When Daylight Turns To Starlight

Chapter 4

Cadence's POV

Running.

Running away, running away...

'He's coming,' spirits said, 'he's coming...'

'Run faster, run faster!' They commanded.

I forced my feet to carry me further, running from my unknown pursuer.

I started hearing his footsteps, it didn't sound too far behind me...

'HE'S HERE!' the spirits called.

Hands wrapped around me, pinning me to the ground.

'Look what you've done!' He said.

'I've done nothing!' I said, my voice quivering.

He grabbed my hair and forced my head around. He looked like a zombie; his skin was rotten, chunks of his hair was missing, and his tuxedo was in shreds.

Though through the breakdown that followed death, I recognized the face in front of me: his name was Oliver. He was a bass in the chorus. The best, according to Ms. Chanson.

'Look what you did to me!' He yelled in anger and anguish.

'I did nothing!' I cried.

'You did everything to us.' Another voice said. A woman's voice. Another I recognized.

I looked at where the voice had come from and with horror, saw the rotted corpse of Ms. Chanson standing behind Oliver.

'I've done nothing!' I cried again.

'You survived.' A chorus of voices echoed from the trees I was running through.

I glanced into the trees, wishing I had not.

The whole chorus stood there. Every last one of them a rotting corpse.

'I wish I hadn't.' I said lowly.

'But you did. And now you live freely! Bearing powers beyond understanding!' They sang, the last word echoing through my mind.

'And now, you shall pay, for you are an abomination!' They said the first words slowly, but grew louder and shouted the last word at the top of their lungs.

My heart started racing; beat after beat, the time in between growing ever smaller. Loud, heavy breaths repeatedly came out of my lungs, tears started flowing from my eyes as the corpses began encircling me. Closer and closer they got, chanting 'freak!' 'abomination!' 'Should be dead!'

They were nearly upon me, their words ricocheting in my mind, when my vision became clouded, blackness.

I woke up in a cold sweat, my breath shaking and my heart beating as fast as it was in the dream.

I looked around. I was still in Tayen's house. Thank god. I didn't think I would fare well if I was alone. Her eyes were shut and she was laying on her side, her breathing even. She was asleep.

A peek outside the house showed that it was dark out. The sounds of a sleeping village were all around; snores, soft rustling, and hooting owls.

I wanted to get some air, hopefully shake off the nightmare, so I got up and left through the door.

The central fire was smaller now, no one awake to feed it. I decided not to touch it, as they may have a system in place for it. I glanced up, hoping to see an Owl, but instead saw the stars.

They were gorgeous. I had never really seen the stars before- light pollution made sure of that. I stared at them, searching for the familiar constellations: The Big Dipper, the North Star, Orion's Belt. There were a lot more stars than I remember there being. I found Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter as well.

I laid down on the ground next to the dying fire and wrapped the blanket I was beginning to carry everywhere around me, settling down and pointing my head up so I didn't have to strain to see the pinpricks of light.

The moon was a thin crescent in the sky, slightly bigger than I remember it being but still as beautiful as it was before.

Laying here, under the stars on a cloudless night, reminded me of a day I had had with my best friend; we were sitting on top of her car with the radio turned up, and the sky had turned dark and starry while we sang along to whatever played on the pop station.

One song in particular I remembered: All of Me by John Legend. I'm not sure what exactly sparked between us during that song but the next thing I knew I felt myself leaning towards her, and her leaning towards me. Our lips met, and it was nothing like anything I'd ever felt before.

It became more heated, and then-

I stopped those thoughts in their tracks. Thinking about the past, the one that I could never return to, was too much. A lump was growing in my throat, but I swallowed it before it bloomed into tears.

I opened my eyes, returning them to the starry sky, and unconsciously started humming All of Me.

That's where they found me, four hours later, humming to songs that didn't exist yet, still staring up at the sky, where the horizon was just beginning to turn purple.

Takoda was up first, I watched him as he gathered wood from the base of the fire and tossed it on the top, earning a lot of sparks and crackles.

More people got up and started to do whatever they did; gather plants, skin animals, tend to fires, gather sticks, and sit around chatting.

I still didn't have anything to do, but Tayen came out of her house a little while after the sun rose and sat next to me. She looked like she wanted to talk to me, but the language barrier made that slightly difficult, so we sat in silence.

Eventually, she grabbed the deerskin blanket off from my shoulders and made traces on it, then pointed to her own clothes. I understood; she wanted to make clothes for me, as my dress was now mere scraps and very chilly.

I nodded to her, and she smiled, glad that I understood. She started to make off with the blanket, but I tugged on her arm to stop her. I wanted to keep the blanket- it'd been with me since I got here and I was becoming attached to it- the way a baby is attached to the blanket they have in their crib.

I gently tugged at the blanket, silently asking her to let go of it, and she did. I wrapped it back around my shoulders, hoping to convey to her that I wanted to keep this blanket. She stared at me with narrowed eyes and a cocked head, pondering what my gesture meant. It took her a few minutes, but I think she got it. She stood up and went to one the groups of people skinning deer, and talked to them for a minute before coming back to the fire, one of the older women trailing her.

She pointed to herself and said, "Sedna."

"Sedna." I repeated. She gave a small smile at that, then stared wrapping small skins around me- I assumed for measurements.

She wrapped some around my arm, smiling, then took it off, frowning. She did this twice more, the third time looking in my eyes instead of at my arm. When she wrapped the skin around my arm, I smiled at her, as I thought she was trying to ask if I wanted sleeves or not. Most people didn't have sleeves, but I was really cold here and wanted as much warmth as I could get. She smiled and nodded, doing the same with my legs. I wanted pants too. She wrapped some around my torso and waist, keeping track of how much she needed with ash from the fire next to us.

Finally, she was done, and said some things to Tayen before she left to go back with her group skinning animals.

I laid back, exhausted. I'd barely slept, I'd been up for probably six hours now, staring at the stars, reminiscing in old memories, crying silent tears. I had barely eaten or drank anything since I got here, living off of Doc's tea and berries.

I scrambled the measly ten feet back into Tayen's house, curled up on the mat that I had been sleeping in, and drifted off into a restfull, blissfully dreamless sleep.