Hey everyone, here's chapter 8 of Misadventures of Vee. The idea for this chapter was thought of by Mr-Hardcor3. Enjoy


The full moon cast its eerie white through the dark night. It was the only thing that local hunter Wilson, friends called him Willy, recognized.

"Dagnabbit, none of this looks familiar no more," Willy grumbled to himself. He wasn't lost, this was his favorite hunting spot and he'd marked a trail to follow back to his tent. The man was simply venting his frustrations. "Ever since that big wet whosawhatsit shoved Gravesfield back in the ground, the land's become lumpier than a dang mattress full of—GAAH!"

Willy's foot went straight through a portal that had been hidden by a bush. It was only thanks to him grabbing hold of a nearby tree branch that he didn't fall in completely.

"Consarnit, another one?" Willy pulled his leg out of the glimmering light and frowned at the slice of pizza stuck to his shoe. "When's that green Zaya feller gonna finish shutting all these?"

Snap!

The hairs of Willy's beard bristled. He knew that twig snap. He believed he'd never hear it again since, given the recent magical mishaps, he'd fully expected the local wildlife to flee and never return. Looks like hunting season was back on. Unslinging the rifle from his shoulder, Willy aimed in the direction of the snap and crept forward. He heard another snap, then another and another.

That's a lotta twigs, Willy thought, a little concerned.

Then he heard another noise he recognized: the low nasally call of a deer. A full-grown buck, Willy could tell. That was all he could gleam before the deer call was abruptly cut short by another snap. The ensuing silence felt wrong. Something deep in Willy's gut told him to stop, to turn around, and run like the wind. Yet he pressed on, reaching the last bush that separated him from his quarry.

Peeking over the leaves, he squinted into his night-vision scope and searched for antlers. What he found was a log lying by its lonesome in a clearing.

"Ugh, rutabaga," Willy swore in his head. "Where'd ya get to, wily feller?"

Not making a sound, he tiptoed into the clearing and searched every direction. Nothing. The buck had gotten away. The first in weeks and it had gotten away. Heaving a weary sigh, Willy took a seat on the log.

"Maybe I'm losing my touch," he mumbled. "Boy, this log sure is squishier than I expected. It rotten or something?" Willy gave the wood a pat and realized… it wasn't wood. Wood wasn't made of diamond-shaped scales as black as coal. Wood didn't taper to a tiny pointed end that gently swiveled back and forth like a… like a…

"Tail…" Willy wheezed.

A hulking shadow enveloped the hunter. The shape was like nothing Willy had ever seen. Not knowing where he found the courage, he stood and turned.

Willy wished he had listened to his gut.

A snake. But not just any snake. There was no way a snake-like this could exist on Earth. Bigger than a school bus, the monstrosity's back was to Willy, most of its head hidden by a pair of black wings. Long locks of white hair flowed down its back as its face pointed up at the sky. The thing's fanged maw, massive enough to swallow a motorcycle, undulated around a pair of hoofed legs, deer legs, that slowly disappeared down the beast's gullet.

Nope, Willy concluded mentally and backed away.

Snap!

Willy nearly wet himself as he felt the twig break under his heel. The snake stiffened at the sound. Slowly, the head turned and kept turning, bones popping every inch, an impossible 180 degrees until the head sat backward on its shoulders. That's when Willy realized it even had shoulders. Not only that, despite the red glowing slitted eyes and sharp ram horns, the head glowering at him was most definitely… human.

Somehow that made this worse.

The rest of the snake's body turned with the head, revealing a human body: arms, torso, and all. Except where there should've been legs was that awful tail. This was Willy's limit. Absolute panic overtook him and he opened fire on the killer. His bullets struck true but the scaly body healed in seconds, stopping the creature for barely half a second.

Enraged, the snake swatted the rifle out of Willy's hold with its creepy human-ish arms. It grabbed him by the shoulders and let loose a growling hiss that shook the man to the bones. He could see venom dripping down the long fangs and smell the pungent odor of dead deer.

This time he did wet himself.

"Aaaahhhhh! Medusa!" Willy screamed and fled into the woods. The snake creature did not pursue.

