The Pact
Hunter panicked when Luz's laptop shut off. Titan, did I just murder Luz's laptop?! He tried turning it back on, but it didn't turn on which made Hunter panic even more. What am I going to do?! I have to tell Luz. He sighed to himself. She is not going to like this. He walked out of the closet that he went into when Gus went to bed because he didn't want to wake him up with the computer's glow.
It was three in the morning, and Hunter had been on the laptop for hours. He walked upstairs, carrying the laptop.
When he opened the basement door, he was surprised to see that Luz was still up. Luz was at the table, writing a note. Hunter thought he had hours to practice what he was going to say to Luz before she woke up. But since she was up now, he better get over it.
He then thought about this. Should I go and tell Luz now or wait? She may be going to bed. If she is, I don't want her to go to bed angry. Maybe I'll do this later. He then sighed to himself. No, I better do this now and get this over with.
He was about to go when he saw Luz leaving when she was finished writing her note. He walked over, grabbed the note and read it to himself.
'I'm very sorry' It began. 'I helped Philip, AKA, Belos. I didn't know that I was helping him until it was too late. Since then, I have been really depressed about this. All of it. The guilt has been eating me up inside and I can't take it anymore. And now, my friends are trapped in The Human Realm and I don't know if they can ever return. We tried once and failed. Amity, you'll find someone else to love, I just know it. And Hunter, I hope you find a good life. I hope you all do. Mom, I know you don't understand any of this. I should have just gone to camp and never followed an owl to the portal to The Demon Realm. I'm sorry that I'm not the perfect daughter that you want me to be and that I'm a total weirdo. You deserve better. You all do. And I still miss Dad. Dad would know what to say to me, He always does. And since he's not here anymore, I don't know what else to do. I feel like I have no other options. I know you guys don't want me to go, but I feel like I have to. Once again, I'm very sorry. I'll tell Dad 'hola', Mom.' Hunter was really confused about what he just read. What did Luz mean? Her dad's dead. How is she going to say 'hola' to him? And where is she going? Her words made no sense to him.
He supposed he had to go to bed. It was really late and they wouldn't like it if he didn't get any sleep. He heard a scream from the kitchen and ran off, placing the laptop on the table.
"LUZ!" He shouted in a panic.
When he went into the kitchen, he gasped in horror as he saw Luz. She was laying on the floor. A trail of blood was next to her, along with a bloody knife. He ran to her. "Luz, Luz! Wake up!" He shook her, trying to wake her. "Please, you have to get up! Luz!" He grew anxious. Titan! What am I going to do?! He stood up, determined. I have to tell Camila. She'll know what to do. He hated having to wake her up, but knew that this was urgent. He didn't want the person who offered him a safe place after they were both in Belos' mind, to die. He jumped to his feet and ran off as quickly as he could, trying hard not to cry.
"CAMILA!"
The ambulance had been called to the Noceda residence. It was still dark out since it was half past three in the morning. Hunter and Camila watched Luz being loaded into the ambulance outside. Camila sighed.
"Camila, I'm sorry." Hunter apologized to her. "For Luz and for waking you up at this hour. I know you humans are normally still asleep at this time, but thought that this was urgent. I didn't know what else to do." Camila turned to him with a smile.
"You did the right thing, Hunter." She told him. "No need to apologize for that."
"I know, but I'm still sorry." She frowned.
"I know you are. I just can't believe this is happening. I wonder what happened that led to all of this." Hunter thought about the note. He was about to mention this to her, when Camila spoke up instead. "I'm going to go to the hospital with Luz."
"I'll go too." Camila shook her head.
"No, I want you to stay here. Tell the others what happened when they wake up."
"But I want to know if Luz's going to be okay. I found her unconscious. I should know. Please, she's my friend. I don't want her to die."
"I know you are worried. I am too. I don't want her to die either. But if anybody wakes up and sees us both gone, they'll panic. I'm surprised that they'll all still sleeping to be completely honest."
"I am too." He then sighed. "Okay, but can you give me an update when you get back or will Luz be back with you?"
"I don't know, but I'll for sure give you an update. Maybe I'll call Vee later."
"How long will you be out?"
