Protostar

Book I: Luna

Prologue

April 2280

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight," Leon responded after clicking the lights off. He tucked his journal he had been writing in under his course pillow. Though it was certainly more comfortable than what he had been accustomed to previously.

He stared out of the small window on the opposite side of the bed, listening to Rachel's skipped breathing next to him. He observed a peculiar-looking cloud in the sky. It seemed to have a bright purple hue to it. But the thought of a purple cloud in the middle of the night sky made Leon believe the figure was surely a part of his imagination; so he continued to gaze up at it while his imagination allowed him to. He listened to the sounds of wind slipping its way through the trees in the mountains. Leon then figured if he just closed his eyes, maybe he could pretend he was back home. It was often at this time of night that Leon mulled over how he wound up in his current whereabouts. There were hardly any undiscovered, untouched  places left in the world where he could reside. Leon considered himself lucky. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear the sounds of airplanes and explosions. Ironically, he felt more safe here than he did in his home in the city.

It is difficult to understand the way of a world one has never lived in before. But Leon remembered it distinctly and with a melancholy that he couldn't understand.

"Come with us, you will be safe!" He pleaded.

"But how do we know for sure?" Leon's mother protested. "You are safe here. Please, don't leave. The Protectors are doing what they can, let them do their job. How could you throw your life away because of something you saw in a dream, for Heaven's sake!" She spoke robotically.

Leon's eyes hesitated, confusion and impatience boiling inside of him,"It wasn't just a dream, and you know that. I have to leave-- now or never, if you don't come with us, we will have to go alone." He gave a stern and fixed look, hoping that his seriousness would be enough to persuade her.

His father was watching the television on the opposite side of the room, seemingly unbothered by the commotion.

His mother exchanged a glare with the suitcase in Leon's hand. "I'm sorry, son. I will not leave with you."

Leon was in shock. Though he argued against his mother, he never thought she would actually allow him to leave on his own. He felt a wave of childish confusion drowning him. The worst part was the look in her eyes, it wasn't of sadness or fear, it was nothing.

He traced Rachel's bare spine with his index finger and felt his tears roll down his cheek and onto the pillow.

"When you realize that here is the best and safest place for you, I hope you will have enough sense to make it back."

With that memory, he drifted into an uneasy sleep.

He opened his eyes into a dream. With many years of experience, he had become a lot better at recognizing his subconscious.

He awoke in a city he had only known so long ago, Milagros. He was standing in the middle of the road, surrounded by familiar white skyscrapers that blanketed the site. He recognized the streets he used to walk on every day. But something was different. The once overpopulated city was desolate. Apart from one small soul standing in the middle of the road opposite him. She was young. Fix. Six.

In a world filled of white, on her dress, he could see blue. She looked straight through his eyes and into his thoughts. Her hair was golden and her eyes were a light blue that pierced the air.

Without introducing himself, Leon began forward. But he soon became troubled when his first step sunk into the concrete like quicksand. Somewhere in him said he needed to move fast. She wasn't too far, maybe fifty feet at most. With a straight spine, he pushed and ran as fast as he could. He realized that the closer he got to her, the easier the concrete became to walk through. But by the time he reached her, she turned around and began running in the opposite direction.