"Medusa? Ugh, mean," the snake-creature scoffed in a rather girly voice. Then it noticed the puddle Willy had left behind. "Ew."


The Coffee Shop…

The following day, the MCH had gathered at the coffee shop, a large plate of glazed cake donuts in the center of their table. The glazed donuts were Lance's idea since he preferred to have his donuts with flavor. As usual, most of their group had gotten hot chocolate while Beth had gotten coffee. To everyone's surprise, Vince had gotten coffee as well, although he had gotten iced coffee. Either way, Beth had a coffee buddy now.

"I know I've mentioned this before, but I really like this manicure that I got," Vee said while examining her newly done nails, the basilisk girl having gotten a French manicure, "I should run errands with my mom more often."

"They really are pretty, Luz," Dani said while taking Vee's hand to get a better look at her nails. However, a second later, she blushed upon realizing what she was doing and quickly snatched her hand away as she looked off in another direction.

"Uh, thanks" Vee replied as she looked at Dani with a raised eyebrow. What's with her?

"I really hope Zaya closes up all of those portals soon. A cake landed on my head earlier," Lance commented, "It was a good cake though."

Meanwhile, at the counter, one of the baristas handed a customer their drink. The customer was Willy and he had ordered a roast coffee with extra caffeine. He looked like he could use it, given his bloodshot eyes.

"Thanks. I need it after the night I had..." Willy began, "I was out hunting when I heard noises. I followed the sounds and what I saw was... a deer, being devoured by this enormous Medusa creature! It swallowed that critter like it was nothing. This thing had scales as black as night and had extremely thick skin. Even bullets shot at close range did nothing!" Willy said, frantically taking a sip of his drink.

The MCH, more specifically Dani and Vee, had overheard this.

"Did you hear that? There's another hostile creature," Dani said to the rest of the group, "Looks like this is a mystery for MCH!" she said with a determined fist clenched.

"I knew you were going to say that," Vee said half-jokingly, "So, what's the plan, fearless leader?" she asked.

"Simple. We..." Dani looked at Vee, only to freeze, her face heating up as looked at that cute, smiling face of hers and into those admittedly pretty eyes, "We... w-we..." the MCH's leader stuttered.

"Dani? Are you ok?" Vince asked with some concern.

"Yeah, I just... I need to go to the bathroom!" Dani quickly said, bolting for the restroom.

This left the rest of the group with faces of either smugness or confusion and concern.

"What's with Dani? Is she sick or something?" Vee asked. In the short amount of time that she had been in the Human Realm, she had learned a thing or two about human diseases. Partly due to health documentaries and partly due to her mom being a vet/doctor. She knew that sometimes whenever humans were red in the face like that, it was because they had a fever or something. Could that be what's going with Dani?

"Oh, she's sick alright. But not in the way you might think. Right, boys?" Beth teased as she looked at the two boys, Lance chuckling.

"What do you mean? Does she have the stomach flu? If she does then she should drink some ginger ale to ease her stomach" Vince spoke. Beth and Lance simply stared at him.

"Dude, really?" Lance said.

"What?" Vince looked at them confused. Beth sighed.

"Can someone explain what's going on?" Vee asked, feeling a bit left out.

"Dani has a crush on you, Luz." Lance told her rather nonchalantly, only for Beth to lightly smack him in the chest, "Ow! What? She was bound to find out sooner or later," he said.

Vee gasped. "She WHAT?!" She gawked wide-eyed at the group in disbelief, then asked, "Why does Dani want to crush me?"


The Woods…

Sometime later, Vincent burst through the foliage, radar in one hand and almanac in the other.

"According to my calculations, the campsite is this way, guys," he declared proudly. "Follow me!" The boy raised a foot to take a dramatic step forward… and immediately dropped to his knees. He gaped in awe of what looked like a regular boring caterpillar on a leaf in front of him. "Oligocentria lignicolor? In this region? At this time of the year?" He drew out a journal and began taking extensive notes. "This is the find of the century!"

Beth and Lance, annoyed beyond comprehension, groaned.

"Vince, buddy," Lance whined, "we've stopped to look at bugs, like, twenty times."

"Let's get a move on," Beth implored.

