Today didn't feel like a good day. The moment I opened my eyes, I felt like shit. I thought I was sick, but I still, for some reason, forced myself to go to school. I tried paying attention in class, but no matter how hard I focused on my teachers and the lessons they were teaching, I would lose track of time and wouldn't even remember what I was taught. I even blacked out once. One moment I was in math class, the next, I was sitting in my last period, five minutes left until the bell would ring. A gutwrenching feeling just nested it's way into my stomach and it wouldn't leave. I felt terrible and probably looked it too. Eventually the bell rang, and I, with Star, Marco, and Kate, started to walk home. For whatever reason, we had always walked home even though we rode the morning bus. It had become a tradition at this point, and we passed it down to Star as well.

My suspicions about my looks were confirmed when Star walked up next to me. This snapped me back into reality making me realize that we had already walked half the distance home. She didn't say anything at first, but I could feel her gaze on me. I didn't feel like looking back and if I'm being perfectly honest, I didn't feel like talking either. "Hey..." she eventually said, her gaze leaving me.

I sighed, "Hey."

There was a moment of silence, "Are you feeling good? You've been really quiet today..."

For half a second I considered telling her the truth. I quickly changed my mind, "Yeah... I'm good. Just not in a talkative mood is all." I needed to change the topic, I didn't want to make her worry. I noticed that Stat had a red headband in her hair, it had two horns sticking out of it. "Where'd you get that headband?" I asked before she could ask me anything else.

"Oh," she pointed at it, "This little thing? My ex gave it to me on this day, so I thought I'd wear it for old time's sake. Why? Do you not like it?"

"No no, I actually think it fits your outfit really well. I was just curious is all."

She smiled, "If that's the case, I'll wear it more often."

I wanted to ask her more about her ex, but I decided not to push her in case she was still hung up about. Eventually, Kate and Marco joined in on our conversation. For the rest of the walk, I had a smile on my face. I don't know how, but they were always able to cheer me up. Unfortunately though, my smile vanished when I walked into our house, replaced once more by that feeling. The sound of running water echoed from the kitchen, so I assumed mom was home. I walked into the living room, the encumbering feeling of tiredness hitting my eyes as I did. I looked to the couch, to my surprise, dad was sitting there. He was chowing down on a bowl of nachos while watching TV. Dad was the chef of the house, after all, he is the one who passed down the recipe to Marco. Seeing as the couch was taken, I collapsed into one of our reclining chairs. Dad seemed to notice my lack of a greeting since I would normally greet him, he paused his show and turned to me, "Are you feeling well Hijo? You look a little pale," Dad said, flexing his Spanish skills without even realizing it.

I never picked up on Spanish, mainly because I never paid attention when mom and dad would attempt to teach me it, but I was trying to learn it now. I knew that word, it meant son. I sighed, "Do I really look that bad?"

"It's less about your looks and more about your attitude," he looked over at his bowl of nachos, "On a normal day, you'd come and help me finish these nachos," he turned back to me, "But it's clearly not a normal day today."

I sank further into the recliner, "I think I just have a stomach bug."

He thought for a second, "Well, as long as you don't puke on the rug, I'm fine with you being in here." He unpaused the movie, "You should probably consider staying home tomorrow," he added before resuming what he was doing before I walked in.

I heard a pair of footsteps echo from behind me, "Hey Mr. Diaz," Star's voice echoed before I could see her, dad waved at her. Eventually, she walked by me and took a seat in the armchair in front of me. She stared at me, I awkwardly stared back. "You look tired," she eventually said, "You shouldn't force yourself to be down here if you'd rather be in your bed."

I smiled, it was nice to know she cared. "No, I'm fine. I'd rather be down here anyw-"

A headache hit me like a truck before I could finish. It was excruciating, nearly bringing tears to my eyes. My reflexes kicked in and I grabbed my head with all my strength. The feeling in my stomach started to swell up further, it felt like it would explode. My vision filled with static and my hearing had become a constant ringing. Underneath it all, I could hear a clock. Tick... tock... tick... tock... it echoed. Tick... tock... tick... tock... it repeated on an endless loop. Even though I had only heard it for a short time, I was already at the brink of my sanity. The clock started to fill my vision, slowly increasing in size with every "tick." Then, the sound of a bell broke into the uniformed noise, Ding... Ding... Ding... Ding... the clock emitted as I felt something attempt to "leave" me. It was being sucked out of my being with record strength. I tried to resist whatever was attempting to suck it out, but with the sound of pop and my senses returning to normal, I felt an emptiness where something once stood.

