"Marco! Marco!"

Marco started to hear voices coming. It sounded familiar to him, but he was unable to make it out, for he is still asleep. A part of him was tempted to see if the rescue party had shown up, but another part wanted to sleep his troubles away. Speculation of the monsters popped in as well. Whichever side he was on, it was a nightmare for him to choose.

The voices got closer and closer. Soon, the person that called his name breached into his little base, looking over him like a giant. The person got down to where he was sleeping and tried to wake him up. It shook him back and forth, causing a war between living inside a nightmare or waking up to a threat.

Accepting his fate, Marco finally woke up from the shakiness. However, that person posed as no threat. It just so happened to be Star.

"Star...?" he mentioned in his restless tone.

"Marco!" she happily replied. "You're ok!"

"I'm fine. How'd you find me?"

"Like that really matters! I'm just glad I found you!"

The two of them hugged once more, as the two of them got reunited once more. After their hug, however, they looked at each other's eyes. Both their minds went blank, but they felt like they were seeing the entire universe inside of them. Suddenly, Marco leaned in and kissed her right in the lips. Granted, it caught them by surprise, for they had been friends for a long time, but none of that mattered for a single minute.

It was uncertain on how long they kissed, but it felt like they were completely locked for eternity. Unfortunately, when the kiss ended, Star was grabbed by a monster behind her back. The fact that she was held against her will shocked Marco down to the core.

"Sttttttttttttttaaaaaaaaaar!" he yelled.

The monster did not come alone. Within seconds, he was pinned down to the ground by another monster. Both Star and Marco were left defenseless, making them fall to evil's willpower.

Toffee was next to appear to the base, along with the rest of the monsters. He flashed a grin on his face; the cards were set to his liking, and no one could easily challenge him. Marco didn't want to appear scared to all of them, but deep down, he feared that this would be the end of him.

"Such a shame..." Toffee said to him. "It looks like this act is near its end."

He ordered the monster pinning Marco to put him close to the fire. The monster then pulled his hair up, letting him see his final credits. He tried everything he could to get away from the fire, but the pin holding him was screwed tightly, inching closer and closer to death.

Toffee got closer to Marco and took the duties of holding his head. With a raging fire to his tone, he said to him, "Now we get to see your punishment!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Marco woke up quick. He got off from the log he was sleeping on, but he accidentally placed his right hand on the fire, which was still burning despite the cold Mewni breeze. He screamed from the burn, but tried to shake it off.

"Ow..." he said to himself. "That was some messed up dream I had..."

He looked at his right hand. There were no significant burns in his palm or fingers. However, there was a mark that's on his hand. It looked like a paw from a strange monster, but none of which he is familiar with. It was small, but the mark was extremely noticeable.

This mark isn't news to him. In fact, he noticed this mark once his tentacle arm was long gone. He can't imagine what the purpose of the mark was, but it could only lead to no good. Had he cared enough about the mysterious mark, he would go get some help about it.

Marco stopped looking at his hand and got his butt off the ground. Doing a quick test for himself, he recognized that his ankle is still sprained. His head is fine, but his recent dream would probably haunt him every chance he close his eyes.

He gazed up into the sky. It wasn't as dark as it was when he was escaping the castle, so signs point to the morning in Mewni. There weren't as many clouds in Mewni's sky compared to Earth, but the shapes they made felt like he was back home. After he looked up into the sky, he turned around and saw a village with a castle that was sky high. Even though that place was miles away from his reach, it called out to him like a moth drawn to a flame

"The Mewni Kingdom," he said to himself. "My only ticket out."

Marco was tempted to grab the long stick he used for the fire last night, but he feared that the charcoal from the bottom of it would not bode well as a walking stick. The thought of putting the fire out was also in consideration, but judging by his freakish dream, he felt it was best for him to keep the fire going. So Marco grabbed a new stick out from another tree branch to assist his weak ankle.

Unfortunately, he sat on the log he slept on to think this through. "Do I really need to go?" he asked himself. "Am I going to wait out here, for a miracle out of nowhere to save me from the demons that eat me whole?

"Is Star... Is Star going to save me again?"

Emotions are running though his head like wild coyotes hunting for prey. He knows he is missed back home. He knows Star is missing him. But his greatest fear is the sand on Death's hourglass, reaching all the way to the bottom. He stood up once more. Time is a luxury he can't afford, and neither can his rescue team, if there really is one. With his walking stick, he wrote a message into the dirt next to the fire. The message was:

"COME FIND ME."

Marco drew an arrow to the kingdom he was heading. Once he was completed, he did his best to avoid both the fire and the message by going around the logs. He then let out a sigh of relief, with a little bit of speculation that his rescue team would be able to locate his destination.

"Forgive me, Star," Marco said to himself, as he began walking towards his journey. "I gotta do this for me."