Chapter 2

Devil in Disguise

"We're all mad here," said the Cat. "I'm mad, you're mad."

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

"It wasn't a suicide. That much I do know." The green-haired girl said, unable to meet Luz's gaze. She had dark circles under her bloodshot eyes and her glasses, composed of a thin red plastic frame and rounded lenses, sat folded up on the table.

Luz had heard this before, but she didn't have the heart to correct the grieving young woman. She had short green hair and wore a yellow coat over a grey turtleneck and black pants and boots.

She sat across from her in the small booth that the owner of the Owl House had set aside for them in the hotel's small but homey restaurant located on the ground floor next to the lobby.

"I want to thank you for agreeing to meet with me Willow." She said gently.

"I should be thanking you, I'm glad there is finally someone on this island who's asking questions."

Luz tilted her head.

"What do you mean?"

Willow scowled.

"The police have been useless. They hardly did anything to investigate Abagail's death. After they found her, a police officer called me and asked me a few questions, but they seemed…"

She pursed her lips, her eyes flicking upward to the ceiling as if the answer was there.

"Superficial?" Luz offered, pulling her gaze back down to earth as her hand moved to a little bracelet on her wrist, composed of black yarn and a singular green ceramic bead which she pinched between her fingers, moving it up and down the length of the bracelet.

"Yeah." She replied. "They asked where I was when I last talked to her if she had mentioned anything about wanting to hurt herself before. I was told I would be getting a follow-up phone call from a detective but that never happened."

Her gaze hardened and anger flashed in her eyes.

"Then I saw the newspaper article saying it had been ruled a suicide and I couldn't believe it. They hadn't even reached out to her parents or any of her other friends. None of us believed it, and we tried to pressure the police to re-open the case, but they just ignored us. I think they just wanted the whole thing to be over and done with as fast as possible."

Luz nodded in understanding as she wrote on her notepad.

"From what you've told me, you were the one who had the police go to her apartment and check on her, what prompted that?"

"Well, she said she was going over to Raine Whisper's house, she went over there twice a week for private lessons so that wasn't unusual, but she was on edge because just the other day she had gotten into it with one of the local fishermen while she was walking home from class."

"Do you know what the disagreement was about?"

"He must have been catcalling her. She told him to leave her alone. He started shouting. So did she. Same old story." Park said flatly.

"So, this wouldn't have been the first time this happened?"

"Definitely not. She tried to get home before dark for that exact reason."

Luz shook her head as she continued to write as she recalled Lilith's words from last night.

Raine had been missing for a few days already and Abagail had talked to Lilith about it.

Why go to the home of someone you knew wouldn't answer the door?

Luz bit her lip before she set her notepad down on the table as she weighed her options. She knew if she gave the young woman too much information, she may start spiraling and she wouldn't be able to get any more information out of her.

She needed to word this carefully.

"Would there been any place that Abagail would have gone to before or after visiting Raine Whisper's home?"

"Well…" Park began, as she stopped fiddling with the bead on her bracelet.

"I guess she might have gone to Raymond's. We used to meet there with one of our friends back in high school. The owner knows us pretty well."

"What about your other friend? Would she have been there?"

Willow sighed.

"I wouldn't know…we don't talk anymore but if you want to interview her, it might be kind of hard. Her family keeps her busy since they practically run the whole island. Her name is Amity Blight."

Luz didn't write that down.

She didn't need to.

Amity Blight had been on her mind for more than one reason.

The images of her family name scrawled along the inside of a bathtub filled her mind once again as she pocketed her notepad and stood up.

"I'd like to retrace Abagail's steps and see if we can find any clues as to what happened to her before she got back to her apartment. Would you be willing to tag along?"

The green-haired girl nodded and stood up, following Luz out the door.

…

It was a cool sunny morning; the gulls could be heard squawking in the sky above and the last of the fishing armada was heading out to sea for the day while small cars and the occasional moving van rumbled up the street, pulling into a driveway of a house that had a 'Sold' sign in the front yard.

