Chapter Text
Luz felt different since she left the In Between Realm.
A cold dread at the back of Luz's mind had stayed with her ever since the makeshift portal door had shut. Guilt, that's all it was. That's what it had to be. Her mind spinning with regret after regret, lie after lie.
"Mom can't wait to meet you," she had said.
Liar, a whisper in her mind retorted back.
Luz tried to force the thoughts out of her head as she walked up to her room in The Owl House hours later. Her body felt heavy with physical and mental exhaustion, and all she wanted to do at that point was sleep. "Good night, everyone!"
A chorus of "Good night, Luz!" resounded through the Owl House, from her substitute mother figure, her demon friend King, and the house demon Hooty.
With the moon shining through her window, Luz settled into her bed on the floor, pulling the covers over herself. She momentarily considered messaging Amity, but thought better of it. She didn't want to worry her.
Luz shut her eyes and rest her head against her pillow. At least she had gotten closure with her mom... sort of. She shoved away all her thoughts and worries, letting her body sink into a calm, peaceful sleep.
But the moment her mind shifted into dreaming, any sense of calm was washed away. Literally, as she found herself surrounded by water.
Cold, black water that rippled in a pale green as she fought to the surface.
Luz gasped for air, coughing as she looked around her dreamscape, her eyes beholding a now-familiar place. The sky above appeared to be made of a mirror image of the water beneath her, and a multitude of glowing cubes rose into the air. They met the surface of the "sky", sinking—or rather, rising—into its depths in this weird dimension.
"I'm in the In Between Realm again?" Luz swallowed, glancing around. It looked like it was a perfect match of that strange void between the human and demon realms. "But I'm dreaming... would the cubes work here like in the real one?"
"Try, Luz Noceda," a voice rasped.
Luz yelped, whipping her head around to seek out the source of the strange voice. It had been faint, but she had definitely heard it. She couldn't make out anyone else around her, but she sensed something there, watching her. It felt like whatever it was seemed to look straight through her skin. "Is someone there?"
"Yes."
A memory stirred in her mind, and as if plucked from her subconscious, the word rebounded through the dream-space just as it had in the real In Between Realm.
"Noceda."
"I remember you," Luz said standing up straight as she glanced around. "You said my last name before... before I tried to talk to my mom." Her mind swam with remorse and the thought of how their last conversation had gone.
"Didn't go well," the Voice whispered. "Lying Noceda."
Luz frowned at the accusation. She shook her head and tried to focus her thoughts on the cubes that surrounded her. There was of course the chance that her mom might be asleep, but maybe she was watching an animal documentary. There still might be a chance, if the dream In Between was linked to the real one somehow. If there was a way... Luz took a deep breath. "Camila Noceda."
No cube rose from the water. No surface reflected with bright orange light. Luz sighed, feeling a maelstrom of regret creep into her heart. All the things she should have said. "I should have known it wouldn't work."
"You tried." The whispering voice from before was back, lifted with a mocking tone, as if the entity found Luz's misery amusing. "No rope to get you out this time, cheater."
Luz's brow furrowed as she sought out the Voice, with no luck. "This is just a dream." Luz wrapped her pajamas tighter around herself as she trudged through the water. "It's... it's my mind recreating a memory of the In Between. Not sure why you're here, you said one word to me."
"More than that," said the Voice.
Before Luz could ask what it meant, the environment distorted around her in a whirl of black and green. She stumbled backwards as she saw herself with her cape and rope from before, projected on the walls of the In Between. The whisper, which had just been on the fringes of her consciousness in the In Between, came back in full force in her memories. A subconscious murmur brought to the forefront.
"Can anyone hear me?" Luz had called.
"Yes," the Voice had hissed in response.
Formerly obscured by the ripple of the cubes and Luz's rising panic, its whisper was now much more audible.
The image before her rippled and warped, shifting to Luz first seeing Vee impersonating her.
"Luz Noceda 2.0! Doppleganger!" The memory of Luz gripped the cube in frustration. "Why won't you work?"
"Stay here," the Voice had responded, its tone uncaring toward Luz's plight.
Luz felt a cold chill overtake her as the Voice amplified its words. A chuckling echoed through the facsimile of the In Between Realm as the memory faded from view. "If you were there the whole time, why didn't you tell me more?"
"You didn't let me."
Luz blinked.
"You talk so much," the Voice said. "To swallow your own isolation, perhaps? To ease a fear of being alone?"
Luz felt her chest tighten. She shook her head and hurried more through the cold waters, trying to ignore the Voice. The internal light from the cubes began to fade, leaving only the soft green glow from the water and surrounding pillars.
