"Breakup buddies...."I replay it in my head. I went to Kelly's world and we became breakup buddies. I told her about my feelings about Star but when I finally said it.... It didn't feel right.... I didn't know who to talk to about the feelings. I stayed up that night and Eclipsa was up. She came and talked to me. I spilled saying how confused I was. How me and Kelly became breakup buddies to move on and how I felt to Star. She thinks I don't like her romantically and it was a different kind of love, but I told her I didn't like how Tom kissed her in front of me and I admit I become a bit jealous. Then she pointed out maybe I like Tom and thought it was Star because she confessed her feeling to me before. I told her she was crazy and there was no way till everything came to place. Why I think Tom the way I do... Eclipsa comforted me and said it was fine. To be honest it did help. I felt bad but she ushered me it was okay. After that I felt tired and we went to bed. Now every time I think of Tom she's there listening. Which was once and awhile. After having a midnight breakfast with Star. I thought of Tom again. Eclipsa should be with Globgor Right now. I climbed the ladder.
"Eclipsa!" She gasps and turns to me.
"Marco! Haven't you learned by now not to sneak up on a magical queen?"
"It's happening again."
"Oh, no. What is it this time?"
"I remember how Tom looked really cute having his pet rabbit in his arms. And how he really made me happy with the words he said as a motivational speech when we fought..... I just find it cute on some things he does. The way he smiles and does some things to act tough. It's adorable!"
"Aww."
"I get fuzzy when I think about him. I get warm. And then... And then... I-I sweat. I sweat a lot."
"Augh."
"Now just realizing my feeling for him. After realizing it's not Star." I started tearing up. "And then, my... my eyes h-have been welling up a little. Every time I think I'm over him and I like someone else, I get this. I'm confused Eclipsa." I sighed. "Do you have a spell to make my feelings go away?" She pulls me into a hug.
"Oh, sweet baby boy. No. No, I do not. But you shouldn't be in such a rush to get rid of them."
"But they hurt." Seeing Tom with Star..... I don't want to ruin their relationship either.
"Feelings are worth feeling, even if they hurt." She clears her throat and grabs the brush. "Now, if you'll excuse us, I think Globgor would be rather embarrassed to have his teeth brushed in front of company."
"Oh! Oh, of course. Yeah. Uh, sorry, Papa." I went and slide down the ladder. I sighed shoving my hands into my pockets. I walk out. I bumped into Janna. She heard everything. I instantly panicked but she offered hypnotism which I said no to but she made me fall asleep. I woke up hearing a toilet flush. "The women's restroom? What the heck, Janna?!"
"Don't thank me yet. Let's see if it worked."
"What do you think of Tom?" I thought for a second. Tom is sweet and good looking. I blushed remembering him in my hoodie.
"I still think Tom is cute..."
"So, you're telling me I just wasted 14 hours of my life? Ugh. That's so annoying."
"Ugh." I folded my arms around my body. This guilt is killing me.
"I know what I have to do. I just don't wanna do it."
"What's that?"
"I gotta... I gotta tell Star."
"And you think that's a solution?"
"She's my best friend and I have a crush on her boyfriend.... I think it's the right thing to do. " Janna chuckles at me.
"This is gonna be awkward." I start heading to Star's room. I see her on her bed, holding up one of the puppies.
"Oh, hey, Marco! Have you come to say hi to this little angel baby puppy?"
"Star, can... can you put the puppy away? I-I have something to talk to you about."
"Oh, okay. Hey, Tom! Marco's got somethin' he wants to talk about!"
"Oh, no!" I turn seeing Tom on the floor under a pile of laser puppies. that's cuteeee....
"Oh, cool." he sits next to Star on the bed. "What do you want to talk about, buuuuddy?" I started sweating.
"Uh, hey, Tom." I started sweating. Why did he have to be here....?
"Wait, wait. Just one second." Janna pulls up a chair and sit on it. She starts eating the popcorn.
"This should be good."
"Uh... Uh... Okay! Fine." God Tom looks really good in those clothes.
"Star I...... I..... Star...."
"Marco what's going on."
"Star, this kills me. but. I'm havin' a problem... and I think it's him." I cover my face using one hand while using the other to point at Tom. "I like every single thing about him. It's... It's unnatural."