"In a sec, this is super important," Vince replied absently, laser-focused on his scientific record.

"Ugh, we're never going to find this Medusa-thing at this rate," Lance grumbled. "Will you say something to him, Dani?" He turned toward their usually brash and loud leader to find her nervously twiddling her hair and glancing at Vee. She jumped at her name.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, right!" Dani cleared her throat and struck a bold pose. "Vince, enough playing around we need to… to…" The decree petered out as Dani made the mistake of looking in Vee's direction again. Legs turning to jelly and throat clenching to a straw, the poor girl's face became a tomato. She dove behind a tree.

"Wow," Beth remarked. "She's got it bad."

Vee, meanwhile, was having a meltdown of her own. She now knew that "crush" not only meant to squish something on Earth, but was also a human term that meant having feelings for someone. And Dani had a crush on her. Or more specifically on Luz. This was everything that Vee had feared. This should be Luz's moment, not hers. Vee's big lie had gotten so big that she was unintentionally stealing her sister's love life.

"She's only gonna get worse," Lance said. "You should just ask her out and get it over with, Luz."

"No!" Vee squeaked.

"Oh, you're not interested?"

"No, I mean I don't know whether Luz would be interested—I mean if I would—we would—she would—ME!" Vee covered over her treacherous mouth before more dribble could spill out. She couldn't allow this crush to develop further, nor could she outright make it stop. For all she knew, Dani and Luz could be perfect for each other. In fact, the more she thought about it the more Vee was positive Luz would love Dani. Dani was brave enough to face any monster, fun to be around, possessed the kindest heart, had the cutest dimples when she smiled, and she was Vee's first friend, the first to make her feel welcome. Vee could go on for days listing Dani's positives. Luz would be crazy to not want to date Dani.

That settled it.

No matter how long it took, Vee swore she would not get in the way of Luz and Dani's future together. She would do everything in her power to not ruin the relationship Dani already had with Luz. Once the real Luz finally returned, she and Vee would switch places and Dani would be happy with her real crush. Until then, all Vee needed to do was avoid anything romantic.

Confident in her goals, Vee strode forward and immediately crashed into Dani. The two girls tumbled to the ground; their limbs tangled together. When the spinning stopped, Vee found herself on top of the girl, nose to nose.

Both sprang to their feet and bolted in different directions.

"Holy moly! Did you see that?" Beth almost shouted. "Luz has got it bad too."

"Ah! This'll never end!" Lance cried.

"Done," announced Vincent, snapping his journal shut. "Onwards!"

Eventually, after a couple more bug stops and blush crashes, the MCH reached the clearing Willy had described. In the center they found several diamond-shaped shards of black.

"Scales," Lance concluded.

"Big scales," Beth corrected, picking one up. In her hands, it looked like she was holding a dinner plate.

"From the looks of it," Vincent observed, peering closer with a magnifying glass, "we seem to be dealing with a creature of the pythonidae family."

"Do they bite?" Lance asked.

"No, they squeeze. Hard. Just under fourteen pounds per square inch."

They all turned toward the snake trail that led out of the clearing and into the bushes. It was wider than all three of them standing shoulder to shoulder.

Beth gulped. "That's a lot of inches."

"Yeah," Lance agreed, trembling like a leaf. "Dani, should we bail?"

Everyone turned to Dani who was far more preoccupied with having a staring contest with the sky. At the same time, Vee was distracting herself with a twig that just so happened to be in the complete opposite direction of Dani.

"Huh?" Dani snapped out of her daze like before. "Oh, we should, um, uh, um—"

"Let's go, guys!" Vincent ordered, already marching to the bushes. "If we follow the tracks, they'll lead us directly to the python's nest." He pushed aside the bushes to reveal that the snake trail abruptly ended. Everyone but Vincent was relieved. "What? But that's impossible," Vincent said. "Something that huge can't just stop leaving a trail. It's not like it can fly!"

Thunder rumbled above them. Rain began to drizzle.

"What a shame, I guess we have to call it a day," Beth said theatrically.

"But I brought umbrellas—" Lance started to say, only for Beth to elbow him. "Ow! Oh! I mean, yup, a shame. Sorry, Vince."

