"Hello, my daughter."

In response, Celine pushed the hand off and spun around.

She had her suspicions before, but this confirmed them. The man looked as stocky and unruly as ever. Yes, this was definitely her father.

However, that thought didn't give her much immediate comfort either. A list of questions quickly popped up in her head, though she didn't yet voice any of them.

What was he doing here? How long had he been there? And most importantly, why?

Celine cleared her throat, more as a gesture to break the silence than to actually clear her throat. There had to be some explanation, though when her father was usually involved his explanations didn't seem very rational.

"How did you get in my house?" was her first question.

Her father shrugged his shoulders. It was at this point that Celine noticed he wasn't wearing a shirt. Or, if he had been, it was somewhere else that was not on his body. At least the man had the sense to keep some pants on.

"The window."

A simple, yet simultaneously vague answer. Off to a great start, then.

"Which window?" Celine questioned further.

"Upstairs. The back window."

Celine groaned. She knew she couldn't have left that one open. Apparently though, that didn't stop her father from getting in.

"You climbed in from the second floor? Thank you, at least, for not breaking my window," Celine said, though there was no oomph, no graciousness, to her thanks.

She wandered the basement as she felt around for the corner lamp. With a click, the lamp was on and spread an orangey-yellow light around the room.

Her father's figure was better illuminated now, in its full stocky form. He was much taller than her, taller than any person she knew.

For most people, they would probably stare up at him and shriek. Combined with his dark red hair, stubby black horns, and the glow of the lamp, he looked like a demon that had crawled out from a fiery abyss.

Behold, Santana! The terror from the past that came to… sit in her basement.

But Celine didn't dramatically shriek. Instead, she frowned.

"When did you get here?"

"It was dark when I arrived."

Celine sighed and ran her hands through her hair.

"I need to sit down," she said, and so she did. Santana followed, he shuffled up sideways due to his wide frame.

"Why are you here?" she asked as put away her sunglasses on the chairside table.

"I need no reason," Santana replied.

Neither one of them was one for small talk. There was more silence.

"Alright. Keep your reasons a secret, then," Celine said.

There was a faint hiss behind them.

Santana's nose twitched.

"Something is here," he noted.

Celine stood up from her chair.

'What could it be this time?'

Unfortunately her think-session was cut short as a shadowy figure stretched across the wall and onto the floor.

"Behind you-!" Celine said, but something had already struck out from within the shadow. No, the shadow was becoming something else.

It was an inky-black tail that wrapped around Santana's neck and pulled him back into the shadow's image on the floor and wall.

The tail went with him, and the form of the unknown attacker appeared: a mismatched creature with a snake's tail and body, white spikes along its spine and a frog's legs. Other than that, the rest of the creature's body and Santana himself were like that of shadow puppets.

Then, someone behind Celine spoke.

"Hey."

Celine turned around, it was some lady, she didn't even bother to take in the features as she immediately lunged to the invader and glowered down at her.

Back to back to back, people had been throwing all these attacks and inconveniences at her. Could she not have a second of clarity? Not a second of peace of mind between having been thrown around, shot, and stabbed?

"Woah woah," the lady said. "Don't get aggressive."

"Let him go right now," Celine said, even though the sudden appearance of her father wasn't exactly appreciated, this was her home. "Or-"

"You're giving off a lot of anger."

"What did you do to him?"

"He's stuck, but not in any danger."

"You did not answer my question."

"Okay okay. I'm Nora Doutt, self-proclaimed semi-famed cryptid hunter. For the past few months I've been researching this cryptid called the Bluehill Devil. You've heard of it, right?"

"Bluehill? Yes, I have… been there. But what does this have to do with anything?"

"Well, the story goes that in the 50s, there was a demon-like creature appearing at night in the woods of Bluehill. There's no photo proof, but the old locals there swear up and down that the creature is real."

"And…?"

"And since I've spent my whole career searching for cryptids, this one was the next on my list. It's my goal to prove to the whole world that the Bluehill Devil is real! And I've done it! I've really done it!"

The shadow creature's back surfaced out of the darkness, and Nora held onto it. The creature's tail was still wrapped around Santana.

"Hahahah! I'm going to be famous!" she yelled, and the snake began to slither upstairs.

Celine followed after, as the slithery creature moved across the wall to escape Celine's grasp.

It went up the stairs, into one of the rooms, and toward one of the open windows.

'Wait, open windows? Grh, father, you should have closed that!' Celine thought as the Stand creature slithered itself out the window and into the outside.

