"You think they know where we are?" I asked.

She shrugged as she gazed up at the twinkling stars above us, resting her head on her hands with her legs crossed. "Maybe. Maybe not."

We laid head to head on the dirt ground of the dark, silent forest together as the fire gave out crackling and snapping. The flickering, smoldering light of the fire that I couldn't seem to keep going was going to die off soon. Still, it illuminated off Star and I, giving us an orange glow.

"I'm so tired, but the tough ground is nothing like my bed at home." I commented. Star chortled at that, making me smile a bit. "Also, I'm still really hungry."

"Yeah," She murmured back. "Me too."

After another stretch of hearing the crickets chirping and the fire crackling, I added another thought out loud to the starry sky filled with the burning smoke of fire. "It's funny though. I kinda wish I was back home."

To that, Star sprung up suddenly. "Marco!" She sounded hurt. Did I say something wrong?

"We can't go back! You can't go back!" She insisted, looking down on me with wavering, bold eyes.

"Star, what are you talking about?" I got up just as she had, suddenly becoming more uncomfortable than I already was. My stomach's intestines felt like they were being knotted tight. I felt queasy all of a sudden.

"If you go back, your parents, the police, they'll find you and lock you up in a mental institute! They'll think - they'll think you're sick, unstable!"

"Th-that's ridiculous." I argued, not having a better explanation to her own.

"You'll become one of those kids with their own padded rooms and get fed through a slot and wear a straight jacket and they'll do experiments on you and-" I laughed, interjecting Star, which made her stare at me with a baffled look.

"Oh, c'mon! We can't live like this forever? I mean, hiding in the woods? Really?"

Now she looked heartbroken. "Marco, I'm serious."

"So am I!" I told her, bringing my voice to a slightly louder volume. "We can't live like this! We don't have enough food for the both of us! We don't have shelter or-or even the basic knowledge to survive out here!"

Star's hand fell on my shoulder and I hadn't realized I was shouting until I looked at her. Her touch was healing and I sighed, feeling her sensation radiate through me and bring me to a calming state. My eyes softened and then she spoke. "I can't let you go back. They think you're crazy. They wouldn't believe you if you told them. They'll try to pull you away from me. Please...stay here with me. Nobody understands you like I do, Marco."

I dropped my head, my heart beating to no limit. I dreaded going back to that life, but I needed to. "Stop it!" I demanded, shaking her hand off my shoulder with agitation rising quickly inside of me.

That was the first time I could remember that I had pushed Star away like that. The fact I did made my eyes well up in tears. I hated to do that to her, but she had officially made me angry.

"You're just like them." I mumbled, my throat becoming too clogged for me to speak. "I thought you understood me, but you don't." My voice shook, making my bottom lip quiver.

"Marc-" She began though I cut her off.

"No. Just leave me alone." More words I have never even thought of muttering in Star, my best friend's, direction. Her hand hovered in the air, torn between reaching out towards me or dropping itself.

I saw her fist clench up and she groaned. Then, she lunged herself at me, holding my face with both her hands and staring directly into my eyes. Right away, I saw her tears dripping from her own eyes. "I may not understand you right now, but I will always care about you."

I took her wrists and dropped her hands off of my face. "Star...are you...real?" It felt too painful to ask and I knew she was taken off guard herself. Her eyes were wide and still teary.

"Well I'm here, aren't I?" She returned the question and I heard slight humor in her tone of voice.

All these years I had believed she was. Maybe I was the only one to notice or maybe it was because Star was always an outsider like me, like she and I went on unnoticed. Maybe it really was just me. Maybe I was just hallucinating and Star Butterfly, a girl who I've known longer than I can remember, was all in my head. If she was, it just made me wonder...

Was this some kind of psychotic disorder?

I shook my head, feeling confused and overwhelmed. Running away from my own problems and trying to live the rest of my life in the woods was such an idiotic idea. It wasn't going to solve anything. In fact, why was I even here in the first place? Because my mind was telling me to?

"I don't know." I said. "I-I'm not so sure that you really are anymore."

"That's not true!" She cried out, which, oddly, made the trees wave their branches noisily in the breeze of the night.

"Then why are you here, anyway? All you do is keep me company and agree with everything I say just so I can please myself! Just so I finally have someone to talk to for once! But it's actually not another person! I'm actually talking to myself and you're just my conscious! I was just desperare enough to conjure up a friend! You're not real!"

Star's hand came at my face in just a matter of seconds, slapping me with a hard sting. "Oh yeah? Was that real enough for you?" Her face was as relaxed and casual as ever as she got up on her feet and she moved to the other side of the smoldering fire, away from me.

"Star - I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry." Despite the fact we had been living for days in the outdoors, Star had never vanished on me. She had stayed around and never left. And right now, I sensed she was close to disappearing on me. Except this time, she wouldn't come back.

Everyday I wonder if she was ever real, the question buzzing in my ear like an annoying fly. Everytime she isn't there, I ask myself if she was ever really there at all. Other times, I'm surprised that no one else can see her. If you can't notice a bubbly teenage girl with a booming voice enter the room, then chances are you're the one who is crazy.

Why is it just me then? Was Star really just a figment of my imagination?

Or was she really there?

When I looked over at Star, I had found she had left. She was no longer on the other end of the fire and I had realized that I had accidentally been thinking for too long.

I was alone now, hearing the frogs in the distance chirp and the trees whispering above me. I tucked my knees into me and curled into a fetal position on the cold dirt ground. All I wanted now was to go home.

(Imaginary Star AU / MindDemon's AU)

This is definitely a very well thought out AU and I am obsessed with it ever since I started reading the first chapter! Go click MD's name to check out their story because this is definitely something you don't want to miss!