Chapter Text
A new day had dawned, and the residents of the Owl House were enjoying a nice breakfast while King watched something on Luz's phone.
How is that possible, you might ask? The reason is that the portal is kept about halfway open to let the Wi-Fi signal through, but let's get back to the story at hand.
King was enjoying a video, while Luz was observing a flower as she drew a glyph on a sheet of paper.
"Come on! Work this time..." Luz groaned as she tapped the glyph; a blue flower sprouted from the paper, much to her delight.
"Yes! Check it out, King: my glyph skills are blossoming!" Luz said, picking the flower and sniffing it, humming at the sweet scent.
"You think that's impressive? Check this out! Two warriors battling to the death!" King said as Luz walked over to the couch to look at the video.
The two "warriors" were actually cute kittens, and their "fight to the death" was nothing more than an explosion of feline cuteness.
"Well, I see you've discovered the bottomless black hole of cuteness known as 'kitten videos'." Luz said to King, a look of amusement on her face.
"Senseless violence. Yes, attack! Death is your god!" King shouted, paying no attention to Luz as he focused on the "death match."
"I regret teaching you about the Internet." Luz remarked dryly.
"Oh, don't make me laugh! Hah! What possible regrets could come from the Internet?" King asked, before reading something aloud: "Oh! Did you know that the Earth is actually flat?"
"Yep, that's not right." Luz said deadpan, snatching the phone away from King. Her phone buzzed, and Luz saw a message from her mother pop up on the screen.
How's camp today, cariño? <3, Mamá
Luz sighed, hating it when her mother asked her questions like that.
"Hey, I was using that!" King shouted angrily at Luz.
"Sorry, my mom just texted me, and I... I hate lying to her." Luz sighed.
"Then tell her the truth." King suggested simply.
"Ugh! What am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Mom, not at camp actually! I'm in the demon realm learning to be a witch! Also, did you know demons and magic are real?'" Luz asked with feigned cheerfulness, before dropping the act to reveal her despair. "She. Will. End me."
Luz stared at her phone, unsure of the right thing to do.
"Everybody told me witch stuff's dangerous, I guess I didn't believe it until now" Luz sang, overcome with despair, before lifting her head to look at Eda’s wanted poster "Eda always seemed apprehensive, and now she's really freaking out" she looked back down at her phone "What do I do? I don't want that for you..."
The phone began to ring but, although with a moment of existence, Luz began scrolling through photos on her phone, pictures she had taken of Eda and King "Everybody tells me life is precious on the Human Realm, and that means you..." Luz sang, thinking of Eda’s Owl Beast form.
"And I have to protect you, what if somehow you get hurt? What do I do? I don't want that for you..."
As if to make her feel guilty, the phone started ringing again at that moment.
Luz stared at the call button, the one she could use to tell her mother everything, to put an end to the lies...
"Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh..."
Then she thought back to the Warden Wrath who had beheaded Eda "What am I going to tell you? You're better off not knowin' the trouble I'm in" Luz continued, recalling how Adegast had manipulated her...
"I don't want you to worry, about what I've just seen, about where I've just been"
...to the Owl Beast that was hunting...
"You don't have to be a part of this, I don't think I want you to be..."
...to Amity sending a giant Abomination after her...
"You don't need this, you don't need me..."
...to the demon hunters throwing her and her friends off a cliff...
The phone started ringing again, for a third time, but Luz was so immersed in her thoughts, memories and traumas that she didn't notice "Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh... Ooh-ooh..."
Otabin stitching her and Amity into a book, the detention room trying to eat her... the Bat Queen chasing her through the woods... Piniet’s cage shrinking around her and King, the Slitherbeast lunging at her... the Greater Basilisk trying to eat her... Tibbles’s little magical beasts trying to tear her, Willow, King, and Gus to pieces... Inner Willow trying to set her and Amity on fire...
She felt that if she told her mother any of this, her mom would have a heart attack and forbid her from ever returning to the Boiling Isles, something Luz couldn't afford to let happen...
In the end, Luz simply decided to send her a...
👍
"Ah, a severed hand! Perfect response for your dear mother." King remarked.
"You know what? I have to get to school; I can't worry about this right now," Luz said, getting up from the floor and handing her phone to King "Don't spend all day watching MewTube, 'kay?" she planted a quick kiss on King’s skull, grabbed her backpack, and headed out of the house.
"I forge my own path!" King declared, before going right back to watching kitten videos. "Heheh, what a dum-dum."
"WHY DID YOU CUT MY DIALOGUE?!" screamed the Lovecraftian abomination known as Hooty, making King jump right off the couch.