Chapter Text
Chapter Fifteen: All Along
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THUMP THUMP
The princess’s heart pounded as she sprinted through the fog. Only a minute had passed since she left the school, but she knew she was getting close and knew she was alone.
Leah had followed her from the school, but Star’s speed was likely too much for any human girl to keep pace with.
Still, Star didn’t bat an eye. It wasn’t Leah she was after, after all.
Marco had to be okay. Star needed him to be. She couldn’t bear the thought of him being tortured again. She couldn’t bear seeing anyone she cared about in such pain, but being as strong as she was, her enemies knew they couldn’t attack her directly.
Her strength was her curse. Time and time again, her friends and family had been targeted as a means to hurt her, and every time, she managed to save them, but there was something that felt different this time. It was all too murky.
Who could have been behind it all? Was there a monster stowed away with her in this dimension? Was there a demon? Was it all a human?
Star couldn’t decide which reality she believed the most, and in truth, she didn’t want to believe any of them, but as she thought back to the tape that Janna was wrapped in, the possibilities were narrowed considerably.
Her recollection was as foggy as the street itself, but as deep as her memories were, she recalled having seen similar magic before.
She kept her legs moving, staring at the ground before her eyes widened.
“No,” she muttered. “Not him. Not again…”
Images of Tom’s dark magic flashed through her mind. It was a lot like her own, but in every fundamental way, it was different.
It was dark, and hers was light.
It was disgusting, while hers was pure.
It was evil, while hers was just.
She remembered watching him put his power to work. She remembered how he would lose himself. She knew it was that very same magic within Janna’s restraints, and moreover, behind the scheme she found herself unraveling.
Even still, she knew she was far from uncovering the truth in its entirety, and before she could consider it any further, the Diaz house emerged from the mist.
She skidded to a stop as quickly as she could and smashed through the front door without breaking stride, three sets of eyes staring back at her in horror.
Before the door hit the floor, her eyes had darted between all that stared back at her, and just as quickly, her face lit up.
“Marco!” she screamed as she recklessly dove in his direction.
Being as quick as she was, Marco had no hope of dodging her embrace. Unfortunately, that meant he couldn’t dodge anything that came afterward either.
The teens’ bodies crashed to the ground harshly, and finally, time seemed to return to its usual pace.
“Um, hello?” Angie questioned, sipping from a steaming cup of tea as Rafael pouted beside the ruins of his front door.
Star tilted her head, having already forgotten the nature of her entrance.
“Ouch…” whined Marco, and Star quickly crawled off his chest.
He grasped at his ribs as he sat up, struggling to breathe.
“What’s with the… urgency?” questioned Angie, sipping from her cup once more as Rafael continued whining.
“I- Oh, yeah, that…” Star said, her face falling as she sighed. “There’s a- Um… there’s a demon.”
“Oh,” Angie said, nodding as if this was a normal occurrence. “A demon…”
“Wh- What? What are you talking about?” Marco questioned, finally having regained control of his lungs.
As soon as Star met his eyes, her own widened. They were still red, just as they were at the school when she was with Leah and Janna.
“Janna,” she muttered, springing to her feet and past Rafael, who was desperately trying to put his door back together.
Once again, she found herself on the sidewalk, staring into the fog to no avail.
In all of her panic, she had forgotten that she left Janna behind.
After a few seconds, Marco made his way to the empty doorway, standing in its wake with a confused expression.
“Star?” he questioned, his eyes as red as his hoodie.
She sighed, remarking, “We need to go back to school.”
He gave a quizzical expression, but as Star stared back at him, he knew she was serious.
“I- It’s Janna, Marco,” she explained, his mouth hanging agape.
Immediately, he was at her side, and just as quickly, they set off, Angie standing at the front door with a confused expression as they disappeared into the fog.
Only mere minutes after leaving the school in the first place, she was sprinting toward it again. She moved as quickly as she could, and somehow, Marco managed to keep pace where Leah couldn’t.
Neither spoke a word in the three minutes it took them to arrive at the school, but their emotions were clear in their faces and breaths.
They were terrified.
“We-” Star stammered, “We were over there.”
She gestured toward the front of the school, and despite the fog having thickened in such a short time, she found the spot where she stood.
She squinted, parsing the fog to the best of her ability. Even then, she couldn’t see her feet. The moist air curled around her, obscuring her sight in every direction.
She darted around desperately, with Marco constantly close behind her.
“Janna!” she screamed, impatiently awaiting a response, but none came.
“Star?” Marco questioned.
She ignored his call and continued her search, losing him in the fog.
“Janna!” she repeated, more desperately than before, but the only sound that followed was the whisper of the wind.
“Star,” Marco called again.
She groaned, glancing in his direction. She couldn’t see him. She couldn’t see anything.
“JANNA!” she shrieked so hard she fell to her knees.
“STAR!” Marco shouted, finding her in the fog and meeting her eyes with fear in his own.
In his shaking hands was a dark envelope inscribed with golden, cursive lettering.
