To Promise Upon a Star

Cherry blankly stared at her bed’s tester, frowning to herself. Even though her muscles grew sore like never before, and her heart light as a feather, sleep still refused to take her into the night.

It was just… so many things happened within a span of a few days that she still needed to process it all.

She slipped off the bed, briefly massaging her shoulders before stepping onto the balcony and leaning onto the railings, gazing softly at the night sky. A cool breeze brushed by, delivering a whisper of the forest. Shame she didn’t have ears like Theodore’s.

“Oh,” said Charlie, “can’t sleep either?”

Cherry turned to his direction, where her brother stood on his balcony leaning in the same manner as her. “You too, huh?”

“Haaah, I’m used to staying up late ever since Solomon trained me to do so.”

She squinted. “But you’ve always stayed up late studying for your exams, mister honorary student.”

He scratched his head. “Okay, yeah, fair point.”

“And let me guess, you still study veterinary science these days.”

“Hey, stop calling me out like that.”

“I didn’t say it was bad.” She rested her chin on her palm. “Say, did you manage to save any more animals out there?”

Charlie scratched his cheek. “I did take care of some street dogs before they found a home.”

“More dogs, huh?” Cherry tossed a smile. “Daisy would be so proud of you.”

Charlie returned a faint grin. “Solomon said the same thing too.”

“Still not over her, huh?”

“Never. She’s the whole reason I’m becoming a veterinarian, you know.”

“Yeah, no need to remind me.”

“What about you then?”

“Eh?”

“Do you still want to work in the performing arts?”

Cherry bit her lip.

A vision crossed her mind: a scene of Monty tossing glittering stars over the audience as they smiled and cheered, and Cherry was one of them. It was a colorful vision that heavily contrasted with the look of fear and despair she would see in a broken mirror.

Cherry rested her head on her elbow. “I… only wanted to prove to myself that vampires can spread hope and joy, just like Monty did for me when I was at my lowest,” she muttered. “But, after… y’know, he showed his true colors and all… I just don’t know anymore.”

Charlie slanted his head. “But do you still like to stand in the spotlight?”

She shuddered. “I… sort of have mixed feelings about it now.”

“Totally understandable.” He shrugged. “Astrale Academy’s on hold for now. You have plenty of time to think it over before it starts again.”

“Glad to hear that,” she mumbled. “Is science hard to study in general?”

“Depends. It’s definitely harder than any creative classes you have.”

“Okay, I’m still sticking to the art department then.”

“Good idea.”

The twins fell silent, pondering peacefully to themselves.

“To be honest, I’m not excited to go back to school,” Charlie muttered, “We barely went over our infamy days, and now we might get harassed again if they all find out that we’re vampires.”

“I’m sure the headmaster might do something,” said Cherry.

“Heavy emphasis on ‘might.’”

“Yeah, but I’m sure there’s plenty of our kind there! All our friends turned out to be vampires like us!” she said, pointing a thumb at the mansion behind her. “Well, besides Eloi.”

“Haaah, and here we are, helping them deal with their family drama instead of studying.”

“But we do owe Solomon.”

“Definitely.”

“And besides, they’re our friends, aren’t they? It was our dream to make some for ages!”

Charlie hummed and leaned against the railing. “I suppose it was.”

The twins sighed and turned to the sky, stargazing away.

It was true that they did it all because Solomon saved their lives, but now that Cherry’s memories returned, it ended up not being the only reason.

Ever since Daisy’s death, they convinced themselves to never make friends again lest they suffer another painful parting. For years, not once did the Eltheans go their way to bond with anyone. For years, they saw themselves as monsters unworthy of friends.

It made so much more sense now. Not only did they owe their lives to Solomon, but his kids themselves were friends who should’ve existed only in their dreams.

Perhaps somewhere deep down, they could also prove themselves that they could save precious lives. Maybe by saving such lives, they could finally break their terrible curse of spreading tragedies.

This… this caused that feeling Cherry had on her first night here, this subconscious itch to support them as they did for her.

Cherry couldn’t help but smile to herself now that they helped two of the four siblings so far. It was certainly good progress! They’d manage to get through Dorothy and Clover eventually! Somehow!

And yet… what would come next? What would happen to all of them afterward?

Her smile gradually faded, still staring at the stars until her neck ached. Stargazing should’ve always calmed her but this time, it ended up building more weight into her chest, and she couldn’t help but grimace as a terrible knot tightened in her stomach.

“Hey, Charlie?” she asked.

“Hm?”

She gripped on the railing. “What’s going to happen to us from now on? Now that the kingdom’s… well… exterminating our kind, how are we supposed to get our normal lives back? We didn’t even get to finish graduating from Astrale Academy either!”

