after they did, and dragged them all to greet her. Eda was confused when she felt the owl beast suddenly taking over, and she tried reaching for her elixir as the curse started to overtake her, but before she could drink it, a hand lowered it from her face. “You look fun, wanna play?” The strange floating boy asked. When she noticed the kids, her anger overtook her, and the owl beast was able to take control.

When the Owl beast was trying to attack the collector, they manifested some gold and blue chains and wrapped them around her. “No stop! Don't hurt her, please!” King pleaded. “I'm not hurting her, I'm just going to let her calm down a bit before we can start playing. Oh, I can't wait!” The last thing the kids heard was “This is going to be so much fun!” Before they were shot into their new “playground”, and then they all passed out.

Chapter Text

All Luz could do when the door slammed shut was to stand and process everything that happened. She heard the pouring rainfall above them and heard walking behind her. She turned around and saw Belos, who had now fully stepped out of the house the door led to and was outstretching his hand. It was only when he slightly turned his head and she saw how peaceful he looked did Luz finally crumbled to the ground and started to cry.

Many realizations hit her when she started to cry, she first realized what exactly she agreed to and that there was no way out. She’s never broken an eternal oath before, and she didn't know the consequences of breaking them and didn’t want to find out. She also realized she left all her loved ones behind. No more naps with King on the couch and being scared awake by Hooty. No more sleepovers with Gus and Willow, talking about everything and nothing. No more hearing Aunt Lilith gushing about the latest historical stuff that had occupied her mind. No more fun adventures with Eda and hearing her compliments when she discovered a new glyph combo. And there was no chance of taking Amity on a normal date in the future.

Maybe that was why she kept crying. Or maybe it was knowing she was stuck with Belos of all people. She didn’t think her plan would work, and she was glad she got him to stop the spell, but still, she wished there was another way. She heard Belos returning inside the house and could feel him standing over her. “Why are you crying Luzura? What’s there to mope about? We’re both finally back home.” Belos said. Luz couldn’t tell if he was trying to comfort her or mocking her. He quietly stood over her until her cries turned silent, and then she heard his voice.

“Luzura, It’s getting rather cold. Don’t you know a place that we could stay, away from the elements? You have a mother, yes? Is she close by, or will we have to prepare for a hike?” Belos asked. Now that made Luz stop her tears. Shoot she didn’t think of that! Well, she did come up with this plan on a whim, quick, think Luz! “Wait, before you meet her, we need to talk first.” Luz stood from her spot and looked right at him. Belos turned his full attention to her, and she continued since he made no sign of protest.

“Look, we can’t just show up and you immediately start talking about being a witch hunter emperor or whatever” “-general” Belos interrupted, “Not important! You stopped the spell, so that whole talk is no longer valid! Second, you can’t claim you’re the emperor, if you do, then I won’t hesitate to tell my mom you nearly killed me, twice! My mom will be disgusted and if she finds out, you’ll be sleeping in the forest!”. While pausing for a moment, she realized a great loophole, “I know you said you decide when I’ll stop being your guide, but if an outside force separates us then that won’t be breaking the oath.” Belos looked surprised by that statement. “So let’s just say you’re my, um…. half witch half human mentor, who, uh, helped me figure out a way home, yea that’ll work,” Luz mumbled.

“No, I refuse the last part. Everything is fine but that. I would never say I was a witch, that would be preposterous.” “Oh, Belos c’mon!” Luz complained, “It’s Philip!” Wait, she can use that. “Fine, if I introduce you as Philip instead of Belos are you willing to go along with this?”. Belos looked confused and asked, “Were you not already going to do that?”. Luz blurted out, “Uh no.”

Luz was going to introduce him as Belos, it felt wrong calling him Philip, and they both seemed to understand that he wouldn’t be able to correct her because he knew people would believe a child over him. Belos looked frustrated and begrudgingly said “Fine” and muttered quietly “Oh I can’t believe this.”

But then a small smirk appeared on his face and then said, “Oh, and Luzura? I know you said outside forces could separate us, but if something were to happen to them and they could no longer separate us, then you’ll still be my guide.” Luz felt her blood run cold at that. Was that a threat, to her mom? No, no, she can’t let anything happen to her!

She tried to appear unfazed by that but it did not work, as Belos looked prideful and knew that she understood the underlying message. So Luz said plainly, “I understand, Philip.” He looked pleased with that, and got up once more, before questioning “Well, now where is the direction of your mother's house?”

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It was a quick walk, but tense and awkward as Luz had to watch Belos gawk at everything he saw. He looked to be simply amazed by everything, even if it was hard to see because of the cloudy night sky and the rain. They reached Luz’s house and with a quick “Let me do the talking” from Luz, she knocked on the door. After a few seconds, the door opened, and Camila came into view, gasping at the sight in front of her.

“Hey Mom, I’m back,” Luz said. Camila stared for a few seconds before grabbing Luz into a hug, both crying. Luz was so happy that she was reunited with her mom again, she missed her so much. Camila quickly looked over Luz’s appearance and Luz hoped that she didn't notice her puffy eyes, but her mom suddenly moved in front of her. “Luz, who’s this?” Camila asked and looked over at Belos. Luz moved out of the way and said, “Wait, Mom, I know him! He helped me come back here! His name is Philip!”

Camila looked confused, and Belos began to talk. “Hello, my name is Philip, it's a pleasure to meet you. Your daughter is very talented, she did half the work in helping us return here.” Camila then asked, “How do you know my daughter?” Luz jumped in, “He's half-human, and we both discovered a way to come back here!” Camila still did not look entirely convinced, but so far Philip seemed to appear okay so she introduced herself. “Well it’s nice you Philip, my name is Camila Noceda” and then allowed them both in. “Vee can you grab some towels please!”

Camilia led both Luz and Belos to a table, and she said “I'll be back, I have to talk to Vee for a second, and then I’ll get something for you all to eat, you both look exhausted.”, which left them alone. Luz was looking down at her lap and noticed Belos gazing around the room, seeing so many items that looked similar to the Isles' inventions but also so different.

Luz’s mood lifted when she heard a familiar voice. “Luz!”, Vee shouted. Luz got up and hugged Vee, saying “Vee I’m glad you're doing okay!” When they separated Vee looked and finally noticed Belos. She extended her hand out, “Hi I’m Vee!”. Belos shook her hand and said, “Nice to meet you, Vee”. Luz suddenly felt a chill go up her spine when they shook hands, but why? It seemed important but she couldn't exactly remember why, so much has happened but she felt bad for forgetting, hopefully, it was nothing.

When Camila came back, she had two bowels, and laid them out on the table for Belos and Luz, before she sat down herself and spoke, “So let me get this straight, Luz, you met this man and you both worked together to create a way to come here? How did you even meet?”. Luz spoke up, “I found a journal of his dad’s and then spent a day looking around until I found Philip, and he always wanted to know about the human realm so he decided to help.” Luz was surprised herself at how easily that lie slipped from her mouth.

Camilia still looked skeptical, asking Belos, “How did you both come back?” Luz was hoping that he didn't blow up this lie. He said “There was originally a portal door that we could easily use to come back and forth, but after somebody destroyed it, we worked together to fix it. We eventually managed after so many failures, however, to open it we needed a key and titian blood. We were able to make our key but because there was so little blood, we only had enough for one trip, so we chose to come here.” Luz silently let out a sigh of relief, he kept up with the lie.

It was tense as Camilia and Vee were processing all the information, but Luz couldn't bear to look at their faces for long, so she decided to focus on Belos’s reaction to the soup he was looking at. He looked like he was analyzing the food before he slowly put the spoon in his mouth. After a quick sallow, he paused for just a second, before disregarding the spoon and chugging the entire bowl in his mouth, as if he hadn't eaten in years. Vee and Luz looked on in surprise, while Camila could only say, “I'm glad he likes it!”.

Luz did not expect Belos to like the soup, honestly, she thought he wouldn't be able to handle the flavors. She also quickly ate hers, it has been a while since she had human food, and she could only eat so many griffon eggs. Besides, her mom’s cooking was the best. For a while, it was peaceful, as Camila and Belos discussed small matters, such as the difference in rain and plants from the boiling isles and earth. Meanwhile, Vee was helping Luz patch up a few small scratches she must have gotten when Belos threw her. As they finished eating, Camila saw how tired they both looked and saw the time. It was already after 10. “It's already late, so let's continue this discussion tomorrow. Vee can you grab some extra blankets for our guest, and Luz grab some old clothes, I'll take him to the basement. Luz, you'll be sleeping in your bedroom, alright?”

Camila led Belos down to a basement, who still had that gawking expression while observing everything. The basement was small, with a few boxes scattered around and filled with various items. There was an unfamiliar flag hanging on the wall, as well as some pictures, and there was a closet door. Luz returned, handed him some clothes, and said “You can wear these while you sleep.” It was an olive green shirt with black sweatpants, and after handing them to him she went upstairs. Camila laid down an old sleeping bag, while Vee came down and gave her some blankets.

“I hope this is comfortable for you Philip,” Camila said, with a small smile. Belos offered a smile back and said, “This is just fine, thank you for your hospitality, I do deeply appreciate it.” and finished with a small bow. Camilia was a little uncomfortable with this, but she thought maybe this was normal where he was from. “It's no problem, well good night Philip, we’ll talk more tomorrow alright.” And with a small wave, she went up the stairs. “Good night,” Belos replied, and he got ready for bed.

As Camila reached upstairs, she closed the basement door and went to the kitchen, where she saw Luz who was washing the dishes. “Mija, are you okay?” Camilia questioned. As Luz was finishing washing the last bowl, she replied “Yeah Mom I’m fine” and smiled after that sentence. “And you trust Philip?” Camila questioned further. Luz paused until she said, “I do, he’s just a bit strange.” Camila felt slightly off put by that response, but she figured it was just the shock from her daughter that back. She reached out and hugged Luz, saying “Oh, I’m so glad you’re back, I was so scared”. Luz hesitantly hugged her back. Of course, she was glad she was with her mom again, but it felt weird that now she’d have to sleep under the roof as Belos, and she felt terrible she couldn't properly say goodbye.

They pulled apart, and Luz and Camilia went upstairs. Before Luz could go inside her bedroom, Camila said “Buenas Noches” and Luz said the same. Vee already seemed to pass out on her bed, and slowly Luz changed into her pj’s, brushed her teeth, and climbed into bed. She tried so hard not to think about everyone she left behind and Belos and eventually drifted into a dreamless sleep.

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Philip couldn't sleep, he was processing everything that happened today. He did it, he saved humanity and the boiling isles were no more. He accomplished his mission and now he can live out the rest of the days comfortably. He was wondering what to do now, he was so focused on his mission that he barely thought about what to do after it was all done. Perhaps he can have that farm he and… his brother used to discuss having one day while doing the chores at the orphanage. He got very lucky to gain a human guide, perhaps she could help him obtain that farm.

But first, he should undo all that brainwashing that she was subjected to, he thought she was too far gone, but with her being willing to go to the human realm with him, perhaps there was a small chance. He knew he could do it, with that “oath”, she now was under the impression that she could not defy him, which would make it easier for her to cooperate with him in the future.

That's why he decided to go along with her little “terms” of the agreement. He understood that if she believed she had control of the arrangement, she would be much more willing to open up to him in the long run, and eventually when she'll be able to see he had to kill those wretched witches, then she would be willing to tell everyone his feats of destroying the demon realm.

