Chapter Text
“Oh, all that I did to try to undo it. All of my pain and all your excuses. I was a kid but I wasn't clueless. (Someone who loves you wouldn't do this.) All of my past, I tried to erase it, but now I see, would I even change it? Might share a face and share a last name, but we are not the same.” - Family Line, Conan Gray
Luz’s heart was pounding, her blood was rushing in her ears. She flew Stringbean as fast as she could, eyes scanning the ground below for sight of Amity, Hunter and Collector.
“There!” Vee cried, pointing. Her other arm was still tightly wrapped around Luz’s middle.
Just as Vee said, there was Amity, Hunter and Collector on the grass below, a stone’s throw away from a cliff. They were all huddled together.
Amity spotted them and waved. Willow shot down in a nose-dive, leaping off Clover as soon as it was safe and falling on her knees next to Hunter.
“To the rescue, hoot!” Hooty cried, strapped to Gus’s back.
Luz and Gus flew right behind Willow As they landed, Hunter blinked sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
“Are you okay?” Willow was asking frantically as Luz ran to them.
“No,” Hunter sighed. “Not really.”
Collector practically tip-toed towards the trees. They bent down and picked up- The journal! Luz realised. He looked at Hunter warily; when he saw that Hunter had his back to him, they snapped their fingers. A star-shaped portal opened above their head; a portal leading directly to Eda’s room. The Collector threw the journal through the portal and it closed. They gave a little sigh of relief and came back to the group, hovering anxiously by Hunter.
“Hey.” Luz bent down, squeezing their shoulder. “You did good, buddy.”
He smiled at her, shy and hopeful. Willow was clinging to Hunter. The palismen all sat on his shoulders and head, making little anxious noises.
Hunter was quiet, flopped against Willow bonelessly. He’d clearly been crying and his breathing still sounded a little raspy. Amity looked so worried, staring at Hunter like he’d disappear if she looked away.
Whatever she’d missed, it hadn’t been pretty.
Hunter had the journal. He’d plainly read it. There was no way this could end well.
Luz kind of wanted to break something. She wanted to scream; to punch, kick and bite.
But there was no one to fight. No one but a dead Emperor.
“We’re going home,” she announced.
“Back to the Owl House?” King asked.
“Nope,” Luz said. She looked between King and Collector, her hands on her hips. “Wanna have your first visit to the Human Realm?”
Luz was just thankful no one seemed to be around. It was easy to hide her friends’ ears, but The Collector? Well, maybe his appearance could be explained away with facepaint and contacts. As for King and Hooty…Super-realistic talking plushies?
She’d cross that bridge if she came to it. Maybe they should look into concealment stones.
Either way, they reached the Noceda house without fuss. Luz shot a message to Eda, letting her know where they all were, and then another to Camila. Porta-Hooty was oddly silent, right up until they stepped into the house. Then he sprung to life.
“I llloooovvveeee what you’ve done with the place, hoot!” he cried, twisting and elongating, closely examining every inch of the living room with wide eyes.
“Uh, thanks, Hooty,” Luz said.
Hunter gave Luz the stink-eye. “Get that thing out of my house,” he muttered.
“He’s here for emotional support.”
“If he tries to hug me again, I’m strangling him.”
“Good luck with that,” King said, climbing up Hunter’s back. “I’ve already tried; it didn’t work.”
Collector poked the TV screen with a curious little pout. King ran to join him. Hooty licked the lampshade and said something about great taste in decorating, giving Luz an exaggerated wink.
No one laughed. Luz forced a giggle and Hooty gave a satisfied nod.
“So…” Luz clapped her hands together. “Blanket fort?”
“What’s that?” Collector asked, still examining the TV. Bless them, it wasn’t even plugged in.
“It’s a time-honoured tradition among friends,” Luz explained. Collector, as always, lit up at the word friends.
Luz looked at Hunter. He was still leaning against Willow.
“Your room?” she asked.
He looked tiredly at Hooty and sighed, but he nodded. They all trooped down to the basement, and Gus and Luz had to wrestle Hooty away from the fairy lights and again from the sewing machine.
Hunter flopped face-down onto his bed. “Mess with my sewing projects and you’re dead,” he said, voice muffled by his pillow.
“You’re so creative!” Hooty thrilled, swaying from side to side, utterly oblivious to how serious Hunter was. Probably for the best.
“I’ll make the hot chocolate,” Vee said.
“I’ll help,” Amity offered.
“And the rest of us will grab every blanket and pillow we can find,” Luz said. Something, anything to distract them all from how wrong this all was.
