Epilogue: Through the Portal Again
The sound of the alarm clock buzzing roused Luz from her slumber. She sat up from her place on the top bunk, groggily checking the time on her phone. It was still fifteen minutes before her own alarm was due to sound and she was caught between turning it off or laying back down to get just a little more rest.
From the lower bunk, Vee got up and silenced the clock. Luz stared down at her doppelgänger for a moment, slightly confused. But then the memories of the preceding day all came flooding into her mind and she was suddenly wide awake. Throwing her blanket off of herself, Luz slid down the ladder and went to give Vee a big hug.
"Mornin' sis!" She joyously exclaimed, letting out a giggle. "It is so cool that I can say that now!"
She let Vee go and went to hurry downstairs where she'd no doubt find her mother preparing breakfast. The first thing she noticed as she stepped out of her bedroom was a delicious aroma coming from downstairs. With quite a bit of pep in her step, she made her way down to the kitchen. She heard the sound of her mother's smartphone playing music over the speaker stand she kept on the counter. As she entered the kitchen, Luz danced a little to the rhythm and worked her way over to her mother, giving her a good morning kiss on the cheek.
"Buenos días, Mamá." She chirped.
Camila pulled Luz in for a hug. "Buenos días, bebé." She said, giving Luz a smooch on the forehead in return. "Oh, it is so good to have you back home!"
"I'm really happy to be back too." Luz replied. "It was so nice to sleep in my own room again!"
"So I noticed. I had to go peek in on you when I woke up this morning." Camila told her. "After all the things that went on yesterday, I was worried it had all been a dream. But it made me so happy to see you in your room." She continued, looking over at the doorway where Vee was standing. "Both of you. Vee, Mija, come over here and get a hug from your mamá."
Vee didn't need to be told twice. She hurried over and gave her adoptive mother a hug. Camila happily returned the embrace, Luz joining in as well. After a couple of moments, the three separated and Camila instructed her daughters to go sit down at the table and start eating while she kept cooking. Luz was delighted to see there was already some food set out for them to enjoy. Two plates of freshly cooked maduros.
Luz was in her seat in the blink of an eye. She gazed at her food, her eyes sparkling in joy and a tiny bit of drool leaking out the corner of her mouth. A split second later she was stuffing her face, eating with the passion of an anime protagonist. Vee meanwhile was a bit puzzled by the choice of food and looked up at Camila instead of sitting down to eat.
"Maduros for breakfast?" She asked.
"I wanted to do something special to celebrate Luz being home again." Camila explained. "I'm also going to make some omelets too. Do you want your usual add-ins, Cariño?"
"Yes please." Vee answered, heading to join at the table. As she sat down she wrinkled her nose a little at the sloppy way Luz was eating. "Wow, your table manners are really bad."
"Sawwy." Luz replied, her mouth full. She took a moment to finish chewing and swallowed her food. "Sorry. It's just been such a long time since I've had maduros. You have no idea how much I've missed our mom's cooking!"
She resumed stuffing her face, polishing off her maduros in no time. Shortly after cleaning that plate, Camila brought her over a fresh omelet with onions, diced ham and jalapeños. Luz set to work on her new food with just as much enthusiasm while Camila got her a glass of orange juice. Vee pouted a little from the attention Luz seemed to be getting and Camila quietly let out a giggle at the sight.
Camila poured some freshly mixed eggs into the pan and went to get a special something from the fridge for Vee. Since she wasn't lactose intolerant, she got to enjoy the little things which neither Camila or Luz could eat. Such as a home made parfait with yogurt made at a local dairy. It was something she had gotten to try thanks to one of her friends from camp. The moment Camila brought out the tasty concoction, Vee's eyes lit up and her pout vanished immediately.
A short while later, after everyone's meals had been consumed, the three Nocedas went to get ready for the day. Vee and Luz offered to clear the table and wash the dishes, allowing their mother first use of the shower. Then Vee went to freshen up, followed by Luz who for a change took more than three minutes to wash herself. The girls then got dressed in their favored outfits, Luz stashing her Hexside uniform into her bag, planning to do a quick change when she got to Eda's.