But there was that basilisk running around the house, it could still infect Luzura and her mother with its sinfulness. He did wonder how it even ended up here in the human realm, and how it found a place to stay. How did it convince Mrs.Noceda to take residence in her home? Though perhaps he shouldn’t worry too much, basilisks depend on the magic to use their abilities, and there’s none here in the human realm, so he’ll just sit back and watch its demise as it exhausts any remaining magic in it. He was a patient man, he waited for centuries to finish his mission, and he can wait a few months for it to die.

Nevertheless, he supposed he had a new mission. To save Luzura’s soul. He failed one human life, he needed to repent for his failure and save hers now. And then he’ll think about the farm.

Chapter Text

When Philip woke up, he was surprised by his surroundings. After a moment, he remembered everything that happened the previous day. He tried going back to sleep, but old habits die hard as he couldn’t. He figured his body was used to always running on little sleep. So he groggily got up from his makeshift bed, changed into his regular clothes, and slowly walked up the basement stairs.

When he made it upstairs, he saw that it was still relatively dark, he could barely tell the sun was starting to rise. He walked very quietly around the house silently observing. One thing he noted was the various picture frames that were scattered around the house. Most of them primarily showed Luzura, however, a good portion of them also showed her doing various activities with her mother. However, there were other pictures, with what looked to be a young Mrs.Noceda and a young man.

Belos couldn’t help but feel a slight resentment when he saw these pictures. He couldn’t believe it, Luzura has a loving mother, so why would she ever want to stay in the boiling isles, and abandon her? And perhaps Belos was slightly envious, he too had a loving mother once but well… he rather not think about it.

Eventually, he reached right in front of the staircase. He was contemplating going up, but he wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. However, before he could decide, he heard a loud “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!”. What was that?! Was something going on upstairs? He decided to quickly and quietly run up the stairs. He couldn’t tell where that strange noise is coming from until he heard it again. He quickly decided to grab the first thing he could get, which was a vase, and slowly approach the door, he was going to ambush whatever that was. Right before he reached the door, it opened up itself. He was about to swing the vase before he heard a woman’s voice.

“WHOA,” Camila shouted. That made Philip stop. He quickly lowered the vase and sputtered out, “Apologies Mrs.Noceda, I heard a strange noise, and I was trying to defeat it. I believe it’s behind you”. Camila looked confused and asked, “What exactly did you hear?”. Philip said, “It was a strange beeping noise, it only made it three times”.

Camila looked even more confused before she pointed at a strange box and said, “Do you mean my alarm clock?” Now Philip needed clarification. “Alarm clock?”. Of course, the boiling isles had a similar thing, but it screamed, not beeped. Camila softly laughed before she walked out of the room and said “Our cultures must be very different. Well, let's make some breakfast now”, before walking down the stairs.

Philip followed behind her, and the home looked much more lively when she turned the lights on, but he did wonder how she turned it on without magic or fire. He stood right behind the dinner table and silently observed Mrs.Noceda opening a large white box. He asked, “What is that?”. But Camila took a moment to answer, muttering quietly “Ay, no hay huevos (There are no eggs)” before she realized Philip asked a question. “Oh sorry, this is a refrigerator! It’s where you store food meant to be cold to stay fresh! You don’t have them in the demon realm?”. Philip explained, “Yes we have a similar concept, but it's simply called cold storage. And they’re mostly green”.

Camila then spoke and said, “I’m sorry Philip. I wanted to make you an actual breakfast, but it seems that we’re running low on items. I’ll make it up to you but I hope you’re okay with just cereal today”. Philip quickly said, “Don’t worry about it Mrs.Noceda, besides, I’ve never had this so-called cereal before, so I’m excited to try it.”

_______________________________________

If Luz was being honest, she did not feel any better when she woke up. She felt like she just carried an entire bolder on her back. She looked at her clock and saw that it was only 7:30 AM. That surprised her since she wasn’t used to waking up so early. She didn’t want to be stuck thinking about everything that happened so she got up and very slowly changed into the clothes that she wore yesterday. The only difference is that she changed into a pair of black pants instead of her brown trousers.

Vee was still sound asleep, and she didn’t want to disturb her. She tried very quietly to open the backpack she brought with her. Inside she saw the egg she carved with Eda just 48 hours ago. She couldn’t help but hug them to her chest. Even if she didn’t have the opportunity to truly say goodbye, she was glad she still at least had some part of the demon realm with her. She slowly put the egg back in her backpack, but not before giving it a little kiss on the top and saying “I’ll be back,”. She closed the bag and went downstairs.

When she reached downstairs, she heard soft talking. And she suddenly reminded that Belos of all people was living with her. She took a deep breath before she put on her neutral face and went inside the dining room.

Her mom noticed her right away and said “Buenos Días Mija!”, before giving her a soft kiss on the head. Luz smiled and said “Hola Mama”, she then turned her head to the side and looked at Belos, and gave him a quick “morning”. She noticed that he was swallowing what looks to be cereal and then he said to her, “Good morning”. It was tense and quiet as she poured her bowl of cereal, but she didn’t want her mom to get suspicious and figure out that they weren’t friends, so begrudgingly, Luz asked, “ How did you sleep last night?”. Belos answered right away “I slept fine”. Camila jumped in the conversation to say “Are you sure? I hope the sleeping bag wasn’t too uncomfortable.” Belos interjected and said, “No no, it was fine.”

Camila then said, “Luz, we need to go to the store today, we’re running low on some stuff.”. She turned her attention to Belos and asked, “Philip. would you like to join us?”. Luz froze at that idea. “Mama, he just arrived in the human realm! I think he needs time to-” “No I wouldn’t mind joining you all.” Belos interrupted. Luz snapped her head at him, giving him a look of disbelief. Belos turned to look at her, giving her an unsettling smirk for a second before it changed into a warm smile.

“Oh, you guys started eating before me?” A voice said. All three of them turned their attention to Vee, who was slithering into the dining room. Camilia was the first to speak, “Oh, Vee I was about to wake you! We’re going to the store soon, but take your time eating.” Luz felt uncomfortable with the vibe of the dining room. It was so strange seeing her mom and Belos getting along well, with her explaining modern-day items to him, and Vee was now enjoying her bowl of cereal. It felt too calm for her. She felt like Belos would just randomly pull out a knife and hurt everyone, would he?

Her train of thought was interrupted by Vee. “Hey, are you okay? You’ve been staring at your empty bowl for a few minutes now.” She gave Luz a concerned look. Luz just smiled at her, saying, “Yeah don’t worry about me, I just feel weird being back here know?”. Before Vee could ask anything else, Luz got up and put her bowl away. Right as she put it down, her mom asked “¿Luz, puedes ayudarme a hacer una lista de lo que necesitamos de la tienda?(Can you help me make a list of what we need from the store)”. She agreed right away.

While Luz and Camila were making the list, she could see Belos look at them in confusion at what they were saying. Luz couldn’t help but feel good that he couldn’t understand, perhaps it was because she now had a way to communicate that he had no access to. As they finished their list, Vee finished her bowl and transformed into her Luz disguise. “Well, I’m ready to go!” Vee exclaimed.

Belos then exclaimed his surprise. “I- You took her form?!”. Ah right, it would be strange to go if there were suddenly two of herself, she didn't know what could happen if someone who knows her sees two of her. Luz said “Um, Vee, maybe you could change your look? It would be confusing if there’s two of us now.” Camila then stepped into the conversation “Yes, you can just disguise as someone new!”. Belos then decided to include his input, “Perhaps it would just be best if she stayed here, what if she looks like someone else, what then.”

Luz shot him a quick glare and was about to interject until Vee spoke up. “Uh, that’s okay with me, besides I can help clean around here instead!”. Luz couldn’t believe this. Her mom said, “Well if that’s okay with you, but we’ll bring you back those gummy bears you like so much, okay?”. Vee visibly brightened up at this, and Luz felt like she had to accept this. She wanted Vee to join them, so maybe she wouldn't have to look at Belos so much. But she quietly sighed and said, “Well, if that’s alright with you.”

They all finished their breakfast, and Luz headed back to her room. She grabbed her old backpack to use, she didn’t want to risk Belos seeing her egg so decided to leave it in the room, inside the other backpack. She put her phone and wallet inside her bag and looked up to see her reflection. “Well, I still look like me," she said. Her hair was a bit messy and she looked tired, but other than that, she looked fine.

She heard her mom yell down the stairs “¿Luz, ya estas lista? (Luz, are you ready to go?)”. As she headed down the stairs she said “Yeah, I’m ready to go!”. She looked at Belos, his expression unreadable, and asked him “Are you sure you want to join us?”. He looked at her and scoffed “Please, I can handle a simple market.” As they walked out she muttered, “Oh I wouldn’t call it simple”. He looked as though he wanted to question further, but as they were outside on the driveway, she was startled by his sudden shout, “What is that?!” and pointed at her mom's car.

Right after her mom unlocked her car, she quickly looked at Belos. “Philip, are you okay?”.
However, he looked directly at Luz and yelled, “You never said anything about these! What is this monster contraption?! “. Luz was stunned for a second, but then quickly said “Uh, this is a car. Okay imagine those carriages, and now imagine if they could go way faster, and instead of being moved by animals, they were powered by machines instead.” Belos still looked confused by her explanation. Camila then stepped in between them. “Philip, I promise you the car is safe. Luz I know you normally sit in the passenger seat, but can you sit in the back with him? Just to watch over him, I would but only I can drive”. Luz had to hold back her groan, she didn’t want to, but she had no real reason to say no. So she opened the backseat door, climbed in, and sat down. She patted the seat beside her and said “Philip, it’s fine, you can sit down.”

While still giving her a skeptical look, he slowly climbed into the back and sat down. He seemed very rigid. Luz felt weird seeing him like this, it felt off-putting. Her mom seemed satisfied, so she walked back to the front seat. Luz said, “Hey Philip, put your seatbelt on.” She then slowly put her’s on, demonstrating what she was doing. Belos was intently observing what she was doing, and after she was done he tried to do the same. However, when the car turned on, he jumped and yelled “Now what was that?!”. Luz sighed quietly and said, “That’s just the car, y’know the thing we’re inside in? We’ll be fine”.

Belos looked like he wanted to argue, but quickly shut up when her mom was slowly reversing the car. Luz saw him and observe him outside the window as her mom got on the street and started driving. It was nice for two minutes before she heard quiet groaning next to her. She looked towards Belos and saw him, his face looking a little green. She whispered, “Hey, are you okay?” She then realized what was happening. “Oh, you must be getting car sick. Look, just try to focus on one thing, and maybe change your position if you want, we’re almost there.”

Five minutes later, and having to watch him make sure he didn’t throw up all over the seats, they thankfully made it. Luckily there weren't too many people around, so Camila found parking easily. Belos croaked out, “Is it over?”. Luz confirmed that they arrived, and when Camila opened the door for him, he immediately got out and started heaving quite heavily. Both Luz and Camila exchanged a worried glance with one another. So Camila offered, “Y’know you can just stay inside the car if you want? You don’t have to go with us.” Belos quickly interjected, “No, that is not necessary, I feel fine now.” But he was still breathing quite heavily.

He looked around was confused when he saw where they were. “What is this place?”. Camila was grabbing their reusable bags from their trunk while Luz tried to explain, “This is the supermarket, where we normally get our food from. This one is called Ball-mart, and it has nearly everything.” Belos narrowed his eyes at her, “This-“ he pointed at the building, “is a market? I don’t appreciate you lying to me.” Luz rolled her eyes at that, “I’m not lying! Look, just follow us inside, you’ll see what I mean.”

