(Chapter Twenty Five: Horror amongst the Stars: Part three)

Julia had no idea how long she spent talking to Allen, the guy was... surprisingly... nice. Of course, he was the kind of person who could talk on and on about certain trivial things, like his vast knowledge of the desert, different kinds of cacti, and snakes that reside there.

Julia twitched when he just started rambling about the time Zephyr was scaring her with those... reptiles. Though, unlike a few, the man was very perceptive and noticed right away to ceased that conversation.

He continued listening to what Julia had to say, learned that she wasn't originally magically gifted... but mutated due to the exposure she had at a young age. He listened to her talk about how she and MoonJumper became friends and eventually like family.

"That fact that he sacrificed himself to save you means he had changed very much..." Allen muttered out loud. "And all you did was be clueless and clumsy. But also, compassionate, and your willingness to help.." The wizard smiled at her. "I wish I was in control when we first met, it would have been lovely to have a friend... no- a little sister like you!" The man laughed at himself.

"L-little sister?" Julia gave him a strange look.

"We are but siblings-in-arms, aren't we? Chosen by the same master of magic." Allen shrugged, looking at her "Sorry, a silly thought."

"No, no... that's okay." The girl scratched her head, sighing. "Did... you have any family or siblings from before?"

The man hummed "the closes thing would have been my gang mates... that's about it." The man then tapped the table in thought once more "well, except our leader Delilah. She was... special to me." He then looked up with a kind smile "it truly is nice to talks to someone after so long."

During the conversation, a feeling, a sharp uncomfortable pain shot through Julia. It made the girl stand up in a hurry as she held her chest. Seeing this Allen immediately stood by her, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Are you alright!?" He asked

Heavy breaths came from her as Julia zoned out for a moment, then suddenly saying "I have to go." As she tried to make her way out the door inhabit, but Allen called out to her.

"Wait!" She stopped, turning around to look at him. "I'm assuming getting to me was rather... difficult. Take this!" Allen had tossed her a golden charm, something that looked like it came from a high-end jewelry store. "It's of my own creation, ever wondered how we got around so fast?"

The girl quickly inspected it, it was just a golden bracelet. Nothing too out of the ordinary. With furrowed brows, Julia looked back up at him "Thank you but we're in a dreamscape, how will I-?"

"Ah, if you're wondering how that will work. Don't worry! It will find you!" He then said quickly, "place it on your arm and spin it!"

Julia woke up startled, taking In breaths as she sat up. Her head was spinning as she tried to stand in a hurry. Placing a hand to her head, she was immediately greeted with something smooth and cold. In her hand was a golden bracelet and her breath hitched again.

"That really happened..." she whispered.

She remembered what he had said, and placed the bracelet around her wrist. It was odd, it seemed to float, like if magnets were stabilizing it in place. Julia then decided to do what Allen suggested and spun the golden bracelet; her thought was only of Gabriele and the studio.

Something was wrong.

Well, a few things were wrong. One, Reality seemed to have blurred around her, two was that Julia was being blinded by the sun, and three she was in front of Dead bird Studio. She nearly fell over from the sudden change in the atmosphere; from the cold and into the heat was a terrible feeling.

Julia shook her head however, no time to dwell on this, she had to hurry. Wobbly legs guided her over to the front sliding doors, then proceeded to make her way down. It took while but halfway down the stairway Julia noticed it was being crowded by staff members and the two directors. Half of the storage room was smoking and set off a wide alert.

People were putting out fires that were still trying to breathe, and Julia pushed passed a few folks to get a better look. Panic in her mind as she saw the state of the place. Gabriele was supposed to be meeting up with Button to make sure she was okay.

"Come on, come on!" She whispered, walking around charred debris.

"Hey, hey! Dolly under here!" Julia immediately stopped as she looked down, she was so caught up looking for Gabriele, she didn't see that Doppler was trapped under a pile of boxes. "Little help?"

With a flick of her wrist, Julia slammed down a barrier, breaking the already destroyed crates freeing the doppelgänger. "Have you seen Gabriele? Is he okay!?" She quickly asked.

Doppler just grunted, brushing off splinters, and shrugged. Julia just glared at them, walking off. Paying no more mind to them or why they were down here under rubble wasn't important to her. Holding out her locket charm, she tried to zone in on Gabriele's whereabouts.

She was using too much energy, she could feel it. The sudden jump to the studio was unexpected, not thinking that it would take that much from her. She could feel the familiar pain of the cracks on her face under the eye patch burning her.

The locket started to float, leading her in a direction. Her hopes started to rise as she hurried, the clacking of her shoes echoed in a quick rhythmic pattern. However, she stopped dead in her tracks when she found something she wasn't looking for.

The doctor's hat laid on the ground by itself, untouched by the fire but its owner was nowhere to be found. "Gabriele... where are you?" Julia whispered, walking up and carefully grabbing his hat like it would fall apart on her. She looked at it for a moment, face scrunched as she tried to hold herself together.

But she couldn't.

