What the Heart Wants.

Insidious Passion.

Author's Note. Well, this is the last chapter that is available to the public.  I am much further along than this but haven't really been releasing the chapters to the internet.  Anyway it is what it is, and I hope you like what you have gotten so far, maybe I will release the next chapter here early if people really want it enough.

Please. Remember to vote on chapters if you like my story, as it tells other readers of its quality and helps more people see my work. Thank you kindly.

Cover image commissioned and drawn by NamelessHiredArtist. https://www.deviantart.com/namelesshiredartist

Please go and view their art and commission them. They have incredible talent, and I was lucky to have them draw anything for me.

Marco lay awake each night, haunted by the things that he could barely recall. Something within him over this short time had snapped, and though he knew the source of his distress, he found himself continually losing the more delicate details.

He was there in the darkness just the same as he was the night when Katie had arrived, and the hollowness he felt was a fair exchange for the faintest glimpse of the memory he longed for. Katie... A name so unfamiliar to him, yet the only one he knew in some personal way.

Her vague smile and the sinister well that had swallowed her whole were all he believed to be true. All else was becoming lost to time, and the faintest glimpse of pink was all he had to lend him hope of her existence.

...

Knock.

...

Knock.

...

Knock.

...

The bangs echoed through his dark room, and as if on repeat. Marco shuffled out of his bed and towards his closed door. He knew not who it could be, but he hoped above all else Katie would spring forth from the shadows and release him of his depression.

He opened the door with his right hand and on the other side was who he should have expected, but his need for closure had fooled him briefly into believing it was somebody else.

"Star?' Marco asked somewhat in a daze.

"It's late." He mentioned halfheartedly.

"Sorry to bother you, Marco... I, well I just have a lot of things on my mind that I feel I need to get out of my head." Star was uncharacteristically serious, and he could barely see her through the dark night.

"Sure..." Marco said somewhat distantly. He was at odds with himself, wanting to let go and forget the misery, but also wanting to take action against it.

Star walked in and used her wand to illuminate the room in just such a way that it maintained its murky atmosphere. It was evident that she desired to shelter herself in the shadows if she needed to, but as luck would have it, he wanted the same.

Marco moved over and sat atop his bed, and Star followed suit, placing herself but inches away from him. Neither of them could speak at the moment, but they could both feel the heavy sadness that infected the room.

"Marco..." Star began.

"Star?" Marco responded.

"I..." Star hesitated.

"You?" Marco interrupted.

Star hid her face by looking away from him, and Marco rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.