This is as soon as the movie is over…

Sophie stepped out of her room and glanced at Calcifer who was playing helplessly with a log. Her heart sank as she thought about how she'd caused all of this. She shut the door with a click and Calcifer glanced over but did not smile. "So," he began. "You finally came to your senses?"

She gulped guiltily and looked down at her feet. "Uh… yes. I realized how stupid I was being. And I'm sorry for that, Calcifer…" she attempted a smile. "I don't know why I was acting like that. I guess the magic corrupted me; the same way it had happened to Howl not long ago and… and I apologize for that."

Calcifer looked at her for a moment as if studying her carefully. Then, finally, he grinned at her gratefully. "It's not me you should be saying sorry to, Sophie. I forgive you, but I think you really need to see Markl now. He's really upset."

Gasping, she remembered what she'd said to Markl earlier. How horrible she'd been to him. Sophie turned quickly and rushed up the stairs as fast as she could. Outside the door to Markl's room, she could hear him crying but trying to be silent. She swallowed and quietly pushed the door open. Markl didn't seem to hear it because he had his pillow over his head to muffle the sound. No doubt he didn't want to make Sophie shout at him again.

She bit her lip and held out a trembling hand to him. "Markl?" she whispered but didn't think it was loud enough for him to hear. "Markl?" she said again, gently laying her hand on his shoulder. She felt him hiccup slightly but stop for a second. Slowly, he removed the pillow and took a little peak.

He stared a while with swollen red eyes. "A-are you… are you really Sophie?" he asked as if he thought she was just an illusion.

Trying to make her smile seem as warm as possible, Sophie looked back at him with gleaming eyes. "Yes, Markl. It's me. And I'm so sorry for-" before she could finish what she was trying to say, Markl threw his arms around her, partly to make sure she really wasn't just an illusion and mostly because he missed her so much.

"Don't ever leave us again, Sophie! I missed you!" he said desperately, still crying into her shoulder.

Sophie quickly sat on the bed and cradled him back and forth comfortingly. She hugged him tightly, overwhelmed by guilt. Markl continued to cry. The more he cried the tighter Sophie hugged him. "Shh…" she said soothingly, laying her head against his. "It's okay, Markl… you don't have to cry anymore; I'm here. I always will be here…"

He sucked in a few more breaths and tried his best to stop his tears falling anymore. "Will everything be back to normal again?" he asked quietly.

She felt a thoughtful smile creep onto her lips. "Of course, Markl. I promise." She pulled away to look at him. "Will you do me a favor?" she asked.

Markl blinked the last of his tears away. "Okay… what?" he asked uncertainly.

"Help me clean up? And after that we'll go buy food, okay?"

The boy broke into a smile and hugged Sophie again with excitement. Things were finally going right. With her hand clasped tightly to Markl's, Sophie led the way downstairs. Calcifer was sitting there, watching the place where they came down and was grinning as if it was something he'd anticipated. "So, how's it going?" he asked happily. Then he jumped – or struggled to anyway - into the bucket with a log in it, looking at her innocently. "So, um… you wouldn't mind starting here, would you?"

Sophie laughed and picked up the bucket and set it aside. "It'd be my pleasure." But for a second, she looked around, puzzled. "But… where's Howl gone?"

The flame quickly glanced at Markl unsurely. "He's, uh… just stepped out for a second. I'm sure he'll be back soon," he smiled but his eyes were full of worry. Sophie could tell but thankfully, Markl couldn't. They couldn't tell him or he'd worry so she cleaned the house furiously to keep her mind off of things.

Plus, Sophie had a promise to keep to him. She couldn't break it so quickly.

Markl got to clearing away the old food from the table – which was basically everything that was once edible. He could've sworn he saw the odd rat scurrying behind the table but ignored it. Howl hadn't been back yet and he was beginning to worry. Markl occasionally glanced over at Sophie to see if she was being bothered by these thoughts of Howl too but she seemed to be concentrating more on the cleaning like always.

Within four hours, the entire house was spotless. Everything had that gleam to it. But Sophie was only vaguely aware of it. She was still thinking about Howl. Anything could have happened to him. And she thought that Markl wasn't aware of any of this.

They'd sat down to eat. Sophie had absentmindedly made Markl bacon since she knew it was his favorite. He ate quickly but only in search of comfort since thoughts of Howl were still haunting him. A pain in Sophie's chest kept sending blows to her heart every so often even when she wasn't thinking of Howl – he was still on her mind even though she didn't know it and it was hurting her.

