| Interview with a Headless Horseman | |
| Season 3, Episode 5 | |
| First Aired (USA) March 14, 2025 (FF) March 14, 2025 (AO3) | |
| Episode Guide | |
| previous "My Adventures with Kaleb Ellis" |
next "TBA" |
"Interview with a Headless Horseman" is the fifth chapter of Luz Clawthorne: We've Only Just Begun, as well as the one-hundred & forty-ninth chapter overall.
Synopsis[]
Luz, Amity and Kaleb must now search for Lois after she's taken by the Headless Horseman, who takes her to where he's keeping James.
Plot[]
Gatesfield, 1988.
There she was.
A young, teenage Abigail Gates, standing on top of a water tower that was the tallest point in Gatestfield. You could see the entire town from up there.
But she wasn't there for the view.
No, she was prepared to do something drastic…
Her eyes looked red, indicating that she had been crying for a while now. She also looked tired, while her hair was a mess. She was quite unkempt… not that she cared. She didn't care about anything anymore. Which was why she was here.
She was about to jump.
'This is it,' Abigail thought while wiping her eyes. 'There's no going back now. But I… I can't live this long anymore…'
She held onto the railing as she stood at the edge. Her fingers gripped the railing tightly, so hard that they began to bleed, but slowly they began to loosen. All she had to do was let go and let herself fall… and then it would be over.
Abigail closed her eyes and took a deep breath, feeling the wind in her messy hair as she prepared to let go and feel the cold hard ground beneath her.
"Stop!"
Abigail opened her eyes and looked around in confusion, holding onto the railing in the process. "What? Who…?" she asked as she turned her head.
"Please, don't do it."
She kept looking around, but saw no one near her. She was completely alone, all by herself up in the water tower. "I… I must be hearing things," she said to herself. She shook her head. "God, I must be going crazy… I'm hearing voices…" She looked back down at the cold hard ground below, inviting her to drop down to meet it. "There's no way anyone would actually stop me from jumping, nobody would miss me…"
"That's not true at all!"
Abigail looked up, her eyes widened when she saw someone appear right in front of her face. "Holy…"
"Don't panic!" shouted the talking, flying pink cat in a red sweater. "Listen, Abby, there are those who still care about you. Who wants you to keep on living…"
Abigail didn't even register those words. Instead, she was too busy gaping in shock at the sight of the talking, flying cat in front of her. She held onto the railing. "Who… what are you?!"
The flying cat in the red sweater flew closer, trying to make sure Abigail didn't fall off. "Okay, I know how it looks, but I can explain," she said as she tried to calm Abigail down. "I'm a cherub."
"A cherub?" Abigail asked. "You mean… like an angel?"
"Yes, exactly," the cherub said while pointing at Abigail. "I am your guardian angel."
"Then where the fuck were you before now?" Abigail asked.
"I was only recently assigned to your case," the cherub explained. "But… I know you've had a hard life, Abby. I know that you feel like there is nothing keeping you here. And honestly, I'm usually supposed to stay invisible and not reveal myself to you, but… I am allowed to intervene in cases like this and… I feel like you need to know that there is someone here for you. Someone that you can talk to, someone who is willing to listen to you, someone who will help you." She offered a smile and raised her paw up to Abby. "A friend."
Abigail stared at the cat cherub in confusion before tilting her head out of curiosity. "What… is your name?"
"My name… is Wimzy."
The golden gates of Heaven opened up, showing the insides of the cloudy town filled with harp-shaped buildings, more swirled and curved, all in blue, yellow and white. The sign there read 'Cherub Towne.'
"Oh howdy!" shouted a cherub who resembled a human baby with short, light coral puffed hair, white skin, small light pink nose, large periwinkle eyes with no irises or pupils, and pale rosy cheeks. He sported a white halo hovering above his head and a pair of periwinkle-and-white feathered wings on his back. He wore a pair of coral overalls over a light yellow shirt with a white peter-pan collar, and periwinkle flats. "I'm Cletus, welcome to Heaven! Guessin' you did something good to get here, and good people deserve to give loved ones special blessin's!" he declared while waving his arms around to spread a sparkle in the air.
A jingle then started to play as we cut to a man jumping out of an airplane. He pulled the ripcord to release his parachute, only for it to snap off instead. He met his demise by getting splattered onto a rock, which was censored with a cloud bubble that read 'OWIE!'
"Does it make you want to cry?"
Cut to another guy who was looking down a train tunnel, only to then be obviously run over by a train, which was censored by an 'OH NO!' cloud.
"When your loved one has to die?"
Cut to another stupid man who accidentally shot himself in the face with a shotgun. It was censored with a 'OOPSIE!' cloud.
"Does it hurt you through and through?"
Cut to another unfortunate man who was hanging from a noose, his face turning blue while a stylized anime sad emoji of Cletus's head faded into view.
"When your face is turning bluuuuuue?"
"Well lucky for you!" Collin sang up as we cut to him.
"There's something we can do!" sang a yellow anthropomorphic sheep cherub with a white halo with light yellow skin, slightly darker ears and short-cut and puffed hair. She had reddish-pink eyes with periwinkle pupils with light pink faded eyelids. She had yellow-and white wings, pale rosy-cheeks, pink hooves, and wears a yellow dress with a pink hem and large bow with frilly gloves and bloomers.
"We can help keep them alive!" Cletus sang as he, Collin, and the yellow sheep cherub came together. "So you can watch them thrive~! 'Cause here at C.H.E… R.U.B!"
The orange C.H.E.R.U.B. logo appeared with a trademark symbol.
"We'll save your honeybun from dying violently!"
A woman was being saved by a pack of wolves thanks to some cherubs and dealing with them was a green bear cub cherub holding a wooden plank. The bear cub cherub bravely faced off against the wolves… who then tackled the poor cherub.
"'Cause here at C.H.E… R.U.B!"
"No, we never even ask a fee!"
Cletus was offered a hand full of cash, which he shook his head no at while waving his hand dismissively.
"Because good people spread the love!"
A group of cherubs consisting of a bee, Wimzy, and a white lamb were shown hugging each other.
"And we're here from all above!"
Hearts spread out from the spinning Earth globe in space.
"We do the paperwork for you!"
Collin along with many other cherubs, including puppies, mice, and some bird cherubs were doing paperwork in their office cubicles.
"And the heavvy liftin', too!"
A group of cherubs were lifting up a boulder to help an unfortunate person trapped underneath.
"So sit right back-"
Wimzy took away a capsule of pills from a curious kid, waving her finger at him in the process.
"And let us bless a soul~ for you~!" Cletus sang with Collin and the yellow sheep as they flew down together. "Oh, we… are the C.H.E.R.U.B.!"
C.H.E.R.U.B. was a well-known organization in Heaven (the meaning of the acronym was less-known) run by the Cherubs, heaven-born angel natives that were tasked with protecting the lives of the living, whether the humans were endangered or suicidal. A harp-shaped blue building with wings on each side was where C.H.E.R.U.B.'s offices resided.
"Alright, everyone! We got some more clients! Lots of good people are getting into Heaven these days!" Cletus shouted as he flew through the office while carrying a huge stack of papers. A few cherubs poked their heads out of their office cubicles as he flew past them, handing out the papers to the different cubicles as he headed over to the yellow sheep from the jingle. "Keenie, how did saving that bus full of children go?"
"Super great, Cletus!" Keenie replied with a thumbs up. "Me and my team managed to stop that bus from falling off of that bridge with zero casualties! Another miracle courtesy of Heaven!"
"Fantastic!" Cletus replied as he flew past her. "Let's keep up the good work, cherubs!" He then nearly bumped into another cherub, causing him to almost drop all of his papers. "Oh, hey Deerie, sorry about that. I almost didn't see you. I'm trying to pass all of these requests out."
"Oh yeah, I get you, I still have a lot of death reports to go through," said Deerie, the anthropomorphic fawn cherub with brown fur and wore blue overalls, a pink ascot and periwinkle shirt. "I'm telling ya, I think Heaven has been just as swamped as H.E. Double-Hockey Sticks lately."
The two shared a laugh before Cletus felt a bump from behind from someone holding their own stack of papers, causing them both to drop their papers.
"Fudge!" Cletus cursed before turning around to see who had bumped into him. "Dammit, Collins, watch where yer going!"
"Oh, um sorry, Cletus," Collin apologized as he gathered up his paperwork. "I was just trying to file these reports from the Los Angeles incident. And I still have to get to the reports about the many souls still in Limbo-"
"Yes, yes, Collin, why don't you stop talking and rambling about your paperwork and just do it?" Cletus told him off, rolling his eyes at the lamb cherub. "Just clean that mess up and watch where you're going, okay? We don't want you to get complained about to the higher management now, do we?"
"N-No, sir!" Collin replied nervously as he gathered up the papers.
"Oh, and while you're on the floor, perhaps you could pick up my papers as well and finish passing those out," Cletus said.
"Um, perhaps if I had some help-"
"No time, I got shit to do," Cletus declared with a huff as he flew off.
Collin looked up to Deerie, who also flew away from him, then he looked over with a hopeful expression at Keenie, who also flew past him. "Um… help?" he asked as he looked around, but no one in the office stopped to help out Collin. The poor lamb cherub just sighed at this, since he was used to this treatment by his fellow Cherubs…
"Need some help, Colly?"
Collin looked up and he smiled when he saw Wimzy offering to help him with the fallen paperwork. "Thanks Wimzy, and yeah I could use the help," he said.
"No problem," Wimzy said as she gathered up the paperwork. "I overheard you and Cletus. Man, he's got that harp stuck way up his tush, thinking he's better than anyone else around here."
"Yeah, who does he think he is? Hurting my Colly-Wally's feelings like that!"
Collin felt someone hugging him from behind. "Gah! Snowball!" Collin cried out while being hugged by an anthropomorphic canine cherub with white fur. She had gray hair that was combed to the side, her gray and white ears sticking out, and a gray-blue flower on the side of her head. She had ruby eyes with periwinkle irises and she wore a blue dress with a black waistband, black arm gloves and leggings. She also had a white and gray tail and feathered white wings.
"Aw, I thought you'd like to receive hugs from your girlfriend, Colly-Wally?" Snowball asked as Collin struggled to get her off of him.
"You're not my girlfriend, Snowball! We've been over this!" Collin shouted while looking at Wimzy. "Wimzy, help!"
"I gotcha, Collin," Wimzy said while managing to finish stacking up his paperwork. "Got your paperwork ready."
"I meant her!" Collin shouted as he pointed to the pup cherub squeezing him tightly.
"Everyone! Everyone!" shouted a lion cub cherub as he flew into the office space. "The lieutenant is coming! Adam's Lieutenant is coming!"
"Wait, Lute's here?" Cletus asked in surprise.
"Must be something important!" Keenie shouted as she flew up. "Look professional, everyone!"
Chaos unfolded as every cherub in the offices attempted to get their spaces in order so that they looked professional and productive for such a high-ranking Angel. None of them could believe that Lute was showing up here, in their office of all places. Once they had straightened up their cubicles, they anxiously waited for Lute, who soon came into the office and looked around.
"At ease, little ones," Lute ordered, allowing the cherubs to relax. "Now, I am in need of your services. My commander, Adam, requested that I bring in two cherubs to see him. Didn't say which ones, so I'll just bring over the first pair of cherubs that I see." He looked around until he noticed Collin and Wimzy, the former having finally managed to free himself from Snowball's grip. "Ah. You two, the pink cat and the blue lamb, come with me."
This surprised Wimzy and Collin, who both stared at Lute and then at each other in shock as they realized that they'd been picked at random… to see Adam of all Angels…
In another part of Heaven, Adam was waiting in a lounge, drinking a milkshake when he saw the elevator doors to the lounge open. He saw Lute coming in, Collin and Wimzy flying behind the Exorcist. The two cherubs were looking around the lounge in awe, since this was a part of Heaven that the cherubs never got to see.
"Ah, Lute! Glad you brought those little marketable plushies here," Adam said as he stood up and burped a little.
