It took a few days, but we finally got around to attempting to create a portal door to the Human Realm. "So, according to Philip's instructions, the hardest part to making a portal was finding someone who knew how to build it." Luz explains. "But a lot of the ingredients were pretty easy to find." "Here that, Mom? Your crazy apocalypse supplies finally came in handy." I teased. "Don't forget this." King sighed, giving us Amity's glove with the Titan's Blood. "Titan Blood." Luz said. "I can't believe something this powerful was in the old key this whole time." "It's okay. If Belos is still trying to get to the Human Realm, he'll have to beat us to it." I explained, taking part of the glove and taping it to the door. "Are you sure this isn't gonna, like, blow our faces off?" Eda asked. "Nope." Luz replied. "Well, here goes something." Eda said, pedaling an old bike to power up the portal. "Holy shit." I gasped. "It worked." "Did it?" King asked. "That looks real different from the old door." "Yeah, but this is my one chance to see my mom." Luz replied, putting on her cloak. "Uncle Ricky is probably out drinking again." I added. Eda handed us two ropes to tie around our waists. "If it looks like it's closing, pull." "Kids, as impressive as this is, I don't want you getting hurt." Eda warned. "Once we find out our families are okay, we'll be right back." Luz explains. "Just be careful." Eda said. "The Human Realm's filled with some real weirdos." "Yup, like Uncle Ricky." I replied as Luz and I hugged her and King. "Don't forget to mention me." King reminds us as Luz and I jumped in the portal.

We woke up in this strange place. Mysterious cubes floating around us. "Did we do something wrong?" Luz wondered. "I'm not sure." I replied. "Eda, King, Hooty? Can you hear me?!" "Guys?!" Luz called as one of the cubes came close to us. All of a sudden, Luz and I saw Eda and King outside the house. "Are we back at the Owl House?" A slight breeze blew open the window, which I guess we're inside. "I think we're in the reflection." I explained. "Do you think they're safe?" We heard King ask. "They've made it this far. We just have to trust them." Eda replied as the reflection faded from the cube. "Hold on! I wanna try something." I said. "Richard Yenkins." As the cube appeared, I showed up in the reflection of a greenhouse window, looking at a pool. "What's up with your uncle?" Luz asked. "Oh, just one of the things I figured he would do." I replied. "Skinny dipping with his girlfriend, Monika at her pool, while drinking a beer." "That's creepy." Luz said. "I wonder if I could see Amity." "Wait! Show me Adam Yenkins." I said. Maybe I could finally know if my dad is still alive. The cube levitated in front of me. I was reflecting off a waterfall. He must've been in the Human Realm. Though I couldn't see much of my surroundings, I did notice a lot of sand. "What happened here?" I whispered to myself. "Camila! Camila Noceda of the Human Realm!" Luz shouted. The cube was up above us. "Gotcha. Ice platform!" Luz tried using an ice glyph, but nothing happened. "Here, let me help." I offered, using my powers to levitate to the cube. "Ready to see your mom?"

Once Luz and I touched the cube, we were in the reflection of Mrs Noceda's phone. "It's my house!" Luz gasped. "Mom!" Mrs Noceda was playing music over a speaker, unable to hear her daughter. "Mom? Do you need any help?" Someone asked, looking almost identical to Luz. "What the fuck?!" I asked. Luz gasped. "Oh, are you done cleaning your room?" Mrs Noceda asked. "Almost." Imposter Luz replied. "With all that old stuff gone, I feel like a whole new person." "Evil doppelgänger!" Luz shouted. "Mom! Mom!" "I can finish up here, mija." Mrs Noceda explains. "Thanks, Mom." Imposter Luz said as the reflection faded away. "Follow her!" Luz exclaimed. "Luz Noceda 2.0. Doppelgänger! Why won't you work?" "Luz, calm down and just breathe." I said.

The cube showed us a reflection of Luz's bedroom. "A new life." The imposter said. "You motherfucker!" I shouted, making her scream. "So, you can hear us." Luz said. "You're from the Demon Realm!" The imposter panicked in her original voice. "Listen, I just wanna..." Luz explains. "I'm not going back!" The imposter snapped. "I won't go back!" "Luz, ¿está todo bien?" Mrs Noceda asked. "Sí, mamá. I just saw a spoiler for Monster Slayer Academia." Luz lied. "I'll never understand anime." Her mom sighed. "Huh?" Luz asked as her imposter ran away in fear. "Wait!" I shouted.