Calcifer could sense the tension in the air and felt that he had to calm things down. The only thing was, he wasn't quite sure how. "Hey, guys," he said, hoping something would come to him quickly. "Uh… you've done a pretty good job. The house has never been this clean before."

Sophie could see what he was trying to do and decided to play along for Markl's sake. "Yes – we make a pretty good team, right, Markl?" she asked, hoping he wasn't thinking of Howl too.

"Yeah," he smiled trying to hide his depression. He didn't think that either of them had Howl on their minds and didn't want to bring him up. "We sure do."

"You should think about redecorating," Calcifer added, trying to keep the conversation going. "I was thinking pink for the fireplace."

The two exchanged looks and grinned as they shook their heads at him. "Pink?" Markl laughed. "What are you – a girl?"

Sophie crossed her arms in a fake huff. "Excuse me? So I suppose blue is just for boys, right?"

"Well, yeah," Markl smiled. "That's how it's always been."

"Who taught you that?" she asked.

"Howl did – he…" the boy stopped talking abruptly and stuffed a piece of bacon in his moved, mentally cursing himself for bring up Howl again when things were going so well.

The room was plunged into silence again. Sophie stared down at the floor, hoping no one else was feeling as awkward as she was. She blamed herself for asking that question – if she'd thought of something else to say, Markl and Calcifer probably wouldn't have worried – well, that's what she thought. But she couldn't just let herself forget about Howl like he wasn't even a part of the family because she knew he was and it would be wrong to just try to cover up thoughts of him. She sighed and stood up. "Calcifer – where did Howl go?"

The flame blinked at her. "Why?"

"I want to go look for him – something terrible might have happened to him." She knew she shouldn't say anything like that in front of Markl but she couldn't keep the truth from him for that long. "Where did he go?"

Calcifer thought for a moment. "Well… I don't know exactly where he is but even if I did, it'd be far too dangerous for you to go get him."

"Calcifer, I don't care. I love Howl – I won't let any sort of danger keep me from finding him. Now please, just tell me where he is…" Calcifer could see the desperation in her eyes and felt guilty.

He sighed. "Look, Sophie, I'd really love to tell you where he went but I honestly don't…" he stopped abruptly. His eyes were stuck in the same direction so he almost looked like an ornament.

Sophie and Markl stared at him for a moment, unsure what was wrong. He wasn't looking at anything in particular so they guessed he was thinking. Then the flame looked down at himself and shook his head in disbelief. "Oh no…" he muttered.

The two looked at him, expecting a reason for his sudden silence. Markl quickly noticed that something was wrong. "Calcifer, are… are you getting… smaller?"

He gulped uncertainly. "Something's definitely wrong with Howl. I can feel it."

Sophie's right eyebrow rose in confusion. "But… but I thought Howl got his heart back. How can you still…?"

"Because I'm still a part of him. I always will be. I mean, when you give someone your heart to look after it doesn't just go away as soon as you take it back. There'll always still be a connection," he explained. "But Howl is definitely in trouble."

Sophie's heart pounded hard inside of her. They didn't know where he was and was probably hurt – they couldn't do a thing. She'd never felt so useless. Markl just bit his lip, unsure what to do, unsure what to say, even what to think. It seemed to him that everyone was hurting but he was the only one that wasn't much. Calcifer was a part of Howl and knew what he was feeling, Sophie was in love with him but he was just sitting there, unable to do anything.

The door was open, smacking against the wall. They all gasped and looked in the same direction. Slowly, Howl began to emerge looking like he was sleepwalking. But he wasn't asleep – in fact he was hardly walking; his legs seemed reluctant to pull his body in.

A horrible cold chill ran up Sophie's spine. She'd been in her room feeling sorry for herself for so long that she didn't see the change in Howl. Sure, he was skinny already but now she could see the outlines of his bones. His skin was ghostly white. The way he walked made him look like a puppet on strings. He looked dead. Sophie bit her lip with anxiety as he dragged himself past her. He didn't look capable of acknowledging anyone so she kept quiet.

But before Howl reached the stairs, he stopped. He collapsed.

\/\/\/\/

Yes, I know it's short and took me a bloody long time to write and upload and therefore making me a moronic asshole. Love you all for not giving up on me!

Oh Yeah! First double digit chapter! WHOOT! :P