"So have you always been a detective?" Willow asked.

"Just about. I wanted to be a writer when I was a high school, but that didn't work out." Luz replied as she put her hands in her pocket. "Just didn't seem realistic. I thought about being a psych major for a little bit but I didn't think it would be a good fit for me, so I started working to become a P.I instead.

"So, if you could do anything in the world, and you didn't have to worry about money, do you think you'd be a writer? Or would you still be a detective?" Willow wondered.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. I love writing but, I also love helping people." She admitted. "If I had that choice, I don't know what I'd do. How about you?"

"Well, I would move the mainland and study-controlled environment agriculture. Stuff like hydroponics to help with long-term space travel."

Luz smiled at her.

"That's awesome!"

She smiled back, but sadness was visible in her eyes.

"Me, Abagail, and Amity wanted to go to the same university since we were kids. Abagail was going to study engineering and Amity wanted to be a teacher. Once we finished our general classes out here we would all hop on that ferry and…" She explained as her eyes went wide as she looked down the road.

"That's Raine's house." She said, pointing to the house across the street that had no door anymore.

"Stay out here Willow, see if you can get someone to call the police if they haven't already!" Luz said quickly as she pulled her gun and ran across the street.

As she entered the home and saw the state of the entryway, she spat out several curses in Spanish.

The door had been kicked off its hinges and hit the wall with such force that it had embedded itself in the drywall, exposing the house's superstructure. Next to the doorway was a blue pack, tipped on its side ad its contents spilled on the floor. Pencils, pens, and a pair of door stoppers like textbooks detailing material sciences and multivariable calculus.

In the living room, drawers had been pulled out of their cabinets, the couch was cut open and its stuffing was strewn across the floorboards which themselves looked like they had been cracked open in certain spots by a sledgehammer. On the floor was a small picture frame, cracked open like an egg during the ransacking.

A crumpled portrait of an individual with mint green hair wearing a fine three-piece suit while standing on an ornate stage while playing the violin lay on the floor next to it.

Strangest of all was what she found in the kitchen.

The kitchen tiles were riddled with a mixture of dried human blood and a strange iridescent gel, intermixed with pieces of black chitin ranging in size from small splinters to marble-sized chunks.

On the small island in the kitchen was an empty box of shotgun ammo, and two spent shells could be found on the floor, away from the dried blood and the mystery substance. One of the walls was perforated with holes from a point-blank attack with a buckshot shell, the same wall where she had found the chitin chunks.

Luz walked past the kitchen, following bloody footprints towards the master bedroom where she saw three large cuts in the wall, as it made by some giant set of blades and on an adjacent wall was a large dent as if someone had been thrown into the wall before being taken away. Blood and a tuft of mint green hair could be seen on the wood panels but the shotgun was nowhere to be found.

Luz backtracked into the kitchen and looked around to trying to see where the second spray of buckshot had hit before she felt sand run down the back of her shirt.

She looked up and saw the ceiling was riddled with holes and in the center of the carnage was the shotgun, bending through the wooden ceiling in a U shape as if it were made of rubber.

"What the hell…" Luz muttered as she clambered up onto the island and reached for the weapon, even as all of her detective instincts screamed at her to leave it alone.

She couldn't ignore it. She had to know if what she was seeing was real.

Just as her fingertips grazed the gun, its whole form became fuzzy and jittery like the gun was on an old TV set that was being distorted by static. Luz pulled her hand away as a bitter cold rushed up her fingertips and into the core of her arm as the gun's image-stabilized, and she reached out for it again, getting up on her tiptoes as she reached for the weapon before she foot slipped and she almost tumbled off the counter, catching herself at the last second.

As her palm fell onto the granite countertop, she felt a slickness on her palm and lifted her hand, looking over to see water on the counter in a few spots, all in the distinct shape of a shoeprint.

