Bring Back John Keats
Here I am shipping another rare pair, or at least pair that has never met…oh well. I own this story but none of the characters or the show…you know the drill.
"Janna bananaaaaa," Star cooed. "I'm really really really, extra super-duper sorryyy!"
"It's cool," Janna shrugged looking indifferent, but deep down they both knew it was not, as a matter of fact, cool.
Star rushed around Janna to stop her. In the middle of the school hallway for your information. The students behind them stumbled and grumbled when they had to move around. Neither of the girls paid any attention to their fellow students. "Janna, you know I didn't mean for bonbon to get sucked up by the abyss! Things just all happened at once and there was Ludo, and my book, and we're working on getting it back but I know you were SO excited for that ghost but then,"
"Star, it's cool. We'll be there when the next ghost comes around." Neither of them mentioned that it was likely there wouldn't be any more ghosts popping up for the heck of it. If there were, Janna would have already moved into the cemetery for the interesting company.
"J-Janna…" After the whole dance/clown/Ludo/missing book fiasco, after the initial worry over getting glosarick and the spells book back, things had settled down. As far as Janna knew Star and Marco were still working to get them back but Star's initial depression had calmed. Instead it was replaced with her worrying over wrecking the event Janna had been excited about for weeks.
Janna secretly wondered if her focusing on Janna was just her way of distracting herself from her own problems. If that was true, Janna guessed she could suck it up to help a friend out. With a sigh she said, "Hey, I'm sure that something crazy's going to happen in this town soon. Who knows, maybe someone else really IS going to come back to life. Heh, maybe this time they'll come back with rotting flesh and bones." Janna got malicious grins at the idea of a zombie haunting their school. A zombie apocalypse? Now THAT would be fun. I wonder how long we'd all last. Huh, Marco'd probably only last a day… Shaking her head she returned to the situation, Star's big blue eyes staring at her hopefully. It made her cringe. "I should really get to class. I've got to get to Mr. Turner's class before he opens his desk drawer."
"What did you put in his desk?" Star sparked up.
The raven-haired girl's grin could have sent an army of skeletons running in fear. "Nothing that can be tied back to me. Anyway, see ya star." Before Star could get another word in Janna slipped around her and strolled down the hallway, her eyes gleaming when she imagined the look on her teachers face.
Unbeknownst to her Star watched her friend go with a sad look in her eyes. She really wanted to make it up to her. According to Marco, it was lucky for a human to see a ghost even once in their lifetime. Weird, right? But if that was true, it was Star's duty as her friend to do something to make it up to her! But…what could she possibly do? If only there really were a few more ghosts popping up around town…Maybe if she was lucky there were a few zombies wanting to poke their ugly heads out of the ground-
Then a light went off in Star's head. Oh. Oh. OOOOOOHH. To those poor souls who were walking past her they felt an odd chill in the air when a dangerous grin spread across Star's face. Oh, this is going to be aMAAAAAzing!
"You're kidding."
Star's eyes narrowed, holding the printed picture up higher so it couldn't be ignored. "Nope. I want you to reanimate this guy back from the dead."
Tom raised his eyebrow at her while Marco groaned into his hand from behind her. Star and Marco had used the interdimensional scissors to pay an unsuspecting Tom a visit. Poor Tom HAD been in the middle of an anger management session when the two of them had jumped into his bedroom. Actually, it was more unfortunate Marco, as Tom had been getting his anger out and Marco had jumped right into a burning fire. After Tom had sent his counsellor away and before he could actually ask, Star had whipped out some portrait of an old dude and insisted for his retrieval from the underworld.
Unfortunately, it wasn't actually the first time it had happened.
"What do you want to get this guy back to life for?" Tom asked, giving the photo an once-over. The guy was handsome he guessed, but his hair was slicked back and weird, along with the old clothes that looked like they were made centuries ago. Unless they really WERE made centuries ago. Then again, the photo was pretty bad. "Who even printed this photo?"
"I did!" Star boasted proudly while the two boys wisely kept their mouths shut. "And I'm not doing this for me. I owe my friend for messing up her first ghost encounter, and she's had a crush on this guy for SOOO long!" Tom rolled his eyes. Oh great, another human who only wanted to reanimate a dead person. How incredibly original."Pleeeeese Tom?" She shot him the famous Star Butterfly twinkly eyed gaze which didn't affect Tom as much as it used to. However, it affected him as much as it would any other man.
