The blood soaked black fields under the even more crimson sky, without a sun or a moon to illuminate it, were all that was left of the once beautiful green and luscious scenery with it’s flowers and animals and freshly trimmed grass. The forests towering trees were now nothing more than charred stilts hanging in the distance, some still burning (even parts of the field were burning), the sound of the ember chipping away at the wood (or the grass and other plants) was the only sound present other than faint and slow footsteps from a single figure that’d seemed to have survived the onslaught of swords clashing, arrows whizzing and magic bolting. And the kingdom: the castle; now a barren wasteland, littered with all sorts of bodies everywhere, friend and foe, young and old, human and not. Once it was a beacon of hope that people looked up too and relied upon for protection; that erected up into the sky standing tall and proud. Now it was just a desolate mess of crystal, glass, stone and tiles that looked like it’d been stepped on by a giant…Mooney was gone. Death was all that was left. The bad guys had finally won after a long and stressful battle, but at a horrible price. The field was blood soaked for a reason. It’d be a surprise if anyone was still alive.
However, she trudged on, dragging her feet behind her as a bear drags it’s claws, and with the pair of dimensional scissors clenched tightly in her hand. She was dazed and confused and was seeing things that no 14 year old girl should see whilst unwillingly smelling the cold rotting meat of mixed soldiers lying by her feet that replaced the usual spring time air. But she didn’t care. She didn’t care that her home was gone, she didn’t care that her parents and that everyone she’d grown up with might be dead, hurt or missing, she didn’t care that her wand was gone and now probably in the enemies hands, maybe even being the cause of their victory. No!…The only thing she cared about was him. The one who’d carried her to the rock to hide her from view when she couldn’t walk herself, the one who’d gently pulled the arrow out her back, but quickly put his hand to her mouth to stop her from screaming, the one who’d ripped off his own hoodie sleeve and wrapped it around her to act as a bandage, that she still had wrapped around her waist stopping the bleeding that was no longer there, it’s red colours of it’s material blending into her green dress. He was also the one who’d told her to stay and rest as he put her down softly on the ground.
She stopped walking and stared at the floor as she dipped back into her memories, her most recent memories, the most recent ones with him in it. Her loud overworking breath created mist in the cold air. She already knew it was cold, but had only just realised how aching her legs were after only 17 meters of dawdling. Her whole body was tired so stopping was good for her, but her mind wouldn’t stop. Her memories of him came flooding back to her.
“But I can fight.” She’d protested as she sat up against the rock, with him kneeling in front of her. She acted like she wasn’t hurt, but he’d seen right through it. She hadn’t been in a situation that was anything like this before, had never experienced pain like this before, but she still wouldn’t allow him to just walk out there under any circumstance.
“No you can’t!” He’d argued assertively, taking command of the predicament as best as he could. He had similar thoughts and concerns towards her going through his mind. “Just stay here and I’ll come back, okay?” He’d added reassuringly, placing a hand on her shoulder. It was difficult to hear what anyone was saying over the battle raging on a few meters away, but the two managed. It was by some miracle that nothing saw them, though most that could were ‘distracted’.
She didn’t answer his question. She just stared up at him like a puppy when it sees a human for the first time.
“Star?” He asked, wanting an answer. His brown eyes never broke her blue ones.
“You…promise you’ll come back?” She counter asked. She wrapped her arms around the arm of his that was connected to her shoulder like her life depended on it. She didn’t want him to leave her, but everything she said was going in one ear and out the other. She didn’t even know why he was even leaving, but he was. He inevitably was going to leave her alone by this rock and she wanted anything but that.
“I always do.” He answered, smiling sweetly. He could see the distress in her face so he had to do something to calm her down. He couldn’t have her follow her.
Star offered a weak smile back to him before he brushed some loose hair out her face and passionately kissed her forehead. She blushed. Then he left her, not taking his eyes away until he couldn’t see her, as she did with him. And Star fell asleep shortly after. No matter how wide she kept her eyes, she still fell asleep.
Waking up to see what the world had become wasn’t expected, but waking up to see he wasn’t there was worse. She quickly climbed up to her feet and peeked over the roof of the rock, ignoring the pain in her back and the head rush. She just stared at what befell her with wide eyes and an even wider jaw.
Now she was here.
“MARCO?!” She called, cupping her mouth with her hands. She’d managed to muster up enough strength to speak with her dehydrated voice. How long had she’d been asleep for?
