Author's prenote:

Sorry I couldn't get this chapter out earlier. I went to Mexico for a while. I was meant to be there for five weeks, but my plane cancelled on me so had to stay a week longer.

Haven't watched the new Owl house Episode so for sure have to do that soon : o

And god... my tailbone has been hurting so much for some reason...Writing this chapter was a pain cause yah, sitting down right now is terrible... going to see if I can go to a doctor this weekend

Anyways, this chapter is a bit slower but next one will be interesting for sure : )

Thanks for everyone leaving kudos/comments/subscribe~

The road, surrounded by a dense forest, was wrecked. Lying in the center of the pavement was a pulsating green/greyish blob. Rafael, a man with a suit as black as his short hair, eyed the foreign substance as a group of forensic technicians were collecting samples from it.

Rafael stood on the road that was locked from the public by other officers within a mile radius from the sight. There were many uniformed men taking pictures of everything that they spotted in their surroundings, including the blob, the one patrol car that was crushed from the top as if something heavy landed on it from the sky, and a freight truck that was lying on its side like a wounded animal.

"Rafael, you're going to want to listen to this," Rafael's partner, Mason, a slightly younger man, said while munching on a granola bar. He too wore a black suit, but it seemed like it was a looser fit and he didn't have it buttoned up.

Mason led Rafael to where two police officers were sitting at the back of a patrol car with a blonde-haired detective was questioning them.

One cop, Arnold, was dead silent, just staring ahead in shock, while the other just ran his shaky hands down his pale face a few times.

"It was huge…" Arnold said, his voice quavered as he spoke, his words barely audible above the pounding of his own heart. "Like some sort of skeleton monster. Maybe 15 feet tall, with big horns. Looked like…" he shut his eyes hard, shaking his head. "I don't know… like a demon…" he threw his face down to his hands now. "And Audrey…" he stammered, as the dreadful memory of her body crashing down onto the pavement with a sickening thud replayed in his head. "He attacked her… Oh god… she just…"

Rafael said nothing, taking in the man's words.

He had been notified that two people were sent to the hospital. One of them was Audrey, a cop. Both victims were in critical condition, and from the way Arnold was shaking like a leaf meant the situation was one to be handled with a serious hand.

"Big horns… a demon," Mason hummed before shoving the last bite of his bar. His eyes widened with a glow to them. "Like a wendigo?!"

Rafael shot his partner a frown for his outburst.

"But… demons aren't real…"

The men in suits looked at Jason, the other police officer, who had supposedly been dead silent since the ambulance took Audrey away.

"Demons… witches… monsters…" Jason let out a nervous laugh, grabbing a big chunk of his brown hair with both hands before tugging it down hard. "We all thought my cousin was crazy, but… what if…" his eyes slowly grew wide with terror. His eyes flicked back to the car that looked like a crushed can before looking up at the group that stared at him. "What if he was right? What if these demons have always been hiding among us?"

"What is he talking about?" Mason asked Arnold with curiosity.

"He has a cousin who lives in Gravesfield, and the guy is known to be a total nut job to the entire community," Arnold said quietly, letting go of his face. "He's always talking about witches and demons, trying to prove to us they are real. Supposedly, he caught a real demon months ago, but said that some woman set the demon free and destroyed all the evidence."

"Caught one… you say?" Mason asked with a smile of excitement on his face.

"We thought he was crazy," Jason mumbled, shaking his head, still tugging down his hair. "He's always saying crazy things. But… I know what we saw was real… It was a real monster…" His voice shook in the next words. "I'm not crazy… you… have to believe me."

"And that's not all," the blonde detective said calmly to Rafael and Mason. "Supposedly, they also witnessed children flying around on some sort of staffs and-"

"Did magic," Arnold cut in, his voice louder now. He looked at Rafael now with a serious look. "It was all real…"

Rafael eyed the two cops with a stony expression. He quietly was deciding what the next steps he and his partner had to take soon.

"I want to talk to this cousin of yours," he finally spoke, in his rough voice, to Jason. "And I want you to come with us as well."

Jason said nothing, staring at Rafael with wide eyes.

Something deep in the pit of his stomach was screaming at him not to go with the two detectives. He internally begged so badly he was in some sort of horrible nightmare and would wake up any time soon.

Oh, how he hoped what he had seen was a lie…

"Please let us know if you're feeling terrible again. And I mean it, Vee," Camila said to Vee while she sat on the side of the girl's bed as she tucked her in.