It had stopped raining hours ago, well before she got here.

Which meant that whoever left them might still be here.

As Luz slowly got off the countertop, she heard footsteps and raised her weapon as a figure rounded the corner.

It was Victor. The same man who she had a confrontation with the other day when she had first arrived, but he looked…wrong.

His eyes were bulging and bloodshot and seem to struggle to fixate on her as he approached, unblinking, the folds in his neck seemed to be pulsating and the skin around his skull looked as if it had been stretched too far to fit around his head, like a Halloween mask that was two sizes too small.

In his right hand was a long serrated knife, which he was gripping so tightly his knuckles had turned white.

He inhaled sharply, his breath raspy, as he started walking forward.

"Stop right there," Luz said as she aimed at his chest.

The man continued to advance as he greedily sucked in more air and Luz took a step back

"Victor stop!" She said, turning the disengaging the safety on her gun.

He seemed to slow as if considering whether he was going to heed her warning. Luz watched as his body visibly tense up.

"Stop damn you, I mean it!" Luz shouted, shaking her head.

The man tilted his head and opened his mouth, a stream of blood flowing from his mouth which was full pulverized teeth that fell onto the ground, forced out of his jaw by a set of jagged bones that resembled the teeth of a prehistoric fish more than anything.

As he lunged forward, Luz fired her gun into his chest, all eight rounds found their mark but the detective was forced to duck out of the way and hurriedly reload as Victor crashed into the wall, imbedding his knife into the wood that had been behind Luz only seconds before.

The man ripped the blade out of the wall and turned to charge again but Luz emptied another four rounds into him with three striking his head. Victor fell to the ground with a thud, blood pooling under where what remained of his broken skull fell and Luz stumbled out of the kitchen, setting her gun down on the counter and throwing up in the living room as shouts of panic and confusion could be heard outside, with police sirens already blaring in the distance.

…

Luz sat in a concrete room in the heart of the Bonesburrow Police Department, drumming her shaking fingers against the metal table she was handcuffed to.

This hadn't been the first time she had pulled her weapon on someone, but it was the first time she had been forced to kill.

She understood why the police had elected to detain her until they could figure out whether or not she was a real detective.

As she sat, staring at steel bands around her wrist, she tried to piece together what she had found at Raine's house as the dull pain in the center of her mind started to return and the door to her room opened, revealing a young officer with sandy blonde hair and red eyes walking into the room, a clipboard in hand. He wore black slacks, brown dress shoes, and a dark blue button-up shirt with a red tie under a black vest.

When he looked at Luz who looked down at his clipboard in a brief moment of confusion.

"Luz Noceda?" He asked.

"That's right." She replied.

"Ah, good." He said before he sat down. "My name is Officer Eurig. From now until you leave this island, I will be your point of contact within the Bonesburrow Police Department. If you need to interview anyone, search any building residential or otherwise, or review any documentation stored here or in the city archives, you'll need to talk to me." He explained as he took out a pen and started writing.

"As I'm sure you're aware, anytime someone from Gravesfield Detective Agency uses their weapon while on assignment, company policy dictates they will need to conduct a debrief with a police officer as well as psychological evaluation if said officer deems it necessary. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

The office looked up to meet Luz's gaze, seeing her shake her head before he went back to writing.

"Alright, Ms. Noceda. Talk me through what led up to you entering the home of Raine Whispers…without a search warrant."

"Well, I was retracing the steps of a young woman named Abagail Sutter, trying to understand what she had been doing leading up to her death and how it could be connected to the disappearance of Eda Clawthorne when I saw the door to Raine's home had been kicked in. I ran in to investigate." She summarized, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

You should already know this.

"Alright," Hunter said as he scribbled down notes as fast as he could. "Upon entering the home, what did you find?"

"Exactly what you did Officer Eurig."

The young man raised an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah?"

Luz nodded, a grin appearing on her face as Hunter leaned in.

