"Thank you, Ms Starstuhm. I couldn't imagine myself crying again in this place after everything I have been through." Lisa commented at the door.
She was leaving this place, and there was nothing I could do to stop her. Poor me, and cruel Starglaze had to ruin it for confidentiality. For me, she was only standing there and ready to leave as soon as the last wind hit nine o'clock.
"You'll do this again next week. It's not a big deal. Soon enough, maybe that prayer can go real..." My mother was quite fond of this human.
"Donna...shh..." David whispers.
That moment was too sad for the two of us when we had to part again. Not even half a day and there's something grew within us as a distant friend, yet we couldn't let a star hear it. All that was left for her was a gift of bowl for me in return. How can I be so tempted by this useless gift?
"Come on, come on...just go..." Pearl whispers.
"You really want her to go? She was fun." Starglaze mumbled.
"No, she's not. And she better not be back for tomorrow. I've had enough of you and her here..."
"Treating your best friend like that, huh? I guess I get where those annoying faces come from, Christine..." Starglaze thinks it's funny to have me deadnamed.
"I'll be sure to note you for the next Wednesday at—nine?" She pauses.
She was quiet all of a sudden—what a weird way to leave your farewell to me. But her eyes were sharpened away from the parents, looking into something deep and higher than the floor she was stepping on. Her sadness turned to shock as our eyes met.
"What was that?" She asks.
"Is that—"
My shiny head must have shone so brightly from the window above our head, leading the sun into her eyes and perhaps unveiling a part of me within the darkness. I was happy that we finally got to meet our eyes together, but the humans acted out so quickly.
Slam! "There you go. Now she's gone..."
"W-what? Hello? Mr Starstuhm?"
Our moment was ruined. The humans intervened again to put us in misery, as I heard Lisa mumbling outside, begging to be let in. But Starglaze and I had been distant from the stairway with one-sided smiles before I could help her out. Maybe I shouldn't do anything about her. Maybe I wasn't meant to help her.
"Come on, Pearl! Let's have some fun in this house."
"Pearl? Pearl!"
"Alright, alright...I get it..."
—————————————————————————————————
Upstairs it was. Me and Starglaze were busy with our personal needs. My mother was here to give some love to our game—a Gleam game. It was our popular game, and we've been playing it since we were newborn Joyling. Although I found the rule vague and fading in my head.
"So, eager to show us how you played it, Christy?" My mother sat before me, unfazed by Starglaze's motive.
"Oh, me? Hehe, well...I think Starglaze would know more than me..." I still think about that human girl again.
"Am I? Oh, well...let's see about that!"
The excitement was tense, and the three of us were playing at stake. Gleam was a favourite game of mine because it was the only game that could cheer the void in my heart. But I was not very good at it, not when Starglaze was around.
"Woo! Three steps ahead!"
"Oh...I just got three sparkles away. It's sparkles, right?" My mother was slightly ahead of me, even though she knew nothing about this game.
Each time we've played, Starglaze was ahead of me with his intellect. This star knows more about the superiority of this game than I do, especially when I'm not even playing it. I wasn't even enjoying a game today, only the thought of the humans.
"Phew, that was too tense even for me! I really need to know "
"You can do that while I head to the restroom! So much stardust to waste now!"
"Stardust? Waste? Oh, it better not be what I think it is!"
Starglaze hovers away from the game, and my mother trailed him from behind in fear of the worst. So here I am, left alone again with my thoughts as I continue imagining the human me in this room and this blouse. The looks still draw cold and emptiness in my skin.
"Oh, well..."
"Oh, human...hm..."
I left my window open for fresh air, trying to alleviate my head as I waited for Starglaze to return from the bathroom. But as I waited for long, I felt the boredom in my skin returning with the absence of voice around me. Once again, I returned to nothingness.
"She was never good for you."
"Yet she is."
My mind is still conflicted, wondering if I should help that human girl here to know me better than she had guessed. But I guess she wouldn't like to know me as a Joyling—or a monster in her way of calling me 'one of them.'
"Why persist?"
"Because she does."
"Why stubborn?"
"Because she is."
"Why bold?"
