When Belos disappeared into the depths and the waves finally subsided, the sea seemed to become quieter than ever. The fish and all the other sea creatures within a radius of at least one hundred kilometers had fled without looking back, terrified by the mere presence of the giant monster; the ships, even though they were several kilometers away, had been able to see Belos very well in the distance and hear his terrifying roar, and had immediately set course for the port of Bonesborough. The town itself had seen the monster appear very clearly on the horizon, and even though they knew he couldn't reach them on land, the inhabitants were terrified anyway and quite a few ran to take refuge in the cellars. For a moment they feared that the waves raised by Belos would sweep away the town, but fortunately, although they were enormous, the distance that separated them from Bonesborough was such that when they reached it they were no more than two or three meters high, and although they flooded all the roads near the port they did no irreparable damage and retreated as quickly as they had come, and no one was hurt. When Belos finally disappeared under the water everyone breathed a sigh of relief; the danger had ceased, but for that day no one would put even a toe in the water again. And maybe even for the whole following month.
It wasn't just Bonesborough that was hit by the waves: they crashed across the entire coast for tens of kilometers. The beaches and the cliffs almost changed shape as the water reshaped the sand, moved the stones and filled everything with algae, coral and whatever it had torn from the seabed. And on a beach not far from the town, these waves also carried something else from the sea; as soon as they retreated, the inanimate body of a puppet was left on the sand. The puppet was motionless with her belly and face turned towards the sky and her arms and legs completely open and stretched out on the sand; her eyes were wide open and her mouth was half open from which what looked like breathing was coming out, but nevertheless she wasn't moving in the slightest.
A few minutes passed without a single sound, and then one of the pockets of the jacket that the puppet was wearing began to shake, as if something was forcing itself from inside; slowly the zipper gave way and began to move slightly, opening a tiny crack large enough to fit a pin through, and from it emerged the paw of an insect that forced it and opened it even further. Eventually the hole became large enough for a cricket to jump out. "Groan... what a day" Willow murmured, her voice still shaking. She couldn't remember ever being so exhausted. "Gus, can you get out?"
The spider emerged from the pocket and as soon as he was out he rolled down the puppet's body and fell onto the sand; he was shaking like a leaf and couldn't even stand on his little legs. Willow tried to catch him, but she was so tired that she lost her balance and rolled onto the sand next to him. "Gus..." she murmured as soon as she managed to recover, hoping that her friend wasn't hurt.
"I think... I saw death in the face" the spider whispered with wide eyes as he slowly rotated his body and struggled to regain balance at least enough to lift himself up and be able to move on his legs again.
Willow couldn't blame him: they had really had a tough time, much more than any they had previously experienced. She couldn't remember anything before having aroused as much terror in her as that sea monster. Not even when she was young and alone and constantly hiding from birds and other predators had she felt so scared. The mere thought of being swallowed by that aberrant being made her want to vomit. She felt as if someone had taken her soul and turned it inside out like a sock and put it back in her body after biting and clawing it at every point. And she also felt terribly guilty as she remembered what she had done to Gus while she was under Belos' mind control: even though she knew it wasn't her fault, just looking at her friend's physical wounds made her want to tear her own legs off. And judging by Gus's expression, she was pretty sure that he was thinking the same. She wanted to tell him that she was sorry, that they shouldn't blame themselves, that she was glad that at least they were alive… but she was too tired to do that right now. So she just looked up at the puppet: "Luz? Luz, can you hear us?"
The puppet didn't respond; Gus and Willow opened their eyes wide and, animated by an energy that until a few moments before they hadn't believed they possessed, they scurried up to his face, but not before tumbling to the ground at least four or five times since they still hadn't been able to to recover a balance worthy of the name. That's when they realized that Luz was completely still and had her eyes pointed towards the sky, and wasn't even moving her pupils or eyelids. "Oh, no! Luz!" Gus poked her cheek trying to get some reaction, but nothing happened. "S-She's not dead, right?"
