Luz B. Noceda: The Next Belmont

Chapter 17: Can't Live In Fear

What motivates a man to confront the challenges that most of us would run from? Condemning him to solitude, exposing him to defeat and death? The answer... is love. A force so powerful that all reason becomes blind to it. Blind to all things... even the truth. Loss of love can make a man desperate. Desperate enough to do anything to bury the truth to hide from it's pain...

Ever since she nearly lost herself in her own mind, Luz has been on edge. She's spent sleepless nights studying all that has been documents by herself and her ancestor's travel book. Eda grew concerned of this. Her pupil nearly suffered a tremendous loss at the hands of the Forces of Darkness. And while her friends had purified her mind of corruption, the results unraveled her entire family's legacy in but a second. It was so much to take in all at once...too much to record. For the past few days, she's done nothing but monitored her books while King was having fun with her phone.

"Yes, attack! DEATH IS YOUR GOD!" He screamed and laughed hysterically. "I love watching two warriors battling to the death! Luz, you wanna check this out?"

"No." was her response, and King didn't like it. It was bad enough when she was pissed at him for stealing the info from her books. Now to him, Luz was a shell of her former self that no one could get through. That is...until her phone vibrates in King's paws.

"Luz, you mother just sent you a message."

And that was enough to peel Luz away from her books. It's actually been a while she and her mother even communicated, so a test message was something she couldn't completely figure out how to respond to. It read "How are you doing, cariño? 3, Mamá."; it helped that her mother already knew that she was in a different realm, but details of her endeavors have been left out for obvious reason.

"I've alright now. I've been learning a lot." was all Luz think to type as she sends it with King peering over her shoulder.

"You sure aren't saying much to your mom, Luz." The little demon said.

Luz replied, rather angrily "What do you want me to say, King? That I nearly died several times and almost had my brain destroyed? It would kill her to know that hell I've been through!"

"She'd probably be freaked out by our world anyway. So actually, by keeping the truth from her, you're doing her a favor!"

"...Your razor-thin logic works for me." Luz said, calming down.

"Always trust a shoulder demon!" King said, snatching Luz's phone from her. And it was then that Hooty open the door to reveal Gus and Willow standing there.

"Hoot hoot, Luz!"

"Come on, Luz! We're taking you to Hexside today." Gus said. "And please hurry!"

Willow added "The more I look at him, the more uncomfortable I get."

"HOOT! HOOT!"

"Sure." Luz simply said as she sits King down. "Don't stay on my phone all day."

"I FORGE MY OWN PATH!" King said as he looks a video of a cat chasing its tail. "What a dum-dum." He's distracted by his own tail wagging. He tries to catch it but flops on the couch after a second. "Ugh. Who has that energy?"

Later, Luz, Willow and Gus headed over to Hexside, which Luz still refused to be a student of. Gus and Willow were aware of the state Luz was in for the past few days. After that little down her memory lane, Willow thought her friend would be back to normal, but she was acting more emotionless now, more stoic. It drew some concern, since all she wanted was for Luz to be herself again. When they entered, they saw how the school was being decorated for some kind of a event. Luz could only assume it was a school dance of some kind.