Diaz Plan Chapter 10

For the next few hours, Marco tore apart his father's study, and then Star's room, looking for something that could help him get to Mewni. He didn't know what he was looking for, really. Maybe someone had dropped dimensional scissors in the battle, or maybe there was something of his father's that he could use to travel dimensions, or maybe Star had something hidden away. But there was nothing. He couldn't even tell whether any of his father's knicknacks were magical or not, and even if they were, he didn't even have the knowledge to use them.

It was something in Star's room that made him stop looking. In her nightstand was a picture they had taken together a while ago at a carnival, Star hugging Marco and beaming into the camera with a giant cotton candy cone of hers just beginning to get tangled in his hair. Marco felt a sinking feeling in his gut, and his head felt like it was filled with stormclouds. He stumbled out of her room, only to see a picture hanging in the hallway of his mother and father smiling in front of some castle, from one of their vacations. It struck him that he didn't even know if this picture had been taken on earth.Looking at the photo, Marco fell to the carpet, pulled his knees to his chest, and silently wept.

A couple of hours later, he calmed down a bit. Things were going to be okay, he told himself. His father was a warlock, right? He'd open a portal back to earth any time now, and come back with his mother. He'd explain things to Star's parents, and they'd relent and let her come back. He tried not to think of the tears in Star's eyes as she had said goodbye. Or, at the very least, his parents would pop in to let him know they were okay.

Hours passed.

Okay, Marco thought to himself. It's okay. Maybe his parents couldn't travel dimensions as easily as Star's family could with their dimensional scissors. Maybe it would take them a while. Who knows what bizarre spells his father had to cast to travel between dimensions.

Or maybe they were dead, said a nasty little voice inside him. Maybe your parents are dead, executed for being Warlocks, and you will never see them or Star ever again, and there is nothing you can possibly do about it and no way you can ever know for sure.

Which is how Marco found himself desperately flipping through his father's copy of Star's spellbook. He found another spellbook, as well, one with a huge metal skull design on the front, which he figured must be his father's book of warlock spells or something. None of the spells in Star's book were in any language he recognized, but some were in an alphabet similar to english. He tried sounding them out at random, but nothing was happening. Some of the spells in his father's book were in spanish, others in just more languages that he didn't know. He tried saying the spanish ones, though none of them were even remotely close to what he needed, he said them anyway. Nothing happened. As the hours passed, he even tried just making up his own spells, but still, nothing happened. He even tried simply making up sounds to go with the gibberish in the books. Still, nothing.

Then the doorbell rang.

Marco dashed to the front door of his home. Maybe it was Star, or his Mom or Dad-

It was Janna.

"Marco," she smirked, "You and Star weren't in school today. I was wondering...oh my god, you look terrible."

School? But his parents and Star had been kidnapped yesterday afternoon, after school. Marco looked at the sky. It was dusk again. Had he spent the whole night and day up in his father's study, trying to get the spells to work? He must have looked at the sky for a long time, because the next thing he knew, Janna was shaking him again. "Marco. C'mon, are you okay?" She was frowning at him.

Suddenly an idea snapped into his mind. "Janna! You talked to Glossaryck, right? You must know SOME magic!" he grabbed her hand and marched her through his house.

"Uh, Marco? Where are your parents? Where's Star?"

"They're gone. They've gone to Mewni. That's why I need you to cast a spell to get me there. You talked to Glossaryck, right? You can get me there, right?" Marco threw open the door to his father's study, which was now covered in sheets of paper with spells written all over them. "Look! My father copied down Star's spellbook. He even has a spellbook of his own! That's what you wanted, right?" Marco shoved some papers into Janna's hands. "Take me to Mewni, please. I'll let you have all this. Take me to Mewni so I can get my parents and Star back."

"Marco..." Janna said, nervously, gesturing around herself. "I...I don't know what to do with all this."

Marco stumbled back, his vision beginning to blur. He felt dizzy, like the world was stretching around him. "It's fine. I'll find something. It's fine..."

Suddenly, Janna was there, holding him up, guiding him to the desk chair. Marco tried to push her away and she rolled her eyes, slapped him, and shoved him down into the chair. When he tried to get up, she sat down on him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and whispered into his ear "Tell me what happened."

Marco found that telling someone else what happened yesterday was harder than he thought it would be. Soon there were tears in his eyes. Janna gently squeezed him whenever his voice cracked, and he found that helped. When he was done, his head was throbbing and the world was spinning around him again, and he felt like he was having trouble breathing. Janna wordlessly guided him to his bed, and then got in with him, held him until he finally fell asleep.