Chapter Text
Luz Noceda was absolutely not going to summer camp.
Sure, she was just a little bit different from her fellow peers, but that was fine! No harm done, right? No reason to be sitting here, waiting for the bus to pick her up to send her to Boring: The Place. Luz glances down at her tote bag, which has everything she needed for all four weeks of camp. Four whole weeks. Logically, she knows it can’t be all that bad, and it wasn’t like she had friends here to spend her summer with, but still!
Deep down inside the tote bag, Luz had book 5 in the Good Witch Azura series, buried under layers of clothing and plushies (which she was also supposed to leave behind). And yes, she had double pinky promised to leave it at home, but it didn’t matter!
Luz sat there, biting at her finger nails. And after they were reduced to stubs, she started picking at her lips. and after they started bleeding, she-
God, what was taking so long? Glancing at her phone, Luz realized it was only 9:45. She had been standing there for only ten minutes.
Maybe… maybe she shouldn’t wait. Maybe she should just run off. Her mom obviously didn't want her, that was why she was sending Luz to camp in the first place! Plus, she had no friends, and her dad was…
In a fit of rage, Luz grabbed her tote bag, and booked it down the street. Fuck, what the actual hell was she doing? Running away from home? Her mom was going to-
Luz sighed and cleared all of that out of her mind. She was really doing this. She was not going to camp. In fact, she already had an idea of where she could stay.
-
At one point, Luz had nothing she needed to do after school, and she didn’t feel like doing anything, so she went exploring. While walking around town, she had stumbled across this big abandoned office building on the very outskirts of her town. Most of the doors in it were unlocked, and light filtered in through the windows, and as of right now, Luz knew it was the perfect place for her to stay.
God, she actually was doing this, wasn’t she? By now, she didn’t have a choice, if she went back now, her mom might actually kill her.
Arriving at the building, Luz looked up at the rusty walls, littered with graffiti. She was curious what the building used to be used for, as just the very scope of it was a direct contrast to the small suburban neighborhood she had grown up in. Walking inside, Luz gaped up at the plants growing from the floor to the ceiling, blurring the line between the building and the grass that lay around it. Tightening the grip on the strap of her bag, she walked further into the building.
Soon she was distracted from her troubles by the old and faded graffiti around the building. They were all signed either Jacob or Jackie. However, as she walked further, Luz noticed that some of the pieces signed by “Jackie” had the “ie” very obviously covered up. But it seemed like the drawings were all very old, and very faded, so maybe they were being destroyed by time, which really was a shame. Luz was pretty sure that this many drawings had to have been done over several years, and she was sure that this artist wouldn’t like their hard work being ruined!
Luz found a spot in the back of the building on the third floor, where light filled the room, coming in through broken windows. After setting her bag down on the floor and unzipping it, Luz pulled out her sleeping bag, all of her plushies, and The Good Witch Azura book five. She set up a little sleeping area, using the plushies and her sleeping bag to it feel cozy, and then sat down to read it.
-
An hour passed. Luz was halfway through her book. She glanced at her phone, only to realize that she had no data. Right, it wasn’t like anybody came here anymore. Putting the book down, Luz sat up and decided to explore.
Soon, Luz found a part of the building that had no windows, and that meant no light. She turned on her flashlight to head inside, but was only greeted by a long, ominous hallway. Walking further down it led her to a door, which radiated a vibe of “don’t come here.” However, Luz’s curiosity took over.
Stepping inside the room, Luz saw one thing. A desk. It made her wonder whose it was, and why it was crammed all the way back here. Pointing her flashlight closer, Luz inspected the old, rusty computer, the messy and crumpled papers, and the weird looking VR headset on top of them. Luz was pretty sure that it wouldn’t work, but something made her want to try.
And in this moment, Luz made one choice that sealed her fate. Putting her flashlight down on the table, she picked up the VR headset and put it on.