After stopping the car a few houses away from the Sampson house, Sky and Star gave each other one more nervous look before Star sent off another text to Crista, which read, “we’re parked up the street, can you come meet us?”

They then took a deep breath as they waited. It was a few more minutes before Crista appeared outside her house, her eyes finding their car and giving them a questioning look before heading toward them. A moment later, she reached Star’s window, “is this some covert operation?” Crista asked as she glanced between the two of them.

Star looked at Sky again and took a breath, “are you really our friend, Crista? Can we really, really trust you... like with our lives?” she added for weight.

Crista looked a little startled by that ominous greeting, but slowly nodded, “are you guys running away or something? Cause, I get why you would, but it still would really suck” she told them sadly.

Sky then leaned closer to speak to her over Star, “we’re hoping that if we can trust you, completely, then it won’t come to that” he stated, deliberately placing a coaxing tone into his voice, as he was more than aware of the girl’s attraction to him and would use that infatuation to his advantage if he must; after all, their lives could very well depend on Crista’s cooperation right then.

Her breath catching a bit at his tone, Crista composed herself again, “well what do you need me to do?”

Sky took a breath, Star easily letting him do the talking, as she was also aware that Crista’s crush would likely make her even more receptive to him than herself. He then swallowed that breath and spoke in the same gentle, coaxing tone, “any chance you can get us into your house without anybody else knowing we’re there just yet?”

Crista’s breath caught at the idea of the two of them being in her house at all, but eventually reminded herself that they were waiting on an answer, “well, my parents left after the cops did. They have to fill out some more papers and crap for Cassie’s rehab stuff. And Cassie’s pretty easy to sneak past; just don’t stand in her line of vision” Crista scoffed.

“So, Cassie is here?” Star took a breath of her own as she and Sky shared another nervous look.

“Yeah they canceled her appointment today cause of all the cops and... everything” Crista offered, then quickly lowered her voice, “are you two coming here to kill her?” she asked with widened eyes.

The two just scoffed and shook their heads. Though Sky was the one who spoke again, “no, but we are gonna try to find... some way to finally get her to stop telling the cops that we made her fall from that cliff.”

“How?” Crista stammered.

“Still working out the details” Star took another breath, “so can we depend on you to help us then?”

Just to add some extra incentive, Sky spoke again, “thing is, we might, just might, actually be able to help your sister. But the cops think we’re the bad guys. So no one can know that we’re here, why we’re here, or how we’re trying to do that. The only person that can ever know, aside from you, is your sister; but only once she’s fixed. If we even can do that” he told her in a soft, somewhat pleading whisper.

Crista looked at them with a bit of shock before finding more words, “you guys really are witches?” she whispered.

Sky and Star gave each other another furtive glance before he spoke again, “and you know what would happen if anyone else ever knew about the things we might be able to do. The cops are already after us for what they think we did. That’s why we need to do this now. It’s not just about helping your sister; like I said, our lives depend on it. We have to get her to stop telling the cops about what she thinks we did. And, maybe fixing what she says we broke will do that. Hopefully, anyway” he added sadly.

Crista took another deep, sad breath, “you’re better people than me. If someone said the shit about me that my sister told everyone about you, I’d want them dead” she admitted in a whisper, then even more quietly, “I mean, she made you two try to kill yourselves because of the lies she told about you. And now you wanna help her?” she stated in disbelief.

Star took another deep breath, “the one rule in witchcraft is harm none” a slight breath, “and if we really did hurt her; we didn’t mean to, and we need to fix it. Our soul needs to make it better.”

Crista furrowed a brow, “don’t you mean souls?”

The two just allowed a small smile between them before Sky spoke again, “think you better get us into your bedroom before your parents get back and ask us some questions we really don’t wanna have to make up answers to.”

Crista’s breath caught again then as a blush rose to her cheeks. She then simply nodded and gestured for them to follow her back toward her house.

The first hour of their visit was spent with Crista laying on her stomach atop her bed, arms crossed under her chin just watching the two of them trying to do whatever it was that they were trying to do. For that first hour, Sky and Star were seated cross-legged on the floor, their backs against the wall, pretty made up eyes shut as though simply trying to will their concentration to the paralyzed girl in the room across the hall, and trying to undo what none of the doctors ever could.

Finally, as the clock struck two, the two opened their eyes and sighed over at each other, causing Crista to just give them another skeptical look from her place a few feet away on her bed. “Well, wanna go check on her?” Sky asked Crista.

“Check on?” Crista repeated with another skeptical look.

“It doesn’t feel like that did anything, but you should at least go see so we know if we have to try a...” he paused as he looked down at Star with another deep breath, “a different approach.”