With a roar, Julia sliced the nearest objects with her strings. Boxes and some metal polls slid off of each other and crashed to the ground. Julia placed a hand to the searing pain now as she removes her eye patch from her face. She was frustrated that things like these always happen when she never expects it.

Gripping onto the hat with a desperate hug, she cried out, wondering what happened. Why couldn't she find him? Where did he go?

Julia sat alone in the attic, the light shining on her like the world was mocking her. Singling her out and putting a spotlight on her lone figure. If anyone else was in the room with Julia, you wouldn't be able to see her face, just that ominous neon green glow from her damaged face and iris.

It looked almost frightening.

Julia wanted to look for him, figure out how she could traverse the realms like MoonJumper, who still isn't back from his mission, and find where Gabriele could be. Perhaps he fell through a rift, or worse case of thought... he burned to ashes.

All she could do now was wonder and worry. To a point where it almost made her sick.

During the new week of recording, Julia had been very unresponsive during breaks once everything was back in order from the storage fire. The only time she talked to another person would be when she was acting. Everyone seemed worried but no one said anything. They noticed just how... unstable she seemed. Nobody was sure if it grew with each passing day or if it was just a trick of their mind.

The engineer hurried with her captain and the remaining soldiers, along with the space travelers that happened to come across their ship. They were running to the engine room, hoping that they could power on the escape pods and flee. The unseen enemy had grown stronger by the minute with each person abducted in a flash. No trace of the remaining; assumption was that this monster feed upon warm flesh.

"If we could get just a small part of the power back on, we might be able to evacuate a few." The engineer said, busying herself with wires that were needed to open a pair of jammed doors. Rewiring took work and sometimes, but the engineer was swift in her skill.

"There must be a way to defeat these monsters darling, I am not leaving my ship like this!" The captain said, looking at the engineer as she pulled away from the wires.

"Captain, with all due respect, look around, you only have one engineer, and your ship is in shambles." She smacked the door frame and finally got the thing working "even if we managed to remove ourselves of this monster, we wouldn't be able to survive another three days."

"S-sir, she has a point, we can't fix this problem now. It's far too gone." One of the soldiers said, looking around fearfully.

"We got to protect what's left of us, captain." Another one said.

At that moment, nerves were high, especially for Julia. When it was time for the monster to come out and claim another person for the scene, she had forgotten it was her for the next encounter. Her paranoia kicked her fight or flight on and she sure didn't run. No- her body took control and wrapped multiple different strands of strings around Doppler's form once they had lunged at her.

Most of which tied around the being's neck, malice in both their eyes. With an intense staredown only then Julia knew it. The being wasn't playing a role or acting for the scene. The doppelgänger was planning on hurting her. However, in the other's eyes, that's not what it looked like. To them, she was the monster strangling a person playing their part.

"Julia stop!" Melody cried out, stomping her foot forward.

Julia looked at her slowly, stopping the child in her tracks. The adult's eye patch had fallen off from the attack, giving the child a clear shot of her magic corruption. Everyone froze, but Julia snapped out of it once she saw Melody and Bonnie's face of terror.

"Darlin, are you..-?" Grooves tried to talk to her, she warned him about this, he never knew that it would happen. He thought she was stronger than this.

Kicking Doppler away from herself, she hyperventilated. She watched and backed away from the crowd of people.

"I.. told you she was a monster." Doppler chuckled but coughed out holding his neck that nearly came off.

The look Melody gave her was filled with so many emotions that Julia couldn't bear to stand in the same room with anyone. Julia needed to run. She needed to be alone. Like the world wants her to be.

Words didn't come to Julia as she bolted, Melody and Bonnie chased after her. The sound seemed to blur altogether as the tall girl quickly closed the door to the changing room grabbing all of her stuff, including her newly claimed charm, and vanished without a trace.

Melody had bashed the door open with her umbrella as she looked around with a sorrowful face.

"Julia..?" Was all she said as Bonnie placed a hand on her shoulder.

Julia found herself back in Subcon forest, deep deep in the woods. No minions, no Snatcher. Not a single being. Finally able to release her rage, Julia screamed out, a tight grip around her head as she held it.

Crouched down like she was hiding, a wave of energy lashed out around her, nearly slicing a tree down, but causing some major damage. If she hadn't had gotten out of the studio in time, she would have killed more then a few folks.

Once things had calmed down, Julia laid in a prone form, just lost in her thoughts once more.

Why was she like this?

How did everything end up to this?

She just wanted a friend and everything just escalated into something she could have or couldn't control.

She couldn't go back to the studio now. She couldn't go anywhere without having to face the kid and everyone else. They probably hate her now.

Back to being alone for now.

Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait on this one, I was taking a fandom break and indulging my Hollow knight stuff for a bit. I still am at the moment in all honesty. But we're slowly making onto the second part of the arc! also, sorry if this seemed rushed, I was at a loss on how I wanted to finish this chapter, though Julia has finally acquired her last charm that allows her to jump from a location to another.

Thank you OPFan37 for the review as always. Sorry if I don't answer your review this time when you see this. I'll update this later if I get around to it with the usual, but the chances are low right now.