No answer.
“MARCO?!” She tried again. Nothing would hear her so there was no longer a point to keeping quiet and hiding like a mouse in a hole.
No answer.
“MARCO?!” Third time’s the charm right. Right?!
No answer.
Star felt depression take over her as her arms dropped by her side and hang there lifelessly. She wanted to cry, but couldn’t, not yet…She dreaded towards where his small, but recognizable frame was lying. He looked so peaceful like he was just sleeping. There were bruises and cuts over his face and one of his arms. His clothes looked torn and a lot darker than usual. Star ignores and dropped to her knees beside him and looked at him.
“Hey, Marco.” She greeted eagerly, smiling to him as he’d done to her. She grabbed one of his shoulders and gently shook it. “Hey. You…you didn’t come back so I went looking for you. And I found you. Isn’t that great?” She stopped to sniff as the flem in her nose tried to free itself from it’s prison. “I’ve…I’ve got a pair of dimensional scissors so we can l-leave.” A single tear slid down her face as her happy and hyperactive personality shattered itself. “Would you like that? To…to…to go home. We can just…s-sit on the couch, for the rest of the day, and…forg-forget about this. Yeah?” She croaked to him, nodding as if answering her own question.
No answer.
She couldn’t take it anymore. “Marco, please!…Please don’t leave me.” She pathetically moaned as her bottled up emotions came crashing down on her. She dropped the scissors and put both hands on his chest and violently shook him in an attempt to wake him up, ignoring how sticky and damp it was from all the blood soaked up in it. “MARCO!” She screamed at him after a few seconds of shaking. It looked like she was trying to reanimate a dead body; because that’s exactly what she was trying to do.
No answer.
She collapsed her head onto him and wailed into his hoodie, because it being soaked in his blood wasn’t enough. It needed fresh tears from the girl that loved him mixed in.
“PLE-A-A-ASE! I…I can’t do this without you…Oh God, please don’t go Marco, don’t go!” She begged.
No answer.
She picked up his limp body and cried profusely into his shoulder. Hoping he’d suddenly wake up and hug her back, kiss her, love her, comfort her. Be Marco to her. The only thing she got was blood dyeing into her own clothes. She ignored it.
“I…I love you, Marco.” She whimpered. “I just…wa-want you to know that, okay.”
No more words were spoken after that. Star’s wounded screams of desperation overtook the sound of burning.
She eventually stopped and just stared at his jerked back head. She gently laid Marco back down on the ground in a more comfortable position than what he had prior. She did as best as she could with her shaking hands, but was happy with her work.
“I’m sorry, Marco.” She muttered, leaning in to kiss his cheek. It burned red so some part of him was still alive. Star then reached down at picked up the scissors. She admired the clean and shiny blade of them, knowing exactly what to do. She calmly laid it upon her wrist, looking at him as she did it. “I’m so sorry.”…Then she slit it.
Star suddenly awoke early in the next morning, screaming her lungs out and in a cold sweat from the horrific nightmare she’d just experienced.
The additional sound of her fancy bedroom door shooting open added to her fear even more causing her yelp.
“You okay?” Concerningly asked Marco. “Cause you just shattered glass downstairs downstairs.” He then joked, smiling,
No answer.
“Star?” He asked. “Are you oka-?” He began.
“No.” She interrupted like a child, coming close to crying her already wet face. She’d been crying in her sleep as well as muttering that, thankfully, he’d heard neither of.
Marco bounded over to her to comfort her. It wasn’t that early as he was dressed, but it was still relatively dark. Star also bounded, but out of her bed and onto him when he was close enough in her teal nightgown. Marco was taken back by the sudden act of affection.
“Uhhhhh…okay.” He said, confused. He hesitantly returned her embrace. “Eugh, you’re all sweaty.” He said, shaking his hand when it came into contact with her back.
“You’ll never leave me, right?” She suddenly asked him, gently pushing away and looking into his eyes.
“Well, I’m not the magical princess from another dimension so…no, I probably won’t.” He answered in the most positive way he could. He didn’t know what was going on, but Star needed comfort.
“Good.” Star replied, hugging him far more tightly.
“Glad I could help.” He gasped, struggling for air and as his spine probably broke.
You already do help. Star thought to herself.
On cue, the sun fully rose up and over the town, casting it’s warm light through the window and on the two.
Today was going to be a good one.