The Star Caster

by Jamie Loeak

  When Vick finishes, he closes his eyes. He mumbles to himself before speaking aloud, and I can tell that he’s preparing his words, ironing them out to make them right. He doesn’t want to mess this up in his eagerness. “I wish to bring my birth father to this place,” he says.

  The thrumming power in my veins unleashes itself like a tornado. I feel the wind swirl around me and leave to do its bidding. My power is neither light nor dark; it’s clear, a symbol that takes neither side. Within moments, a figure materializes before me, and a man tumbles to the ground. He is thin, so thin that I can see the ribs that stick out of his emaciated torso. He wears nothing but loose and dirty jeans. The look on his face proves that he is drunk and high. He is staring around him now, convinced that he is hallucinating. “Wow,” he says curiously. “This is much better than the last hit. It almost feels real.” Then he notices me. He whistles and wags his eyebrows. “Damn Sam, you make one sexy lass. Come over here and give me a smooch.” He leans forward and begins to crawl toward me. I shy away, disgusted by the man that gave life to Vick. He is repulsive.

  “This is no dream, old man. This is your hell,” Vick booms. His voice echoes around us, and I am almost afraid that people will hear us and come out.

  Vick’s father stops in his tracks. He turns around, squinting for the source of the noise. When he spots Vick, his eyes grow large. Then, he starts laughing. The sound is high pitched and squeaky, the sound of a lunatic. “Hey,” he says as he points. “The last time I saw you, I was about to murder you. But I wasn’t very good,” he clucks.

  Vick growls.

  The man on the ground stops laughing. He knows that something is up now. This isn’t normal for him. “Hey, what’s going on?” he asks Vick.

  “I have brought you here,” Vick states.

  “What for?”

  Now it’s Vick’s turn to laugh. “You’ll see,” he says as he looks up at me. “I am ready for my second wish,” he states.

  I nod and pull the star from my skin. I pray that Vick will choose a quick, silent death. I am not ready to see a third death. I’m only eighteen and I’m not ready to handle it all. But, when I toss the star in the sky, I feel that same thrum of power. It vibrates this time, almost as if it can barely contain itself.

  “I wish for this man, the man with my blood, my birth father, to bring upon him his own, untimely death,” Vick says slowly, carefully.

  The power within me pulls back before releasing itself and launching toward the man on the ground. Instantly, his arms begin to pull up, lifting themselves of their own accord. He is afraid now, and he’s desperately trying to push them back down. However, the magic is much stronger than he is. Within minutes, the man’s hands are reaching for his throat, scratching the tender skin as he fights his own strength. He is growing tired, breathless from his hands gripping his throat, pushing against his windpipe. He is worn from his struggle to stop this madness.

  I watch in horror as this man strangles himself with his own two hands. The death is slow and painful. I can watch as his face changes from red to purple to the pale color of death itself. It takes about five minutes for the end to come, and by that time I am hopeless. I had been wrong, so wrong about Vick. I had felt sorry for him, sorry for his past, sorry for his awful childhood. But I hadn’t prepared myself for this. I hadn’t prepared myself for the delighted smile that crawled across his face at the death of his father, and I hadn’t been ready for the greed that flashed across his features as he turned back to face me. He was ready, ready to feel this power forever. And I was afraid of being stuck with him.

  “Never!” Val screams as he launches himself at Vick. Duh! He can read Vick’s thoughts, and he isn’t going to lose his wishes.

  Vick stumbles. Stunned for an instant, he reaches up to disarm Val, who is now attached to his torso. Val’s throwing crazy quick punches that slam against Vick’s head and shoulders. They look like they hurt, and I’m sure that they are bringing back memories. This means that when Vick catches up, he’ll be wild.

  And it doesn’t take long for Vick to recover from the attack. When he does, he tosses Val aside like a doll. Val hits the ground like a rock, and Vick is headed my way.

  I back up, feeling my racing heartbeat pound through my veins. I have no idea how I’m supposed to get out of this situation now. It feels impossible, and I’m afraid that this is the end, that I’ll never see my father again, that I’ll never make him proud of me.

  But, I had forgotten about Sterren, about his fierce need to protect me. He steps in front of me, and stays, even though Vick is now laughing at him. “Don’t, Vick. Don’t do this,” he says.