"I don't know. This could take several hours. I'll probably have to take off work again. You can find a blanket and sleep up here on the couch if you want." Hunter nodded.
"Okay. I think I'll do that."
"And try not to worry about this. I want you to get some sleep in, okay?"
"But that'll be hard! I might not be able to do it. I was going to, but now, with the incident with Luz…"
"Please try. You need some sleep in. It's healthy for you." Hunter sighed.
"Okay, I'll try."
"Good."
After their farewells, Hunter watched as Camila left the house. The ambulance had already left. The teen then went off to find a blanket.
Hunter only had four hours of sleep when he heard his friends' voices and a chirping. He also felt something on his chest. He saw that Flapjack was on his chest.
"Flapjack?" He asked, picking him up and putting him beside him on the couch before sitting up. "What are you doing here?"
"He was so worried about you when you weren't downstairs." Gus explained. "I was too. He was going to come up here himself. I carried him up here."
"Oh, I'm sorry I worried you, Flap." He apologized to the little bird who just chirped. He looked at Gus. "Same goes for you, Gus. Things with Luz happened so fast. She's in the hospital. Camila there's too. I'm here to inform you guys."
"Wait, Luz is in the hospital?" Amity wanted to know with a gasp. She came up to him with his other friends. "What for?" Hunter took off the blanket, and looked at her.
"I don't know. But when I went up here, I heard her scream. I ran to the kitchen and found her laying unconscious with a bloody knife beside her." He saw his friends' shocked and concerned faces. "I'm so sorry."
"Oh. My. Titan!" Amity said. "My poor Luz."
"That must have been so horrible for you to find Luz like that." Willow observed. Hunter nodded.
"It was." He told her. "I had to wake up Camila because I didn't know what else to do. She called the ambulance."
"Something must have happened." Vee reasoned. "I mean, that doesn't just happen for no reason." Hunter nodded.
"There was a note." He stood up. "I'll go get it." He walked to where the note was, grabbed it and gave it to Amity. "Here. However I warn you, you might not like it." Amity looked at the note with her friends.
After reading and rereading Luz's letter, Amity still couldn't believe it.
"What is it?" Willow asked when she saw the horror on Amity's face. Amity looked at her.
"Luz tried to kill herself." Her friends gasped in shock.
"What?!" Vee wanted to know. "Are you sure?" Amity nodded and gave Vee the letter. Vee grabbed it and read it to herself. Her eyes then grew wide. "She's right. This is a suicide note."
"I can't believe it. Why wouldn't Luz tell me? I'm her girlfriend. I thought she wouldn't keep secrets from me. I told her mine."
"Same reason as to why she never told us, her friends." Willow replied. "Or her own mom. We never truly know what a person is truly feeling inside. They may act happy on the outside, but on the inside, they're hurting."
"True." Gus agreed. "We're not psychic. Although that would be so awesome!"
"Gus!" Vee warned. Gus sighed.
"I know, not the time. Plus, I already can do illusions. Having psychic abilities will be overkill, but still cool." He then saw Vee's look. "Sorry."
"I think I know how Luz feels." Hunter said. "Well, not exactly. When I found out about Belos and my life turned upside down, I was really depressed. I helped him do horrible stuff and murder witches just for being different. I was filled with guilt and shame. I mean, how can someone like you after that and how can you go on? It's a disgrace. It's dishonorable. I was in a really dark place. I couldn't deal with it any longer, and I, like Luz, tried to kill myself. I just didn't want to be in the world anymore knowing that I did a deplorable act." He then smiled as he looked at Flapjack. "But luckily Flap was there. He stopped me from doing the absolute worst mistake of my life. I didn't know it at the time, but I'm always grateful for that and always will. If I did go through with ending my life, I wouldn't have met you guys. Because of that, my life and mental health is improving and I am grateful for that too. Flapjack is the best palisman that a guy could ask for."
"And we're glad you are still here too." Willow stated. "I can't imagine a life without you." Hunter blushed. She then realized what she said. "I mean, we can't imagine a life without you, not just me."
"You know," Amity put in. "…that is not surprising considering your background. Sorry to say."
"No, it's okay." Hunter told her.
"As horrible as my life was before I met Luz, I, luckily, didn't experience that and go through that pain."