"Besides, I've been lonely too," said the Voice. "We have something in common. Others... friends... have started to fade here."
"Well, I have friends out there when I wake up," Luz said, sloshing through the water. Her brown eyes became fixed on the path ahead, which only seemed to extend the more she walked, the light illuminating an array of pillars and cubes with no sign of an end.
"More interesting to have you here," said the Voice. "So many new names, new places to uncover beyond the reflections..."
"I wasn't expecting a disembodied voice in a dream to be so chatty," Luz muttered, spinning around, hoping to put a face to the Voice. Nothing. A high-pitched cackle reverberated all around her.
"No dream, Luz Noceda. You spent enough time in the In Between Realm for me to become intrigued by you. It's been so long since I've had new company. Now that you're actually starting to listen..." The Voice grew more insistent, its presence shifting to be like a physical pull on Luz. It became oppressive, stifling, suffocating. "Stay."
Luz forced out a nervous laugh. "Stay here?"
"Yes. Stay here."
"S-Sorry, I can't." Luz paced through the water, trying to escape the Voice and the spotlight it seemed to hold on the realm. She clenched her eyes shut. "Dream or no dream, I wouldn't stay here with you."
"Stay here, Luz Noceda. You... intrigue me." The Voice spoke from above, descending closer with each word and making Luz feel very small. "I want to keep you."
Luz stopped and swiveled her head upward, glaring and trying to hide any sense of fear in her eyes. "I'm not your pet!"
"No," said the Voice, sounding amused. "Not yet."
Luz searched for the speaker, but such a thing was difficult to direct at a disembodied voice that possessed no eyes and kept moving around as it pleased. Abandoning the thought, Luz shut her eyes as she stormed through the water. "I have a life out there. Let me leave!"
The light Luz could see shifting behind her eyes dimmed to darkness. The voice sounded frighteningly close as it spoke.
"As you wish, Luz Noceda."
Luz opened her eyes. Eerie green and black were replaced with a soft orange and the light of stained glass spilling into her room.
Morning.
For a moment, Luz sat there, drenched in sweat. Her heart pounded in her ears, her eyes wide open. She took several deep breaths and loosed around, seeing the morning light of the Boiling Isles begin to seep in through the stained glass. Straining her ear for any voices—dream or otherwise—she waited.
Hearing nothing—she must be up before even Hooty—Luz relaxed back onto her bed, closing her eyes once again. "Calm down, Luz. It was just a nightmare. You're free from the In Between Realm. The Voice isn't here."
"Yes I am."
Luz's eyes snapped back open in shock.
The Voice was coming from within her own head.
"Nice to not just see through reflective surfaces. Unless you count the ones behind your eyes."
Luz leapt up from her bed, her heart pounding as she felt a prickle at the back of her head. Stunned, it was a few seconds before Luz regained her ability to speak as fear flooded her body. She placed her hands over her ears. "No, you're not real, I'm still partially asleep..."
The Voice cackled. It echoed around Luz, sending shivers up her spine.
"You cheated your way out the first time." the Voice said with bitterness in its cadence. "I'm just returning the favor..."
Luz swallowed, feeling her throat tighten. She felt very small, sitting and staring up at the darkness in the corners and wondering what the hell she had done to deserve this. "What do you want?"
The Voice sounded thoughtful. "I offered you my company in the In Between, and you refused. So focused on your own words so the supposed lonely silence wouldn't crush you. If you refuse to stay despite us now being acquainted, I want..." It snickered, a laugh that Luz could feel crawl down every bone in her spine. "To play a game, perhaps."
This time when the Voice spoke, she could feel it in her body, inside her. It made her shiver again. "What kind of games do you want to play?" she said slowly, afraid to hear the answer.
The voice smiled from within Luz's skull. "How long can Luz Noceda hold on to her sanity before she cracks?"
Luz swallowed hard, feeling her throat tightening. Her hands balled into fists, nails digging into her palm and drawing blood. "You're lying."
"Am I?"
Luz closed her eyes in resignation, unable to respond.
"Of course," the Voice went on, "how long it takes will depend on how we coexist, and what you allow me to take from your mind. It may take years, or weeks or months, or it may be days. But your sanity will crack, little Luz. If you won't stay with me, I will stay with you."
Luz felt cold seep into her body as she wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering. She waited tensely for the other residents of the Owl House to wake up. To hear some other voice, any other voice.
But for the moment, there was no one.
No one except herself and the Voice inside her head.