  Vick just shakes his head back and forth. The glint in his eyes indicates that he is mocking Sterren, but Sterren doesn’t care. Instead, he stays, standing in front of me like a shield. Vick stalks forward, never stopping.

  I reach out, afraid for Sterren. I was wrong about him. He knows what it’s like; he knows what it’s like to fight for control of something. That something had been me. He had been fighting to control my destiny of freedom, and now he was close to losing that. He was dreadfully close to losing me forever.

  “Sterren,” I whisper, “don’t do this. Don’t protect me for no reason.”

  “There are a million reasons to protect you,” he argues without even looking at me.

  “No there aren’t,” I say as tears tumble down my cheeks. “I’m not worth it, Sterren. I was wrong, wrong for wanting to help.”

  Sterren shakes his head and braces himself. Vick is so close, so close that Sterren can barely say the words before he is upon us. But he does, and it is magical. “You, Danika, are worth everything. You are the reason why I have willed myself to exist all of these years. I have been waiting to love you. I have been waiting to spend my existence with you.”

  And then, Vick is swinging. His heavy, thick hands collide with Sterren’s side, and Sterren flies across the field. I scream and run after him, ignoring Vick. When he moves toward us, toward Sterren, I stand.

  The familiar hum of power can be felt throughout my body. I use it to steel myself, and I swallow, preparing myself for what will come next. I am angry, so angry at Vick. “Don’t you dare come closer,” I whisper angrily. I am finding it hard to contain myself right now, and whisper so that I don’t cry. Yep, I am an angry crier.

  Vick smirks at me, unfazed by my threat. “What do you know about pain and anger, Star Caster? You so easily fell into my trap, into the sadness that I portrayed.”

  I scoff at him. “You tricked me?” I ask him. I feel betrayed for some reason, probably because of the connection I thought we shared. But what had that been? Some sort of magic tie? Or had I been experiencing some form of Stockholm Syndrome? Whatever it had been, it had been wrong. I had been very wrong.

  Vick is laughing, and it takes me a minute to focus on him. “I needed to use you,” he said. “I needed to capture you.”

  I have to fight with myself to keep my jaw from dropping. Oh, he had tricked me. Oh, he had been so good at it, too. On the other hand, I had been gullible, like a child. How did I ever think that I would be a good lawyer? I’d hand the trial over like I was trading cards. Good thing I didn’t even have to waste my time on hopeless dreams anymore. Immortality changed that.

  “I scarred myself,” Vick said triumphantly. “None of this happened to me. It only ever happened to Val, to Ego. They were the ones that were tortured and taunted as children. I stole their story like I stole their wishes, their lives. You see, they made the mistake of trusting me. I was the only one powerful enough to track you down. I was the only one strong enough to capture you. They were weakened by time and humanity.”

  I look up into Vick’s eyes, believing his words. I was about to die or worse. He had no reason to lie to me any longer.

  “I, on the other hand, am a monster. I was raised by wretchedly good parents that protected and sheltered me. Then, when my father lost his job, things changed. He fell into that nasty habit of dru
gs. My mother left him and left me as well. She couldn’t take me because of the reminders of pain that I would cause. So, I was stuck with the new version of my father. This man did no harm to me physically, but I was left in the company of his new friends. They, for a lack of better words, changed me. Their words and talk, their past experiences are now mine. We share those things now.”

  “How? What do you mean?” I ask.

  Vick’s dark eyes, his scarred features, focus on me. “I have a psychotic disorder. I take other’s problems and issues, and I make them my own. I can’t tell the difference between your pain and mine.” Vick shrugs and continues. “I was diagnosed when I was very young. It was the reason why my father changed; it was why he turned to drugs. It was why my mother left us; she couldn’t deal with either of our problems. But I, I relish in them, and that is why I stayed, that is why I am here today.”

  I am so confused right now. This is so weird, and I can’t manage to grasp the situation. What the hell is going on with Vick? What the hell is he talking about? He keeps going around in circles – obviously like a crazy person – but he also keeps changing things. He is freaking me out right now, and I don’t know if I should believe a thing he says.