_______________________________________

Philip just felt frazzled by everything. He felt okay at first, during breakfast, but when he was in that awful monstrous contraption he felt like everything he ate was about to come back up his throat. And now he was at this “market”, that looks more like the old emperor’s coven police station.

His train of thought was interrupted when Mrs.Noceda spoke up. “I have the bags, now let's go before the lines get long.” He was just confused, normally at the market, people would trade items for food. But they didn't appear to bring anything. He quietly followed them while Camila and Luzura were discussing amongst themselves, something about a “self-checkout”.

The first thing he heard when entering the building was the various clinking of what looked to be baskets with wheels. He heard Mrs.Noceda ask Luzura to grab a “shopping cart”, and he mindlessly followed her. He noticed that she looked back at him strangely but he paid no mind to it.

They were finally fully inside, and he felt blinded by the bright white lights. Right at the same time, he felt a chill go up his spine as the cold air hit him. Seriously, why was it so cold?! As they kept walking, he heard Mrs.Noceda say they were heading towards what was called a “fruits and vegetable area” first. As they were walking, he did notice several people were staring at him. Like he was the weird one when he saw a woman with bright pink hair with what looked to be metal in her face, yet he was the one gawked at?!

He suddenly heard Luzura’s voice say something. “I’m sorry what did you just say?” he asked. She looked at him for a second, slightly confused. “Uh, I just asked if you liked pears,” she replied. He thought for a second, when was the last time he had a human fruit? “I don’t know.” he blurted out without even thinking about it. She paused for a second before saying, “Nevermind” and walked towards her mother.

He was silently observing the rows of vegetables in front of him. Or well the ones he recognized, some looked new to him. But he was startled by what appeared to be water spraying on the vegetables. But how was that possible? He was about to ask Luzura, but when he looked around, they were gone. ‘How rude’, no matter, he could find them.

He walked to the left, scanning the area, yet, nothing. He walked and passed by a clothes section, but couldn't help but be uncomfortable when he saw what looked to be women's undergarments, so he decided not to check there and moved on. He then checked the rows of shoes. He thought they looked strange and ugly, and he quickly moved until he noticed a particular pair. They did look odd, but he did think they also looked strangely charming. They were blue, with holes in them, but appeared clean and easy to put on. They looked to be his size and were the last ones there. So he grabbed the few pounds he had left, put them where he found the shoes, put them inside the huge pocket he had in his coat, and walked away.

After he left what he assumed was the shoe section, he kept trying to find them. The more and more he walked, the urge to simply leave was getting higher. He hated this place. First, he ended up in an area of strange toys, what happened to simple dolls? He then passed by what was called “electronics”, filled with strange square objects. Some were on, and he hated how bright the area was. He scurried off, but now he was right between two sections. One was filled with medicine and pills, and the other had what looked to be very similar to the makeup those witches used in the demon realm. He was running at this point around the building, looking for his guide or her mother, yet nothing.

The cold air, the bright lights, the strange smells. Was it him or was the area slowly getting louder? He felt so uncomfortable, chills were in his body and he could feel sweat on his forehead, his heart felt like it was pounding a million beats a minute, it was getting harder to breathe. Even his arms, covered with the glyphs he carved started to burn, so he was starting to scratch them more and more, he barely acknowledged the blood that was seeping out. All he could think was one thing.

He NEEDS TO GET OUT, NOW.

_______________________________________

Luz was in quite a predicament. After she asked Belos about the pears, she quickly walked back to her mom. “Luz, puedes conseguir el pan para mí? Voy a ir a la sección de jamones.” (Can you get the bread for me? I’m going to head over to the ham section). Luz nodded her head before she went to the bread section, which was at the right of where she last saw Belos, grabbing the regular wheat bread they always got. She turned to ask Belos if he has ever had wheat bread, but then she noticed that she didn't see him.

She looked around, but he wasn't anywhere. She headed back to the vegetable and fruit area, yet nothing. Well, maybe he was with her mom? So she walked back to her. When she saw her mom again, she couldn't help but slightly panic that there was no Belos with her. “Hey Mom, have you seen Philip anywhere?”, Luz asked. Her mom’s answer made her nearly drop the bread, “No, I thought he was sticking by you?”. Luz put the bread in the shopping cart and said, “He probably somewhere gawking at something, I'll find him!”, and she headed off, not even giving her mom the chance to ask her if she wanted help.

Was Luz freaking out? A little, but how much damage could he do in a few minutes? She briskly walked to every end of every aisle, but there was no Belos. Maybe he was in the clothes section? She looked through both the men's and women's sections, yet nothing. She passed by the pets section, maybe he was interested in the cat litter? Nope. Luz was not looking forward to having to go through the entire store, so she walked to the front, maybe the former emperor was where kids who lost their moms ended up?

While walking towards the front, she did briefly look at the other sections, he was tall and had unique hair, so it wouldn't be hard to miss him. She eventually reached the front, and there she spotted a man with blondish-gray hair with a blue coat. Yup, she found him, but why was he running?

She could barely believe her eyes when she spotted Belos running toward the exit doors, and the detectors went off. Did he steal something?! The old security guard could barely react and yelled at Belos “Hey you there! Stop!”. Luz sighed and ran as well, honestly if she lost him that would be okay with her, but if gets arrested for shoplifting and he mentioned her, that would be bad.

She ran into the parking lot and had a front-row ticket to see Belos almost hit by a car twice. However, she was surprised she saw Belos crouched down right next to her mom's car. Was he hiding? She walked the rest of the way to the car, and she was not ready for the sight in front of her.

Belos, the former Emperor of the Boiling Isles, who was willing to murder her and everyone, was in a crouching position in front of her. He had a wide eye expression, was taking rapid, shallow breaths, and appeared to be clutching his chest. He had his jacket off and his arms looked to be bleeding. What was he doing before she got here? She couldn't believe what was happening.

A very small part of her wanted to simply leave him there, or mock him like he would if the positions were reversed. Belos deserved it, after everything he did. But it was hard to see him as that tyrant when right now he looked like an old man revisiting war flashbacks. Well, her mom did teach her to be kind, so she decided to help him. Luckily her mom has helped her with something like this, so she knew what to do. She crouched down to his level but gave him enough room in case her presence was too much.

“Hey, everything is alright. Are you okay with me here or do you want to be alone?”. There was no response, so she decided to do a different approach. “Okay, you might be experiencing a panic attack. Don’t worry, this will pass. First, tell me your full name.” she said. “My name is Philip Wittebane” he whispered. Good, he's responsive now. Luz continued, “Okay, now identify three objects”. He stammered out, “I see, a tree next to our car. I see your jacket and a puddle of water”. Finally, Luz said, “Okay, now try to move three body parts”. Philip slowly moved his fingers, then his left arm, and he rolled his neck around. Finally, it seemed that he calmed down.

Both parties were silent for a bit, and luckily it seemed no one was really paying attention to them. After another minute, Belos spoke up, “This never happened. Got it?” while looking away from her and glaring. Luz silently nodded. Both were surprised to hear her phone ringing, and Luz looked to see it was her mom. She picked it up right away, “Mama-”, but was interrupted by her mom’s shouting, “LUZ, DONDE ESTAS?! ENCONTRASTE PHILIP?! ESTÁ TODO BIEN?! (WHERE ARE YOU?! DID YOU FIND PHLIP?! IS EVERYTHING OKAY?!)”. Luz tried to reassure her mom, “Lo siento mama, todo esta bien! Philip estaba un poco abrumado adentro. Podemos quedarnos afuera por favor? (I’m sorry Mom! Philip was just a bit overwhelmed inside. Can we stay outside please?)”. She heard her mom sigh on the phone, before saying, “Pues, está bien, ya casi termino de comprar, ten cuidado afuera, okay?”(Well, that’s good. I’m almost finished shopping. Be careful outside, okay?). Luz agreed, and the call ended.

She noticed Belos was looking at her. “What did you just say? And I heard my name in that exchange, so don't lie to me”. Luz just said, “I just told my mom that we would rather stay outside, okay?”. She knows she shouldn't lie, but hey, she was next to someone who lied to an entire civilization, so this was fair game. Luz then looked down and saw that there was a weird shape next to his side. “What is that?”, she asked. Belos suddenly pulled out what appeared to be some knockoff Crocs. “Just some strange shoes, they look nice though, don’t you agree?”. Luz was baffled by what he was holding. “How did you pay for that?” she asked. Belos rolled his eyes, “Please, I still had some pounds left. I left it where I found them.” Luz had to process what he said, now she gets why the alarm went off. Once she came to that conclusion, she shouted,

“You just shoplifted!”

_______________________________________

Luz was in quite a predicament. After she asked Belos about the pears, she quickly walked back to her mom. “Luz, puedes conseguir el pan para mí? Voy a ir a la sección de jamones.” (Can you get the bread for me? I’m going to head over to the ham section). Luz nodded her head before she went to the bread section, which was at the right of where she last saw Belos, grabbing the regular wheat bread they always got. She turned to ask Belos if he has ever had wheat bread, but then she noticed that she didn't see him.

She looked around, but he wasn't anywhere. She headed back to the vegetable and fruit area, yet nothing. Well, maybe he was with her mom? So she walked back to her. When she saw her mom again, she couldn't help but slightly panic that there was no Belos with her. “Hey Mom, have you seen Philip anywhere?”, Luz asked. Her mom’s answer made her nearly drop the bread, “No, I thought he was sticking by you?”. Luz put the bread in the shopping cart and said, “He probably somewhere gawking at something, I'll find him!”, and she headed off, not even giving her mom the chance to ask her if she wanted help.

Was Luz freaking out? A little, but how much damage could he do in a few minutes? She briskly walked to every end of every aisle, but there was no Belos. Maybe he was in the clothes section? She looked through both the men's and women's sections, yet nothing. She passed by the pets section, maybe he was interested in the cat litter? Nope. Luz was not looking forward to having to go through the entire store, so she walked to the front, maybe the former emperor was where kids who lost their moms ended up?

While walking towards the front, she did briefly look at the other sections, he was tall and had unique hair, so it wouldn't be hard to miss him. She eventually reached the front, and there she spotted a man with blondish-gray hair with a blue coat. Yup, she found him, but why was he running?

She could barely believe her eyes when she spotted Belos running toward the exit doors, and the detectors went off. Did he steal something?! The old security guard could barely react and yelled at Belos “Hey you there! Stop!”. Luz sighed and ran as well, honestly if she lost him that would be okay with her, but if gets arrested for shoplifting and he mentioned her, that would be bad.

She ran into the parking lot and had a front-row ticket to see Belos almost hit by a car twice. However, she was surprised she saw Belos crouched down right next to her mom's car. Was he hiding? She walked the rest of the way to the car, and she was not ready for the sight in front of her.

Belos, the former Emperor of the Boiling Isles, who was willing to murder her and everyone, was in a crouching position in front of her. He had a wide eye expression, was taking rapid, shallow breaths, and appeared to be clutching his chest. He had his jacket off and his arms looked to be bleeding. What was he doing before she got here? She couldn't believe what was happening.

A very small part of her wanted to simply leave him there, or mock him like he would if the positions were reversed. Belos deserved it, after everything he did. But it was hard to see him as that tyrant when right now he looked like an old man revisiting war flashbacks. Well, her mom did teach her to be kind, so she decided to help him. Luckily her mom has helped her with something like this, so she knew what to do. She crouched down to his level but gave him enough room in case her presence was too much.