He was defenseless. "UGH! Look, you know people don't ACTUALLY come back from the dead. It's only temporary, he'll have about 24 hours then he's back down here." Marco had learned that the hard way when he had been training with his idol and right when he would have landed a punch to the face the man disappeared and Marco was splattered on the pavement. Tom didn't bother hiding his laughter.
"Oh sure sure, that's fine," Star had brushed the problem away like it was just a speck of air. "I'm sure my Janna Banana won't mind as long as she gets to meet him!"
"She'll probably figure out her own way to get down here after meeting him," Marco muttered.
"What's a Janna banana?" Tom asked.
"She's my best friend! Well, one of them of course." Star grabbed her phone/mirror with her free hand and picked out a picture of her friend. "See?" Tom leaned down from the place he floated in air to get a better look. The picture was of a girl maybe a bit older than Star with short dark hair and slightly tanned skin. Tom took in the girl's brown eyes, the dark green beanie covering most of her hair and the cocky smirk that only showed on the right side of her face. She had the look that said she had just killed someone and gotten away with it. In the photo she had been leaning against what looked like a home-made coffin with the name JOHN KEATES written on the front. Well at least they would be resurrecting the right guy.
After a second a problem occurred to Tom. He observed the girls photo, then looked back to Star's printed photo, then the girl, then back again. The girl was wearing traditional earth clothes similar to Star and Marco, but the guy's clothes were centuries older. Probably 18th century or something. "Wait, hold it. She wants to resurrect her crush… who's been dead for over a hundred years?" Tom looked up from the poorly printed photo to raise an eyebrow at Star. "How old did you say this girl was?"
"She's my age."
"Uh-huh. And her mental stability…?"
"That's still up for debate," Marco answered for Star.
She ignored him. "She a little…eh…different than most humans," she told him, extending the word 'different.' "But for mewnie she'd be great! She's got an awesome fighting spirit!" Tom wasn't sure that was very encouraging.
Unfortunately he knew where the end of the conversation would go. "Hmmf. Okay, fine, whatever. I'd better get something good out of this."
"We can play video games later?" Marco offered. Tom raised an eyebrow. "…I'll let you win?"
"Cool, but no." Shaking his head Tom floated over to the elevators as Star and Marco followed. "Look, since I don't know this guy, we're gonna have to go find him." Marco froze at the idea of going through the underworld while Star perked up. "We're not actually going to go to the lower levels Star. We'll just move around some of the boring levels to find where he is then summon him."
While Star was less excited about the idea, another one came to her that made up for it. "Ooh, can we bring Janna with us? She'd love this place!"
"She'd belong in this place…" Marco sassed under his breath. Star ignored him, staring at Tom hopefully.
When he shrugged Star squealed in joy. "Oooh yeah. You guys wait here for a second," She ordered when she opened a gateway with her interdimensional scissors. "I'll be right back." And with a jump she was gone.
She'd left the door open so she and her friend could get back quickly. The two boys waited in front of the elevator doors for both the elevator and the girl that had connected the two. Tom wasn't an extremely patient person, but in the back of his mind he was at least grateful it was when he and Marco were friends instead of when they were enemies. He wasn't sure he'd be able to ever get Star on his good side if he burned Marco when the two of them were left alone. Turning to the guy he questioned. "Hey, you never told me what happened to the Naysay."
Marco had to take a second to remember. "Oh right, that guy. He's gone now, took care of that!" After a pause he narrowed his eyes at him. "That was a really crappy move there by the way."
"I told you that was before we were friends!"
"Still. The pain is still there." Tom's eyes glowed pink. "O-Of course, it's all in the past now!"
"What's in the past?" Faster than either of them had expected Star jumped back into the Underworld, tagging the dark-haired girl along with him. In human Tom took a second to observe the girl while she took in the sight of the underworld. Her hair was darker than he'd first pictured, almost as dark as coal. She wore dark clothes, a green shirt and beanie, bluish…green…something jacket, yellow skirt over black tights and big brown boots. Well at least the boots will be helpful in the underworld. Her skin was darker than he'd pictured, about the colour of copper. There was a look of awe and-strangely- appreciation as her big brown eyes surveyed the room. Tom's first impression was that the girl was nothing like Star and most likely nothing like the girls he usually liked. It was going to be a LONG day for him.
