𝐒𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐤𝐢𝐞𝐬

TWO

unedited

Elara was speechless. Who is this beautiful man, why did he fall from the sky, and why was he here in her backyard?

The one thing she could say was, "What do you mean?"

The young man squinted his eyes at her, and Elara's heart began to pound inside her ribcage.

"This can't be it. The Moon must be messing with me." He muttered, his voice seeming to have a slight echo to it. Maybe it was just in her mind.

He tried to stand up. His legs trembled, and he fell back onto the ground.

"Do you need help?" Elara asked, offering her hand to him. He only scooted back, away from her.

"This is outrageous."

"I don't know what you mean! What did I do?"

"You cannot be my sign!"

Great. The most charming boy in Illinois, who she's never met in her entire life, and he already despises her.

"What sign are you talking about? I can help!" Elara insisted.

"My brother is supposed to be here. Clearly, he is not." His eyes soften the slightest bit. "Can you really help me?"

A small smile tugs at Elara's lips. "I can try," she said and added, "Who actually are you?"

"I am a star." The young man said.

Elara's mind immediately went to celebrities. She had never seen anyone like him in articles or Youtube videos, for one.

For another, he looked very much human.

"How is that possible?" Elara wondered.

"My mother is the moon and my siblings are the stars. I am one of them."

He looked up at the night sky, and Elara followed his lead. Her eyes landed on the constellation Gemini, when she noticed that the two stars at the end of the first figure were missing.

"I have fallen from the sky, in search for my brother. I was told that he will be here somewhere. I am not sure how you can help me, though."

He seemed to have relaxed, and Elara took that to be a good thing.

"Can you tell me what he looks like? Maybe I've seen him before. That is, unless he stayed as a star." Elara offered.

"I do not even know what I look like, let alone my brother. I cannot provide that information." He said.

Elara shook her head and shrugged. "It's hopeless. Done all I could."

The young man angered again. "That can't be!"

"I don't know how else to help! I'm just a girl, I can't do anything!"

"Then I will be taking my leave."

He got up from the ground, but his legs still wobbled violently. He took one step in the opposite direction of Elara, and he nearly fell again.

Heartbroken enough as she was, she was still quite confused.

"Are you sure you're fine?" She asked.

"I do not need help, nor your pity. If you cannot help, then I will just do this all by myself."

He stormed off, tripping and slipping all the way. Elara watches him leave.

Huh.

Elara then comes to the conclusion that that was a waste of time. She goes back inside to the warm house, confusion still plaguing her mind.

She pushes open the front door, and immediately all the attention is directed to her.

"I said you didn't have to go outside," Her mother told her.

"Who were you talking to?" Fanny questioned. "I heard someone else talking to you."

"The neighbours," Elara said, heading back up to her room.

"Ah, I don't think so. Why don't you stay down here with your family? You don't spend time with us anymore." Her father complained. Elara knew she didn't really have a choice, so she reluctantly stepped back down the stairs and sat down in between her dad and her uncle.

Elara occasionally joined the conversation between the adults, but it wasn't always willingly. But she couldn't stop looking back and forth at the window, waiting for that bright glow. She didn't know why, though. The young man left, and she had the feeling that he actually wasn't going to come back like he said.

But still, it wouldn't hurt just to check.

She got up. Her dad looked up at her.

"I'm just going to the restroom," she said. Although her father had the slightest bit of suspicion on his face, he let her go nonetheless.

She went upstairs, but not to the bathroom. She opened the bathroom door and closed it, to make it sound like she had actually gone in there. She quietly went to her room, closed it shut, and grabbed a picnic blanket from her dresser. Elara stuffed her iPod in the pocket of her pants so she could go to the window and open it, just wide enough for her to slip through.

Tossing the blanket over her shoulder, she crawled out the window and down the ladder she had tied herself.