“Hey, everything is alright. Are you okay with me here or do you want to be alone?”. There was no response, so she decided to do a different approach. “Okay, you might be experiencing a panic attack. Don’t worry, this will pass. First, tell me your full name.” she said. “My name is Philip Wittebane” he whispered. Good, he's responsive now. Luz continued, “Okay, now identify three objects”. He stammered out, “I see, a tree next to our car. I see your jacket and a puddle of water”. Finally, Luz said, “Okay, now try to move three body parts”. Philip slowly moved his fingers, then his left arm, and he rolled his neck around. Finally, it seemed that he calmed down.

Both parties were silent for a bit, and luckily it seemed no one was really paying attention to them. After another minute, Belos spoke up, “This never happened. Got it?” while looking away from her and glaring. Luz silently nodded. Both were surprised to hear her phone ringing, and Luz looked to see it was her mom. She picked it up right away, “Mama-”, but was interrupted by her mom’s shouting, “LUZ, DONDE ESTAS?! ENCONTRASTE PHILIP?! ESTÁ TODO BIEN?! (WHERE ARE YOU?! DID YOU FIND PHLIP?! IS EVERYTHING OKAY?!)”. Luz tried to reassure her mom, “Lo siento mama, todo esta bien! Philip estaba un poco abrumado adentro. Podemos quedarnos afuera por favor? (I’m sorry Mom! Philip was just a bit overwhelmed inside. Can we stay outside please?)”. She heard her mom sigh on the phone, before saying, “Pues, está bien, ya casi termino de comprar, ten cuidado afuera, okay?”(Well, that’s good. I’m almost finished shopping. Be careful outside, okay?). Luz agreed, and the call ended.

She noticed Belos was looking at her. “What did you just say? And I heard my name in that exchange, so don't lie to me”. Luz just said, “I just told my mom that we would rather stay outside, okay?”. She knows she shouldn't lie, but hey, she was next to someone who lied to an entire civilization, so this was fair game. Luz then looked down and saw that there was a weird shape next to his side. “What is that?”, she asked. Belos suddenly pulled out what appeared to be some knockoff Crocs. “Just some strange shoes, they look nice though, don’t you agree?”. Luz was baffled by what he was holding. “How did you pay for that?” she asked. Belos rolled his eyes, “Please, I still had some pounds left. I left it where I found them.” Luz had to process what he said, now she gets why the alarm went off. Once she came to that conclusion, she shouted,

“You just shoplifted!”

Willow was the first one to awake. She noticed she was in a room, that looked similar to what a typical child would have. There was a shelf with some toys, matching walls, and floor patterns, and even the ceiling looked similar to what babies would have over their cribs. She looked around and saw that everyone else was passed out around her.

“Oh my gosh! Amity, Hunter, Gus, King! Anyone! Wake up!”. Willow tried taking some deep breaths. She had to remain calm, if she started freaking out then so would the others. Keep calm Willow, you can do this.

Amity was the first one who was startled awake. “Wha, where am I- Whoa.”. Willow could see that she was also having the same thought process that she just had. Amity turned her head to look at Willow and said to her “Willow are you- what happened to your glasses?”. Willow looked at her and asked her in return, “What are you wearing?”. However, both girls turn their heads on a new voice spoke up

“ what are we all wearing? and what is the strange place?” King said. And then all three of them turned their head as they saw that Gus was the next one to wake up. “Ugh, my head. What is happening?” Gus, then look next to him and saw that Hunter was the only one left still asleep, so he nudged him softly to wake him. “ Hey, Hunter wake up”.

Everyone slightly jumped when Hunter all of a sudden shot up from his position, looking around frantically. But when Hunter observed where he was, he, like the rest of them was also dazed and confused. “ What, what is going on?” he said. No one had a response to his question, everyone was confused about what was happening.

The kids all silently looked over themselves and saw that for the most part, most of them were wearing a gray and yellow type of jumpsuit, with either star or moon patterns on them sort of like different versions of the collector's clothing. But for some reason, King's outfit looked almost identical to the collectors, but why was that? They also all noticed that they were wearing hats that were all in a similar fashion to the collector. Gus was the first to speak up. “ Okay, we should all try to look around and see if we can leave somehow.”.

So all five of them went around the room to see if they could find an exit. Gus tried opening the door with all his might, but even with Hunter’s help, he couldn’t get the door to budge open. Amity and Willow try to open the window, but it was sealed shut. But from their view, they could see that they were very high up at the Titan's head. King was looking around the room, perhaps he could’ve found some secret tunnel, but, alas, there was no hope. But King did find a box and was horrified at what he saw inside.

“Um, guys, you should all see what’s inside this box…” King whispered. The rest of the gang walked over to where he was looking and all of them collectively gasped. Inside were their palisman, however, they weren’t in your usual wooden form. Instead, they all took the appearance of plushies. Hunter immediately grabbed the flapjack plushie, and held him to his chest. “Please., please wake up.” The rest of the teens respectively grab their palisman and held them as well, trying their methods to wake them up, to no avail.

They all collectively flinched when suddenly the doors of the room opened up. The collector came in, and he seem to be very ecstatic. “Oh goody, you all finally woke up! Now we can start playing The Owl House!”. But the collector paused for a second when he saw the teens holding the plushes of their palisman. “Oh, no guys we’re not gonna play with them just yet! Here I’ll be put them away for you!”. And before the teens knew it. their little friends were ripped out of their hands, floated over to the box, and the box was sealed shut.

“Hey give them back!” Hunter shouted. But everyone was surprised that Willow suddenly tried to summon a vine, before the vine could even reach the collector, it deflated, and died in front of them. “ You guys can’t use your magic in here. Some people outside kept trying to use their magic to fight me and now I don’t want other people to do that! So now no magic! But don’t worry we can still have as much fun even with no magic!” the collector, exclaimed. In a flash, the collector was face to face with Willow, and said, “Friends shouldnt fight, so if you or anyone else tries that again, then the’ll get time out”. Hunter raised an arm in front of Willow and glared, but the Collector didnt seem to notice as he floated back up.

“Collector, the owl beast still seems to be out of control. What would you like me to do?” a very familiar, grating voice said. Amity spoke up, “Mom?” however, her words were ignored, Odalia didn’t even look at her. Amity was stunned that her mother didn’t even seem to acknowledge her. But she wasn’t really surprised that she was working for the collector. After all, she’s going to help Belos commit genocide, so why wouldn’t she work for the next powerful being?

In the background, they could hear The Owl Beast shrieks. “Don't do anything to her! Please!” King pleaded. The Collector said, “Don’t worry she’ll be fine, but it seems like she won’t be able to join our game for now. But that’s okay, because I’ve already collected many players for us to choose from! Now come on, let’s play!”

The rest of the gang could only look at each other and could only hope that they could escape.

Chapter Text

The car ride home from the store was awkward, to say the least. While Belos had stopped crying by the time her mom got back, he still had a blank look on his face. His arms looked stiff as he put his coat back on, trying to cover his blood-stained sleeves, and he refused to let go of the Crocs he stole. If her mom noticed, she didn't say anything. They all quietly rode back to the store, Luz only speaking to help Belos with his car sickness.

Soon, they all got home, and after they all got the groceries in, Belos retreated to the basement, only coming up twice.

First, to go to the bathroom. And she barely saw the bandages on his arms, as he was still wearing his coat. Then he came up to ask her mom something, but she didn't hear the conversation, only seeing them both go down the basement again.

After 15 minutes, only her mom came up. When Luz asked what happened, her mom said “I helped Philip get a new shirt, he said he wanted a fresh one”. Luz didn't get what she meant at the time but didn’t push it.

Luz didn't mind the break from him, instead joining Vee in cleaning around the house and helping her mom with dinner. But Belos was still down there, and it was nearly time to eat, so she decided to go down there. She opened the basement door and said loudly, “Hey, it's me Luz, I’m coming down!”, and she walked down the stairs.

The lights were on, and the atmosphere was almost nice, she didn't have a chill down her spine or anything. She heard rummaging and saw Belos going through several boxes, now scattered around the basement and all of them have been reopened. She noticed the closet basement door was now opened too.

But Luz froze when she saw what he was wearing. It was a pale blue long-sleeved dress shirt, nothing eye-catching. But the problem was that it looked just like the one her dad once wore. All Luz could think is ‘Why, why is he wearing that?’. But she didn’t say anything, she just stared at him.

Belos seemed to finally notice her as he lifted his head and looked back at her. “Yes Luzura?” he questioned her and raised an eyebrow when she said nothing. He finally looked down at what she was staring at and realized she was staring at his shirt. He said, “Oh, I asked your mother if she had any clothes my size, and this was one of the shirts she let me borrow. It fits me nearly perfectly, a little loose but it’s good enough”.

Luz was tempted to lose it. To yell at him to take it off. That was her dad's shirt, and BELOS of all people was wearing it… it made her stomach curl. But she knew she couldn’t yell at him. Her mom was upstairs and if she heard, it would destroy the lie she crafted. So she sucked it up and after a few moments, gave him a neutral look. “Well, it’s time for dinner, are you coming?”.

Belos gave her a bemused look as he let out a hum and said, “Yes it is around the time for supper, I should join you all.” He stood up and muttered ‘I’ll clean this up later’ as he walked up the stairs. Luz went up after him but paused as he stopped moving. He shifted his head so she could only see his eye, glaring at her. She stood still as he whispered, “Do not mention what happened this morning, understand?”. All Luz could do is nod her head, and soon they walked into the dining room.

Dinner was uneventful at first, as Camila, Vee, Luz, and Belos were having decent conversations about mundane topics, like how the store was busy so early. Her mom did briefly ask Belos why he left the store, but he made it clear he had no intention to reveal the fact, so they changed the topic to his life during the boiling isles.

Luz had to keep it together and not interject as Belos was telling Camila and Vee stories of his time in the Demon Realm, like having bullies and dealing with prejudice. He made it seem it was this horrible island that was out to always get him. So Luz countered with her own stories, telling the kindness and love she experienced with her found family and friends. As she did so, she could feel Belos's glare burn holes in her face. But she didn't care, she had to entirely focus on ignoring the pain in her heart as she spoke about the Demon Realm.

She was so relieved to finally be in her bed. She mindlessly scrolled through her phone, trying to find the perfect video to fall asleep to. But soon she heard a grating rumble downstairs. Jeez, were the pipes acting up? She got up from her bed and left the room to investigate. The sound got louder when she was downstairs, she realized the sounds were too human for some pipes, and as she was walking around, she passed by the basement door. And when she was right in front of the basement door she practically heard the sound.

Don’t tell her that was Belos’s snoring… how did she even sleep through that yesterday?! Luz thought “I have to buy some noise-canceling headphones, real soon.” She went back to her room and tried her hardest to block out the noise. Surprisingly after a few hours she finally fell asleep.

The next day, Belos said he still did want to experience the human realm, but he wanted to steer clear from any more stores. So Luz figured going to the park would be good enough. It was spacious, decently clean, and if he wanted to get away from people, then it would be easy to escape.

Camila decided to join them, but sadly Vee couldn’t join them again as they ran into the same problem from yesterday. So Vee decided to hang back, and Luz promised she’d make it up to her, she felt terrible that Vee kept being left behind. And so all the humans in the house decided to go out for a quick walk.