"Oh, it's an honor to meet you, um, Mr. Adam, sir," Wimzy said as she flew over to him. "Um, we from CHERUB HQ are here to help one of Heaven's finest in the best way-"
"Yeah, yeah, Kitten Mittens, I know what you cherubs's jobs are. Spread joy and save lives, yada-yada," Adam told, rudely cutting her off. "By the way, what does CHERUB even stand for anyway?"
Collin was about to answer. "Well, it's actu-"
"You know what? Nevermind, I don't care," Adam dismissed. Wimzy and Collin both gave annoyed looks at Adam as he continued. "Now, I did not ask you two to come here to ask what your organization's acronym means. I asked you two here because I got an assignment for you. A request from the request of my newest recruit of my uh…"
"Defense army, sir," Lute told him.
"Right! Defense army," Adam said. "Say Lute, you got that file on you?"
"Yes, sir, right here," Lute said as he held up a file.
"Good, good," Adam said as he turned to the two cherubs. "My newest recruit is worried about some still-living mortal and I promised to help her out, so I want you two to help watch over this mortal for her. Be his guardian angels. Think you can do that?"
"Absolutely, sir!" Wimzy cried out enthusiastically.
"Um, who is the mortal?" Collin asked.
"Some… kid whose name I forgot, but it's in this file," Adam said.
Wimzy and Collin looked down at the file handed to them by Lute. They opened it up to see a picture of and information for a young boy… named Gus Porter.
And so Collin and Wimzy began their task in watching over Gus Porter in the Human Realm. One day, they were at Gravity Falls Middle, keeping an eye on Gus as he walked to class, all while staying invisible.
"Wow, isn't the Human World great, Collin?" Wimzy whispered as she flew around. "So many human children… and ooh, is that a passing couple I see?" she asked, seeing two students holding hands.
"It's nice that you love the Human World, Wimzy, but we have to keep quiet," Collin whispered while keeping an eye on Gus. "Humans may not see us, but they can hear us."
"Over all of the juicy gossip that is going around?" Wimzy pointed out before she heard the bell ring. "Ooh, class is starting!"
The two followed Gus to Mr. Englund's class, where they kept watch over him through the window in the door to the classroom. At least, Collin was watching over Gus as he attended to his studies while Wimzy was going through a nearby lost-and-found box that was in the hallway.
"So far, so good. Looks like there's no problems happening in-" Collin then noticed the cat cherub looking through the things in the box. "Wimzy, what are you doing?!"
"Oh? Um… looking through this cool human stuff?" Wimzy asked, popping out of the box while wearing a baseball hat and a jersey.
"You can't just be going through other people's things!" Collin scolded her.
"Relax, Colly, I'm just going through all of this to see if I could help return some of these items to their original owners," Wimzy claimed, trying to justify her scourging around the box. "Oh look, someone lost these packs of Silly Bands."
"Thank you for coming over to meet with me, Mrs. Gates."
Hearing a voice in the distance, Wimzy and Collin turned around to see a couple of human women turning the corner and walking down the hallway toward them.
"Quick! Stop what you're doing!" Collin whispered.
"Eep!" Wimzy said as she and Collin hid, allowing the two adults to walk by. One of them was Abigail Gates, while the other was a teacher.
"Do you hear that?" Abigail asked, looking around.
"Hmm?" the teacher asked.
"I thought… I thought I heard voices," Abigail mentioned.
"Oh, that must be just some students who are still in the hallway during class," replied the teacher. "Either heading to the restrooms or skipping out…"
As the adults walked past the two hiding cherubs, Wimzy's eyes widened when she saw Abigail. She instantly recognized her, even as an adult. 'No way,' she mouthed, seeing Abigail walking farther away from her.
"What are you on about, Wimzy?" Collin whispered before Wimzy grabbed him and pulled him aside.
"See that woman over there? The one with black hair?" she asked, pointing to Abigail.
"Wait, do you know her?" Collin asked her.
"Yeah, she was one of my previous cases," Wimzy explained. "Her name is Abigail Gates. I knew her when she was a teenager. I was assigned to help her, but that was… years ago." She looked after Abigail. "What is she doing here?"
"Why were you assigned to her?" Collin asked her.
"Um, to protect her from… herself," Wimzy explained.
"Oh… I see now," Collin replied, perfectly understanding what she meant. "It must be a surprise to see her again, all grown up."
"Yeah, it is," Wimzy said before she got a thought. "I wonder if she's doing well. Perhaps I should check on her to see how she's doing…"
"That's not a good idea, Wimzy," Collin said.
"But Colli-"
"We have a mission to watch over Gus right now, Whim," Collin told her sternly. "So we should focus on Gus."
Wimzy pouted over this… but then got an idea. 'I could do both. Watch over Gus and check in on Abby from time to time,' she thought to herself as she formed a smile. 'Besides, it would be the right thing to do, since I know that Abby has had trouble in the past before, and she could need me now… just like she needed me back then.'
And so, the two cherubs continued their task in protecting Gus at all times… well, with Collin doing all the work.
At one point, a handyman sneezed and dropped his screwdriver, Collin seeing that it was falling towards Gus's head, making the lamb cherub panic as he flew over just in time to grab it before it hit Gus.
Collin sighed in relief before he tossed the screwdriver to Gus's side. Gus noticed the screwdriver on the ground while looking up at the handyman.
"Sorry about that! Are you alright, kid?" the handyman asked.
"Yeah! I'm good!" Gus replied while Collin flew up.
"Good job, Colly," Wimzy said as she flew up to him, Collin turning to her.
"And where have you been?" he asked.
"Oh, I was close, don't worry." she replied, not mentioning that she was checking up on Abby…
Later, after Halloween, Wimzy snuck into the Gates household and found the cabinet with Abigail's alcohol in it. After seeing Abigail tipsy the sidewalk while following Gus and his friends on Halloween night, she knew that she had to do something about it.
'Poor Abby… you used to love Halloween,' she thought to herself while stashing the alcohol in a bag, making sure to find every single bottle. 'This is for your own good…'
After collecting the alcohol, Wimzy flew over to the woods and dug a hole with a shovel that was much taller than her. Once she made a big enough hole, she picked the bag of alcohol and dumped it into the hole.
"You can't hurt anyone ever again," Wimzy declared before she began to cover the hole up.
On another day, Wimzy and Collin were following Gus when they overheard a gang of bullies about to confront him.
"Is that him?"
"Yeah, that new kid, a real teacher's pet."
"Oh no, those guys are going to pick on him…" Collin said while Wimzy narrowed her gaze at the gang of bullies.
"Oh no, not under my watch," Wimzy declared as she cracked her knuckles.
Wimzy flew over just as the bullies were about to grab Gus. She grabbed the leader and threw him off the floor and towards the lockers with a heavy force.
"What the…?! What the hell?" the leader shouted as he looked around for the attacker, not seeing the cat cherub due to her and Collin still being invisible.
"Are you all-AH!" one of the bullies cried out as Collin pulled him by the hair. Wimzy went to slap across the bully's face before punching him in the gut.
"Guys?" the last one asked as he watched in shock. Collin went to push the last bully in the lockers, pinning him down while the last bully watched in shock as his friends were getting pummeled by something invisible.
"Here, take this one!" Collin said as he threw the bully to Wimzy.
"Perfect!" Wimzy shouted as she hissed like a cat before delivering a few punches.
Collin turned to see that Gus wasn't even aware of what was happening behind him thanks to his headphones he was wearing and the book he was reading. The lamb sighed before he turned to see Wimzy doing her work, beating the crap out of those bullies.
"Um, I think they had enough, Wimzy," Collin told her nervously, seeing Wimzy holding up a bully who now had a black eye and broken teeth.
"They were lucky I only used ten percent of my power," Wimzy muttered as she turned to Collin. "Open the locker."
After Collin opened the locker, he and Wimzy dragged each of the trio of bullies to place them into the locker. Once they were inside, Collin slammed the locker shut.
"I haven't felt this cathartic since back in St. Peters High back in Heaven," Wimzy declared.
Collin looked at the cat cherub and shuddered. "Sometimes I forget how scary you can get…"
Later, Collin had followed Gus to the arcade, where they saw Vee, Star, Tres and the Hexsquad all coming out of the arcade game. Even Collin was surprised by this.
'What in Heaven's name…' he thought while Gus checked in with his friends.
"Wait, did you guys have an adventure without me?" Gus asked.
"It's not like we asked for it," Boscha said as she brushed herself off.
"At least we don't have to deal with that math wizard anymore," Skara mentioned.
"Oh I wouldn't say that!" declared Probabilitor, who came out of the arcade game as well. The teens along with the invisible Collin were all shocked by the appearance of the math wizard.
'What do I do?' Collin asked himself as looked around. He flew behind the arcade machine to figure out a way to stop Probabilitor while he was busy monologuing,
"HA! Foolish players! It was my plan all along for you all to beat my game! Yes, totally my plan…"
The panicky lamb cherub looked around behind the arcade machine until he noticed a plug. Getting an idea, he went to grab the plug and pulled it out from the surge protector.
"No, no! Not again! My anchor, the connection has been broken…!" Probabilitor cried out while he was sent back to his world. Collin sighed in relief, since that was at least one threat to Gus that had been taken care of.
Wimzy, meanwhile, was busy making a card for Abigail. She makes sure to put in a ton of confetti.
"Add this sticker in, and… ta-da!" Wimzy shouted while holding up the card. She then went to place it on the doorstep of the Gates household. "Abby's going to love this!"
She rang the doorbell before she made her leave as Abigail opened the door and found the card Wimzy had left for her.
Later, at Big Gunz Lazer Tag, Wimzy had managed to find the speaker that belonged to Victor and she began messing with it.
"What are you doing?" Collin asked while flying up to her.
"Making sure the punk doesn't get away with it," she replied as she took the speaker out of the wall just as Gus P. and Gus G. showed up.
"Yeah, come over here. Me and Skara are-" the false Willow's voice buzzed out as the speaker fell off from the floor, prompting the Guses to notice it.
"What's this?" Gus P. asked before Gus G heard Victor and Tres's voices.
"What happened?" Tres asked.
"I don't know," Victor said as the Guses went to find Victor and Tres "Do you think-?"
"That we'd catch you?" Gus Porter asked before he and Gus Gordon shot their lasers at the two.
"Hehe, they got in trouble~!" Wimzy declared in a sing-sang tone.
Collin rolled his eyes at this before seeing Boscha running away from Polly, who let out a yell while shooting lasers all around. "We better keep following him."
"Yeah, this place is getting intense," Wimzy said as the two followed the Guses. Though they remained invisible, the fog still moved when they moved through it and this did not go unnoticed by Victor…
"Hi, Abby…"
The cat cherub waved to Abigail, who just sent her a glare. "Wimzy…"
"Um, Wimzy," Collin said as he leaned over to the cat cherub. "You said that she was, like, an old friend. Why doesn't she look happy to see you?"
"Um… well…" Wimzy said nervously, shifting her eyes away while rubbing her little paws together.
"Wimzy," Abigail said to her with a strict tone, making the cherub flinch a second time. "Were you the one who hid all of my alcohol?"
"I mean… I was just helping you by removing temptation," Wimzy tried to justify.
"And I know now you were the one who sent that card yesterday," Abigail told her.
"Oh yeah, what did you think of it? Did you like it? I made sure to add some extra confetti to show how much you really matter!" Wimzy declared, making Abigail sigh.
"I choked a little on it," Abigail said in a deadpan tone. "What are you really doing here, Wimzy? And how long have you been spying on me?"
"Spying? Oh no, that's a misunderstanding," Wimzy said with a dismissive hand wave. "I wasn't 'spying' on you. I see it more as 'checking up' on you. I honestly had no idea that you even lived here, but I just happened to be in town and I saw that you lived here now. If you ask me, this place is a step up from where you used to live…"
"And how does trashing my house classify as 'checking up' on me?" Abigail questioned, crossing her arms.
"…okay, that one does need some explaining," Wimzy admitted while looking around at the wrecked house. She rubbed the back of her head. "But I don't know if you'll believe me…"
"I'm talking to a cherub right now. There's nothing you could tell me that I wouldn't believe, Wimzy," Abigail pointed out.