"No... no, she's breathing" Willow said as she felt air go in and out of the puppet's mouth and nose; she let out a sigh of relief since for a moment she had seriously feared the worst. "I think... she's in shock"
Luz didn't have any superficial wounds, even her clothes were just a little wet and wrinkled; she even still had the blue pirate bandana that Viney had given her still on her head. Despite everything she had just experienced, she had not suffered any damage... at least not physically. Yet, looking into her eyes, Willow couldn't see anything; not a light, not a movement, not even the tiniest sign of life. It was as if Luz's soul had shut down and she had gone back to being an inanimate puppet. "Do you have any idea on what to do?" Gus asked her hoping that at least she knew how to act, since he was completely lost and no matter how much he tried to think of something, he found that it had become too tiring for him to do even that.
Willow actually had no more idea what to do than Gus did, but she tried to think of something anyway. There was no point in despairing, and they couldn't give up; they should at least try to do something. "Let's try to sit her down in the meantime. Maybe this will do... I don't know, something to her"
The two arthropods grabbed Luz by the hair, but the puppet was too heavy for them to even lift her head. Furthermore, both of them were exhausted. They couldn't move even an inch before collapsing on their own bodies and panting from the effort. However, just at that moment Gus noticed a large crab about the size of Luz's head that was trying to get back into a nearby burrow. It was a male crab, with a dark brown carapace and a rather grim look. "Hey, you! Can you give us a hand, please?" he asked hopefully.
The crab turned his eyes towards them, and for a moment he seemed undecided, but then he gave them a smug look. "Why should I? It's your problem, and I want to get back to my house before some other monster decides to raise another wave. Make do on your own"
Willow frowned angrily, and was about to give the crab a hard time, but to her surprise, for once it was Gus the one who lost control: "Listen to me, dude! I just survived a close encounter with a monster big as an island and my friend is now completely absent, and my nerves are on edge! Now come here and help us immediately or I swear I'll come to your stupid lair and...!"
"Hey, hey, calm down! Alright, I'll give you a hand!" the crab exclaimed, rather intimidated by the spider's reaction. He turned slightly and looked at a corner of the beach, and then he began drumming his claws on the sand: "Hey, you illegal parkers! I remind you that this is my beach, so now come out and earn your hospitality! These rather rude guests need a hand here"
The sand trembled and from underneath it emerged dozens and dozens of crabs, shrimps, lobsters, crayfish and other crustaceans of all kinds; it seemed that practically all the legged fauna in that stretch of sea had taken refuge on that single beach. Willow and Gus were shocked to see so many crustaceans together; they weren't experts, but they were pretty sure it wasn't normal to find so many all at once in one spot. "Where did all of them come from?" Gus asked confused.
"From the sea, no? After Belos arrived, everyone who could escape to land did so, and they invaded my beach and there was no way to send them away. Now they hide here under the sand like me waiting that the situation returns to be safe again, so I have to let them stay in my beach for now; so at least they can make themselves useful" the crab grumbled with a disappointed voice, then he grabbed one of Luz's sleeves with its claws; all the other crustaceans did the same and pulled together, and the puppet's torso finally rose. Despite the combined strength of all of them, it took the crustaceans over ten minutes to lift her dead weight enough to sit her up. Then they made sure that she was in the right position so she wouldn't risk falling and ruining all their work, and once that was done they disappeared under the sand again. "There, I've satisfied you. Now don't bother me anymore" the crab said, heading back towards his den.
"Wait!" Gus called him back. "Thank you. You've been helpful". Despite the crab's rather ugly temper, he couldn't let him go without at least expressing a modicum of gratitude.
The crab seemed to appreciate those words a little, but then he turned his head in disappointment. "Tsk! As if I had any other choice" he grumbled, and then disappeared into his den without even telling them his name.
Left alone again, Willow and Gus returned to focus on Luz, who, even though she was now sitting, had not changed her absent expression in the slightest and was looking at the horizon with an empty look. Her eyes were so blank and her body so lifeless that if they had nudged her she would probably have fallen flat again and she wouldn't even noticed it. "Luz… can you hear us?" Willow tried calling her.