Lastly Janna turned to the demon of the hour. She took in the pointy teeth, grayish skin the colour of ash and-especially- the third eye that gave her a look that said, can we get this over with? All his clothes were ripped at the edges, including his black pants, wrist cuffs and the pinkish-red shirt that had a bright star in the middle. She appreciated the spikes on his belt and the brown boots. His pink spiky hair was set to the point she couldn't tell if gotten out of bed like that or done it on purpose.
If she had to be honest, she was a little disappointed. When Star told her she'd meet a demon she'd been expecting someone a big…not so human looking? He was handsome, but in the bad boy style. Bad boy, huh? Janna thought to herself. While she was a troublemaker, she'd never really wanted a 'bad boy.' She left guys like Oskar to Star or Jackie to deal with. Usually they weren't actually bad, just trying to look the part. Besides, whether she'd admit it or not, she kinda liked the dorky romantic guys. But all in all she loved scary dudes who knew how to laugh.
That's why John was great. Poetic, intellectual romantic, but also dead probably with maggots digging around in his flesh.
At first she'd thought the boy was wearing all red. But when she got a better look she realized his shirt, hair and eyes were all just different shades of pink. Well, the eyes may have been red, but other than that. Thanks to her secret love of pink she almost smiled. Pink! Before Janna could grin she remembered herself. Instead she stuck out her tongue. "Ugh. Pink. Are we in the underworld or are you taking me to a garden show?"
Marco held his breath while Tom raised an eyebrow. He couldn't remember the last time a human had been so blatantly disrespectful to his face. "And what are you supposed to be? Dressed up in camo to go digging through the mud?"
Star made an 'uhhh' sound in the background while Janna smirked. Not too shabby. Tom noticed he had been right, that her smirk only reached to the right side of her face. For a second he wondered what it would look like if she gave a real smile. "Better than going out to candy cane land to pick up some cotton candy for a fairy princess." That time Tom felt a little fire burn off.
"Oookay, anyway," Star hurried to get in-between the two. "Janna, this is Tom, demon of the underworld. Tom, this is Janna, ah…basically, earth's version of a demon!" She took a step back so the two of them could shake hands. Tom, while not happy about it, held out one hand for the girl to take. For a moment Janna just stared at him. Then, with a slow smile, she reached up to take his hand. When their hands met, Tom felt a little spark go off when they connected.
"What the-" he dropped his hand to realize the girl had what looked like a little buzzer in her hand. He stared down at the small red mark in his hand that he was sure would have sent a human to their knees. "Did…Did you just try to shock me?"
"Huh. I'd thought that would hurt more," She mused while Marco looked like he was having a heart attack in the background. Tom felt his own anger flow as the fire in him started to heat up. How DARE this human come into my house and- " So a demon of underworld huh?" Janna questioned, interrupting his thoughts. "Is that like a grim reaper? Man, what took you so long to come into my life? I've been waiting for you to show up for ages now!" Tom blinked back while Janna snickered.
His own anger seemed to die away just out of shear confusion. Tom raised his eyebrow at Marco. "Is she serious?"
Marco gave a weak shrug. "Just do what I do. Don't make eye contact and think before you act." Tom raised his eyes. Oh yes, because that kind of information was EXTREMELY UNHELPFUL.
Star gave a weak laugh, obviously seeing the flaw in bringing Janna along. "Sooo Janna, uh, remember how I told you Tom can get angry really easily?" Tom continued to glower at Janna while she raised an eyebrow at Star for confirmation. "Well, let's just all try and get along while we're down here, okay? We're just gonna go down the elevator, pick up your special poet guy and,"
"Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. You're gonna resurrect John Keats for me?" Before Tom could stop her Janna had grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him down to her height. "Dude! If you could do that I would TOTALLY sell my soul to you!"
"That's-not necessary," He cringed, pulling away from her in an instant. "I already don't think I want to spend more time with you than I have to."
"Aw come on, I can be pretty fun," Janna teased with a twinkle in her eye. "Just ask Marco." Marco was shaking his head saying DO NOT ASK ME.
Luckily they didn't get the chance. The ding went off and all four turned to face the winged red creature holding the elevator for them. Tom automatically reached out and slid the door open. "Ladies first," he sung, mostly talking to Star over Janna. Star gave him an appreciative smile before jumping in and plopping down on her seat. Janna's response wasn't a smile but just a raised eyebrow. "Huh. At least the demon's a gentleman." Over her shoulder she barked at Marco, "You really ought to learn from him!" Marco's jaw dropped while the girl hurried in, leaving a flabbergasted teenage boy behind her. Tom was surprised when he found his own mouth quirking up in a smile.