The remaining time they had before needing to leave was spent back in the kitchen. Camila had her favorite playlist on her phone again while she and her daughters worked together to prepare their lunches. Luz had been hard pressed on what to have, caught between some leftovers in the fridge and the tasty temptation of something freshly made by her mother. In the end, she packed a couple containers out of the fridge along with a BLT prepared with love by Camila. Once her food was tucked away in her lunch bag, Luz grabbed her school bag from upstairs and went to the back door.
"I'm gonna go on ahead!" She called, opening the door and peeking outside. "I'll be just a teensy bit past the tree-line, okay?"
"Okay, Mija." Camila replied from her own room. "Vee and I will be there in a minute."
Luz did another check to be certain that the neighbors weren't looking and then she went out the door, crossing the backyard quickly. She made it to the edge of the woods, going a short way in until she could no longer had a clear view of the houses. While she waited for her mom and Vee, Luz took out her phone and played a long overdue level of Candy Crunch. It felt like it had been an eternity since she had been able to connect to anything online with her phone and she had a lot to catch up on. There was also a long list of unwatched episodes of various anime on her Crispyroll account that she'd be starting on after school.
That brought a smile to Luz's face. The thought of getting to return home after a day at Hexside was just the best. Maybe she could see about having her friends over sometime soon, so she could share the things she loved with the people she loved. Especially one in particular who she couldn't wait to invite over. Maybe even as soon as the next day, Amity could manage to spare enough time out of her busy schedule. Now that was making Luz start to feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
"Thinking about your girlfriend?"
After letting out a startled cry and fumbling with her phone, Luz found Vee standing nearby. Her doppelgänger turned adopted sister seemed somewhat amused at the moment. Luz paid it no mind and put her phone back into her pocket.
"As a matter of fact, yes I was." Luz said. "I'm planning to ask our mom if I could have my girlfriend and a couple of our friends over soon. Hey, where is Mom? Is she still getting ready?"
"She got a call from Abuela." Vee answered. "She said she'd only be a few more minutes."
"Aw, I want to talk to Abuela!" Luz whined. "Wish I had known she was gonna call!"
"I said hi for you, uh… as you, for what it's worth." Vee told her. "And couldn't you always just call you on your phone?"
"Oh yeah, dug." Luz replied, bopping herself on the forehead with her palm. "It's been so long since I used my phone to actually call someone that I kinda forgot."
"But isn't that the whole reason they make them?" Vee asked, barely suppressing a giggle. "Although I can't really talk since I still don't get how they work. You can do so much with them it's kinda crazy."
"If you want, I can teach you a few things." Luz offered. "As your big sister, it's my duty to help you with that sort of stuff."
"Pretty sure that I'm older than you." Vee deadpanned. "But thanks. It will be nice to get to spend time with you. So… do you really need to go back to that place so you can go to the demon realm again?"
"I guess." Luz answered with a shrug. "Never really thought about it. But I do like using that old house anyway. It's hidden and kinda gives the whole thing that fantasy vibe that I love so much."
"Well I don't love it all." Vee said, shuddering a tiny bit. "I do not like that place."
Luz gasped. "Oh farts, I forgot that is where that creep caught you."
"Please don't bring it up." Vee requested. "I don't want to think about it."
"Hey, it's okay." Luz said, stepping up to her. "You'll be with our mom and me. Nothing is going to happen to you. Come on, I'll show you it's safe."
She held out her hand to Vee, who stared at her hesitantly. Then Vee reached out to take Luz's hand and Luz began guiding her to the old, abandoned house. Unlike the preceding day, Vee wasn't as confident without Camila by her side and started to drag her feet the closer they got. Luz gave her and encouraging tug and got her the rest of the way onto the front porch of the empty building. Vee reluctantly followed Luz further still after she opened the front door and pulled her inside.
"See? Not a big deal at all." Luz pointed out.
Vee whimpered softly and pointed to something up near the ceiling. Luz looked up and saw a camera had been mounted at an angle that gave it a view of the entryway. A scowl appeared on her face for a moment before she got a mischievous idea. Motioning for Vee to come a little closer, Luz stepped to be front and center of the camera's field of vision and initiated her plan.
