Willow kicked her slippers off and then spent the next five minutes just sitting on her bed, thinking, before finally deciding to pull out her scroll. It was now the early hours of the morning, but she had a few texts she needed to send out. When she went to check her messages though, she was a little surprised to see that Luz had already messaged her. Gus too, but Luz's seemed a little more urgent. She'd get back to Gus in a minute.

THEOWLLADY: WILLOW WILLOW WILLOW!

THEOWLLADY: Have you seen Hunter?

THEOWLLADY: This is Luz btw

THEOWLLADY: Something bad happened and i'm worried about hunter but idk where he went

THEOWLLADY: Pretty sure yr his only friend so i thought id check with you to see if you know where he is?

THEOWLLADY: have you heard from him at all? Any texts or anything?

Wow, Luz really was worried about him, wasn't she? What happened? She really hoped Luz would give her a better idea of what was going on with Hunter. She knew Belos wanted to kill him, but…that was about it. She didn't really know anything else.

Hello_Willow: Luz!

Hello_Willow: Hunter actually just showed up at my house a little while ago

THEOWLLADY: He did? Oh good i was so worried about what might happen to him

THEOWLLADY: We had a really…crazy night. Did he tell you anything?

Hello_Willow: He told me that he couldn't go back to the castle or Belos would kill him

Hello_Willow: Luz what happened? Hunter is really loyal to Belos so why would his uncle want to kill him?

Hello_Willow: Plz tell me what happened, i'm worried and I want to help him but I need to know what happened first

THEOWLLADY: It might be kinda hard to tell you over Penstagram…should we talk in person?

Hmm…Talking in person would be easier, but Willow didn't want to leave Hunter. Maybe Luz could come over here? She could sneak in through her bedroom window. Yeah, she'd ask Luz if that could work. It was getting really late, but Willow knew she wouldn't be able to sleep until she knew what happened, and all of this craziness probably was better explained in person instead of over text.

Hello_Willow: Yeah, can you come over here? To my house? Hunter might freak out if he knows I'm gone

THEOWLLADY: Sure! I'll borrow Eda's staff and be there soon!

Hello_Willow: Okay! Be quiet though, and come in through my bedroom window. I don't want my dads or Hunter to know you're here.

THEOWLLADY: ? ﾟﾑﾍ

As she waited for Luz to come over, Willow decided to look over the messages Gus sent. She kinda just left him hanging.

: Willow?

: u back yet?

Hello_Willow: yeah, sorry

Hello_Willow: ummm so guess who just showed up at my door?

: ?

: Who? Luz?

Hello_Willow: Hunter, actually

: …

: HUNTER?

: Golden Guard Hunter?

: You finally heard from him? What's his deal why did he just leave us all hanging like that?

Hello_Willow: Idk but he's in some pretty serious trouble and needs help

Hello_Willow: He's staying at my place tonight. He said he can't go back to the castle and he has no where else to stay

Hello_Willow: It seems like he's in pretty big trouble with Belos and I'm really worried about him :(

: Dang…Thats…wow ok

: should i let the rest of the team know you found him?

Hello_Willow: Not yet…They might try to bombard him with questions and i think he just needs some space rn

: Ok…Let me know if i can help with anything

: Make sure Hunter knows he has more than one friend he can count on :)

Hello_Willow: Thx Gus, will do!

: Talk more tomorrow? If things aren't too crazy?

Hello_Willow: Yah, I'll let you know. Goodnight!

Only seconds after Willow sent that last text to Gus, she heard a couple of knocks coming from her window. Willow spun around and saw Luz there atop Eda's staff, waiting to be let in. She walked over, opened her window, and watched as Luz flew/climbed into her room.

The first thing she noticed was how tired Luz looked. Worried, upset, and tired.

"Is Hunter okay?" Luz asked as she climbed off of the staff, careful to keep her voice down.

Willow shook her head. "He's really scared right now…And upset. Really, really upset." She paused for a moment. "Luz…What happened?"

Luz took a deep breath and made her way over to Willow's bed, before sitting down on it. "He-He's downstairs? He's safe?"

"He is. For now, at least. What happened?"

"Well, it started at the night market…I kind of…accidentally…got us trapped in the Emperor's mind?"

Willow stared at Luz, her mouth open in surprise. "You WHAT?! How did you-"

Luz shook her head. "I don't know, it's…complicated…But it's my fault we were there, and Hunter's probably furious at me right now, and-"

Willow placed an arm around Luz's shoulders as she took a seat by her. "It's okay, calm down. Take deep breaths. You okay?"

Luz nodded and placed her head in her hands. Then she shook her head. "This was probably the worst night ever…Especially for Hunter."

Willow listened patiently as Luz went on to describe what happened in the Emperor's mind. She felt terrified as she listened, her heart beating quickly. By the time Luz finished, Willow was having a really hard time trying to comprehend it all. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but first, she gave Luz a quick hug.

"It's okay…It's all okay now. You two got out of there alive, and that's what matters," she whispered. Everything Luz said happened…Everything she and Hunter learned…It was horrible. Just horrible. Willow really had no words right now.

"But Hunter-he's in real danger now. And besides that, he just found out that he's a Grimwalker and-and that Belos…Phillip…Whoever…Never really cared about him. The emperor was just using him, and now we know that Belos is a witch Hunter…He wants to kill everyone on the Boiling Isles! I-I can't even believe any of it, so Hunter…He left the Owl House while having a panic attack, Willow."

Willow frowned. This was a lot to deal with, and she didn't even know where to start. "I know, he was still kind of having one when he showed up here. It took a while for him to finally talk to me, and even then he didn't say much."

"What's he going to do now though? I told him he could stay at the Owl House, and I know Eda will be fine with it, but…He did just run away from there."

Willow hummed. "We can help him decide tomorrow, once we've all had a good night's sleep." She twiddled her thumbs on her lap. "I just hope he'll be willing to talk…He's really upset about all of this Luz, and now that I know what happened…I don't blame him."

Luz sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "I know…"

"What's a Grimwalker, anyway? I've never heard about one of those before."

"I think it's some kind of magical…clone…or something. Belos said it was a better version of someone he once knew, or something like that?"

"But who? And does that mean all of the previous Golden Guards were…magical clones?"

Luz shrugged. "That's what it sounded like. I don't know who the…original…was, but Belos created them. A lot of them. And he killed all of them, he tried to kill Hunter too."

It was quite a heavy load of information. Besides the fact that Belos actually tried to kill him, someone he greatly trusted and admired, Hunter also had to deal with the fact that he was a Grimwalker…An artificial human…A copy of someone else.

Her friend wasn't even a real person. He was just a puppet in Belos' eyes. A mindless puppet to do his bidding…His whole life was built on lies.

How did someone deal with that?

After a minute of dreadful silence, Willow pushed her glasses up and looked up at Luz. "Do you think he'll be okay? The castle really was his whole life…I don't know what he'll do now."

Luz didn't answer, she just gave Willow a sad look.

"This isn't fair," Willow said with a deep frown. "He shouldn't have to deal with any of this. He should have normal teenager worries instead of finding out he's a Grimwalker, or knowing his uncle wants him dead."

"I know…" Luz whispered. "It isn't fair at all."