"We're all lucky." Vee put in. "Through all of the bad stuff that we go though and all of the pain, we manage to pull out of it and be happy with ourselves." The friends all agreed.
Vee's phone then rang. The basilisk grabbed it and answered it. "Hello? Oh, hi, Camila. Any news on your daughter yet?" All of Luz's friends all perked up. They all wanted details. Vee frowned. "Oh, okay. See you when you get home then." She hung up and sighed.
"Well?" Amity wanted to know. "What's going on with Luz? Will she be okay? Please, tell me that she's going to be okay." Vee looked at her and smiled.
"Luz seems to be recovering." Her friends all sighed with relief. "Camila said that Luz lost a lot of blood, so Camila will be there with her daughter for a while and left me in charge. So we have the whole place to ourselves until she gets back here with Luz."
"What are we going to do until then?" Gus wanted to know. "We're going to be filled with worry until they get back. We won't be doing really much of anything!" Vee looked at him.
"Well, we have to do something to keep our minds occupied in the meantime."
"Before we do anything, guys." Hunter piped up, "I have a confession to make." They all looked at him. "I may have unintentionally murdered Luz's laptop." His friends were all confused. "I'm really sorry. I was on Luz's laptop for hours. I had two warnings beforehand I guess. I didn't know what they were, so I ignored them. One minute, I was doing my own thing, and the next thing, the screen went blank. I tried and tried turning it back on, but to no avail. I feel nothing but shame. Luz is going to hate me and I don't blame her. I deserve all of the hate that is coming to me."
Vee broke out laughing. Hunter was confused.
"Why are you laughing?" He asked. "Stop it! I killed her laptop. Death is permanent. It's no laughing matter." Vee stopped laughing.
"You didn't kill Luz's laptop." Vee told him.
"What are you talking about? Of course I did. I saw it with my own eyes. I deserve whatever punishment the Human Realm has for murder. Murder is a major crime back on the Boiling Isles, so there's no doubt that it's a major crime here too."
"Hunter, it ran out of batteries. You just need to recharge it, then it'll be as good as new." Hunter was now puzzled.
"Well, how can I recharge it?"
"I'll go get a charger, and then I'll call a ride for all of us to go and do something fun to take our minds off of Luz and Camila for a while. Be right back." She then left.
"And Luz will never hate you." WIllow told Hunter. "Just like we'll never hate you. Just be honest with us and everything will be fine." Hunter blushed and smiled at this.
"Thanks, Captain." He thanked her. "You always know what to say." This time, Willow smiled.
Vee came back with a charger. She grabbed Luz's laptop and plugged in the charger and put it in the socket. Hunter watched this entire progress.
"There." Vee stated. "It's charging."
"Wow!" Hunter marveled. "So, if we just leave it in there, it'll be fully charged again when we get back?"
"Yup!" Vee answered. "That's how charging works. Depends on how long we're out."
"Neat!" Gus observed. "Just like magic, then? I didn't know the Human Realm had magic."
"Sure. You can call it magic, I guess. Anyways, we should all get going. I'm sure Camila will call, then we can decide from there if we should come back or not."
"Sounds like a plan!"
"I might want to go back to be with my girlfriend." Amity said. "I can go back alone if everybody wants. I don't want to force you all back if you are all having fun. And if I do go back, I know, I'll be careful and try to fit in with the humans. It's not that hard. I can do it."
"Well, I guess that can work. Sure." After Vee called for a ride on the Drift app that Camila installed on her phone, they all went outside to wait for the ride. Hunter first brought Flapjack back downstairs before rejoining his friends.
Vee took them to Great Slam where they did various activities like laser tag, mini golf (Hunter grew frustrated and groaned every time he hit his ball into the water) and batted balls in the batting cages, but nobody was even into them, not even Vee.
"I'm really sorry I dragged you all into this." Vee spoke to her friends on the ride home. "I tried and I failed…massively."
"You tried to cheer us up." Willow told her. "And that was a good thing, so you didn't do anything wrong."
"Willow's right." Amity stated. "Your heart was in the right place. It's all of our faults for not being happy."