"That is true…" Wimzy admitted, sharing a look with Collin before she began her story. "Well, it went like this…"
Back at the library, the trio of Luz, Amity, and Kaleb had all reached the same conclusion.
"Lois… she's been taken," Luz realized as Kaleb looked around.
"There was a struggle here," Kaleb said as he saw the papers on the floor, Amity holding Phil close to her as Luz looked around. But then something on the floor caught Amity's eye.
"Guys, look," Amity said as she went to pick up the phone, handing it to Kaleb. "Does this belong to Lois?"
"Yeah," Kaleb confirmed. "This is Lois's phone, alright. Whoever took her must've purposely left it behind so we wouldn't be able to use it to track her…"
"Come on, if they went out the back we might still be able to catch them!" Luz shouted as they rushed for the back door to the library, bursting out of it…
…and seeing nobody outside. Not even a car or a van parked nearby.
But they didn't give up. Instead, they began to search the nearby area, asking anyone they saw if they had seen anything.
"Excuse me, ma'am," Kaleb said to a woman coming out of her car. "I need to ask you if you saw any cars or vans driving away from the library."
"Did you see two people coming out of the library by chance, sir?" Luz frantically asked another.
"Please, this is an emergency," Amity told someone while holding Phil.
"Well, I did see a van driving off a few minutes ago," the elderly person told Amity.
"Any detailed description?" Luz asked the person.
"I couldn't tell if it was an SUV or Volkswagon…" the elderly man said while trying to think. "I didn't see who was driving it either. But they sure looked to be in a hurry…"
After they asked everyone who was nearby, Luz, Kaleb, and Amity regrouped and shared what little information they had managed to get.
"Okay, so according to a few people a black van was seen quickly driving away from the library a few minutes ago," Kaleb said while keeping notes of it. However, he looked worried. "That is not a lot to go off by…"
Luz sighed. "It's a start though…" she said before she pulled up her phone and began to write a text.
"Who are you texting?" Kaleb asked her.
"I'm texting Tambry," Luz explained "She's a friend. To be honest, this isn't the first time in Gravity Falls that we've had trouble with people being kidnapped. During the summer we thwarted the kidnapping of a local teen named Robbie, one of our friends."
"This has happened before?" Kaleb asked. "Do you think it might be the same people?"
"I doubt it," Luz replied as she sent the text. "But after that incident, we developed a network in case something like this ever happened again…"
After making it home from Big Gunz, Tambry was in her room checking on her texts. When she saw that she had gotten a text from Luz, she read it over and her eyes widened.
"Oh no..." Tambry said before adopting a determined look. Her fingers moved quickly as she began sending texts to all of her friends and followers. "Status update: A kidnapping has just happened at the Gravity Falls Library…"
Wendy, who was chopping some logs, heard her phone buzzing. She put down her axe, pulled out her phone, and read the text.
'Her name is Lois Lee. A woman in her late twenties with dark brown hair and Korean-Dominican descent. She was last seen at the library…'
Robbie and Thompson were checking their phones while hanging out and they read Tambry's message.
"Oh man, this sounds serious!" Thompson said as Robbie stood up, the teen remembering his own thwarted kidnapping from the previous summer.
"Come on," Robbie said as he threw the keys to Thompson. "We should look around for that van."
Thompson nodded and the two headed to Thompson's SUV.
'Witnessed reported unidentified black van driving away from the library, either an SUV or Volkswagon.'
Nat and Tate had gotten the message while enjoying themselves with some hotdogs.
'Keep an eye out for either a woman who looks like Lois or a vehicle that fits the description…'
'And please stay together.'
Dipper and Mabel were with Soos in his truck as they were being driven back home. Candy, Grenda, and Pacifica were also with them in the truck, all of them reading Tambry's urgent text.
"Lois got kidnapped?!" Dipper asked, looking concerned.
'The last thing we want right now is for more people to go missing. Spread the word.'
April was in the news office reading Tambry's text. She frowned. Sure, she knew Lois was from the New York Star, but that didn't mean she deserved to be kidnapped…
'Contact anyone, even the authorities, if you see a suspicious black van around town.'
Gus Gordon was walking with Charlotte when he received the text. She noticed that he had stopped and she turned to him. "Everything alright?"
"Just received an urgent text," Gus G. said with a frown before he looked up at Charlotte. "Someone got kidnapped from the library."
Charlotte's eyes widened, showing alarm and worry. "Oh no," she said, fearing the worst…
'I repeat, don't try to approach the vehicle or the driver if you see them. Don't put yourself at unnecessary risk. However, any information you can give would be helpful right now.'
Reading the text message while holding an ice pack over his black eye… was Victor. Thanks to Wendy, he had been included in Tambry's text chain. And although he expressed some concern over the content of said text message, it wasn't the only thing that he had to worry about at the moment as he continued to nurse his black eye…
'Until then, stay safe.'
Clara, currently housed in the Noceda home, read the text while petting Harvey, who just nibbled on a carrot that Clara had given him.
After Luz finished sending her text, she, Amity, and Kaleb discussed what to do next.
"Okay, Tambry sent out her text for everyone to see," Luz explained. "So we should be getting some responses from her friends and followers."
"I've already sent Sam to look for the van in case it's still nearby," Amity said. "She can cover more ground quickly and quietly, since she can go around unnoticed."
"Wait, who's Sam?" Kaleb asked Amity.
"Sam… is my shadow," Amity explained, surprising Kaleb. "Being a Fae, we come with a living shadow that only we can communicate with. Of course, I'm apparently the only one who gave my shadow a name…"
"With Tambry and Sam's help, we should be able to find Lois much sooner," Luz explained, though Kaleb still looked worried.
"First James, and now… Lois," Kaleb said with his head lowered. "I hope she's okay…"
Meanwhile, in another location, Lois started to wake up, her eyes slowly opening up as she began to come to.
"Huh… what… what happened?" Lois asked as she lifted her head up. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark, since wherever she was lacked any natural lighting. "Where… where am I?!"
"Lois! Over here!"
A familiar voice caught Lois by surprise. Instantly recognizing it, she turned and was able to make out another silhouette in the darkness near her. Although you wouldn't be able to see her face, it was covered with an expression of shock… and joy.
"James?" Lois asked with a smile.
"It's me," James confirmed in the dark.
"Oh my God, James! You're okay! Me and Kaleb have been worried about you!" Lois shouted, relieved to hear her friend's voice.
"I'm glad to see you, Lois," James responded, unable to move since he was still tied up. "Or hear you, at the very least. If only under better circumstances…"
Lois tried to move, only to realize she was tied up as well, her wrists and ankles being restrained. She started to struggle. "Just… where are we?"
"I don't know for sure," James admitted. "But I think we are underground. Maybe in some kind of abandoned mineshaft. And I wasn't the only one who was being kept here. There was a cop here with me too, but he was taken away a while ago and I haven't seen him since."
"Taken away?" Lois asked. "By… who? Who kidnapped us, James?"
But before James could answer her question…
"Ah, I see that you're awake, Ms. Lee," said a voice. "Welcome. We are so glad that you could join us."
Lois and James turned to see someone walking toward them, holding a glowing jack o'lantern under his arm, the pumpkin providing some light in the tunnel, revealing Lois's widened eyes and James's look of fear.
The Headless Horseman had come back.
"With you finally awake, we can now get started," the Horseman replied with his dark, booming voice, as he placed his jack o'lantern down on a barrel.
"The Headless Horseman…" Lois said in shock as she saw the Headless Horseman in front of her. Until she noticed something. "Wait a minute… you're not the actual Horseman, are you?"
"Oh? And how can you tell?" the Horseman asked in amusement.
"Dude, I can totally tell you're wearing a bodysuit, even in lighting like this," Lois pointed out. "Also, those trousers you are wearing? I can tell they were black spray painted and there's zippers on those boots." She gave him a look. "I don't know who you're trying to fool."
"Uh, yeah, you, uh, didn't fool us," James said nervously. He didn't want to admit that he totally thought that the Horseman was the real deal…
"You have a good eye, as expected from a reporter like you," the Horseman commented. "Although when most people see me, they're not paying close attention. They see what they want to see. The costume achieves my purposes, which includes concealing my identity."
"Why did you kidnap me?" Lois demanded to know, narrowing her gaze at him.
"Oh, simple… it's because of Mr. Bolton," he said, pointing to James. "I managed to get him to tell me that he was a reporter for the New York Star. He told me all about you, Ms. Lee…"
"I'm sorry, Lois," James said, looking down while feeling ashamed. "I didn't know he was going to go after you as well. I didn't mean for you or Kaleb to get dragged into this."
"It's alright, James. I don't blame you," Lois assured him before turning to glare at the Horseman. "But this guy, if he hurt you-"
"I can assure you that my intentions with Mr. Bolton was never to harm him," the Horseman claimed. "I do not wish to hurt him or you, Ms. Lee."
"Oh, that's bullshit," Lois told him off. "What happened to that cop then? Wasn't he also kidnapped? Where did you take him?"
"That cop deserves his punishment!" the Horseman shouted, his tone of voice changing and his gloved hands tightening, the anger in his voice startling Lois and James. After a moment, the Horseman managed to calm himself down. "Especially since he's hiding the truth," he said as he looked down at Lois, his eyes hidden behind his costume. "Which is why I need you, Ms. Lee. Because James has told me all about your determination to seek out the truth and it is the truth that I wish to expose."
Lois cocked her head and raised her eyebrow. "What do you really want from me?"
"What I want is simple," he said as he took a seat on a crate across from Lois. "I wish to tell you my story, Ms. Lee. To tell… the truth."
Back at the library, Luz, Amity, and Kaleb had gone back inside. The three were gathered around a table, looking over a map of Gravity Falls. Phil was sitting nearby, keeping himself occupied by looking over a Zoobook while the three were busy trying to figure out where Lois could have been taken to.
"Okay, there are a few roads that the van could have taken and all of them pass through areas with people in them," Luz said as she used a highlighter to mark certain roads. "Someone must have seen something."
"This is a small town, there's no way Lois could have gone too far," Amity suggested.
"Wait, shouldn't we go to the cops over this?" Kaleb pointed out.
Luz and Amity shared a look.
"There's… an issue with that," Luz explained. "The cops now report to the government agents that are in Gravity Falls and we don't actually know that those agents don't have anything to do with Lois's kidnappings. Especially if she was doing some digging around into Gravity Falls, which I did warn her about." She sighed. "Of course that didn't stop her. She really is my cousin…"
"Wait… government agents?" Kaleb asked in surprise. "There are government agents here?"
"Yeah, they've been here since the summer," Luz admitted. "I mentioned before that there were people here trying to keep the truth of the town from coming out. They're also here to keep an eye out on things, make sure that there isn't another… incident like the one from the end of the summer."
"Incident?" Kaleb asked.
"Not relevant right now," Luz said. "To be fully honest, I don't fully trust the agents here, considering that I never had the best experience with the government either here or back in the Demon Realm. Comes with being a revolutionary…"
"And a delinquent," Amity added.
"Yeah, that too," Luz admitted.
"Wait, should we be worried about Lois being taken out of Gravity Falls?" Kaleb brought up, looking concerned. "What if the kidnapper took her out of town…"
"Don't worry, that's already been taken care of," Luz admitted. "Not only did I text Tambry, but I also sent a message to the magical community here. They're watching the roads, so if anyone leaves the Falls, we'll know."
"I know some birds and pixies around here, so they can notify me if they get any leads," Amity brought up while Kaleb looked at her in confusion. She shrugged. "One of the perks of being a Fae is that I understand animals."
That was when Luz heard her phone buzzing. She pulled it up. "Guys, I got some potential sightings of the van. Vee mentioned that she thought she saw a black van driving up North and got some leads according to Robbie and Gus G." She began to place pins on the map. "Here, here, and there."
"Those are in completely different parts of town," Amity pointed out.
"Which is why we should split up to cover more ground," Luz suggested, surprising Amity.
"Is that safe?" she asked. "What if someone goes after Kaleb?"
Luz glanced at Kaleb, who adjusted his glasses. "I don't think that will be an issue."
"Yeah, I can handle myself," Kaleb confirmed.
