[2.00 AM]
"You are not Christine."
That voice, I had to wake up from that voice again. Another night in this mansion, and I hear a whisper that cuts my dream into black and silent. It's been the third time I've encountered this shadowy voice since our first unlikely encounter.
Once again, it was halfway before morning, and the room was filled with nothing but darkness. I still sleep in the same bed I had yesterday, but now I have two pillows and a chair—I think that means I have more things in my room now. Still, it feels so empty and cold here.
"Hrgh...Starglaze?"
Starglaze was sleeping distant from me. Yesterday was something horrible to be talked about. It turns out he still didn't understand the idea of companionship with humans. But nevertheless, he sleeps so well that it doesn't seem like he is bothered by it. The star shines dimly when he is asleep.
"Oh, Starsy. What's with you and this little nuisance we're having? We could all be happy as a Joyling together...aren't we?"
"But of course, we had to fight for something. Such a friendship disagreement we're having here..."
It's happening again—I cannot sleep. As soon as my body rose in a terrible wake, I was numbed from sleeping anymore. This has never happened before since that voice came to me. That's when I knew it was their doing—or HER doing—the voice's doing.
"Hey. Are you there? Are you still listening to me...?"
"You've called for me? Why would you call on your own voice?"
"You called on me before. I should do the same."
"You shouldn't. I did not need to be called..."
"Oh, but I know you needed me more when you talked to me that day. You must be a lonely one, too...aren't you?"
"You should know that I do not kindly take an offer. I have no feeling or desire to do so..."
Yes, I do recognize the voice as a lady, but she sounded faded and blurry to hear. If I held a broken microphone and put only a taunting whisper, I could mimic that voice, too. But I couldn't get rid of her since she started to appear in my head. Sometimes, even I could ignore her by accident—and she didn't like it.
"What do you want?" I asked the voice.
"Nothing. I wanted nothing."
"I can't give you that. You have to be more specific..."
I walked out of my bed and sat on my chair while glancing at her face through my mirror. Sadly, it was only my face that showed up on the glass. Her voice echoes in my head clearly, with the faint Gleam lamp beside me to help keep an eye on her.
"You think I could find a friend out there?"
"You wouldn't find a human likeable."
"I know. But these humans are my friends, and I don't like to make my friends hate me..."
"You've always been hated. What's the difference?"
"What? Where did you get that idea?"
*Buk*
Just as I was about to ask her something, I heard something falling from the outside with a thumping sound. It happens again, and I think I know who is involved here. The intruder with the saddest face is coming to haunt this home.
"What was that?"
"Your voice slips out again, Pearl."
"Oh, no...it's him. I need to wake Starsy up..."
"Starglaze...Starglaze...Starglaze...! Wake up..."
Starglaze and I were the only ones who were ready for this night, so I had to wake him up. He looks so funny when he wakes up, so it's hard not to chuckle. But when he looked at me with such a gaze, he grew more irritated than I thought he would be.
"Ugh, what's with the laugh, Pristy...? Can't you see it's night already...?"
"Starglaze, he's here...King Glum's here..."
"What...? Pearl, is that really your reason to wake me up...?"
"We need to catch him now! Please, Starglaze..."
"Pearl, I'm tired...do it yourself..."
"Come on, Starglaze...Just help me for this one...please, please, please..."
"Please, please, please, please..."
It's hard to beg for him. But when my sweet, kind words were taken out to his ears, Starglaze couldn't resist himself from sleeping again. Delighted as the Joyling he is, he helped me out of his heart with a gasp of excitement after realizing how exciting it would be.
—————————————————————————————————
We went downstairs, following the sound of Glum's terrible footsteps. But we didn't go down without a proper weapon. Like in the studio, the two of us had to survive through the deadly zone of the Frowlings with weapons of our own. Starglaze had his wand aimed at the front, shimmering brightly with stardust to decimate our enemy. While me? I am packed with one of human most versatile weapons.
"Hya...ha...huff...ha...hmm..." I swing this metallic bar I find from the wardrobe as hard as I can. I believe it was a pipe, but it was already broken.
"Keep it down, Pristy. We need to save our strength for a final hit..."
"I know, but I had to practice my swing with this thing. We didn't even knew how strong King Glum could be!"
"What is that thing anyway? It looks so...deadly..."
"I don't know. But it is heavy, and I like it. Tough tool for a hit..."