"I can't force you guys to be happy when you clearly aren't." Vee said. "You guys were all just not into it. And truth be told, I wasn't into it either."
"Maybe next time when we are all in better moods, we'll try again." Gus suggested. Vee managed a smile.
"Okay. Maybe I'll take you all again while Luz is back at her human school in a few days."
"Oh, shoot, I forgot about that." Amity spoke. "Maybe we'll figure out a way back to the Boiling Isles before then."
"Maybe, but just in case, we'll go back there. Just say the word."
"Okay, we will."
"Are you sure that Luz's laptop will be alive again when we get back, Vee?" Hunter asked her. Vee looked at him.
"Positive." She told him. Hunter smiled. "Or at least will have a lot of juice, uh, battery life."
"Okay, you know best about this human stuff. I feel a little better now." She smiled.
"Good. I'm glad at least somebody is."
As soon as the kids settled back at the house, Vee turned on Luz's laptop. It went back to life. Vee showed Hunter that it was back to 100%.
"See?" Vee said to Hunter. "I told you that you had nothing to worry about."
"Wow!" Hunter marveled. "Would you look at that?"
"It is like magic!" Gus put in. Hunter then squealed with happiness.
"I didn't kill it after all." He said with glee. "It's alive! You were right, Vee. It's alive! It's alive!" He laughed like a crazed lunatic.
"Uh, why did you laugh like a crazed lunatic just now?' Gus wanted to know. Hunter looked at him and shrugged.
"I don't know, but, thank Titan, it's alive! I didn't murder it after all. I'm so happy." And that is when Camila and Luz entered the house.
"Murder what?" Luz wanted to know. Everybody looked at her. Amity ran up to her.
"Luz!" They all said at once. Amity hugged her tightly, lifting her up from the floor.
"Uh, Amity?" Luz questioned. "Can you let me down please?" Amity put her down and looked at her, all serious now.
"Never do that to me ever again!"
"Yeah!" Gus said. "We were so worried about you."
"Just talk to us whenever you have a problem." Willow told her.
"Okay, I will." Luz said. She then saw Hunter was holding back tears. "Hunter, you okay?" Hunter ran up to her as well, and grabbed her shoulders.
"You have to promise, Luz." He said, choking back on his tears. "Please, promise! I don't want to lose you." Luz smiled.
"I promise." She looked at everyone. "I'm so sorry that I made you worry everyone. I'll never do that again."
"I think you need therapy." Camila said to her daughter. "We can look for good ones later." Luz looked at her and shook her head.
"No, Mom. Please! We don't need to do that. I don't need it. I promised my friends I'll never do it again."
"I think you have to, mija. We already lost your father. I can't bear to lose you too."
"And you won't. The therapists here won't understand anything. They'll think I'm loco when I tell them that I helped someone from a magical world."
"You can leave the magical elements out." Vee told her. "And just tell them that you helped an evil man. I'm sure they'll understand that part." Luz looked at her.
"And lie to a therapist? I can't do that."
"It's not a lie. It's just not telling them the entire story."
"Well, whatever it is, I'm not doing it." Camila sighed.
"Okay." She decided. "It's your choice. I respect it. But the next time you do it, we may have to reconsider." Luz sighed, not wanting to argue.
"Okay, Mom. Whatever. I'll think about it." Camila looked at Hunter next.
"You sure you don't want therapy either? That panic attack that you had on that first night was really scary to witness." Hunter looked at her.
"I'm sure." He told her. "Sorry about that. But like Luz said, they will never believe me either." Camila sighed.
"Alright. You two may be right. And you don't have to be sorry at all when you have a panic attack. Maybe you kids can all go to a therapist back in your world, assuming they have them there""
"I'm sure my friends will think about it, Camila." Willow told her. "And it does." Luz looked back at Hunter.
"So, what about murdering something?" She asked him. Hunter gave her a nervous laugh.
"It's a really funny story." He told her. "You're going to laugh."
"Something tells me I won't."
"Oh, you will." Vee told her. "Something tells me you will." Luz looked at her.
"Is it that funny?"
"To your perspective, maybe."
Hunter woke up the next morning. He saw that Gus wasn't on the couch. He looked at Flapjack.