Useless: the puppet didn't even raise an eyebrow. Willow called out to her a second, a third, a fourth, even a fifth time, but not a single reaction came from her. "Come on, Luz!" Gus exclaimed. "Don't scare us like this! We're all tired, and I need your smile now... or at least for you to say something to me! Come on, come on! I'm fine even if you tell me to go to hell!"
But Luz remained motionless and inanimate. The two arthropods tried everything: they screamed, they slapped her, they talked about anything they could think of. They continued like this for a quarter of an hour, but there continued to be no reaction, not a single change even in the position of Luz's eyes or the way she breathed. In the end Willow, finding no other solution, took a deep breath and said the sentence she never wanted to say in her entire life: "Luz... I'm sorry for what happened to your mother, to Vee and to all the others"
Finally something happened: a very brief flash of light seemed to come on in Luz's gaze... a very dark light, and as counterintuitive as this seemed, that was exactly what Gus and Willow saw. The puppet moved her pupils and turned her head slightly; her every movement was mechanical and jerky, as if she had become incapable of moving normally. Finally her gaze met that of her friends, and Willow and Gus could see what seemed like a whirlwind of very negative emotions forming in her pupils. Then, without any warning, Luz fell onto her back again and put her hands in front of her face, and from her mouth came a scream that rang across the entire beach.
Gus and Willow nearly had a heart attack when they heard it. They would never have imagined that Luz, the sweet, smiling and always with her head in the clouds Luz, could make such a sound. The puppet scratched her face so hard that she almost scraped the wood she was made of. "HE... HE DEVOURED THEM!" she screamed. "T-THAT MONSTER DEVOURED THEM! ALL OF THEM... ALL OF THEM ARE... GONE... NOW! VEE, MASHA, VINEY, BARCUS, JERBO... MOM... OH, MOM... WHY, WHY, WHY!? DAMN BELOS! DAMN OCEAN! AND DAMN ME!"
Willow and Gus couldn't hold back the tears in their eyes as they saw her in that state. There was no longer a single sign of positivity, of happiness, of joy on the puppet's face; even that slight light of hope and strength that had shone in her eyes even in the worst moments of their journey had completely gone out, leaving room only for an endless darkness. All positive emotions had completely disappeared, leaving only a reservoir of desperation that seemed to infect everyone around her.
Luz rolled onto her side so quickly that Gus and Willow nearly got crushed, and she began rubbing her forehead violently on the sand. She was completely out of her mind. "They're all gone... and it's all my fault! They were in the sea because of me! That monster ate them because of me! If only I had gone to school from the start like mom told me to, she would never have left home and would never have started sailing! I just had to obey her and act like a good girl, but no, I had to be a stupid bad girl! And everyone else... Vee, Masha, Viney, Jerbo, Barcus, the captain, everyone... they were there because I asked them to help me get to mom! This is all my fault!"
"Luz! Luz, please listen to me!" Willow waved in an attempt to make herself heard, but the puppet didn't even notice her. She seemed to have completely lost her wits. Instead, she tried to get to her feet, or at least crawl, but none of her limbs seemed to be able to support her anymore and in the end she fell back to the ground with a loud thud. "Luz!" Gus ran in front of her eyes and waved to get her attention. "Stop, please!"
But Luz grabbed him and threw him away, not hard enough to hurt him, but enough to send him flying to a small pile of sand nearby. "Shut up! Stop telling me to stop!" she shouted, and since she couldn't stand up she dragged herself to a small rock nearby. "They're all gone... because of me!" and having said this she lowered her head violently and slammed her forehead against the stone.
"LUZ!" Gus and Willow screamed in unison, expecting to see the puppet's head split like a watermelon, but luckily the wood she was made of was extraordinarily hard and she obtained just a large bruise. But Luz continued to bang her forehead against the rock, regardless of how much pain she was causing herself. "Why didn't I obey my mother!? Why didn't I go to school!? Why did I want to be a stupid stubborn bad girl!?" she shouted, accompanying each sentence with another headbutt. "I destroyed the lives of everyone who was close to me! Everyone who ever showed me any sign of affection paid with their lives! Mom, Vee, Masha, Viney, Barcus, Jerbo, the pirates, even Eda! I had done nothing but ruin everyone's lives! Why? Why am I a poison that contaminates everything I touch? Why can't I do something right for once? WHY WAS I BORN!?"