The female creature gave her a tired smile.

"I promise, Camila," Vee said.

Camila sighed, placing a comforting hand on Vee's cheek, and caressed it.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" she said, quietly, with a soft smile. "You're almost as stubborn as Luz."

Vee blushed slightly and pulled her comforter over half of her face.

"Sorry… mama," she whispered.

Camila chuckled and got off the bed.

"Buenas noches, mija," Camila said, walking out of the room right after she turned off the lights.

She shut the bedroom door behind her. She took a deep slow breath, as if to keep her composure before she walked to the kitchen where the rest of the teenagers were sitting around the dining table in silence.

Gus, Hunter, and Vee had told their friends almost everything that had gone down when they found Belos before Vee had to excuse herself.

Well… almost everything.

Everyone looked at Camila with concern all written on their young, tired faces.

"She's doing better," Camila said as she sat down next to her daughter. "She's just exhausted."

"Hopefully she's back to her usual self when she wakes up," Luz said quietly, before looking at her friends with eyebrows furrowed. "Now… What should we do with… him…"

"I don't think leaving him in the basement alone is a good idea," Camila brought up.

"Don't worry, Luz's mom," Willow said with a confident smile. "I made sure to use the right spores on him. He should be asleep for a while."

"And then what?" Luz asked, slightly annoyed as the group was facing an enormous problem. "What are we going to do when he wakes up? How are we going to make him tell us how to get back to the Boiling Isles?"

"Mija…"

"I'm serious, mama," Luz shot up to her feet. "I'm sorry, but we're really in a terrible spot right now. Cause apparently, Belos may lose complete control if Gus somehow triggers him while trying to read his mind. If he loses control, Gus can't read his mind. If we can't get the information we need from him, then we're never going to be able to go back."

"He's not giving us anything if we just threaten him," Hunter said, crossing his arms on his chest, glaring down at the table. Flapjack looked up from his lap, tilting its head to the side. "And we can't beat it out of him."

"And he's probably not going to talk unless we give him a reason to," Amity added in.

"Maybe… we can make a deal with him…?" Gus asked, instantly bracing himself on his chair with the reactions he expected from everyone else.

"Oh, heck no!" Luz said right away. "We can't trust him!"

"Luz is right," Hunter said, his fingers digging into his arms. "A deal with him is the worst thing you can do. He will…" he shut his eyes hard, feeling his heart tighten as the dark cold smile of his 'uncle' flashed in his mind. "Belos is good at manipulating people," he mumbled. "He knows how to play with your emotions… knows how to use your weakness against you. He's always many steps ahead of others and gets what he wants in the end…"

Amity and Willow exchanged worried glances while Gus looked down at his lap, knowing his friend had endured too much under Belo's grasp.

"But it may be our only option," Gus pointed out to them. "We need that information, and he's the only one who has it."

Everyone fell silent, dreading at the fact that Gus was right.

"He will somehow… screw us over if we make a deal with him," Hunter said with persistence.

"Unless," Luz said as an idea popped into her head. "Unless we end up screwing him over at the end after we get what we want."

"What do you mean?"

"Give me one second," Luz said as she ran out of the room and after a minute, she came back with her backpack. "We trick him," Luz said. "We'll tell him we're making a deal with him. Tell him if he helps return to the Boiling Isles, then I'll give him this," she pulled out her palisman egg, making everyone confused except Hunter, who frowned. "He's going to want this to have more control over whatever is happening to him," Luz said. "Obviously, I'm not going to give it to him, but he may be desperate enough to want it if we 'offer' it to him."

"He's going to know you're tricking him," Hunter said, shaking his head. "He's too smart… he'll know you're lying."

"He'll probably won't trust you since, well… the last time you made a 'deal' with him, you tricked him," Willow pointed out, making Luz slowly fall back on her chair, looking down to her palisman egg with a frown. "And even if he agrees to the 'deal', he might try to betray us."

Everyone fell deep in thought.

Amity's eyes brightened up, standing up with a bright smile.

"I have an idea," she said. "But I'm going to need Gus' help to make sure we trick him."

"Oh?" Willow asked, curiously.

"We can make him believe we're making an everlasting oath with him," Amity said with an amused smile. "So, he thinks we won't betray him."

"That's… actually a good idea," Willow pointed out.

"Sorry, what's an everlasting oath?" Camila asked, with confusion.

