Toffee's Trick

Chapter 21

The room wasn't large. Only one bed; surrounded by doctors and warriors.

Star and Tom were bombarded by at least four doctors when they entered.

"You shouldn't be here."

"We've only just got him stable."

"It isn't safe, Princess!"

"This is stupid!" Star cried, flinging up her hands and pushing through the crowd. "I know he's not very well at the moment, but the least you can do is let me see him! That's all we want! Just to see him."

The doctors looked at each other.

Mina walked over from the bed.

"Mina?" Star asked, shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"Lending a mending hand, like the rest of these sorry shanks," she said benignly. "Look, Star, you really gotta get out. It's... it's not safe."

"What do you mean? It's Marco. He's the safe kid!" Tom said, annoyed.

"You..." Mina looked drained and cross. "You don't understand. Fine. You really want to see him?"

"Yes!" Star and Tom said together.

"Alright..." Mina said. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

They made their way over to the bed. A few doctors tried to stop them, told Mina to not let them through. Mina shoved them aside. Star grinned. Finally she would be able to see him, to hold his hand, to tell him everything was going to be okay.

"Oh my god."

Tom was a few paces ahead of Star and he saw Marco first. All the colour drained out of his face.

"What? What is it?" Star pushed him aside and at last, stared down at her best friend.

The blood rushed to her head and she could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears. Slowly, she raised her hand to her face and covered her mouth to stop herself choking on her tears.

Marco was still skeletal thin. The bed he lay on was metal and looked more like something from an insane asylum than a hospital. His eyes were closed and sunk deep into his dark sockets, his lips thin, cracked and black. His usual softly tanned skin was deep chocolate and looked charred, as though electricity had surged over it. His arms and legs were pulled out painfully taught and tied to the four corners of the bed with thick bonds, and there was a large metal collar around his thin neck, from which a heavy metal chain looped and trailed to the top of the bed.

His chest was bare, and he wore burnt, shredded trousers, but the thing that upset Star the most were the symbols.

They were small and plentiful, looking somewhat like ancient runes, burnt into his very skin, glowing deep red and covering everything from his navel to his collar bones. Star didn't recognise any of them, but was sure they couldn't mean anything good.

Suddenly, through the grief and sorrow she felt when she saw her best friend in such a way, anger burst from the bottom of Star's stomach.

She rounded on Mina, her eyes flashing dangerously.

"What is going on?" She demanded. "Why is he chained up like some rabid dog? What's with the creepy symbol tattoos?"

"I told you," Mina said sadly. "The chains are for the doctor's safety. He's dangerous."

"He's Marco Diaz!" Star screamed. "He not bloody dangerous!"

"He isn't Marco anymore, Star!" Mina yelled back. "What aren't you getting? He's changed. He's been corrupted."

Mortified, Star turned to Tom, desperately needing someone to blame.

"You said he wasn't corrupted!" She shouted.

"I said the dark magic might not have corrupted him!" Tom cried, reddening, his eyes wet. "Don't you go blaming this on me, Star! Don't you know it's difficult for me, too?"

Star let the tears fall. She put a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"No," she said, in barely more than a whisper. "No, I'm sorry. Of course it is. "

She turned back to Mina and took a deep breath.

"So," she said shakily, trying not to look at the thing in Marco's skin lying on the metal bed, knowing she would sob again if she did. "What can we do?"

"Well," Mina said. "Luckily we've got quite a lot of information on how to help, actually. The dark magic in his system can be entirely flushed out."

"It can?" Tom asked, barely able to believe his ears. "Really?"

"That's great!" Star exclaimed. "How do we do it?"

"Ah, well, this part's tricky," Mina said. "We need something of whoever put the dark magic in him."

"What, like the knife Toffee used to stab him?" Tom asked.

"No, like Toffee himself," Mina said.