In the elevator, Star sat next to Janna, Tom with Marco. Unfortunately Tom and Janna were sitting across from each other with Marco and Star together. Tom's fingers burned at the two of them together but he reminded himself that not only was Marco his friend now, but Marco and his counsellor had convinced him it was a good idea to let Star go for both their sakes. Besides, Marco had some skateboarding girl. "Soooo…what's the plan here?" Marco turned to Tom with the look of a planner. "Are we going to have to fight off a bunch of soldiers? Run through fire away from boulders?"
Tom made a face at him. "Dude, this is my house. We'll just head to the registration office, ask for the guy to come up then I'll make a deal for his freedom for 24 hours."
Marco frowned. "Wait, what kind of deal,"
"Whoa, check out those gravestones!" The other three turned to Janna who was looked excitedly over the scene set out before them. They weren't dead so they couldn't directly visit the dead, so instead he was bringing them down to gateway, where souls would pass through to decide their fate. The gateway was built as if it was a wedding gone wrong, with dirk and mud on the ground, the chairs burned and decorations that were supposed to be happy were shredded with a dark aura around them. The main piece was the black gate where the alter would have been had it be a proper wedding. Janna felt her own mouth curl up in a smile. Oh this is my kind of place.
Tom had to blink twice when he saw the girls look. Whenever he made friends or had a date, he'd never bring him down to the gateway. Most were too freaked out by the sight of ghosts and dead bodies to ever see the place he worked. But Janna looked ecstatic when she gazed over the area as if it was better than any amusement park he could have brought her to. In the corner of his mind he realized he had been right when he thought earlier that her full smile would be much prettier than the smirk she gave.
"Oh man that is sick! Yo, kudo's to whoever thought of adding that wedding cake." She pointed to a molded, toppled wedding cake that had worms sticking out of it.
Tom allowed himself a moment of indulgence when he crossed his arms and smirked. "That was my idea."
Janna turned back to him, eyebrow raised. "Oh yeah? You a demon of interior decorating to?" Tom felt his chair burn while Marco tried to cool him down. Janna, unfortunately, noted the bits of fire that got caught on the seat. That, also unfortunately, picked her interest. "You know, while we're on the topic, you're not as...interesting as I thought you would be."
Star and Marco both held their breath. Nervously they both slowly trained their eyes on Tom, judging his reaction. Tom knew his eyes were glowing when he stared at the dark haired girl who had crossed her arms in front of him. "…What?"
"Yeah. I mean, demons are supposed to be these big, scary guys that no one wants to mess with, but you…" She gave him an once-over once again. "You're kinda…normal? Not that scary."
Star inwardly cringed with fear while Marco mouthed to her what are you doing? The seat around Tom had become blazingly hot and his eyes were glowing so bright the rest of the elevator looked dark in comparison. Tom may have been getting through his anger. Tom may have had no problems with his self-confidence, or his strength, and the naysay could do nothing on him. But say he wasn't scary? That was crossing a line.
"You wanna be scared?" He growled, his voice raspy and edgy as if there were two voices speaking instead of just his own. Their companions both shifted as far away from him as possible, thankful that they were getting closer to the ground.
Janna inched forward in her seat, anticipation written all over her face. "Oooh yeah. Bring it on pinky."
Snap.
That was the last straw.
"Fine! HOWS THIS?" The minute Tom lost control the entire elevator was set ablaze. Fire soared so high through the sky that it must have come out on the surface of the earth. The fire was so hot it blue from where he'd sat, burning everything else around him into a piece of rubble.
As the elevator dinged, opening the doors it revealed the still burning demon and the three humans protected by a pink shield made by Star Butterfly. When the doors opened Star and Marco both burst out of the cart, hugging the earth like it was a long lost friend. Tom, torched and set ablaze, slowly stomped out of the half-destroyed elevator while yelling at the creature to come back with another one. When he got out he stopped at the front, arms crossed. He waited for the sound of Janna's boots following him outside, then the elevator flying away. Dramatically, he turned towards her, being sure to maintain his glowing eyes and fierce glower. "So. Is that scary enough for you?"