I have never felt so happy before at this moment. After years, I could finally take Glum down again and return this house to peace at once. I could hear his footsteps as he wandered around the kitchen again for another of his silly trips.
"Hya... ha...ya!"
*Prang*
During my attempt to sharpen my skill, I accidentally hit something on the table that gave so much sound in the room. For a brief second, a loud shattering was echoing throughout the hall, putting me and Starglaze in an awkward silence. That's also how the intruder stops to hear.
"S-Sorry..." I apologize.
His footsteps appeared again in our ears, and this time, he was coming at us. He was rushing—following that shattering pot on the table. But me and Starglaze were already in the position for a fight. So we knew exactly what to do.
We heard him slowly coming to the hallway with his cane, and chimes ringing around our ears as he made those steps. We knew we couldn't waste this time, and so we waited for a perfect opportunity to hit him. He was a perfect target and an oblivious one, too.
*Grunts*
"Oh...oh, it is him..." I whispered.
"By the Star, you really came back, aren't you...?" Starglaze whispered.
The moment we saw his silhouette in the dark, we couldn't be more assured that it was him. He was coming again with malicious intent, thinking he could fool us twice. But this time, we were the ones fooling him. The man had no idea what was about to hit his head.
"There it is...there it is..."
We waited for him to get closer to us, with his back unguarded as he made his way through the noise. We could see only a shadow of him standing tall with his cane. Still, it doesn't matter because now we had him trapped instead. My arms go up with this weapon.
"On the count of three...two..."
*Confused grunts*
"ONE!"
Pak! I gave the first hit on him, and he quickly fell to the ground. Starglaze follows with his wand, shooting out a stardust directly into his back, pinning him on the ground before he has a chance to stand up and see us. Then I hit him again only to make sure he felt my wrath.
Pak! "Take this! Take this, you monster!" I swung hard like I never did before. He was tough, but I still had him down.
Woosh! "Burn, you beast! Leave us alone already!"
Pak! "Your reign ends, Glum! The Joylings will no longer be frowned upon again!"
Woosh! "Yeah, and stop taking away my stardust! You...you whale-looking sad face!"
Pak! "Woah, that's rude, Starsy. Even for him..."
Pak! "But this is for everything! The big four, including me, will have you know you're done!"
Woosh! "For the Joylingers!"
"YAA!"
We screamed victorious as we found him unconscious. Fire and bruises are on Glum's back, and we are triumphant where we stand. Alas, the king has fallen from his throne and is defeated by one and only Joylingers like us. Or that is at least what we thought in the dark.
"Jump and Jack, the shore rising tight~!"
"The ocean calls for waving~!"
"With gleam and glossy, the skirt spinning right~!"
"There goes the Pristine Pearl~!"
"Round around, the circling night~!"
"The wonderful children are waiting~!"
"With shines and sparkles, their head gleaming wise~!"
"There goes the Starglaze~!"
"Yeah!!"
*Click* "Pearl, what's happening here?"
My mother turned off the switch with a confused face, and the room was suddenly bright as dawn. Our eyes were not ready for this brightness, and we were almost blind. However, our surprise lies more when we look down and discover that the one we have been beating may not be the King Glum we've been looking for.
"Christine? Star-thing? What are you doing this late at night? Don't you know what time it is?" She appears disturbed. But I know she wouldn't be with our findings.
"Wow, Ms Starstuhm...care to warn us first...? Ouch..." Starglaze mumbled.
"Mom, mom! We got him! We got King Glum! We—huh?"
We thought we had him pinned by the ground, but it was the face we didn't expect to be. Behind the darkness, the robe of a king was just the coat of a father and a crown that was revealed to be a bonnet of a sleeper—hard to believe I had a sight of this thing around. It was my father who lay there on the floor with bruises and burns.
"Augh...ugh..."
"F-Father???" I was in disbelief. I was certain it was King Glum before.
"Mr Starstuhm, what are you doing there?" Starglaze pokes him with his wand.
"What am I doing...? Well, what are you two doing this late night, beating this old man for no reason? Augh, I can't feel my back...augh..."
He was grunting with pain—one more terrible than King Glum's sluggish hum. So many bruises, so many wounds, and so many disappointments he could have seen through me when he saw me holding that metal bar. Fortunately, we didn't go too harsh on his leg. Unfortunately, he can stand on his leg.
"I'm so sorry, father...I thought you were..."
