Starlight

Chapter 10: Guardians of Life

Seth opened his mouth to protest but Ash spoke first.

"Christa, Marack said anyone with the power..."

Christa huffed, stamping her foot and I began to wonder if she was not attuned to not getting her way. She reminded me of my mother the way she had looked at me as if I had appeared just to ruin everything.

"Not her."

Not me? What had I done?

Ash rolled his eyes at Christa. "You are being more ridiculous that normal. She's just a random girl..."

"Look at her! She can't do anything," Christa twirled to Ash. "Did you see her do anything?"

"She saw it..."

"And that's not your call," Seth said in a way that only young teens seem to be able to - self-righteous and ready to defend something to the death. "It's Marack's."

Christa rolled her eyes before giving a dispairing shriek. She walked past Ash and pushed Seth aside. Something green slid into her hand from her sleeve and she angled it up.

A gem or crystal?

Whatever it was in her hand, it began to glow, turning her hand green as the glow surrounded her. I felt it again... that thrum that almost lulled me into a false sense of pleasure, the crackling of power, and the air began to shimmer. Shimmer like I had seen it before as a child. Shimmer as I had the day the boy disappeared off the field. Shimmer like the orb had disappeared into. And Christa walked through the shimmer and disappeared.

She was gone.

And even though I had just seen the monster, that fight, the power they had wielded, I was still shocked. I turned to Seth and Ash. Ash seemed tired as if any interaction with Christa sapped him. Seth gave me a timid smile.

"Don't pay attention to her... She isn't a fan of other women in general..."

Ash snorted. "Ziti and her fight like rabid wolverines."

Seth cocked his head at me. "Marack will be happy to know that we've found someone... new. We haven't in..." He looked to Ash who shrugged. "Months?"

With Christa gone, both seemed more relaxed, though Ash didn't seem to have any other expression other than the bored blank posture.

"Who's Marack?" I whispered, still unsure. The interaction with Christa had left me uncertain and though I had wanted this all to be real instead of a delusion of my mind, it also unnerved me, as if part of me was clawing desperately to get away.

"We can explain but we need to go," Ash said, his eyes going to the horizon.

The sound of sirens broke my thoughts as it began to get louder and the spray of lights in the distance made me panic. The police. An Ambulance. Not far off. How was I ever going to explain this to my mother?

"I... I have to go," I stammered, hoping that my face didn't show my anxiety, but Seth's hand was on my arm. Pulling me to them.

"Come with us. We'll talk."

"Go where?" Where Christa went? Into nothingness?

"To Spectra," Ash said before stepping into the shimmer.

Seth held out his hand and I was surprised to find my hand in his in moments. And with one pull, I stumbled through the shimmer with him.

My stomach stumbled, twisting as if I was stretched from deep within, before everything I had ever known shifted into another world, plane, dimension. Seth's hand was tight on mine as I was lead through the mists. My feet were on solid ground and as I peered through the gray, visually impaired.

What was going on?

I took a deep breath and felt the cool air on me, soaking in the change in temperature. While it wasn't incredibly warm, after coming from the the frozen street into the cool brisk air, felt like the low temperatures of Spring feeling completely different from Fall.

Spectra, they had said. And where was that on Earth... or was it on Earth? From the creative minds of geniuses, I had read books, watched tv about other worlds and lands but that wasn't reality.

But doesn't it feel good to not be mad?

I snorted at the thought. I still didn't know for sure I wasn't.

The smell of oak and wet autumn foliage, just newly fallen and orange, infiltrated my nostrils. And as we moved forward through the gray, it began to dissipate until I started to see the surroundings, finally.

Pink blossoms spotted with brown dots wafted in the breeze as we walked into a garden of Cherry Blossom trees. My mouth fell open as I drank in the world of soft pink over brilliantly green grass. It was... beautiful. I stood stunned, looking around, only to freeze when I turned to where we came and saw the grey was gone, with no trace of the fog. It was as if I had just been dumped into the garden. There wasn't a shimmer or any trace of the frozen night parking lot we had just been in. Instead it looked as if dawn had just broken, the soft light not yet overwhelming but enough to illuminate the garden around me.

"What..." I said, unable to find the words to ask where we were.

Ash snorted, but I couldn't find it in me to be annoyed by his insensitivity. Obviously, he was use to this... place, but for me, I had never even dreamed of a place so beautiful.

Seth grinned. "Isn't it gorgeous? We are always on the look out for new people... well," He paused and looked to Ash. "I guess more so old people of Spectra... but I've never been here when someone sees everything for the first time." At the word "everything", he gestured to the beautiful world of pink in front of us.

And in this new world of trees there was a cobblestone path that led through the garden, weaving through the forest like a slithering snake. Old or new? Spectra? We definitely weren't in Maine anymore. That was at least one thing I was sure of.

"Spectra," I heard myself whisper, the word seeming familiar on my tongue. "What is that?"

"Spectra is our home. Yours too, if you want it to be. It's..." he paused for a moment as he searched for the right word. "It's a parallel world. It's like..."

"Spectra is magic," Ash said matter-o-factly. He put his hand up, and the blossoms that fell from the trees swirled towards his hand like a mini tornado that he held. "There is Spectra which is raw magic, life, energy..."

I remembered the fire demon. "Like the fire demon?"

Seth shook his head, his tousled hair lifting with the breeze. "That fire demon doesn't belong to Spectra."

"As I said, there is Spectra and then there is Mu. Mu is like a plague, consuming everything it touches," Ash finished. "That's where the fire demon came from."

I blinked. "Mu is like this? A different place from Earth?" I didn't even know what I was talking about at this point.

Seth nodded. "If Spectra is raw magic and energy, then Mu is death. Both worlds seep into what you call Earth. The world you came from is the balance... The balance of good and evil."

"And who are you?"

Ash snorted again. "We're the guardians of life. We're the only thing standing between Mu consuming Earth."