Vincent sighed in defeat. "Fine, we'll all meet back here tomorrow after school and this time I'll come prepared."

Shielding themselves from the rain, the MCH headed back to town. None noticed the student ID hidden in the bushes. The name on that ID: Tracey.


Gravesfield High…

The next day was an average day at school. While some kids were hanging out with their friends, others were going through their lockers and either putting stuff away or taking stuff out. This was especially true for Tracey Miller, captain of the school's cheer squad. She was the blonde girl with the pink streak in her hair.

"Where is it? Where is it?!" Tracey asked as she frantically searched through her locker.

Standing next to her was her childhood best friend Heather. Heather had shoulder-length jet-black hair. She had blood-red eyes which people thought were contacts. Her skin was pale. She wore ripped denim jeans, a black shirt that said "Bad B*tch" (the shirt being censored) in white, a faded jean jacket, and black and white sneakers.

"What're you looking for again?" Heather asked as she leaned against the lockers with her arms folded.

"My student ID!" Tracey replied, now searching through her backpack.

"Well, where was the last place you had it?" Heather asked.

Tracey thought back. She had it on her a couple of days ago. She had it after school and when she went home. Last place she had it was...

Tracey's eyes widened in realization.

"Ugh! The woods. I must've dropped it when I was in the woods the other day," Tracey said, causing Heather to groan as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Seriously, Tracey? After all the recent creature disasters, you should know that people are on high alert. You could've been in danger!" Heather lightly scolded.

"I know it's dangerous to be out there all exposed, but I can't help it. Being out there just makes me feel so free, you know?" Tracey told her. Heather could only roll her eyes in amusement at her friend's statement.

That's when they saw "Luz" walking past them, most likely to her next class. They remembered her being a complete weirdo last year, always having snakes and fireworks and creeping people out with her weirdness. But this year she seemed different. Almost... normal. But her personality wasn't the only thing that seemed different about her.

"Hey, have you noticed anything different about Luz?" Heather asked.

"Yeah, she has friends and hasn't been freaking people out," Tracey replied half-jokingly, "But also..." she and Heather sniffed the air. "She smells of magic"

"Yeah, the strong kind. It could be dangerous," Heather said in agreement.

"If it is then let's try to avoid her," Tracey said, Heather nodding in agreement.


The Woods…

This whole Dani-having-a-crush-on-Luz thing was going pretty well, in Vee's opinion. Sure, it broke Vee's heart a little every time she purposely turned around and ran every time she spotted Dani, but it was a necessary sacrifice for the happiness of her friend. Imagining the real Luz finally being with Dani was what brought Vee comfort. She could picture them holding hands, Dani most likely talking endlessly about a fascinating detail or character from one of her fantasy stories. The girl's bottomless passion would of course make Luz feel all warm and fuzzy inside, that's how Dani made Vee feel so it stood to reason Luz would react the same way.

Yes, they would be so happy together. Vee just had to stick to the plan. Unfortunately, that plan fell apart when she met up with the MCH in the woods after school.

"Check it out!" Vincent held up a bunch of tiny cameras on mini-tripods. "I spent all night cobbling these babies together. With them, we'll be able to track the creature as easy as pi."

"How is it that I instinctively know you mean the math pi?" Beth mumbled.

Vincent started handing out the cameras to everyone. "These all connect wirelessly to my phone. I'll be the eyes of the operation and let you know if I see the creature. I already hacked all of your phones and installed walkie-talkie and tracking apps so I can constantly keep in contact with you and know where you are at all times."

"Dude!" Lance cried in shock. "You hacked our phones? Not cool!"

"You're welcome," Vince powered on, in the zone. He opened a bag that was full of hand mirrors and passed those out too. "Now, remember, medusas or gorgons can only turn you to stone if they look you directly in the eye. So, check every corner with a mirror and look at everything through your phone. I'm 84.98% sure that phone cameras don't count as looking someone in the eye. Beth and Lance, spread your cameras to the north. Luz and Dani, take south."

"What?!" Vee and Dani squealed as one.

"You serious?" Vee demanded.

"Us? Together?" Dani blabbered, face igniting. "Haha, you want the two of us to be alone together? By ourselves? Us?"