The next reflection was in the abandoned house where we discovered Eda's portal. "So, this is it. I'm gonna have to run again." Imposter Luz sighed. "Why couldn't this just work out?!" That's when she got caught in a trap, revealing her true form. "Stop moving!" I warned. "You'll make it tighter." "We didn't mean to freak you out." Luz explains. "I just want to figure out what's going on, okay?" "You're a demon from the Boiling Isles, aren't you?" I asked. "What's your name?" "I'm Number Fi- I mean, I'm Vee." She replied, trying to change back into Luz, but some of her original body was still visible. "Okay, Vee. We're going to help free you. You're gonna be alright." Luz explains. "Now, back up a bit. Give the wire some slack. Now, look for a little metal thingamabob. Sorry, I don't know what it's called." Vee untied herself from the trap. "Thank you." Vee said. "You must be Camila's real daughter?" "I am, and this is my best friend, Peter. But right now, we're trapped in the Boiling Isles." Luz explains. "Who are you and why are you pretending to be Luz?" I asked. "I'm just looking for a place to belong." Vee replied. "You were missing, and Mom... I mean, Camila, seemed so kind, so I stayed with her. But, uh, I'll go if you want..." "Wait! Maybe we can help each other." Luz suggested. "Today, I was going to tell my mom where I've been, but because of you, she hasn't realized I've been missing. So, keep living in my place. For now. When I get back, I can introduce her to the Demon Realm and help you find a place to live." "We'll both help you out." I added. "There's one problem. I need magic to transform and I, uh, just used the rest of it." Vee confessed. Luz and I looked around when I noticed a newspaper advertisement on the ground. "Oh, that's where we can get some magic." I pointed out. "Secrets of Gravesfield?" Vee asked. "No, that's junk. Turn it over." Luz explains as Vee turns over the paper. "Strange woman banned from café." Vee read. "That's my mom, Eda the Owl Lady." I explained. "She's been coming here for years. She might've left some magic shit behind, kinda like when she left me behind as a baby." "Okay, we can try." Vee said, picking up the small mirror from the ground.

Once Vee got into her disguise, she took the mirror to find some of Eda's magic items at the café from the article. "Is this it?" Vee asked. "I just go in and ask about the witch from the paper?" "Yes. Maybe they still have one of her enchanted pastries." Luz replied. "Probably shouldn't have came here on an empty stomach, Luz." I said. "Hello." A barista greeted as Vee walked into the café. "What can I get ya?" "Uh, have any magical old ladies left enchanted items here?" Vee asked. "Ugh." The barista sighed. "You're not friends with that witch-obsessed guy, right? I told him to stop leaving pamphlets here." "Actually, I'm asking about her." Vee explains, pointing at a poster of Eda. "Oh. Marylin?" She asked. "Yeah, she tried to pay for a latte with a live raccoon a few months ago. But when I called the cops, she did something weird to the croissants. We threw them in the trash, but now we have a whole new problem."

Vee went out by the dumpster, sniffing for the croissants. "I don't smell any magic." Vee said. "To be fair, that barista did say that Mom got banned from the café months ago." I recalled. "Bread of Wisdom grants us speech." Some rats said. "We desire more!" "Cool! Talking rats." Luz exclaimed. "Maybe they know something." Vee screamed and ran away from the rats as far as possible. "Vee, is everything alright?" I asked. "Yeah, I, uh, just, oh, don't like confrontation." Vee replied. "Oh, well, that's okay." Luz said. "I'm sure there's someone else who's seen Eda." "There!" I pointed at a group of teens. "Hexes Hold'em cards. Eda got rid of all her decks." "I was wondering where they went." Luz added. "She had an addiction to the game for weeks." I remembered. "Well, they must've run out of magic. I don't smell anything." Vee explains. "But, maybe they know where to get more." I said. "Okay, we gotta be okay approaching high schoolers." Luz warned. "Mark all your exit routes..." "Actually, these guys are cool." Vee giggled, going over to the group of kids. "Hello." "Oh, she's gonna embarrass herself." Luz panicked. "I can't watch." "Oh, hey, Luz." A girl greeted. "Good to see you outside of prison." "Come on. Camp wasn't that bad." Vee said in Luz's voice. "We did have the best cabin." "Camp?" Luz and I wondered. "Cool cards. Where'd you get them?" Vee asked. "Uh-uh, let me give you a reading first. I wanna practice." The girl replied, dealing the cards. "You're running from your past. From a previous life that was not kind to you. However, the guilt and fear you carry will eventually catch you in a self-fulfilling prophecy that you won't be able to escape from. You're gonna need some bath bombs, girl. Anyway, I got the cards from the Gravesfield Historical Society." "Thanks." Vee sighed, walking to the building. "I'll see you around."