"Which was?"

"Well, after Eda and Rain had vanished, one of Raine's students had been asking around town if anyone had seen them. That student was Abagail." Luz began.

"At some point, Abagail had left her apartment and went to Raine's home per her weekly routine. Somehow, she had gotten inside and left her bag by the door."

"A bag Ms. Willow Park was able to positively identify after she had run into the home upon hearing the gunshots," Eurig said with an understanding nod.

"Then sometime after she arrived, someone or something attacked the home. Shots were fired and Abagail fled to her apartment, leaving her backpack behind. Which meant someone else was left there to fight for their life while she got away."

"Makes sense, if she was in a stranger's home it's likely she didn't know where weapons were kept. She would have no reason to." Eurig said, glancing at his clipboard before setting it down.

"Exactly, and there's only one other person that could have gotten in. One person who probably wouldn't have drawn any suspicion when they walked in: Raine Whispers."

"A tuft of mint green hair was found in the home, near the sight of a pretty serious struggle. The same mint green hair that they have-"

"In their portrait." Eurig finished with a nod.

"Which means there are only two things we can't explain, who attacked Raine and Abagail in the home and why there was a shotgun stuck in the roof. Questions that have us both stumped." Luz finished as she rested her chin on her hand. "Or are you going to sit there and try to tell me I'm wrong?"

"I will admit, you're good Noceda. That was quite impressive from the youngest PI in Connecticut…except for the part about the shotgun. No idea where you got that from." Eurig told her as she picked up his clipboard and started writing again.

"Seriously? " Luz asked incredulously. "Don't tell me you missed that."

Eurig's gaze hardened.

"I didn't miss that because there was no shotgun, look." He said firmly, pulling a photograph off the clipboard and handing it to Luz who quickly picked it up.

The photo showed the shredded ceiling, but the shotgun itself was nowhere to be found. Not even the holes that would have proven something was stuck in the ceiling were there.

"I-I don't-"

There was a knock at the door and a husky man with thinning black hair stuck his head into the room, looking right at Eurig.

"Hey Hunter, you almost done in here?" He asked.

"Yeah Mac, just finishing up." The young man said as he tore a piece of paper from his clipboard.

"Sorry, Ms. Noceda. I do think I need to have you checked out by a doctor." He said, letting the pink slip fall onto the metal table. Luz scowled at the bold black letters that read:

PHYSCHOLGIACAL EXAMINATION REQUIRED

"That's really not-"

Hunter raised a hand and shook his head before standing up.

"It will take an hour at most, just talk to the shrink. Get them to sign you off. Promise to do that sometime tomorrow and I won't suspend your investigation. Trust me, it'll save us both a huge headache."

Luz sighed and nodded, gritting her teeth as her eyes flicked over to the picture on the table as Hunter scooped it up and pocketed it. Her head was starting to hurt again.

"Alright…"

The young officer smiled politely as he reached down and undid her handcuffs.

"Hey, can you get me something from the police records?"

"That depends, what did you need?" He replied.

"A copy of the autopsy report for Abagail Sutter."

Hunter pursed his lips before nodding.

"I can have it pulled for you. Stop by the front desk on your way out."

"Thank you," Luz said as she stood up and follow him out into the hall where another uniformed officer was waiting.

"Officer Price will escort you back to the front desk. Please call when you get the all-clear from the shrink ok?"

"I will," Luz assured him as she followed the officer down the hall and once they disappeared around the corner Hunter fished out the picture of Raine's kitchen from his pocket, only for Mac to take from him.

"Here, I'll file this away for you. Go ahead and take off. I'll be right behind you." He said, turning around as he started walking towards the records room.

"You sure?" Hunter asked.

"Yeah, I got it." Mac insisted, watching the photo's form shutter as it reverted to its original form, showing a shotgun lodged in the ceiling just as Luz had described.

