Short summary: Probably the saddest and most depressing one-shot I'll ever write, but I feel it is appropriate given how the final episode went. Inspired by the songs 'Bittersweet Memories' and 'A Place Where You Belong' by BFMV and the season 2 finale of SVTFOE.

Trigger warnings: Depression, anxiety, heartbreak, character death/suicide.

Please note that I do not support or encourage any of the above. Every life is a life worth living, for the darker days we do overcome, to stronger we grow.

Everything she'd ever treasured was gone, taken from her.

It was over. Done. Finished. She was finished.

The young princess sat there in a dark corner, crying, sobbing, shivering violently, unable to control her emotions.

Her worst nightmare had come true; not Glossaryck being captured, or Ludo beating her, no. She'd been forgotten and abandoned by the person closest to her, by the one person she cared about unlike anyone else. Her best friend, Marco Diaz.

Ever since that day, that night, he'd changed. He hardly made any time for her anymore, always denying her requests for the two of them to hang out, always smiling cheerfully at her while telling her that he had other plans with Jackie.

Whenever he talked to her, it was always about Jackie.

She understood.

She understood that she was unwanted.

She understood that he was happy now, and she was happy for him.

But that night, when the boy had rushed over to Jackie with no hesitation, much more worried about that girl than her, something inside Star Butterfly had broken.

Each smile was forced, every laugh painful, every glance at Marco, who was normally with Jackie now, unbearable.

Jackie was special to the boy, and she was fine with that but... wasn't she special, too? Wasn't she the one constantly supporting him, encouraging him, brightening his days, and for what? To be thrown away and forgotten.

And it hurt. It hurt unlike anything else.

And she couldn't take any more of it, she simply couldn't.

And she wanted to make that clear to him, come clean about her pain and suffering before she vanished from his life, for good.

Downstairs, Marco casually walked inside, a grin on his face after yet another successful movie-date with Jackie.

He was about to head upstairs when suddenly, he spotted something on the kitchen table. A piece of pink paper.

Why had Star left him a note? He wondered.

Walking over to it, he hesitantly picked it up, suddenly getting a bad feeling in his gut.

Before he could read it, something else caught his eye.

All the pictures of Star, whether she'd been alone or with him, were either half-burnt of completely reduced to ash, or simply ripped off of the wall and smashed, torn, set aflame.

Marco swallowed. What was going on?

He opened the folder piece of paper and read every word carefully.

Instantly, he threw it to the ground and sprinted upstairs with inhuman speed, making a V-line straight for Star's room.

"Star!" He frantically yelled, trying the lock, then banging the door with his fist after realising that she'd locked it.

He pounded on it with all of his might, ignoring any pain he might have felt. "STAR!"

She could hear him clearly, but she had no intent of getting up.

She looked around her dark room one final time, making out whatever she could through her tear-filled eyes, imprinting the place she'd once been happy to call home into her memory.

The pounding continued. Star flinched. He was hurting himself, definitely.

A thought crossed her mind; The painful memory of when she'd lost control of her magic and ended up hurting both him and Jackie.

"I hurt him..." she whispered to herself.

If she could no longer control her magic and was no longer needed by Marco, then she truly was nothing more than a burden to him.

She truly was despicable, not even telling him why the skateboard wheel had suddenly snapped.

She couldn't tell him!

She had to tell him!

Her mind was in conflict, her head ached.

He deserved to know that she was the one who'd nearly injured him.

Slowly and with shaky hands, she lifted the wand to eye-height.

"I hurt him... it was me..." she muttered to herself.

She stared into her wand, seeing her own reflection. It smiled evilly at her, teeth sharp, bangs covering her eyes.

"It was my fault..."

She'd hurt Marco. She'd hurt Jackie. She was a monster, and nobody wanted to hang out with monsters like her, especially not Marco.

The banging on the door became louder, Marco's desperate pleas for her to come out falling onto deaf ears.

Why was he so persistent? After all, he didn't care about her, he never had. This entire time, their bond had been an illusion created in her own head. It was fake, everything was fake.

The banging became even louder. Was he ramming the door? For what purpose?

It hit her; he wanted her to suffer. He wanted to pry her out of her room and force her to live each day in agony, watch him enjoy his life, watch him hang out with her newly-found lover, Jackie, while she slowly rotted in the shadows. He'd finally achieved his goal, and now he wanted to gloat.

She wasn't going to let him! She refused to live such a miserable life! She was going to have the last laugh!

Star began chanting, whispering a dark incantation, the wand pointed towards her.

She closed her mouth. It was done, her final requiem had been sung.

The princess shut her eyes. Soon, it would all be over, she would have to suffer no longer.

With a final charge, Marco rammed the door down, nearly dislocating his shoulder in the process.

His heart stopped.

Time stood still.

He saw the dark corner, Star's body lying in it, her eyes closed, wand on the floor, the crystal in it, pitch black.

The hearts on her cheeks, broken.

He dashed over to her, scooping her up from the floor. His hands began shaking. She wasn't moving, she wasn't breathing.

Marco held her cold and limp body, pressing her face into his chest, begging, crying, praying for someone, anyone, to bring his beloved best friend back.

He received no answer.

This was his punishment.

He screamed her name over and over, asking her to wake up, but to no avail. She did not listen, did not want to listen.

"Star, please! Don't go somewhere I can't follow!" he screamed.

What had he caused?

Outside, the moon shone red for a moment, the glow fading away as swiftly as it had appeared.

And then, there was silence...

FIN

I'm sorry...

-jolleIQ