Vee went into the building to try to find the cards, or anything containing magic. Vee let out a sneeze as she walked through the door. "Is it that dusty in here? Welcome to the Gravesfield Historical Society." A man greeted. "Let me guess, you're here to buy those weird cards, right?" "How did you know?" Vee asked. "Well, they've been really popular with high schoolers." The man explains. "I saw an old lady try to dump them in a river a while back, but I bought them off her instead. It was really odd, though. She kept asking for snails." "Of course she did." I said. "This is it!" Luz gasped. "You want a set?" He asked. "Yes, please." Vee replied. "Well, I'll be just a minute, so feel free to look around." He said. Vee took a look around the museum, looking upset." "Hey, are you okay?" I asked. "Hey, forget what that girl said. We both know what it feels like to want to run away from home. Luz and I did the same thing." "We're not the same." Vee explains. "Luz, you had a mom that loved you. Peter, you have a family in two different realms. You both had a home, a life. You had it good. And you still wanted to run away. I didn't have a choice. My real name is Number Five. I'm a basilisk, and technically, I shouldn't exist. My kind went extinct a long time ago. But we were brought back. They wanted to know how we drained magic." "We met a basilisk once. She hurt a lot of people." Luz recalled. "For many of us, all we knew how to do was feed. Some of us escaped, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he caught us again." Vee continued her story. "That's when I saw you guys and realized there might be a way out of this. I didn't mean to keep playing this role, but Camila was nice to me. I resent you for running away, but I'm also grateful that you did. I don't know. It's confusing." Vee started sniffing around again. "Do you smell something?" I asked. Vee went into the staff room to see some weapons and research on witches. "Oh, shit." "What is all this?" Vee wondered, turning on a computer, showing the abandoned house. "Have we been followed this whole time?" Vee tried running to the exit, but she fell into a trap and broke her mirror accidentally. "Fuck! Vee?" I called. "Vee!" Luz shouted.

We appeared in a reflection of a glass frame. Vee was still struggling with the trap. "Vee!" Luz and I said. "Let me out!" Vee cried, changing to full basilisk form. "Whoa, it worked?" The man wondered. "I can't believe it! Are you real?" Vee whimpered in fear. "After all this time, after setting up all those traps, I finally caught a living, breathing demon." He said. "Oh, don't be surprised. A few years back, I had a chance encounter with another one of your kind. Yeah, at first, I couldn't believe what I saw, but watching a few MewTube videos, I learned the truth. Witches and demons are real. And they're all sent from Mars to harvest human teeth to power their time machine." "What a fucking idiot." I whispered to Luz. "You don't actually know anything about us, do you?" Vee asked. "Oh, I know enough." He replied. "I'll expose your vile plans on MewTube and finally get my account verified. Get comfortable, demon. Because you'll be in cages for the rest of your life." "Don't worry, Vee. We'll get you out of this." Luz explains. "Go back to the Demon Realm, Luz and Peter." Vee said. "Even if I get out, he knows what my disguise looks like. He'd out me to Camila, and it would cause her more trouble than if you just disappeared." "Vee, you're giving up too quick." I explained. "I'm being realistic." Vee sighed. "It's okay. I'm used to living like this. Goodbye, Luz and Peter." Vee shattered the reflection with her tail, shattering the cube on our end. "Vee!" Luz and I gasped. "Five! Number Five!" No luck. Luz knew there was only one person who could help us. "Camila Noceda." A cube came closer to us and showed Mrs Noceda going through a box of Luz's crap. "Mom, are you there?" Luz asked. "Luz? I didn't even hear you call." Mrs Noceda said. "Mom, it's so great to hear your voice." Luz smiled. "Oh, it's great to hear you, too." Mrs Noceda replied. "What's wrong?" "My friend, Peter and I found out who's been setting up those traps, and he's hurting a friend of ours." Luz explains. "But first, I have to tell you the truth about the last few months. Let us tell you about a place called the Boiling Isles."