"Yeah, Vince," Beth agreed, "maybe it's better if they don't—"

"We're losing daylight, people!" Vincent declared, already grinning at the multiple camera feeds on his phone. "We got a medusa to catch!"

The rest of the gang looked expectantly at Dani, praying this was the moment when she'd finally step up and take back control.

"Okay," was all she managed to say and dashed into the trees with her cameras. Vee sullenly followed.

The next several minutes were the most awkward in Vee's life. For very different reasons, neither girl could make a sound or so much as glance at the other. Both dripped with sweat, despite it not being hot out, and both wished they knew what the heck they were doing.

Vee let out a light cough.

"You say something?" Dani blurted.

"Huh? No! Nope, not me, just, uh, setting up cameras," Vee quickly said, haphazardly slapping a tripod on a low branch, not noticing it was upside down. "You?"

"Same! Same!" Dani smiled far too widely and placed a camera with its lens against a stump. "Nothing better than chasing magical creatures with my best friend."

Vee felt her heart skip a beat and she stopped on the spot. "I'm your… best friend?" she asked breathlessly. This truly innocent question accidentally resulted in the two making eye contact. And this time, neither could look away.

"Y-Yeah, you're my best friend," Dani rambled, playing with her hair. "I never told you that? Pfft! why wouldn't you be my best friend? We've known each other, like, forever, you always have my back, and you stick around even when I get too intense." Dani's breathing sped up. Fear forgotten, she vented everything that she'd been holding in for the past several days. With each word, Vee felt her heart rate spike. "You showed me how to think before I act, to try to see things differently. I never would've met Beth or Lance without you. I wouldn't have any friends without you. You're my best friend, Luz."

Luz.

And like that, the spell was broken. Vee looked down, not understanding why her chest stung.

"Luz?" Dani asked, concerned. "Why are—Was it something I said?"

"Dani, Luz, I see it!" Vincent's voice suddenly crackled from their phones. "I caught its tail passing the upside-down camera! Go! Hurry!"

"Just a second, Vince," Dani replied. "Something's up with Luz—Hey!"

Vee had already disappeared into the woods. Dani's cry of, "Luz? Wait! Luz!" grew faint as Vee put more and more distance between them. She didn't know where she was going, she just wanted to not hear that name anymore. She covered her ears and hummed to drown out the thoughts that were already taking shape in her throat. Like barbarian invaders, they rammed against the gates, demanding to be let through. Finally, she couldn't hold them in anymore. Vee collapsed and screamed.

"I'M NOT LUZ! I'M NOT! I'M NOT! I! AM! NOT! LUZ!"

The truth bellowed in every direction. Vee clenched, waiting for someone to respond, for anyone to ask who she really was.

Nobody did.

If the truth is told in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it end the lie?

No.

Vee rolled on her side and hugged her knees, not feeling any better. Then she spotted something: the glare of sunlight reflecting off something partially sticking out from under the bush next to her. Vee reached out and picked it up. It was a student ID, just like the one she had. The blonde girl in the headshot looked vaguely familiar.

"Tracey?" she read.

A shadow fell over Vee, far too dark to be a cloud. Before she could react, she was wrapped from neck to ankle in scales. Vee was spun around and saw clearly for the first time what they were after.

"Give that to me!" the great snake-thing roared, lifting Vee off the ground with her tail, looking her in the eyes.

"Whoa, wait, you're not a medusa," Vee said when she realized she wasn't turning to stone. "You're a snake-demon."

"I said give it to me or else I'll eat you!"

Vee blinked. "But snake-demons don't eat people," she said like it was obvious. "You guys only eat things with four legs."

"Let her go!" Dani cried as she burst into the scene. She charged at the snake-demon; a large mirror aimed at the beast.

"Wait, Dani, stop!" Vee tried to warn. "That's not gonna—" The rest of the sentence got lost as she was suddenly dropped by the tail and the snake-demon slithered toward Dani. It snatched the mirror out of the girl's hands and snapped it in half.

"Uh oh," Dani turned pale.

The snake-demon unleashed a bone-chilling hiss in Dani's face, then backhanded her against a tree. The girl slid to the ground, out cold.