“To: Princess Butterfly ” was written prominently on the back, and immediately, Star knew that her theory had been confirmed.
“Tom,” she muttered just loud enough for Marco to hear.
“Wait, Tom? Again? Why is he back?” he questioned frantically, grasping her shoulders.
“I-” Star struggled. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how-”
Her eyes widened.
She remembered something Glossaryck had told her years ago.
“The magic inside your wand is only a fraction of what exists. I’m from the magic in your wand, as are my children on the Magical High Commission, but it is a different type of Magic that the pixies possess, another that allows that Ponyhead friend of yours to live as a floating head, and a far different source that the demons in the Underworld use.”
“Their magic is still working,” she remarked, staring off into the fog before meeting Marco’s eyes.
She snatched the envelope from his hands and ripped it open without hesitation.
“To another ball, you are invited,” Star read aloud. “... but our dance will be alone.”
She met Marco’s eyes, and they both came to the same conclusion.
“Prom,” they said in unison, and Star’s eyes fell back on the letter.
“Let a familiar incandescence be your guide, and my veil will be lifted.”
Star tilted her head with confusion, then turned to Marco, who seemed equally confused. He shrugged, and as Star glanced back to the paper, she realized there was no more to read, save for a final line, reading, “Sincerely yours, A.”
“A?” she questioned. “Whose name starts with an ‘A’?”
“Alfonzo? Angie?” she questioned, Marco’s face quickly souring.
“No, Marco, I’m not saying this is them. I just- I don’t get it.”
After a few seconds, he sighed, taking the letter from Star’s hands and meeting no resistance.
Just as Star had, he scanned the letter and quickly realized there was no more to read.
He became visibly frustrated, turning his back to Star as she stared at him.
“Maybe this is from one of Tom’s demons,” she remarked, returning to her feet.
She faced Marco, but she was talking to a wall. He didn’t acknowledge her remark, and he didn’t seem receptive to hearing anymore.
“Marco,” she said, hesitantly. “Wh- What-”
“What? What’s wrong? Was that was you were gonna ask?” he snapped.
Star took a step back, holding up her hands apologetically.
“Marco, I didn’t mean-”
Marco interrupted with balled fists and a tense expression. “Everything is wrong, Star. Everything.”
“First, Jackie gets mad at me because she thinks you have feelings for me,” he started, Star’s eyes widening.
“Then- the bonfire. What even was that, by the way? Was your plan just to make everything worse? Because, if it was, you did great.”
Star tried to interject, but Marco’s fiery brown eyes subdued her.
“Oh, she broke up with me, by the way. Thanks for that.”
“She what?” Star blurted out in shock.
“Yeah, she broke up with me, and the worst part is, it wasn’t even because of what happened in the closet. It was because you’ve been chasing me around all week.”
“Did- Did she say that?” Star questioned, tumbling over her words.
“Well- No, but come on, it’s obvious. Why else would she have done it. I spent the entire last weekend apologizing for being your friend. Do you know how that felt?”
“Marco,” Star muttered, unable to get a word in.
“It doesn’t matter,” he remarked, chuckling angrily. “Clearly, that wasn’t enough, because now you’ve gone and topped it all off by getting my oldest friend kidnapped by a demon.”
“Marco, you know I didn’t-” Star tried, Marco interrupting her once more with glossy eyes.
“You didn’t what? You didn’t mean for this to happen? Is that supposed to make it all better? Because it doesn’t.”
He sobbed, grasping her shoulders with his trembling palms.
“She could be being tortured right now. S- She could be dead for all I know.”
“She’s not,” Star asserted, pushing his hands away with a stern face. “We can’t think like that.”
“Why not? There’s no way we could know that. We-”
“Don’t you think I know that?” she shot back. “Do you have any idea how terrified I was when Toffee kidnapped you? Do you know what it was like telling your parents that you were missing?”
His face softened slightly, and he stepped back, but Star couldn’t restrain herself.
“You don’t. You don’t know,” Star shouted, her words echoing through the streets as she planted her finger at the center of his chest, pushing him back slightly.
Immediately, any doubts he had vanished, his anger returning. He slammed the letter to the ground and turned away.
“I can’t do this with you right now,” he remarked, then walked into the fog.
Almost instantly, Star came back to her senses, her eyes widening. She picked up the envelope and rushed to his side.
“What are you doing?” Marco questioned, trying to walk faster.
Star sighed. “I can’t let you walk home alone, Marco. There are literally demons around.”
He shook his head. “I can defend myself,” he asserted, again picking up his pace.
Still, Star stayed at his side, and after a tense, several-minute walk, they returned to the Diaz house, where Rafael sat inside the front doorway gluing and taping the door back together.
Only then did she let Marco walk alone, and in seconds, he disappeared up the stairs.
She watched as he walked away with her heart in the depths of her chest. She sighed, her face fell, and Angie sipped the last of her tea on the couch.
“I heard you before,” she remarked. “He’ll calm down… and Janna will be okay. She’s the only girl in Echo Creek that’s anywhere near as tough as you, Star.”