Mrs Noceda pulled up to the Historical Society to help us rescue Vee. "You know, if you wanted me to pick you and your friends up, you didn't have to make up this elaborate story about the Demon Realm." Mrs Noceda said. "I'm not making it up, Mom!" Luz exclaimed. "Don't worry, I'll play along." She laughs. "I know this stuff made school difficult, but I'm glad you're still being creative." The man who captured Vee came to the front desk. "That's him." I whispered. "Are you the curator here?" Mrs Noceda asked. "Who's asking?" He wondered. "A little birdie told me you caught a demon." She explains. "I would love to see it." "Wait! How did you know?" The man asked. "Do you work for the government?" "Oh, I'm a veterinarian, actually." Mrs Noceda replied. "So, the president sent a vet to study the demon's anatomy, huh?" He asked. "Sure, I'll show you. But first, I'll need verbal confirmation that I get to publish my findings first." "Okay." Mrs Noceda replied. "Good. Now you're bound by law. Follow me." He said, taking her back to Vee's location. "You even made me a part of your game. This is so fun." Mrs Noceda said. "Ooh! Is this one of those escape rooms? Or, what do you call them? A LARP? Sorry, don't want to break the illusion." "Let me start by telling you the secret history of Gravesfield." He explains. "In the 1600s, this was a peaceful colony until tragedy struck. Two brothers were lured into a realm of evil by a real witch, never to be seen again. People have stopped believing in the horrors of witchcraft, but I know the truth!" "Whoa! Luz, Peter, this is quite a detailed story." Mrs Noceda whispered. "But now I've got the proof that other worldly beings exist. Behold!" He continued, unveiling Vee. "Oh, wow!" Mrs Noceda chuckled. "That is a very convincing... costume?" "A costume? This is a real live demon." The man explains. "Come, watch this." He pulled up the video of Vee transforming on his computer. "More vile beings will probably come to it's rescue. But I can protect humanity. I even had some custom gear made at the renaissance fair. Usually I don't take it out for just anyone, but what the heck. If I'm going to be working with the government, I might as well show off a little." "Guys, come on, I don't like this game anymore." Mrs Noceda said, frightened. "It's not a game, Mrs Noceda." I explained. "Everything Luz told you was true." "So, that thing has been living with me the entire time?" She asked. "It's just a lot to believe." "Her name is Vee, and she may look different, but she's not bad. Please! You gotta help her!" Luz begged. Her mom walked over to Vee and started talking to her. "Hello. This is all so confusing, but who knew I had such a strong girl living under my roof this whole time." Mrs Noceda greeted. "So, how do I look?" The man asked. "Maybe we can collaborate on a version that can survive a battle on Mars. Wait! What is that?! Are you recording this?" Mrs Noceda was speechless. "Wonderful." The man replied. "I mean, I was gonna wait until after the press tour, but let's begin our live dissection of this demon right now." "Stop!" Mrs Noceda shouted. "Uh, the president just called. Yeah. Uh, you know what? I don't have the imagination for this. I will be taking this innocent child with me, and you will never bother us again." "What? No! Absolutely not!" He snapped. "We made a verbal agreement." "Mister, you better back the heck down, or I will tell the police you have been illegally setting up traps and cameras on private property!" Mrs Noceda exclaimed. "I won't let you take away my discovery." He grunted. "I'm the good guy here." "Yeah. A lot of bad guys say that." Mrs Noceda said, taking the chancla out of her purse and smacked him with it. "Go Camila!" I shouted. "Kick his ass!"

Mrs Noceda released Vee from the trap as it started to rain. "Is it okay to leave him in there?" Vee asked. "He'll be fine. He can use the time for some self-reflection." Mrs Noceda replied.

Outside of Luz's house, we appeared in the rain, reflecting on Mrs Noceda's headlights. "Look what we can do with the rain." Luz gasped. "Vee! We're so happy you're okay." I added. "Yeah, thank you, Camila, for everything." Vee thanked. "Vee, you have a place here for as long as you need." Mrs Noceda said, grabbing some cards from her purse. "And take these. Luz and Peter said they might be helpful for you." "Magic!" Vee gasped, chewing on the cards on her way inside. "Mom, you were awesome back there!" Luz exclaimed. "Thanks for being cool about everything." Mrs Noceda turned to her daughter in tears. "I'm trying to hold it together. I really am, but I have never been this scared before." Mrs Noceda cried. "The Demon Realm? Magic? How are you gonna get back here? Is this the only way I can touch you?" "I need a little more time, but if I keep working my hardest, I will make a working portal." Luz whimpered. "I promise." "As scary as this is, it really does seem like you've matured." Mrs Noceda said. "She really has." I explained. "Yes! I've learned so much." Luz admits. "Staying here was the best decision I've ever made." "You chose to stay there?" Mrs Noceda asked. "Were you trying to live out some witch fantasy? Did you hate living with me that much?" "Mama, no!" Luz cried as I felt the rope pulling on me. "No, not yet! Mom! We're being pulled back!" "Baby, no, no!" Mrs Noceda gasped. "When you come home, promise you'll stay here? I didn't mean to push you away. I swear things will be different." "Mom, it's not you. It never was." Luz explains. "Promise me, Luz. Please!" She begged. "Okay, Mom. I promise." Luz replied with a broken voice as we were pulling back up.

Eda, King, and Hooty were able to pull us out just as the portal vanished. "I'm sorry, I had to pull you out." Eda apologized. "The portal was closing." "Did you talk to your families? Did you mention me?" King asked. "Yeah, Mom can't wait to meet you guys." Luz lied. "Uncle Ricky didn't even notice me, like always." I added. "Well, just rest up now, okay?" Eda asked. "And don't you worry, kiddos. With everything we learned, we'll have a real working portal in no time. "I'm gonna raid Peter's fridge!" King shouted. "I can't wait to share parenting tips." Hooty added. "Who dubbed you a parent?" Eda asked. I knew for sure that Luz felt guilty about lying.