For two minutes it was peaceful enough. But then a car passed and Luz saw Belos visibly jump from it. She could’ve sworn she heard a growl come from his mouth. After that, it became more awkward.

The park itself was fine, almost decent. Belos seemed to enjoy the nature surrounding him. However, he did complain about the weather a few times, as it was still August, so it was a bit warm outside, and he refused to take off his coat.

However, then they ran into certain statues.

Initially, they had reached the other side of the park all fine. Her mom was nearby talking on the phone, something about extra shifts, Luz was unsure. Belos, again, was making his comments. “How do those people wear so much dark clothing with that ridiculous makeup and not die from the heat?”.

Luz had to prepare herself mentally to explain the concept of emo people to him and was looking for a place to sit while starting to speak. “Well, they just simply get used to it. And their makeup isn’t ridiculous. You just don’t get-”.

However, she stopped talking when she realized that Belos had stopped, staring up at something. She turned around and looked as well, and she froze up when she saw what he was looking at.

They were those statues, of those two men, and she realized it was Philip and Caleb, as their appearance looked so much like the statues. She forgot about those. Who even remembers statues about people anyway? And when she thought about it, why did they have statues made of them? It made no sense to her.

Luz saw that Belos was intensely observing those statues. He didn’t appear proud, angry, sad, or anything. His face was completely neutral. But she did see his hands clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white.

She looked up at him and started to say, “Hey are you okay-”. “I want to leave. Now.”, Belos interrupted her and walked off to the edge of the park, seeming annoyed now by everything. Her mom soon came up next to her, and she looked between Luz, and Belos sulking nearby.

“Todo esta bien…? (Is everything okay…?)” Her mom asked. Well, that was a loaded question for Luz. No, everything was not okay. So many things were wrong here. She was letting a genocidal maniac live with them, had to be nice to him, and was looking to have another mental breakdown soon. Her friends and family are in a different dimension and are busy picking up the pieces of their collapsed society, and she had to leave them without saying goodbye to be a guide to the man who destroyed their society!

But Luz didn’t say all of that. She just smiled weakly at her and nodded her head once. “Yeah Mama, todo esta bien, pienso que el calor hizo muy incómodo para él. A mejor debemos regarsa al la casa. (Yeah Mom, everything is fine, I think the heat is too uncomfortable for him. Maybe we should head back home)”.

They walked over to Belos, who was crossing his arms and looking down at his Crocs that he decided to wear out today. Camila then spoke up, “We have to go now, apparently Dennis called out again so I have to cover for him.” Belos slightly tilted his head at her words but seemed relieved to be leaving, and nodded his head in supposed understanding.

The walk back was quiet, and Luz welcomed it, relieved she didn’t explain emo people to him anymore. All the talk that did happen was Camila talking about dinner and what time she’ll be back.

Since Camila had to leave work early, she quickly made some mac and cheese for them all for dinner and had to leave after that, saying she’ll be back by 9 pm.

Luz was using her laptop during dinner, which she liked doing when her mom wasn’t home so she could watch whatever she wanted while eating. Vee was getting her portion of dinner when Belos walked in.

He was about to say something, but his gaze shifted to Luz’s laptop on the table. “What is that?” He questioned.

“Uh, it’s my laptop? Y’know that rectangular object mom and I use, it’s like that, but, bigger?” Even Luz could tell that was a terrible explanation, but in her defense she was unprepared.

Belos still looked confused at her explaintion, and Vee chimed in when she sat down with her bowl. “Yeah, it’s pretty confusing. It was confusing for me when I first got here, don’t worry you’ll get the hang of it!” Vee smiled reassuringly up at him after.

Belos kept a neutral expression at Vee’s words and turned his attention back to Luz, and glanced down at the laptop. “Perhaps, I may learn better if I can experiment with it. So, may I use it for a while? I promise not to damage it.” He asked calmly.

Luz had to hide her displeasure at his request. She didn’t want his hands on it, but, if she tried to explain it to him more, not only will she have to be with him for hours, but she could accidentally make him more frustrated with her terrible explanation of technology. And he could lose his mind again, he was already fragile, especially after what happened at the park.

So, reluctantly, she nodded her head, closed the laptop, and gave it to him. “Do not break this Be-Philip, if you do I'll make sure you pay me back for it.” She said seriously. But there was a small hope that maybe he would break it, then that would give her a valid reason to not speak to him due to anger.

“Thank you, you have my word.” As he held the laptop, and soon walked off away from the dining table and into the hallway.

“Hey, aren’t you going to eat dinner?!” Vee shouted out, but Belos didn’t respond, and soon they heard the basement door shut. Luz shrugged her shoulders at his silent response, they’ll just eat his portion.

______________________

Philip went down into the basement and sat down on the makeshift bed. The area around him was still messy and cluttered, but his main focus was the strange device in front of him. A laptop, what a peculiar name.

As the name suggested, he placed the device on his lap and looked at the bright screen. The screen said “Google”, and he saw squares of the letters of the alphabet on the bottom of this laptop. Does he use those to write what he wants to do? Now he did wish his guide could show him, but he already said he’d do it himself, so he sucked it up.

After ten minutes, he figured out how to move the little white arrow thing on the screen and how to move where you want to write down. But what does he do now? He decided to go with a safe option.

He, very slowly, typed his name using the letters at the bottom. Philip Wittebane. After a minute he clicked the enter option, hoping it would work.

And it did. He saw various sentences in blue and black, talking about him and… his brother. He moved over the little white arrow and pressed down on the first thing he could click. It then showed him an article about him and his brother, the disappearance of the two, and the various theories behind it.

Philip glared when he saw them mention… that witch. It made him remember her name… Evelyn. Just even thinking of her made him angry. He figured out how to leave that article and clicked the second one. But it was just another one with similar information.

Philip scrolled and scrolled, reading everything he could click and it took him near the bottom of the page for anything to say about his accomplishments when he was an intelligent witch hunter. Most just spoke of him and his brother, and what may have happened to them. Is that all he is now to the world?

He sighed in disappointment and agitation. He couldn’t believe this. His whole identity seemed to be put in this box of just his brother and that witch from hell.

Scrolling back, Philip decided he needed a break from this. What was something else he could search for? He could learn more about the town. Or maybe why clothes are so different? But his head was already starting to ache when he just learned of himself. Perhaps he should search for something pleasant before he continued his research. And then he thought of it.

Typing very slowly again, he was soon shown many pictures of horses. Horses were magnificent creatures to him. So fast and loyal, and they were beautiful even at a glance. He clicked on the rectangle that said images and saw even more pictures of horses.

Philip was always drawn to horses, and he always wanted one of his own. But he then saw a picture of a horse and a pony side by side. He did also like ponies, the endearing animals they were. And well, he still felt some frustration with what he just learned, so he very slowly typed the word pony.

He of course saw actual ponies. But his eyes widened with intrigue as he saw colorful horses. He clicked on the link and was sent to a weird page, called “Non-Alien Creatures Wiki”, and saw in big purple letters “PONY (MY LITTLE PONY)”. He was still curious, and before he knew it, in less than an hour he read the entire thing.

It was very, very interesting for him. What was this? Considering its world-building and all the information about it, it had to be a highly successful and critically acclaimed piece of work, right? He wanted more. Sure there were elements of magic, but there seemed to be no real witchcraft. And it wasn’t real, not like those witches he conquered, so he’ll let this pass.

All thoughts of research left his mind as the desire to learn about this intiruging piece of art. Besides, he had the time. He searched for “My little pony” and soon found a way to learn more. It was a show, similar to those animated shorts some witches made to feature on the boiling isles. He clicked on “Season 1, Episode 1”. He’ll only watch a bit, then he’ll go back to his research.

______________________

The day after, during breakfast, when Luz suggested they go outside again, Belos immediately shot that idea down, and she noted that he seemed to be eating quickly, like in a hurry. After the park incident, Belos seemed to recuse himself even further.

He only came up a few times from the basement, to quickly use the bathroom before he went back to the basement. Luz didn't mind the break one bit from him, but her curiosity grew as she thought of what he was doing.

Luz took the break to figure out what to wear. She didn’t want to keep wearing the clothes she wore when she came back, but she no longer had her cat hoodie and shorts, so she was looking through her closet.

She eventually decided on a white tee with blue leggings and found her old white Converse to wear when she went out. She even put a yellow barrette on to make her appearance look more put together. She was currently debating if she should straighten her hair again until she heard a frantic knock on her door.

Luz opened the door and was confused when she saw Belos in front of her, looking annoyed and holding her laptop in his arms. The screen was completely black.

“Uh, what’s u-.” “Your laptop just randomly turned black! I did nothing, just simply researching and this happened! Explain!” Belos said, agitation in his tone, and gave the laptop to her.

It didn’t seem to be broken, it looked the same as last night. She pressed the power button and soon a little symbol of a drained battery showed up. Luz had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

“The laptop is fine. The battery simply ran out. Wait, they always give a warning when it’s low, how did you not realize?” Luz asked in disbelief. All Belos did was cross his arms.

“Like I was supposed to know that. You’re the guide here, yet you’re failing at your task.” Oh, Luz had to hold in the biggest groan in her life, he never asked for help. But she just walked into her room and grabbed her charger, and walked past him.

“C'mon, follow me, I’ll show you how to work this.”

Walking together and entering the basement once again, Luz noted how the room was still messy, but not overly so, and at least the light was on inside. So she went to the outlet and connected the charger. Luz then briefly explained how to charge the laptop, and soon enough the laptop came to life again.

“There, so now you can let it charge, and when it has enough battery, you can disconnect and use it again. But if you really can’t help it then use it while it’s charging, but be careful it can overheat if it does”. Luz explained, and Belos nodded his head in understanding.

“Thank you very much for the assistance Luzura. I appreciate it.” Belos said quickly, and soon he was using the laptop again, despite the warning she just gave. Luz didn’t want to see what he was doing on it, so she said a quick “you're welcome” and went upstairs.

The next three days were a strange routine.

It was simple: Belos came up the stairs for breakfast, spent all day in the basement with her laptop, came upstairs for the bathroom three times, joined them for dinner, and then spent all night down there. And repeat.

Luz was slightly annoyed that her laptop was essentially gone, but she loved this system overall, especially because at night when she barely heard his annoyingly loud snoring. And besides it wasn’t like she wasn’t doing anything during those three days.

The first day, her mom was free in the morning and afternoon, so Vee, Camila, and Luz all spent the time making a small garden, which was something Camila had wanted to do for a while. And when they finished, the garden was beautiful, dozens of flowers around and seeds planted for vegetables to grow in. Their time was cut short when Camila was called in once again to cover someone’s shift, but Luz spent the time with Vee playing a game where a girl who was a photographer that can also travel back in time.

On the second day, Vee and Luz in the morning tried on a practice disguise for Vee, who appeared as a brown-skinned girl with purple hair and pink streaks and wore a pink shirt and simple black leggings. They both went out to Robin's Roast Café, enjoying the scenery and the view of the town square, talking amongst themselves about how the day of going back to school was delayed because of a strange flooding accident. But when they came out of the cafe it was uncomfortably hot so they went home and watched various movies.

On the third day, again Vee and Luz went out and went window shopping, just to give Vee some inspiration for her new disguise, as she said she didn’t “feel right” in her current disguise. And then they spent some of Luz's Christmas money on some noise-canceling headphones and some money the local arcade. Then they went home and Luz tried to read the latest Azura book as she read online that a movie is releasing soon.

Luz was doing okay during those three days.

