I awoke and for a fleeting moment the foolish belief that the events of the night prior had just been a horrible nightmare filled my head before insane amounts dull, hacking pains shook me from head to toe. I tried to move and felt scabs crack and tear and dug my teeth into my bottom lip to prevent myself from screaming. I could not let her defeat me. I had to do something. I searched around me and for a fleeting moment I thought Koruru might be back. Gash might be back, concerned as to why there were scabs all over my body. But I realized that they weren't there, and that I had to deal with this pain alone.

My body. Every time I moved waves of pain would assail me and I felt like I should just sit there and wait for the wound to heal and pick off the scabs that kept cracking. My pajamas were crusty with blood and as I came downstairs, my hungover and increasingly sober father looked at me, limping down the stairs. He seemed horrified with what he saw. Queen Eduron turned as well and pretended to be shocked with what she saw, but she knew damn well that she wasn't fooling me. She may be able to fool my hungover father with her fake caring but not me.

I made my way to my chair and hissed gently. The coldness felt great against my body, and for a moment the pain vanished, only to return once my body heat transferred to the wooden chair beneath me. "Z-Zeon... What happened to you?" My father asked. I wiped my mouth and saw crusted saliva mixed with crusted blood. I thought it felt like there were two scars under my eyes--under each eye even--and my father seemed worried. I glanced at my stepmom and managed to think of something.

"You were drunk last night," I began. Her wrinkly features fell. She looked more like my Grandmother than my Stepmother. "You got angry at me for cursing and you..." I swallowed a lump in my throat and gestured to my crusted clothes and scabbed body. My father looked horrified, but he was sober enough to know that what I was saying was completely true. And I realized that all the servants, minus Koruru and Gash were still in the castle, because he ordered them to get rid of all wines and alcohol in the castle. None of it could enter the walls as long as he was king. Eduron looked at me with eyes of anger. I didn't care. She wanted to play hardball, then I'll play back.

They treated my scars and scabs and I was cleaned up rather quickly. My father apologized over and over and I had to say that after the third apology I forgave him. Why? Because he said that he would bring Gash and Koruru back. I still never found out where they went, but what did it matter when they were back?

I was laying in bed, setting up the chessboard, when a tan hand moved one of the pawns forward two spaces. I looked up and saw Gash's blond hair and golden eyes. Koruru had a duffel bag over her shoulder and was setting it down when she noticed what was going on between Gash and I. She let out a sigh, but it was obvious that she was just glad to be back. "Boys and chess. What is it with you two?" And she laughed, watching us play. I decided to let Gash win for once, I was just too happy that they were back to want to win.

I told them about finding my mother in the bench. Gash said that he was happy for me, and also divulged to us that he had neither a mother nor a father. He had no family at all. This shocked Koruru and I, as Koruru had siblings working in other countries and I of course had my dad. He merely shrugged, saying that you couldn't miss something you never knew you had. We felt sorry for Gash, even though that's the last emotion he wanted us to feel. I sat on the bench and told Gash to sit beside me.

"You know Gash, if you need a family, you've got me and Koruru. And, I'm willing to share my mother's spirit with you too." Gash grinned and laughed, but seemed to be truly touched. He didn't ruin the moment with words, and Koruru joined us as we rocked back and forth, waiting for nightfall.

When darkness finally fell upon the castle, we moved into the open to stare at the stars. They looked so tiny and insignificant beside the large, bright moon, that I almost felt sorry for them. We oohed, and ahed, and gasped as we were rewarded with a shooting star. Since Gash seemed to be the one who needed the wish, he closed his eyes and wished for all he was worth. I was burning to ask him what he'd wished for, but decided not to. It was his personal business after all, wasn't it? Soon, more and more stars fell from the sky. I was a meteor shower I realized, and we all closed our eyes and wished.

I had a sneaking suspicion that Gash made the same wish every single time. I finally plucked up the courage to ask what he had wished for. The blond demon chuckled and said, "I wished to be better at you in chess." I scoffed and told him what a wasteful wish that was. He wasn't offended, and I knew he wouldn't be, as he punched me on the arm and we returned to staring at the night sky that hung so beautifully and rishly above our heads.

"Why are you being so bitchy?"

"Oh I'm a bitch now?"

Gash released a loud sigh and I couldn't blame him. The upstairs was a hallway with a railing which looked down into the throne room. It was breakfast time, so my father did not inhabit his chair, but it was probably for the better, seeing as the kitchen was too far away to catch the echoes of the foul words. Hyde had come over again, but instead of going out into the garden to "talk" they had begun having an argument in the main hall.

