Starlight

by Lauren Jade Case

  I hope it’s not spiders. She could almost feel phantom cobwebs around her neck.

  The steps creaked and groaned like the wood might snap at any moment. The lower Natalia went, the more warm air brushed against her, wrapping around her limbs with a grip of a ghostly hand. Her palms grew sweaty and her right leg pulsed in anticipation.

  The stairwell opened.

  Wooden flooring touched all four reasonably lengthy grey walls. While spotlights were switched on, showing how sparse the rest of the room was besides a small dark grey corner sofa.

  Natalia kept expecting the room to change around her. “What is this?”

  Jasper passed her, strolling directly to the centre of the room. He clapped his hands and raised them above his head. The sound of rushing win blew through the room. Natalia blinked and when she opened her eyes, everything had changed.

  The floor was sandy instead of wooden; Jasper was barefoot at the centre of it. Three white circles were drawn into the sand, one where Jasper stood, and two on either side of him about five feet away.

  Jasper looked pleased with either himself or the change. Or perhaps both. “It’s a training room,” he said joyously.

  “Training room?” Natalia stepped further inside.

  “Like a gym, but for the supernatural.”

  “A gym?”

  “A home gym,” he added.

  “I can see it’s a home gym since it’s in your house.”

  He laughed and then explained, “It’s how we keep our fitness up. We learn to harness both our abilities and skills, sometimes even against each other. Sometimes physical weapons, like swords, come out to play too. We use them in fights sometimes,” he shrugged carelessly, “like Peri with her trident.

  “We train what we can do, and learn about what we can’t. We prepare for the unexpected. Everything we do is to make ourselves a weapon.”

  Natalia eyed the room, waiting for something else to shift. “Training, gym, yeah,” she mumbled.

  “Does that, at all, make any sense?”

  “Surprisingly, yes.” She tucked her hair back as her pulse hammered in her throat.

  Natalia watched him grin and didn’t like it. He’s going to do something, she thought. He said nothing, but flicked his wrists in a snappy flourish.

  Ropes sprung from the sand. Natalia squeaked in surprise and somehow managed to leap over the first one, only to fall right within the grasp of the next. It tagged her left ankle, forcing her to the ground, face down. Groaning and rubbing sand from her chin, she rolled onto her back. Her following breath was knocked out of her as her body was yanked upwards.

  Hanging upside-down from the ceiling like a bat, strung up by one ankle, was unfortunate to say the least. It got worse when Natalia’s borrowed clothes began to rise, or fall depending on perspective. She slammed her hand against the vest as it started to rumple.

  How long could she hold this for? Her arms were already beginning to wobble and her face burned with embarrassment.

  Jasper stalked into view. “Monster’s won’t wait for permission to attack.”

  Natalia glared at him. “Does this happen to everyone? You break them in by tying them upside-down?”

  Jasper drew closer, two more ropes wrapping around her; one took at left wrist, and the other at up her waist. She was righted, able to see properly again, but her head throbbed as the blood rushed away.

  “We haven’t had fresh blood around here for a while,” he said, grinning like an idiot.

  “Oh. So not only am I now a Human—”

  “Fairy.”

  “Fairy,” she mocked, “piñata, I’m also a fresh bag of bones to play with? That does make me feel better.”

  Jasper held himself as he laughed, letting the rope at her wrist snake away. Natalia giggled too, an idea fluttering through her mind as she did. Dust can break a Witch’s spell. The ropes were a spell, weren’t they?

  Giving herself no time to doubt, she rubbed her hands against her cheeks and then bent with what little give the waist rope offered. Her palms planted on the leg rope and it went ping. Confetti actually burst out. Quickly she went for the rope at her middle. Natalia could’ve rejoiced when that too went ping if she hadn’t been falling.

  To her surprise, she didn’t land in the sand, but hit something that groaned beneath her. Pulling up, she realised what. Jasper. Her hands were beside his chest, her legs mashed with his, their faces inches apart with her long brown hair falling like a curtain around them. He smelt of grass after rain.