"No, Marco. It's not unnatural." I ready for Tom to get mad. He walks up to me. This is it.
"This should be good."
"Look, Tom! Tom! I-I'm sorry, dude! I-I just needed to get this off my chest and I was confused and this is new and I thought I liked Star but it was you a-and and-!" He puts a hand on my shoulder.
"It's SUPERnatural. We're both cursed."
"What? What are you talking about?" Star became worried. Tom sighed.
"Remember the Blood Moon Ball?"
"Yes..."
"Right. Well, its actual name is the Blood Moon CURSE. The curse chooses two souls to be eternally bound under the light of the Blood Moon. And I took you in hopes that it would choose us, but it didn't. It... it chose Marco and me instead."
"Wait. So your cursed, and you knew about it?"
"Tom!" I yelled.
"Yeah, but I-I-I kinda thought you knew, too."
"No, Tom. I didn't know! How would I have known?!"
"Well, I thought it was pretty clear! I mean, there was that guy who explained everything. The light? Remember the light?"
"I thought that was a fun party light! I didn't know it was cursed! Now Marco is cursed!
"And Marco has feelings for me because of it."
"Tom!"
"Star, I'm sorry. I was an idiot back then. W-What can I do to make it up to you?
"How about get rid of this curse?!"
"Okay, well, my grandpa Relicor was the one to tell me about the Blood Moon."
"Well, then, let's go talk with him." Star pulls Tom by the arm.
"No, wait-wait-wait. He's never gonna talk about it with us. But he's got a study room with books on everything, so let's start there."
"Fine. Let's just hurry up and break this thing. Right, Marco?" I was shock and sad. So my crush on Tom was because of the curse? It wasn't real?
"Marco, what's wrong?"
"I just... can't believe that all this has been because of some dumb curse. It... It's just..." I sighed, "...confusing" I say grabbing my arm tight. I felt sick.
"Hey. You're my best friend, and no curse is ever gonna change that. But if this thing is messing with you, let's smash it to a billion pieces!"
"I am affected by this to you know."
"Not now Tom!" Star told him. She looks back at me. "So what do you say?"
"Yeah! Let's go destroy my feelings!" We high five each other.
"Alright let's go." Tom snapped his fingers and a flame was erupted. The elevator came. We hopped in and it moved down. Finally, it dinged. Tom led the way. Finally we made it to Relicor's study. I walk to the computer that was at the center of the room.
"Whoa! Your grandpa's study is like my dream home.
"Yeah. It's his little man cave."
"Little? He has, like, a billion books in here!"
"Good thing he has a computer to search it all with. I love it when the elderly embrace technology." I started typing in, how to break the blood moon curse.
"It says here that moon curses are easily broken! The accursed simply needs to stand in the exact spot where the curse was placed at the exact same cycle in the lunar calendar, and when the moon hits its apex..." I gasps. "...the curse shall be removed!"
"Oh, easy. We can totally do that. When's the next Blood Moon?"
"Uh, around 665 years from now." I became stunned.
"Ohhhh, right. You don't live that long." I started to walk away.
"I wanted to start a family. Fall in love." I sigh. "What's the point if this curse is making all the decisions?" I sat down on what I thought was a chair. Suddenly a shriek was made. I turn seeing the thing grab me and I start running around panic. "What the heck is this thing?!"
"Oh, no! Grandpa Relicor, calm down!"
"Get him off, get him off, get him off!"
"Rainbow Fist Grab!" Her spell fist grabs me and pins me to the wall.
"Grandpa! I know I'm not supposed to be in here!" He shrieks.
"But I used the Blood Moon Curse." He grunts. "I used it, but it chose me and my friend. Now I really messed up his life, and we can't find a way to break the curse." Relicor sniffs me.
"Uh, Tom?" he grunts again and flies to Tom and sniffs him to.
"Uh, what's happening?" Star asks. Relicor shrieks.
"I-I-I don't know." He flies back to my head. He shrieks again. "My grandpa says that I've doomed us both." Relicor shrieks, but takes out a book. Tom grabs the book.
"But he says the Severing Stone might be able to help us."