"Dude…" Janna was staring at him, open mouthed. Tom prepared himself for a shriek of fear and then her running towards Star for protection.
Instead, what had been startled fear became a toothy grin. "That was awesome!"
Tom blinked. "It was?"
"Yeah! You can make fire whenever you want? I wish I could do that! Oh man, I was actually terrified! The last time I was that scared was when hungry Larry came over!" She laughed happily while it was Tom's turn to have his mouth drop open. Behind him Marco was just as surprised, needing Star to reach out and close his dropped jaw for him. "Dude, do you have to be angry all the time? Cause that sounds like it'd be a real buzzkill."
"I-I…" What was even happening anymore? Who exactly had Star brought down with her? No one had ever actually LIKED the fire. Most people hated it. Tom wasn't even sure what to do in that situation. "N-no…No, there is just always fire whenever I am angry. But sometimes it's there when I'm really happy, or whenever I summon it."
The grin never left the girl's face when she beamed up at him. "That's awesome. I've got to figure out how to do that myself. Can you control if it actually burns or not? That would be perfect scaring material…" The rest of her words were lost to him as he continued to stare at her. Never in any dimension had he met had someone been so interested in what he could do. No one had even asked if he could summon fire without the use of anger, not even his counsellor. Not only that, she sounded like she was excited to see him summon it without anger. Slowly, without thinking about it, he found himself automatically asking her questions, not even getting bothered when she edged towards annoyance.
From the sidelines Star looked from one to the other, her eyes glowing wide with realization. Slowly her hands raised and she made a heart with her fingers that focused on the two. Marco spotted her reaction and raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Star? What are you doing?"
Her answer was less than helpful. "I ship it like FedEx…"
Marco pursed his lips. "Ooookay…Uh, Tom?" the two pulled away from their conversation to look up at Marco. "The resurrection? John Keats?"
It took Tom a minute to realize what he was saying. "Oh. Oh right, yeah. Uh, follow me." The three hurried to trail behind him towards the gate, or otherwise known as, the alter. There was a line of ghosts trailing down the aisle, with harpy-like creatures keeping them in line. Luckily Tom led the three safety to the front, near a big wooden desk that held a large, rock like creature that had stone arms holding different papers in front of his eyes. "Hey. Dave."
The creature-Dave- looked up from his work. "Ah, Prince Tom! What can I do for you?"
"Hey Dave, I need to resurrect this guy for 24 hours." He gave him the picture of the poet. The rock monster narrowed his eyes at it for a moment. Then, to the human's surprise, reached into his desk and pulled out a small pair of glasses.
"Ah, the poet! Yes, of course, we'll have him right up." The monster turned to a harpy, barking orders at her to bring up the poet and get the necessary paperwork.
Tom turned back to his friends with a shrug. "Well, we got to wait for now. It might take them a while to find the guy, so we may as well sit down." They gave wary looks to the destruction that had used to be chairs. When they got over, Star piled up a few remains to make her own makeshift throne. Marco decided to stand, not want to risk getting dirt all over him. Janna went right ahead, pulling up the only one that would support her and kicked back her feet on another. Tom was going to sit down, but then after second thought, he instead summoned his own chair down there, placing it next to Janna.
As he'd anticipated, Janna watched him with fascination. "Man, you've gotta teach me some of that witchcraft." After a chuckle Janna changed the subject. "Wait, so you're the prince or something?" More for teasing than actual flattery Janna told him, "That's kinda hot."
"Or course I'm hot. Do you need a repeat of what just happened?"
"NO!" Marco held up his hands in surrender. "We do not." Janna snickered and Tom found himself snickering to. Star just watching the two in the background, little hearts of hope and anticipation in her eyes. When the other two went to talking Marco leaned over to whisper in Star's ear. "Star, what are you doing?"
"Don't you see the sparks flying Marco? This could be great!"
Marco glanced over at Tom and Janna talking together. Inwardly his stomach churned. "Yeah, two manipulative troublemakers working together. Star, that's a terrible idea!" When Star's gaze didn't falter he added, "Besides, aren't we here to revive Janna's crush?"
Instantly Star's face faltered. "Oh yeah…"
"Oh man, I can't wait to actually mean the John Keats!" Janna pumped her fist in the air in triumph. Then slowly Tom watched as she caught herself, then hurried to return to a careless pose. "Course, he's dead and all, so I'll only get to see him once." Tom raised his eyebrow at her obvious change in attitude. That was something he decided to note and put away for later.