"It's when two individuals make an oath and agree to certain negative conditions. The one who breaks it well then will suffer the negative conditions," Amity explained. "And only Gus here can make sure the 'everlasting oath' looks real," Amity said.

"That… might work…" Hunter admitted, unsure if they could pull things off, unsure if they could outsmart his 'uncle'. "But we still have to figure out what to do with him once we go back to the Boiling Isles." He then turned to Gus who sat next to him as he thought about something that was bothering him since they brought Belos back to his prison. "You said you were going to talk to me about, you know…" he said to his friend, who glanced for a second at the others in the room, who had their attention now, before looking back at him with hesitation. "It's alright," Hunter said to him, giving him a reassuring smile. "We're in all in this together."

"What's going on?" Luz asked the boys, completely lost in the change of topic.

"Well, remember how we said we had to use illusions to kind of help Belos come back to himself while Vee was absorbing his magic?" Gus asked. Once everyone gave him a nod of confirmation, he continued. "Well, one of the illusions I used… well… the last one I used was… of his older brother."

"Brother…?" Hunter let out, confused. "But… he looked just like me…"

"Yeah, he did," Gus said. "I saw him in Belo's memories. His name was Caleb."

Hunter looked down at Flapjack who was staring up at him quietly. So many questions ran through Hunter's head. Did Flapjack know who Caleb was? Is that why the palisman had suggested the name when Willow and Gus had asked him what his name was when they first met?

"They used to live together, in that old, abandoned house," Gus revealed more. "They looked like they were orphans. Caleb took care of Belos."

"Am I… Caleb's clone…?" Hunter whispered as things were slowly making sense in his head. "Were… all of those golden guards… his clones…?" he looked up, eyes slowly widening in dismay. "I don't understand. If Caleb was Belo's brother, then… why….?"

"Belos killed his brother," Gus revealed quietly, looking down at his lap while he heard everyone let out gasps of shock. "I saw it, in his memories, when we were fighting him back in the Boiling Isles." Everyone at the table just stared at him in stunned silence, trying to process what Gus was saying. "I didn't see how it happened, but Belos was mad at Caleb. Caleb tried calming him down, but…"

"How can… someone… kill their own brother…?" Amity felt sick in her stomach, as she thought about her brother and sister. Even though they had annoyed her for many years, she would never think about killing either of them.

Hunter let out a sad chuckle, eyes slightly moistening up, leaning back in his seat.

"The Collector was right. Belos really just made me, just like the rest of them… to just…" he closed his eyes hard, his lips pressed into a thin line as he tried suppressing the tears from coming out.

'You make those things just to destroy them.' The Collector's voice replayed in Hunter's mind.

"He's evil," Luz said with fists shaking on the table, while Camila was sitting there, stunned. "The guy has committed genocide. He has killed witches and others from the Boiling Isles… And even killed his own brother… He's nothing but a monster."

Camila already had terrible opinions of Belos, and now hearing that he had killed his own flesh and blood made her blood run cold.

She shouldn't be so shocked to hear her daughter listing all the terrible things Belos has done. If someone could commit genocide, hurting someone who was family was probably not off the table.

Her daughter was right.

Belos was a monster.

"He should be locked up," Camila said.

Amity's head shot up at Camila's words.

"Or we should seal him up," she said. "I think Belos can't die. So, what if we somehow find a way to seal him away for good once we are back in the Boiling Isles?"

"How would we be able to do that?" Luz asked.

"I'm not sure, but… maybe someone in the Boiling Isles may have an idea," Amity rested her arms on the wood surface of the table to rest her chin on her hands as he hummed in deep thought. "Of course, we would have to hold him down when we go back to the Boiling Isles while we save everyone from the Collector before we figure out how to seal him…"

"Yeah…" Hunter mumbled, ignoring how his stomach twisted with dread at the thought of locking his 'uncle' up for good. "We should do it. It would be better if he was sealed away forever, so he doesn't hurt anyone ever again…" He said out loud, as if trying to reassure what they were planning was what he wanted.

Gus said nothing. He listened for a moment to the group discuss how they were going to make sure their plan on tricking Belos worked flawlessly. He said nothing as he couldn't help but imagine a young Philip, locked in a tiny room, alone, crying as he curled into himself.

Locked many times…

And now they were planning to seal him forever…

He wanted to tell the group what he had seen in Philip's mind, the innocent child who loved his brother, who wanted to be accepted by the town's people. Wanted to make friends so badly, just like… just like him… before he met Willow.

