Star Child

Chapter XI: Fading

"Oh jeepers," exclaimed Celine in an almost violent manner, jumping back and attempting to run back. The two murderers had opened the cage (the male was holding a glowing key), and were seemingly preparing to leave. But the two in the cage of sapphire had noticed her, each grabbing a side of her and pulling her into the cage with them. "Holy macaroni," She was trying her best to not swear, but it made her slightly menacing vampiric look become a little bit silly.

"Why the hell did you lock us up?" exclaimed the girl in fierce growl of a voice, scaring Celine slightly. Trying to escape, the male let go, but the female held on and slammed Celine harshly against the dark, dusty floor.

"I- I didn't!"

"Liar!" the female then brought her fist onto Celine's stomach, forcing the wind out of her. Standing her up, the male seemed genuinely worried, while the female had a terrifying bloodlust for Celine, it seemed.

"Selena," spoke the male in a meek voice. "This won't help anything. Nicolas is dead; don't bring the body count up, please!" This didn't change Selena's mind at all; instead, it made her bloodlust grow slightly.

"Go fuck yourself with a cactus!" Selena yelled angrily at Celine.

Out of the corner of her eye, Celine saw the Star Child shimmering slightly while watching. She hyper-extended her arm to reach for the image of the mythical being, but could not reach. She could never reach.

"Please... Star Child... help..." whispered Celine as Selena threw her to the ground. Celine's conscious fading, she could barely see through the blurriness that Selena and the male looked at each other and spoke in whispers about what Celine had said.

And then everything faded.

***

"Star Child..." Whispered Selena incredulously, staring at the area where the vampire girl had been looking before she was knocked unconscious. "Well shit." Sniffling slightly, Selena looked back down at her creation, or destruction. Some would say those two words were synonyms.

"Nicolas," Theo responded to the general populous of a recovering Selena and a comatose Celine. "The star child... I guess it makes sense, doesn't it?" Selena had no clue what the heckie he was talking about, but he must have agreed with Selena about the vampire girl's reference to Nicolas.

"But he's dead," Selena whispered back, cautious of waking the sleeping princess. Walking carefully over to Theo, they stared at the lying body of the princess, and then out into the sapphire caverns. The blue shone like glimmering neon lights on teenage rebels, and they stared numbly, beginning to walk into the cavern.

"I don't know," Theo responded without looking at Selena. "There are stranger things in this world." He slid his mask out of his bag and placed it over his face, and then dug around in his bag and found a small green elixir, handing it to Selena.

"What's this for?" She asked as the crossed a thin, long bridge extending across the cavern and above the darkness. On the label read "Spin Sisters' Disguising Serum; Don't Be Yourself!" Rolling her eyes, Selena turned the card over and stared at the eye-symbol on the back, which was half green and half blue. "I've seen this before." She whispered into the darkness, though Theo didn't hear here.

"It's for you, to disguise yourself. We need to get out of here, and I think... I guess..." He trailed off with his uncertain and nervous tone, and focused on heading to the door, numb and tired, leaving the vampire princess behind in the cell. Selena popped the cork and chugged the whole thing; it tasted like a vial of grain alcohol, so she began to gag for a solid two minutes.

"God damn it!" She shrieked into the cavern. "What is in this, lighter fluid?!"

"Close," whispered Theo factually. "Ammonia, Will o' the Wisp blood, mercury, skin flakes from multiple humans, and multiple more, undiscovered acids and bases." Selena, through her choking, tried to point out that she would die if she were to drink it, which she did, so that's fun. "You won't die; you'll just appear different for a few hours while we sneak out of the Ashlands. Or maybe you'll die... who knows, honestly." Selena collapsed on the floor and looked up at Theo with starlight eyes twinkling in the dazzling azure caverns.

A thick fog exited her mouth, a light green cloud encompassing her face and body; as it cleared it looked as though she were a cubist painting; her proportions were switched to everyone's eye so that she wouldn't look human, or recognizable. It was impossible to focus on any definitive features.

"You look great," Theo laughed lightly.

"Shut up."

***

Nicolas found himself unable to focus on a single thought much; all of his conscious thoughts seemed to fade in and out like the casualty of an Aeolian harp strumming in the wind. In the blurry reality that he faced, he could see just the vague outlines of his friends exiting the caverns and into the maze of early jail cells.

Two other figures were following them also, though one was clearer; la Catrina was watching them from a distance, appearing and disappearing like a Cheshire cat, appearing around every corner. As Theo and Selena sped up, the other figure following them sped up as well, but they seemed more like a shadow than anything. The figure was watching them carefully, with a mother-like glare. At first, Nicolas thought it might be the vampire princess, but he realized that the figure wasn't all there.

And after a while, Nicolas faded into his own subconscious.

***

When Celine awoke in the dank cell, she groggily pulled herself up and through the caverns, following the trail of essence left by the two who had assaulted her. But she felt sorry, because she didn't mean any harm to them, or to be rude in any way at all. She guessed that they were showing her their real colors with the attack; they really were the murderers.

But she didn't want to be rude, so she erased those thoughts from her head, and instead replaced them with the hopes of the masquerade that her mother... the queen, was throwing her and her brother for their birthday. Celine, though she didn't know any of the guests, was hopeful that they would treat her nicely and not ignore her as years before.

She was excited for her brother though; he was a benevolent kind of person, and though Celine was a dreamer and he was a realist, they did care for each other.

Slowly making her way back into the castle, Celine found her way into Sol's room while he was finishing getting ready for the party. He turned as she approached and gasped slightly at the bruises and dust.

"What- what happened?!" Sol asked in an alarmed expression, though through a swift motion Celine notified him that she didn't want to speak about it. She knew what would happen if she told the whole story; she should just let the murderers go. Sol nodded and Noel, who was waiting patiently in the corner, joined Celine and they walked back into the hall. "Her wounds need to be addressed immediately," Sol whispered, possibly to himself, but he was distracted easily, and went back to his room.

Walking through the enchanting hall, they reached Celine's room at the other end.

"Thank you, Noel," whispered Celine meekly, and Noel just smiled kindly and nodded, his tentacle tattoos shifting silently, their eyes watching the entirety of the room. Celine wondered where he got tattoos of that nature, but no one had ever asked.

"What are you going to wear, Madame Celine?" Noel's red eyes twinkled in the synthetic light of the chandelier. Smiling, Celine turned and shrugged, following him to the closet and chose a frilly dress that came just above the knee, a small tiara with bows on the end, and a vest with a white bow tie to go over.

Asking Noel to leave while she got ready and changed, the moment that Noel left Celine let out a slight whimper and felt tears sliding slowly down her face. Her originally stricken demeanor had faded into the lavender, bubbly water. Celine got into the bath while still crying softly, and let the bubbles consume her body after having taken care of the previous garments.

And she sighed softly through her slight tears.