"Where's Gus, Flap?" He wanted to know. Flapjack chirped that he didn't know. Hunter then looked everywhere downstairs, but didn't find him anywhere. He gave up, and went upstairs.
Upstairs, Hunter looked for Gus and his other friends. But they weren't there. He only saw Camila who was in the kitchen.
"Camila, have you seen Gus and my other friends?" Hunter asked her. Camila looked at him.
"They all went to Great Slam." She replied.
"They went without me?"
"Sorry, you were still asleep and they knew you needed to sleep more than them."
"You know what? I'm not disappointed, they can do stuff without me."
"Do you want me to make you anything to eat?"
"Sure, can you make me some pancakes?" He looked at the clock on the oven. "12:00? How is it 12:00 already?" He looked back at Camila. "Is it too late for pancakes?"
"No, however, I don't have any pancakes to make you. Sorry."
"Oh."
"How about waffles instead?"
"Waffles?"
"Sure, they're similar to pancakes."
"Sure, why not?" Camila opened the fridge and got out a box of waffles. "They'll be ready in a few minutes. What drink do you want?" Hunter shrugged.
"Surprise me. I'll bring up my driving pamphlet and read it while I wait." Hunter went out of the kitchen as Camila opened up the waffles.
When the waffles were ready, Camila put them on a plate and placed it on the table. She also put Hunter's drink on the table too. She called for Hunter. Hunter came in a minute later. When he saw the waffles on the plate, he was impressed.
"Wow! They look really good, Camila!" He complimented.
"Why thank you, Hunter." She thanked him. Hunter sat down in a chair and grabbed a fork.
"They smell delicious too. I smelled them while I was studying. The smell was tempting, but I told myself to wait while you were done."
"Well, certain smells are tempting. Eat up! I hope you enjoy it."
"I'm sure I will." Hunter ate a single bite, and like with the pancakes, lit up like a Christmas tree.
"These are delicious, Camila! Maybe even more delicious than the pancakes from the other day."
"I'm glad you like them, Hunter. And when you get done, I can drive you to Great Slam so you can join Luz and the others."
"I'll like that very much, Camila." And with that, he had another bite.
However, with every bite he took, he felt sad and tears streamed down his face. He couldn't take it anymore, and stopped eating and just burst out crying. He covered his eyes with his hands. Camila noticed this.
"Hunter, what's wrong?" She wanted to know. "Why are you crying?"
"I'm sorry, Camila!" He sobbed. "It's just…you have been so nice to me and I don't deserve any of it!" Camila was confused.
"What are you talking about? Why wouldn't you deserve it?" Hunter looked at her, tears still in his eyes.
"Camila, I have to tell you something."
"Tell me what?"
"I threatened to kill your daughter." Camila was shocked.
"What!?" Hunter nodded.
"I threatened to toss her into the sea, along with an old lady. I wasn't really nice to her when we met. I wasn't nice to any of my friends or anyone really. I was a terrible person. I'm not proud of my past, but thought you deserved to know. And now I told you…" He stood up from the table. "I'll go get Flapjack and head on out to live somewhere." He was about to go when Camila spoke up.
"Hunter, wait. I want you here." Hunter stopped and looked at her.
"But, I don't deserve it."
"Yes, you do. If Luz brought you here and now is a friend of yours, she clearly trusts you. And if my daughter trusts you, then so do I."
"But I did bad things to her in the past. I would be cancelled if other people know."
"Well, I don't know what this 'cancelling' business is all about, but I do know one thing. What you did before to my daughter and others is all in the past. And I can tell that you're not that boy anymore. I can tell that you have changed your ways and knew what you did was wrong. You're proving that by being Luz's friend and now want to do the right things."
"But I still did bad stuff. I deserved to be shunned and punished for my crimes that I did with my evil uncle. Look, I appreciate this, Camila, I really do. But let's be honest, I deserve to be treated as a criminal because that is who I am, a criminal who doesn't deserve anybody's love, especially yours or any of my friends. I really think it'll be in all of your best interests if I just leave." He was about to leave when Camila stopped him again.
"Hunter, your past does not define you." He looked at her, confused.
"It doesn't?" Camila shook her head.