Landin was still griping his head, his eyes closed tight and a strong frown sitting on his face. Me and his dad both stared at him, I couldn't speak for Mr. Diaz, but I knew I was worried for him. Right before I was about to stand to check on him, he finally opened his eyes. He stared at me blankly as he lowered his hands back to his sides. He glanced around the room, almost as if he was looking for something... or someone. He stood up, his legs visibly wobbled in response. He looked down at his hands, examining them like they were alien life. It seemed as if he forgot we were there entirely. Eventually, Mr. Diaz broke the silence for me, "What's the matter Landin?" he asked.

Landin slowly looked up from his hands, he never fully gave him eye contact. "I-" he paused for a brief moment, "I don't know." Something about his eyes seemed strange, but I never quite put my finger on it.

He looked like shit, "You need to get to bed, you obviously aren't in any good condition," I said.

He didn't look at me but I could feel that I had his attention, "Maybe-" he took a few steps forward, nearly losing balance in the process, "Maybe you're right."

I walked over to him, "Here, let me help," I put his arm around my neck so he would have something to lean on if he lost balance. I looked at his eyes, they couldn't seem to find a point to fixate on. They would zoom to one side of the room, then zoom to the next. Judging by his arm, his muscles were randomly spasming. "Come on," I said as I guided him out of the living room. He quickly lost balance and put all his weight into my neck, he weighed more than I was expecting.

We got some concerned looks from everyone, especially Mrs. Diaz, but I knew Mr. Diaz would end up explaining for me so I didn't bother to say anything. We slowly went upstairs and into our room. I gently set him down on his bed, he responded by kicking his shoes off. "Thanks, Star," he said, this time he was able to give me eye contact. This was the worst I had ever seen him, and I had seen him in some pretty bad states over the months I'd known him. He closed his eyes and began to rub them, "Hey James?" he said.

A blue swirl of light appeared next to me. Shortly after, James popped out, I was still getting used to him being a thing. He seemed to know what had happened because he came out with a worried expression, "Yeah?" he asked Landin.

He kept his eyes closed, "You know what's happening?"

"I wish I did." James examined himself, "It looks like it's only affecting you," he said. He was right, James was lacking in all of Landin's symptoms.

"Maybe you're just really sick," I suggested.

Landin instantly shrugged off the thought, "No... I don't feel sick. I feel like I'm missing something," he said, his face was becoming progressively redder.

I pointed at his locket around his neck, "But you have your locket. What else could you be missing?" I asked.

He looked up at me, his eyes progressively filling with tears, "I don't know."

"Well, is there anything I can do to-" I stopped myself. I could hear something, it sounded like... a clock. Tick... tock... tick... tock... I couldn't make sense of it, why was I hearing a clock? The ticking stopped for a few seconds before the sound of a bell echoed through my mind, Ding... Ding... Ding... Ding...

With the sound of a pop, everything that had left me returned. I could once again think straight and my eyes actually did what I wanted them to do. I regained awareness of my surroundings and the gut-wrenching feeling I had experienced, vanished. I was flooded with joy as I couldn't help but let a smile creep up on my face. Then I noticed Star, she had stopped herself for whatever reason and never continued. "You going to finish your sentence?" I asked.

I snapped her out of the trance she had entered. She blinked a few times, "Sorry about that, I'm not really sure what happened," she said, scratching the back of her head.

"You're fine. In fact," I stood up, a smile was planted on my face, "Everythings fine. I feel fine."

Her eyes widened, "What?! That's impossible. You were about to cry five seconds ago."

"I know! I'm even more amazed than you are!" I said as happy as I could sound.

She looked over at James, "He's telling the truth," he said to her, "He's not in pain anymore."

She looked back at me, "You're the weirdest human I've ever met," she said with a smile.

I smiled back but before I could say anything, I felt immense heat come from my right, it looked like Star felt it too. I turned to it, a ball of flames was slowly accumulating on the other side of the room, it was growing in size by the second. Despite it's distance from us, the heat it emitted was still scorching. Not knowing what to do, I started to run into the bathroom to get water. I was surprised when Star stopped me, her face lacked any emotion, she just stared dully at the ball of fire. Seeing how uninterested Star was calmed my nerves a bit, but I was still panicking on the inside. The ball was about as tall as the room at that point, you could see black marks where it hit the roof. Without any warning, the ball burst into a cloud of black smoke. It covered the entire room and was impossible to see through. After an eternity of hacking my lungs out, the smoke finally started to clear. What was behind it was not what I was expecting.