  “I am here today,” he continues without so much as pausing, “so that I can become powerful enough to incite pain.”

  “You can do that without a wish,” I say calmly. “Why do you need another wish? Why did you have to kill your father? Why do you want me to stay with you for forever? I don’t understand you at all.”

  Vick sighs. He’s becoming content with our conversation, now that he’s winning. He’s content enough to forget everything and everyone around us. “Well, the pain is a rush, and I wanted to see my father dead. It was about time. Besides, the pain of betrayal mixed with fear is the best I’ve tasted. I need you to stay with me so that I am not lonely. You see, I enjoy talking with you.”

  “You enjoy tricking me,” I argue. “You enjoy controlling me, too.”

  “Your pain is magnified by your power. Why would I want to give that up?”

  Uh oh, so he wanted to harm me forever. He wanted to torture me and cause me pain forever. How wonderful.

  The soft sound of grass moving pulls my attention behind Vick, but I keep my eyes on him, wanting to entice him further. “So what next?” I ask him.

  Before he gets to answer, though, Val pounces. He finds himself, once again, attached to Vick’s neck. For a guy that doesn’t look like he exercises much, he can jump, and he can hang on, too. He’s crazy – but I already knew that.

  Vick, who was completely unprepared, doesn’t falter. Instead, he bends at the middle and dumps Val onto the ground. Val is closing himself into a ball now, but I can sense that he isn’t afraid of Vick. Unfortunately, Vick thinks that Val is afraid, and he straightens up to laugh at the pair of us. His laughter rings around us easily, and I can tell that he is absorbing our pain and humiliation.

  Smartly, Val lunges forward. When he slams into Vick, I can tell why he had been huddled together. Red liquid begins pouring out of Vick’s midsection, indicating that Val had been keeping a dagger in his cloak. I watch in horror as Vick falls to ground. He clutches his stomach, and his mouth hangs open. The look in his eyes scares me, and I subconsciously step forward to examine the fear in his dark eyes. “Help,” he whispers as he falls forward. I look up and see that Val has taken the opportunity to stab Vick once more. This time, the blade sticks out of Vick’s back, a symbol of Val’s strength.

  “Thank you,” I breathe.

  Val answers me by looking at me greedily. I see that familiar glint, and know that he isn’t going to waste any time with “your welcomes”. Instead, he’s going to take his three wishes. Val plans on taking them now.

  Behind me, Sterren stirs. He’s finally waking from the hit he took from Vick, and I don’t blame him. If it had been me, I would have been down much longer. The fall had been nasty, but I had been too busy trying to protect the unconscious Sterren to focus on what had happened to him. Now that I’m seeing it, I can barely look. The wound across his eyebrow mimics Val’s, the way it is angled and cuts across his eyebrow proves that there will be a scar. His lower lip is swollen and bloody as well. But he doesn’t look pitiful or weak; he looks stronger.

  Sterren makes his way in front of me, and I watch his slow determined movements. A flash of something worse than anger crosses his features when he looks at Val’s approaching figure. I can tell that this fight will be epic. Unlike any fight with Vick – where his sheer body weight would hurt anyone – this fight is fair. Val does have an advantage, though; he’s pulling the blade from Vick’s back.

  I stand, somewhat behind, somewhat beside Sterren. His hands are balling into fists, and his anger is drawing out my own. How dare Val do this! I was tired and weak from Vick’s cruel wishes. Why did he need his wishes now? Why did he need them before the sunrise? And then, his cold, hard glare and drunken smile hits me. He thinks I can bring his brother back.

  I reach out and gently place my hands on Sterren’s shoulders. “He wants his brother,” I whisper fearfully. I do not want to bring someone back from the dead, someone who wants to capture me and use me until the end of time. At least without Ego, Val is someone hopeless, and I don’t have to worry about his decisions. He was never the one that made them.

  Val lunges forward suddenly, and runs toward us. Sterren is watching his every move, and he pushes me back, just in case something bad happens. And it does. Something bad does happen. Val tosses the dagger in the air, and it pushes through Sterren’s body, lodging itself in Sterren’s shoulder.

  I scream as Sterren stumbles back and falls to his knees.