"You're getting sloppy." Mac hissed as he entered the records room, shooting an accusatory glance at a nearby officer.

"Piss off." He grumbled. "It was the best I could do with the time I had. Illusion spells have never been my specialty anyway."

"Listen, that girl is smart, and the longer she's here, the more likely it is that she'll catch us making a mistake. So we need to be careful unless you want to be the one who has to go explain to the Blight's how badly we fucked up."

"Alright alright, I get it." Steve groaned as Mac held the photo over a metal trashcan he had pulled out from under a nearby desk with his foot, drawing a glowing red circle in the air above the picture, a small smile appearing on his face as the photograph burst into flame and quickly turned to ash between his fingertips.

…

Back at the Owl House, Abagail's autopsy report sat on Luz's desk with Willow's phone number written across the front of the manilla folder. She had insisted that Luz let her help in any way she could as she had scribbled the digits down before heading home for the day.

After taking a deep breath, the detective opened the folder and started scanning through the photographs and documents inside, her eyes homing in on key sections of the report that had been highlighted by someone who worked at the B.P.D.

External Examinations: …Cuts on wrist and forearms consistent with self-inflicted wounds found on individuals who have died by suicide…

Toxicology Report: …Small amounts of alcohol were found in the deceased's system that was likely ingested before the time of death. Common among suicidal individuals…

Cause of Death: Suicide

Remarks: Foam around mouth and nose reported by responding EMS team not found during the autopsy. However, lung weight was recorded as higher than average. EMS team and the first responding officer report that the tub was empty when they arrived with no visible moisture on the inside of the tub to indicate it had been recently drained. Further examination of lung tissue led to the discovery of dark red areas that are telltale signs of collapsed alveoli. I believe further investigation of the deceased's respiratory system was warranted but our colleagues in the police department insisted we expedite the completion of our report so the remains could be released to the Sutter family.

Therefore, the cause of the foam found around the deceased mouth and nostrils paired with higher-than-average lung weight paired with the trauma found when examining the deceased lungs remains undetermined.

…Foam around mouth and nose…

…collapsed alveoli…

…higher-than-average lung weight…

She didn't know what any of that meant.

She didn't even know if she was comprehending what she had been reading correctly.

After all, there was a distinct possibility, she had hallucinated a shotgun being wedged in the ceiling of a small house before she shot a man to death.

She sighed before looking over to the phone and picking it up, slowly dialing in a number she knew she could never forget.

She couldn't trust herself right now, but she knew she could trust her mom.

"Hello! This is Camilla Noceda, I can't come to the phone right now but if you could leave your name and phone number, I'd be happy to return your call."

A shrill beep signaled for Luz to start talking.

"Hey mama, it's me. I'm making progress on my case, but I've hit a wall. I was hoping you could help me understand something. I've been reading this…" She sighed, realizing how worried her mother was going to be when she heard this. "…this autopsy report. It's pretty grim so if you need to relax or go take a walk before you listen to it, stop listening now, ok?" She gave her mother a few seconds to decide, smirking when she realized what her response would be.

"Alright, I'm going to assume you ignored that so here we go…" Luz said as she read through the length of the entire report, stumbling through medical terms she wasn't one hundred percent sure on how to pronounce before finishing with a sigh.

"That's about it. I gotta go shower and have dinner but give Vee a kiss and a hug for me when you see her next ok? Deja una luz puesta para mi, te quiero."

After putting the phone back on the hood, Luz closed the folder and tossed it back onto the top of her desk before leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes, trying to push the images of Abagail's lifeless face and Victor's bulging out of her mind as the dull pain in her head returned.

She had dealt with enough death for today.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the clock, it was almost five.

Her thoughts drifted back to the teal-haired girl from the other day.

Amity.

Amity Blight.

Blight

"What is going on in this town?" Luz asked herself out loud as she looked over to her lamp. A lump forming in her throat.