"Drop Phil off at mom's, then bring Atticus to help with the search up in the air. We'll stay in touch, update each other every five minutes," Luz explained.
And with that, they all agreed to the plan.
Meanwhile, the Headless Horseman had begun to tell his story to Lois, who decided to play along with him. At the very least, she would be able to get more information out of him.
"You've been in Gravity Falls for several days now, haven't you?" he asked Lois. "Imagine living your entire life here. On the surface, it's just a simple, sleepy, quiet town filled with all sorts of interesting characters. You have the waitress of the diner with a bad eye, the residential wealthy elite, the town yokel, the unhinged lumberjack," he mentioned. "But then there's the town's other quirks… ones that you must have seen as well…"
"You mean… like with the gnomes and pixies here…?" Lois asked him while James looked at her with a confused look.
'The what now?' James thought to himself.
"Ah, so you have noticed," the Horseman said. "Yes, beneath the surface, this town has a lot of… weirdness. Stuff you thought you'd only see in children's books is very real here. Anyone who has lived here long enough will notice that eventually." He pressed his fingers together as he continued. "However, as long as you kept your head down and your mouth shut, the weirdness wasn't too intrusive. You could still live a fairly normal life. But then… the sky opened up…"
"What happened to the sky…?" Lois asked him.
"Weirdmageddon happened," he told her. "Has anyone told you about Weirdmageddon, Ms. Lee?"
"No," Lois admitted. "This is the first time that I'm hearing of it…"
"I thought so," the Headless Horseman said. He didn't sound surprised. "It happened near the end of August. It lasted for several days and we still don't really know how it started, only that it was caused by this… inter-dimensional demon named Bill Cipher. A one-eyed pyramid creature from another dimension who wanted to spread his weirdness to create chaos in our town. He opened this rift in the sky and released these… demons. A walking pair of teeth, a cue-balled goblin, the… keyhole creature… not to mention these black creatures with glowing eyes that swarmed around the wreckage of the town! Gravity Falls may not look it now, but a few months ago everything was in ruins. And people… people died." The heaviness of his tone of voice had a hint of sorrow. "It felt like it was the end of the world… and none of us can talk about it. Publicly at least."
There was a chance in his voice. A rise in anger, which both Lois and James took note of.
"Why… why can't you talk about it?" Lois asked.
"There was this law made by Mayor Tyler Cutebiker after Weirdmageddon, he called it the 'Never Mind All That' Act," the Horseman explained, hissing when he said the name of the mayor and the law.
"I think… I heard about that," Lois admitted.
The Horseman continued. "It was made to force us to go back to our normal lives, to pretend that nothing happened. That everything almost didn't… end. And if anyone ever asked about what happened, we were only supposed to say 'never mind all that.' As if that gives any comfort to the people who have to live with what they saw, the people who lost loved ones during Weirdmageddon… the people who are permanently affected…" His hands started to shake as anger and sorrow mixed in his voice. "Covering this up only hurts them more, all the while the rest of the world is left ignorant of what happened here. Of what could happen again, especially since we still don't have all the answers about why it happened to begin with…"
Lois was shocked by everything she was hearing. She had still only just learned about this town's oddities, but she had no idea that something like this happened here just last summer. She almost didn't believe it, since something like this should have been in the headlines all across the country. But if everything he was saying was true…
"So… why me?" Lois asked him. "Why do you need me to tell your story when you could just… well, release it online?"
The Headless Horseman just sighed. "Honestly, I'm pretty sure the story is already out there. After Weirdmageddon, there was an exodus. A lot of people left town out of fear of something like Weirdmageddon happening again. They just couldn't live here anymore. They probably have tried to tell other people what happened here, but not enough people would take them seriously, because the cover-up is doing the work. If you try to tell the truth online, it would be dismissed as 'fake', a hoax just to draw attention. Doesn't help that everyone is too distracted by what happened in LA, which they're also trying to cover up. So I do need help breaking this story. I need… credibility."
"But, why the costume though?" Lois asked him. "And why are you kidnapping people? Don't you think that's a bit… much?"
"To simply put… I wish to punish them," he revealed, disturbing James and Lois. "Not the civilians like your friend James here, just to clarify. I'm talking about those like the mayor, the sheriff, the cops, and everyone else who has had a part in this cover-up!" he declared. "Those who have forced the victims to remain quiet deserve what's coming for them. Which is why I wanted to make a statement, to make them regret what they did, and you," he said as he pointed to Lois. "You will help me."
"Okay… but I don't think you've answered my first question though," Lois pointed out. "About the costume. Why the Headless Horseman get up?"
"My apologies, Ms. Lee," he said. "I easily get myself… worked up. You see, there is an old story I used to read when I was a child. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was about a man named Brom Bones who dressed as the Headless Horseman to scare his rival, Ichabod Crane, and chase him out of Sleepy Hollow."
"Wait, I thought Ichabod was chased by a real ghost?" James asked.
"That's… one interpretation of the story," the Horseman said. "I've always believed the interpretation that it was Brom Bones pranking Ichabod. And what he did to his rival is what I'm going to do to those I'm sending a message to." He intertwined his fingers. "I'm going to scare them. Because fear is a hell of a motivation. I also chose to wear a costume because I feel like that's the only way people will pay attention to me in the world of Supers like Powerline."
"Wait, Powerline?" Lois asked.
The Headless Horseman nodded… or at least made a nodding movement. "He gets attention, he gets headlines, all because he dresses up in a bright outfit…"
Meanwhile, the trio of Luz, Amity and Kaleb had split up to look for leads…
Luz was flying in her Titan form as she looked for the black van. She checked the parking lot down at the mall, seeing if there were any black vans hidden amongst the other cars, but no luck.
"Not here," she said as she continued flying.
Amity was in another part of town, communicating with the animals and pixies that inhabited the forest.
"Are you sure you didn't see anything?" she asked.
"Didn't see no vehicle like that today," a squirrel said.
"Nor anybody but the bearded man gathering the fish," a raccoon replied.
"We'll send some pixies to you in case something comes up," said a pixie.
"Thank you," Amity responded before she flew up and continued the search.
"Are you sure you haven't seen a black van drive past here?" Kaleb asked the owner of the gas station.
"Nope," the owner replied. "Sorry that I couldn't be of much help."
Kaleb sighed. "It's fine, sir. Thank you for your time," he said as he started to walk away. The owner watched him leave, then looked away for a second. When he looked back… Kaleb was suddenly gone, much to his surprise.
"Huh?" he asked, staring ahead when he really should have been looking up…
Luz was checking around the ruins of the history museum, which now had a fence around it to keep any trespassers out. She saw Atticus flying down to her and she extended her arm for him to land on.
"See anything?" she asked, only for Atticus to shake his head.
Luz then heard some rustling. Out of the corner of the eye, she noticed some agents in the nearby bushes, hiding while in their disguises. She frowned, deciding to not confront them. She really did not need to deal with them at the moment…
As Amity checked around the water tower, she noticed a black van parked nearby.
"Gotcha!" Amity declared as she teleported over to the van, popping up in front of it… and noticing the logo on the side of the van.
The logo was of a rat with sunglasses that was holding up a spray bottle that released a cloud, which had the words 'Blind Mice Extermination' in it, towards another rat with burning eyes.
"That's not it…" Amity said with a frown.
Kaleb had discreetly used his powers of flight and speed to quickly check out some parts of the town in the area he was covering. This led him to an abandoned church away from the rest of the town.
He noticed that this church had some police tape spread around it and spray-painted on the side of the building was a warning that said 'STAY THE F$ OUT!' and was accompanied by what looked like the spray-painted image of a T-Rex.
"Something tells me no one would want to come here," Kaleb said, taking note that the police tape wasn't torn up or otherwise messed with and there were no signs of the van around here. Meaning, Lois wasn't here either.
Meanwhile, Luz continued with her search, walking out of the abandoned Mudflap factory.
"Lois is not in there either," Luz admitted with a sigh. "Just what are we missing, Atticus? Where could that kidnapper have taken her…"
"Hey yous over there!"
"Yeah, with the mockingbird!"
Luz and Atticus turned to see two agents in black suits walking over to them. Their suits consisted of black-ish dark red tuxedo-jackets and red lapels with a D-pin on the left side, black neckties, black pants, and dress shoes. Of course, the female agent wore low-heeled shoes, and the D-pin ws on her right side of the lapel. They both sported black sunglasses.
"Oh fuck…" Luz grimaced. "Look, I don't have time for you agents."
"How did'ya figure out who we are?" asked the brown-skinned female agent with curly, pixie-cut light blond hair.
"Because you literally look like government spooks, you aren't even in disguise," Luz pointed out. "I can tell who's an agent around here, but you two aren't even putting in the effort to pretend that you don't work for the government."
"Oh, you must mean our colleagues," replied the pale-skinned male agent with short brown hair. Luz took note of the two's Jersey accents.
"Right, so um, I best be going," Luz told them as she tried to walk away, but the two agents went to stop her.
"Hey, wait!" the man shouted to Luz. "We just want to talk to ya!"
"I have no time for the agents from Jersey Shore," Luz told them as the female agent got in front of her.
"But we wants to talk to ya!" she declared.
"Talk to me? About what, exactly?" Luz questioned them.
"You're quite famous among our peers," the male agent said as he stood next to his partner. "And we've heards about you, Luz Clawthorne."
"Yeah, you're sorta famous among the agencies of the US government," the female agent said. "You were in LA, after all. A teenage witch girl from another dimension, they say."
"Well, I'm no Sabrina, for one," Luz said before she got a good look at the two. "Wait… I don't think I've ever seen you guys around here before. You're not like the regular agents I see around this town…"
"Oh, we're from a different agency sent here to help out," the male agent said while adjusting his sunglasses. "The name's Agent One."
"And I'm Agent Two," the female agent declared.
"And we're from a group dedicated to investigating paranormal activities, specifically of the demon kind," One said in a serious tone. "We are… the D.H.O.R.K.S."
Upon hearing the name, all Luz could do… was burst into laughter.
"BAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Luz laughed at the two agents, who were startled by her laughing. "DHORKS?! You two call yourselves DHORKS?!"
"Well, DHORKS actually stands for-" One tried to explain but was cut off by Luz, who kept laughing her ass off at their name.
"Oh my fucking Titan," Luz giggled as she held her stomach. "Fuck, I thought BIG and LOWTH back on the Isles were bad, but this takes the fucking cake! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" she continued to laugh, much to the expense of the unamused Agents One and Two.
"Would you stop laughing!?" One demanded.
"Sorry, but how can I take you guys seriously if your organization's name is DHORKS?!" Luz laughed at them, making them frown. "What's next? An organization called D.I.C.K.S.? The S.H.I.I.T. department? Or a British firm called the C.U-"
"Okay, okay, we get it!" Two shouted. "No need to mock us…"
"What's not to mock? You guys sound as big of a joke as the NRA," Luz retorted.
"Look, our work within DHO-" Two saw Luz about to start laughing again. "Our organization is dedicated to investigating the paranormal and supernatural events that have been happening around the world, especially as of late."
"Yeah! Our work is important. We're, uh, a big deal in our field, government funded and all," One said, though Luz looked to not be buying it. "Which is why we want to talk to you, Ms. Clawthorne, being someone with magical powers who was raised by witches and such…"
"Wow… you guys sound like a total cliche," Luz told them. "I mean, you already looking like Men in Black knock-offs…" Her tone then suddenly became serious, the humor leaving her voice. "But you also remind me of Department A…"
Both Agents One and Two saw Luz's expression turn serious and… intimidating, making them flinch under her gaze.
"Does that name ring any bells?" Luz asked the two agents.
"We… uh…" One stammered.
"There were rumors…" Two admitted. "But just because we work in a similar field doesn't mean that-"
"In fact, Department A was government funded as well," Luz recalled, cutting Agent Two off. "Aiding in their mission to hunt down and entrap magical beings, justifying their exterminations on them as being for the 'good' of the world. Sure, the government claimed ignorance, but this is the same government that recruited Nazis for their space programs." Disgust was evident in her tone as she continued. "After my experience with Department A and their %&*# leader, I don't trust any government agencies in that field. So why don't you two #%$s stay out of my business, okay?"
