"So, what do you think this place was, anyway?"
"...I don't know, but these stairs are not easy in this dress."
Star Butterfly kept her dress up with one hand and held the candlestick in the other, her platform boots forming an instinctive kickwalk as she trudged down the winding stone staircase. The young princess took note of the images passing her vision under the dim orange glow: little statuettes of Avarians resting on shelves carved into the walls; water trickling down from the ceiling onto fallen debris; carvings greeting her from the left wall at the bottom of the stairs, depicting groups of monsters attacking soldiers. Or, being attacked? Star couldn't tell through the surrounding darkness, and didn't bother straying from the goal to go back and check further.
The two friends made their way through a hallway, passing by several more intricate carvings of monsters, each one vague in its setting and story but creepy and foreboding no matter what could be read into it. Each one common in the dust collected, the damage to its structure, the cracks and crevices etching out pieces of the walls' stories. Dust...spider webs...water damage...time itself...all seemed to consume the memories and secrets of this temple. But the emotions remained untouched.
The Mewman princess' ears perked to no noise, her face scrunching reflexively into an expression of confusion, begging to answer a question no one asked.
Carvings. Damage to the walls. Monsters attacked. Monsters disappearing.
Her fingers curled more tightly, almost painfully, around the candlestick. She only just realized how sharp and quick her breath had been shuddering since she and Marco had descended. The top of her stomach simmered with nausea and threatened to boil over, much like the time she bet Janna she could drink a pitcher of rose bud tea, rose bud and all.
"Are you okay?" Marco asked, the worry in his voice clear. Caught off guard, Star straightened and inhaled sharply. What was wrong with her? There was nothing here creepier than anything she'd dealt with before. So what's my deal? This place isn't even scary.
Star shifted her eyes upward to see Marco's hand just barely touching her face, as if checking for wounds. When had he even stepped in front of her? When did they stop walking? "Star, what's going on?" She looked at her warped reflection in the candlestick. Sure enough, there was her left eye, glowing a brighter green than ever.
"I...I don't know." Star couldn't seem to catch her breath. Those wall carvings, the crumbling statues, the suffocating darkness. She hadn't been this terrified since she'd almost drowned in tainted magic; once again her world was sinking in around her, the only connection to reality being Marco's reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I hope we find them soon," Star groaned through quivering teeth. "I don't want to be here anymore..."
Marco let go of her shoulder as they stalked onward to a blue glow, and Star held tightly to both her shoulders, not daring to ask for her best friend's embrace. Her feet on autopilot, she was only vaguely aware of torches, of blue firelight melding with the light of her own candles, flickering to a familiar rhythm.
Flicker flicker flicker flicker
Ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum
These aren't my emotions. They can't be. Toffee...why are you feeling this way?