Gus thought about how Belos was surrounded by others who feared and hated witches, making him an obsessed witch hunter due to the terrible influences around him.

Gus wondered if it was possible that if Belos didn't have such terrible influences, he would have probably been like Luz… Curious about witches and demons, instead of trying to murder them all.

Was it possible then… to change his mind about them…?

Gus kept his thoughts to himself, not wanting his friends to think Philip was somehow manipulating him by trying to win him over with pity, since Philip was the type of guy to use pity to manipulate others.

He didn't want his friends to think he was the same naïve boy before Willow befriended him.

Yes, years ago, he would have fallen for anyone's tricks and lies, but now Gus wasn't so easily won over.

He has changed…

Just like his friend, Mattholomule. The boy used to be a total jerk the first time they met, but after time passed and by getting to know him more, the boy was an alright guy. He was just acting out from the way his prior school had bullied him.

Even Amity wasn't that great of a person because of her mother having so much influence over her life. But now, she has become a dependable friend, loyal to them no matter what.

He had seen Willow, who used to be an insecure teen, become confident and independent.

Hunter, used to be distrusting of others, other than to his 'uncle'. But now he was more open and protective of them.

His friends have changed for the better.

They all changed due to being surrounded by supportive and good people.

He wondered if maybe Belos could change by being around them. If he could see that witches weren't as terrible as he was raised up to believe.

Then again…

Gus looked at Luz who was glaring down at the table, the dark look in her eyes that everyone has been noticing these past months back.

Luz had also changed…

And that was because of Belo's terrible actions…

Gus' hands turned into fists on his lap.

He disliked Belos for everything he has done. He couldn't forgive what he had done to his friend Hunter, and to many others. The man had to be punished for all his terrible deeds. But… those memories… they were glued in his head… and he just couldn't stop them from making his heart tug down.

The boy bit his lower lip as guilt washed through him at feeling bad for Belos.

"I don't want any of you niños alone with him," Camila spoke with a serious tone.

"Don't worry, mama, with the oath, he will not dare to hurt us," Luz said.

"We got this, Luz's mom," Willow said, bringing an arm up, flexing one of her muscles. "We know what we're doing."

"Camila is right, though," Hunter said, eyes narrowed at the table. "None of us should be alone with him. Trust me… Even with the oath, he may manipulate us in other ways and I just… don't… trust him…"

"Yeah…. You're right," Luz said, also unable to shake off the feeling of unease and anger at the thought of her friends in a room alone with Belos.

But for now, as she caressed her palisman egg lovingly, she told herself that all that mattered was executing their plan and hopefully get back to the Boiling Isles.

As consciousness slowly creeped back into his mind, Philip struggled to open his heavy eyelids, groggily taking in his surroundings.

He found himself in a dimly lit room, the walls and ceilings covered in gnarled branches and thick roots that seem to writhe and twist of their own accord with the purple substance in between. He couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed at being imprisoned again inside a hand-crafted box made by the disgusting witch girls.

At least the room was large compared to the other cage…

Philip tried to move, but his limbs were heavy and sluggish, still under the influence of whatever drug or magic spell he was put under.

It took all his effort to prop himself up on his elbows, and even then, the world seemed to spin around him, making him fall back to the ground.

He raised both of his arms up to find them ugly green and slightly brown, shackled with sturdy roots.

He reached to his head and felt the horns sticking out.

So… he was in his cursed form… well… halfway there…

He shut his eyes with irritation, dropping his arms by his sides, and tried to remember the last thing he could recall before he was drugged.

Gradually, bits of scenes came together like a puzzle in his head, before a sense of fear crept up on him when he came face to face to an unsettling realization.

He had indeed completely lost control of his body.

The curse had taken over him like a mindless beast, attacking like a rabid dog for a moment.

He used to lose control at times in the past, but only when he was angered, and it was only for a few seconds. Now, it seemed like the curse was more powerful in the human world.

'You're worse than them…' A dark voice hissed in his mind, threatening to suffocate him.

He shut his eyes hard and did his best to take deep and slow breaths. Hands turned into fists, fingers dug into his flesh, to cause himself some pain to distract his mind from the voice.

'And not only that… you were so pathetic like a baby back there…'

Philip felt the heavy weight of disgust come crashing into his soul as the voice reminded him how he had one of those terrible moments in front of Hunter and two of the other kids back at the road. The way he had let his mind get consumed with thoughts and how weak and pitiful he must have appeared in front of his enemies made his heart clench hard.