"Whatever. The saying goes, 'the course of true love never did run smooth."
Janna cocked her head at him suspiciously. "Shakespeare. Didn't think you'd be much of a poetry guy." Instantly Tom felt his face get red, realizing he'd made a mistake once again. As she had he hurried to cover it up, crossing his arms and tilting his head upwards to appear powerful and dominant.
"I'm really not. That guy kept talking so much I ended up sending him into limbo. Some of what he said can never get out of my head." Janna watched his movements skeptically. She'd met enough people trying to avoid the truth to know he wasn't being completely honest with her. However she decided to let it go for better material.
"Makes sense. From what I heard, you're more of a 'love sentence' kind of guy."
Tom shot up like a firecracker. "WHO TOLD YOU? MARCO!" Marco jumped at the mention of his name. When he saw Tom's red eyes flashing he felt his own life flash before his eyes. I didn't even get to say goodbye to Jackie!
"No. I read it in his diary." That may have eased Tom's anger but Marco's sparked.
"What! How did you get that?"
"It was in your locker, I showed you." Marco sputtered aimlessly while Star giggled at his reaction. Tom snorted at the scene before turning back to find Janna staring at him. Her big brown eyes were unsettling, however if he had to be honest, warmer than he'd initially expected. That was, until she said, "You're kind of a dork, you know?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tom roared, making Star and Marco both return their attention to the conversation at hand. While they both prepared for defence Janna just lazily smiled up at him.
"Dude, chill. Some of my best friends are dorks."
It took Tom a moment to realize that while it was an insult, she had actually meant it in an affectation way. "…Really?" he remained suspicious, considering how the rest of their trip had gone.
When Janna caught his tone she raised her eyebrow, eyes darting around for some kind of explanation to his panic. "Uh, yeah? Why do you think I hang out with this guy?" she jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at Marco.
"Hey!"
"Well I guess you got a point." Both of them laughed, only barely noticing the harpy that flew over to the group. As she delivered her message Marco grumbled under his breath about their relationship being built on destroying him.
With a high pitched voice the women reported, "John Keats will be here shortly." Janna gave a very un-Janna-like squeal and jumped to her feet. Tom thanked the women before heading over to the desk once again to sort through the necessary procedures.
Before Janna could follow, Star had grabbed her shoulder. "What is it Staruhh…" She hesitated when she caught the little stars and hearts dancing around in her friend's eyes. "Uh…Star?"
"Sooo…" She practically sang, wrapping one arm around her friends shoulder. Janna cringed, not being a big fan of physical contact, but didn't fight back when her friend spoke. "You and Tom realllly seem to have a lot in common. Don't you think he's a…pretty cool guy?" She was biting her lip to keep from squealing.
Whatever it was that Star wanted to squeal about Janna didn't catch on. "Pff, who would like that guy? I mean, have you seen all the PINK he wears?" Quickly she threw her arm off of her and hurried over to the desk, leaving Star to her own devices. At first Star looked defeated, but in a VERY Star-like fashion, she returned to her usual sneaky self.
"Oh, I'm not giving up that easily…" At the desk, there was a bright flash of green light. All humans in the area (Aka, Marco and Janna) had to avert their eyes to avoid being blinded. When they opened again Marco let out a little shriek while Star did her job at identifying the new arriver as; the love rival.
John Keats looked very similar to his painting. His hair was held back in a small pony tail, wide eyes that glowed due to not being alive. His shirt was a white button up with the odd collar and a long jacket over top. His pants were black, going over his brown leather boots. Oh, and of course, there was the fact he had been dead. There was hardly any skin left, mostly just bones and the glowing aura that kept his soul there. Marco wanted to ask why his hair was even there. Didn't get the chance to talk over Janna's yells of delight. "John Keats! It's such an honour to meet you, I'm a huge fan!" Before anyone could stop her she'd run over to the very confused looking body, asking him for an autograph and what was it like having worms in his skull.
Of course Janna would be the only person to decide she could love a zombie.
Automatically Marco found himself standing next to Tom with Star coming up to his other side. Marco glanced at him, expecting his bored impatience at the situation to be evident. Instead he was surprised to find annoyance surfacing there. "THIS is the guy she likes?" Tom crossed his arms, his nose scrunching up as if he had an itch. "He doesn't look like much."
