Abnormal

Chapter 1: Remembering

"It all started when I lost Mr. Sleepybear..."

Aldair sat quietly in his small home, his prismatic core casting a weak glow on the table in front of him. His gaze focused on the masses of rocks and the countless other Moebian houses outside his little window. All around the town, Moebians huddled and hid from the bleak shadow of darkness that hovered over them. Some townspeople would come out and look up at the sky, but they'd soon turn to hopelessly go back indoors.

Nothing was the same now that the stars were gone. They'd been gone for many years, and Aldair just sat through it all. He would sit around and think about how things had been before the stars left, and he'd think about the possibility that they could one day return. However, nothing seemed possible anymore. He needed the stars just as much as any other Moebian. His core was still lit, which technically meant he was faring better than his fellow Moebians, but it was gradually going out. His hope was giving way, and there was nothing he could do about it.

He thought back to that day, the day that changed his world forever. He was 5 years old at the time, and he had been playing around outside with his stuffed bear as his parents watched. Mr. Sleepybear was always by his side, and Aldair wouldn't have it any other way. As he ran across the shining blue landscape of Moebius, he ventured out further from his town, and further from his parents' view. Suddenly, as Aldair happily spun around, he lost his grip and Mr. Sleepybear flew from his hand and disappeared behind the rocks. He stopped and immediately ran over in the direction of his bear. Desperately, he searched around the rocks for his stuffed friend.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake violently. Aldair struggles to stay upright, and after surveying the ground, he glanced upwards. On a cliff side, he saw two other Moebians. The older Moebian (the one he simply knew to be The Elder) stood in shock as a young kid (no more than a year younger than Aldair) retracted his outstretched hand from the sky. Aldair turned to look at what the kid was reaching for...

...and came face to face with a giant, black, floating triangle in the sky.

Screams came from the town as people began to run for cover. Aldair stood frozen in place as the stars began to be sucked up into the giant prism. Suddenly, a pair of arms grabbed him around his waist. He cried out as his dad hoisted him onto his shoulder and ran back to safety. He wanted to complain and yell to his dad to go help him find his bear, but the ever-darkening sky told him now was not the time.

'Dad! Mr. Sleepybear is over there! We need to go back for him! Dad, what's happening? Dad..! Dad...'

Aldair abruptly snapped out of his childhood thoughts with a quick shake of his head. 'There's no point in thinking about all that now,' he thought. He was 19 now, and the stars were still gone. Nothing had changed, nothing had improved, everything had just gotten even more hopeless and depressing. After the mysterious disappearance of both his parents years ago, he kept to himself and rarely went out to see others. He watched the sky, hoping to catch a glimpse of something, anything that could resemble a star, but nothing ever appeared. The life force for the Moebian race was gone, and no one knew where it had disappeared to.

He focused his eyes elsewhere. Through his window, Aldair could see another house with a rooftop extension. Another Moebian sat on top of the house, lifting his arm towards the barren sky.

'Huh, the little cute guy is out. Again. What is he doing out there?' Aldair thought. That Moebian was always out on top of his house, every single day. His core glowed brightly, brighter than anyone else's in the town, even brighter than Aldair's. "He's looking," Aldair told himself. "He's waiting. Poor guy, he's gotta he bored out of his mind. Nobody else is around, maybe I should go talk to him..."

Aldair continued to stare out the window as he stood up. "Yeah, I could do that." He walked over to his door, and his core began to glow brighter. His hand hovered over the doorknob, eager and ready to venture outside for the first time in a long time. He hesitated.

"... no no no, I can't do this. I can't do this yet, I'm not ready."

Slowly, he backed away from his door and sat back down at his desk. Everything was just as still as it was before, with the exception of the rooftop Moebian running out to the open rock valleys outside the village. "I wonder where he's off to," Aldair wondered. "I guess it's just as well, I wouldn't have caught him before he left." He kept staring out the window for a few seconds until everything was as still as death again.

With a heavy sigh, Aldair pushed himself up and went to his bed. It was getting late, and there was nothing else he could really do at night other than watch the empty sky, hoping for something to glow again. He thunked onto his bed and lay back, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Another night alone, I guess," he mentioned briefly, but he quickly discarded the thought. He closed his eyes, and as his world began to fade away for the night, a single thought drifted across his mind:

'It all started when I lost Mr. Sleepybear.'