He hadn't had one of those weak moments in a very long time…

Philip's mind snapped back to reality and his eyes shot open when his ears picked up faint sounds coming from beyond the door. He could hear the muffled footsteps of a group of people and by knowing full well who they belonged to made his blue eyes glow brighter and heart twist with hatred.

The door creaked open before the group of people he wanted to burn alive on multiple stakes walked down the stairs.

His body tensed up, preparing to defend himself if he had to. He turned his head to the left to glare with exhaustion at Luz and her disgusting friends.

"Let's make a deal," Luz said to him without greeting him. "You help us make the portal back to the Boiling Isles, help us get back there, then once we are back there," she pulled out a green-looking egg from her backpack. "We will give you this, which might help you with your predicament, and then we will go our separate ways."

"It's a palisman egg," Gus explained in case Philip didn't know what Luz was offering to him.

"Also, you will hurt none of us," Amity added in quick.

"Nor will you manipulate us, especially Hunter," Willow said.

Philip stared at them coldly, slowly taking in what was happening now instead of glaring daggers at Hunter who was looking down at him coldly.

Philip hated to admit it, but he was caught off guard. From the scenarios he would have come up with what they were going to do with him, making a deal for his cooperation in getting back to the Boiling Isles and then letting him go free was not something that would have crossed his mind.

"You… think…" he struggled to form words, glaring at Luz with intensity as the memory of her tricking him when she placed a mark on him taunted him. "I'll fall for your tricks… again…?"

"Amity will be making an everlasting oath with you," Luz said, eyes narrowed at him. "So, we don't have to worry about betraying one another."

"If we break the everlasting oath, then I'll become your servant," Amity said.

"But if you break the everlasting oath, then you'll become Amity's servant," Luz added quickly.

Belos continued to glare at her. An everlasting oath… he had never made such a pact with anyone like that before, but he had seen others do so and when they failed…

The gears turned quickly in his head.

He wanted to go back to the Boiling Isles.

He had to make sure humanity was safe, no matter what.

All he had to do was to comply with them for a while… but the thought of being around witches in the human world disgusted him. And the thought of them possibly corrupting the humans around them made him want to kill them in the room now, but…

The curse was eating him up. He had to slow down his curse from taking over his existence till he could finish his mission before it was too late.

He looked into their eyes, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was off. He couldn't believe they would just let him free once they were back in the Boiling Isles, unless, of course, they were desperate. Which would make sense… Since only he knew how they could go back to the Boiling Isles …

He closed his eyes, doing his best to keep his head cool. His hands twitched, his fingers aching to snag the egg palisman now and drain its magic.

But he knew he shouldn't try to steal the egg and try to kill them now. He hated to admit it, but the children were strong… And he didn't want to risk the curse from taking over his mind again if they fought.

'You're going to fail them…' the voice hissed in his head. 'You won't be saving any souls…'

Philip struggled to his feet to stand before Amity with determination to prove the voice wrong.

Both he and the girl were locked in a fierce and cold stare.

Amity could feel the hatred vibrating from Belos's glowing blue eyes, especially as he wore a look of disdain as he extended his hand to her. She kept her stance firm and reached out to take the proffered hand, ignoring the way her friends had gotten into a fighting stance behind her in case he tried attacking her.

Amity didn't waste any time as she began to say the terms of the everlasting oath out loud. She waved a finger around their clasped hands before a ring appeared around them.

The terms were just like they told him. He will help them build the portal to go back to the Boiling Isles. He will help them return there safely. He will not harm them nor manipulate them. Once they were back to the Boiling Isles, then Amity would give him the palisman egg that Luz was holding, and Amity would make sure they let him go with no issues.

If either of them ended up breaking the deal, then the perpetrator will become the other person's servant forever.

Philip was for sure going to go along with their pathetic oath. Once they were back in the Boiling Isles and he drained the magic out of that palisman egg, he would have the chance to leave and plan out another way to eliminate Luz and the rest of the witches.

He had to save his people before it was too late…

Little did he know the magical light relating to the eternal oath was an illusion crafted by the youngest one of the group, waving a finger behind his back.

Author's AfterNote

Hopefully my tailbone doesn't hurt so bad or I get that fixed soon since I don't want to be writing and in agony the whole time : c

Just a reminder, story is in archive of our own too. Please review/comment. : )