The Curse of the Fallen Star

A short story

“What are you doing?” Eloise screamed.

“Killing is living,” Monty whispered, as he pulled out a knife from the body laying in front of him.

“What?” Eloise cried out and looked with disbelief at the body belonging to one of her best friends. “She is our friend, Monty. I-I what have you done?”

Eloise knelt by the body and tried to find the source of the bleeding. She whimpered as she looked down at multiple stabbing wounds, realizing that it was nothing she could do to help her friend.

“Killing is living,” Monty repeated while he looked up at the dark night sky. The only light came from a single falling star.

9 hours before

“I’ve heard about this place that has the best cakes, it’s just a short bus ride out of the city,” Jody said, while she threw her long blond hair behind her shoulders. “They have some confection I really want to try.”

Eloise nodded and looked enviously at Jody’s hair. Eloise was short and chubby with dark shoulder-long hair. Jody was almost the opposite, with her long blond hair and thin figure.

“I’m always up for cake,” Monty said smiling.

Monty had short dark hair and was neither short nor tall. If the three friends hadn’t grown up together it would have been hard to imagine them becoming friends, as they were as different as people could be.

Jody was an extrovert with considerable confidence. Eloise was shy and introverted. Monty was something in-between. He was not as nervous as Eloise, nor did he have Jody’s great confidence.

“Let’s take the bus out there then,” Jody said and gave them both a clap on the shoulders.

8 hours before

“I can’t believe they are closed.” Jody looked at the closed sign at the door of the cake store they had planned to visit.

“I guess we should have checked the opening hours first.” Eloise shrugged her shoulders.

“I just really wanted that confection.” Jody sighed. “What are we going to do now?”

“I don’t know,” Eloise said. “Where’s Monty?”

Eloise looked around. A few seconds later she found Monty a few buildings further down the street. He was looking at something in one of the windows belonging to one of the buildings.

“Eloise. Jody. Come.” Monty called. “I’ve found a really cool museum.”

Both Jody and Eloise walked down to Monty.

“I don’t want to go to a museum. “Jody complained. “I want to eat cake.”

“The store is closed. Since we have taken the bus all the way here, we can at least do something here. “Monty shrugged his shoulders and walked into the museum.

7 hours before

“Welcome. Welcome. Happy eve of the fallen star.” The person at the front desk of the museum greeted them with a big smile.

“What’s the eve of the fallen star?” Eloise looked curiously at the man.

“It’s a festive holiday where ancient artifacts can make people do the most outlandish things.” The man started saying.

“We just want three tickets, ok?” Jody interrupted the conversation, and the man became quiet before he gave them the three tickets.

5 hours before

“I can’t believe we have spent 2 hours here, and he still finds it interesting,” Jody complained to Eloise.

Monty was busy looking at something at the other end of the room.

“ I think I’ll just take this one.” Jody pointed at an ancient artifact in the shape of a star exhibited on one of the tables.

“Haha, Jody. You know that there’s probably an alarm on it. You wouldn’t dare.” Eloise joked as she didn’t believe Jody was serious.

“I’ll tell Monty that it’s time to leave. We don’t want to miss the last bus.” Eloise told Jody and started walking over towards Monty.

4 hours before

“I can’t believe we missed the last bus.” Eloise's face was white as a sheet.

“It’s his fault.” Jody pointed her finger at Monty. “If he didn’t insist on us staying at that museum forever, we would never be in this situation,” Jody screamed.

“Don’t blame me, Jody. How many times haven’t you got us into trouble?” Monty yelled back.

“Here, takes your stupid ancient artifact,” Jody screamed and threw something at Monty.

“What’s that, Jody?” Eloise's face became even paler. “Did you steal it?”

“You stole something from the museum, Jody?” Monty asked as he picked up the artifact that was shaped like a star.

“Guys let’s just be friends until we can find a way to get home. I don’t think we should argue now.” Eloise said to try to break the tension.

“I guess we have to sleep out here tonight,” Monty said and looked around at the sand surrounding them.

“At least it’s warm.” Eloise tried to sound positive.

30 min before

“Killing is living.” Monty’s voice woke Eloise up. “We must sacrifice, this clarifies, we all have a price to pay, for the wrong we did today.”

Eloise looked at Monty as he stood looking up at the dark night sky.

“You stole me, now you’ll see.” Monty’s voice was deeper than usual.

“You sound like you’re possessed, Monty. Stop joking.” Jody laughed.

“You chose the wrong day to steal me. Now you’ll see. The power of the fallen star. This will leave a scar.” The words coming out of Monty’s mouth made Eloise shake.

“You shouldn’t have stolen that thing, Jody. I think something is wrong with Monty.” Eloise’s voice was shaking.

Seconds later Monty pulled a knife and jumped toward Jody. Jody was too slow to react, and Monty’s knife pierced her body.

“Monty, stop!” Eloise screamed.

However, Monty raised his knife to stab Jody again. And again. And again.