Star tried to smile but couldn’t manage more than an obviously fake smirk. Still, Angie nodded, and Star finally made her way to her room, where she flopped face-first onto her bed without hesitation.
She rolled onto her back, and her eyelids felt heavy. Her head ached as her mind raced, and yet, as she let her eyes close, it gave no resistance, and in a matter of seconds, she fell asleep.
Much like the day it followed, her sleep was less than pleasurable. She woke up every other hour, but when the sun rose, she felt much better.
That was, of course, until she remembered where Janna was.
While she slept, Janna could have been hanging by her wrists. She could have been bleeding. And, worst of all, like Marco said the night before, she could have been dead.
The fact that it was even a possibility was terrible. And there was something different compared to Marco’s abduction. Marco was innocent back then, but Janna didn’t deserve what was coming to her. She wasn’t close to Star like Marco. Sure, she was a friend, even a good one, but she was…
It was unfair, but it was the burden of her strength.
After a couple minutes of lying down with her eyes open, she finally sat up, rubbed her eyes, and stretched her arms.
Very quickly, she noticed the silence surrounding her, and as she walked to the window, she realized it wasn’t just the house that was quiet.
She had to rub the window with her sleeve to believe what she saw, which was nothing. There was nothing. No people. No wind. No sound. Only fog.
It had been a week since that same mist had settled over Echo Creek, only growing thicker by the day.
It was foreboding in its own right, but ever since it appeared, Star was sure that not a single thing had gone right.
She lost Glossaryck. She was sure he was still alive, but he, as well as the magic from which he originated, were gone. So too, was her mother, Janna, and now her best friend.
She had nobody left.
Of course, she had Marco’s parents, Aflzono, Ferguson, and Leah, but what good could any of them do?
The answer was nothing. They were just humans and not special ones like Marco and Janna either.
Star’s best hope from the group was Leah, but she hadn’t seen the girl since leaving school the day before.
She wondered if Leah had been taken too, but the doorbell downstairs rang before she could think for too long.
Her eyes widened, and about five seconds later, her name echoed through the house via Angie’s voice.
She didn’t even bother changing out of her dirty clothes from the day before, dashing to her door and down the stairs in mere seconds.
Standing in the doorway beside the crudely reassembled door was Leah, whose face was bruised and cut up by what looked like claw marks.
The air left her lungs, and she nearly collapsed but managed to keep her feet under her long enough to lean on the inside of the doorway. She tried to reach out to examine Leah’s condition, but she recoiled.
“What happened?” Star begged as Marco walked down the stairs slowly behind her.
“Wh- Whatever got Janna almost got me too. I couldn’t see it in the fog, but I got away. I would’ve come here sooner, but-”
“You don’t need to explain,” Star asserted as she wrapped her arms around the girl.
Finally, Marco saw Leah’s face and rushed to Star’s side.
“Wh-” he started, but Leah quickly interrupted.
“Marco,” she shouted, surprised. She turned to Star. “You found him!”
“I- Yeah,” she said, her face falling. “...but Janna. She-”
“Oh,” Leah said. “I’m sorry.”
“No, don’t-” Star started, interrupted by Rafael as he pushed through her and Marco with a first-aid kit.
“Allow me to administer aid,” Rafael urged, cleaning the girl’s wounds as he pulled her inside, drops of blood following her path to the couch adjacent to the one Angie sat on.
Marco’s face was stunned as he met Star’s eyes. She was just as surprised but had little time to worry about him.
She followed a step behind Rafael as Leah limped to the couch and sat beside her.
Leah looked confused, almost lost even, but all she had to do was sit, and she was capable enough to do that, even with a blank face and visibly blank mind.
“Leah,” called Star, initially earning no response.
Rafael tirelessly checked every bit of exposed skin on Leah’s body for damage, almost mummifying her with bandages, and finally, Marco made his way into the room, watching Leah quizzically.
As she met his eyes, she seemed to settle back into the moment, and as Star called her name again, she finally turned her head.
“Leah?” Star questioned, exhaling with relief when Leah finally heard her. “I need you to tell me about what hurt you. I know you said you didn’t see it, but-”
“Star, I-”
“You didn’t see it at all? Not even for a second?” Marco questioned, as if doubting her story, and earned a glare from the Mewman princess.
“Marco, don’t-” Star started, cutting herself off as Leah spoke.
“I- I didn’t,” she said, a pang of pain in her voice.
Star’s throat was as tangled as her tongue, and she couldn’t manage a sound.
Marco sighed, crossed his arms, and backed away.
For several hours, nothing changed. Rafael finished bandaging Leah but lingered nearby with a first-aid kit in hand. After what happened before, neither Star nor Marco dared to question her again, instead awkwardly glancing in each others’ directions, remaining silent as the hour of the demon’s dance approached.
There was little they could do, and even what they could have done failed to be achieved. Due to the tension between them, they never spoke of a plan.