The two agents stared in shock at Luz, who didn't even give them a chance to respond as she spread out her wings, took off, and flew away from the spot, deciding to continue searching for Lois and not deal with those two jokers, who watched Luz fly away from them.
As she flew, Luz realized that she had received a text and she decided to read it… since it was from Tambry.
Tambry: 'Hey, I got a tip from those gnome guys about spotting a black van in the forest that fits the description.'
"Finally," Luz said, as she changed direction while texting Amity and Kaleb about the new lead.
A few minutes later, Luz, Amity, and Kaleb were in the woods. Following a dirt road that went off the main road, they found a black van parked next to a cliff face.
"This must be it," Kaleb said as they checked out the van.
"No windows, no logo, no license plate," Amity noted.
"Yeah, this is a kidnapper's van alright," Luz said as she looked through the window at the driver's seat. "Nothing in there to indicate who could own it."
"Lois isn't inside there, so she has to be somewhere in these woods" Amity said while trying to think it over. "Maybe… maybe there is a cabin or shed that her kidnapper stashed her in."
"Wait…" Kaleb said as he looked around, his ears picking up something. "Do you guys… hear something?"
"Hear what?" Luz asked while Kaleb continued to look around.
"I hear… voices nearby," Kaleb said. He didn't see anyone, but his ears were picking up… a familiar voice.
"I don't think I hear anything," Amity said before Kaleb started to run toward the cliff wall.
Luz and Amity looked at each other, then went to follow Kaleb.
"Wait up!" Luz shouted.
"He's faster than I thought he'd be," Amity mentioned.
"Guy's full of surprises," Luz said before they saw Kaleb stop in front of the face of the cliff.
"I can still hear voices," Kaleb said as he looked closely at the wall.
"What voices do you hear?" Luz asked.
"Lois's," he said as he pressed his hand on the face of the cliff… and he felt it move. "This wall… it's fake!"
He grabbed the 'wall', which turned out to be a painted tarp, and tore it down, revealing that behind the tarp was an entrance to a cave.
"A cave… that's where Lois must've been taken," Luz realized.
"Come on," Kaleb said. "Let's go find Lois…"
Meanwhile, the Headless Horseman was still talking to Lois when he heard a beeping sound. He stopped, pulled out a device from his pocket, and looked at it, realizing what it meant.
"Just great," the Horseman hissed.
"What? What's going on?" Lois asked him.
"The motion sensors," he said. "I placed them at the entrance. Now we have visitors," he said as he stood up. "We've been discovered…"
"Wait," Lois spoke to him, causing him to turn to her. "Maybe this is a good thing,"
"For your freedom?" he asked.
"Well… okay, yeah, our freedom," Lois admitted. "But look, I have heard your story, Mr. Horseman. You mind if I call you that? So maybe… may you just turn yourself in. You may have good intentions, but you're still doing this the wrong way. I get your anger, and your frustrations, but if you give up, I can still help you break your story and get the truth out. Just… don't make things worse for yourself."
The Headless Horseman looked down, considering his options. Lois and James both hoped that what Lois told him would get through to him…
"You have… a very good point, Ms. Lee," he told her as looked at his pumpkin. He walked up to it… and grabbed it. "But they'll still lie," he pointed out before turning away. "And the only way for me or you to be taken seriously is if we expose the liars first!"
"Wait!" Lois called out, but the Headless Horseman was already moving away, taking the pumpkin with him…
Luz, Amity, and Kaleb went deeper into the cave, Luz and Amity using their light spells to light up the way. It quickly became obvious to them that they were in an old mineshaft, finding old tracks. Some of them were broken off and others still had mine carts on them.
"I had no idea that Gravity Falls had a history with mining," Kaleb commented while looking around the cave.
"Oh yeah," Luz said with a nod. "This valley experienced both the Gold Rush and the Flannel Rush."
Kaleb gave Luz a look. "Flannel Rush?" he asked her. "Isn't that a fabric?"
"I will say that compared to Knee where Titan's Blood used to be mined from, this is a lot less… veiny," Amity noted while looking around.
"Wait, is that part of living in the Demon Realm…?" Kaleb asked.
"We all live on the same, giant carcass island," Luz noted while they continued to explore the tunnels. "But man, how deep does this go…?"
"Deep enough to hide somebody you don't want anyone to find," Amity said as she noticed some pick-axes and helmets that had been left behind by miners.
"You know, this reminds me of when me and Mason discovered an underground abandoned mineshaft underneath the abandoned church," Luz said with a shiver. "I wonder if this tunnel is somehow connected to that one…"
"Were you the one who tagged the warning?" Kaleb asked, recalling the abandoned church.
"Yep," Luz confirmed. "Let's just hope we don't run into a pterodactyl…"
"We're here!"
The trio stopped when they heard a voice, Kaleb turning when he heard Lois's voice echoing down the tunnel.
"Someone! Anyone! We're here! Help!"
"Lois!" Kaleb shouted. "She's this way!"
"Come on!" Luz shouted as she and Amity flew toward the voices, Kaleb running after them. Using their light spells to light up the tunnel in front of them, they soon entered the part of the tunnel where Lois and James were being kept.
"Lois!" Luz and Kaleb both shouted, relieved that she was alright.
"Kaleb/Luz!" James and Lois shouted, both of them overjoyed as the trio went to free the two from their bonds.
"James, you're alright!" Kaleb shouted as he ripped through the ropes holding his friend. "Thank God, you're okay."
"I'm just glad you found me," James replied as he got up while rubbing his wrists. He then hugged Kaleb. "I was worried I would never see you two again!"
Kaleb smiled while patting Jame's back. "I'm so glad that you're safe, James."
"So you must be James," Luz spoke up, earning his attention. "Dipper talked a lot about you."
"Dipper? Wait, you know him?" James asked, noticing Luz and Amity. "Wait, who are you two?"
"Well, I'm Luz, this is Amity, we were helping your friends look for you," Luz told him before turning to Lois, who had gotten up after being freed. "Lois, um, are you alright?"
"Oh um, yeah," Lois replied as the two looked at each other. This was the first time they had seen each other since they had realized they were cousins. And neither of them knew what to say to the other or how to bring it up..
"There's someone else who's also here," James interrupted. "This cop that the Horseman also kidnapped somewhere in the mine as well."
"What?!" Luz asked before turning to Lois. "You mean… the Horseman was the one who kidnapped you?" She paused. "Why was he driving a van then?"
"Yeah, he's behind this," Lois said. "But it turns out he's just a guy in a costume. I don't know what he plans to do, but I am worried that it could be something drastic."
"Right, we need to find that cop and the Horseman before he hurts anyone else," Amity said.
"Kaleb, make sure that Lois and James make it out of here," Luz told him. "Me and Amity will go after the Headless Horseman and rescue the cop he took."
"But wait," Lois said as she stepped up to Luz. "We can't just leave you two here alone with that guy."
"Don't worry, you said he's just a guy in a costume, right?" Luz asked as she transformed into her Titan-Luz form. "Me and Amity will handle him."
"Yeah," Amity replied as she revealed her Fae form. "Which way did he go?"
Lois stared at the two in shock for a moment before pointing down the tunnel. "He went that way," she said.
"Then let's go get 'em," Luz said as she and Amity flew after the Horseman.
After the two left, Kaleb began leading Lois and James out. James was still staring after the girls, having been shocked by their transformations. He turned to his friends.
"You guys saw that, right…?" he asked them.
"Magic's real, James," Kaleb said as he escorted them out. "I think you'll like this town."
Lois turned to look in the direction the girls had gone one last time, sporting a worried look as she thought about them confronting the Horseman.
Luz and Amity flew farther down the tunnel, eventually coming across a split in the path, with two tunnels going in different directions.
"Great, a split path," Luz grumbled. "Where did he go?"
"He could have gone either way," Amity pointed out. "Perhaps we should split up, with one of us going down each tunnel. That way, one of us is bound to catch him," she suggested.
"Splitting up is usually how someone gets killed in a horror movie… but we can't risk this guy getting away," Luz argued. "Besides, according to Lois, he is just a normal guy in a costume. If one of us finds him, we can take him no problem."
This was arrogant, of course. Overconfident. But considering the type of enemies that Luz and Amity were used to dealing with, including the interdimensional trickster that Luz had met and battled earlier that same day, a normal guy in a costume seemed tame by comparison. After all, they had fought the likes of Melinoe and Belos together. How could this Headless Horseman be a match for either of them?
"And we can cover more ground," Amity added.
With both Luz and Amity in agreement, they split up, each of them flying down a separate tunnel. As Amity flew down her tunnel, she noticed a light at the end, growing brighter and brighter as she flew closer to it. She slowed down when the tunnel she was in widened, revealing a space lit up by several lanterns. And it was here that she found… the cop.
"Oh my… Titan…" Amity said as she realized where she was.
This part of the tunnel had been converted into a crude makeshift chemistry lab. There were tables of flasks and tubes, as well as syringes and some tanks. Someone had been doing experiments down here… and Amity quickly realized who had been this lab's guinea pig.
The cop she found… wasn't in a good state. He was strapped tightly to a chair, his wrists red from rope burn marks. "Sir, are you alright?" Amity asked him as she went to check up on him, only for him to not respond. He was alive, thankfully, but he looked… out of it.
As Amity checked on him, she noticed the syringe marks in his arm and his neck. His eyes were wide with fear and his hair had some streaks of white in it. He didn't react to Amity's touch or voice. Instead he just stared blankly at the floor while stammering the same phrase over and over again.
"Headless Horseman… Headless Horseman…"
Amity quickly realized what had happened to the man. After being brought to this lab, he had been repeatedly drugged and experimented on… but for what purpose?
Meanwhile, Luz went down the tunnel she had chosen, using the light spells to find her way through the dark. Sure enough, she managed to spot a silhouette up ahead…
"Caught you with your head down," Luz said as the Headless Horseman turned around to face her. "Well, figuratively speaking…"
"Child… I have no quarrels with you," the Headless Horseman told her. "I am merely trying to avenge the victims this town is trying to bury…"
"Yeah, that's what they all say," Luz told him as she held her staff. "I've dealt with creeps like you, always trying to justify their actions like kidnapping and hurting people. Honestly, I'm kinda tired of it. But if you give up, I might go easy on you."
The Horseman held up a pumpkin. "Then I won't!" he declared as he threw it at Luz.
Luz casually dodged the pumpkin, which splattered on the tunnel floor. Luz was unimpressed. "Did you really think you could stop me with pumpkins? You really are a wannabe cosplayer," she said as a green smoke-like gas came out of the remnants of the pumpkin and floated off the ground, spreading around Luz and causing her to cough.
"What...-cough-cough- what the fuck…?" she coughed as her eyes started to water, her vision starting to blur as she wiped her eyes. Once her eyes had cleared up a bit, she looked at the Headless Horseman again. However, much to her surprise, he looked… different. His appearance had become more… twisted.
"I do apologize for this," the Headless Horseman said. In place of his headless stump was a fiery skull floating above it. His body had taken on a more demonic appearance, his cape forming into wings, his shoulders spikier, his gloved hands and boots replaced with claws and hooves. The cave around them seemed to crumble away, leaving them surrounded by a red, fiery pit. "This wasn't meant for you, my dear. But you've forced me to improvise…"
"What…" Luz said as she backed away, her hands shaking as she dropped her staff. Everything looked and felt… wrong. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"
"Something that I've been working on, to get back at those who silence the victims," the Headless Horseman explained as he walked closer to her. "But I do have to wonder… what will you see? What is your truth? What is that you… fear to face?"
Luz glared at the Horseman. Even if he was in his demonic form, she knew that she could still fight against him.
"I don't care if you're the devil himself!" Luz shouted as she raised her fist. "I'M STILL GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS!" she shouted as she lunged forward and took a swing at him… only to miss. She tried to catch herself, but she suddenly lost control of her body, causing her to fall forward… and through the ground.
"GYAAAH!" she cried out as she fell down a deep abyss. And so she fell…
And fell…
And fell…
And she continued to fall… until she landed on the ground.
