Star-Crossed
An
EarthBound Fanfiction by Giampi
Halloween Funfest, 2004
Two teens stood outside the smaller of two cemeteries in downtown Threed, at a very late hour. Their wary, watchful gazes constantly scanned the surrounding area.
“I…don’t think we should be here,” said one of them, a boy. He was wringing his shirt nervously in his hands while staring at his companion, a girl who all but concealed her face in a long coat.
“Why not?” The girl shifted her feet uncomfortably, as if trying to reassure herself of something. “You said you wanted to go someplace where we could be alone.”
“Yeah, but…this is dangerous. You know what they’ve been saying about what’s going on lately, right? About how the reason the sun hasn’t risen is that there are…monsters.” That last word was uttered with quiet disbelief.
“Do you believe that? I haven’t seen anything strange lately.”
“Then…how do you explain the fact that we haven’t seen daylight in a week?”
The pair fell into silence. The girl thought she heard something and quickly spun her head around, but later decided it was just her imagination playing tricks on her.
The boy edged his way to her. His breath came out in puffs of steam that were quick to dissolve in the nighttime air.
“Um…can I ask you a question?”
The girl looked at the boy and nodded.
“Why…when I asked you…to come here…why did you say yes?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…you know, we just ran into each other in the middle of the street, and I asked you if we could talk…and you said yes, just like that.”
The girl shrugged. “I couldn’t see why not.”
“Well…what with all that’s been going on lately…”
“Are you still on that?”
The boy blushed. “S-sorry…”
Another awkward silence. This time the girl broke it.
“So?”
“What?”
“Why did you ask me to come here? Is there something you wanted to tell me?”
The boy began to sweat nervously.
“Um…sort of. Actually I wanted to ask you something…sort of.”
“What is it?”
“Well…” The boy was shivering. “It’s just…you disappeared a few days ago, and…I want to know what happened to you. Where did you go?”
The girl took a step backwards. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because,” started the boy emphatically. “Because…”
“What?”
“Because…I…” His hands balled into fists. “I…was worried about you.”
“Worried?”
The boy nodded. “I…missed you at school, you know.”
“Missed me? Why?”
Once more the boy’s face flushed a deep red. “You should know why…people have been talking…about me…about you…”
“I haven’t heard anything.”
“You haven’t?” The boy’s eyes were suddenly very opaque. “So…you haven’t heard that…I’m in love with you?”
“No.”
The boy gulped hard. “It’s just that…you’re so pretty, and you’re always so nice to me, and…I want to be with you.”
The girl looked away. “Why are you telling me this?”
The boy took a step towards her. “Because…I want to know how you feel about me.”
“How I feel?”
“Yeah…I mean, do you like me too?”
The girl cast her gaze towards the ground. “I don’t feel anything.”
The boy gasped, and then lowered his eyes. “O-oh…I get it…is it because I’m so short?”
“I don’t feel anything,” repeated the girl, casually dismissive.
The boy took a step backwards. “Oh,” he said. “Um…I’m sorry I wasted your time, then…y-you should get home. I can walk you there, if you want.”
“Alright.”
The boy’s face lit up. “Really? Even after what I told you? You don’t think I’ll try to kiss you or something?”
“Do you want to?”
“What?”
“Kiss me. Do you want to kiss me?”
Although he tried to speak, the boy’s voice had left him, and he could only manage to nod his head quickly while he mouthed the answer. The girl took a step towards him.
“Then kiss me.”
Confusion crept across the boy’s face. “But…you said…”
The girl took one more step. Her breath, unlike the boy’s, did not come out in puffs of steam; it did not come out at all.
“I don’t feel anything,” she said for the third time.
As the girl and the boy stepped towards each other slowly, the noise from the trees and the wind seemed to die down. The world disappeared, leaving only an anxious boy who wanted to reach out to an apathetic girl.
Eventually the boy stood on the tips of his toes—the girl was taller than him—and placed his mouth in front of hers. There was a pause before he darted back. When he did he covered his mouth with the back of his hand. It was all he could do to prevent himself from vomiting.
“How…why…?” His eyes darted frantically from the girl’s head to her body and back.
The girl tried to close the distance between them, and the boy took a step back, as if running away.
“That…that’s why you disappeared, isn’t it? That’s why…”
The girl kept advancing, and the boy kept backing away, until he tripped on his own feet and fell backwards. From his position on the ground, the girl seemed more menacing, more aggressive.
The girl stared at the boy with more interest now. “You said you wanted to be with me, didn’t you?”
“Y-yeah…but not like this. Never like this…”
The girl spread her hands. “If you let me, we can be together forever.”
The puffs of steam coming from the boy’s mouth paused momentarily. “What?”
The girl took another step towards the boy. He scrambled away frantically.
“It won’t hurt. Nothing will hurt anymore. You won’t feel anything.”
“But…”
“If you want to be with me, then this is your only chance.”
The boy looked away. His eyes glazed over and a lump formed in his throat. “I do want to be with you…more than anything.”
The girl was almost on top of the boy now. When she knelt down beside him he did not try to back away.
“Do you promise it won’t hurt?”
The girl did not answer. Instead she removed her coat and bent over the boy.
Tears flowed freely from the boy’s eyes. It hurt at first, but slowly the pain faded away. And then, when he tried to hold her in his arms, he found that he couldn’t move. Suddenly he couldn’t see, and he couldn’t hear. He tried to scream, but it was too late.
The girl stood up after a long while and wiped the blood from her mouth, leaving smears on the back of her pale, clammy hand and her empty lips. She went for her coat, picked it up, and slung it over her shoulder carelessly, then walked into the night.
Behind her lay the lifeless body of a boy who fell prey to his dreams, and would soon become his own worst nightmare.