It wasn’t like this was unusual, as it was rare that Star or Marco would plan ahead of an adventure, but this was different. It wasn’t Ludo’s pushover monsters this time. It wasn’t even Toffee anymore.
This was a demon. His sole intention was to isolate Star, as evidenced by their letter. Obviously, the prince of the Underworld was behind it all, but it was uncharacteristic of the Lucitor boy to hide in the shadows for so long.
For as long as Star had known him, he had been a loose cannon who would rather kick down the front door than go through a window five feet away, even if it meant he could save himself trouble.
His silence was cruel, making every shadow seem sinister. He could pounce at any moment and hurt anyone Star cared about. For once, he was calculated, and that was terrifying.
Still, despite the trauma associated with her last dance with Tom, her next loomed just around the corner.
Once the sun finally crawled toward the horizon, it was time for the teens to embark.
Against the wishes of Rafael Diaz, Leah wouldn’t allow herself to be excluded.
That might have been for the best, as nobody in the dimension could hope to provide the same level of protection as Star, but as much as she offered, the danger she carried with her was just as plentiful.
In the end, Star was the demon’s target, and whether she liked it or not, anyone with her would be in danger.
Luckily, Marco was distant, and when the time came for Star to follow whatever “familiar incandescence” the demon referenced, she knew she would leave Leah behind.
The dance with death was for her and her alone, and by the end of the night, there was a chance that only one of them would live.
After a slow, quiet walk through the ever-thickening Echo Creek mist, the trio arrived at Echo Creek High School, and even from the farthest end of the school’s front-side concourse, the music of the dance made it to their ears.
The music was upbeat, but the air was cold, which was made worse by the fog’s moisture. What should have been, and what likely was for any other kids her age in that town, a night to remember for its fun and pleasant memories was sure to be just the opposite.
Still, as strobe lights illuminated the darkening sky, they approached.
Most years, the prom would be an event that each student would have to pay to attend, but this year, it was different. Due to the recent “incident” involving a “shooting,” the school decided that no tickets would be needed to enter.
The crowd would have been full of lively students any other year, but this year was different.
As the teens turned a corner at the side of the school, they finally saw the event in its entirety.
Knowing that so many students would attend, the school decided to move the dance to the football field, and even from outside, Star and her accomplices saw almost no gaps between students.
Echo Creek was a small town, and in turn, its primary public high school was just the same, but that night, all five hundred and nineteen students must have been at that dance.
The blaring music grew even more deafening as the teens grew near. Even as they walked through the football field’s gates, they could feel the music’s vibrations in the air, bouncing off of walls and even their bodies.
It was almost numbing, and it was enough to make it impossible to think, let alone hear each other talking without yelling in each other’s ears.
Only a few seconds after entering, Leah did just that, coming to Star’s side and screaming in her ear. “DO YOU WANT SOME PUNCH?”
Initially, Star was offended. “WHY WOULD I WANT YOU TO PUNCH ME?” she asked, genuinely confused.
Leah shook her head. “IT’S A DRINK!”
“Oh,” Star said quaintly, then nodded, too embarrassed to say no.
“MARCO, WHAT ABOUT Y-” Star began before turning to meet the back of his head.
His gaze was elsewhere, and following his eyes, she quickly found out where he was looking.
Amidst a crowd almost too thick to scrutinize was Jackie Lynn Thomas, unenthusiastically swaying with a small group of friends around her.
Marco stared, and feeling as bad as Star did, she came to his side. After a few seconds, there was a break in the music between songs.
“Go, Marco,” Star said softly.
He turned to her with watery eyes and shook his head.
“I- I can’t,” he argued, sniffling before trying to put on a resolute face. “W- We have to find Janna. That’s why we’re here.”
She sighed as the music started again, slowly building, “I know, Marco, but you need this. I’ll tell you if I find Tom.”
Before he could object, the music blasted the non-existent roof off of the football field, and Star turned away.
Even without seeing him, she could feel Marco reaching out, but as he glanced in Jackie’s direction, he found himself stuck in place, unable to follow.
Returning to where she stood before, she met Leah as the girl returned holding a single paper cup, filled nearly to the brim with a blood-red drink inside.
With a single sniff, Star determined it was chalked full of sugar and knew she would love it. She held it to her mouth, gulped it down with a single swallow, and licked her lips.
“Wow,” she remarked, “...this stuff is-”
She smacked her lips. “... sweet.”
There was a strange aftertaste, and as soon as it reached her stomach, she started to feel discomfort, but she was sure that was a product of her sugar tolerance being lower than it used to be.
So, feeling very well-hydrated, she turned back to Leah, who watched her with a smirk.
“Alright,” Star started. “We need to start looking.”
Leah nodded and waited for Star to lead.
The princess scanned the crowd, the blaring music scrambling her brain. It had been years since the Bounce Lounge had closed, but she hadn’t heard anything so loud since then, and she was sure that even the rambunctious, bodacious Bounce Lounge never blasted music as loud as Echo Creek High School did.
It was deafening, and within minutes, her head started to ache.