A being similar in appearance to a teenage boy stood there, his confidence bled through his smile and posture. Judging by his appearance, he was from a different dimension. He had spiked up hair which was the most normal thing about him, it was red. Horns stuck out of his hair, they had white tips. His skin was a pale blue and black streak under two of his eyes. He had a third eye on his forehead and his eye color was a dark red, it was nothing compared to the thing in my nightmares. He had a lazily tied tie on and was wearing a black suit, the jacket was unbuttoned. I was still gathering my thoughts when he started to walk towards us. Fire appeared under his feet with every step he took, leaving black smudges scattered across the floor. Not having a clue on what to do, I turned to Star. The rage behind her eyes was something I wasn't expecting, she had her eyes straight on the stranger. I turned back to the boy, he gave me a death glare in response before Star became the center of his attention.

When he had finally stopped walking, he was only a couple feet away from Star, he was taller than her, not by a lot though. He reached his hand out, "Star Butterfly-"

Before he could finish, Star slapped his hand away, "I don't know how you found me, but I can think about that later," she crossed her arm, "No."

The teen chuckled while rubbing his hand, "Can I at least finish my-"

"No Tom, you can't," Star once again interrupted him, her arms still crossed. "When I said, 'I don't want to be with you anymore,' I meant it." She stuck her hand out to me, I just stared at her blankly. She turned to me, "Scissors!" she said like a doctor would say to a nurse. I dug through my pockets and handed her them. She opened a red portal before throwing the scissors in my general direction, I luckily caught them, "I don't know why you're here and I don't really care," she turned him around and began to push him into the portal, "Just let me live my life in peace!"

The creaking of the room's door caused Star to halt. I turned to the door, Marco's eyes poked out from the barely open door. It looked like he hadn't seen Tom yet, "Just wanted to check in on-" his eyes glanced over Tom, causing them to widen. He busted open the door and, being much braver than me, charged Tom. "No demon is kidnapping Star on my watch!" he screamed, cutting Tom's hand clean off. A black fog with skull shapes in it emitted from Tom's hand as Marco took a few steps back.

I looked at him with disbelief, I had no idea he was that strong. He stared back at me, his eyes even wider than before. I looked back over at Tom, he was holding his arm and looking directly at the gaping hole. His eyes started to glow a red as he mumbled something in a language out of my comprehension. He shot his head back up at Maco, still holding his arm, fire started to pop up behind him. Star ran in front of us, she had her wand in hand. "You two may want to run," she said, her wand aimed at Tom.

Tom stared at us for a little longer before his expression slowly changed. His eyes dimmed and he closed them as he started to pace in circles. Eventually, he stopped in front of us and opened his eyes. His cut off hand came to life and climbed up his body, "No, don't run..." he screwed his hand back on, "I'm not that type of person anymore."

Marco looked at Star, then Tom, then back to Star. "What the hell is happening!?" he asked.

Star sighed, "Landin, Marco," she turned to us and gestured at Tom, "This is Tom... my ex." She turned to Tom and tightened her grip on the wand, "Tom, would you care to tell us why you're here?"

Tom smiled, "Thank god, I'd thought you'd never ask." He took a few deep breaths before continuing, "Star Butterfly," he walked closer to her, "I've come to ask you to the Blood Moon Ball. It's tonight"

Star chuckled, "Then you wasted your time," she recrossed her arms, "No."

Tom smiled, "Don't you think you should think about it for more time than that?"

Star sighed before closing her eyes and not saying anything. After a few seconds, she reopened her eyes, "I've considered my options and..." she furrowed her brow and looked him dead in the eyes, "It's still a no."

Tom looked at her in silence, then he started to dig into his pockets, "Okay, I see you're not changing your mind," he brought out a silver bell and a hammer from his pockets and handed them to Star, "But in case you do, give the bell a ring. It'll teleport you right into hell." Star hesitantly took them from him. Tom looked at us, "It was nice to meet you two," he looked at Marco, "Even if one of you did chop off my hand," he said, Marco cringed and rubbed the back of his head in response. Tom walked into the center of the room, "I'd reconsider if I was you Starship," he looked back at Star, "After all, I'm not the only one with horns." Without another word being said, a cloud of smoke burst out of him. When it dissipated, he was nowhere to be seen.

"He seemed nicer than I was expecting," I finally said something.

Star was frowning, "Yeah, he did," she took off her headband and examined it, "And that scares me."

A/N

Welcome to the end. Sorry to leave you off on a cliffhanger, but I'm on an early vacation right now and I wanted to at least get something out. What happens in the ball itself will be incredibly different from the episode, so be ready for that. I'll see you all in one to two weeks but until then, have a great day and or night!