Star Butterfly was keeping a steady pace as she walked towards the exit down the barely-lit school's main hallway, the sound of her own and Marco's steps being the loudest sound- and often the only one- there. At least, it would have been, had it not been for the fact they were talking at each other.
"A test on One Hundred Years' War already? I can't believe it!"
"Marco, relax, we didn't go through the entire book, it's not gonna be too hard." Star said with a small sigh.
"Of course not, that'd be worse, but that doesn't mean he won't get picky with events and stuff," he said while turning his eyes towards Star "remember, he's the one that failed everyone for not remembering about Italian wars and battles in the Dark Ages."
"Like the date of Charlemagne's Siege of Pavia?" Star winked and stick out her tongue.
"Ugh, yeah, things like that too." he blushed and groaned a little and she giggled in response. But as soon as Star set foot in the large atrium, she heard the echo of someone sobbing somewhere else.
"Huh? Why's there somebody crying now?" Marco turned his head towards its apparent source "it's coming from the corridor on the left, maybe…"
"So it's either in the bathrooms, the Special Ed room or the teachers' lounge and the offices," she resumed moving and, speeding up, she turned to the left "let's take a look!"
"Hey wait!"
Marco panted as he chased her, she opened the door of teachers' lounge but, noticing that the sobbing didn't get any louder nor seeing anyone present in the room, she shrugged and slammed the door close before running off further down the corridor; opening the Special Education's demi-classroom, only to find it as untidy and as smelly as usual, without as much as a trace of the usual inhabitants, thus dismissing it with a gag and a rushed attempt at closing the door; and, finally, opening the girls' bathroom, releasing a wave of strong-smelling floor cleaner along with the almost-blinding shininess of the light green glassed tiles and the eardrum-piercing cry that was coming from one of the stalls.
"This is definitely the place Ma-" she said, turning around to see a red-faced Marco slouching forward and breathing rapidly, stopping next to the doorframe to lean on it and catch his breath.
"I-I'm definitely out of shape." he muttered, before raising his head "Anyways, is that gal here?"
"Yep, now let's go look what's up with her!" she skipped forward to the stall whence the sobbing was coming from, knocking lightly on the door.
There was a choked-up cry, one that sent Star recoiling backwards and made Marco to turn around with a hop to set his hands in position to attack.
"Um… hello…you sound pretty distressed, what's up?" she said unsurely as she put her hand onto the oval flat doorknob. "Do you need any help?"
"I-I'd like to get some help, yes." the girl on the other side said, her crying coming to a stop. "C-come in, it's not locked."
Star hesitantly pushed the stall's door open, finally showing who has been sobbing: it was a girl with black and dark gray clothes that Star didn't quite recognize. Her head, full of dirt blonde hair, was lying on the toilet bowl's seat, she was sitting in a puddle of a pinkish sparkling liquid, her femurs pressed against her chest and her thin arms hugging her legs, with her right hand covered by several layers of soggy toilet paper that created a separate, transparent puddle.
"Uhuh. You look pretty scared, what happened to you?" Star said, blinking rapidly at the scene before her.
"A-a janitor… I-I guess he was one, came here I was leaving the stall and… and…" she let out a very audible whine and shuddered.
"And? Keep going, maybe we can find what to do for you." Marco said, peering into the stall like a curious crow.
"And he pinned me down and whispered things, like, really awful things, in my ears and, suddenly… I felt pain, a short one, but stronger than any other I've ever felt, in a very private place, and at the same time I saw the room turn into my bedroom. I was crying for help, but no one seemed to hear me as l lied there hurting and he was hovering over me with a toothy grin; then out of the blue, the place turned into a dark doctor's room where my legs placed on stirrups and he was a doctor with that one instrument in his hands, I felt very, very humiliated more than in pain by that point… but then I found myself hurting again… when that… hallucination ended he was gone." she turned her head around shakily, big red deer eyes showing beneath her messy hair.
Star gasped and set her hand in front of her mouth.
"You mean he…" she paled and the girl shook her head in response.
"No… at least, I don't think it counts, but he did something else," she, after breaking eye contact, carefully removed part of the makeshift bandage on her hand, hissing and whining while doing so, something that made Marco decide to get a closer look to her.
The skin the girl's right hand was purple-red, with yellow and black-coloured lumps placed in a way that formed a shield-shaped symbol on her hand's back, almost like a coloured cattle brand.