"Some girls like poetry man," was Marco's attempt at an answer. All it did was make Tom's fists clench tighter around his arms.
"Well I could write poetry." There was silence until Tom realized Marco was staring at him. "I'm just saying I could! So could a lot of people! It's really not that special."
Janna obviously didn't think so. "It must have been so cool being buried in Rome. I, ah, made a replica of your gravestone if you wanna see it."
John Keats still looked pretty confused. "I-I'm sorry, could you tell me where I,"
"Ah, Master Tom?" All eyes returned to the giant rock creature-Dave- at the desk. "There are a few more papers I need you to sign before I can release him."
Tom grunted in annoyance. "Sure, hold on." He headed back to the desk, sending an icy glare at the poet before getting there. Janna ignored him and went back to talking to the poet about his work and even more about his death. Marco cringed when he noticed the fire burning off of Tom's shirt when he signed the papers away. Star on the other hand felt her smile get wider at the sight.
"Sign here for return of soul within 24 hours…" Scratch scratch. "Here for damage to any earthen land not our duty to clean up…" Scratch scratch scratch. "And sign here for sacrifice and death of the signer…"
"Wait, WHAT?" Before Tom could sign Marco had grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him away from the desk, catching the attention of Janna and Keats. "What do you mean, death of the signer? Does that mean what I think it means?"
Dave made a face that they assumed was annoyance. "I don't see any other way it could be interpreted. To get one life you have to give another." The human-and mewnie-visitors all felt their jaws drop open in surprise. Geeze, if Marco's mouth dropped open one more time that night it was certainly going to fall off.
"Whoa, whoa. Back up." Janna rushed to the front of her desk where Tom had previously been standing. "Bringing him back means we gotta sacrifice this guy?" Janna jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at Tom. "That wasn't part of the deal!"
"Oh, don't worry about it," Tom replied. "I'm not actually being sacrificed. It will just feel like dying for 24 hours until he returns."
"What?" Marco exclaimed. "Did you have to go through this with Callahan?"
"Yeah."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"
Tom raised an eyebrow at him. "Why would I?"
"Because…you…we're friends….and pain….Gah." Marco hunched over. "You really need to learn how friendship works." Tom just looked perplexed.
"Okay, back up buddy, this demon dude isn't dying today," Janna informed him. The determination in her voice said she was not to be argued with. "Whether it's real death or not it sounds like it's gonna hurt. That wasn't part of the deal, and it aint happening."
Dave, obviously, did not agree. "You wanted a soul, this is what is required for you to keep the poet above earth for 24 hours. The necessary paperwork,"
"To heck with the necessary paperwork!" Before anyone could stop her Jann had grabbed the document Tom had been in the middle of signing and ripped the sheet in half. The sound echoed through the main hall, causing all the ghosts and harpies to turn to the desk in curiosity. Marco, Star and surprisingly Tom all stared at Janna in disbelief. With a stubborn nod she continued, crushing the paper into a ball. Next she turned towards the little trail of fire Tom left in his wake and tossed it in. The paper burned almost instantly, leaving nothing but ashes to remain. With that regular smug smirk she turned back to Dave and crosses her arm in triumph. "No deal."
The silence in the area was deafening. The only sound was the crackle of the fire that followed Tom wherever he went. All of them stared either the fire that had burned the paper or Janna who refused to fall back under their gazes. Star, on the other hand, watched Tom who was watching Janna. He was staring at her as if seeing her for the very first time.
Once his shock disappeared, there was a smile on his face.
Then, the silence was broken by Dave slamming his fists on the desk. "HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THE LAWS SET TO US DOWN HERE IN THE UNDERWORLD?" None of them even had time to react. Janna couldn't even apologize before Dave hand pulled his hand back, then swung it around.
Tom couldn't even decide what had happened. One second Janna was standing there, proud and strong. The next moment she was lying on the ground five feet away, struggling to get up as the pain in her arm sent her back to the ground. Marco was rushing to her side to make sure she was okay while Star was pulling out her wand preparing to attack. Dave had rushed around the desk, preparing to charge at Janna again while the zombie of John Keats continued to wonder what he was doing here.
Janna's hair shifted, revealing a red mark that would soon turn into a bruise appear on her cheek.
Tom saw red.
