Star Butterfly, Private Detective

Outside in the streets of Echo Creek, the rained poured down. Luckily, there were barely any thunderstorms that came through. The wind was strong enough to pull the umbrellas of unfortunate people inside out, leaving the men and women unprotected against the harsh downpour.

The name's Butterfly, Star Butterfly. I'm a private detective, solving cases that the cops couldn't even handle even if they tried their best. How come? Because I have connections that they can only dream of having.

My partner's Janna Ordonia, a self-proclaimed mystic. She can talk to spirits of the deceased to give us information. Of course, that was only useful to find where clues were hidden. The world doesn't believe in magic, so conversations between us and the dead could not be used as evidence.

Our agency was called Mewni. We were stationed in Echo Creek, a small town with little trouble thanks to us. Clients from all over the world fly to this location just to have us look at their cases.

However, that peace in this little place could not last as demonstrated by our next case.

In front of me was Jackie Lynn Thomas, an old high school friend of mine. She had a pale complexion. Her hair was platinum blonde with an aqua streak on the left side and her eyes were mint green.

Her face was covered with tears, a far cry from the usual beauty we knew her for.

Marco Diaz, her husband, had gone missing. Without a single trace, he vanished from the town. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the days leading up to his disappearance. One day, he just didn't show up to dinner. Jackie tried calling his cellphone, but nobody picked them up. She went to the police station to report. After a few days, they called to say they could not find him. Missing posters of the beloved man were all over the city. His parents and wife were worried and came to me for help.

The dark and gloomy rains of California only added depression to our moods. Diaz was a reliable man who always helped others. I used to have a crush on him during high school. But he chose Jackie instead. We remained friends throughout this time. He even helped me to boost my business as a detective. Good ol' trusty Diaz.

I internally shook my head. This was no time to be reminiscing. We had to figure out what happened and find him.

"Don't worry Jackie," I tried to comfort her. "We'll make sure he returns to you."

"What if he's dead?" she sobbed out.

I pointed my thumb at Janna. "We'll find out if he's dead or not first. Even if he is dead, we'll make sure to find out exactly what happened."

I stood up from my chair, walked towards her, and put my hand on her left shoulder.

"I know it hurts, but you need to be strong," I said. "We're all saddened by this."

OOOOOOOOOO

Janna and I sat on the ground, a circle with symbols inside sat in between us. This was the ritual for the demon, Tom Lucitor, who admittedly was my ex-boyfriend. Why did I date a literal demon from hell? We've all done stupid things during our rebellious phases in life. I'm sure you have scars or stories to tell from your horrible mistakes of the past.

But enough about me, let's get back to the summoning. Tom, being the prince of the Underworld, can tell us if a person has died or not. We were going to use him to tell us where Marco was and then send him back to hell before he could ask me out.

The candles around the red circular marking were lit.

Lavender scented, I thought as the scent wafted into my nose.

Janna chanted in an ancient tongue (It wasn't, it was just Tom's cell phone number in Spanish). As she chanted, the red markings grew brighter and brighter until the entire thing burst into flames. A column of fire shot out from the floor and stopped right before the ceiling. It was lucky for us that the smoke detector never went off.

After a few moments, the fire stopped. The red markings were gone, replaced by a smirking demon.

"Hello, Starship," he smiled at me. "Did you miss me?"

"No," I deadpanned. I had already given him another chance when my dreams of being of Marco were crushed. That turned out to be a mistake as well.

"Well, if you're ever feeling lonely…."

"Shut up," I said in a cold tone. "We're only summoning you for a question."

Tom sighed dramatically, "I suppose I'll help you, even if you continue to be so rude to me."

"Fire incident four years ago," I replied. His face tensed. He knew what he had done. Four years ago, he lost his temper inside a movie theater and threw a fireball. Unlike regular fire, hellfire spreads much quicker and burns at a higher temperature. Everyone survived, but some people had injuries they would never recover from. It was unforgivable. During the fire, he even said that he would stop it if I went back to being his girlfriend. Afterwards, I did what any reasonable person would do: I tried to castrate him. To my disappointment, I only got one of his testicles. Ever since then, we've had a strained relationship.

"What do you want?" he asked. Finally, straight to the point.

"We want to know if Marco died or not," Janna responded. Tom's right eyebrow went up. Marco and Tom had a weird friendship. During high school, they were sort of friends and sort of enemies with each other. Of course, the friend part was destroyed after the theater fire. Even so, Diaz stopped me from cutting off Tom's other ball.

"All right," the demon nodded. He closed his eyes and levitated in the air. After a while, he floated back on the ground and opened his eyes.

"Nope," he shook his head. "He hasn't died yet."

"That's all we need to know," I said and looked at Janna.

The mystic nodded and threw bath salts at Tom. The Underworld prince screamed and was gone in a poof. I walked towards the telephone and ringed up Jackie.

"Hello?" she answered.

"This is Star," I said. "Good news, Marco isn't dead. We can start the investigation now."

"Okay," she breathed. "Call me if you manage to find anything."

"Don't worry, we will."

There was more talk of pleasantries and how the Diazes were doing. Afterwards, I sat at my desk and began writing down starting places to investigate.

On the day Marco disappeared, he left his home and went to work. His workplace was the first area to observe. Marco was a PE teacher and a part-time karate instructor at the gym. There were nothing inherently dangerous about those jobs, aside from the usual nagging parents about how perfect their kids were.

Marco had a clean streak about him. He would never cheat on his wife nor would he go anywhere out of the ordinary without telling her first.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but the only possible reason for his disappearance was that someone had kidnapped him. But who? And why? These questions gnawed at me as this became more than just another case. This was the search for my best friend and the person or people who may have brought him harm.