"Yes, yes! You think I'm this 'King Glum' you've met last night?" My father looks so unhealthy. His arms are crossed, and he blinked hard with that purple eye.
Pang! That's the sound of my metal pipe laying elsewhere.
"I would be so proud to have a daughter who could hit that high, but I'm not so proud with your eagerness...to you father..."
"But I saw a cane! His cane!"
"The broom? Yeah, this one goes for the glass-shattering event you were supposed to clean yesterday...I had to do pick up a new broom..." I saw that broom clearly, as he said. I was a fool.
"Aww..."
"Wait, what about the chime? We heard you chiming here!" Starglaze floats bravely before me."
"Chime? You mean the bell that was stuck in my pants? I've been holding them all day to repel rats in the kitchen...rats here don't like the sound of ringing..."
"Someone left the cake last night opened for a pack of rats." He stared at me with an eye I could say was a disappointing one.
"Oh..." We both nodded in shame.
"Wait, you're cleaning at night?" Starglaze questions.
"Yes. I like sweeping when it was dark. Helps me focus with the pressure of being in a mountain. You just can't sleep well at night in a mountain."
"Well, now you two had to clean up the mess that your father could not clean upon. Starting from you, Christine..." The broom was handed to me by my father.
"Aww...! Pearl, look what you made me do! Ugh, I should've stayed sleep!" Starglaze drops his wand.
"I'm sorry, I—" I was trying to apologize, but...father got the broom on me.
"Not now, dear. Clean the floor first..."
—————————————————————————————————
In the end, we failed to capture King Glum and find ourselves a terrible duty instead. On a late night, after a jolt of false excitement, we get tired easily with all those energies we've drained. Meanwhile, the mother and father get to sleep the entire night after aiding the wound.
"Wow, Pearl. Look what you just put us through..."
"Such disappointing thought and a waste of friend." The voice uttered to me.
"Not now. Pearl is getting busy!" I muttered quietly.
"Oh, so that's what you thought of me now? Quite nice of you, Pearl..."
"No, I mean... I—"
"You what? What's with the whole scene now, Pearl? Spill it out..."
Starglaze looked upon me with yet another sharp, judging eye. We made a mess, and we put up the wrong hat for the wrong party. Dragging him into this trouble only makes our bond worse, and I'm worried about what happened after morning with this.
"Starglaze, I think I miss being on the studio..."
"Humans used to love me back there because of my stage, but nobody here did now and that—that hurts me..."
"Knowing your whole stage was built upon a lie and everyone forgets about you when yyou tried so hard to be Sebastian's perfect ballet...it really didn't feel worth leaving now..."
"I know we were best friends for long, but...I think it will be better if the two of us can befriend humans to get our fame back..."
He looked at me with a suspicious stare. He didn't seem so happy when I kept doing happy things with him. Whatever happened with being a Joyling? He didn't seem happy enough to me. These humans started to take something from us. It shouldn't be that saddening to be free.
"Oh...so that's it..."
He went quiet after that, almost showing me no response about the talk. I had never seen him so silent in this manner before because this wasn't the stubbornness I had seen from him. He was not in a feeling of ignoring me at all. He was...concerned.
"Well, I guess...I...could think of that! Maybe we should try that." He was nervous, but he was willing to.
"W-what? I mean, really?" I was surprised by this turn of events.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, right?"
"Of course! I knew you'd understand sooner! Ah, I can't wait to meet a new friend outside this gate like Lisa again...I hope the doctors would allow me."
"Yeah..." Starglaze nodded in agreement. Though he looked like he was too tired to respond—given his drowsy eyes and arching lips. He then looked away from me so he could continue his job.
"Hehe! If it's not for this day—then maybe tomorrow could be a great day for us, Starsy. I mean, look at us! Two Joylings wandering in a human world together? I can't wait!"
It was the moment I'd been waiting for him. Starglaze finally raises his head for the greater good, and we'll have no more worries about this human at once. I know at first I said I didn't want to be around humans anymore, but I'm starting to feel more confident in the hope that I could find someone like Carolina. I knew they were out there, looking for me. Lisa does—though she didn't like the look on me.
Pristine Pearl—the once popular ballet in the world, has lost her popularity and fame under the years of darkness. But now, she would return back to that fame once more with her name on the human's lips. I will regain my name back and show them how I am more than just a pearl they could loathe behind the stage.