A Tad Unhinged

Chapter 15: Expiry

Star

It was the only blackness that left me feeling more insane than before. Just having nothing hurt. I'm extroverted I need other people but here I am, alone for all eternity.
Marco had described what Toffee had done to him sparingly, all I know is it was centered around the fear of losing me. But my fear was the opposite, that I had lost him. That I was gone all summer, desperately trying to get myself back together while he moved on with his life. It hurt, everything hurt.
Maybe I should have been honest with him, tell him I'd left because of the price - or favor apparently - of saving him. I'd read the spell and all the warnings along with it but I didn't care. I needed to bypass Toffee's shield and go straight into Marco's head and I did. And I saved him. He's okay because of me. Or at least he was.
I killed him.
And it's all because I lied.
I lied to my mom saying I was better and hid the lapses in memory and hallucinations. She was so busy with the arrangements with the funeral and trying to run the kingdom all by herself she didn't even notice.
So I left.
And when I came here all I wanted was for everything to be better, to be the same it was far before I destroyed the wand. But it wasn't. I mean Marco made new friends and hung out with old ones. He was happy, oh he was so happy without me. I'd been holding him back, making him pay attention to me instead of himself. Toffee was right, I was stifling him. That's what he shouted at me while I was performing the spell to get to Marco, trying to get under my skin while I tried to get under his. I ignored it but he was right.
Marco was out, living his life and I expected him not to. Wow that's selfish.
I'm a terrible person.
Suddenly, the pressure in the blackness grows. My ears pop as my head is squeezed, my brain crushing against my skull.
The room grows a blurry purple and I begin to feel sick and tired and drained.

Eclipsa was bringing herself back.

Marco

I'm alone.
My eyes shoot open but I can't see anything. I let out a scream that's cut off by my lungs not having any air in them. I let in a breath as I cough at the same time, rolling over on my stomach. My head hurts, my heart is beating loudly as everything feels like static.
The bright light of the world dies down and I rub my eyes until I see where I am.
Wait, where am I?
Last thing I remember I was talking to Star, trying to call Moon but then nothing. Now I'm in world with crystals, blue ones with people - things - inside them. Not moving, trapped forever.
I shakily get up, my limbs atrophied.
Turning around, I see a crystal melting like ice to water and Star, laying in front of her.
"S-Star...?" I mutter as the crystal continues to melt. I can see the woman's face, it's pale and still but that was the important part. The important part was the spades glowing softly on her cheeks.
"Star?" I shakily say, "Star you have to get up." I back away but guilt is coursing through me. No way could I leave Star just lying there. She's probably unconscious or dead or-
No. She's not dead. She can't be.
Every emotion that I'd been hiding for the last year was coming back. Guilt. Fear. Despair. It was all I could feel and it felt like it was all I will ever feel. My hand began to shake uncontrollably. The hand with the half star shaped scar that would never go away no matter how hard I wanted it to.
Suddenly, a large gasp breaks me from staring at Star and brings my attention to the woman emerging before me. The crystal shatters and out steps one bare foot then one black foot. I watched as she lifts her head, her hat falling off as she does. Half of her face - no half of her entire body - was just black with glowing purple lines running through it. One eye was pure magic, the other was normal. She was only half normal.
Me and her make eye contact, which she continues with a smile. "Hello, Marco."
"Eclipsa." Is all I can manage to say.
"Yes, that's me."
"But how?" My breathing gets more unsteady. "How are you- you're dead!"
"I was. But it wasn't for me for I moved on."
"No. You don't just get to come back without a consequence."
"Oh sweety," she gestures all around her. "This is all the consequence. Especially-" she lifts a finger so it's level with my head.
"Me?"
"Not exactly." She admits as she steps over Star's body. "More Toffee. Or at least the remnants of him that were still floating around in your subconscious."
My heart stopped beating and the world becomes in and out of focus. Toffee was still in my head? How did I not know how did I miss that how did I-
My breath gone. My mind is racing and tears are forming in my eyes. My throats closing. I'm panicking. I need to calm down but I can't I can't do that. Everything comes flooding back and I feel a vine is growing through my stomach I feel a knife in through my hand I feel so alone and lost.
"Since each universe needs balanced I needed to kill someone of Mewni. At first I wanted it to be Star but she was going to cast the spell I couldn't kill her." Eclipsa puts a hand on my messy hair but I don't have any energy to move it. "Next I was going to kill Moon but getting Star to kill her was surprisingly hard I mean Star really loves her mother." She walks away from me. "Then I loosened up and she cane to earth and that's when I saw you, Marco. I saw Toffee sitting in a behind a door right behind your eyes. I could see him with all the memories and feelings you didn't want to feel. Sure a few had slipped in during the summer but regret, heartbreak, despair it was all locked away with him."
I couldn't get my breathing to stop I felt out of control, angry, I wanted this all to stop I wanted everything to stop.
"And surprisingly it wasn't that hard to get Star kill you! But as you can see there wasn't much of him left but enough to bring me back mostly. Isn't that swell?" She begins to walk away, her feet tapping on the crystal.
"Wait." I scream. I get up, my body shaking, my heart pounding and my hand shaking. "Where are you going?"
She smirks and opens a portal. "Wherever I want. I'm thinking Mewni but with the monsters, not the mewmans. Yes I like that very much. Oh maybe I'll start a monster uprising-"
She's gone.
I stand still, totally still. I'm trying to calm down I'm trying to get my brain to stop racing, my hand to stop shaking my body to stop but it won't.
Then I remember.
I dive next to her. "Star!?" I say as I turn her over carefully. "Star you have to wake up!" I shake her. "Star please! Please wake up!" I start to cry. "Star please Star! I need you! Oh c'mon Star please please wake up I'm begging you!"
I sob
"STAR!?"

:)
-Wolfie