"At least I think he did," she said with a whimper while also extending it forward towards the two "I just know I didn't have this 'tattoo' or whatever on my hand before and it hurts a lot"
Star focused her gaze on the symbol, tilting her head as her mind tried to recognize what she was seeing on the girl's hand, before deciding to help herself and get a closer look to it.
"It looks like a escutcheon, black cross on yellow field," she said under her breath as she kneeled next to her, making the girl whine weakly due to the fact Star was using her right index to touch the symbol "it looks oddly familiar…"
"It does?" she asked with enlarged eyes and with a crack in her voice, retreating her damaged hand "How do you know?"
"Let's just say she knows a thing or two about heraldry, Brittany." Marco said extending his left hand to her "Now gimme that left hand."
"Of course, he got it from me, I know a lot about heraldry-" she paused, shook her head with a blush, then stepped aside, allowing Marco to help Brittany stand up by pulling her up with a fatigued huff and allowing her to place her arm on his shoulders.
"Okay, first things first, do you know this janitor?" he said, taking care to not touch the damaged hand "or at least remember how did he look?"
"N-no, I don't know him, I just thought he was one I've never noticed before," Brittany shook her head, her eyes still looking down "but I can remember how did he look: black hair everywhere like a gorilla, green eyes and a warty nose, and he was wearing jeans overalls and a red shirt."
"Yeah, I don't remember seeing anyone like him coming here regularly," Marco massaged his chin with the free hand "he must have been a plumber or a technician."
For her part, Star stood up and went next to the spot where she found Brittany. She saw a faint reflection in the puddle, but it soon became clear to her that, whatever it was, it did not belong there: she saw herself in the puddle, but her face was covered by a heavy makeup and her hairstyle was extremely elaborate. Stepping inside, she noticed that her boots appeared as high heels in the puddle and her clothes appeared to be a size too small.
"Where did I see this before?" she muttered to herself as she massaged her right temple "concentrate Star, concentrate."
"Alright, and when did this happen?" he asked with his head turned towards Brittany.
"I-I don't know, maybe half an hour ago?" she said sighing, moving her arm away from Marco's shoulders to lean against the wall "I'm just not sure, I can tell you that… this happened just after the last classes."
"Oh, the guy really chose the best moment, didn't he?" Marco groaned "Whatever, he isn't going to get away with this."
"Y-you mean go to the police?" she asked, her legs shaking again.
"Yeah!"
Brittany stared at him silently for a few seconds, before looking down again, shuddering.
"I'd rather not, I want to avoid more trouble right now," her fingers started to constantly shift as she briefly bit her lip, much to Marco's confusion.
"Why not?"
"I haven't been really touched and the way to prove it-" she interrupted herself to squeal and cringe in horror "I'd like to go home right now."
"No, we can't do that, Brittany, we gotta act now and let the police know." he said with a firmer yet calmer voice "Even without outwards signs, what happened to you must count for something. I'm sure it won't be too long, just follow me."
"Alright, if you insist." Brittany nodded and sniffled, clenching in her right hand.
By now, Star had now found a memory about a similar thing, something that had happened many years before, when she met a strange family that ate glowing food and that nibbling it caused her younger self to feel an incredible tummy ache and the following lecture by her mother.
"If I'm not losing my memory right now, this puddle may tells us a lot," she said glumly as she turned around and looked at Marco "like that whoever did this was hungry."
"Uhuh? What do you mean Star?" Marco said as he raised an eyebrow and tilted his head.
"The one that did that to Brittany wasn't a human, they were something else: they were a sufferan." she pointed at the sparkly liquid "this isn't water, it's residue from their feeding process."
Brittany stared with wide eyes at Star and Marco squinted his eyes.
"Excuse me but... what?"
"Oh, don't you worry, just gimme a sec." Marco went close to Star and whispered in Star's ear. "Hate to break that to you, but that liquid is probably something much less complicated and much ickier than magic remains."
"I tell you, it wouldn't reflect false images if it was," as she tried to speak in the lowest voice possible and not let out annoyance, she looked behind her, noticing that the puddle of liquid was reflecting Marco with a sleeveless open shirt and short shorts. "Just watch."
Marco rolled his eyes, as he looked down in the liquid, only to stare at his own modified reflection wordlessly, a frown on his face and wide pupils in his eyes.