"Sorry we didn't get to bring John Keats back with us," Star apologised as the got off the elevator back into Star's room. Marco helped Janna get off, his sweatshirt being used as a blanket over her sore arm. Apparently it wasn't broken but would bruise for a while.
Tom followed close behind, brushing off the small rocks that had landed on him in the destruction.
"Aw, don't worry about it Star. I got his autograph and I gotta see a big rock monster explode! I don't even know how you did that!" She turned back to Tom with glee. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, trying to avoid the burning sensation in his cheeks.
"I…got really mad I guess."
Janna smirked once again. "Yeah, well, getting mad to protect aint a problem." She walked further into the room so they could avoid the cold night air. As she did she made conversation with Tom again. "So you still want my soul or something? Not sure I've got one to give."
"Oh, ah… that whole thing doesn't work the way most people think. It just means you'll need to spend some random amount of time down in the underworld. Probably would have been 24 hours since that's what you wanted. Sometimes I could torture people, or just hang out or make them look at scary stuff…"
"Or teach them witchcraft."
"Or teach them…" Tom paused. "I get the feeling that would be a very bad idea."
"Aw come one! Just a little bit!" Reaching into her jacket pocket she pulled out what looked like a small, black and red piece of metal. "I'll give you your little bell back."
Tom's eyes popped open. "My bell! How did you…" He went searching through his pockets, trying to find the emergency bell he always kept on him. Before he could ask questions Marco came up to him and put one hand on his shoulder.
"Don't." he shook his head, sympathy in his gaze. "Don't even try."
Janna snickered while Tom looked absolutely dumbfounded, completely aghast at the possibility that a mere mortal could have stolen something from him without him even noticing. Marco and Star were convinced he would blast the room to smithereens for the indignity of it all. Then, to their surprise, Tom straightened. "You know what? You keep it."
Even Janna's eyes widened at Tom's answer. "Whoa…really?" In the background Marco whispered how his counsellor must have been doing a really good job.
"Yeah. It's no big deal anyway. Just a way to contact me if you want to see more ghosts or something." He turned away, running his hand through his hair in an attempt to look cool. "I gave the same thing to Star anyway."
"Hey, I thought that was supposed to be a special gift!" Star complained.
Instantly Tom hurried to defend himself. "O-oh, it really is, but,"
"And you're still giving it to me?" Janna asked, raising an eyebrow in speculation. All eyes were on Tom as he desperately searched his brain for some kind of explanation that wouldn't get him in trouble. Then, before he could give that explanation, Janna walked over to him and kissed him on the cheek. "I guess I'll be seeing more ghosts in the future then," she turned away, not noticing Tom's face burning to the point he may as well have been on fire.
Besides, her own face had started blushing enough that they matched.
To avoid any questions she hurried to say, "I should get going. It's late, and I got to wake early to break into Fergusons locker before he wakes up." gingerly she walked over to the door, dropping Marco's jacket on the ground as she left. After a pause she glanced back. "Guess I'll see you around pinky."
Tom was too stunned to get mad. All he could manage to form into words was "…My name's Tom."
Janna glanced back only enough so he could see her smirk. "I know." Then the door shut behind her.
A few days later none of them had spoken of the incident again. Janna had yet to use the bell, pretending it wasn't her nerves getting the better of her by saying she wanted to finish a few pranks before she asked him about witchcraft. Truth be told, she felt her own heart sag at the memory. Maybe it was because she hadn't gotten to keep John Keats for a day. Star wondered if she was upset because Tom hadn't contacted her at all.
On the third day when the events may as well have passed from their minds Marco came back to school with a package. "Hey Janna, Tom wanted me to give this to you." He slid the red box onto her desk, catching her attention away from her master plan. Star leaned over curiously while she undid the bow on the top. When she opened the box the fellow students in the room let out squeals of horror.
"Ew, gross!" Marco shrieked, falling back in his chair. "Did he send her a heart?" Janna didn't reply. She stared at what looked like an animal heart lying in a metal box on her desk. Star felt her spirit crumble, her expectations destroyed by just one careless action on Tom's part.
Slowly, Janna lifted the box off her desk to get a better look at the vital organ. "Is…Is this his version of a valentine or something?"
"Um…."
"Cause I love it."
"Yes!" Star jumped up with glee.
Janna let out one of those rare, genuine grins. "I think I'm gonna ring that bell thing tonight. Did you say he likes video games?"