Luz began making faces at the camera. She pulled down her lower eyelids and stuck out her tongue, making mocking noises. Then she stuck her thumbs in her ears, waggled her fingers and blew a big raspberry. This was followed by her hooking her index fingers into the corners of her mouth and pulling them back while she waggled her tongue and made more annoying noises. And Vee mimicked each and every one of them with her, quickly forgetting her anxiety.
Another idea popped into Luz's head and she suddenly dashed out of the house. After almost half of a minute she returned with several small rocks piled up in her arms. She split them with Vee and pointed to the camera before tossing one of her rocks at it, missing by a couple inches. Vee followed suit, hers missing by a slightly larger margin, to her disappointment.
The two girls kept throwing their rocks at the camera until they exhausted their respective piles. Some of their throws had hit their target, but hardly any damage had been done. The quickly gathered up the stones from the floor to try again, this time with better results. The sound of stone hitting metal sounded more frequently than before and then Vee managed a bullseye with one well aimed throw. Her stone had hit the lens of the camera dead on, leaving it with a spiderweb of cracks.
"Nice one, sis!" Luz commented, raising her hand. "High five!"
As the two celebrated their little victory with a slap of their hands, Camila stepped into the old house. She raised an eyebrow at her two daughters before realizing just what they had been doing. The sight of the new, and now damaged, camera infuriated her. Letting out a soft growl she stepped over to where the camera was mounted, pulling a small spray can out from her bag. After giving it a vigorous shake, Camila sprayed over the lens with black paint.
"Feel free to put up more cameras." Camila said, a satisfied grin on her face. "I've got plenty more of these if you do."
She put the can away and turned to find both of her children smiling and giving her a thumbs up in approval. Camila returned the gesture and the three returned to the front porch to wait for Eda to come get Luz. Just over five minutes later, the front door of the old house opened by itself and the living room of the Owl House could be seen on the other side. The sound of little paws scrambling on wood met their ears as King ran over to Luz, embracing her leg.
Unable to resist his cuteness, Luz grabbed King and lifted him up for a powerful hug. Eda stepped through next and Luz hugged her as well, Camila frowning a bit as the witch returned the gesture. Luz ended the embrace and set King down, turning to hug her mother next.
"I'll see you later." She said, squeezing Camila tight. "While I'm at school today, I'll ask the teachers from the classes you didn't get to see yesterday to give me notes to bring back to you. So you can know how I'm doing on the other tracks. But uh… keep an open mind when you see the one from the Abomination professor. He kinda doesn't like me very much."
"Well shame on him." Camila replied, giving Luz a kiss on the forehead. "Have a good day, Cariño. I look forward to hearing all about it later. You stay out of trouble and behave when you're with your girlfriend, okay?"
Luz giggled. "No promises!" She said, stepping through the portal with King and Eda. "Hasta luego, Mamá. ¡Te amo!" She called with a wave.
"Te amo también, bebé." Camila replied, waving back.
The portal closed and Camila let out a sad sigh. It felt bittersweet to send Luz off to the place that had taken her away for so long. In fact, it still frightened her quite a bit. But she had faith that everything was going to fine and she stepped down from the porch.
"So when she said 'no promises'…" Vee said, following her mother. "Did she mean that for staying out of trouble or behaving with her girlfriend?"
"Knowing her, it's probably both." Camila said, smiling to herself. "As for you, Mija, I trust I won't need to worry about you misbehaving with your special someone. But it would be nice if you could invite her over so the two of you can officially tell you that you're together."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Vee stammered. "Marcella and I aren't like that!"
"Funny, I don't remember saying that it was Marcella." Camila replied with a knowing smirk. "But if you two aren't a couple yet, then maybe you could try asking her out. She just might surprise you with her answer."
"C-could we just go now, please?" Vee asked, her cheeks now burning red. "After we go school shopping I'm supposed to meet with my friends and I don't want to be late."
"Okay, let's get going." Camila said. "I need to stop by the bank anyways."
Vee began heading back, Camila right behind her. She stopped for a moment and looked back at the old house again. It was a part of their town that was easily overlooked and underappreciated. But Camila had come to see it for it's true worth. Despite not fitting in with the rest of the neighborhood, it still had both purpose and beauty. Camila found comfort in knowing she'd be returning there later that day to greet a young girl who was very much the same.
The End.