  Val approaches Sterren and pulls the knife from Sterren’s body. The sound is wet and painful, and Sterren falls forward, clutching his arm. I am alone again, and this time I am seriously afraid. That dagger means business; it’s killed one person and has wounded another. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Val was trained or something. I start to step back, trying to increase, or at least keep, the distance between us.

  I’m starting to feel like things are hopeless, but I hear a soft voice mumbling something. It takes me a moment to understand what the voice is saying, but when I finally do, things change and escalate.

  “Cast me a star,” Sterren murmurs.

  I blink, forcing my brain to move faster, to understand what he’s saying. And it hits me. My mother wished upon a star, and she had been a Star Caster once. He could do it, too. And he would wish for good things.

  I step back and dodge Val’s attempt at catching me. I run away as I pull a star from my cheek. I toss it into the air and nearly shout the words. They come out jagged and rough; I’m not used to running.

  Then, just as quickly, Sterren stands and says his part. Afterwards, his first wish tumbles out as he fights to stay standing. “I wish to change Val’s intentions from evil to good,” he says.

  I stop and turn, feeling the power thrum through my veins once more. It sparkles inside of me, and I nod before feeling the sparks break through my skin. I find myself pointing at Val as I feel the power of Sterren’s wish erupt like lightning. It flashes and changes Val.

  I watch as Val stops where he stands. The look on his face is different, healed almost. It doesn’t show defeat or hatred. It shows a hint of regret and gratitude. It paints the picture of a different man. “What are you doing?” he asks me.

  “Saving you from yourself, from your untimely death,” Sterren says.

  Val turns around and stares at Sterren, his eyes large. “Heal yourself,” he says slowly. “Your body is weakening and you are losing too much blood. Take the wish and heal yourself. You still have the third.”

  “I can’t,” Sterren says. “I can’t lose the second and third wishes. I need them both.”

  “You can’t walk away from our bond if you can’t walk away,” Val says. “I can sense your weakness in your thoughts.”

  Oh no, Sterren wante
d to wish away the control that Val has over him. But he couldn’t do that if he wished for his health. But what was the third wish? What would he wish for? What could he wish for?

  “I wish to sever the bond between my master and me,” Sterren says strongly.

  The power courses through my entire body and it leaves in a rush of wind and cleansing rain. I watch as an invisible weight is lifted from Sterren’s shoulders. The wind rushes around and over him and his hair blows away from his golden eye, revealing the fact that the faint outlines of the stars are growing in color. He is becoming a Star Caster again.

  When the magic ends, Sterren collapses. I rush forward and throw myself on top of him. Large tears fall down my face as I observe his shallow breathing, the beads of sweat that cling to his hair and forehead. He is dying now.

  “How is he dying? How was that injury that bad?” I ask Val desperately.

  Val bites his lower lip. “There was a poison on the dagger, a poison that brings death to all that encounter it. That was how I was able to slay Vick.”

  I feel a flash of anger, but know that it isn’t at him. It’s toward Sterren. He wouldn’t give up his wishes. He wouldn’t save himself. He was too busy protecting me. He was too busy being stupid and ignorant. “I can’t believe he did this,” I say sadly. My hands trail over his chest and I pull his head in my lap as more tears fall.

  Val sighs. “I wish I could take his wish. I wish I could wish for his life, his health. I wish I could do something.”

  Sterren’s shallow breathing stops as he struggles to lift his hand up. I think that he is reaching toward my face, to touch me one last time, but he pulls a star from his cheek instead. He whispers the words as he pulls it into his hand. And he finds the strength to throw it into the dark sky.

  I lift my head to watch it fly across the night, a beautiful trail of light and magic. It is more magical to see his star finally soar away from us, and fresh tears tumble down my cheeks.

  “I wish to see my Star Caster’s health,” Val says after repeating the rhyme that I now know so well. He smiles as he speaks, and I must admit that I kind of like this new version of him. I think that I would even like to be his friend at some point. And I look into his eyes, thankful for using his wish for Sterren. He didn’t have to do it. He had no reason to be kind to us. The only things that changed were his intentions. There was no talk about his heart or mind. There was no reason for this change of heart. But I’m not going to argue, and I’m definitely not going to bring it up either.