"Just because you did things with your uncle that you regret, doesn't mean you are still that person. You can change and be a better person. You're your own person. You get to decide what you want to do in life, not him. Don't let him rule your life." While Camila was talking, Hunter was sniffing back tears.
"So, you don't care about my past relationship with your daughter and want me to stay?"
"I'm not going to judge you. I don't care. I just care about what you are doing and how you are improving. I'll be happy for you to stay, you and all of Luz's friends. You guys stay here as long as you need to." Hunter wiped away his tears.
"Now, this might be a weird question and maybe a bit creepy. You can say no if you want, I won't be offended. But can I…can I hug you?"
"Of course you can. It's not weird and creepy in the slightest. Anytime you need a hug, I'll be happy to provide one." So Hunter hugged Camila and burst into new tears as Camila comforted him.
"Why, Camila? Why did my uncle do what he did and dragged me into it? Why doesn't he love me and was just using me to get what he wanted? It was horrible when I found out. I just don't understand. Why me?"
"I can't answer that question. But you are not alone. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen here too. It's heartbreaking to hear about a family member abusing sweet children like you, but that's the sad reality. We don't get to choose who our family is, so it's a gamble. But there are people that will care about kids like you, people like me. As long as you're under my roof and in my care, I will do whatever I can to keep you kids safe. That's a promise." Hunter then withdrew from the hug to look at her.
"You're sure we won't be a burden and having seven people in the house won't be too many snails for you to afford?" Camila was puzzled about this.
"Snails?"
"You don't use snails to buy things you want and need?" Camila shook her head.
"No."
"Oh, sorry."
"Don't be. And you guys will never, ever be a burden.I know you guys all need to get home, so I want to help in any way I can."
"And you said you will be willing to adopt me, but sixteen is not too old?" Camila shook her head yet again.
"No. There is no age limit to join a family. You can be whatever age that you are."
"Oh, good. And another thing, I don't know if I want to go back to the Boiling Isles. It may give me too many bad memories. I don't think I can face it. I hope I'm not selfish and let Luz and the others down if I stay instead." Camila smiled.
"You won't be letting your friends down if you don't go with them. I'm sure that they will all understand and support whatever you decide to do in the end." Hunter smiled.
"I'm sure they will too. Thanks for this talk, Camila. You don't know how much I needed this."
"Anytime." She then changed the subject. "Now, finish your meal, so that you can join your friends in whatever they're doing. You need your strength." Hunter agreed, and sat back down to finish his drink and waffles.
When they got to Great Slam, Hunter joined his friends. Camila left to do her own thing.
The teens had more energy in them to do the various activities that they weren't in the mood the day before. They did Paint Ball, played games at the arcade, drove bumper cars (Hunter was disappointed that this wasn't a real driving test), bowled a game at the bowling alley, jumped on the trampolines, and had food.
Vee called Camila when they were done and she came to pick them up. They all told of all the fun they had to Camila as they drove them home.
"Glad you guys had fun." Camila said.
"It was a blast!" Hunter stated. "Being cooped up in the castle all of the time, I didn't really get a chance to be a kid. I didn't know what I was missing out on!"
"I really liked bumping into Hunter's car a lot during the bumper cars." Gus put in.
"That was intentional?" Hunter questioned. "I thought it was because you were a bad driver. That must be why they give out licenses to sixteen year olds, and not twelve year olds."
"Dang!" Luz observed. "I didn't take you as a roaster, Hunter?" Hunter was confused.
"I'm not. Am I? What's that?"
"I'll tell you later."
"And, duh, dude!" Gus said to Hunter. "You were supposed to bump into the other cars. That's why they're called bumper cars." He looked at Luz. "Right, Luz?
"Right, Gus." She replied.
"Luz might have run into my car a lot." Amity spoke. "But I wouldn't have it any other way."
"You're dang right, batata." Luz told her.
"I was shocked at how many fun activities they had there." Willow put in. "The hours went by. I never wanted to leave."
"Well, we did say until almost closing time." Vee explained. "And we were all in better moods, so that's why we did more than we did yesterday. I'm glad you guys are here. Fun stuff like what we did today wouldn't be as much fun with just me and Camila." She looked up front. "No offense, Camila."