"A young detective meeting up with a cute girl in a town full of secrets." She said reaching over and pulling on the small gold chain, turning the lamp

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Almost instantly, a small light in a nearby building flicked on and off several times. Luz grinned and slowly got up, opening her bag and looking for an outfit to change into as she tried to convince herself that this was still for the case.

…

Luz stood outside the Owl House, leaning up against a streetlight as she waited for Amity to arrive. She had changed into a tucked-in yellow button-up shirt with a white collar and a sky-blue vest over it. Trading her black leggings and run-down black boots for white high-tops and a pair of faded jeans, leaving behind her signature beanie in favor of a blue hair clip with a daisy on it.

After looking herself over for any unnoticed wrinkles or stains and trying to tame her hair, which was getting whipped around by the evening breeze, she heard heels clicking against the cobblestone and looked up to see a lavender haired gold eyed girl rounding the corner.

Amity was wearing grey heeled boots with brown spats on the heel and toe, black tights with a grey pleated skirt combined with a tucked-in blouse covered in red, yellow, and blue stripes underneath a black V neck. As she approached, the air around her became fuzzy and Luz could see that there was worry in her eyes.

"Hey, Luz." She said warmly before her smile twisted itself into a frown.

"I heard about what happened with Victor from my dad, are you ok?"

Luz nodded quickly, her voice a touch shaky.

"Yeah, just a little rattled is all."

Amity took a step closer to her and Luz's pulse noticeably quickened.

"You know we don't have to do this right now." She told her.

"Honestly, if I wasn't going to be out and about with you, I'd be cooped up in my room and I'd be miserable," Luz replied.

Amity's smile returned.

"Well, let's do our best to keep your mind off it then."

Luz nodded before putting her arms behind her back.

"I like what you did with your hair. It looks pretty."

"Thanks! I woke up this morning and decided I wanted to try something a little different today." She explained. "I gotta say your outfit is really cute."

"Aw well, not as cute as yours. On paper, I would be skeptical but in person, it just works." Luz replied.

"You think so?" She asked before doing a little twirl show-off.

I gotta find a way to get her to do that again. Luz thought as Amity's golden eyes found their way back to her.

"Definitely," Luz said, perhaps a little too enthusiastically.

Perhaps it was the soft glow of the streetlight, but she could swear the lavender-haired girl was blushing. After standing in silence for a few seconds, Amity gestured towards the town as if she was revealing the grand prize for some popular game show.

"So, you ready for the VIP tour?"

Luz smiled at the theatrics and extended an arm.

"Oh yeah. Shall we?"

"We shall," Amity replied, linking arms with her as they started walking down the street.

…

The two found themselves in a restaurant called Raymond's, a place that Amity had assured Luz had the best milkshakes on the island, tucked into a corner booth clearly meant for larger groups.

Modeled after a 50s era dinner, The restaurant sat on a street corner and overlooked town square, where city hall sat, adjacent to the library. In the center of the square was a small park where a bronze statue of a fisherman getting ready to throw a harpoon could be seen, flanked by a man in a sailor's uniform and a little girl in a flowing dress.

"Oh, I'm sorry Luz, I didn't realize that you didn't get a menu. Here, we can share." Amity said, her voice drawing the brown-eyed girl's gaze back inside as she scooted over.

"The two pages are all shakes?" Luz asked.

"The first three pages." Her companion clarified, flipping to the next section of the menu to reveal yet more selections for her to agonize over.

"I'm partial to the classics, chocolate, strawberry, cookies, and cream but the reason why Ray is famous is the house specials," Amity explained, her finger pointing to the bottom of the page.

The Nautilus: Vanilla ice cream and salted caramel surround a Biscoff cookie shaped like the legendary submarine, locked in battle with a fearsome sour gummy squid! A supposed favorite among submarine captains and book worms.

Witch's Brew: a mix of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with caramel swirls and fudge brownie chunks. A Raymond's Classic since opening. Now infused with dark magic for that extra sweetness!

