He looked down upon Tom, his face expressionless. Then, as he took two steps towards him, his stern and stuck face had clenched up as he let out a growl, almost as if he was disapproving of Tom. His face might have been strict with a nasty snarl, yet as I looked over at Tom's, his face was filled with worry and almost fear. I saw him swallow the fear hard down his throat and try to gather up his inner strength.

"You've gotten a lot softer since I last saw you." His dad said in a low demonic grumble. I could practically feel the vibration of his voice as it shook the ground from where I stood.

If there was one thing that I learned about Tom's relationship with his own dad, it was that they weren't really close. His dad was strict, uptight, and, without a doubt, frightening. He had his way of letting you know when he was coming. It was the kind of feeling you got when your whole entire body went stiff and you would most likely never forget the feeling. I shivered at the presence of him, towering over Tom, twice his height as he held a vicious, jagged-toothed half smile. I could clearly see the disgust and disappointment on his face.

Tom's dad, King Lucitor, King of all of the Underworld, was like an immovable mountain. You could never shake him or break him or even catch him by surprise. He remained unimpressed and no matter how hard Tom tried, it was never good enough. As for Tom it clearly showed how pressured he was to be just as gruesome a king as his dad before him.

Basically, to sum it all up, if Tom had fallen into the lava pit instead of me, his dad would have stood and watched as his own son burned. I had never seen a soft side from him, not even if that soft side was Tom. I guess it was accurate to say Tom and his dad had a tough family love, though I hardly saw the love part.

"What are you doing here?" Tom said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "I thought you wouldn't be back until -" He was cut off when he noticed his dad's stare, his eyes slowly moving to me now. It made my stomach uneasy, the way he didn't turn fully to get a good look at me but instead gave me a hard side glare.

I had only met Tom's dad once, yet he was just as uptight and unmoving as I had remembered him to be. When Tom introduced me to him, he did not seem glad to see me nor did he seem nonaccepting, though I wasn't sure. The slightest of an actual reaction I've ever seen out of him was when Tom told him that I was the Princess of Mewni. Only then did he raise an eyebrow and a quiet, short chortle erupted from his throat. I wasn't exactly sure how to take that, still expecting him to say something but he never did.

Now, he stood in front of me and as he came closer to get a better look at me, he brought his face just inches away from mine until I felt him breathing and letting the air out through his nose, letting it blow off on me as if he was a bull about to charge. His eyes penetrated through my own eyes with an intense stare. Then he pulled away from my face and he laughed a sinister laugh.

"You've sinned gravely, little one." The heat of the Underworld began to burn my lungs with a stinging and as he laughed more, I felt the ground rumble and my legs wanted to give out from underneath me. His laughter echoed through my ears, bringing my whole body to a wavering state. "An angel and a demon?! Hasn't anyone told you?" He brought his face back to mine, his voice reaching a low volume. "Falling in love with a demon is a sin, sweetie."

The heat now rose to my face and I dropped my head, feeling as if I had been exposed. How did he know? My sin, was it noticeable? How did he see through me like that?

"Dad, you remember Star, right?" Tom's loud and passive aggressive voice rang in which shut up his dad somewhat quickly.

To that, he said, "Hm, I thought you looked familiar." After a moment of silence and thought, his eyes transferred to Tom and then back to me. "Excuse me, Princess. I didn't know -"

I shook my head, knowing if I wasn't royalty, he wouldn't have ever apologized. "I-it's fine. I... need to sit down."

To my remarks, he agreed. "Yes, why don't we get you inside and settled." Seriously, if I wasn't royalty, Tom's dad would have already torn out my organs and served them on a platter or whatever cruel things he may have had in mind. He was sugar coating his fake kindness, I could tell. Still, I accepted and followed him inside the castle doors.

...

The bedroom was just like all the other rooms in the castle except this one had dust covering the bed's side tables like a blanket. Occasionally, I'd see a cockroach crawl out from underneath the bed and I would put my feet up on the bed, away from the edge as if I was afraid one might find my foot and scurry up my leg.

The whole bedroom was dimly lit, almost dark but I guess when you're a demon, you start to get used to the darkness underground. There was only one single torch lit up in the bedroom I sat in. It calmed me as it flickered and danced. Its light was just enough though to see as much of the Gothic Victorian styled furniture as I could.

