Chapter Text
Gravesfield isn’t a big town by any measure. It’s population barely exceeds 5,000. No major highways pass through. If Vee had Camila’s car keys, it probably would have taken her no more than fifteen minutes to get home.
But that’s a pretty big “if.”
Vee sighed as she trudged along the side of a winding road in the middle of the night on Halloween. Her phone had long since ran out of power, so all she had to light her way was the moon’s soft glow. Whatever, she thought. It’s not like there’s anything worth looking at. A wall of bare oak trees lined either side of the pavement, their leaves crunching under her steps. The cold autumn breeze whistled its foreboding tune.
Any normal teenager would be well within their right to panic at just the idea of this scenario. It sounds like something ripped straight from a slasher film. For Vee, this isn’t even the scariest thing that happened to her in the past hour. Images of Hunter’s body, deformed and scarred from being possessed by Emperor Belos, flashed through her head. She could still feel Amity’s arm slamming into her stomach as the witch scooped her up, saving her from being crushed by a spiny tentacle. It’s going to take a little more than a spooky walk in the dark to rattle her.
But her eyelids were struggling to stay open. And her feet were numb. And her legs were sore. And she was cold. And thirsty. And she still had another three miles to go. And she didn’t know how she would be able to do this. And—
Vee’s inner monologue was interrupted by a bright glare and the growing hum of an engine. She turned around and was immediately blinded by the headlights of a car. Stepping onto the grass, she watched as it cruised past her before screeching to a halt a few yards away.
“You okay there?” the driver asked, opening their door and poking their head out.
“Uh, yeah,” Vee responded, though not very convincingly. She walked forward, too tired to put together why that nasally voice sounded so familiar.
“If you’re heading downtown, I can give you a ride.”
“Thanks, but I live over by—”
“Hey, weren’t you at the Historical Society last week?”
Vee stopped in her tracks. Now much closer to the car, she could clearly make out Masha’s face.
Masha. The person Vee met at summer camp. The person who slept in the bunk below her for three months. Who was the first human friend she ever made. Who she hadn’t really seen since August. Whose hair smelled of rosemary and mint. Whose smile was infectious. Whose laugh was like a wolf’s howl. Who had no idea who Vee actually was, since they had only ever seen her when she was pretending to be Luz.
That’s who was offering her a ride home.
Vee forced a smile, trying to keep her composure. “Yep! Your name’s Masha, right?”
“That’s me! What are you doing out here so late?”
“I, uh,” Vee muttered, rubbing her fingers together. “I was coming back from the graveyard? Wanted to see if I could spot any ghosts.” That forced smile was starting to hurt. “I thought the bus would still be running this late.”
Masha didn’t even flinch. “Cool! Did you see any?”
“Not this time.”
“Aw, that’s a bummer.” They folded their arms on the hood of their car, giving them a spot to rest their head. “I would have loved to go ghost hunting, but I had to run the haunted hay ride. Are you sure I can’t give you a ride? It’s really late.”
Vee looked at her watch. It was already half past eleven. And how could she turn down a ride from Masha?
“Actually, yeah, that would be great. It’s a little out of the way, though.”
Masha beamed, and Vee couldn’t help but smile as well. “Great! That’s all good, I’m always down for a drive. Hop in.”
The cracked vinyl of Masha’s passenger seat crinkled as Vee got into the sedan. She gave them her address as they shifted the clutch into drive.
“I don’t actually think I ever got your name,” said Masha, pressing play on the stereo. It took the car a second to respond before My Chemical Romance blasted through the speakers.
“Sorry, yeah. I’m Vee.” She stifled a yawn.
“Oh nice! Like, short for Victoria? Or Venomous?”
“No, just Vee,” she chuckled nervously. “I’m the, uh, youngest of five siblings.” Now was probably not a great time to tell Masha that her real name was Number 5 and she was actually a basilisk, a once-extinct shapeshifting reptilian species from the Boiling Isles that Emperor Belos brought back to torture and experiment on. That might take a while.
“Right, like the Roman numeral.” Masha turned the stereo down a few notches. “Mine’s so lame. I was named after my great aunt, who I never even met because she died like three years before I was born. I kind of want to change it to something cool, like Spider or Gertrude.”
“I don’t know, I kind of like Masha. It’s pretty.”
They grinned. “You think so?”
“Yeah. I’ve never met anyone named Masha before.”
“Well I’ve never met anyone named Vee before.”
“Fair enough.” Vee’s leg bobbed up and down. Talking to them didn’t used to be this awkward. Back at summer camp, she was basically cosplaying as Luz full-time. It wasn’t actually her life, so she wasn’t afraid of embarrassing herself or saying the wrong thing. But now, with her own name and identity and personality, everything felt more important. Like the stakes were real. The wave of exhaustion
“So, um, how long have you been at the Historical Society?” she asked after a few uncomfortable moments.