"Because she's not afraid. She's—"
"*GASP*"
Echoes from someone I didn't expect. From the window that I opened for fresh air, a human girl has climbed upon it like a worm through the tunnel. One question that I had for her was where did she found the ladder in the first place?
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"You're not human...oh, Fire Son...what are you...Are you a monster...?"
"I saw you upstairs! I saw your face. I thought you were a ghost!"
Her eyes were paused at the sight of me, as I am to her. But her hands were covering her mouth while mine was laid low. Her pupils dilated while mine remained. She was content, while I was slightly but not surely. But she was determined to see this mysterious pearl.
"I don't understand. This day was so strange...why did this happen? What am I going onto?"
"I only came here to mourn my friend Christine...and then I found you here..."
"Did those humans kept you? Did they kidnap a child because they lost Christine? Is that why they were so happy?"
She was afraid, yet she climbed further into the room and joined me in this game. Her knees crawled through the floor while she approached me, slowly with her eyes closing on mine. We were fascinated by each other, and we could feel as if we were looking into another world.
"Why are you quiet? Don't you understand me?"
She was getting closer to me, and I'm not moving anywhere. As she took her time inspecting me as much as I wanted her, I was waiting for her. I was waiting for her to take a hint about me, giving the best with my stance as I remembered how she remembered me.
"Your dress...your head...you look familiar. I...recognize this style before...I just don't know where."
"Long time no see, Lisa." My eyes were still nervous about this encounter.
One voice—one voice is all needed to turn Lisa's struggle into tears. Her eyes are opened—in another way—into an enlightenment and shock that brings comfort and joy to those tears she was shedding. Her hands are holding her mouth while she cries a tear.
"W-what?"
"You heard me, did you? Lisa. Friend of mine...how was it, friend?"
"You...you do have her...no, wait. It can't be! I can't believe it!"
Even she still denies it. The sight of her friend was right before her face, and denial still existed within? No wonder this void still stretched open, looking for the honesty of her only ones. But I'll hold my laugh knowing if I had to judge her.
"You deny it? You told my family how you believed a life down that studio. And yet, you didn't believe me?"
"Well, I do believe she was alive! But I cannot believe that you would be here now! If you were here...does that mean..."
"I'm all alive and well, Lisa. But that's not something you should know.
How can I not be so full of surprise? I thought of myself as somewhat boring before. But for Lisa, these signs are not from her friend. In fact, she saw it as a threat instead! How? She didn't even recognize me.
"No...no you're not..."
"She's not coming for you."
"Yeah, I'm back." I hugged her back, eyes closed, and embrace the sunlight for a while.
"No...no you're not...you're not Christine..."
—————————————————————————————————
That word cuts deep. My human friend didn't really recognize me, and she refused my hug. I thought we would've been friends. I had thought that we could've been close and whole, but we're not. Lisa didn't think that far when she saw me.
"W-who are you? Why are you...why are you wearing Christine's dress??"
"Don't you dare!"
Her irks on me grew even sharper, as I was left with nothing but resentment from her. She tried hurting me, using my own mirror to hit my head, but I couldn't fight my friend who was looking for me. I don't understand! Isn't this what she would've wanted? I tried to be kind!
"Back off, monster!" She yelled. Such words from a human.
"Ouch. Ouch. I'm not a monster! I'm your friend, don't you recognize—"
"You're not Christine! You're not Christine! You're not Christine!"
I pleaded for her, but she didn't hear me. The human, why didn't she hear me? She kept hitting my head with my mirror while her face grew even more uglier with her wrath. But she didn't care about cracking my head with her fist, especially with my mirror.
"Who are you?? Tell me!"
"I'm your friend! I'm Christine!"
"Stop lying! Christine isn't some ugly monster! You're not her! You're not her! You're not her!"
"Get off me!!"
I pushed her, but I pushed her too far. The human girl: she was knocked onto the wall with a scratch on her arm when she lay on Starglaze's wand—not bleeding, but it was not a mild wound coming from her grunt, and her skin turned purple. She shed a tear as she saw it, and she was in so much pain with it.
"Ouch! My arms!"
"You monster! You hurt my arms!"
Guilt ran through me as fast as my pride was gone before Sebastian. The human girl was hurt, and the wand left a terrible wound for her. She was hurt so much, but she was still blinded by rage. Her anger made it loud enough for me to worry about the others. She was screaming like a rabid Howler of the Frowling.