Catch of the Day!: Blended pineapple, papaya, and spinach topped with fried shrimp to create a unique (and dairy-free) shake like no other. Popular with the locals!

"That last one is…different," Luz said flatly.

"Oh, that's not even the weirdest one here, where's the Shark Chum Shake," Amity muttered as she took a closer look at the menu.

"Chum?" Luz asked as a man with slick black hair walked up with a notepad in hand.

"Hey, there Am."

The lavender-haired girl looked up and smiled.

"Ray!"

"In the flesh." He said proudly as Amity sprung up and hugged him.

"Haven't seen you in a while kiddo, how you been?" He said gently hugging her back.

"I've been good, busy, but good." She replied, breaking off the hug.

"Your folks are keeping your busy I bet," Ray said as she scooted across the booth back over to Luz.

"Oh yeah," Amity said, eyes going wide as she nodded, while Ray turned his attention to Luz.

"Haven't seen you around before."

"Oh, this is my friend Luz. She's here with a friend, all the way from the mainland." Amity explained as Luz waved to the man.

"Are we waiting on your friend, or could I get your orders going?"

Luz shook her head.

"My friend isn't feeling too great actually, they're back at the hotel." She explained before looking to Amity. "I'm ready when you are though."

Amity nodded and looked up at Ray.

"I'll have my usual."

"One smokehouse burger with fries and a Witch's Brew shake it is," Ray said as he jotted down the order. "How bout you, Luz?"

"I'll have the Scorpionfish burger with onion rings, and The Nautilus Shake."

Ray nodded as he pocketed his notepad.

"I'll have those right out for you." He said as he walked away.

"He seems cool," Luz said, looking to Amity.

"He is, I've known him since middle school. Me and my friends used to come here a lot, like after football games, or after homecoming, or when we were studying for finals." She explained, smiling fondly as she looked at the little jukebox sitting in the center of the table.

"That sounds awesome, this does seem like a cool place to hang out," Luz said.

"It is, what about you? You have a favorite hangout spot when you were younger?"

"Not really, I didn't have a lot of friends growing up. While everyone went off to prom, I stayed home and watched Tinker Belle with my little sister." Luz said, taking out her phone and pulling up a selfie the pair had taken that night.

"How cute." Amity cooed.

"You have any siblings?" Luz asked.

"Yeah, two. I'm the youngest."

"Oldest," Luz said proudly as Ray arrived with their food, the smell of bacon, barbecue sauce and fried fish wafted through the air as he set the plates, disappearing as quickly as he arrived.

"Thanks, Ray!" Amity beamed as she plucked a fry from her plate and dipped it in her shake as her eyes scanned the jukebox song listing.

"Let's see if Ray actually put some electro swing in her like he said he would." She muttered.

"You dip your fries in your milkshakes?" Luz asked, disbelief in her voice.

Amity looked over at her.

"Problem?" She asked, an eyebrow raised.

Luz shook her head.

"No! I do the same thing! People think I'm crazy!"

"They're crazy for not trying it!" Amity countered before looking back at the jukebox and smiling. "Yes! I love this one." She said, entering the song code.

Electro swing?

Dipping her fries in milkshakes?

Be still my beating heart. Luz thought.

Watch her be straight. A nagging voice at the back of her head snarked.

Shut up brain. She snapped as Amity started dancing to the beat of Caravan Palace's Comics while she sipped on her milkshake.

The rest of their time together seemed to fly by, after they both inhaled their burgers, they talked at length about their favorite books, The Good Witch Azura series being one of them, leading to a heated debate about the most recent installment.

"I'm just saying Hecate should have told Azura what was going with her curse because if she did, she never would have never been captured and Sir Gary Vorphox would still be alive!"

"Vorphox knew the risks when he left Haven City to travel with them. Plus, Hecate was scared about how Azura would react to the fact that by asking for her help on the quest, she had doomed her to die twenty years early."