  “Monsters won’t wait for permission to attack,” she repeated, trying to not draw attention to the compromising position they were in.

  Jasper’s surprise melted into approval. “You’re learning.” In a swift movement, he put his hands on Natalia’s sides and sat himself up, leaving her in his lap. He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ears, his touch lingering on the side of her face. “I should’ve used a more complicated spell. One a bit of Fairy dust couldn’t have broken.”

  “Then how am I supposed to escape?”

  He smirked. “That’d be something you’d have to figure out for yourself.”

  “I better start researching.”

  “Start with how to land.”

  She stared. “What?”

  “I’ve never been used as a crash mat before. Though, I’ll admit I’m to blame. I did get in the way to stop you falling.”

  Once again, Natalia became aware that she was still on Jasper’s lap. If she wanted, she could trace his freckles, and so she did, with her eyes, mapping out the sky on his skin. She absentmindedly leaned forward and brushed aside the waves of hair dangling close to his eyes with her fingertips, uncovering more stars.

  “Thank you,” she uttered, pulling her hand back, trying to find somewhere else to look. “But I didn’t ask you to do that.”

  “Maybe not. But I didn’t want you to get hurt.”

  Natalia’s heart stopped. And then started.

  The silence between them was hers to fill. The question had been hanging since he’d ask, since before they’d come down here, and she was yet to respond. Now that she was face to face with him, with nowhere left to run.

  “When you asked earlier, about how I was, you didn’t mean my leg.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. Jasper said nothing, only watched with a calm indifference. “You meant how I really was, how I felt inside my head and heart, not my physical health. And honestly?”

  “Always honestly between us,” Jasper whispered.

  She took a deep, unsteady, breath. “I’m a little all over the place.”

  Jasper waited a moment. “A little?”

  “I had questions. Ones I couldn’t type into the internet for answers. Most of them Archie had the answers for.” For the first time in a while, she touched her starry earrings, not knowing what else to do with her hands. They gleamed under the tender lights of the room. “I know he told you.”

  He didn’t argue. “He didn’t tell me how you felt.”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  The smile was genuine. “That’s why I’m asking.”

  “Noah pushed me out of work, into the storm, to come see you all. He knew I was avoiding you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why did he push me out?”

  “Why were you avoiding us?”

  Natalia looked down. She didn’t want to see pity or agreement in his gaze. Her already tender heart-strings felt like could snap at any moment. “Because I felt like I was letting you down.”

  Jasper reached up and brushed the backs of his fingers against her face, then rested his thumb below her bottom lip with his forefinger under her chin. His eyes burned. “You haven’t let us down,” he promised. “How could you even think that?”

  “Because I haven’t been accepted.”

  “Whatever game the Council is playing, it’s their problem. I won’t let you, for one second, think you’re letting us down because of their inability to see how good you are a
s a Creature and as a person.”

  Natalia welled up. If her emotions weren’t written plainly on her skin, Jasper made sure they did by pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. He no longer seemed to care about either of them hurting, because neither of them would break. They weren’t made of glass. They were made of magic and stars.

  Jasper’s lips brushed against Natalia’s ear and the hairs on her body rose. “Natalia?”

  “Mm,” she mumbled.

  “Hold on.”

  Natalia just managed to hold onto him before he rose. Jasper laughed beneath her. Seconds later she unlatched herself from his neck to stand, a sneaky grin brushing his lips. The lights above cast him in an eerie glow. He could’ve passed for being a Vampire in that moment, with his dark hair and green eyes and his dark clothes. Yet there was something else lingering in his smile, an air of regret. Natalia didn’t understand. Regret, about what?

  “This time, I’m going to warn you,” he said, grinning again. “We should practise, so when you do get the all-clear, you can show the Council how stupid they were for making you wait.”

  She stood firmer, stronger. “Right.”

  “And Natalia?”

  Hearing him say her name sent a flutter through her heart. “Yes?”