She was looking for a “familiar incandescence” but as strobe lights of every color pointed to the sky. Even her vision became confused.
It was nauseating, and before long, she could feel her knees growing weak beneath her.
Perhaps out of self-preservation, she turned back to the entrance, plodding toward it when Marco jogged to her side with a concerned expression.
“Oh, h- hey Marcoo,” Star said, slurring her words as she finally slipped out of the gates.
“Woah,” Marco remarked. “D- Did you have something to drink? You look… drunk.”
“I feel a lot more than drunk, Marco,” she remarked, chuckling.
Marco quirked a brow. “What do you mean? Did someone give you something? Was it Oskar? That dude always smells like booze.”
“Who’s Oskar?” Star questioned, leaning against Leah as she met Marco’s four eyes. She squinted, then only saw three. She was sure that was right.
“Leah gave me some punch, but-”
Marco’s face was deadpan. “Punch isn’t alcoholic, Star.”
He crossed his arms, less than amused when Star nearly collapsed. Leah propped her up on her shoulder, but Star was still less than stable.
Marco shook his head.
“We need to find Janna,” he asserted. “You need to snap out of it.”
“I- I know, just let me-” she struggled to find words, let alone get them out, but Marco’s patience was still scarce.
“Let’s just go,” Marco suggested, unamused. “The letter said that he’d guide you to him. At least if we’re out here, we might be able to hear him or see him.”
“Wait, ‘him’?” Leah questioned. “Who are we talking about here?”
“OHHHH,” Star blurted out, tripping over herself as she faced Leah. “We never told you about the letter, did we?”
She chuckled. Her vision was distorted, and her brain was still scrambled.
“Wellllllll, we’re pretty sure my ex-boyfriend is behind everything. He’s kind of a d-”
“Got it,” Leah interjected as if she understood, but Star knew she didn’t.
She tilted her head. “I was gonna say demon, but yeah, that too.”
“She’s not lying,” Marco remarked, walking slightly ahead of the others. “On either front…”
Star chuckled, the seriousness of the situation evading her in her drunken stupor.
“Man, you’re a mess,” Marco remarked with a sigh, scanning the teens’ surroundings as he searched for clues.
“You’ve got no idea, Diaz,” Star joked back. She tried to punch his arm but missed by several inches, her momentum carrying her to the ground in another harsh crash.
Marco turned around and scoffed, glaring in Star’s direction.
“Are you even taking this seriously? Star, Tom kidnapped Janna. If we are even a second too late, she won’t survive. You need to-”
“Me?” Star shot back, then hiccuped. “You need to caaaalm down.”
He crossed his arms. His face was visibly frustrated.
“I can’t believe you,” he remarked. “For the past week, you’ve been awful.”
“I’ve been awful? How are yyyyyyyyyyou talkin’?” Star questioned accusingly.
“I told you I needed a friend, and you weren’t there. Y-” she hiccuped. “You haven’t even talked to me since we hugged in the closet.”
“That’s because you got me in trouble with Jackie!” he shouted. He raised his arms. Disbelief was strewn about his face. He scoffed.
“All we did was-” she hiccuped again. “HUG!”
“Tell that to Jackie! She’s convinced you’re in love with me because-”
“THAT’S BECAUSE I AM, MARCO!”
His disbelief vanished but wasn’t replaced. His mouth hung open, and his arms were at his sides.
The air was tense. Their gazes remained locked even as Star nearly stumbled just standing in place.
He tried to speak but could only manage a short exhale. His body trembled.
Star hiccuped again, Leah watching intently from her side.
“Y- You’re lying,” he muttered. “You have to be lying.”
She exaggeratedly shook her head, her face filled with child-like sass.
It was only then that Marco broke eye contact, his face falling into his palm as Star bumped into Leah, who barely kept her from falling.
For several seconds, he was still. He was like a ghost in his motionlessness and silence. His skin was pale, and as the thick mist surrounded him, Star’s inebriated mind nearly convinced her that he really was a ghost.
Almost two minutes later, he finally turned away, running into the mist without a word.
“Hey!” Star shouted, offended, before finally falling onto her rear. “That was rude. He didn’t even say goodbye.”
She crossed her arms as she stared into the mist.
Mere seconds later, Leah gasped. “I- I think I saw something,” Leah shouted, and instantly, Star’s gaze snapped to where Leah pointed.
There was a treeline, which Star knew led to a forest, but it was unfamiliar, made worse by the fact that her vision was far beyond blurry.
The trees were the wrong colors, their trunks twisting unnaturally as the mist lingered between them. Leah’s face was full of genuine surprise, and even without Marco around, Star’s sense of urgency returned.
She got to her feet and followed as Leah led her inside.
Star and Leah wandered into the forest with varying degrees of confidence. Star stumbled forward with a disoriented mind, but Leah seemed perfectly calculated with every hurried step.
Star had no idea where she was going, and her drunken mind further hindered her ability to think, so when Leah confidently ran, Star followed without apprehension.
Her thoughts were scrambled but lingered on the letter Tom left behind the day before.
