The Sweetest Dream of the Spectral Boy

Chapter 3

Nightmares of what happened on the planet still plagued Kozmotis one week into their month-long journey back to the Lunanoff constellation.

It made a difference that one of the very few people who had survived the onslaught of fearlings long enough to be rescued was now sharing a bed with him. Not a positive difference, but not an entirely negative one either. Having a solid reminder of a trauma around could not be considered a pleasant thing, but Nightlight had it worse than he. Kozmotis was not the one who had just lost his planet and most everyone on it, after all.

Nightlight hadn't spoken since his rescue, not even giving his name. Koz and a few of his fellow soldiers made an attempt to ask the other survivors about him, but none of them seemed to know his name either and had long ago taken to calling him Nightlight because of his unnatural glow. The name was quick to catch on, and Nightlight didn't seem to mind it the slightest.

Truthfully, Kozmotis was thinking about Nightlight so much to avoid thinking about the situation. Nearly none of the soldiers sent on this mission had been prepared, in fact, Koz himself would be easily and accurately fit into the description of 'new recruit', and the ship itself wasn't large enough to hold this many people. This was why he and Nightlight were sharing a bed. Granted, the spectral boy could have just as easily ended up with anyone else, but Koz had a suspicion that his superiors in charge of that had taken notice to the comfort Nightlight seemed to take in him, and the company was not unwanted. Kozmotis had always been afraid of the dark to some degree, and the living darkness that now has been attacking worlds at an alarming rate only added to that. Anyone in his place would take a comfort in having someone so soft and bright around as they slept.

Food was another problem. It had been a week, and resources were dwindling. They would soon be able to restock on a planet in their path, but only if they managed to last long enough for that. Kozmotis ate scarcely and Nitghtlight didn't eat at all, which was intensely worrisome, even if the other refugees claimed he's never needed food to survive.

"Nightlight," Kozmotis spoke softly to the boy beside him in the mess, who always came when Koz was eating just to sit and look at the people. Nightlight tilted his head to give his attention, leaning on his elbow lazily. That was the best answer one could hope for. "I understand if you don't wish to talk about it, but there's something I need to know. I...need to know if you...how did you..." Words were not often easily come by, this past week. It used to be so easy, but with great fear came great hesitation. "Before I got to you, somehow you managed to hold the fearlings back with nothing to protect you. Does your light repel them...or?"

It seemed Nightlight had been expecting some other question, caught off guard. Still, he just shrugged and shook his head, which seemed to mean he wasn't sure, but he didn't think that was it.

"Then why did they seem to fear you?"

This somehow earned a small, playful smile from him, a fun little glint in his eyes as he leaned in, pressing his open palm to Kozmotis's chest over his heart before sliding it away, winking and leaving the mess with Kozmotis staring after him in wonder and confusion. By the time he returned from the odd state he was in, Koz realized with both happiness and regret that Nightlight had apparently just taken his starfruit from right under his nose. Well, at least that was one problem partially solved.

Kozmotis took Nightlight's unspoken advice to heart, whether or not the advice had actually been intended.

From then on, Koz began focusing on who he was, as a person, more than as a soldier. Who did he want to be?

He wanted to be the person who would have the courage to stand up against the living darkness to protect the people, even if circumstances seemed as hopeless as Nightlight's had. This was not the first time he'd heard rumors of the living darkness fearing those with a good heart. In fact, Tsar Lunanoff himself had recently gone public about his intentions and projects to find people in the military who had the most brave and selfless of hearts, and give them further boosts against the darkness- liquid light, it was currently being called.

That was who Koz wanted to be. A warrior with a heart of gold, someone that people who were suffering could look to and find hope for a time when the blight would be but bad memories and they'd get to spend their time recovering from the pain all of this has caused instead of running away from it and trying to survive somehow.

That night, as the two lay down to sleep, Koz turned to his side, facing Nightlight. "Thank you."

Nightlight mimicked the position, searching his eyes in clear confusion, his blueish glow lulling Koz into a kind of calm he didn't understand.

Before Kozmotis could explain himself, the ship's alarm went off and everything quaked, each of them grabbing the other's arm to stay steady as they realized what was happening, red lights blinking on and off keeping them in the present and getting both to scramble to ready themselves. Kozmotis managed to grab his meteor sword quickly, yanking urgently at Nightlight's hand with his own free one to try and guide him out of the room faster without losing him in the crowd of other panicked soldiers and refugees.

As they ran to find the escape pods, others barreled past them, sometimes with enough force to knock them over, their bodies falling atop each other. No one was going to wait for them to recover or help them up and soon they were lagging so far behind that when they reached the pods, all were gone.

Shrieking like that of a giant bat could be heard from the bridge, and soon that shrieking lowered into almost-human groaning as a misshapen creature of shadow rounded the corner, lurching toward them with both hunger and a deep sort of pain in its eyes.