"Shh! Quiet, you're getting us caught..." I begged her. But she was a stubborn human.
"You hurt me! How can I not be quiet??"
"Please...shh..."
"What was that? Is that coming from Pearl's room?"
It was too late for us to be quiet—the humans had already caught Lisa's voice from a distance. Now they're heading upstairs as they were about to find out. I tried to help her, but she didn't like being helped by me, whom she called a monster.
"Leave...leave now..."
"What?"
"Please..."
I begged for her, but the human girl was still filled with disdain as she glared at her wound. She held the wand in my face, but she didn't know how to use it. I couldn't let her tangle too long in here, especially holding Starglaze's wand.
"No, who are you to tell me that? I'm not letting you—"
"Leave! Now!" I yelled as I pushed my hand at her.
I slapped the wand out of her hand and tried confronting her. The human girl was quite a fool to be called a friend. But she needed to know that I could not forever submit to a human like her, especially to someone who was too stubborn to understand.
"What was that?" Lisa looked at me with such confusion.
"Star. I'm casting a star...on you." I stood persistent and dominant while Lisa was on her back.
"So...where is it? Am I supposed to be dazzled?"
"You were supposed to be afraid. Star is hot, you know...?"
But it was a silence I gave to her, not a harm or a warning. Long before, I can cast a star out of my hand to silence a naughty Joyling or a terrible Frowling, earning me the name among my kinds. But a long time has passed, and I've remembered only a slight of it. My hand no longer wield the star anymore.
"Please, you need to leave this place before they find you."
"State me one reason why I should listen to a monster like you!"
"Because I'm not a monster! I'm Pristine Pearl!"
"W-what?"
She was shaken when she heard my name, but not like it was important anymore. My family and friends are waiting on the other side, and as soon as I'm dragging this pile of sentient flesh alone, it is already too late.
SLAM! The door opened with force, and Starglaze was always the interruptive Joyling he was. Irritated and left with a sheet of tissue on his back, he and my mother had a long argument in the walk about some misuse of hygiene within the home. Lisa, on the other hand, could have been an inch away.
"Pearl, are you okay? I better not see you toppling my pearls off!"
"Christine, what's happening? I hear screams!"
A terrible encounter for the humans. I could only stand there with my hands dragging the human girl away to the window by her waist. With her now knowing of my gleam without others' permission, Lisa has become a danger she didn't expect to be. Now, my mother and Starglaze are standing on the line as they try to take her away from the window.
"Mom, Starglaze! I can explain." I reason, but Starglaze takes charge of an attack.
"Step off, Pearl! You were given a chance to leave this place at once, young lady!"
"Eek!" The human girl was a keen one.
"Christine, why did you let her in?"
"Yaa!!!"
Starglaze didn't even hesitate to hurt the human girl. He charged into her with an immaculate speed in hopes of harming her even more, only to find himself floating out of the house as she dodged by surprise. I'm flattered, but it wasn't over for her.
"What is that? Is that...another monster??" Lisa commented in fear.
"Eugh..." I did not like to call him that or to use that phrase. But I admit he could be.
"Pearl, why are you letting her in?" My mother confronted me.
"Because she's my friend! She doesn't even hurt me!"
"Well, now that she knows about us, it'll be a danger for you!"
Before anyone could come upstairs to stop the human girl, she climbed out of the window with the ladder she was using to climb up here. The humans didn't make it fast enough to catch her, especially the doctors who were supposed to keep me alive.
"Whoa! What is that?" They caught up to her.
For her, she walks through them like how I went through steep hills with only a roller shoe—hard to navigate but easy to lean. Everyone in the house was surprised to see her, especially since she was turning the whole session herself.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey! Who are you? Where did you come from?" Mr Daniel, you weren't very agile. But she was—just like me.
"Stop it, kid! We can talk about this!" Ms Adele, you weren't very clever. But she was—no doubt with that eye.
"I don't know who you are. But I'm not forgiving you..." She jumped away from the gate and disappeared into thin air. But if I remember correctly, there shouldn't be a road downhill for her to survive.
"You...the one with the pink face...do not think this is over..."