"Azura deserves to know, how do you think she would react knowing that she was inadvertently killing the woman she loves. There should be no secrets between two people in a relationship. Everyone knows that."

"Oh yeah I agree, but let's be honest, how often do people do what they know is the right thing and I don't mean just morally. I mean stuff like getting eight hours of sleep, staying hydrated, communicating openly with your partner, quitting a job you hate even though you'd have to take a pay cut. The list goes on." Amity replied with a shrug.

"Alright, you got me there," Luz admitted as Amity yawned and looked over at the clock.

"As much fun as this is, I should probably walk you back, it's getting late, and I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning."

Luz frowned.

"You feeling, ok? You know you didn't have to come all the way out here if you weren't feeling well."

Amity pursed her lips as she scooted her empty milkshake away from her.

"Well physically I'm fine I just…when I was a kid, I got into a really bad car accident and I still have night terrors about it, so I have to go talk to a therapist once a week."

"Oh geez, I'm sorry. That must be really rough."

"It's ok Luz, I'm honestly kind of used to it by now. Plus, it's nice to have someone to talk to about them…anyway, you ready to go?"

Luz nodded and stood up as Amity fished a hundred-dollar bill out of her purse and deposited it on the table.

"Hey Ray, we're heading out. Can you call my parents for me and tell them I'm going to walk Luz back to The Owl House? That way they can meet me there?"

"Sure thing kiddo! Hey, don't be a stranger, ok? Come back soon!"

"I will I promise!" She said, linking arms with Luz as they walked out the front door together.

As Ray watched them go as he picked up the phone and dialed the number that was written on a post-it note that had been slapped to the side of the aging machine, scratching at the side of his neck as he waited for someone to pick up

…

When they arrived back at The Owl House, the pair came to a stop at the same light post they had met under just hours before.

"Thanks for hanging out," Luz said, slowly pulling her arm away from her companion who smiled at her.

"Of course! I haven't been able to have a night like this in a long time, so this was nice."

"That's great!" Luz said as she rocked back and forth on her heels. "So would it be weird to ask for a hug?"

Amity couldn't shake her head fast enough, getting up on her tiptoes wrapping her arms around the girl who was just a few inches taller than her, squeaking and giggling when Luz gently pulled her forward and almost made them both fall over.

"By the way, that one menu trick was pretty smooth. Kind of jealous I didn't think of that." Luz told her, testing the waters.

Amity chuckled, her warm breath on Luz's neck gave her goosebumps.

"I'm glad you approve."

"Well, I'm glad you're glad," Luz replied as Amity squeezed her just a little tighter, humming happily when she felt the warmth radiating off her before a car horn made them both jump.

The two quickly broke apart, with Amity looking over to a black car sitting in the road and huffing before she smiled apologetically at her friend.

"I gotta go."

Luz nodded in understanding.

"It's ok. See you around Am."

"See ya!" She called out as she ran over and jumped into her family's car, leaving Luz to walk back into the Owl House, feeling light as a feather, completely unaware that she was being watched.

From a nearby rooftop by a tall humanoid creature with a chitinous exoskeleton and abnormally long limbs looked down on her. As Luz disappeared into the lobby, it jumped off the roof and slowed as it arced through the air, suspended in the moonlit sky as its form shifted from three dimensional to two, its various body parts reverting to basic shapes that were lined with an iridescent glow. Circles and ovals that folded on in each other like paper until the creature was nothing but a black dot in the sky that slowly turned red before vanishing with a small but bright flash, leaving no trace of its presence in its wake.

…

A.N- Another chapter up! Everyone seems to be liking it so far. It's super cool that this hundred-year-old collection of strange and horrifying stories and the elements in them can inspire so much unease in people especially when we see characters we know and love on a collision course with said elements. I hope I do the Mythos justice when all is said and done.

Thanks for reading guys, see you tomorrow!