Or well, she was trying.

When she helped in the garden she couldn’t help but imagine Willow's joy at experiencing human plants.

When she played the game and she flinched when she heard a random character that sounded just like Lilith.

And she was reminded of Eda when she saw the banned picture of her in the cafe.

Or how she had to look away from the town's square when she saw a red cardinal, reminding her of Hunter and Flapjack.

Luz had to ask Vee to pick the movies because CDs made her remember when Gus almost ate one. The memory once made her laugh, now she was saddened.

Or when she saw the prize corner at the arcade and saw a stuffed rabbit toy that looked similar to King's toy, Francois, she hastily just gave her tickets to Vee.

And finally, the worst was when she tried to read the latest Azura book and thought of the movie. She couldn’t help but imagine taking a date with Amity to see it, knowing that they both would’ve loved the experience. But then she remembered, she can’t see her anymore.

She can’t see any of them anymore. Not her friends, her mentor/mother, her cool aunt, her little brother, not her awesome girlfriend. Anyone from the Boiling Isles.

She packed away the books, not wanting to read them anymore.

The fourth day is when her mom put her foot down. Each day that Belos came from the basement he looked worse. His already dark eyebags were darker. His eyes seemed red. His hair was greasy and in a messy bun. The clothes he wore were wrinkled and with stains. He was starting to smell weird. He barely even used the bathroom. He was not doing well.

After Belos ate his breakfast he immediately left to use the basement, and once the door slammed Camila turned to Luz.

“Is he okay? He doesn’t appear to be looking so well. I tried to talk to him but he was dismissive and, no offense to him, but off-putting. Luz I think you need to talk to him now, he’s your friend right?”

Luz stopped eating her breakfast sandwich and had to resist the urge to shake her head and decline. He was not her friend. Honestly, she hated him. But she realized maybe she may be the only one to get through to him. Her mom already tried and couldn’t, Vee didn’t know him well enough to do so. So she had to.

She swallowed her bite and nodded her head at her mom. “Yeah, I’ll talk to him after breakfast then.” And then she purposely ate slower, wanting to delay it.

But she eventually did finish, and after washing her plate, she headed to the basement door. She braced herself and knocked. But no reply. So she had to open it.

It smelt weird in there when she opened the door. Like something was rotting. The whole basement was dark and uncomfortably cold.

“Hey, it’s me, Luz! I’m coming down!” she shouted. She got no reply, so she walked down the stairs. And she was not prepared for the sight.

First, Belos was sitting on his makeshift bed, hunched over to her laptop. He seemed to be looking unblinkingly at the screen, not even noticing her.

Around her were piles of papers, books, pens, and some fruit lying around and rotting away. She could barely see, the only light in the room was an old lamp her dad once used was on and the incredibly bright laptop screen.

She slowly walked closer to the Belos and spoke quietly. “Hey Belos, you alright?”. No response. So she spoke louder, “HEY, BELOS!”. Still nothing. Luz was annoyed so she slammed the laptop down, and luckily his fingers weren’t on the keyboard.

Finally, Belos looked up. Looking incredibly annoyed at her. “What do you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?”. Luz rolled her eyes at that.

“Busy?! Doing what?! All you’ve been doing is….”. Luz stopped talking when she grabbed a random paper, she saw drawings of...ponies? They looked familiar. Really, REALLY, familiar. “Wait…” She saw the symbol the horse had on her side. A sparkle. No way.

Luz slowly stared up at Belos. She dropped the paper and immediately grabbed her laptop from him. Right away Belos shouted in annoyance, “That’s mine! Give it back!”.

But Luz wasn’t having that. “It's my laptop! Not yours! Now I’m going through your search history!”. That made Belos stop moving, he looked horrified at that statement.

“You can see what I've seen on that?”. Now Luz looked confused as she said “Yes?”. Belos was too shocked to stop Luz as she looked up the search history. After scrolling down and then scrolling back up and looking for a bit, she understood why he was shocked.

His search history was certainly bizarre. It started simple enough. His name, and the links he clicked about his brother. Then it was horses. Alright, not too bad.

And then ponies. And that's where it went weird. Various lists of My Little Pony and its episodes were listed. Then after he seemed to watch four seasons he typed Twilight Sparkle and right after Twilight Sparkle my little pony. And she saw he saw various pictures. But they suddenly stopped.

And she was horrified by the next search. It said, “Why is there a drawing of a Twilight with a huge stomach?”. Followed by “What is Vore?”. And then there were links to various inappropriate sites with really, really strange names. Right after is a bunch of spammed letters and numbers in the search.

The search after all of that mess was a simple “How to erase memory.” And after that was “Why do humans create such things?”. And then the searches go back to normal, kinda. He appeared to randomly start to use Google translate and then he seemed to watch My Little Pony until season 6 episode 19.

Luz finally closed the laptop and looked at Belos in a mix of disappointment, disbelief, and regret. It was hard to believe this smelly, messy man was once an all mighty emperor, especially with how embarrassed he looked. Belos finally broke the silence.

“I didn't mean to look at such disgusting things. It was all an accident. I was simply curious of the term!”. Luz just continued to stare at him. Sure she knew he telling the truth, but it was funny messing with him with the fact she looked like she didn’t believe him at all.

Luz held the laptop and continued to look at him. “Okay that’s it, no more laptop for you!”. Now Belos looked at her in disbelief, and then in anger.

“You can’t do that! I was busy doi-“. But Luz stopped him and cut him off. “Look at yourself! You’re a mess. Look, go shower and get into some clean clothes, I’ll get some for you. Then eat something and sleep. Then you can get it back!”. Belos tried to protest but Luz kept stopping him and pointed at the front door, and soon Belos rolled his eyes and went up.

Luz almost felt like a tired guardian with a disgruntled preteen. Once she heard Belos go into the bathroom she turned on the main light to start cleaning up.

She first grabbed old pj’s her dad once wore and quickly laid them in front of the bathroom door, knocking and letting Belos know she left clothes for him, and went down to the basement again.

She picked up the rotten fruits around the room, placing them in the trash. She then cleaned up his makeshift bed. After she began to pick up the scattered things around, she couldn’t help but look at what he did.

He drew various pictures. Some seem to be of himself and what looked to be Caleb. A woman with crossed-out eyes who sorta looked like Eda. Various drawings of the My Little Pony characters. And then she saw written-out sentences in Spanish and their English translation, she realized that’s what Google Translate was for.

She was finishing up organizing the drawings and supplies when Belos finally returned. He finally didn’t look like death and smelled somewhat decent.

Luz looked at him and said, “Before you ask yes you’ll get the laptop again. But not now. You used it non-stop for three days. So for three days, I’ll keep it.”

Belos opened his mouth to protest and then Luz said, “If you’re good I’ll get you a Twilight figure.” Luz could find a cheap, weird one for three dollars at CWS. His eyes widened at that offer and he nodded his head in agreement.

"I cant belive you finished six seasons so quickly, it took me weeks..." Luz muttered as she placed his papers on his bed.

Belos grinned at Luz and said, “You’re a fan of that show too? I never knew you had good taste. It’s simply a marvelous show, Luzura. No wonder it had so many episodes, people must enjoy its complex story and plot lines.” Luz let him rant for a while, she didn’t have the heart to tell him it was a show for little girls and it was supposed to teach about friendship. Luz just nodded her head.

“Look, just take care of yourself more, and soon you’ll get to see the rest of it alright?”. Luz eventually said. Belos nodded his head and went upstairs. Luz joined him and went up as well.

They both sat down on the couch, and both began to watch some detective show on the TV.

Luz was disappointed her break from being a guide was now over. But she’ll just bear with it. It can’t be so bad, Belos already seemed to mellow out. So it will all be okay.

Right?

______________________

Willow was exhausted. It seemed no matter what, The Collector had endless energy that lasted for hours. She didn’t even know how long it’s been, it couldn’t have been more than a few days, but honestly, it felt like months. And she can see clearly from the others' faces that they felt the same, except for Hunter who seemed to manage better with the lack of sleep.

It wasn’t like The Collector was intentionally torturing them, but in a way they were. With the types of games, they had to play. Mainly it was whenever they played ‘The Owl House’. The beginning was the easiest, simply telling him stories of their life and the adventures they went on.

But then The Collector would use the various puppets he had collected to recreate those stories. Willow still remembers seeing the puppets, recognizing various of them as people she once knew. But her heart broke when she saw her dad, and fear grew when she couldn’t find her papa, but she convinced herself that he was safe out there.

It felt weird whenever he controlled the puppets to do various activities, but his favorite seemed to make them scream, at least that's what it seemed like. Then the Collector would swoop in and be a hero, with his ‘sidekicks’, being the gang. Other times The Collector would act out dramatic scenes, like when Willow told him the story of when Amity apologized to Willow for the bullying, it was awkward having to make all of them play that out, especially when Odalia was forced into the scene to play as herself. Willow couldn’t help but notice Amity kept her distance from her, visibly seeing the shame in her eyes after that.

The main thing was that whenever they told him stories and Luz was involved, The Collector always wanted to play her role. But why? They didn’t know, there was no time to dwell on them. So most of them had tried to keep quiet about her, but so many of their adventures and stories involved her, so inevitably she came up.

They also had to keep stories away about Eda. She was still in her owl beast form. They never saw her, but in certain areas, her screams could be heard echoing in the hall. King couldn’t help but cover his ears when they heard her. They didn’t want Eda to be more involved in this, especially in her cursed state, so the kids tried to not mention her either, but this task was difficult for King, who lived with Eda for most of his life.

While King was suffering from having to carefully choose what stories to tell, Hunter was suffering from not having enough. At first, Hunter tried to tell The Collector stories of his time as the golden guard, and the little god seemed very interested until he brought up Belos. Then, The Collector had a disgusted expression on his face and cut him off. But then Hunter realized once again how much his uncle consumed his life, and that it was hard to think of stories without him involved. Hunter was barely managing.

Gus though, may have had it the toughest. He was worn out from all the illusions The Collector "asked", or more like demanded from him all of the time. Willow asked as nicely as possible why The Collector didn't just do it himself, but they just said his illusions had a certain charm. Gus always seemed to be making wild, very vivid illusions of anything the Collector asked for, like a performer. Gus was quickly growing eye bags.

They were very exhausted, to say the least.

However, luckily there were occasions The Collector did rest. It didn’t happen often, but it was enough that the gang never passed out of exhaustion. The Collector had a bedroom, and after he chose someone to read him a story, he went to sleep, and soon the others did too, with their beds next to the collectors, in a rather tall, gravity-defying bunk bed.

It was one of these rare occasions that they all took advantage of.

Willow was being woken up by Gus, and she could see Hunter waking up Amity, and King seemed to be on the lookout. They all made signals to stay silent, and King made sure The Collector was truly asleep. After making sure, they all walked out very quietly. Luckily there was no real door, as The Collector naively assumed they would never leave.

Hunter was ahead of everyone and led them to the playroom The Collector used with the story Amity and Willow had to play out.

The first to speak up was Amity. “Okay, someone tells me why you woke us up?” Hunter and Gus nodded at one another and then Hunter spoke up, Gus going to get something from the corner of the room.

“First we found them,” Hunter said excitedly. “What who-“ Willow started to say, but soon both girls gasped when Gus showed them a box. Their palismen. They assumed they were lost when they first came here, but they were here.

But then King looked concerned. “Why do they look like plushies?”. And it was true, they weren’t of wood like before, and their eyes looked to be of buttons. Each witch scooped up their respective palismen and held them close, while Gus sighed.