"Do you know why they are fighting?" I asked Gash. He turned to me and shook his head, confessing that he thought that I knew. "Maybe they hit a rough patch in their relationship?" I tried.

Gash seemed to scoff and chuckle at my naivete. "You don't know anything. Rumor has it that Hyde was two-timing with some other demon."

That struck me as odd, considering he had said that he didn't know a moment prior. It also struck me as odd that Hyde could find a reason to cheat on Koruru with some other demon girl. I scratched my head. "Well, what's the other demon's name?"

The tanned blond shrugged lamely. "I dunno. I think they said it was Tio or something like that."

I let that sink in. Hyde, the boy that Koruru seemed to really like, the boy she wanted to marry, was cheating on her with some demon named Tio. Gash added that Tio lived and worked in the same castle as Hyde, so their relationship was much easier than him and Koruru since he wasn't forced to travel long distances. I clenched my fists over the railing. What was wrong with this guy? He has the perfect girl and instead of loving her and holding her and taking care of her like a good boyfriend should, he cheated on her. "Hyde's an idiot."

"Isn't he?"

And we fell into silence as we watched them bicker and argue and yell about things that had nothing to do with the current situation. This was crazy. I was beginning to think that she wasn't just trying to ruin my life. She wanted to ruin theirs too. It was an unfair thought--how could I blame all of this on my stepmom? My friends' problems and my problems only started when she moseyed on into the castle. Hyde never even noticed the Tio girl until recently. They even say that she wasn't working at the castle until recently. The timing of all this is too strange. Far too strange to be coincidence.

Koruru kicked him out of the castle and stormed up to my room to cry on my bed. Meanwhile I had to be getting to breakfast, so I left Gash to comfort her while I was forced to dine with my father and faux-family. I ate as respectfully as I could at the silent table. I thanked my father for bringing back Gash and Koruru and hurried up to my room to comfort her.

Gash sat beside the bed and I realized that she was not weeping, but was seething with anger. I had never even heard of Koruru ever being angry. I was terrified and judging by the tanned boy's face he too was terrified, and we bother were inside my room, terrified of Koruru. I slowly made my way to the bed and kneeled down in front of it.

"What did Hyde do?"

The pink haired girl gave a sort of croak and turned her back to me. Gash tried and she flipped onto her stomach, her face in the pillow. I knew that she couldn't breathe very easily, so I was worried, But I knew that she wouldn't suffocate herself, would she? Gash and I shared the same look and thought, and we didn't dare move for about an hour, afraid that if we did she would cease to be breathing.

That night Koruru and Gash went back to their quarters and Gash left, promising that he'd keep an eye on her through the night. I was suddenly whittled with worry, and I lay on my stomach, conveying to the large moon what had happened that day. I felt stressful and upset for Koruru, and I knew that Gash probably felt the same. I couldn't easily slip into sleep. I trusted Gash with Koruru, truly I did, but what if he stopped paying attention for even a moment? It only takes an instant for your life to end.

I had to shove that thought to the back of my mind. Koruru was stronger than that. She wouldn't end her life because of a boy. No, she wouldn't, because if she did, she'd leave Gash and I behind, and she knew how much we needed her. We needed someone to criticize our day-long chess tournaments, someone to keep us in line and someone to tell us what to do. She was eighteen and had a lot of time ahead of her--she would not do this. I knew she wouldn't do this. I refused to let myself even think of what would happen if she did this, and forced myself into slumber.

I was somewhere in the castle, in some sort of dormitory. Many bunk beds were side to side down its entire length and sleeping forms under uncomfortable looking covers. They seemed thin and scratchy, like burlap almost. I recognized this place as the place where the servants slept. With the addition of all of Eduron's servants we probably had over 100 people in help. I was searching for one bed in particular.

I saw a tuft of pink locks on the pillow and I climbed onto the bed. It was made for only one person to sleep on, that was obvious, and as I pulled down the covers I saw a skull with Koruru's hair connected. Bones, dressed in her servant attire lay on her bed. Was this truly Koruru? Yes it was. She had wasted away. Sobs came to my ears, so I looked down to see Gash there, head in his hands, crying. "I tried to save her, Zeon... I tried... I tried..."

I sat bolt upright covered in cold sweat. It was still nighttime. I sighed and found my slippers. I needed to check this once and for all.

And everything is back to normal! Sort of!

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