“...let a familiar incandescence be your guide…”
The words swam laps around her inebriated brain before finally making sense. She stopped in her tracks and let her gaze meet the cold, bright light of the moon, which shone upon her with brilliance.
It looked no different than before, except maybe larger than usual, but still, she felt odd as she stared like it was staring back at her or even speaking.
She felt it drawing her in the direction that Leah was leading her, even when she stopped to see what Star was doing.
Star didn’t explain. Instead, she slogged past Leah as the moon led her forward. Leah didn’t question her.
For a while, only the crunches of leaves and snapping of twigs beneath their feet polluted the forest’s silence, and it seemed that it only grew more silent as they approached the destination of their demonic foe.
Star’s pounding headache only seemed to worsen, as did her vision, so much so that eventually, she fell to her knees, vomiting on the ground before quickly getting back to her feet.
After that, Star felt like she could collapse at any moment but knew that in doing so, she would risk the lives of all whom she cared about.
She looked to Leah, who had grown remarkably silent by that point, her expression resolute when she met Star’s eyes.
“Leah,” she said weakly. “I’m not feeling real good. When we get there, I’m gonna need s- some help.”
Leah was silent but smiled affirmingly as the two continued forward.
Star felt safer then. Of course, Leah was only human, so her combat ability was likely to be lacking, but in Star’s pitiful state, there was little she could do and so much at stake.
The Moon’s magnetic pull had grown strong, which was as sure a sign as any that she’d reached her destination, but still, it was strangely quiet.
Demons weren’t the type to hide, let alone Tom, but as she glanced side to side, Leah was the only person around, and still, there was no other sound than that which they created.
She scanned the area with confusion. When the moon's pull finally weakened, she stood in a small gap in the forest, as good a place as any for a fight, only there was something more.
A chill ran down her spine as she noticed a ledge just a couple of feet away, her feet working without her mind’s permission and transporting her to its edge.
She glanced down, and her heart dropped.
There was nothing. No rock, no water. Just darkness.
She forced her body to step away and turned back to face Leah when she suddenly froze. She met Leah’s eyes and felt her knees wobble beneath her.
Leah smiled back at her unlike ever before, watching with predatory eyes as neither moved a muscle.
There was no sound anymore, not even crunching leaves. Only the occasional swirl of wind interrupted the perfect silence between them.
There was no one else around.
“To another ball, I am invited,” Leah began, meeting Star’s sorrowful eyes with excitement.
“But our dance will be alone,” she finished with a pang of pain in her voice.
A wave of disappointment crashed over her like a tsunami, and she couldn’t force herself to look away. The girl she called a friend, the one she brought to protect her, would be the one to try and kill her.
“So it’s been you all along?” Star rhetorically questioned.
Again, the girl smiled. “Well, yes,” she said, twirling in place.
Leah vanished before her eyes, and in her place stood a disgusting replacement.
… and no,” Jakob finished, sharing the same smug, crooked smile.
Star chuckled disingenuously, then sighed, shaking her head. She glanced at the ground, then back to Leah, who once again appeared before her.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Star questioned with an accusatory tone. “I can’t believe that Tom put you up to this.”
Immediately, the demon’s smile vanished, replaced by rage. Leah’s feet lifted from the ground, and she zipped in Star’s direction before she could raise her hands in defense, but she stopped just inches away.
“You think I would work for that worm , you presumptuous child? You haven’t even seen my true form, and yet you feel entitled to make such assumptions.”
Star didn’t dare to talk back, her brow sweating as Leah loomed over her.
The demon scoffed. “No, ‘ Tom,’ as you call him, didn’t put me up to this. My leader is much different.”
“Another demon,” Star muttered, confused.
“Yes, yes, another demon. Smart, are we, Princess?”
“B- but how? Who?” Star questioned, her eyes falling to the ground as she struggled to keep her feet under her.
“Well, I’d be pretty stupid to let that slip. Our scheme has only just begun, after all.”
Star started shifting away from the cliff’s ledge, and Leah allowed her to do so.
“It started with Toffee,” she said. She chuckled with excitement as Star’s face flushed white.
“No!” Star shouted back. “He died! I killed him!”
“Do you honestly believe that?” she asked, genuinely disappointed. “Even when he’s been in your wand this entire time?”
Star’s eyes widened, glancing at her bag with shock. Then, she remembered all the times her magic had failed her since she uttered the Whispering Spell.
She remembered when she couldn’t perform a simple spell.
She remembered when Glossaryck went limp.
She remembered when Heckapoo failed to make a portal on the first try.
Then, she remembered her mirror—all the calls that wouldn’t go through.
It was all Toffee all along.
“Such a professional, that one,” Leah remarked with admiration. “Now, me? All I did was drive you and the human boy apart, and that was easy.”
Her smile returned as her feet returned to the ground.
“Imagine my master’s face when I tell him that I managed to kill you. Then, I’ll be his favorite for sure.”
She chuckled, then zipped in Star’s direction, her fist cracking against Star’s jaw before she could even blink.
