A Tad Unhinged

Chapter 9: Calm

Star (Still)

"You're going to do it?" Eclipsa says.
I nod. "I don't have a choice. I gotta." I stare at her pink eyes as they thin with a smirk. I clear my throat, shaking my head and ask, "And if I'm wrong-"
"-You're not." Eclipsa smiles.
"Okay but let's say I am." I sigh. "Nothing will happen to Jackie?"
"Nothing at all, sweet pea." She stands up, an umbrella in her hand.
"And if she is?"
"Well would you like to find out?" Eclipsa struts next to me. I hold up my hand to slow her down, maybe ask her some questions but instead she just grabs it and opens her umbrella with such panache the whole room changes to a wide open grey room.
"Lovely." I mumble. The place was covered in a mist and seemed to go on forever. I wish my dreams were more fancy, gotta be honest.
"Well then, Peaches." I spin around to see Eclipsa moving her umbrella from in front of her to her shoulder, Jackie appearing under her arm.
"Is that-?" I narrow my eyes to see her more clearly, there's something in the way. I feel like I need contacts or something. 
"Jackie Lucifer-Thomas?" Eclipsa mocks, snickering. "Heavens no, child."
"Then who-" I rub my eyes and take a step forward. It looks like Jackie, but somethings missing-
"This is just some figment of our imagination." A small chortle leaves her lips. "Just a practice dummy."
"Um..." I feel my wand appear in my hand. I glance at it, then peer up to Eclipsa and fake-Jackie. I mean the real Jackie was a fake and a dummy... this was just creepy though.
"Try it out." Eclipsa rushes over to me. "Try out the spell."
"Um..." I fumble my wand into my hand. "Are there any motions or-"
"No. Whatever's comfortable."
"Oh um..." She lays a hand on my shoulder while I hold the wand out with two hands. I stare at the emotionless, hard to see Jackie and my heart begins to waver. Maybe I should just pull Marco out of it and let her be. Maybe I'll just scare her. She seems reasonable I mean, she's Jackie, the chill one.
"C'mon Star." Eclipsa coaxes as her grip on my shoulder tighter.
"I um... Okay then." I clear my throat and adjust my feet. I repeat that a few times before Eclipsa tape her finger on my shoulder impatiently. "Uh Na... Uh N-Na Serina Katastrepsoun."
A beam of a deep blue with silver sparks shoots out of my wand and shines on top of her like a spot light. No screaming. No pain one second she was there, the next she wasn't.
And I gotta tell you, it felt awesome.
It's an indescribably rush, close to having your first kiss but more adrenaline. Like being on a roller coaster, but this felt more special. It was like having your first kiss at the top of a roller coaster that has a hundred-and-two foot straight down drop that you might not survive while a fire juggler is behind you who suddenly turns into a dragon and carries the two of you off to a magical land where you face great evil.
Something like that.
I was still for a while, everything out of focus. I could feel the wand in my hand almost humming with power, my hands and arms tingling. There was something new about this magic, but it felt perfect. Like all the magic prior had been wrong. This fit like the last puzzle piece, the feeling similar to watching someone scoop a perfect, smooth scoop of ice cream. My hair felt brighter, my eyes bluer and I knew, in a calm sense that I would destroy Jackie and she would never hurt anyone again. It wasn't scary or dangerous, just calm. Just a calm sense that whatever I needed to do, I'd do it. No questions asked. Anything I needed, anything that got in my way would be gone.
I could do it easily. And it would be awesome.

Marco

I couldn't really sleep that night. I sorta just stared at my ceiling, thoughts rolling through my head. Star was acting weird and I knew it. I've known it. And I, for some reason, thought it be smart to ignore it. Then when I give up and try to help, I joke about it.
Fucking hell.
I keep telling myself to get up and talk to Star but my muscles won't go. They cry with "she's asleep" or "its too soon" and even "she said she was fine" okay but I know she's not fine and you made me act like she was and now she's not fine so how about that, huh!? How dare you try to convince me she's fine when I know she's not!
I let out an audible scream, which I throw my hands over my mouth in fear my parents would storm in and ask what was wrong. They hadn't noticed Star. They hadn't been around much.
I felt torn, my head was telling me to relax, that I'd be okay and I shouldn't stress. I shouldn't let all those bad emotions back in. And I didn't want to. But way back in the corner of my brain, something was sliding through the cracks.
Paranoia. Stress. Guilt. They were slowly coming back, everything Toffee made me feel so intensely and then pulled away just as fast.
"I'm getting up." I say to myself. But I don't listen. I just keep staring at the ceiling, my thoughts toggling through my head.
Then I hear a scream.
My muscles moves before my brain could will me back into bed and I fling myself out my door and into Star's room in nothing flat.
"Star!?" I flick on the light to an empty room. My heart his my throat. "STAR!?" I run to her bed and throw away the pile of blankets to nothing. My breathing deepens as I reach the closet. Nothing. My heart clenches. No Star's okay don't feel sad. Don't feel guilty.
Don't feel scared. Never feel scared again.
Taking a deep breath in, I climb her stairs. Zilch. I jump off the landing, onto the wood floor and i can feel my ankle twist.
"SHIT!" I yell. I run to the door and jump down half the stairs, crying in pain. I fall the last few, my ankle giving out a little. Fucking hell if Toffee was here a fucking ankle wouldn't slow me down.
SHIT.
"STAR!?" I scream, tears in my eyes.
"Marco?" My mom calls from upstairs. "You okay?"
"Yeah." I yell as I run into the kitchen and take a lap around the island.
"You sure?" She calls as I knock over a pan. "It doesn't sound like it."
"Sorry I'll be quieter." I say as I open the back door.
"Open: back door" the speaker announces.
"Bloody hell." I mumble as my mom comes down the stairs. She turns on the light to see me hobbled on one foot in front of the door.
"Marco Ubaldo Diaz." She says in a mom voice. "Where are you going?"
Okay now came a very important moment in my life. Should I tell her Star's missing? Should I tell her everything that's going on? Would that help? Would that worry her? To have yet another child go insane? God help me now.
"Jackie's having a party." I put my foot down and wince in pain. "I was gonna sneak out and go."
"First of all it's midnight." She gestures me to close the door. "Second of all you are terrible at sneaking out. What were your cursing about anyways?"
"A uh laser puppy. Tripped over one and it just went barreling down the stairs."
Crap crap crap crap.
"Alrighty mister. Bed. Now."
"Okay."
"Not to mention grounded."
"Yeah I saw that coming." I tried to walk up the stairs normally so she wouldn't notice.
"One week. No tv."
"Fair."
"Good night."
"Night."
I turn into my room and close the door. As soon as it does I put pillows in my blankets in some sort of body shape, I'm not really sure if it looked right, because I was too busy hopping  out of my window and onto my roof, slowly climbing down the side.
"Star?" I whisper shout as I hobble through the grass, my heart collapsing in on itself. "Please be okay."

SORRY THERE ARE PROBABLY A SHIT TON OF TYPOS
ANYWHO GNIGHT
WOLFIE