Starlight's Heir - ✔️

Chapter 7 - Common Sense

Thursday afternoon was the epitome of my laziness. Jorden made brunch when I finally dragged myself from bed at one-thirty. We spent the rest of the day cuddled up on his sofa watching movies as I refused to do any activity that required physical exertion of any kind. If Jorden was annoyed by my brooding, he didn't let on, choosing to suffer in silence while I lay limply across his lap, toying with a loose fiber on his t-shirt.

Eventually, around nine at night, he let me know he was going out with his friends Craig and Derek. Had I wanted to, I could've stayed at his house, but his condo was a lot larger than my tiny apartment, and I didn't want to be alone with so much empty space for the shadows to occupy, so I asked him to drop me off at home.

Hours trickled past at an obnoxiously slow rate, and no matter how long I squeezed my eyelids shut, my mind refused to shut down and go to sleep. I padded over to my couch and flipped through the fuzzy channels on tv while I phoned Chelsea and picked at the unraveling threads on the worn fabric of my sofa.

By the time she finally hung up to sleep, I had scrolled through every station a good ten times and was wide awake. Reading did nothing to settle my restlessness and by one a.m. the floorboards creaked beneath my pacing feet. Unlocking the fire escape window, I leaned out and drew in a deep breath of the cool air. The sudden desire to walk through Central Park tore through me, erasing all common sense.

Still dressed in a knit pullover sweater and loose grey track pants, I grabbed my windbreaker from its hook by the door and bounded down the hall, slipping on a pair of beaten up sneakers. The wraiths lurking around tugged at my clothes as if urging me to turn back. Had they ever brought light into my life, I may have heeded them and run home to my bed and forced myself to sleep, but as it was, they had never shown me anything but misery and so I pressed on through their oppressive ranks blocking my path as I tread toward the park.

Once within the boundaries of the park, the air grew heavy and electrified. The glow of unnatural blue lights flickered in the distance and a guttural roar shook my bones.

Now, most sane people would have fled. I myself -- as sane or insane as I may be deemed -- would normally have tucked tail and run, but something came over me -- call it courage, curiosity, or just plain stupidity, whatever you will -- and I headed straight for the commotion.

Throughout my life, and even until this day, I had seen a wide assortment of nightmarish creatures. From the shadowy wraiths that plagued me daily, glowing eyes from dark corners, and humans with claws for fingers and forked tongues darting between fanged teeth, I had never before seen a creature so beastly as the one that now loomed ahead of me.

An enormous mass of writhing black shadows encased the form of a hulking man covered in reptilian scales. Wicked talons curved at the ends of his hands and feet, massive black horns curling atop his bony head, set above the fiery orbs that were his eyes. He opened his gaping maw and let loose another deafening roar that shook the ground I stood upon and reverberated throughout my body and soul as he charged forward, grasping for the figure which stood unflinching before him.

I recognized him by the confidence in his stance as he stood resolute, his eerie green eyes staring down the creature, holding a ball of silvery light in his palms. Drawing a breath, he shut his eyes and launched the glowing orb, sending it straight through the mass of darkness heading his way.

The creature faltered, staggering to its knees before him. He reached into its swirling darkness, grabbing the demon by its throat and slamming it to the ground where it shattered into dozens of shadows that skittered away into nothing.

  A gasp escaped me as my legs failed and darkness closed in, the ground rushing up to meet me.  

Ah, well this is new. And Green-Eyed-Mystery-Stalker is here again - did ya miss him?

So would you have run upon seeing such a sight? Or would have - say, not even gone out to Central Park in the middle of the night in the first place?

But you know what they say: common sense doesn't exist. (Evelyn is a clear case for that.)

Thanks for all your comments and votes!

And a special shout out to NeverCatchMe for the lovely drawing at the top! Thanks for working so hard to make this scene come to life!