Chapter Text
Luz stared up at the underside of the bunk above her. She reached out her hand for the stars she had hung up so long ago. She missed being a carefree kid, hanging up glowy stars and pretending she was a space explorer with her father.
Look at her, talking like she was a hardened adult who’s given up the simple joys of life. But in some way, she felt like she had. When was the last time she smiled and it wasn’t ruined by her survivor’s guilt. She could barely enjoy things anymore without her mind reminding her of the pained screams of the Boiling Isles residents. King’s ‘weh’ blasting her through the portal. Gus’ sobs when it all set in.
She wiped at her eyes, when did they start watering, and sat up. Quietly, she got up from her bed and made her way over to her desk. She looked down at her palisman. The little angel still had yet to hatch. Did she screw up with them too? She picked them up, making sure their scarf nest was wrapped around them. She left the room, the world felt fuzzy around her. No processing sound, just walking. She didn’t know where she’d go.
Luz looked down the hall, seeing the warm yellow glow of her mom’s room, she was still up. A twinge of guilt coursed through Luz, of course she was up late. Her mom had a bad habit of loosing track of time while budgeting, and with 6 kids now? Luz would be surprised if she got any sleep. Her mind flashed to the now grey streak in her mother’s hair. Did she cause that? Her mother going grey from stress.
Luz glanced aside, she couldn’t bug her. She was 15 now, she couldn’t go running to her mommy cause she couldn’t sleep like some little kid. She turned on her heels and headed downstairs, cautiously watching her steps for any of the creaky parts of each step. She’d memorized them from years of sneaking downstairs to watch late night premieres of Soul Devourer and Demon Slayer Academia.
She didn’t know what her next move was when she reached the final step. She was just going with the flow, what her brain would allow her to think. She stared down at the sorted alignment of shoes by the front door. She seemed to have blacked out, and when she found herself present once again, she was outside in the autumn cold, Eda’s old jacket around herself and standing in front of the clubhouse.
The old door creaked open, Luz gave a half smile at the crudely painted on Hooty they added. She stepped in and plopped down onto an old beanbag they had placed in there when fixing the place up. She looked down at her palisman and moved the scarf over them a bit more, poor little baby must’ve been cold.
Luz sighed and leant back, her gaze going to the ceiling. She’d have to go back to the house eventually. If she slept here she’d get a cold and that’s the last thing anyone needed. Maybe she should’ve brought her school bag? Get some of her homework done. She thought back to her English class earlier that day, absentmindedly stroking her thumb over her palisman.
Did she really think things would be better if she never existed?
Maybe it was the heat of the moment, she was on a roll and she tended to not stop when venting. She knew that if she didn’t exist Belos would have never found the collector, or maybe even harmed so many witches and golden guards. But did she think she didn’t deserve to have existed?
Luz sighed and ran her hands over her face. She let her body hang over the bean bag, her egg rested gently on her lap. She scanned for something to draw her attention to and distract herself from…..that thought.
Plants Willow had grown. The floorboards Flapjack pecked at, looks like he actually broke through one. Mysterious liquid.
Wait-
Luz sat up, she got up and gently placed her egg onto the bean bag. She approached the liquid, it was pooled just in front of their mirror. They had found it in the Nocedas basement, but it had gone through some wear and tear, as it was chipped. Luz noticed a small piece of the mirror had broken off. She picked it up, however due to the minimal light the moon shining through the window, and cracks in the ceiling, had provided, she cut herself.
Luz fell back and cursed under her breath, holding her finger in her hand, applying as much pressure as she could. She cracked open her eyes to look at it. It was only a small cut. One that could be easily covered by a bandaid. She sighed in relief and reached back down to the puddle. It wasn’t water like she had suspected, this was more….sticky.
It had the same consistency as mud, but mud had never been sticky. At least enough for Luz to stretch it between her fingers. She hummed before noticing, something. Maybe it was the trick of the light, but she swore she saw the puddle move.
Just barely, in the corner of her eye, she spotted two small, blue glowing orbs. Her eyes adjusted to focus on the object, and it was much more than two blue orbs.
It looked like the decomposing corpse of a deer the bottom half obscured by the wall, it’s jaw was barely hanging on, it open lazily. It’s antlers stood tall and menacing. Luz froze. How did it get in? Then suddenly she looked back to the muck. She squinted and barely made out a greenish color.
Green.
She looked back to the mirror, the deer was now gone. Luz had never ran so fast in her life. She’d grab her egg, of course she wasn’t going to leave her baby with a monster. But that’s just the thing. She recognized this monster. As she sprinted back to the house one thought crossed her mind.
Belos.