"Oof!" she grunted as she got up from the ground. "Oh man… what the…?" she asked as she looked around… and realized where she was, causing her eyes to widen in horror. "Wait, this is… no, it can't be… it shouldn't be possible!"
She was in a withered forest. The same, dead-tree forest that she, Boscha, and Hunter had once ended up in. This was… Belos's mindscape. Or at least somewhere that resembled it.
"This can't be Belos's mindscape," Luz said while pressing her hands against her head, wondering if she was losing her mind. "How and why am I here?!"
"Isn't it obvious, Lizardbat?" a voice asked. "This is where we last saw each other…"
Hearing that nickname and that familiar tone filled Luz with a sense of dread as she began to turn around. "No…"
"That's right, it's me!" Bill Cipher shouted while floating in front of her. "Did you miss me, Lizardbat? Admit it, you missed me! Ooh, I like the new look. You've sure changed quite a bit since we last met. You know, when you freed me and such."
"No, you… I can't believe it's you!" Luz shouted in anger while backing away. "You're supposed to be dead! You… can't be here, you have to be an illusion…"
"Well, I suppose that could be the case," Bill considered as he twirled his cane while floating around Luz. "But what if I didn't actually die? What if I survived by retreating inside your head again and have been here this entire time and this gas is just bringing me out?" he suggested. "After all, we did make a deal where you let me have free reign inside your head… like a total idiot!" he added, causing Luz to lunge at him, which he easily dodged. "Ooh, there's the anger. Say, you know, you might have done the world a favor when we made that deal, since me being locked up in Belos's mindscape meant that I couldn't hurt anyone else… but then you made that braindead decision to free me!" He laughed.
"Shut up!" Luz shouted as she shot a spell at him, causing Bill to teleport out of the way. "I was just… trying to protect Boscha, Hunter… Maya…"
"Oh yeah, from tall, dark, and gruesome and his fleshly partner in crime the Horned King, right?" Bill asked as he held his cane down. "But tell me… did you even stop to think about the consequences? What your decision to free me could have led to… and what it did lead to?"
Suddenly, the world around Luz and Bill shifted. No longer were they in Belos's mindscape. Instead, they were now above Gravity Falls… its ruins. The sky was red, the town was being destroyed by demons and swarmed by Heartless, and she could make out the monstrous water tower in the distance…
"Behold, Weirdmageddon!" Bill declared while showing Luz his narrowly averted apocalypse in all of its horrifying glory. "Boy, you missed quite the show!"
Luz looked around in horror and not just at the destruction of the town. She saw the petrified bodies of the inhabitants of Gravity Falls, their final moments of terror and agony captured in cold hard stone. Everyone she knew was there, including Mayor Tyler, Lazy Susan, McGucket, Vee, Blubs, Durland, the Gleefuls, Wendy and her family, the Gordons, Clara and Abigail, Masha… the Pines family… Gus and Perry… her mom…
"No… nononononono!" Luz shouted, attempting to avert her eyes.
"Yes-yesyesyesyes!" Bill mockingly responded before he fell into laughter. "Hahahaha! This whole thing wouldn't have been possible without you, Lizardbat! I nearly destroyed Gravity Falls, destroyed your family! You know, I actually did kill people here." He shifted his eye to her. "And it's all thanks to you!"
"SHUT UP!" Luz shouted at him, glaring in anger at the triangle. "I had no idea this would have happened! You can't pin this on me, Cipher! I may have released you, but I didn't destroy this town, that's all on you!"
"Well, someone here doesn't have a guilt-complex, does she?" Bill asked while floating around her. "Well, if you are so sure about how it's not your fault that I caused all of this… then you should tell them." Luz paused as Bill continued. "You should tell all of Gravity Falls the truth about how you freed me, and allowed me to make a deal with Dipper that nearly destroyed the entire world!" Luz hesitated, which amused the triangle demon to no end. "But I know you wouldn't, because I'm right. This is your doing and you know that if everyone knew your role in Weirdmageddon… well, they would hate you…"
Luz looked down as Bill continued. "Of course, it's not like you're well liked around this town anyway. You're just some punk-ass kid who gets away with all kinds of mischief and this must be your biggest prank you've ever pulled! Did you even tell your human friends and family about this? How you were responsible for all the hardship they went through during Weirdmageddon?" Luz turned away from him, making him realize the truth. "You didn't, did you?" he asked before laughing at Luz's guilt.
"Face it, Lizardbat, you nearly damned this town by releasing me!" Bill shouted as he bellowed in laughter. "In fact, you're no better than Belos…"
"Luz? Luz, wake up!"
Amity had made it to where Luz was. But when she found her, Luz had been laying on the ground… her eyes wide and drool coming out of her mouth. She was clearly out of it… just like the cop. Amity began to panic as she held her girlfriend's head up, terrified of whatever Luz was going through.
"No… no please…" Luz said, tears coming from her eyes, her head shaking and her body twitching. "I didn't mean to… Bill…"
"Luz," Amity said in concern, pressing her face. "Please Luz, wake up! It's me, Amity!"
As Amity held Luz, the twitching eventually stopped. Amity felt Luz's body relax, her breathing start to return to normal.
"That's it," Amity said, her own face stained with tears. "Do you hear my voice, Luz? Focus on it. Ignore everything else and just focus on my voice…"
Luz blinked a few times, her pupils dilating.
"What… where…"
Though her vision was still blurry, she could see Amity's face and she focused on that as her vision cleared up.
"Amity…" she said, finding herself back in reality.
"I'm here," Amity assured her before Luz embraced her girlfriend while still crying. "Luz… Luz, it's okay. I'm here," she said while rubbing Luz's back. She was crying as well, but she still held onto Luz, serving as her anchor.
"I'm here."
After the recovery, Amity helped lead Luz out of the mines while also carrying her staff. Soon, they were out of the mines and into the light… where they saw a large group of cops and agents already there, waiting for them.
"Luz, Amity," Agent Li said as she and Brown walked up to them. "You girls alright?"
"Who knows," Luz said while looking tired.
"Where's the kidnapper?" Brown asked them. "This so-called Headless Horseman."
"He escaped, but he had some sort of lab in there," Amity said.
"You got here fast," Luz noted.
"You're not the only one with a system," Li told Luz before turning to the other adults. "Alright, let's get in there and secure the tunnels, see if we can recover anything," she declared as she and Brown took charge.
"You don't know how glad I am to actually deal with a case like this," Brown said as they, along with some of the cops and other agents, went in to secure the tunnels.
"You two."
Luz and Amity turned to see Sheriff Blubs, who had crossed his arms.
"Look, Blubs-" Luz tried to speak, but Blubs cut her off.
"You should have called us," Blubs said. "I know that you might not trust those agents… but you should at least have trusted me. You two put yourselves at risk trying to deal with this kidnapping case by yourselves instead of letting us deal with it."
"I… I know," Luz said, looking down. "I just… thought we could handle it."
"You have to remember that you aren't in… that realm," Blubs chastised them before he let out a sigh. "But… I do want to thank you girls for helping find our missing officer,"
Luz and Amity turned to see the cop being loaded in the ambulance. Luz was left confused by his state, seeing the cop looking more out of it.
"What happened to him?" Luz asked him.
"If I were to guess," Amity speculated. "Whatever that Horseman did to you, he did it to that cop."
"But… I'm fine," Luz pointed out.
"You only got one dose," Amity pointed out. "When I found that cop, it looked like he had experimented on many, many times."
"Poor Davidson," Blubs said with a saddened look. "The agents said they'll look into what happened to him, but I don't know if he'll be able to recover from this completely,"
Luz then saw that sitting by the ambulance were Kaleb, Lois, and James, the latter two wearing blankets and having hot cocoa in their hands.
"Um, are we dismissed now, sir?" Luz asked him. "I'd like to speak with those three for a bit."
"Yeah, you girls are dismissed," Blubs said, letting the two walk towards the trio. He watched the two girls, thinking quietly to himself before shaking his head.
Lois was sipping her hot cocoa when she spotted Lumity coming up to them, causing her to perk up. "Luz, Amity! Glad you two girls are alright."
"Well, half of us are alright," Luz admitted.
"Are you okay, Luz?" Kaleb asked her.
"I'm good, just a migraine," Luz replied. "Unfortunately, the Horseman got away." She turned to Lois. "How about you? Are you and Jimmy over there good?"
"Yeah, we're good," Lois confirmed.
"The Horseman was scary, though he at least gave me some food from time to time," James admitted. "Though… I don't think we've been properly introduced yet."
"Oh yeah," Kaleb said as he began to make the proper introductions. "This is Amity,"
"Hi, nice to meet you," Amity waved.
"And this is Luz," Lois introduced as she sat up and walked over to Luz. The two looked at each other, their eyes meeting. And from that alone, Lois realized… that Luz knew. "My… cousin."
"Well it's nice to meet you… WHAAAT?!" James exclaimed in shock, startling the nearby cops and agents and causing them to look in his direction before they resumed doing their own thing. "Wait, wait, wait… are you saying you have a cousin that can turn into… um…"
"A witch-Titan-human… well, that's one way to put it," Luz admitted before looking up at Lois. "But yeah, we're cousins…" she said, a bit awkwardly.
"Yeah," Lois replied, just as awkwardly. "Um… do you wish to-?"
"Talk about this?" Luz asked. She rubbed the back of her head. "Yeah, I think there's… a lot to unpack here."
Lois nodded to this, since she had a lot of questions to ask Luz. But before she could get the chance, James got a better look at Luz.
"Say, wait a minute… I think I saw you before," James noted. "Yeah, that orange streak in your hair… I think we've passed her by before. In New York a few months ago."
"Wait, we did?" Kaleb asked.
"I actually was there that summer, visiting a family friend," Luz admitted before remembering that when she and Jake were walking back to his place, she bumped into someone. Luz's eyes widened at the realization. "Oh my…"
"God…" Lois said as she had the realization at the same time, the two turning to each other. "We did meet before!"
"How did I not realize that sooner?!" Luz and Lois both exclaimed in shock.
"Wow," Amity said.
"Yep, they're definitely cousins," Kaleb added with a nod.
Meanwhile, Wendy had walked over to the junkyard to pay a visit to McGucket's lab and check up on Victor. She knocked at the door.
"Yo, Vic," Wendy said as she knocked, only to see the door already open. "Um, Vic? Are you in there?"
"Yeah, just straightening up the place," said Victor's voice. "You can come in."
As Wendy let herself in, she noticed that the place… looked like a bit of a wreck, with things knocked over and objects scattered across the floor.
"What happened here?" she asked before she spotted Victor, who was using a broom to sweep around the place.
"Sorry that it is a bit messy," Victor said, his back turned to Wendy. "I was tidying up a bit when you came in, but don't worry, nothing dangerous was left out."
"You're not… keeping any bombs in here, are you?" Wendy asked, causing Victor to chuckle.
"No," Victor said. "Bombs are… they are not my choice of weapons. Too impersonal."
Wendy noted some of the robotic parts being swept up before Victor turned to her… and her eyes widened in shock. "What the… what happened to you?!"
Victor looked quite beaten up, with his jacket being ripped, the lid of his hat popped off, and his goggles shattered. He still sported the same black eye from earlier.
"Oh you know, got into a fight with an animal that broke into the lab," Victor said with a strained smile. "Hence the mess."
"Animal? Wait, you mean that raccoon 'wife' of McGucket's?" Wendy asked him.
"No, another animal, actually," Victor said as he finished cleaning up. He set the broom down before sitting down. "I'm fine, really. So, um, what brings you here? If this is about Tambry's text, I already got the update she sent about that woman being found. I'm glad she's alright."
"Yeah, me too," Wendy said as she walked over to him. "But that isn't why I'm here. I came here to check up on you and… well, I wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier."
"Oh, right… the cheating," Victor said. He looked down and gave a sigh. "I am sorry for what I did, Wendy. I… I was trying to be clever."
"Well, you were," Wendy admitted, her arms crossed. "It was a neat trick. Just-"
"I know," Victor said, looking up at her. "I should have at least talked about it with you first instead of trying to keep it from you. I won't do something like this again. I promise. I… I want to be honest with you, Wendy."
