Diaz Plan Chapter 9

Marco contemplated hiding before his father opened the door, but there was simply no time. There was stuff all over the desk, and simply no place for him and Star to hide. His father's frame filled the doorway, silhouetted in shadow, and Marco had time to think about just how big of a man his father was before they were spotted.

"Oh, hello, Marco." Were his eyes glowing? That was stupid, it had to be the sun reflecting off of them, didn't it? Oh god, it was just the sun, right? "Star." Mr.Diaz's eyes darted to the items cluttered across his desk, and the doors slammed shut behind him as if from an invisible wind.

"H-h-hey dad," stammered Marco.

"I see you've been going through my desk," said Mr. Diaz, quietly. The room temperature seemed to drop forty degrees, suddenly. Marco could have sworn he saw his breath fogging in front of him.

"Mr. Diaz," said Star, confidently, "I saw that you were copying my spellbook. I know that you've been messing around with magic. It's not a big deal! I could even ask my parents for some court wizards or something to teach you. But you should know that magic isn't something you can just mess with! Well...that's what my mom says. I mess with it all the time. But...still...uh...Mr.Diaz?"

Despite the fact that it was a beautiful sunny day, and there was a huge window open behind Marco and Star, the light in the room seemed to drop drastically, become sickly, yellow. As Mr. Diaz approached the desk, it seemed as if the shadows clung to him, keeping him wrapped in darkness. As he got closer, what began as a dull howl in the distance got louder and louder, until the whole room was filled with the unearthly moan.

Marco was shaking badly, but he managed to step in front of Star. The shadow in the shape of his father paused, seeming to contemplate him. "D-d-dad," he stammered, "I was the one who went through your desk. I was....looking for something. I'm sorry." Marco's breath caught in his throat. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest, and he was drenched in a cold sweat. His fathers eyes were now twin gold beacons, vortexes of swirling, orange-yellow light.

"Marco," Star whispered from behind him, voice quavering with fear, "What's happening?"

Mr. Diaz reached out, grabbed the wand on the desk, which erupted with bright green light. "Marco," he said, and it was if as his voice was echoing out from some vast dark space.

Then his father sighed, and everything was abruptly back to normal. No more shadows clung to the room, the unearthly chill was gone, the distant moaning stopped, and Mr.Diaz was simply a large man holding a tacky little knickknack in the palm of his hand. The doors to the room swung open. "Honey," Mr.Diaz called down the hallway, "I think it's time we had 'The Talk' with Marco."

"Oooh, I'll grab the albums," Mrs. Diaz's voice came from halfway across the house.

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Glossaryck coughed weakly as he commanded the pages of the spellbook to part before him with a wave of his hand. He may be cursed, but he was also a court wizard of Mewni. He might not have the magic to dispel the curse, but he could counter some of the effects. Long enough to get a message out, anyway. The spellbook actually had a fair number of healing spells. Unfortunately, the curse was very intelligent. The moment he had come up with a plan to communicate to someone, he had found himself no longer able to fly. The minute he tried to walk, his legs seemed to turn to jelly. He had spent the last hour or so casting all sorts of healing spells that would trigger in response to certain injuries.

Gritting his teeth, Glossaryck began dragging himself toward's Star's mirror.

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"Dad? What is going on?" Marco asked, as his father relaxed wearily in his desk chair and his mother plopped a couple of photo albums down.

"Well, son, this is something I figured I was going to have to tell you eventually. I should have known that it was going to happen soon, once you got involved with Star here." Mrs. Diaz happily squeezed onto the chair with him, and Star and Marco took up positions on the corner of the desk so they could all look down at the photo album as he Mr. Diaz flipped it open. "You see...I'm a warlock. This is me when I was younger."

The photo was of a slender young man with very broad shoulders, earning a "ooh, handsome" from Star. with a shockingly long mane of hair, wearing the strange, watercolored cloak that Marco had seen in the closet of the study. His face was painted like a skull, and he was giving the camera a big thumbs up and a wide grin. And...

"Dad, why did you have horns?" asked Marco, still stupefied by all this.

He was ignored as his mother spoke up. "I met your father when I was young, and he...convinced me...to travel with him as he traveled to other dimensions. Oh, we had all sorts of adventures," she said, smiling fondly and flipping through a few pages of the photo album.

There was his father and mother, standing next to a dwarf in iron armor and what looked like an elf in shining white robes, his father giving a goofy grin and a thumbs up-

Another picture, the four of them descending into some dungeon, his father still giving a grin and a thumbs up-

Another, the four of them standing around a flaming sword that hovered in midair above an altar. Marco's father was barely visible in this one, blocked by the flames, but he could just barely make out a thumbs up-

His father stabbing the elf in the back and grabbing the sword, smiling broadly and giving a thumbs up-

His father standing with the sword in front of a burning forest, giving a thumbs up while elves fled screaming from him-

"Wait, what were those last two?" said Marco.

Mr. Diaz began speaking again. "But your mother...ah, she convinced me after a while that you don't have to travel to other dimensions to have fun." He flipped through more of the photo album.

There was a picture of his mother and father staring out at some alien sky full of dark red stars, holding hands-

A picture of them dancing, his father in a sharp suit and his mother in a red dress, flowers in her hair, staring dreamily into each other's eyes while demons looked on in the background-

A picture of them kissing each other while on a lake with a sky of no less than five moons -

A picture of his mother, dressed in a black tank top and camo pants, holding a gun to the head of a worried-looking politician while Marco's father smiled and gave a thumbs up in the background -

"WHAT WAS THAT LAST ONE?!"