“Only a couple of months.” Masha had rolled the window down, and their arm rested on the doorframe. “It’s cool. I’m the head curator, so I basically get to do whatever I want.”
“Aren’t you, like, in high school?”
“Yeah, after Jacob went off the rails, nobody else wanted the job. Which is a shame, because Gravesfield actually has some fascinating history. Most people think about Salem being the witch capital of the world, but Gravesfield started holding witch trials decades before they did. Not that I think arresting and executing innocent women is something to be proud of. But you can’t just ignore something like that. Honestly, that was my biggest problem with Jacob, besides the fact that he was just super weird. All of his exhibits glossed over anything problematic about our town’s history, like the popularity of witch hunters and our role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. One of my main goals as the new curator of the Gravesfield Historical Society is to examine all the parts of our past, even the racist and sexist and ableist parts, but with a more critical lens that takes accountability for what happened. Because you can’t expect things to get better if you just pretend like nothing bad happened in the first place. You get what I’m saying?”
“Totally,” Vee lied, still trying to keep her eyes open. “You really know your stuff.”
Masha smiled. “Thanks! Sorry if I’m boring you. I’m just really passionate about this stuff. Especially anything to do with witchcraft.”
“You’re not boring me! I think that’s really neat.” Vee smoothed out the wrinkles in her pant leg. “You know, I’ve actually met a few witches myself.”
Masha whipped their head around to stare at Vee with dinner plates for eyes. How could they still be so animated this late at night? “Wait, really?” they said before bringing their attention back to the road. “Like, actual witches doing actual magic?”
“Yep! They’re kind of my best friends.”
“That’s amazing! I’m training to be a witch myself. Just tarot cards to start, but hopefully I can start doing charms and hexes soon.”
Through the window, Vee noticed that they were turning onto her street. “Maybe you could tell me more about it sometime? I remember you saying something about a tour of Gravesfield.”
“Absolutely!” chirped Masha, their face lighting up. “How about tomorrow? The Historical Society is closed during the week, so I’ll be free after school.”
“That works for me.”
“Great! It’s a date.”
“I, uh, yeah,” Vee stuttered, her face turning bright red.
“Here,” Masha said, unlocking their phone before handing it to Vee. “Put your number in the contacts. I’ll text you tomorrow morning.”
Vee took the phone and typed in her information. Looking out the window, she spotted the red brick chimney of Camila’s house. “Oh, that’s me up ahead,” she noted. “The one on the right.”
Masha turned into Camila’s driveway and put the car in park. They peered at the house through the windshield, a realization forming on their face.
“Wait,” they said. “Isn’t this Luz Noceda’s house?”
Vee gulped. She had completely forgotten about the time Masha and their rest of their friend group came over to hang out a few days after camp ended. A more alert and less preoccupied Vee would have had the foresight to lie about her address. Maybe she could have asked to be dropped off a few doors down and walk the rest of the way. Too late for that now.
“Um…yeah. We’re cousins. That’s why I moved to Gravesfield, so I could live with her and Ca—my aunt.”
“Oh.” Masha’s face fell. They tapped the steering wheel anxiously.
“Are you alright?”
They snapped out of it and turned down the stereo until the music was barely audible. “Yeah, sorry. It’s just… Luz and I used to be really close. We met last summer at sleepaway camp. We were, like, inseparable. Aster and Miguel too, the other kids in our cabin. But ever since school started, I feel like I’ve barely seen her. And whenever we’d run into each other, she always seemed so distant. I don’t know if it’s something I did, or maybe something happened. Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be telling you all this.”
“It’s okay,” said Vee, looking away. If anything, I should be the one apologizing. Once Luz and her friends arrived from the Boiling Isles, things started moving really fast. Her life instantly went from keeping up appearances as Camila’s only daughter to forming a new identity and helping her new friends adjust to living in the Human Realm. Anything that didn’t involve Luz, Willow, Gus, Amity, or Hunter fell to the wayside. That included all the friends and connections she had made that summer. Especially Masha. And there was no way Luz had the time or energy to hang out with someone she’d never even met before.
“I think Luz is just going through a lot right now,” she offered, remembering the cover story Camila had told her to use earlier. “Her bisabuela has been really sick. That’s really why I had to walk home: Luz and her mom were my ride, but there was some emergency and they had to go check on her.”
“Goddess, that sucks.” Masha still looked hurt, but a little less guilty. “I had no idea. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks, yeah,” Vee played along before yawning. “It’s late. I should probably head in.”
Masha nodded, and Vee stepped out of the car. “Thanks again for the ride.”
“Anytime.” Vee was about to close the door when they added: “Hey, um, Vee?”
“Yeah?”
“Once Luz comes back, can you tell her I said hi? And that I miss her?”
Vee ran her fingers through her hair, itching her scalp. “Yeah. Of course.”
“Thanks,” Masha sighed, a small smile returning to their face. “See you tomorrow.”
Vee watched the car back out of the driveway and disappear into the night.