The bed frame color was a dark walnut tone and the bed itself was huge. It could probably hold three people at once. It was a canopy bed too, one with long dark burgundy drapes to add to the drama. The style and pattern of the bed also pretty much continued throughout the room. On the side tables on each side of the bed, instead of lamps, there were candleholders with candlesticks that were lit as well.

From beyond the closed door of the guest bedroom, I could overhear the commotion of mumbles, Tom and his dad. I attempted to block them out as best as I could, even going around the room and looking at the contents on top of the dresser. There was an old jewelry box with a crippled and creased, as if to be folded down the middle, photograph of Tom. He was still a baby in the photo and appeared to be grabbing at both of his short, not yet fully grown horns. As he smiled, his only tooth present was his sharp tooth at the far right side of his mouth, hanging out from his bottom lip, noticeably.

I picked up the picture, unable to hold in a chortle at his goofiness. Unfortunately, this was not the Tom I knew today, as he was much more aggro and dark. After a while of tuning the mumbles out, I realized how they became slightly louder, catching my attention.

Tom sounded serious and worried as he spoke. He sounded as if he was suddenly struck with sorrow. As I now listened in, I wondered what could be worrying him. Through the crack in the door, I tried to get the best view I could of the two of them, although all I could see was Tom's back.

I didn't dare push the door further out or I might be spotted for my snoopiness. I felt a little too uncomfortable to breathe, feeling like if I breathed too loud, they would know I was there, spying in on a conversation that I wasn't meant to hear.

"D-Dad, I-I can't." Tom stuttered.

"I'm not giving you a choice here, son." His dad mumbled. He took Tom's right hand, placing something in the palm of his hand before closing it and making Tom hold it in his hand. "You have to."

"But-" Tom was cut off, as he was not finished speaking.

"This is what you've been training for your whole life. It's now or never." There was a lengthy pause before he spoke again. "Now, go. She's waiting."

I lunged myself away from the door as quickly as I could. My heart began to roar as my stomach knotted itself and my mind quickened all at once. My frantic hands found out that I hadn't put the photo of Tom back where I had found it and as I began to do so, more light came into the room from the doorway.

The door had opened and with it, I felt like I had been caught, staring at the figure in the doorway like a deer in the headlights. As the door's hinges squeaked, my heart wanted to scream out in fear. Tom's silhouette stood there, turning his gaze onto me.

I wasn't sure what to say, so instead my mouth hung open.

"Hey." He grinned nervously, breaking the silence between us.

"Hey." I said, though my voice got caught in my throat. When I cleared it, I retried. "Hey." I sounded more casual this time.

When he came more into the room, I noticed he was fidgeting with something in his tux pocket, the same hand that his dad had used to plant a small object in. I found myself staring in the direction of it and when I did, he pulled his hand out of his pocket, empty-handed.

"Is... everything okay?" I questioned.

"Huh?" Tom said, my question bringing him back to reality after being lost in thought. Then, almost immediately, he went on. "Uh, oh, yeah. No. Everything's... fine. Great." He rambled on, telling me that something really was wrong because he was rambling.

I breathed a laugh through my nose, not knowing what else to do. Just as I did, Tom sucked in a long breath, not letting it out. He took my hand and held it in his, looking up at my face as if searching for a reaction. Finally, he reached into his right pocket and felt around for the object, pulling it out and holding it out in the space between us.

The sight of its shining, translucent jewel could have made me faint on the spot. I held onto the canopy of the bed frame to keep myself on my feet and I waited for my dizziness and blurred vision to subside. I took a step back as I couldn't help myself but gaze down at the diamond ring. I shook my head continuously but he went on.

"Star..."

"No." My voice hardly came out, a fearful whisper. "No. No, I can't!" Tears began to crawl up my throat and I turned to the ground and looked up, hoping for the ring to be just an illusion or hallucination but it wasn't. It was still there.

"I-I'm sorry, Star. I don't have a choice." With his hand in mine, he brought the ring up to my finger and slid it on. I fell to the floor, my body shaking and the tears coming out and rolling down my face. I hated the way it fit around my finger, a perfect size. I hated that it had to be Tom's.

He pulled me into him, feeling my sorrow and, for once, I actually sensed his sympathetic side. My head laid on his chest as he took in uneven breaths and I could tell he was trying to keep his sadness deep down.

Tom didn't utter a word but only pulled my loose hair behind my ear and out of my face. I sat there, crying into him for a while as he cradled me on the floor.