Star fell to the ground but quickly returned to her feet, barely stumbling under Leah’s next attack in a drunken dive.
“I, Alter, the Deceiver, will be the one who kills the heir to the Butterfly throne. I will be the hero of my people!”
Once again, Star remembered the letter. She found it odd that it was signed ‘- A’ but never imagined what that might have entailed.
Again, Alter dashed in Star’s direction, and Star tried to duck, but the demon saw that coming.
Switching to Jakob’s form mid-air, they slammed their fist against Star’s forehead, then swung a kick to the back of her head.
She dodged neither attack but swiftly rolled back to her feet, the taste of blood replacing vomit in her mouth. She spat, and the grass was speckled crimson.
Again, Alter chuckled.
“You even let me poison you.”
Star grumbled, and as Alter swooped down at her, she was ready.
She saw Alter aiming low, and with all the strength remaining in her legs, she lept over the demon’s fist. Then, knowing they would attack again, she dodged to the side, giving herself just enough time to land a crudely aimed punch at Alter’s liver.
The demon winced in pain but only seemed angrier than before. They cracked their knuckles with balled fists as Star did the same with her neck, blood dribbling from her chin as she panted.
Alter once again smiled, and Star’s eyes narrowed.
She was clumsy, and whatever Alter put in her drink affected her even more than before.
She felt weak. Alter wasn’t all that strong, but in this battle, it was like Star fighting one of Ludo’s monsters, only this time, she was on the receiving end of the beating.
She screamed, sprinting at the demon with Johansen rage. Her strikes lacked precision, but even in her drunken state, they were too quick for Alter to consistently dodge.
A hit to the side, the chest, the head, and finally, Alter had enough.
Changing back to their female form, Leah stared back at her angrily.
“Got any more tricks?” the demon asked, frustrated yet smiling.
She didn’t. She couldn’t use her magic and could only go on fighting a short while longer. Her lack of a response was one in its own right, and Alter seemed pleased.
“You’re making this too easy, Princess. Surely you won’t-”
The leaves behind Star started to rustle, and her and Alter’s gaze snapped in that direction, Alter’s eyes widening as a figure emerged.
Star’s eyes were useless to her now, but the blurs of colors were enough to tell her that it was Marco standing before her.
Alter groaned. “You’re not supposed to be here, but it doesn’t matter. You can die too, I don’t mind.”
“Hey, Star, do you mind explaining?” Marco questioned. His panic from before seemed to have vanished.
Star fell to the ground, barely able to keep her eyes open, and Marco turned back to Alter, who changed forms once more.
Marco made eye contact with Jakob, then shook his head. He had all the explanation he needed.
“Alright then, come at me,” Marco remarked, lowering into his usual defensive karate stance.
Alter zipped toward him faster than he expected, but he still easily dodged to the side, landing a calculated counter to the back of Jakob’s head, which Alter grasped as they turned around.
“One of those, are you?” Alter mocked, smiling. “Unfortunately for you, you punch like a girl.”
Marco didn’t talk back.
Again, Alter swooped down, Marco dodging to the side, but this time, when he tried to counter, Alter did the same.
Alter dodged beneath Marco’s attack, then threw another at his chest.
Marco deflected the strike but again failed to land his own, as Alter flew between his legs in Leah’s body, then kicked his back hard, thrusting him forward.
He somersaulted back to his feet, but Alter’s foot was ready to meet him when he turned around, crashing against his jaw and sending him reeling.
He grasped at his jaw as he returned to his feet but was visibly unsteady as he met Leah’s eyes.
Beside him, Star whined. The poison she injected was too much to bear.
“d… d….” A faint voice echoed in her mind as she watched Marco ready himself for another attack.
Alter sprung forward, thrusting their fist toward his temple.
He moved to deflect the blow, but it was a deception.
Alter followed through with the motion of their arm, giving them strong momentum for a kick, which Marco was too slow to dodge.
Again, Marco fell.
“... down, Star!” The voice continued to call to her, but its message was unclear. She tried to push off the ground but couldn’t find the strength.
“Enough of this, boy. It’s time our dance concluded,” Alter taunted.
Marco quirked a brow with confusion, but before he could think of what Alter meant, they zipped toward him, tackling him at his waist and launching him off the cliff’s edge.
“Dip down, Star!” The voice practically screamed.
“Marco!”
Star summoned the strength to get to her feet and dove after him without hesitation, quickly realizing it was Glossarck’s voice in her head.
She tried desperately to heed his words, but no matter how far she dipped, there wasn’t enough magic for a single spell.
Still, she wrapped her arms around Marco, her vision blurred and her head pounding.
“DEEPER!” Glossarck screamed, darkness surrounding the teens as they plummeted.
Star had never dipped further than the magical realm but obliged out of necessity.
Suddenly, her vision became unclouded, as did her mind, the effects of the poison seeming to have nullified.
She felt strength surging through her body. It was magic, but nothing like her own.
It was dirty and tainted. It was violent and hateful. It was demon magic.
