How to Save a Life
What really happened when Howl made the pact with Calcipher? Read and review please.
Author's Note: Lol. Wrote this in half an hour. Anyways time for disclaimers. I DO NOT OWN HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, CHARACTERS ETC.!
The summer air was still. The sky's reflection glittered in the calm water of the lake. Perfect conditions for star catching.
The falling stars swirled around me, like the fireworks at a party at the royal palace. Not that I would know anything about that, of course.
I sighed. It was said that if you caught a star, it would give you immense magical power. But that was just country folklore. People are so uneducated these days that they'll buy almost anything. I really didn't believe in stuff like that. Stars were just supposed to be large masses of gas and rock, weren't they? But, somehow this one thing seemed to have caught my interest. I just had to see if it was true for myself.
Then, it happened. One of the stars shot at me with incredible speed. I shut my eyes, tightly. This is the end. It's going to be the end for me. But to my surprise, the star slowed to a stop when it reached me, and gently landed in the palm of my hand. I cracked one of my eyes open, when I felt warmth surround the bottom half of my right arm. I was bewildered. Why didn't the star scald me, like it should? It's pretty much just a ball of fire now, isn't it?
I then realized that I didn't experience the surge of power I was expecting. So it was all for nothing. Soon losing my interest, I leaned down to drop the fallen star onto the green grass, but I heard a small, weak cough from somewhere nearby. I jumped, quite startled, and looked around for the someone, or something, that had made the noise. No one was to be seen. The only living thing in the area was me. But I still heard the same cough, again and again. I listened very closely, to figure out where the sound was coming from, and curiously raised the star to my face to examine it. Sure enough, as I lifted it to eye level, the cough got louder. "Help me…" I heard a weak, little voice say. It seemed to be coming from the centre of the star. "Help me…"
I smiled sadly, wondering if the little man inside the star could see it. "There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry".
"There is… one thing…" he said, as I began to feel fatigued. He must be drawing upon my energy to stay alive.
I raised my eyebrow in curiosity. "What is it?"
"It requires you to… sacrifice everything."
I thought for a moment. After losing my entire family in a pointless war, I thought I had lost everything. There was nothing more to loose, nothing more I could give up. After a few more seconds of contemplating on my decision, I nodded.
"Will you have any regrets?" the star asked me.
I scoffed silently. Regrets? Ha! This guy wouldn't know the meaning of 'regret' if it hit him blue in the face. But none of this showed on my face. I nodded again.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes", I said weakly. I was utterly exhausted at this point.
"Alright, then…" he trailed off. I involuntarily raised the star to my face, and opened my mouth. I wasn't in control of my body, and this thought scared me. What's happening? What's going on? When the star was at eye level with me, I stuffed it whole into my mouth. I could feel my throat and tongue burn, as it made its way down to my stomach. Then a pain erupted from within me, forcing me to drop to my knees and gasp for air. For a moment, I thought I could hear someone call my name, as if from the depths of time itself, as a blue fire burst from my chest into the palms of my hands. I stared in horror at what I had created.
I had obviously not understood the words 'regret' and 'sacrifice' in the right context. Sacrificing material possessions meant little to me, well, then at least. Now they were the only things to assure me that I was still alive, still existed.
My name is Howl. I am 21 years old and forever doomed to walk the earth as a heartless man.
Fin