Hopkins
Jacob Hopkins was no fool. This town was weird, it was why he moved here at all. Gravesfield had a history of witch hunts, not trials, hunts. These hunts are part of what attracted him. Did he think witches were a threat? Yes of course, but more in the way sharks or asteroids were, not in the way a serial killer was. For a while he’d idolized the Wittebane brothers.
Caleb Wittebane clearly understood witches to a degree no one else in history did. If Jacob could talk to him maybe he’d finally understand the purpose of the time machine. Honestly, the thing he wanted to know more was why teeth? Hopkins ignored the fact that most of these theories had no basis in reality at all.
Philip Wittebane though was a witch hunting hero. He reportedly killed dozens of them. If anything Philip should be Jacob’s hero but the problem was Jacob shared most people’s view of witch hunts. They mostly targeted innocent, most of Philip’s victims were unproven witches and there were no bodies to check.
Finding that demon had been an incredible boon. He’d had proof! No one could deny him anymore. He had video proof, the government actually looked at his email (Well, the government goons that showed up a few months later had to be related) and he’d had a specimen! Then that woman got in the way.
Who did she think she was? He had proof! He had everything, he was going to save the world. He was going to save them all and she just treated him like he was the bad guy. Him, the bad guy, not the snake demon who’d replaced her daughter! If only CPS hadn’t blacklisted him, wherever the real Luz was she needed help, a parent who cared. So he was left spying and trying to get at the demon, it didn’t work out.
But then, a few weeks after he encountered and began documenting the demon Luz showed back up. This time she brought witch’s, four of them. He finally had a chance, a real one that that woman couldn’t ruin. There was a fifth kid, which meant one of them was the original demon.
Much to his chagrin, no one took him seriously still. Oh Camila Noceda suddenly has five extra kids? Nothing odd there at all. Not noteworthy at all. It was like this town was full of idiots or something. Even when he pulled that kids' headphones off and showed everyone he got arrested. Of course no one charged him with anything, Camila said the kid, Gus, wasn’t interested in doing so and no one saw the kid after that day.
The thing that made Jacob suspicious was that it was always that Vee kid answering the door. A little spying and he was certain, there was only one person in that house, the demon. This was perfect, a second chance at the demon that would solve it all! Getting in was easy, the teenage hobby of lockpicking coming in handy. It was once he was inside that there was a problem.
“Hopkins.” He turned to see the girl, her eyes the same as the demon snakes. “Why did I see this coming?”
“You!” He quickly fumbled to grab some of the stuff he’d prepared. “I’m here to deal with you! And prove everyone wrong!”
“Oh no, sage.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m tired and want to go to bed, just go home.”
"Not until I stop-"
"Stop what?" Shae said, anger bleeding through. "A teenaged escaped experiment from living in peace? I don't have any plans! Witch's don't have any plans."
"Yeah okay." He scoffed. "And the kidnappings?"
"Did you consider literally anything else?” She said, he simply stared. “Gah! I eat magic! I might be an apex predator but humans literally don’t have the nutrients I need to survive.”
“And witches?” He said, still suspicious.
“Couple hundred, maybe thousand years ago, yeah, but it turns out human meat is mildly toxic so… no.” She answered, eyes narrowed.
“So they used to!” He brightened at that “Ah ha!”
“Well, so did humans.” Jacob paused at that. “Lenny talks about it all the time. Cannibalistic cultures weren’t rare. Nevermind that the name ‘witch hunter’ at one point meant the same thing as ‘deer hunter’.”
“Really?” She nodded as Jacob settled. “Huh.”
“Yeah. I don’t really like thinking about it.” She shrugged, Jacob could get that, he also didn’t want to think about it.
“And the time machine?”
“Powered by teeth?” He nodded and she sighed. “Look dude, witch teeth would have more power. Sure time pools exist but there’s no way to reliably time travel.”
“Time pools?” He ignored the whispered curse she uttered at that. “So witches can time travel!”
“I mean, sure but time pools require boiling sea water and limestone and titans blood.” She was panicking slightly, trying to explain it away. “And there’s no titan’s anymore so it can’t happen.”
Jacob narrowed his eyes, still suspicious.
“Okay, leave.” He didn’t move. “I’ll call the police.”
Jacob, wisely, left at that. Vee rolled her eyes and went to bed. It was a nothing conversation that she’d forget in the morning. Jacob left her alone after that and Vee was thankful. Her family was still gone for days but eventually she was woken but a burst of magic from the woods. She nearly slammed into Camila in her rush to go meet them.
“Mom!” She said hugging the woman.
“Oh Vee.” Camila said, hugging her second daughter. “I’m sorry we took so long.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d see you again.” Vee admitted. “But what you were doing was important.”
“Oh I’m so sorry mija.” Camila said, hugging her tighter.
“Ack! King!” Vee leaned aside to see Luz, or what she thought was Luz. The girl was far from human. “Careful with the hair.”
“Sorry!” The little demon said, peaking out of Luz’s thick fuzzy mane of hair. “You're just so soft!”
“Luz?” Vee said, staring at the girl. She was clearly some kind of demon now but there were still distinct human elements, The face for one… Mostly the face… Only the face… part of the face?
“Oh hey!” Luz said. “So I’m part titan now.”
“Oh. That’s great! So you can do magic normally now?” Luz demonstrated and Vee celebrated with her. It was only hours later that VVee considered this development and a previous conversation that it hit her.
“Oh shit.”