Star squeezed Marco tightly and screamed with fury.
She felt their momentum swiftly cease, then continue in the opposite direction, Alter watching with horror as they ascended, Star’s wings flapping vigorously.
In seconds, their feet returned to the ledge, Alter backing away with fear as Star wiped the blood from her mouth as Marco stood beside her.
She balled her fists and glared at the demon but felt the cursed magic fade.
Still, she maintained her hateful expression, deceiving the demon who deceived her.
Alter shook their head vigorously with denial, their body trembling as Star slowly approached.
“Damn you,” the demon remarked, and in an instant, they zipped into the forest.
Star maintained her resolute expression for as long as she could in case the demon changed its mind, but she couldn’t last longer than a couple seconds.
She exhaled, and all bravery left her. She turned to Marco, unable to summon a word, and to her surprise, he pulled her into his arms.
She didn’t resist for a second, reveling in his warmth as the chill of the night bit at her from every other direction.
She squeezed her eyes closed for several seconds and upon reopening them, discovered that the world around her was no longer shrouded by mist.
Noticing the same thing, Marco peeled away.
“Let a familiar incandescence be your guide,” they said in unison, each smiling wide. “...and my veil will be lifted!”
Star wrapped her arms around Marco once more. She was joyful despite her pain, but Marco lightly pushed her away, grasping her by her shoulders.
She met his eyes with surprise, but he harbored no ill-will.
“Star, Janna’s okay!” he exclaimed. “I was at the front of the school, and she tackled me! I mean she’s a little beaten up, but she’s alive!”
“That’s amazing!” Star shouted back before her eyes widened once more.
She remembered when Leah showed up at the Diaz house only hours before. She remembered the wounds all over the girl’s body—the scratches, the bruises, and the blood.
It was all Janna.
Before she knew it, Marco had led her away, the distant blaring of the Prom’s music drawing them toward the school.
They emerged from the forest exactly where she and Leah had entered, and immediately, their eyes landed on a waiting Janna, whose mouth and limbs were still tied.
Having regained motor function, Star sprinted to Janna and squeezed her tight. Janna whined, but with her mouth covered, she still couldn’t object.
As she set Janna down, a loud rip pierced the air, her and Janna’s eyes snapping to Janna’s feet as her tape fell to the ground.
“MMMMMMMMMMM!” she whined, holding out her hands.
Star eagerly grasped at Janna’s restraints, ripping them away and falling to the ground for the billionth time.
Marco finally reached the two as Janna stared at her newly freed hands, and as Star got back to her feet, Janna’s face filled with anger.
Without warning, Janna’s fist crashed against Star’s stomach, knocking the wind out of her lungs in a single blow.
Finally, she ripped the tape off her mouth, seeming no less angry.
“That was for leaving me behind yesterday. You know I tried to tell you something was wrong with Leah at the bonfire, but you didn’t believe me.”
Star tried to argue but still couldn’t catch her breath.
Janna knelt and helped her to her feet, finally returning Star’s hug as she gasped for air.
“Still, since you’re here, you must’ve beat it.”
“Mmhmm,” Star said, finally managing to inhale. “I totally didn’t almost lose either.”
“Nope, it wasn’t even close,” Marco added, smiling. Janna wasn’t stupid.
“I can’t blame you guys,” she remarked. “I only got away because I surprised her. I don’t know why she stopped chasing me. I couldn’t really run with my legs all taped up.”
“She must’ve realized she could use all those scratches you gave her on Star,” Marco explained. “She was really just a demon this whole time. I can’t believe it.”
Star sighed, having regained her composure.
“Me neither,” she remarked. Marco and Janna watched her with sorrowful expressions.
“Hey, she was a demon,” Janna remarked after a few seconds. “Don’t beat yourself up.”
Star met her eyes, but her words had little effect.
“Janna’s right,” Marco affirmed, despite never imagining he would utter such words.
Star felt no better than before, but Marco still smiled as he met Star’s eyes.
“I have an idea,” he remarked, lifting his hand between the girls.
Star would have taken it without hesitation just a week ago, but at that moment, she just stared, confused.
“From now on, we won’t let anyone get between us. We won’t let anyone pit us against each other and won’t fall for any more lies.”
Neither Star nor Janna moved an inch, but Marco’s heart was behind his words. So, he didn’t back down.
“We will never take someone else’s word over each other’s. No matter what happens. We will have each other.”
Star met Marco’s eyes with a smile, but Janna just snickered.
“Cheesy as ever, Marco,” she remarked.
Marco smiled, keeping contact with Star’s eyes as he replied. “Annoying as ever, Janna.”
Her eyes still locked with Marco’s, she placed her hand on his.
“I like the sound of that,” she said.
Her eyes lingered on Marco’s for several seconds, then they both turned to Janna, whose arms were crossed and whose face was unamused.
“We couldn’t have made this arrangement sooner? You know, before the demon kidnapped me?”
She earned no response, and after a few seconds, she smiled, chuckled, and placed her hand on top of the others.
“Deal.”