  “I can speak on everyone’s behalf when I say we’re proud of you.”

  “What?” she croaked, trying to hold back the tears she could feel building.

  “We’re giving you our help because you deserve it. You’re one of us and you’re our friend. We care about you. So you haven’t let us down. You never will. It’s impossible. Trust me.”

  She blinked fast. “I do trust you.”

  His responding smile was kind. “Now, let’s change the pace. Ready?”

  After a breath, she replied. “Yes.”

  Ropes lashed around her. This time, she dodged backwards.

  The clock in the hall upstairs chimed eight times.

  ◆◆◆

  Her paw slipped and her head bowed.

  Instantly Alex woke with a jolt. The room smelt of smoke, the type she’d come to associate with Natalia, who was currently sleeping in her bed. Alex herself had taken the seat at the end of the bed; she often ended up curled there as a wolf, the feeling of hiding within her fur offering more comfort than her Human skin sometimes, so didn’t mind the arrangement.

  The storm was gradually leaving, though it hadn’t completely gone yet. Rain still poured from the sky, but there was no more thunder and lightning. Grumbling, Alex tried to rest her head back on her paw, repositioning them one over the other.

  Then the smoky smell was replaced with a cold, frozen vanilla.

  Alex lept from the seat and padded to the window. As she did, the clock downstairs chimed for midnight. Her nose hit the cold glass as the last chime rang.

  She sniffed and bounded back to Natalia, jumping on the bed. The Fairy stirred but didn’t wake, not until Alex licked the side of Natalia’s face, tasting the brassy tang of dust.

  “What is it?” Natalia mumbled, rubbing her groggy eyes. Alex nudged her cheek. Natalia shuffled and Alex nudged her again, her head twitching to the window. Natalia watched her. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

  Alex nodded. In response, Natalia’s brown eyes finally flew wide and her mouth opened. She didn’t bother to see the state Alex was in and scrambled to find some socks. Alex watched her, her pierced eyebrow – which stuck, like her nose stud did, even in this form – raised.

  Barking the whole time, Alex pounded down the stairs, Natalia on her heels. The house needed to wake. When they hit the ground floor, everyone was forming a shoulder to shoulder line around the top of the stairs, their sleepy eyes not quite registering what was happening.

  Alex rolled her shoulders until her bones crunched and cracked. Limbs groaned as they slid around. Pain tore across her body until she was screaming and howling consecutively; every shift asked her body to fracture and break to rebuild into something else.

  The worst came when her face changed. Her nose shrank, cracking on its way, and when she could no longer see a snout, she could see the red stain on her chest. Her teeth moved and shrank but the taste of squirrel didn’t disappear – a tang of metal lingering on her tongue. Her eyes grew larger, watering as they took in the halls light. The fur slithered away to leave her shivering and naked; she could’ve shifted with clothes on, they would’ve made her fur shorter and thinner, but she’d morphed after a bath.

  Without so much as a word, Natalia stole a long coat off the rack and draped it around Alex’s shoulders, though Alex was sure it was too late for any modicum of privacy.

  “What’s going on, girls?” her mother asked, rubbing her temples as she normally did when tired.

  Jasper yawned. “I need my beauty sleep.”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Alex forced through gritted teeth. “Something’s outside. I’m not sure what, it was in the distance. But I could smell it. It was like winter, like ice and snow.”

  Her father snapped to attention. “A Monster?” Alex nodded. “Can you be sure?”

  “I can be sure that it’s not a Creature and doesn’t seem like any Human I’ve ever met.”

  “Everyone,” Sarah took charge, “get changed.”

  “We don’t have time,” Alex insisted. Could no one hear the urgency?

  Her mother’s eyes landed on her, nervous desperation written into her gaze. “Is it really that bad?”

  Shrugging off the coat, Alex crouched to instigate the shift again. “Yes.”

  ◆◆◆

  Running down the slippery hillside of Opal House was one thing. Doing it in pyjamas and bare feet was another.