She looked at Hunter, so quiet and defeated. She thought of Belos and wondered how on earth anyone could do that to their brother. Hadn’t Belos loved Caleb? How could he kill him? How could he bear to steal Caleb’s body and clone him, again and again? How could he kill all those boys and men, and not lose any sleep over it? If Luz even thought she hurt Hunter or Vee, she freaked out.
“We’re human!” Belos had cried, trying to grab at her leg. “We’re better than this!”
But could he really be called human by the end?
He hadn’t been human for a long time. No one who could do all of that, all those atrocities, could truly be human.
But he started out that way. And now…Even now, he just kept making things worse.
Luz sat next to Hunter on his bed, reaching out to tightly hold his hand. She squeezed and he squeezed back.
Hunter deserved better than you, she thought fiercely, wishing that Belos was before her once more. They all deserved better than you. Hunter, the Golden Guards, even Caleb. They deserved better.
It was a pretty good fort, if Luz said so herself. Cosy and soft. Along with hot chocolate, Vee and Amity brought down bowls of popcorn. Luz brought her laptop down to Hunter’s room and they all gathered around to watch cartoons.
Willow held Hunter close to her, her hands over his heart. Luz scooted closer to them, pressed against Hunter’s side.
Her phone buzzed, a text from Camila; Sorry, baby, was in surgery! On my way xxx
“Mamá’s coming home,” she said softly. Vee nodded, relief in her eyes. Hunter sighed, looking guilty and drained.
“It’s okay,” Luz told him.
“No, it’s not,” Hunter said dully. He looked back to the cartoons. “This is all such a mess.”
“...Yeah,” Luz said with a heavy sigh. “That’s true. But we’ll make it better.”
They would. Somehow. They had to. There had to be a way to work past this, to make things good again. They’d been doing so well, and now…Well, now it felt like they were back to square one in a lot of ways. Everyone was tired and stressed and scared. Hunter was having nightmares every single night. Vee was so anxious, hovering around Hunter and trying to cheer him up. Luz was angry. She was so, so angry.
Belos couldn’t keep doing this to them.
Hunter’s mine, he’s ours, he’s not YOURS, why can’t you leave him alone? she wanted to scream. The throne had been melted down, and now she wished she had a hand in that. She wished they could destroy the castle all over again. Tear down Belos’s statues again and again, smashing them to pieces until she felt better. Until this horrible anger left her and stopped burning in her chest.
She felt like she was on fire. Walking on a tight-rope.
She tried to watch the cartoons. She tried to think of literally anything else. Homework. Date plans with Amity. Her latest drawings.
It didn’t work. Her thoughts kept going back to Belos, to that damned journal and pit. To all those poor dead boys, more victims of Belos that no one had even known about.
She thought of Caleb Wittebane again, her thoughts constantly circling back to him. Where was his original grave? Could they return him to it? Who was Evelyn? Caleb had started a family in the Demon Realm. Surely they’d want him back?
She wondered what Caleb would think of his little brother, and the monster he’d turned into.
Belos’s first victim.
Philip and Caleb. Cain and Abel.
Where did it stop? Where did it end?
With us, Luz thought, gripping Hunter’s hand. Her eyes burned. It ends with us.
If this was a cycle, then by God they were going to end it.
Camila arrived shortly, walking cautiously down the stairs.
“Hunter?” she called softly. “Baby, can we talk?”
It seemed to take Hunter a lot of effort to move. He got up slowly, awkwardly, like he didn’t have total control of his limbs. Willow kissed his cheek, he gave her a wan smile and went upstairs with Camila.
“He said he needs a therapist,” Amity mumbled, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.
“Don’t we all?” Vee sighed.
“That might not be a bad idea,” Gus said, eyes on the screen.
“What’s a therapist?” Collector asked, tilting their head.
“It’s…A bit like a healer for your head,” Willow said. “You, uh- well, you talk to them about things that are bothering you. Things that upset or scare you. And then they help you work out ways to cope, or make things better. Sometimes they might prescribe medicine to help you.”
“Oh,” Collector said. He nodded in understanding. “Does everyone have one?”
“Not everyone, buddy,” Luz said. “But my mamá always says everyone could use one, even once.”
Camila had certainly been dropping not-so-subtle hints about therapy for Luz and her siblings, for Hunter especially, even before all of this happened.
Jeez, if even Hunter’s finally admitting it…
She watched the cartoons tiredly. King crawled into her lap and Luz held him close.
Well, if even Hunter was admitting he needed help…Maybe it was a good idea.
She’d think about it.
Maybe she just needed a good old fashioned rage room. A place to break stuff to her heart’s content. She’d ask Eda about it.