Wendy smiled at that. "Well, thanks for owning up to it, at least."
"It is the least I can do… however," Victor said as he looked serious. "Because I want to be honest with you, I still think that Gus was cheating as well."
"Victor-"
"I know what I saw, Wendy," he told her, standing up. "There was something invisible behind him. You and I both know he can do illusion magic. There is something weird going on with him, you have to believe me."
"And I want to, dude," Wendy told him. "I want to believe you, but I do know Gus and I know that he would never cheat like that." She sighed. "And you insisting that he was cheating, well, it's just hurting your case."
Victor stared at Wendy for a moment before he looked down and sighed. "I know…" he said, deciding to not say anything else about the matter.
However, even if Gus wasn't intentionally cheating, Victor still knew that he saw something and that something warranted his suspicion… and an investigation.
Back at the Gates household, Collin and Wimzy were both cleaning up the mess in Abigail's house as Abigail supervised the cherubs and their efforts.
"Alright, everything's back in order, all the broken glass has been swept up and all of our weapons have been recovered," Collin recounted.
"Plus I sewed your couch pillows up and repaired your fine china," Wimzy said as she pointed to the stitched up pillows and the plates that were being held together by glue while placed inside the cabinet.
"I also fixed the leak in your pipe under the kitchen sink, which saves you from having to make a call to the repairman," Collin added.
"Hmm, thank you for cleaning my house," Abigail told them with a nod.
"It was the least we could do for you, Abby," Wimzy replied. "Especially since we did help to trash it in the first place."
"Yes… which is why I need two to go," Abigail told the two cherubs, her tone stern. "I don't want you two in my house ever again."
Wimzy blinked, staring at Abigail in shock. "But what about-"
"I'll take care of it myself," Abigail told her before pointing to the door. "I want you two to go… please."
Wimzy stared at Abigail in quiet shock before looking down, appearing dejected from Abigail not wanting her around. Collin, however, expressed relief over finally being able to leave this house.
"Well, we'll be getting out of your hair then, Mrs. Gates," Collin declared before going through the door. "Come on, Wimzy, we should go!"
"Yeah, I…" Wimzy said as she was about to follow Collin, only to pause. She hesitated and looked back at Abigail, her expression one pained with regret and earnestness. "Abby… I just wanted to help…"
"Just… just go, Wimzy," Abigail said, taking a deep breath as she turned away from her. "Please."
Wimzy looked down, but knew that Abigail did not want her here, so she began to leave. "I'm… I'm sorry, Abby," she said quietly as she phased through the door, leaving with Collin.
And then it was just Abigail. Alone.
Seeing that the two were gone, Abigail walked over to her couch and sat down. She leaned back and let out a long sigh, thinking about the two's visit.
"Out of all the cherubs in Heaven, why did it have to be her?" Abigail asked, burying her face in her hands. She could hope that this was the last she had seen of Wimzy, but even if she no longer had to deal with the cat cherub, she had to deal with the other party that had been in her house…
Meanwhile, Luz and Amity had brought Lois, Kaleb, and James to Greasy's Diner. They all shared a booth together, Lumity sitting on one side while Lois, Kaleb and James sat on the other.
"Oh man, it's good to have real food again!" James shouted as he scarfed down the food. "Even if this does strangely taste like coffee."
"Most get used to the taste," Luz told him.
"So how are you feeling now, James?" Lois asked him.
"Better," James replied with a sigh. "It's just so good to be freed from that headless lunatic. He caused me to crash my car and then kidnaped me as part of some reign of terror I think he was planning…"
"That appears to be the gist of it," Luz said. "But why did he go after Lois? You seem to have just been at the wrong place at the wrong time… but he deliberately went after Lois."
"Oh… well, I think that's my bad," James said while looking down. "When I first met the Headless Horseman, I was shocked. I told him that I worked for the New York Star and he ended up taking an interest in her…"
"He thought he found the right person who could help him," Lois admitted, keeping her voice down so nobody would overhear their conversation. "He wanted me to hear his story and he told me about an event called 'Weirdmageddon'."
Both Luz and Amity shifted when he heard this.
"And he ranted about how he hated the authorities for covering up what happened during the summer, believing that it only hurt the victims, including the ones who lost their loved ones." She looked across the table at Luz and Amity. "Is what he said true? About… Weirdmageddon?"
Luz and Amity turned to each other, then Luz turned to Lois. "Yeah, what he said was true," she admitted, her voice low. "Though at that time, me and Amity weren't in Gravity Falls. But it did happen right at the end of the summer."
"We had to deal with our own event that happened back in the Demon Realm." Amity added. "A civil war…"
"When he talked about the authorities covering up what happened during the summer, he mentioned this town's 'Never Mind All That' Act," Lois said, looking concerned over that law. Even though Luz had explained it to her before, it still didn't set her right. "Do you really think that law is right?" she asked Luz. "Do you think that the NMAT Act is a good solution for this town?"
Luz looked down at the table and gave a sigh. "I don't know," she admitted. "I do think that Gravity Falls is safer when fewer people know its secrets… but maybe the Horseman does have a point about the law and he has a reason to be outraged… but that doesn't excuse for what he's done." She looked up. "He's hurt people, and he is going to hurt even more people in his revenge quest if he isn't stopped. Next time I see that guy, I'm gonna shatter his kneecaps."
"Not if I get to him and rip his arms off and shove them into his mouth first," Amity said in a deadly tone. "Nobody messes with my Luz…"
"That's… pretty morbid," Kaleb said, taken aback.
"Lois, you mentioned that this Horseman was just some guy in a costume," Luz pointed out.
"Yeah, as soon as I saw him, I could tell that he was just wearing a costume," Lois said. "So he really couldn't be the same Horseman from the Sleepy Hollow story. Just someone inspired by the Horseman story."
"That's… actually really helpful," Luz pointed out. "Looks like we're dealing with some Scooby-Doo shit. Luckily, we know a gang that could help out this case."
"And this gang…?" James asked.
"The Shadowy Secrets Expozers," Amity explained, knowing what Luz was thinking. "They're kinda like your Human Realm's Mystery Inc, but with a more gothic flair. They are schoolmates of ours back at Hexside, our school, and they've cracked some pretty big cases."
"Yeah, they even helped to solve a murder case," Luz brought up.
"Wait, are you saying there's an actual Demon Realm version of Mystery Inc. that aren't just cartoon characters? They actually go around, solve mysteries, and deal with their own costumed creeps?" James asked them in confusion. "I mean, how does that work? Why would witches and demons dress up in costumes if they can do magic of their own…"
Luz shrugged. "The Boiling Isles is not so different from the Human Realm, really. We have our own corporations and tech companies under the Oracle and Abominations belt, and our own media coven."
"But back on topic, our friends in the SSE can help crack this Headless Horseman case, since it's up their alley," Amity pointed out.
James was still processing everything that Luz and Amity had told him. It was… a lot.
"You guys have your own media and such… man, the whole 'Demon Realm' and 'Boiling Isles' thing is like… I'm still processing the whole thing," he said, clutching his head.
"I know how you feel, James," Lois said with a sigh. "I'm still trying to process the fact that everything we thought were myths and legends is true…"
"So, what do you guys plan to do next?" Luz asked them. "Are you all staying here in Gravity Falls? Since James is found now…"
"Well… we still have our job back in New York," Kaleb pointed out. "They are gonna start wondering what happened to us…"
"That's right, the chief wants us to do a story about Powerline," Lois admitted with a slight groan. "Always Powerline. Even the Horseman talked about Powerline…"
Luz and Kaleb shared a look, but didn't say anything.
"Wonder if he would like a story about the Headless Horseman instead?" James suggested.
"We really do need to figure out how to take care of this," Kaleb said, as he, James and Lois thought about returning to their jobs. "At the very least, we need to make a few calls…"
Lois was quiet for a moment, silently coming to a decision. "Honestly, I'm… thinking of staying here," she revealed.
"You are, Lois?" Kaleb asked as he and James turned to her.
"I want to crack this Horseman case, and also…" she said as she looked over at Luz. "I wish to spend more time with you, Luz… and Camila."
Luz looked back at her cousin and nodded. "Does this mean… you're ready to see mom?"
Back at the Noceda house, Clara was letting Phil feed her pet rabbit as Abigail came in and went over to speak to Camila.
"Thank you for watching over Clara for me, Camila," Abigail thanked her.
"It's no problem, Gail," Camila replied. "You know that I always enjoy your daughter's company, and she's getting along well with Phil."
They both looked over at Clara and Phil, the former helping Phil feed Harvey. "Go on, he won't bite you," Clara encouraged Phil.
Phil looked at Harvey with a curious expression as he held up the carrot stick in front of him. Harvey responded by taking a nibble at the carrot stick, which made Phil happy.
"He likes it!" Phil said in excitement.
"Yeah, and he appears to like you for sharing," Clara replied with a smile before noticing her mom with Camila. "Hey mom, is everything good?"
"Yes, I… we don't have to call the police or anything," Abigail assured her. "It turns out that the mess was just caused by some animal that got into our house."
"An animal?" Clara asked before standing up, holding Harvey. "How did it get inside the house?"
"I probably accidentally left the back door open before I left the house earlier today," Abigail claimed.
"Are you sure, mom?" Clara asked her.
"I'm sure. Nothing of value was stolen," Abigail pointed out.
"Do you know what kind of animal it was?" Camila asked.
"I think… it was a cat," Abigail said, deciding to settle on a half-truth. "A cat must have gotten loose in our home. But I did clean up everything."
"Well, I guess we don't have to worry anymore," Clara said while petting her rabbit. "I'm just grateful that cat didn't go after Harvey…"
Knock-knock-knock
Hearing the knock on the door, Camila went to answer it.
"That might be Luz," she said as she walked over to the door.
And sure enough, when Camila opened the door, she saw Luz and Amity standing there… and they were not alone.
"Hey, mom," Luz said. "Um… there's someone who wants to see you."
"Camila?"
It was Lois. Behind her was Kaleb and James, but of course Lois was the only one that Camila noticed.
Luz and Amity both stepped away to let the two have a moment as Camila looked at her cousin, the two locking eyes with each other.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
"Oh my… Lois?" Camila asked, pressing her hands to her mouth in shock, tears leaking from her eyes. Abigail and Clara walked over to the front door to see what was going on, Abigail reacting in surprise when she saw Lois.
"It… really is you," Lois replied as she teared up as well, starting to cry. "I… I just-"
Camila walked over to embrace Lois, who cried her eyes out as she, for the first time in more than fourteen years, hugged her cousin back. It was something she never thought that she would be able to do again. And yet now she was suddenly a child with her older cousin again.
Luz, Amity, Kaleb, and James all smiled as they watched this tearful reunion. After all this time, the two cousins were finally reunited…
Back in town, Gus Gordon was still with Charlotte, the two having been walking around Gravity Falls together.
"So they found her?" Charlotte asked Gus, who was on his phone.
"Yeah," Gus confirmed. "She's fine."
Charlotte sighed in relief. "That's great to hear."
Gus nodded before he noticed the time on his phone. "Looks like it's starting to get late," he noted. "I should probably start heading home soon."
"Yeah, me too," Charlotte replied. "But… I did have a great time hanging out with you, Gus."
"Y-yeah, me too, Charlotte," Gus said as he decided to build up the courage to ask her "Say, um, how about we do this again sometime?"
"Sure, I'd like that," Charlotte replied with a nod and a smile.
"Great! I mean, um, great," Gus said, calming himself down. "So, um, maybe we should trade numbers to stay in touch, if you like?"
"Sorry, I don't own a phone," she admitted, though she still smiled at him. "But I'll see you around. Later, Gus!" she shouted before she started to walk away.
"Yeah, later," Gus replied as he waved back at her. The Gordon boy watched Charlotte walk away until she was out of sight, then he began to head home while smiling ear to ear.
So far, one Gordon was having a good day…
...but the same couldn't be said for the Gordon Matriarch.
