章 2: Homecoming 1: Beau Spencer

Six months later...

There was one day Stellar Cross hated the most out of the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Coincidentally, it happened to fall on her birthday.

"Stellaaaaaaaaaaaar! Wake up!" Cassy screamed, shaking her sister awake like a can of soda. Stella thought, if her sister as much as shook her one more time with the same intensity, she might really explode from her anger.

"Five minutes. Give me five minutes," Stellar negotiated, holding ten fingers in the air with her eyes closed.

"Stellar, you have to get up. It's ten in the morning. Breakfast has gone cold, and lunch will be served shortly. Come. On." Cassy tried to pull the dead weight on Stellar's arm but failed.

Stellar snorted. It's past ten in the morning, but with the tone of Cassy's voice, it was as if she overslept past lunchtime. What on Earth was her eldest sister's problem? And not just her, but her entire family.

Why do they love to wake her up when they knew she was a certified night owl? Why did they take pleasure in disturbing her precious sleep when she didn't even disturb theirs?

Why? Why? Whyyy?

Stellar kicked her legs under the duvet with the intention of hitting her sister as payback for the concussion she got from her ruthless way of waking her up. Pulling the pillow under her head, she pushed it against her sister's chest.

Stellar heard Cassy gagged, and her eyes flew open. Stars twinkled in Stella's eyes when she saw how green as a slime Cassy's face was, her repulsed reaction upon seeing the trail of drool on Stellar's pillow.

"Unbelievable. Your pillow is disgusting, young lady. When was the last time you washed your sheets?"

"I don't know. Around Halloween?" Stellar croaked. She covered her eyes with her forearm when the sunlight's rays stung her pair of dark brown eyes.

"Hayaaaaaa," Cassy exasperated as she grabbed the pillow and peeled its cover, neatly folding it so she could have it laundered.

Against Cassy's better judgment, she brought the linen closer to her nose and was assaulted with a smell she couldn't put her finger on. She gagged. And she gagged once more when the putrid smell never went away. "Oh, my goodness. I think I'm gonna die of arsenic poisoning."

A peal of giggles bounced off the walls of Stellar's periwinkle room. It was her favorite color, and she painted it herself. A shade of purple and slightly blue, periwinkle was akin to the canvas of the sky during sunrise, which happened to be Stellar's telling sign that it was time for her to sleep.

Stellar's belly started to hurt from laughing, and her hands subconsciously clutched on it as if it would do the trick of easing the ticklish ache.

Pinching Stellar's sides, Cassy sneered, "Your sister almost died because of your stench and you're laughing. Do you really want me to die before your birthday?"

As if a button was accidentally pushed, Stellar froze, laying flat on her bed like a starfish. Scratch it, she thought. There were two days that she hated the most out of the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year: the day before her birthday and her birthday itself.

Cassy's mouth opened and shut like a fish out of the water. She knew she hit a nerve, but she was out of words to comfort her sister. Laying down on the bed, she scooped Stellar into a hug, pressing the latter's head on her chest.

"Your boobies are killing me," Stellar protested, tapping her hand on Cassy's back.

The sisters shared a laugh, wiggling their bodies to give themselves a room to breathe.

If it was up to Cassy, she would leave Stellar alone, instead of forcing her to come out and join the fun when nobody really wanted to be seen with her. After all, Stellar was a carbon copy of their father, the very man who ruined their mother's life for years.

Peering down at Stellar, Cassy's heart painfully squeezed. Tomorrow should be a celebration of Stellar's birth. It should be Stellar's happiest time of the year, yet it happened to fall on the day when their relatives would crash their home for the holidays.

Long slender fingers combed Stellar's wild orchid hair. It soothed her raging heartbeat, drying up the tears that welled in her eyes in an instant. She knew if there was a person in the family who understood her most, it was her sister.

To Stellar, it didn't matter that it took twenty-five years for Cassy to recognize and see the invisible bubble that Stellar caged herself in. At least, she had someone behind her back now, and it made everything better compared to her years of isolation.

"Just show your face for a few minutes, and then, you can go back and hide in your cave," Cassy uttered. She could sense Stellar's energy was depleting even when they lay motionless on the bed, but she had to fight against the magnetic pull of the water bed, so she swung her legs off of the bed and stood up.

Yanking Stellar by the wrist, Cassy sweat bullets as she pulled her sister's weight off the bed and then out of the room.

Hugging Cassy from behind, the sisters wobbled like penguins to the dining area. They passed through a hall adorned with a white wallpaper printed with a rose gold prism, creating the illusion of a wider space despite the hall being cramped as a shoebox.

As they reached the stairs, the sisters shivered when a gust of wind blew inside their home as the double doors swung open. But what dotted their skin with goosebumps was the shrieking laughter they were all familiar with.

That laugh, they couldn't mistake it for someone else. It only belonged to one person, and unfortunately, it was their mom's best friend, Auntie Babes, also known as Ursula.

Warning bells blared in Stellar's head. If their Aunt Ursula was in attendance, the person Stellar dreaded the most must be tagging along with her as well. Her spidey senses told her she was a hundred and one percent correct.

From Stellar's vantage point, she saw a shadow cross their threshold. On instinct, the hairs on her nape raised, and she broke out in a cold sweat which trickled down her back.

Just as the owner of the shadow emerged, Stellar raised an invisible white flag and took a step back before turning on her heel to bolt back to her bedroom. However, Cassy was quicker, clawing Stellar by the back of her collar before dragging her down the staircase like a delinquent kitten.

On their way down the curving staircase, Stellar deflated and pressed her lips together. If she fought back one more time, Cassy would sniff out why she was out of her wits. Like a rag doll, Stellar let her sister tug her to any direction Cassy wished.

As they reached the landing, Stellar closed her eyes and sang the alphabet backward like she always did when panic crippled her. She started from Z, then Y, then W.

Wait a minute? She skipped a letter! So she shut her eyes tighter and imagined the alphabet was floating in the air.

"Z, Y, X, W," Stellar chanted, but before she could continue, she heard the voice of Ursula's spawn. Stellar's very own walking nightmare, the el diablo himself—Beau Spencer.