"Luz, stop now! Stop hurting yourself!" Willow screamed as she flew over the rock, placing herself directly between the puppet's forehead and the stone. If Luz lowered her head again, she would surely crush her to a pulp. And Luz definitely knew it, because she looked at her trembling with a mixture of anger and desperation in her eyes and said: "Get out of my way!"
Willow was almost scared when she looked into those eyes. she had never believed that a person could feel so much pain and resentment at once. But despite her fear she didn't move an inch. "No! If you want to keep hitting your head until it splits open, you'll have to hit me first!" she yelled back. Luz gritted her teeth and grabbed the cricket roughly and threw her away, but Gus took advantage of that moment to put himself in Willow's place; Luz tried to do the same to him, but again Willow put herself back in his place. This went on for at least another dozen tries before Luz finally gave up, probably because she lacked the strength to continue, and finally she moved away from the stone. "Ugh. Thank goodness" Willow murmured. "Now, Luz, please..."
"Shut up!" the puppet screamed, then she turned her back on them, categorically refusing to look at them and holding her hands in front of her face while she cried. "Shut the fuck up! I don't want to hear your damn voice anymore! Stop telling me to calm down! In fact, stop interfering with my life! I want you away from me now! Get out of my sight right now! I don't want to see you anymore! I hate you!"
Willow and Gus knew that Luz wasn't thinking straight at that moment, and was probably talking without even realizing it, but those words still hurt them; each of them was like a hot needle that penetrated their little hearts already too tired from the terrifying experience they had just experienced. Willow looked like she wanted to say something, but her voice didn't come out; seeing that his friend couldn't speak, Gus stepped forward: "Luz, listen to us at least for a..."
"I said go away!" Luz screamed even louder without even looking at them. "You are both useless! You are of no use! You have done nothing but annoy me since I met you! You are nothing more than two insects who keep buzzing in my ears and then do no good! What could I expect from you after all... a cricket that doesn't even know how to fly properly and a spider that doesn't even have a bit of a backbone! Disappear from my life and don't you dare follow me!". And having said this she ran away with her hands still in front of her face without looking back.
Gus bit his lip. That hurt him, a lot. He felt the urge to do as the puppet told him, but he shook his head violently; he couldn't give in to despair now. Not when his friend was in that state. If after she returned to thinking clearly she still didn't want to have him around he would gladly leave, but until then he couldn't leave her alone. "Willow, grab me and take flight, we have to reach her and... WILLOW!". He noticed too late that the cricket was no longer beside him either and was actually flying away in the opposite direction, leaving him there alone.
Luz ran away until she reached a nearby tree, and then she sat beneath it shaking and sobbing continuously. She finally removed her trembling hands from her face, revealing that her nose had grown more than half a meter. "It's okay" she whispered to herself. "Now they won't want to be near me anymore. They will go away, they will stay... away from me. At least... at least they won't get hurt... more than they have now. At least... I won't kill them too". And having said that she closed herself up and burst into desperate tears.
As explained in several previous notes, in the original book Pinocchio arrives at the Town of Industrious Bees (here Bonesborough) immediately after leaving for sea and discovers from a dolphin that his father has been devoured by the giant shark. However, Luz would clearly never be satisfied with such dodgy information, and she would continue to search for Camila endlessly; therefore here the story went differently and she personally saw Belos devour everyone she knew. Furthermore, unlike Pinocchio who didn't seem to care much that his father had been devoured (almost as if he already knew that he was still alive in the belly of the monster, in fact later in the book he wonders if he will ever meet him again), Luz is seriously traumatized from the event, also because she takes for granted that all her friends and her mother are actually dead (as anyone in her place would think, given that if you see a person being swallowed by a giant monster, you hardly wonder if perhaps they could still be alive in his belly... not to mention that Belos is known to not leave any survivors)