"Yoink!" Janna grabs the book from Tom and opens it. "The Severing Stone. This enchanted rock possesses an edge so sharp that it can sever anything, be it physical, emotional, or even magical. The Stone can be found at the deepest depths of the Underworld. Aw, man, this day gets better and better." Relicor shrieks.
"Uh, Relicor says he'll guide us to the Severing Stone, 'cause he's my grandpa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-paaaaaaaaaa."
"Okay..." Star poofs her Rainbow Fist away.
"Wait, is he just staying up there—?" Relicor shrieks as he flies to the other side of the room while carrying me. I scream all the wall till we slam into a shelf, and Relicor pulls one of the books. I fall back. He shrieks again.
"He's saying to back up."
"What?" I didn't catch that. I turn seeing what were once books, erupted into flames. Chills came through my body. An elevator rises from the ground. With a ding, the elevator doors open."
"You know, this elevator might not be worth burnin' a shelf of books every time you wanna use it." I walk into the elevator with the others as Relicor shrieks. "Just sayin'." After everyone got in, it dinged and started going down. After a couple floors I'm guessing I giggles a bit seeing Tom doing some stretch.
"Why are you a lil' giggly boy over there?"
"Sorry just found something a bit funny." As much it was cute Tom doing something embarrassing in public the whistling was getting to me.
"Tom!" Me and Star yelled.
"What did I do?"
"You're an elevator whistler!"
"And you were doing that little thing we talked about. That little stretchy yoga thing. In public. That I hate."
"So... What? We gonna... what, just dump on Tom now?! Is that it?!"
"No, it's just... When you do that, your shirt comes up and..." The elevator stopped.
"We stopped." The doors open to reveal a landscape populated by Underworld creatures with multiple eyeballs. So weird....
"What?"
"Where are we?" Relicor grunts.
"Uh, he, uh... he says it's not the right floor." Relicor crawls on the elevator's ceiling and talks at the elevator-operating demon. We waited then we started falling. I grabbed whatever was close to me and it was Tom. He held onto me tight to as we screamed.
"Super Inflatable Bounce House Blast!" Star creates a bouncy castle to soften the elevator's landing. The elevator doors open. I groaned. I saw I was under Toms legs and the girl's body was on mine. Relicor flies out of elevator. We all get up and get out the death trap. Relicor gets back on my back and points the way. We walk seeing a bridge and something glowing at the other end.
"Wow. That must be the Severing Stone!" I hear Relicor grumble but it sounds like he was mocking me.
"You want me to translate that for you, Marco?" I see him grinning.
"No. It's fine, Tom. I think I got it. Thanks."
"Hey, shut up. Look!" Janna takes a step back as a tower rises out from the ground, blocking the rope bridge. The top half of a door at the base of the tower opens to reveals a cloak-wearing demon.
"Oh, great demon thing! What is it that you want from us?"
"Wait, are you serious? Ugh. Isn't it painfully obvious that this creep is some sort of bridge troll? He just came up out of the ground to block our path. Over a very rickety bridge, I might add. Now there's gonna be some crazy thing we gotta do to pay the toll. Feed him a goat or something. There's always a thing! Any second, this creep's gonna be all like," I do a creepy voice, "If you wanna cross my bridge, you must, uh, uh, uh, uh, lift this couch that magically appeared up these 30 stairs!". I bring my voice back. "And then the five of us are gonna try to lift this stupid thing up the stairs, and it's not gonna work, and the creepy guy's gonna be all like— Uh, sorry. What... What's your name?" I ask him.
"Abraxacan," he replies.
"Thanks. Then Abraxacan is gonna be all like – and I know this is a bad impression –" I do the creepy voice again. "The couch can only be lifted by the right pairing!" I place a hand on the couch. "Ugh! And we're gonna be all exhausted and stuff. And we're gonna be like, Duh! It has to be me and Tom who lift the couch! Just us. Because our souls are bonded."
"Bound." Abraxacan corrects.
"Thank you. Bound. Together. Anyway..." I sigh. "Grab an end, Tom. Let's get this thing over with."
"Um, I don't know if all that was completely obvious. To me. Maybe I'm alone," Tom says as he walks to the other end of the couch. I pull up the cushion and laugh from it.