"No offense taken, Vee." Camila responded. "I agree. It wouldn't be as much fun. Plus, I'm getting older, so stuff like Great Slam is more fun when you're a kid. My joints don't work like they used to."
"That's too bad." Vee said with a frown. "Again, no offense. I'm no expert on the human body. I just shapeshift into them sometimes." Camila chuckled.
"Fair enough."
Back at the Noceda household, most everybody went to bed. Hunter was about to too when Luz stopped him.
"Luz, what is it?" Hunter wanted to know. "I really need to go to bed before I get an earful from everybody in the morning."
"I just wanted to thank you for saving my life." She told him.
"Oh, I didn't save your life. The ambulance and hospital did."
"That may be, but Mom said it was you that found me on the kitchen floor unconscious. If you didn't see me there on the floor like that when you did, it might have been morning before people found out and by then, it might have been too late."
"Well, I didn't know what else to do, Luz. You are my friend. You were there for me when we were in Belo's mind. You mean everything to me after I lost everything. You all do. I just didn't want you to die. I guess I was at the right place at the right time. So, in a way, it's you that saved my life and I'm so glad and proud of that. You also saved my life again when you went in my place to Emperor Belos. If you hadn't done that stupid and very reckless stunt, I would have surely been dead. So, consider it a favor."
"You're welcome and I know that it was stupid and extremely reckless. But I had to. You're my friend and my hero." Hunter chuckled nervously at that.
"Well, I don't know about hero!"
"You are, and you can't deny it."
"Ok, I guess I'm your hero then. Cool." He smiled to himself. Wow! Hero! I like that.
"So, let's make a pact." Hunter was confused.
"Pact?"
"Yeah, let's encourage one another that whatever dark things happen to us, to not forget that life can get better and to look on the brighter side. Deal?" She stuck out her hand. Hunter looked at it, smiled and shook it with his hand.
"Deal!"
And so with the pact now instated between the friends, they both went off to bed.
But before Hunter went to bed, he looked at his hands and smiled.
I feel safe enough here that I don't even need my gloves anymore. He thought in his head. Plus, humans can stop looking at me weird, wondering why I need to wear gloves in summer weather. And with that, he took off his gloves, set them aside, and went to sleep.
Before Luz shut off her light to go to bed, Amity spoke up.
"Luz, you awake?" She wanted to know. Luz looked at her girlfriend.
"I was about to go to sleep." She informed her. "What do you need?"
"Look, I've been thinking."
"Thinking of what?"
"Back in the Demon Realm, you said that after the mess was over with Belos, that we would go on a date, you and me."
"I did tell you that, didn't I?" Amity nodded.
"Well, I was talking about Belos and The Day of Unity. Now we have a new mess to deal with. I have to get all of you guys back to where you all belong. We also have to deal with the Collector and whatever mayhem he caused. There's no time to date." Amity frowned.
"Oh, I see. I just thought with you going back to your human school soon, we should go out on that date. We may hope that we would all get back before then, but let's be realistic here, that may not happen. It might take days, months, or even years. I don't want to wait until who knows when to go out on that date. I want to go out on our date asap and I know that you would too." Luz smiled.
"I sure do! And maybe? I just don't know."
"Can you just think about it?" Luz nodded.
"I sure will." This time, Amity smiled.
"Thanks, Luz. I know you will. Goodnight then. See you in the morning."
"See you in the morning, Amity." And with that, Amity went to bed.
Luz frowned. Amity was right. Although Luz didn't want to think about it, school was fast approaching. And even though she didn't feel in the mood for it right now until after she returns her friends and tries to reason with the Collector. She knew that Amity was right. Her mom will want her to go to school, and she knew that she should, but what about her friends? What will they all do while she is in high school or her mom at work? She just didn't know, and that was scarier than starting high school.
She also figured her mom would take her back- to- school shopping soon. She didn't want to do that either, but she didn't think she had much of a choice in the matter.
She chose to ignore all of these thoughts for now, and just focus on the present. She will still help out her friends, no matter what. And she will still go out on that date with Amity, whether it be in Connecticut or back in the Boiling Isles. She just had to. And with that, she shut off the lights and went to sleep.