Fighting Stars

2 - Wicked beauty

8th January 2007, New York.

"What did you wish for?" Daddy asked when they had blown out their candles.

"It won't come true if you tell it!" Fern stated stubbornly.

Jessie and Matty exchanged grins, while Fern believed all the myths, tales and superstitions, the two of them knew not to trust all the white lies of the supposedly wiser grown-ups nor the stories of their fellow but smug adolescents.

"Mommy!" Fern then cried, staring at her siblings with a pout. "They're ridiculing me!"

"Don't be silly, Fern!" Jessie neglected the accusation.

"I will not tolerate this treason of tripletship in my king - er, housedom!" She stated as she heaved her chest up and put her arms across it.

"Well, then you shall not," Mommy said and glanced at her husband, both barely able to stifle their incoming laughter. "Let's stuff our mouths with cake instead!"

That was something the triplets could, at last, agree on, so as daddy cut the cake, Jessie didn't think more of Fern's foolish beliefs.

Not until bedtime at least, when Fern and Mattie had sneaked out of their rooms after being tucked in by their parents. As usual, they crawled through their hidden doors, which both led to the room between them, Jessie's room.

"Why do you believe in those stories?" Jessica asked her blonde sister when they had all sat down at her bed where she too had been met by her parents. "You know, about the birthday wish things and fairies and unicorns?"

"Well, because I simply have no proof that they do not exist" Replied Fern as she braided her sister's thick hair. "And thus I shall not neglect any such beliefs for the cause of my own skepticism"

Though they were only seven years old, the Carter triplets were beyond the average intelligence of twelve-year-olds and had also the vocabulary of intellectual young adults. They were definitely an odd trio.

"Well, now that you've put it so wisely I can't find a mean to ridicule you for your credence in these myths" Jessica stated in a wondering voice. "But I also can't believe you put so much faith in them, just for the sake of justice, aren't there any more reasons?"

Matty was aloof, reading a book about the fantastical adventures of knights in a world of magic and danger. Even he, while not believing them to exist in other but the figurative, interested himself in the fantasy of magic and myths.

"Well it comes down to hope, doesn't it always? Down to the faith of a great world," She replied yet again, sounding ancient through her words. "Sometimes you have to chase a fairy or two to keep your dreams and ambitions strong"

***

Present day.

She hadn't chased anything since the dreadful day that would occur soon after their birthday. She had kept still and waited for death to catch her. But now, as the wondrous song pulsed through her, matching the rhythm of her heartbeat with every tune, she knew she had to chase it as well as she knew her name. So Jace leaped through the dark, emptying streets as she followed the music through the city of New York. She ran until her dance came to a halt at the doors of an orphanage, the singing was coming from the rooftop.

"Come along to a better place" The singing was clearer now and Jace could make out the words of it. "To be protected and loved by us both warm and kind-hearted" The song got faster as Jace begun climbing up the fire-escape ladders of the two storey-building. "Fly with the dragons and dance with the faeries. Run with the werewolves and swim with the mermaids. Hunt with the elves and sing with us sirens. Come now my child, let's fly away"

The roof was rickety with asymmetric brick tiles and a slight crookedness to both sides of it. At the top of a black chimney sat an extraordinarily beautiful girl. She was singing another verse of the pretty song and without the notice of Jace, young boys were climbing up to the roof from a door connecting to the inside of the building.

The boys seemed mesmerized by the girl as she started towards them and Jace, her long, dark red hair dancing lightly in the mild wind on the roof and her deep, ocean blue eyes glittering mischievously. Without even a flinch as her pale, cold hands touched the middle of Jace's forehead, she let her push her backward, the boys backing up with them.

"Silly little girl, what are you doing here?" The beauty's singing suddenly turned into an eerie tune as her lips curled into a vicious sneer. "Run away now before it's too late. Trust me you won't be spared in our world"

And as the girl pushed her back one last time, Jace surfaced from her unconscious state in a fit of screams. But it was too late. Her toes, barely on the edge of the roof, struggled to keep balance but with a tremendous fail, she fell towards the ground. The last thing she heard was the screams of the young boys below her.

***

Hey.

So this is probably the last you hear from me. Because I, guys, am as dead as my phone is. Yup, my phone is dead, I dropped it into the toilet... Oh God, my parents are going to KILL me.

Call 991 people, a murder is going down.

Well... hopefully, I can be buried in a grave next to my phone... If only I'd have found some rice...

So there's at least one pro in this utterly terrifying but hilarious mess, maybe I'll get an iPhone 7 now!

You know I'll drop it in the convo when dad has finished scolding me, I'll be like; "So, speaking of water damages on phones... Did you know the iPhone 7 is waterproof?".

May I rest in peace.

//wera