It was still trying to escape, and Celine pushed herself out of the window and landed with a thud.

"Come back here!" Celine demanded.

She couldn't believe it. In her house for less than 15 minutes and not only had her father been kidnapped by some cryptid hunter but now she had to chase after something again.

It was finally when Celine began the chase that she paid more notice to Nora's features. Her hair was short and curly, and she was dressed in a not-very-explorery outfit. Who wears a crop top, short shorts, and fishnet leggings while cryptid hunting?

This person did, apparently.

Much to Celine's relief, however, the chase didn't last half a day long. Celine put more effort into her stride now, and she was quickly catching up.

With yet another lunge, she knocked Nora off of the Stand and the cryptid fell onto the ground.

"Let. My father. Go."

"Wait… your father?! The Bluehill Devil has a child? This is twice as good, this will get me so much publicity! And to think, all I needed to do was break into someone's house with my ghost cryptid, No Doubt, to do it!"

Celine tried to blind Nora using Sunglasses at Night. Nothing happened. Then Celine realized that in her scramble to follow Nora, she had left the sunglasses on the table.

"Would you take me, then?" Celine asked.

"I think that would be a fair enough trade," Nora said, and No Doubt threw Santana out of the shadows.

But before No Doubt could pull Celine into the shadows in the pillar dad's place, Santana was already glaring down at Nora.

He was not very pleased with what had just happened.

'This is not good,' Celine thought, and grabbed onto Santana from behind in order to stop him from getting closer.

"Stop this, right now," Celine said. She leaned back and lifted her father up in the air by a few feet, but Santana wasn't having any of it.

"Why should I stop? This one has attacked me…" Santana said.

"For the last time, you do not have to fight someone whenever they inconvenience you."

Granted, Nora had just tried to kidnap him but he hadn't seemed to be harmed in the process.

"Not everything is a challenge, you know."

Santana did not reply.

'There he goes again,' Celine thought. 'All silent.'

"I am not letting you go until you promise you will not throw this person onto the next continent."

"Even with my strength, I could not-"

"It was a figure of speech, father. Now promise you will not hurt her."

Silence from Santana, as expected

"Alright, you. Go already," Celine said to Nora, her grip was already becoming weaker and she knew that her father could break out any moment.

Nora scrambled away, but first she had grabbed a small handheld camera and hastily took a picture as she ran in the other direction.

"This'll show them! Everyone will know of the Bluehill Devil's undeniable existence!" Nora said, and then fled away on the back of No Doubt.

Celine dropped Santana and took a breath of relief.

"I could have defeated her," Santana said.

"I know, that was the problem," Celine replied. "I am going back home now."

She turned around and Santana followed. The two of them said nothing all the way back.

Once the two of them were back inside, Celine turned to her father.

"What was that about?" Celine said sharply. "You could have… you could have broken out at any time."

"Yes," Santana replied flatly. "You were unbalanced... open to throwing you forward..."

"I… you are a confusing man, father," Celine said, not quite understanding. Why hadn't he attacked, if he could've done it at any time?

"Now if you excuse me, father," I have a lot of work to do."

She started toward the staircase again, but then, as if the universe wanted to put yet another obstacle between her and work, the doorbell rang.

'Who is it now?' Celine asked, and pulled the front window curtains aside to peek at the visitors.

It was Dani and Rosalinda. Dani was wearing a different scarf today, notably, and Rosalinda was dressed in a plain gray tshirt instead of the overalls.

Celine opened the door.

"What are you two doing here?" she asked.

"What aren't we doing here? I was so worried about you. Also thanks for returning my bike," Dani explained, speaking a mile-a-minute as usual.

"I was worried too," Rosalinda said. "Is it okay if we come in?"

Celine glanced back to Santana.

"I am… busy right now," she said. "How did you two even find my house?"

"We went to the front office and the receptionist had it in your records. Though they're kinda looking for you now," Dani said.

Great, more to deal with later.

Dani peeked over behind Celine.

"Ooh, who's that guy?" he asked. "You have guests over?"

"Just the one," Celine said. "You two can come in. Not like I could stop you anyway."

She stepped aside and Dani immediately rushed up to Santana.

"Woahhhh. Are those horns a costume prop? What's that under your eye?" Dani asked him.

Santana stared down at him wordlessly.

"How about you save the questions for later," Celine said as she stepped between the two. "We should all get settled first."

She closed the door and pulled the curtains closed again.

"One more question, though," Dani said. "Who's this?"

"That would be my father," Celine replied.

"His name is Santana."