Her brother chewed his lip. “I… don’t know.”

She knitted her brows, eyes watering. “Where’s Mom?” she whimpered. “Where’s Dad? Where the hell did they go? Why did they leave us like this?”

Charlie pursed his lips. “I’ve been asking myself that for months,” he muttered. “And I still don’t know.”

“Even our old home is gone too. Everything went downhill now. What do we do?” Tears streamed down her face, forcing her to turn around and quickly wipe it.

Charlie climbed up the railing and swiftly leaped over to her balcony, facing her.

“Charlie,” she croaked, “I’m scared. I'm really scared. I don’t want to die. I… I don’t want to die…”

Her twin pulled her into a tight embrace, patting her back. “It’s okay,” he muttered. “We’ll survive somehow. We’ve already pulled off a few miracles for months.”

“Like what?”

“Like bringing you back, obviously.”

Cherry sniffled. “Then what about the rest of those months? How did you manage to survive out there?”

“...As cheesy as it sounds, it’s because of hope.”

She blinked.

“Seriously, I mean it. I knew you were going to wake up one day the same as before, so I’ve been giving it my all to walk through hell and see that day.”

Cherry slowly hugged him back. “I’m sorry I’ve kept you waiting,” she murmured. “I promise I’ll be more careful from now on.”

His shoulders trembled. “Goddamn it, don’t make me cry again.”

She chuckled, her smile returning. “C’mon, join me.”

“No, don’t wanna.”

“Hmph.” She pulled up his shirt and shamelessly blew her nose.

“Oi!” Charlie moved away and glared, wiping her stains off his shoulder. “Blow your nose with your own shirt!”

She teasingly stuck her tongue out, but Charlie immediately squeezed her cheeks, causing her to scrunch up her face and wail.

“Ow! Hey, shtawhp!”

“Pfft.” He let go and crossed his arms. “That’s payback.”

She huffed and patted her cheeks. “Okay, we’re even then.”

He snorted and leaned on the railing, Cherry following suit. As the two stared at the never-ending horizon, uneasiness draped over them.

“From now on, we’re going to be fighting for our lives in the kingdom, aren’t we?” Cherry mumbled.

“Now you realize it?”

“I already know we will! I’m only realizing how big of a deal that is!”

“It’s not like we’re not used to whimsical adventures already.”

“But we’ll have to go through a lot more life-or-death situations, right?”

Charlie shuddered, briefly turning pale. “Yeah, tell me about it,” he muttered.

Cherry swallowed. “What kinds of battles did you go through?”

He tapped his chin. “Let’s see… aside from the Chevolaires, Solomon and I’ve fought violent crime syndicates, random serial killers we were unlucky to cross paths with, giant killer circus puppets, and we sometimes encountered phantom thieves out there.”

She blinked. “Giant… killer circus puppets?” she squeaked.

“Yep, they’re a thing.”

“No, you’re kidding.”

“No, I’m not. Theatreux is advanced in clockwork technology, remember?”

“...How big are we talking here?”

He pointed at the forest. “As big as those trees.”

She dropped her jaw. “No way! Seriously?! Who the hell would invent them?”

“Your typical corrupt organizations, apparently. There’s surprisingly a lot of dangerous carnivals and circuses out there.”

“Oh, god, why is our kingdom so screwed?! What the heck’s our king doing?!”

“No idea.”

She groaned and facepalmed. “I’m so gonna die out there!”

Charlie frowned. “Hey, don’t say that. Don’t even joke about it either.”

She inhaled back her composure. “Sorry, I’ve panicked for a moment there.”

He patted her shoulder. “Solomon’s a good trainer. He’ll definitely teach you how to survive out there. If he managed to train a wimp like me, I’m sure you can too.”

“But you did beat up Eloi’s bullies pretty badly that day, though.”

“That didn’t count—I was running with adrenaline that time.”

Cherry slumped her shoulder. “I’m already feeling tired just thinking about it. How can you handle it, Charlie? We were just normal students barely months ago!”

“You’ll get used to it quickly,” he said, patting her back. “If you’re tired, then you should head back to bed.”

She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, good idea.”

He mimicked her and raised a pinky finger.

She looked down at his pinky, and a nostalgic warmth bubbled in her chest. She softly smiled and raised hers.

The twins intertwined their fingers, squeezing tightly.

“No matter what happens, we’ll stick together,” said Charlie.

“That’s a promise, one we’ll carry forever,” said Cherry.

As if the sky heard their vows, a shooting star traced over their heads.

“Good night,” they both said, letting go. The twins went back to their bedrooms with satisfied smiles and closed their curtains, leaving the night sky to twinkle to themselves.