Celestial (Unedited)

Chapter 3: The Aftermath

Celeste

She didn't realize that she was sleeping until Lyra woke her up by gently shaking her shoulder and calling her name. Celeste blinked a few times, feeling disoriented. She looked around, confused as to where she was before the memories of the night before came flooding back into her mind. She looked at Lyra.

"How is he?" Celeste asked. She didn't see Felix in the living room.

"He's stable. Breathing. He woke up a few times for about a minute before going back to sleep. How about you? How are you doing?"

"I didn't have any nightmares last night," Celeste answered, realizing that this was the first night in a long time that she didn't have that terrorizing dream. She figured the events of the day prior were traumatizing enough to cancel out the nightmares. It was bitter-sweet that it took that amount of death and shock for her to have a peaceful night's sleep. She actually felt guilty for it. As if she was praying for it to happen.

"That's good. At least something good came from this, right?" Lyra said with a soft smile. Celeste felt her gut clench. She could only nod as she looked away.

"I know this couldn't have been easy for you and Fiona. How are you holding up?" Celeste asked. Lyra sighed as she sat down beside Celeste.

"Well, it seems like Fiona's okay, but worried about Felix. She curses him out when he wakes up and cries when he nods off. I guess I'm kind of the same way. I just want him to get better. But, I'm sure if you ask anyone about how they're doing, they'll all most likely have the same answer," Lyra said. Celeste looked down. She knew Lyra was right. That wasn't the right question to ask.

"What's going to happen now?" Celeste asked. Lyra looked in the direction of the staircase.

"That's a question for the big man when he wakes up. But if I had to guess, I'd say this would be the perfect grounds for the humans to attack us. No matter how you look at it, those mysterious bugs that came out of nowhere only attacked them and they died horribly. If it was the other way around, we'd probably blame them, too," Lyra admitted.

"This whole situation is messed up," Celeste said. "I know it wasn't you guys who did this. Whoever did was planning to start a war."

"There you go with your investigative tendencies."

"I'm serious. Also, I wonder if the other Planes experienced this, too. Homen is a worldwide holiday, so all four Planes should be involved. Did the humans get attacked there, too?"

"Or, it could be the other way around. Hameans could have 'attacked' the humans."

"Shit," Celeste replied after thinking about that very possibility. "If that's the case, if there's any case of any specie attacking the other, that would mean..."

"A world war." Fiona's voice came from the staircase behind them. They looked at her as she descended down the stairs. "A world war is likely to happen because of this. But there's only been one before, and that was a century ago."

"When the deities went missing," Lyra said. Fiona nodded.

"Exactly. Makes me wonder if it's the reason they didn't ascend this time."

"It doesn't make sense. Wouldn't this very situation be the perfect catalyst for them to ascend? Why wouldn't they when a war is approaching?" Celeste asked.

"Dunno," Fiona said. Her nonchalant tone put Celeste more at ease, but the same couldn't be said for Lyra. "Only people who were alive back then would know the truth about what happened. If we knew that, maybe we could draw a conclusion as to why they didn't ascend now or before now, even."