"We didn't tell you, Marco, because, well, your mother wanted some stability for her children growing up." Mr.Diaz smiled and gave his wife a quick peck on the lips. "We thought it would be best if you didn't know anything about my magical past, so you could have a normal life. At least for the early years, you know? I did always plan on telling you some day, but..." here Mr. Diaz shrugged.

Marco gave a forced laugh. "This is...this is all a joke right? Ha ha. Good one, mom and dad." He hopped off the desk. His head felt a little woozy and his legs a bit wobbly. "I...feel a little weird. Maybe I should go for a run? I think I'll go for a run."  He only stopped when Star grabbed his hand.

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Glossaryck grit his teeth against the waves of pain as he pressed the button on the bottom of the mirror. "Call...HRRRK...Queen Butterfly," he gasped, his body spasming as he was healed, then tortured again.

The Queen's face appeared on the mirror. "Star, so good of you to finally call your mother," she said sarcastically. Then she glanced down at the blue gnome writhing on the floor. "Oh. Glossaryck. It's you. What's wrong?"

"It's....BLAAAARGH," said Glossaryck, snakes spewing from his mouth. A healing spell triggered.

The Queen's eyes narrowed. "You better not be drunk dialing me AGAIN, Glossaryck. You're supposed to be watching my daughter."

"Not drunk...it's...OH GOD," he screamed as he spontaneously burst into flame. A small raincloud appeared above his head to put him out.

"Glossaryck, I would hate to have to behead you. But if this is just a bunch of nonsense..."

"WARLOCK," screamed Glossaryck, shortly before beetles began pouring out of his nose and ears.

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"Aw, c'mon Marco. It's not that bad. I think it's kind of neat," said Star, arm around Marco's shoulders. Marco had retreated to one of the corners of the room while Mr. and Mrs. Diaz looked on worriedly.

"Not that bad! They hid this from me my entire life. My dad's not some WARLOCK, he's a golf-shirt wearing goob!"

"I can be both!" said Mr. Diaz.

"I think it's sort of cute!" said Star.

Marco sighed. "Star, they're my parents. They hid something HUGE from me my whole life. I trusted them, and they just...never told me. I don't know. I feel weird." Marco broke free of Star's embrace and headed for the study door.

Mr. and Mrs. Diaz exhanged bashful looks. "We thought it was for the best, son," Mr. Diaz began.

Suddenly, Marco was knocked back as a portal formed directly in front of him. Out of it stepped Star's mother and father.

"Mom? Dad? What are you doing here?" Star approached them, and as soon as she was within reach, the Queen snatched her wand away.

"We're here because we just learned your FATHER set you up with a family of WARLOCKS," said the Queen.

The King rolled his eyes. "How convenient. This family suddenly becomes my choice the minute something goes wrong."

Guardsmen began filing their way into the room. "Guards, please escort my daughter back to our castle," the Queen sniffed. Then she pointed at Mr. Diaz. "And arrest this man."

"Mom!" shouted Star, leaping for the wand.

"Whoa, whoa," said Mr. Diaz, raising his hands, "Arrest me? What for?"

"You're a warlock, I don't need any more reason than that. But if you need a better one," The Queen held up the limp form of Glossaryck, "You cursed my court mage."

"I won't let you take my husband!" Mrs. Diaz stepped forward.

"You know what? Arrest her too. For being married to a warlock," said the Queen.

"Mom! Stop, you can't DO this!" Star shouted. She looked to her father pleadingly. "Dad, don't let her do this!"

"WATCH OUT, HE'S GOT A WAND!" screamed one of the guards. And then everything happened so fast.

The room dropped into the same cold, dim darkness it had been in earlier. There was a flash of searing green light, and Marco shouted and rolled to the side as the King drew his sword and rushed forward. Guards began swarming out of the portal, two of them grabbing Star. The Queen raised her wand and brilliant blue light began pouring out from it.

"Should I grab this runt too, your highness?" A guard was suddenly towering over Marco.

"Stay away from my BOY," Marco's father thundered from somewhere, and suddenly a hole into nothing opened up beneath the guard. Shadowy hands dragged him screaming into the void as the room sank into total darkness.

"Just get the warlock!" screamed the Queen, as shadowy tentacles began stabbing out of the darkness at her. She began blasting away at them with her wand. The two guards who had grabbed Star dragged her kicking and screaming through the portal.

"I've got him!" said the King's voice from somewhere in the darkness, and there was a slicing sound that Marco recognized as dimensional scissors tearing open the fabric of reality. He scrambled to his feet. There, off in the darkness, further away than seemed possible, the King and five guards were tackling what looked like a large shadow through the portal. Was that his father? His mother was on the back of one of the guards, pummeling him over the head but not seeming to do much damage. The shadow seemed to be holding them back, but then one tip and they all toppled over through the portal. As quick as it had been opened, it popped closed.

"MOM! DAD!" Marco shouted.

"MARCO!" Star's voice shouted. He whirled around.

The Queen, her business done, was stepping back through the portal. Behind her, Star had escaped from the guards and was rushing towards it, but her mother caught her by the arm. Star still struggled and reached for the now-shrinking portal. Marco began sprinting towards it, but he knew he would never make it in time.

"MARCO, I'M SO SORRY!" shouted Star as he ran towards her. Then, with tears in her eyes, "Goodbye-"

The portal closed. The darkness abruptly faded away. Marco was left in the empty study.

Alone.