"No way. This thing's got a bed inside of it. Oh, yeah. It's gonna weigh a ton." I start trying till a voice came.
"Stop!" Another cloak-wearing demon appears through a fog.
"No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no, no, no, no!" The demon holds up Fastfood and slurps the soda.
"Ahhhh... Abraxacan, what are these people doing here?"
"They're... moving the couch."
"I can see that. But why are they moving the couch?"
"To get across the bridge."
"Right. But if they want to cross the bridge... " he draws sword. "...they have to fight us to the death!"
"Um, yeah. I just thought they'd do that after they moved—"
"Please stop talking. Please stop talking."
"I mean... somebody's gotta move the couch."
"Well, hire movers! Just like everybody else!" Me and Tom look at each other.
"Ugh. Just... lower the tower. This is a total mess."
"Fine." Abraxacan spins a steering wheel, and the tower starts to lower back into the ground.
"You forgot to close the door."
"What?" The top half of the tower's door breaks off as the tower lowers into the ground.
"I have no idea what just happened, but let's go before they change their minds. We walk over to the bridge. Star goes first then I go next. Tom was behind me then it was Janna. I look down being careful with my step.
"This bridge is a death trap." The bridge starts to violently shake. I start panicking. When it calmed down Janna yelled.
"Aah! Help! Help me!" Janna was hanging off the bridge.
"Janna!" Janna pulls herself back up.
"No, I'm kidding. I have really strong fingers. I had you fooled, though! You should have seen yo' faces!" She chuckles. I sigh. We continue walking over the bridge. We made it to the end and see the Severing Stone.
"So, that's the Severing Stone?" Relicor kneels before Severing Stone, clears throat, then does a high-pitched shriek. The Severing Stone makes musical sounds, changing color with each note. Relicor makes the high pitched shriek again. The stone responds again. They do this a couple times.
"Uh, Tom, would you mind translating for us?"
"I don't speak Severing Stone." Relicor shrieks to us.
"Ohhh! He says the Stone is asking why we're here." Star clears her throat. I step forward with Tom. "Oh, Severing Stone, we wish to sever their souls, which were bound in the light of the Blood Moon." The Severing Stone plays notes. Relicor shrieks again.
"He says that'll be easy. Come on Marco. We have to hop onto the stage." I follow him about to hop on but Relicor suddenly runs ahead of us.
"Huh?" We both say. Relicor shrieks in anger at the Severing Stone.
"Gramps? What are you doing?" Relicor shrieks, shaking his fist. The Severing Stone plays notes. Relicor shrieks sadly, whimpers, then flies off stage. Tom goes and kneels down next to Relicor. "Okay... What was that all about?" Relicor shrieks. "Relicor says he came to the Severing Stone once before, thousands of years ago..." Relicor shrieks again. "...because he wanted to sever his soul from my great-grandma, but..." Relicor shrieks. "...but to do so, he had to sacrifice the memory of the moment they first fell in love. Now, he can never have that memory back. And he says he's regretted it ever since." Relicor sobs and shrieks. "The Stone says the severing is permanent. But that's cool, 'cause that's... that's what we all want, right?" I turn to look at Tom. This is it. Tom starts walking onto the stage. I follow. I look at the Severing Stone.
"So, we have to sacrifice the memory of the moment our souls were bonded."
"When we danced."
"Yeah."
"Okay, so... like this, I guess?" Tom places his hands on me and I place mine where it was that night. We start moving. We try remembering the song that played. "Are we sure this is worki-" I was cut off when the stage starts to glow.
"Whoa...! We look up and see the Blood Moon skylight. I look at Tom seeing he was wearing the same suit he wore at the ball.
"It's the Blood Moon Ball!" We said. I look around seeing the demons.
"Star and Janna are gone."
"We're at the Blood Moon Marco. This is when our souls were bonded. We're in our memories." Suddenly the Blood Moon's light shines on us and the music starts playing.
"I guess we gotta go for it." I pull Tom to me to dance. It was just like that night I pulled him to make sure he wouldn't get to Star. We danced under the moonlight. I started to feel bubbly. I smile looking at Tom even though I had the mask on. Tom smiled to as we dance.