"Dani!" Vee shouted and leaped between her friend and the monster, arms raised protectively.

The snake-demon hissed again and wound back a clawed hand for a swipe. At that moment, Vee realized something. She was still clutching the student ID in her fingers and at this angle, from her perspective, the headshot was right next to the snake-demon's horrific face.

The chin, the hairline, the nose. It couldn't be…

"Tracey?"

Everything stopped.

The snake-demon, which only a second ago looked as if it was about to eviscerate them, blanched at the name.

"N-No," it said, its voice was surprisingly girly. Vee couldn't believe it. All this time, right inside her school, she wasn't the only one.

"You're a—"

"I said give me that!" The snake-demon, Tracey, snatched the ID. "Look, just don't come back here, okay? These are my woods, got it?" She gave one last hiss, which felt rather pathetic compared to the others, and slithered off.

"Hold on," Vee called after her. "I don't know what's going on here but you don't have to scare people away. I won't tell anyone but… you don't need to hide."

Tracey scoffed. "Look who's talking."

The poignant words struck Vee dumb and she put up no more argument as Tracey unfurled her massive wings and took flight. She watched the snake-demon slowly shrink, silently scolding herself for being such a hypocrite.

"Luz?" Dani murmured and started to wake. At the same time, the rest of the MCH arrived, Vincent leading the pack.

"Where is it? What happened to Dani? Where's the medusa?" Vincent demanded, waving scanners in both hands.

"Gone," Vee simply replied as she helped Dani to her feet and gestured at the flapping speck in the sky.

"They can fly?!" Vincent gasped.

"Awesome!" Beth cheered.

"Flying snakes are not awesome!" Lance shivered.

"Luz," Dani said weakly, "who… what was that?"

"I don't know," Vee answered after a moment. "Maybe it's best we don't find out."


The Noceda House…

After her little adventure with her friends in the woods, Vee had returned home. Just in time too because her mom was making pizza, one of Vee's other favorite human foods. Surprisingly, the girl was in her full basilisk form. After the day she's had, she needed to distance herself from her sister... appearance-wise at least.

"Mom... are you really ok with me being in my real form?" Vee asked as she sat at the table.

"Of course, mija. I want you to be comfortable in your own skin" Camilla told her as she rolled out and flattened the pizza dough.

"Thanks," Vee smiled.

It was at that moment that the doorbell rang. Placing the rolling pin aside, Camilla went to go answer the door. As her mom left, Vee looked at her nails/claws which, amazingly, still had the French manicure design that they had in her human form. She then looked over to a nearby mirror. Yeah, she really was comfortable in her true form, as much as she was in her human form. She ran a finger. Should she do something with her real hair like she did with her human hair?

"Uh, Vee, you have a visitor!" Camilla called from the front door.

No sooner than when she heard that, Vee shapeshifted back into her Luz form. She made her way to the front door where she saw none other than her best friend standing in the doorway.

"Oh, Hey Da—"

"Luz, I'm so sorry about earlier!" Dani cut Vee off mid-sentence before she could even say hello, "I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings. I hope you can forgive me for acting so stupid lately and for all the weirdness that happened between us today, it's just... I really do consider you my best friend. I do," she said sincerely.

"Dani..." Vee muttered the girl's name, taken back a bit at how touched she was by her friend's speech, "It's ok, I can't really blame you for your actions. If I'm being honest, I'm just as guilty—"

"Do you want to go to the movies tomorrow, just the two of us?" Dani quickly blurted out.


And that's the end of this chapter. This chapter was co-written with I Write Big.

As stated before, the idea for this chapter was thought up by Mr-Hardcor3. He's the one that came up with the name Tracey for the blonde cheerleader that looks like Amity, and the OC Heather belongs to him, so credit for this chapter really goes to him. Dude, if you're reading this, forgive us if their personalities weren't 100% accurate to your descriptions of them. Also, I know the original idea was to have none of the MCH find out who the snake-demon is, but we made a minor tweak to the chapter with Vee being the only one that knows. Please forgive us for that as well.

Anyway, if you guys have ideas for future chapters, feel free to say it in a review or message me.

Remember to Read, Review and Favorite/Follow.