“That we don’t know, but something tells me they're alive.” He said somberly. Willow then glanced at him, looking slightly confused “How did you even find them?”

Gus grimaced at that question and sighed once again. “The Collector wanted to give me mine as a gift for all of the illusions, but it didn’t feel fair that only I got mine back. So that’s why I did all those crazy illusions, so I could get back all of them. I finally got them all. So now we have our friends back.”

All the kids smiled gratefully at Gus, and soon Willow hugged him, Amity joining right after. Hunter awkwardly joined a few moments after, and eventually, even King joined, despite not having a palismen having returned to him due to not having one to begin with.

After a minute of the hug, Amity pulled away and looked at them quizzically. “Something tells me there’s more you want to tell us”.

Hunter nodded and said “You’re right. There’s more.” He took a deep breath and sighed.

“I’m going to escape,” Hunter said flatly. Everyone except Gus looks at him in shock, not believing their ears.

Willow immediately spoke up, “Hunter! No, you can’t just leave! How are you going to escape anyway? This place is up in the sky, and Flapjack can’t turn into a staff!”.

Hunter again nodded his head, “I know, but I may have come up with a way. Near one of the windows in another playroom, there’s a tree. It’s a huge leap, but I can reach it. Then I’ll climb it down, and I’ll run as quickly as I can away from here. Then I’ll try to find help. Or at least find a group of survivors.”

Gus then spoke up, “The plan is rather simple. I create an illusion of Hunter while he’s gone. And eventually, during one of the times The Collector makes us play somewhere in the boiling isles, we’ll use that as a distraction and pretend that’s when Hunter escapes, but in reality, Hunter will be long gone by then.”

Amity looked at Gus worryingly and said “Can you handle it? What if The Collector asks for more wild illusions, and the Hunter illusion poofs before we’re outside.”

But Gus grinned at her weakly, trying to look determined. “Don’t worry, I can handle it. I’ll just make sure the illusion is quiet and still.” Everyone else looked slightly better hearing that, but they were still worried.

Willow glanced at Hunter, concern in her tone, “You shouldn’t go alone, at least one of us should join you”. But Hunter immediately shook his head and shot that idea down.

“No, the possibility of us getting caught grows more with each person that leaves. And if you all join me then Gus will be alone, which is unfair to him.” Hunter said. Everyone fell silent after that, they had no real objections, and Hunter seemed dead set on this, so he kept talking.

“The sooner I leave, the better. So, I’ll be going now.”. After a few moments, Hunter softly said, “I promise to come back as soon as possible”.

King looked up at Hunter and hugged one of his legs. “Stay safe”. And everyone later joined the hug, Hunter’s face glowing red from the contact.

After they all separated, Hunter went off in one direction while the rest quietly snuck back into the bedroom. The Collector seemed to still be asleep. The kids were relieved, this will work. It has to.

But everyone’s eyes widened in horror when they heard his bed move, and The Collector floated up in front of them. He was still smiling, but it looked more strained compared to his regular smile. He looked down at them unblinkingly.

“Hi friends! You all got up early today? If you wanted to play more games you should’ve woken me up!”. The Collector looked at all of them, but his eyes narrowed after a moment.

“Hey, where’s the grimwalker?”. The others didn’t know how to respond to that. They did remember when he called Hunter that the first time. But no one was comfortable asking about that.

Gus had to hide his horror as he realized he never made an illusion of Hunter. He didn't think he'd had to yet! King was the one who spoke up. “Oh, uh, we all decided to play a quick game of hide and seek, and Hunter is the last one hiding. And we’re all going to find him!”.

The collector grinned when King mentioned the game, “Oooo, Hide and seek? Can I be the seeker? I’ll go find him!”. And before the kids could say anything, The Collector flew out of the room.

They all hoped that Hunter made it out.

Hunter looked down at the window. The tree was far down below, and from this height, if he miscalculated this jump, he’d have terrible injuries.

He took a deep breath and slowly began to climb the window. However, before he could even jump he heard a muffled “Ready or not here I co-“ and the door opened.

Suddenly it felt like Hunter couldn’t breathe, tensing up as he slowly turned to look at The Collector who tilted his head in confusion and stared right at Hunter.

Hunter immediately backed away the window and hid Flapjack behind him. He put on his best fake smile, trying to keep his tone even.

“Collector! I, um, just wanted some fresh air!”. Hunter hoped that was convincing enough. The Collector paused for a moment, slowly realizing that Hunter wasn’t playing a game. They then slowly floated to him and stared right into his eyes.

“You weren’t trying to leave me? Right?” The Collector said in an overly friendly tone, almost unsettling.

Hunter immediately panicked and shook his head in protest. “What no!”. But before Hunter could make up another lie, he stopped when the Collector lifted his hand and began to approach it to his face.

Hunter only heard one thing.

“I think you need a time out…”

And suddenly a bright light flashed him, and he fell unconscious.

______________________

Everyone else was in the Collector’s bedroom. King was hugging Francois, Willow was pacing around, Amity was sitting still on the ground, and Gus was leaning against the bunk bed. All of them anxiously waited.

“Do you think he did it?” Willow asked quietly. Hunter himself said it was a dangerous leap, maybe he would decide not to do it. Only Gus spoke up, as quietly as her, “I hope he’s okay.”

They were like that for a few more minutes until suddenly The Collector came in, holding the same box their palismen were inside of. The Collector had a huge grin on his face as he lifted the box.

“Let’s play with dolls! I have a new one for today!”. The rest of the gang walked a bit closer to the Collector, wary of what he has prepared. He dropped the box and pulled out a doll.

A doll…. that looked just like Hunter. Same hair, same outfit, same eye color. However, he looked different from the other puppets. He was small, his eyes were buttons and he had a stitched smile on his face.

“Do you guys like him?” The collector said with a malicious grin on his face. The kids were horrified. Willow covered her mouth and gasped from shock. Amity almost teared up and her mouth was agape from horror. King dropped Francis and stare up at the Collector in fear. And Gus hugged himself, feeling so ashamed he didn't make an illusion of Hunter fast enough.

Willow then got angry and yelled, “What did you do to Hunter?!”. But fell silent at the Collector’s laughter.

“I just gave him a time-out! He lied! He was leaving me! I can’t have that! But I don’t want him to be a regular puppet, he’s still my friend after all. So he gets special treatment! He gets to still be aware of what’s happening and can play with us! Isn’t that so nice! That way he won’t miss the fun!”.

Everyone looked more horrified at that. Hunter right now was watching this unfold, but he couldn’t speak or even blink. They saw him barely move his little plush arm, and that made them freak out even more.

The Collector lifted plush Hunter and their plush palismen in the air with his magic and grinned down at them wildly.

“C'mon friends! Let’s play! Now! If you don’t, I’ll make you play!”. Understanding the threat, the kids got up and braced themselves for another long day of playtime torture.

Chapter Text

After breaking the toxic cycle that Belos was falling into with the laptop, Luz decided to take it slow by showing Belos the modern human world. After all, when she thought about it, she essentially gave Belos, a man from centuries ago, access to all knowledge of anything at his fingertips. It was obvious in hindsight that if she left him alone to discover everything, it would cause more major problems, and make him discover rather concerning items.

Belos was still apprehensive about going outside, so a new system was first made between them...

If Belos had any questions, he would simply point at anything in the house and Luz explained what he was curious about. Luz even gave him one of her old notebooks, and Belos would take notes of the things. He even went as far as drawing small pictures and diagrams of various appliances in the house.

It worked perfectly at first. Like when Belos would point at a toaster and Luz would simply place the bread slices in it and would pop out toast. Or he pointed at the oven and Luz showed him how to turn it on and what normally goes inside it.

But this system soon was falling apart. First, it was easy enough for Luz to explain the function of any appliances, but things became complicated when Belos asked how they were working exactly. Like how Luz explained easily that the cars made for transportation were not physically alive, and not something to growl at, Belos kept asking extra questions. What is inside the cars? How did the thing called “gasoline” make them move? Why does it cost so much money? All answers to any of his questions made Belos ask more questions, many that Luz couldn’t explain.

It didn’t help that she was the only one he asked. Belos rarely spoke to Vee, despite Vee making various attempts to start simple conversations. And her mom was either working or too busy to explain properly. Besides, Belos said it would be rude to pull her mom away from her work, so he went back to Luz.

Only three days did the system last. Luz was wondering what to do. She couldn’t just give him the laptop again. And she did not want to carry it around and have to search up whatever Belos was asking about, especially when he hovered over it.

But she finally figured it out when she saw Belos picking up one of the books from the dusty shelf in the basement. Of course! She could simply take him to the library! Luz still had her card from when her mom helped her get her own so she could check out books.

It would also be a good way to get Belos out of the house in some way. He still refused to go to heavily populated areas like stores, and Luz could see that while he enjoyed the park, it was ruined when he saw those statues. He wouldn’t see them at the library, it's spacious but still with other people inside, it was the perfect segway to slowly integrate Belos into more populated areas.

So one day, after breakfast, Luz turned to Belos and looked at him with a determined look. “Alright Belos, get ready. I’m taking you somewhere that you can go to get answers about whatever you’re wondering about the modern world.”. Belos simply stared at her for a moment before nodding and getting up on the couch. “Very well, let me get my shoes, and let us depart”. And then they finished their breakfast and got ready. Luz even gave him an old satchel bag that she got for free at a festival last year when she went with her mom.

It wasn’t a long walk, there weren’t many people out, as it was quite hotter than usual for a late August afternoon. Still, Belos insisted on wearing his usual clothes, only having his Crocs and his new blue button-up shirt as the notable differences. He was sweating a little but made no complaints about it. Luz even made sure to take an alternative path. It was longer, but it avoided the statues

The few people in the park took little notice of them. The library was directly across from the park. And they were almost there. Just a few more minutes and they would make it.

However, Belos stopped walking suddenly and instead looked toward the right of them. He narrowed his eyes, and Luz soon did the same. But she didn’t see anything special that would capture his attention. All she saw was a tree.

This tree stood out from the others. The grass around it was dry and brown. The tree itself was aged, covered in decaying bark that peeled away in patches. The tree's gnarled roots protruded from the ground like skeletal fingers. It was an unsettling sight to Luz.

But when she glanced at Belos, he looked at the tree in amazement. He stood still for a moment. She hears him utter the words “No, it can’t be”. And before she could inquire, he sprinted to the tree. Luz could barely process what she saw and she was soon running after him.

“Hey, wait up!” Luz yelled out. But Belos didn’t stop once until he reached the trunk of the tree. He was vigorously inspecting it and suddenly stopped when he saw the back.

Belos was almost grinning with pride as he exclaimed, “It is! I can’t believe it’s still here!”. Luz caught up to him and was puzzled by his attitude towards the tree. Her head tilted slightly in confusion as she said, “Is there something special about this tree?”.

Suddenly, Luz felt like she was in history class as Belos’s tone shifted into a confident lecturer. “Sometimes, it was used to deal with witches when they were sentenced.”. Luz was starting to get an idea of what he meant, but she couldn’t help but mutter out “Sentenced…?”. All Belos did was nod his head and sigh in nostalgia as he said “I still remember the first time a witch was punished here…”.

Belos paused for a moment, before he stared off to the side of the tree, as he began to explain. “Abigail was her name if I remember correctly. She was a local seamstress, she fixed up my sleeve when it ripped once. I rarely spoke to her, she was a reserved girl, kind though, she was 15, I think…”. After that, Belos paused for a brief moment.