  The rain drenched Natalia in seconds, her hair flopping over her shoulders in clumps. The clothes she’d borrowed from Peri to sleep in were stuck to her body.

  “It’s up Main Street,” Peri announced, staring off, as they reached the bottom of the hill. What could she see? Alex had explained her piece, but it was as if Peri could see something else. It seemed though that either way both girls had come to the same conclusion – it was a Monster.

  Natalia glanced at Jasper, finding him already staring at her. His normally wavy hair was plastered to his face and he ran a hand through it, scraping it back. His grey jogging bottoms hugged his legs and he was missing a shirt, the rain running down his chest. As if knowing where her eyes had been last, Jasper gave her a smirk and withdrew a blade from his trousers before breaking away from the group.

  Alex, now a wolf again, raced after him, a throaty growl resonating from her chest. Peri flicked out her trident; the gold flashed in the dark like a beacon of purity. She gave Archie a smile and charged off. He mumbled something Natalia didn’t catch and ran after them all.

  Being alone made a voice appear in Natalia’s head, one that told her to turn back and seek safety. But what kind of Creature would she be if she ran and hid? Creatures were meant to face danger, to fight, to charge head-first into it all.

  Natalia flicked her hair from her face and started running harder. The more she pushed, the more her feet stung and the more her right leg burned.

  By the time she caught up, everyone was already in a chaotic mess.

  Archie and Alex were double-teaming a Scorpio. Its tail lashed out and it swung its body. Alex ducked at the right moment and somehow bit the Monster under its head.

  Peri was by Katherine’s café, her back pressed against the wall as a sludge Monster – the name of which escaped Natalia’s mind – came for her. The Monster flicked its head and black gunk sprayed out, coating the wall but missing Peri by inches. With a yell, she stabbed her trident into the Monster’s inky body. Even standing far back, and despite the rain, Natalia could smell the damp dog odour the Monster gave off and she fought not to gag.

  Jasper and Sarah were combating another Scorpio, this one larger than the other, and redder around the edges. Natalia neared them and gasped when the Scorpio’s pincers snapped at Sarah, but th
e claws stopped before slicing through her waist. Natalia turned to Jasper, his arms out before him, and realised he was keeping the claw away. He jumped in time to avoid the free claw, just seconds away from being pushed over and seconds away from his magic being undone.

  Natalia searched for a way to help, despite having no weapons or experience. As she did, a breeze unlike the wind blew along her neck. Coming to a halt, she didn’t see anything, but felt something wrap around her hair. By the time she could react, the Monster yanked.

  Natalia hit the floor with a thump, the back of her head colliding with concrete. A pained groan escaped her lips. She went to move, only to find an icy shudder run up from her feet. There was just enough effort left in her body to push herself up onto her elbows. The air vanished from her lungs and her heart searched for any escape it could to protect itself.

  A Monster sat trapping her thighs, grinning with pearly white teeth.

  The Monster wore the face and body of a Human, yet it wore no clothes on its light, powder-blue body. With the wind, its hair waved and Natalia could smell that frozen air now, with its undercurrent of vanilla, distinguishable amidst the rain. When it smiled, it was hard to tell that it wasn’t a Human. But the gleam in its eyes told Natalia it wanted to harm her.

  “You are a child of the stars,” the Monster whispered. It crawled up Natalia’s body and she wanted to kick it, to fight it, but the further the Monster came to her face, the more paralysed she became. The Monster stopped when its head was poised above Natalia’s. “Aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Natalia answered through gritted teeth.

  “And beautiful, you are.” Natalia said nothing. She laid there, helpless, unsure of what to do as the Monster ran a long, deadly finger across her cheek. “But children of the stars are always beautiful,” it mused. “The most beautiful. Gracious. Burning. Like stars themselves. That is where you get your name and why you have it after all.”

  Rain dripped into Natalia’s eyes, making it appear like she was crying. “What do you want?”

  “You are beautiful.”