Chapter Text
It was just another Thursday afternoon in the rural town of Gravesfield Connecticut. The streets were quiet and for the most part empty (although that was perfectly at that time of day) aside from a single middle-aged man who (other than the fact that he wore a hood during late spring when it wasn't even raining) seemed like a perfectly innocent salaryman talking a stroll on his lunch break. After walking for a bit, the man stopped and began rummaging in his pockets.
"Now, where did I put that note?" He mumbled to himself, "I know I stuffed it in one of my... oh, there it is!" He exclaimed, pulling a small slip of paper from his back pocket. "Hm... 88 Rocket Street, eh?" The man pondered, "I wonder why she was so insistent on making me go there, and who was she anyway?" The man sighed in exasperation. "Oh well, she seemed nice enough, and it would hurt to humor the kid." "I'm sure that..."
At that moment, a scream echoed through the neighborhood: "What's happening to me, and what's going on with my arm?" A child's panicked voice rang out, "Look!" Another kid pointed, "Something happened to the swing!"
As the man rounded the corner, he saw what was happening, but he couldn't make sense of what was happening. It was a playground, but everything seemed to be pulling apart, but despite this, everything was still acting like it was unaffected. As though they were suspended in two separate points of space, not even gravity was affecting them like it should.
Within this field of chaos, there were: children with limbs floating a couple of meters away; a swing suspended in midair; and in the midst of it all, a young girl who (aside from her shaking in terror) seemed unaffected by whatever was happening around her.
"So, this is the one that she told me about," he muttered as he began approaching the playground, but as soon as he stepped on the grass, a hand suddenly pulled him back.
"Hey!"" You shouldn't approach her; can't you see it's too dangerous to go near her?" But the hooded man ignored him and continued to walk closer to the epicenter, when he suddenly stopped and began to scan the area until...
"Ahah!" The man announced, "There you are!" he exclaimed, staring down a frantic young woman.
"Who, me?" The woman asked in a panic. "Yes, you," he clarified, "you wouldn't happen to be this girl's mother, would you?" "Y-yes, I am," she confirmed. "What's happening to my daughter" the woman frets
"You don't need to worry; I'm here to help," the man assured. "However," he added, "I'm going to need you to distract her while I do so"
"What are you going to do?" the woman wondered
"Just keep her occupied, ok?" He requested, "I need her back to face me, so I can fix this mess safely."
"Ok, I will," she agreed. "Hey Luz, sweetie, look at mamí ok," she assured her daughter, "you're going to be ok, dear, just keep your eyes on me and breathe"
As the little girl stared at her mother with red puffy eyes, the strange man crept up behind her and reached out to the girl's back when suddenly, a small door appeared on it, which the man carefully opened.
"Hm," he thought. "I honestly didn't think that would work," he admitted to himself. "So this is what a soul looks like, huh?" the man observed. "I never thought I would get to see one in my entire life," he admitted as he pulled another door from his pocket, opened it and took out a pair of scissors and a small glass jar.
"Sorry, miss," the man apologized. "This may hurt a bit," he admitted before snipping a piece of the girl's soul and sealing it in the jar. When this happened, the girl winced and received a small gash on the back of her thigh, but everything else returned to normal.
"What happened?" The girl asked before collapsing. "Luz!" The woman yelled as she ran towards her daughter, "Are you okay?!" She worried, but as soon as she reached her daughter, she sighed in relief as she heard her softly snoring.
"Oh, thank goodness you're okay," The mother cried. "I don't know what I would've done if it wasn't for you." She stopped as she realized that the odd man had disappeared.
"That's weird," she thought. "Where did he go?" she shrugged before calling out, "Wherever you are, sir, thank you for saving my daughter"
Little did any of them know that this was the start of a new bizarre adventure for this young girl named "Luz Noceda"