"So… do you have any hobbies you would like to share, Ian?" Nora asked while on a date at a restaurant with Poolcheck. She was wearing a very pretty dress, a black V-neck with rectangular straps around her upper arms, leaving her shoulders bare. The dress stopped to her knees and she was also wearing heel-shoes.
"I make sure that all of my sunblock can be accounted for in stock, and I even have some on me," Ian Poolcheck replied while in his date outfit… basically, his lifeguard uniform with a black bow-tie added to it. He was eating the salmon brought to him… with no table manners. He just took the salmon in his hands and ripped the skin off with his teeth, chewing it. "I've been trying to make sure nobody steals my sunblock, since improperly protecting yourself from the sun could lead to cancer! I've lost many men from the loss of sunblock back in the war. So many lives that could have been saved if I had just had sunblock on me. Never again…"
"The war…?" Nora asked in confusion. "Um… what war were you in?"
"The war… of Black Friday," Poolcheck said while his eyes gave a thousand yard stare. "It was at a Smarty Mart. I was going for the boxes of sunblock along with my other fellow lifeguards. Carts were pushed, shelves were pushed over, shoppers were crushed!"
"Excuse me, sir, but I'm getting complaints that you're, um… disturbing the guests…" a waiter said as he walked over.
"Oh, you think I'm disturbing everyone?!" Poolcheck shouted as he got up and took off his fake hand. "Well, how's this disturbing, huh?! Did you know how I lost my hand to a pool filter! Do you know how dangerous the pool can be?!" He gripped the waiter, who looked scared of the unstable lifeguard that began shaking him.
"Ian! Stop!" Nora told him. "Please, don't hurt him!"
Poolcheck stared at the terrified waiter before he let go of him and silently sat down. The waiter quickly ran away from the table while Ian looked around at the patrons who were staring at him. "What are you looking at?"
The people quickly looked down at their dinners, avoiding Poolcheck's glare.
Nora cleared her throat, deciding to get to the point. "Okay, Ian, um, I have been wondering about something for a while now."
"Oh, um, what do you wish to know, Nora?" Poolcheck asked, suddenly sounding a lot more calm and at ease.
"Well, there is this kid I'm concerned about," Nora said. "Um, you probably know about him."
"Really? Which kid is that?" Poolcheck asked.
"The one you kept in solitary at the pool," Nora brought up. "I mean, he's not really still in there… is he?"
Poolcheck paused. He was silent for an uncomfortable amount of time after Nora had brought that kid in Pool Jail up. Even Nora was getting a bit nervous before Poolcheck finally spoke.
"Oh god, not that rule-breaker!" he bawled. "He was the worst one!"
"What… what did he do?" Nora asked, seeing a vein appear on Poolcheck's head as he seemed to be losing his mind over this.
"He brought ice cream to my pool!" he shouted. "There was never supposed to be any outside food at the pool, only the provided rations at our snack bar! Ice cream melts, and the melted ice cream can result in someone slipping up and breaking their necks! And then lawsuits! That's why I had to put him in Solitary!" He tried to drink a glass of water to calm himself down, only to spit it out. "HEY! I ASKED FOR THIS WATER TO BE CHLORINATED!"
An embarrassed Nora tried to hide her face as a few patrons looked over at their table yet again. Nora felt absolutely miserable over where this date was going, having never expected Ian to be this unhinged. "So is that kid out of solitary, at the very least?" she asked.
Poolcheck stopped wailing when he heard the question, once again pausing and taking an uncomfortably long time to answer…
Later that night, after the date had ended, Nora decided to walk home… alone.
To say that the date had been a disaster would be an understatement. She had never felt so humiliated in public before. She still didn't think that Poolcheck was a bad person… for the most part, he was obviously emotionally unstable and she had come to realize that he was not the type of man she should continue seeing.
Her first time dating in years… and this was how it went.
As she walked home, Nora looked down at her phone, seeing that at least her son had made it home safe, which gave her some relief.
"What a night," Nora sighed in disappointment.
"Are you okay, miss?"
Hearing a voice, Nora looked up and saw a young man standing in front of her. Nora's eyes widened at the man's handsome features. He had combed-over black hair with some white stripes on the side, crystal blue eyes, and complex-tan skin. He bore a small, pointed mustache, making him look like a young Clark Gable. He sported a black suit with a red tie, black dress shoes, and he was holding a jacket.
"I, um, hope that I don't disturb you," he told her while looking concerned. "But I couldn't help but notice that you seemed distressed. And the last thing I would want is for a lovely-looking woman like yourself to be distressed this evening, especially when dressed like that."
"Oh, well… thank you for noticing," Nora replied, blushing slightly at the compliment and at the man's handsomeness.
"It seems so wrong for a woman like you to be alone," the man told her. "Let me guess, you were on a date and it didn't go well?"
"That's… right," Nora said with a sigh. "You have no idea how bad it was…"
"Well, would you like to talk about it?" he offered her.
"I… would rather not," Nora decided.
"Understood," the man said. "Could I at least have your name then?"
"Nora," Nora told him.
"Ah, my name is Curtis Burrow, nice to meet you," he greeted her with a bow.
"Burrow… I know that name," Nora said as she pointed at him. "You're Hatfield's partner, aren't you? You own the antique store."
"Guilty as charged," Curtis replied with a charming smile. "Am I what you expected?"
"Not exactly," Nora admitted. Truthfully, based on how old Hatfield was, she had imagined Burrow to be just as old as Hatfield. She definitely didn't expect him to be this young-looking… or handsome.
"I get that a lot," Curtis said. "I like surprising people whenever I pop over here to pay a visit."
"Mr. Hatfield said that you traveled a lot," Nora mentioned.
"Yes, Old Hatty's been such a great help managing my business interests and watching over my antique store while I am pursuing other passions outside of Gravity Falls. He is incredibly… useful, not only in keeping our shop up and running, but also in keeping me up to date on the going-ups in Gravity Falls, including some of the newer residents around here, like you, Ms… Nora, right?"
Nora gave him a nod. "Nora Gordon, it's nice to meet you, Mr. Burrow."
"You too, Mrs. Gordon," he replied in a kind tone. He looked around and sighed. "It is good to be back in Gravity Falls. It has been too long."
"A lot has happened recently," Nora told him.
"Oh, I know," Curtis said while looking at Nora. He smiled again. "Perhaps… you could help catch me up on everything that I have missed. We could walk together. You look like you could use some company tonight anyway."
Nora looked at Curtis in surprise, wondering if she should take him up on his offer. Sure, she had only just met the man, but considering everything she had been through with her… date, she could use some good company at that moment.
"That… that would be great," Nora responded with a smile as Curtis offered her his jacket. "Thank you, Curtis."
"It's no problem, Nora," he replied as Nora wore his jacket and he helped walk her home. "You just looked like you needed a friend."
Nora nodded. "Perhaps I did."
The two walked off together, heading toward Nora's place. While things might not have worked out with Ian, perhaps Nora had found someone new that night…
Back at the Noceda household, everyone had gathered in the living room, Lois and Camila catching up with each other.
"I just couldn't believe it, but… here you are!" Lois shouted while gesturing to Camila. "Amity has already explained to me about, well, you being a shadow…"
"Yeah, it's a thing," Camila replied with a shrug. "Lois, I am sorry that I didn't reach out to you earlier. I thought about it, even thought about claiming me and Luz had been in witness protection this entire time, but it would have been difficult to explain…"
"Why you look like you haven't aged in fourteen years?" Lois asked. "No, I totally get it. Especially because the real story is so crazy…"
"It is nice to see you after all these years, Lois," Abigail commented.
"Yeah, you too, Mrs. Gates," Lois replied before noticing Clara. "Um, this must be your daughter. Clara, right?"
"Yep," Clara replied proudly. "Luz's cool god-sister."
"God-sister, huh?" Lois asked with a smile. "Well, I'm Luzs cool cousin. Nice to meet you."
"Yeah, and get this, she and her friends are news reporters," Luz pointed out.
"Oh, really? So like April and her mom?" Clara asked.
"April? Oh… yeah, we've met her…" Kaleb said with an awkward look, remembering how April kicked him and Lois out from the Gravity Falls Gossiper.
While everyone was bonding and talking with one another, Amity looked over at Luz. She noticed how Luz looked… off. In fact, she had looked off ever since they had left the mine.
"Luz?" Amity spoke to her.
"Yeah, Ams?" Luz asked, turning to her.
"Do you wish to step out and talk? Alone?" she asked her.
"Uh… yeah," Luz said as she and Amity stood up. "We'll be a second, guys. Me and Ams need to talk," she told them.
"Everything alright, Luz?" Camila asked her.
"Just a little girlfriend discussion," Luz assured her. "Keep Phil company for us."
The two walk past Phil, who was surrounded by Ghost, Atticus, and Harvey, playing with them. "Hi, mommy," Phil waved at Amity.
"Um… did he just call her his mom?" James asked, turning to Kaleb and Lois.
"It's… a long story…" Abigail replied.
Luz and Amity went upstairs, where Luz just sat down on the floor of the hallway. Amity joined her, sitting down next to Luz as she looked at her in concern.
"How are you feeling right now?" Amity asked her.
"Like I've gone through my first high," Luz said while rubbing her temple. "Never touching marijuana when I get to college… if I get into college."
"You were hit by something the Horseman knocked you out with," Amity said while looking worried. "I think it was the same stuff he used on that cop…"
"We underestimated him," Luz admitted. "I was stupid. I was arrogant. I thought just because he was a guy in a costume, he couldn't do anything to me…"
"We were both overconfident," Amity pointed out with a sigh.
"He… threw some pumpkin at me, and it spread some kind of… fear gas," Luz said while looking down. "What I saw… it was straight out of a nightmare. My vision blurred, the Horseman looked more demonic and… I was suddenly in Belos's mindscape again." She saw Amity looking shocked to hear this. "But the worst part was that I saw and heard Bill in there."
"Bill?!" Amity asked. "But isn't he dead?!"
"I… I hope so and that he was just a figment of my guilt," Luz said with a sigh. "Because he told me… how he devastated this town because of me… because I freed him."
"Luz, you know what happened wasn't your fault," Amity assured her while holding her hand. "You were trying to escape from the Horned King with Maya, Hunter, and Boscha. Who knows what Belos or the Horned King would have done to you guys if you hadn't freed Bill."
"I know, we didn't have a lot of options," Luz said, still looking down. "But the guilt… the guilt is still there," she said while looking and sounding tired. She sighed. "You know, sometimes I wonder if… if I really deserve all of this."
"What do you mean?" Amity asked her.
"Being with mom, all of my friends here in the Human Realm…" Luz said as she looked down. "Do I… really deserve this?" She paused. "My choice nearly destroyed everything…"
Amity looked at Luz with a worried expression, concerned about Luz letting her guilt eat her up. Because the truth was… she knew too well how Luz felt, the feeling of guilt over the choices they had made. Luz wasn't the only one and even when their choices were made with good intentions or with no better alternatives… they still had to deal with the consequences and the weight of their actions.
Amity wasn't sure what she could say or if she should say anything at the moment, so instead she just rested her head on Luz's shoulder while holding her hand in comfort, letting her know… that they would get through this. Just like they had gotten through everything else.
And so they shared this quiet moment together. And while it did make Luz feel a bit better… the guilt was still there.
The guilt had always been there.
Elsewhere in Gravity Falls…
The lights came on in a makeshift lab, similar to the one in the mine that Amity found. But amongst all of the chemicals and other scientific equipment, there was a coat racket. Hanging on that coat racket was a costume. That costume being… of the Headless Horseman.
On the work table in the lab was a map of Gravity Falls with several locations marked on it. Next to the map was a copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. But also in the lab was a wall covered in photos. All of the photos showed various people in Gravity Falls including Mayor Cutebiker, Sheriff Blubs, Agent Spike, Agent Brown, Agent Li, Shandra Jimenez, Toby Determined, Bud Gleeful, and Priscilla Northwest.
"They will pay for hiding the truth," said a man in a lab coat as they held up a container in front of them. They placed the container on a shelf and then put a label on it. "There… this should do it…"
The man in the lab coat stepped back and looked at the container on the shelf. The label on the container read 'Truth Bomb'.
"After all… fear reveals the truth."