Luz didn’t fully believe his statement that he didn’t know her, it seemed like he did, but before she could interrupt, Belos kept talking again.

“It was surprising when she was accused, but the man who accused her said she was tempting him to join the devil with her advances. I remember at trial she was heavily crying, saying how she didn’t do anything, it was like her personality shifted, must’ve been showing her true colors. There was someone already hanged at the plaza, so they took her to this tree. That was so long ago… my, how times have changed”.

All Luz could do was stare up at Belos in shock from his story. She was rather horrified and confused at his nonchalant attitude towards the whole situation. Sure she knew he was an active witch hunter but… that was a teen he was talking about.

She was unsure why it was affecting her so heavily. Maybe it was the fact she was only 15. But she felt remorse that she was standing in front of the place where Abigail and countless others had died. Luz felt herself begin to cry a little, sniffing softly.

Belos looked at her in complete confusion at her reaction. She should be happy that this tree aided the important mission of killing witches. “Why are you crying? It was a witch, who got what they deserved.”

Luz simply kept staring at him in shock. But soon, she composed herself and turned around, not wanting to look at the tree. “Let’s just go to the library… it’s close by.”
She then began walking away. Belos started at her a few moments before sighing softly and following her. He realized he had much work to do to uncorrupt this child. Luckily, he was the right one to do it. He must work harder. And so he followed her behind.

The library itself was rather empty. The few people inside were kids preparing early for the new school year or older folks enjoying books of nonfiction. They fit in perfectly!

Luz helped Philip pick up various books. Some were either American history books or world history. Some were also manuals of technology, such as cars or computers. Philip almost wanted the entire section that was dedicated to witch hunts throughout the ages but luckily Luz convinced him to get only three of them. And of course, one simple picture book of various horses.

Luz saw just how… happy Belos was in the library. It was like he lit up. His curiosity grew with each book he picked up and he tried his hardest to skim through every single one. He had a content smile on his face and took notes of several of the books he read a little about. She could hear him quietly murmuring about his various thoughts about whatever he was reading.

It made her feel strange. This was the Philip she once admired. The one who came to the boiling isles studied the land and created the portal door. It was like she was watching him again through the echo mouse. The other human she once admired before she learned the horrific truth.

They spent the next three hours there. Not that either minded. Luz read some of the manga they had available and Belos was reading every book he could get his hands on at an intense speed.
But soon they had to get home. The library would be open for a few hours longer but her mom was coming home early so they checked out ten books, the maximum of books one person could get at one time. They put five books in each other’s bags and left. Luckily they weren’t very heavy.

“Oh, we simply must return there soon, Luzura. I barely scratched the surface of what I wanted to learn. When can we go back?” Belos asked, excitedly, for once in his life.

Luz simply shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t want to see that tree again so they took the shorter route. Belos didn’t seem to care, not even noticing the statues again as he was talking about one of the books he had taken notes of.

“The first computer was invented by Charles Babbage in 1822 but was not built until 1991! Isn’t that insane- Luzura… look at that beauty over there.``. Belos was staring at his left suddenly. Luz soon followed his gaze and was very confused suddenly.

A few feet away was a black horse, eating the grass. It had a beautiful white mane with white hooves and deep green eyes. It was a very pretty horse. But… the closest farms were a 30-minute drive from Gravesfiled. What was it doing here? And alone in the park of all places?

Luz only stood there, mouth dropped for a moment before she saw Belos walking over to it. She did not want to get close to it, she remembered when she saw that video of a horse kicking that man. So she whispered-yelled to Belos from her spot.

“B-Belos! What are you doing?! Get back here!”. But Belos didn't listen. Instead, he walked closer. He only stopped when the horse began to neigh erratically and backed away from him. Luz was frozen and could only watch in shock. But she was once again confused when Belos pulled out his bag and read something for a minute, only to throw it near Luz. Oh of course he took notes about horses, such as how to tame them.

“Whatever you plan on doing, don’t-” Luz yelled again, but was interrupted by an “I got this Luzura.” from Belos.

Belos then began speaking to the horse in a calm and soothing tone. He was moving very slowly towards it, even letting the horse get near, letting the horse inspect any area of him. He kept using his voice as a way of reassuring them, always keeping his voice low and his tone soft. Luz was now just waiting for it to kick him in the stomach.

So she could hardly believe it when the horse stopped to look at him with their ears pricked forward, keeping eye contact, walking a few paces forward, and stopping. And was more shocked when they let Belos pet his head and back, now back to eating the grass.

Belos was ecstatic that it worked. He got a horse! And he didn't have to pay. Sure even he knew that it must've belonged to someone, seeing how well-maintained it was and that it still had a saddle. But it was here alone! It must've been a small reward from God for his efforts so far.

So he did the logical thing. He steadied himself and soon sat on the horse. And the horse didn't even react! It truly must've been fate. He got comfortable and slowly led the horse to Luz.
If it were anyone else, even Luz would think it's wholesome how happy Belos looked on the horse. Like when you give a grandma a stuffed animal. But she was now just pure confusion. How did he do that so well?!

Belos extended his hand out to Luz, offering to let her on as well.

“Come on, Luzura! We can take this horse back to your home! Your mother won't mind, right?”. But Luz stopped him. “No! We are not taking this horse home! It’s not ours! Someone could be looking for them! We could get in huge trouble for stealing!”

Belos simply scoffed at her worries. “If they truly cared they wouldn't have let the horse get away from them in the first place! Look at them! They're all alone here! We can't just leave them here! If you can be merciful to those witches, you should be able to be merciful towards this innocent beauty!”

Luz then stopped and felt guilty at his words. Especially as the horse stared at her innocently. She didn't want to leave this poor horse here alone. But she reasoned with herself and said, “We can
just call animal control. The horse has no room in our house!”.

But Belos wasn't even listening. He was determined to keep the horse. They were perfect for him! He knew once he showed Luzura’s mother, she would agree. She worked with animals, and she would also fall in love with the horse. And with that thought, he was now set in that mindset. So he took drastic measures.

Luz was about to keep talking before she saw Belos lower himself a little and grab her wrist. And she could barely react as he lifted her and sat her behind him. Luz was stunned as he had shown once again how strong he was. Was it the curse? The only thing was that he sat her the wrong way, her direction was towards the back instead.

“Giddyup!” Belos yelled and Luz exclaimed in fear as the horse lifted himself halfway before soon they made their way forward. The horse was going at a semi-fast speed. And the whole time Luz was yelling at Belos in anger to stop this and the fact he dragged her into this. But Belos was ignoring her, enjoying the feeling.

However, this was getting dangerous. Belos still hadn't learned about the road and its rules for pedestrians. Belos led the horse onto the main road as they left the park. He never stopped or moved for the cars, and now Luz was yelling out apologies as they honked or cursed them out. Luz also had to steady herself as the horse was going faster. On top of all of this, Belos barely remembered the way home! They were going all over the town, as the people outside stared or laughed at the absurdity of the sight before them.

But it became really dangerous when they got to an intersection and they rode past a red light, a car nearly hit them! It didnt luckily but it was close! Belos finally snapped out of his daze to yell at them as they kept riding! Luz thought to herself “Can this get any worse?!”.

And she wanted to scream when she heard cops sirens from a distance. No, that couldn't be for them. That was for a speeding car or something! She made eye contact with the cop driving. Oh no.

Belos rode the horse into her neighborhood, somehow not noticing the cops?! She was thankful that they were in an area with fewer cars, but the cops were still tailing them! And they were getting dangerously close. She saw her house in the distance, her mom just in the driveway.

Camila just got home from her shift. It wasn't so bad today, just a few checkups for her. She was relieved to have that. She bought some groceries afterward, having enough energy to make a big meal. But she heard… yelling? A horse? Sirens? She looked up and could hardly believe what she saw, dropping the grocery bag in shock.

There was Philip and Luz, riding a horse?! At a swift pace! WITH COPS BEHIND THEM?! All Luz said was that they were going to the library! How did this happen?!

Belos stopped the horse in front of the house. Luz looked like she lost all the air in her lungs. The cop car stopped right behind them. It was a middle-aged man, who looked disappointed if anything. Luz was worried she was going to be yelled at since they made eye contact, but was pleasantly surprised when he turned and began lecturing Belos!

“Excuse me, Mister?! What do you think you were doing?! Riding a horse wildly onto the road, never stopping even when I blared my sirens?! You’re lucky I didn’t radio a helicopter!”. Meanwhile, Belos was gobsmacked at what the man was saying. He was ready to argue back but Camila stepped in. She gently grabbed Luz’s shoulder and said “ (Go inside. We’ll talk later).

Luz didn’t fight it. She left Belos at the mercy of the cop and her mom. She simply went inside and found Vee staring out the window in her old Luz disguise.

Vee walked up to Luz as she walked inside. She smiled at her softly
(A/N- oops! thats all I wrote!)

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The whole gang was concerned as Hunter tried to escape the Collector’s castle. Yes, they were all miserable and exhausted, but Hunter did it nearly daily. But he never succeeded.
It went like this: Hunter would come up with some plan to escape. He would then try it out, half the time not even consulting anyone beforehand. The collector finds him in a few minutes to an hour, he comes back with Hunter as a doll, Hunter stays like that for a few hours, then turns back to normal, and repeats.

Everyone experienced it at this point. Amity did when she tried using her abominations to help out Hunter with an escape plan he made and was caught red-handed helping him. Gus did when he couldn’t keep up with his illusions and the Collector got very angry as Gus passed out. Willow became a doll when she tried to get Doll Hunter away from the collector's hands the second time he did it.

It was a very stressful experience. They were conscious and aware of what was happening to them, but they couldn’t speak or barely move their limbs. Their cheeks always hurt after, as if feeling the strained muscles as they were forced to smile in their doll form. The worst part, they were always awake. They couldn’t sleep through it. They were left in the darkness of their mind, stuck in this prison of their plush bodies until the collector turned them back.

After a few weeks of this, the gang slowly stopped fighting and complying. The collector was much nicer as they thought everyone was now playing along fairly. Well, except Hunter.
It was the first night nobody was a doll. Everyone was conscious and less tense. Well except Hunter, who was trying to make a map of the castle, muttering quietly over ways to escape once again.

Everyone else looked at each other in concern as they watched him.
Hunter’s eyebags grew darker, his hair seemed to become messy and tangled, he was always sleepy, and he was getting more agitated easily due to his lack of rest.

“Uh, Hunter, isn't it best if you didn’t do that, what if the collector finds this?” Willow asked. Gus then spoke up, “Yeah you haven’t rested in a long while, maybe you should continue tomorrow?”.
Hunter’s head then shot up. He appeared frustrated at their concern. He shook his head and shoved his paper at them. “No, this time I cracked it! This will work for sure. Though Amity, I’ll need your help. All I need to do is go to this hall-” he said rather manically.

"Hunter” King said softly.

“and then you’ll need to muster all your strength-”

"Hunter-” Amity said.

“to make an abomination staircase out of the”

“Hunter-” Gus said loudly.

“window on the lowest floor. I’ll run down-”

“HUNTER!” Willow shouted. That finally got Hunter’s attention. He stopped speaking for a moment. All they could do was stare at him, a mix of worry and exhaustion on their faces. They all stood quietly until hunter spoke up.

“What?”.
(A/N- oops! thats all I wrote for this scene... sorry :( )