"You know. If I wasn't such a hot head. I wouldn't think your mask didn't look bad. Looks really cool."
"Thanks." I grabbed his hand as he grabbed mine. My other hand stayed on his shoulder as his other hand stayed on my waist. We moved around laughing a bit. We kept moving.
"This is where you would have shoved me."
"Yea. Sorry about that but you know I wanted to dance with Star on this."
"O yea..." I frowned a bit.
"Hey, I never knew you could dance Diaz. Where you been hiding this?"
"Nowhere. I mean, I just keep on dancin', you know? That's what Grandma said. Just keep dancing, even if you look silly." We chuckled then picked up the pace a bit. He lifted me up a bit then twirled me. We spun around. We chuckled again and slowed down. We moved side to side. I notice the light start closing. From all the happiness I got, I became worried...
"Tom..... I'm actually scared about this."
"Don't worry. It's gonna work Diaz.
"That's what I'm scared of." I look up at skylight. "I-I don't want my destiny determined by some creepy curse, but... I feel calm and relax... I like this." I grip Tom's hand. I felt Tom return the gesture.
"Yea.... I do to..." I lift my mask to look at Tom. I felt my eye's go teary from what I'm afraid of.
"What if the Blood moon didn't cause it?" I groan from what happened. I open my eyes seeing Tom. Severing Stone plays note which makes me and Tom jump. Relicor shrieks. Tom looks at Star and Janna.
"He says it is done."
"W-W-Wait. What happened? You, like, turned around once, and that was it."
"It feels like I woke up from a nap," I say rubbing my eye.
"Yeah, we were at the Blood Moon Ball, and we were dancing, and then... W-What were we just doing?" Tom asks.
"Yeah, I... I don't remember. How do we know it even worked?"
"How about this." Star comes and pushes Tom to me. We were really close.
"Marco, Tom what do you guys think of each other."
"This is really awkward touch." Tom takes a step back. We look at each other.
"I see my friend."
"Me to. God finally that's over. I felt so much guilt every day for a year.
"Tom, you should have. But it's okay. Let's just get outta here." The Severing Stone plays note. We turn seeing Janna. "Janna?"
"I did it! I got my soul severed from itself! Whoo!" She starts laughing.
"What?! Oh, Janna, come on! Why would you do that?"
"Now I have two souls. I'm pretty much a demon."
"Uh, Janna, it... it doesn't work like that."
"Yeah, now you just have two halves of the same soul."
"So I'm half-demon. Still counts." Suddenly a sheik comes and Relicor hops back onto my back. I scream but was done.
"Okay, you know, I will be waiting in the elevator." I storm to the elevator. Everyone else finally joined. Janna was asking Tom a lot about the demon world. I looked away. Relicor was still on my back until we got back to his study room. He flied back in and we went back up to Star's room.
"Imma go. See ya later Star."
"But Marco it's already late. You don't want to go to bed."
"Imma go umm do something first. Need to go talk to Lavabo about the clothes I asked him to wash." I start heading to the door.
"Okay byeeee." I walk out. I start walking down the halls. For some reason I found some comfort from it.
"Marco wait up!" I turn seeing Tom walking up to me. I stopped waiting for him. "Look I'm sorry about the curse. I thought you knew about it."
"Tom it's fine. We already dealt with it. Now you can be with Star and I can be with Kelly."
"You and Kelly are a thing?"
"Well we're breakup buddies. There's a bit of a difference."
"O right. I' glad you're not as mad as Star was."
"No, it's cool. Was that all you were going to tell me?"
"O right. Umm. Why do you need to see Lavabo?"
"To pick up my clothes for the annual KDPRC ride."
"What's that?"
"Our club with our dragon cycles."
"Dragon cycle?"
"Yea. "
"That sounds cool. Dragon cycle sounds fun. I can totally ride one." Tom dragon cycles? Maybe it wouldn't to ask him to join.
"Hey if you want Tom. You can join us," I asked him.
"That would be totally awesome!" He yelled in excitement. "You can text me about it."
"Sure Tom."
"Alright Imma head back to Star and tell her."
"Alright." He walks back to Star's room. I wave bye. I continue walking. I should text Kelly to hangout before the meeting. Yea that sounds good.