"...disturbing the peace, fleeing an officer, falsifying a unibrow..." The corrections officer read off his clipboard.

"That's illegal?" Héctor asked, detaching his head and dumping petals out of it.

"VERY illegal. You need to clean up your act, amigo."

Héctor screwed his head back on. "'Amigo'? Oh, that's-that's so nice to hear you say that, because... I have just had a really hard Día de Muertos and I could really use an amigo right now." He detached his hands and they acted like holding shoulders. "And amigos... they help their amigos." He reattached his hands. "Listen, you get me across that bridge tonight, and I'll make it worth your while."

"Hey, look, there's a de la Cruz poster." Joy pointed to the wall. "He must be a fan. We can use that to our advantage."

"Oh! You like de la Cruz? He and I go way back! I can get you front row seats to his Sunrise Spectacular show!" The corrections officer groaned and pulled away. Fear jumped at the console and pressed several buttons. "I-I-I'll get you backstage, you can meet him! You just gotta let me cross that bridge!"

"I should lock you up for the rest of the holiday... But my shift's almost up, and I wanna visit my living family... so I'm letting you off with a warning."

"Thanks a lot!" Anger pressed a button, making Héctor snatch the paper.

"Can I at least get my costume back?"

"Uh, no."

Anger banged his fist on the console. In a huff, Héctor stormed out of the room, crumpling the warning ticket. "Some amigo." Anger grumbled. "Won't even do us a favor."

"Hey. Hey! You really know de la Cruz?" Miguel asked, catching up with him.

"Who's askin'?" Anger questioned. They all suddenly noticed the boy.

"Ah! It's a living kid!" Fear cried. "The living aren't supposed to be here!"

"Shhh!" Miguel pulled Héctor into a phone booth to hide. "Yeah, I'm alive. And if I wanna get back to the Land of the Living, I need de la Cruz's blessing."

"That's weirdly specific."

"He's my great-great-grandfather."

"Wait, what?" Joy looked completely dumbstruck. "This kid is related to Ernesto?"

"I didn't even know he had any descendants." Fear added.

"Not surprised. He always was such a womanizer." Disgust rolled his eyes. The others nodded in agreement.

Joy suddenly thought of something. "Wait a minute." He ran to the back wall and grabbed a lightbulb. "I got an idea!" He announced and clicked it into the console.

Héctor's face lit up. He grabbed Miguel's hoodie, excited. "Yes! You're going back to the Land of the Living!"

"You know what? Maybe this isn't such a good..."

"Don't let him get away!" Fear shouted.

"No!" Héctor snapped his fingers, stopping him as they exited the phone booth. "Niño, niño, niño! I-I can help you, you can help me. We can help each other. But most importantly, you can help me! I'm Héctor." He extended his hand.

"Uh... that's nice!" Miguel grabbed Héctor by the wrist and dragged him to the exit.

"Ah! The kid took our arm!" Fear cried. "Quick, before he runs off!" He started pressing buttons that controlled the other parts.

Héctor's arm snapped its fingers to get Miguel's attention. Miguel realized it was no longer attached to Héctor's body. The arm signaled backwards to Héctor who was several feet behind, running down the entrance stairs.

"Esperame chamaco!"

Miguel threw the arm back to Héctor and they disappeared into the crowd.