Crista just shook her head, “witchcraft is a lot more boring than I thought it would be” she scoffed as she pushed herself up from the bed in the white tank, black bra, hello kitty boxers, and knee-high socks she wore for that suddenly school-free Tuesday.

“This is only our first approach” Star told her with an attempt at a reassuring smile.

“Whatevs” Crista shrugged as she moved to leave the room, to go and check on Cassie, as requested.

Star then looked at Sky sadly, speaking quietly, “no pressure, but we’re gonna have to try to make this happen in one night, aren’t we?”

“Yeah, no pressure” he scoffed.

“I just mean, I really doubt that mom and dad are gonna want us spending any more than one evening in the home of the girl who is trying to get us thrown in jail. They already told us to be back home before her so-called therapy was over. So staying over at her house on a Tuesday night, when they already think we’re having sex any time we’re not in the same room as them? And with the cops also currently considering us suspects in some case from three years ago too? In other words, we’re on a pretty short fucking leash here.”

“And we don’t even know if we can even do it” Sky reminded, “let alone, in one night.”

Star sighed heavily, “we have to try” she repeated with a bit of desperation clear.

That was when Crista returned, “blessed be, she can still move two whole fingers” she stated as she closed the door behind her once more.

Star and Sky then both sighed and looked at the clock. That was when Star shrugged up at him, “guess we can try it while touching, for this hour?”

“Touching?” Sky swallowed a bit as he cast a glance at Crista who had a bit of a curious look on her face right then too.

“Holding hands” Star shook her head up at him, before grabbing his hand, and laying her head back against the wall as she closed those dark eyes once more. Sky and Crista both sighed then, as he closed his eyes as well.

Once the time passed three, the two sighed and looked back at Crista, who had now moved her attention from their meditation to her phone. “Time for the next check up” Sky told her, trying to keep the defeat out of his tone.

Crista sighed once more before once again making her way out of her room and over to Cassie’s. A moment later, she returned once more, “she might have moved three fingers this time. It was kinda hard to tell though” she sighed as she reclaimed her seat once again.

Sky and Star sighed once more before Star spoke, “maybe we have already done all we can do. Maybe it just takes some time for it to fix all of her?” she offered sadly.

“I’m tempted to agree that that could be the case, but it’s not like we can just ask the cops to wait to see if she finishes getting better before they throw us in jail” Sky sighed again.

That was when Crista interrupted, “well what were you guys doing the day I texted you about her being able to move at all again?” Though the two simply answered with a blush as they both looked down. Crista cocked her head slightly at that reaction. She then suddenly widened her eyes, “sex magic? You guys do sex magic?”

The two couldn’t help scoffing, before Sky spoke up, “all we did was blush and look down. Jeez” he shook his head, though both he and Star’s blushes remained.

Crista’s breath was a bit short then as she looked between them, her mind obviously already deciding that her appraisal was accurate. With another ragged breath, her eyes traveled over both of them, “you two are officially the coolest people I’ve ever met in my life.”

The two couldn’t help each letting out a nervous laugh, before Sky spoke again, “we still don’t know if it was even us that started to fix her, remember?”

“While you were doing your sex magic?” Crista had to smile back at them, her own pale skin a little flushed then.

The two just shook their heads again as they gave a nervous look to the clock, then Crista’s expectant and excited expression, then each other. Then Sky dropped his voice to a nearly inaudible volume as he leaned down toward Star, “that is how everything we can do did start out, isn’t it? And this is pretty big to not require... extra effort” he decided on.

That was when Crista grinned, “so you two are gonna do sex magic?”

Sky just shook his head back at her, “you’re a little obsessed.”

“Yes, I definitely am” she breathed raggedly as her eyes moved over the two of them again.

Star just shook her head before shrugging, “well, it would definitely be better sex ed than she’d get at our school.”

Sky shook his head again, “you’re not actually suggesting we have sex here in her room, with her watching?”

“Do I get a vote?” Crista chimed in.

“Thanks, we know your vote” Sky shook his head at the younger girl again before looking back at Star to await her answer to his last question.

“I don’t know, Sky” Star stated with another heavy sigh, “we are on a time constraint here. And you know what’ll happen if they do decide to lock us up. Isn’t doing this better than whatever they might do to us, again” she added the last word in a whisper.

Sky was silent another long moment, visibly having that mental debate, “you know, if we actually did do this,” he then looked up at Crista’s wide grin, “I said if” he scolded her, then looked back to Star, “then we’re just proving mom and dad right about ‘every time we’re outta their sight’” he scoffed again.

“But it’ll be for a good cause this time, right?” Star returned with a nervous smile up at him.

“Yeah, I’m sure that’ll make them perfectly ok with it then” he smirked down at her.

“Let’s just worry about that, after we fix her” Star whispered as she moved to place a gentle kiss over his lips.