〚FEATURED + WATTYS SHORTLIST 2021〛
Someone tried to kill him. Someone nearly succeeded.
A traitor walks among them.
The question is, who?
⭒⭒⭒⭒⭒
"A sky full of stars and he was looking at her."
He was a man with a deep and profound love for the stars...
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WHEN AXEL FINALLY OPENS HIS EYES AGAIN,he's sitting under the night sky.
It was the same night sky, under which he had nearly lost his life.
His eyebrows furrow in confusion. What-?
He looked down at his abdomen. There wasn't a trace of all the crimson he had spilled. Huh?
It didn't feel like he was in the realm of the dead either. His mind was surprisingly clear and alert, his fingers and muscles no longer felt weak or numb, but the world around him was silent. Still.
Naturally, his eyes drifted back up to the night sky. There was something more defined about the stars tonight, almost as if they were shining a tad bit brighter, and as if the constellations were more distinct.
But then he blinks, and the sky instantly changes.
His eyes widen. The sight around him has him gawking, lips parted and all- because this- god, it's better than anything he has ever imagined.
A tapestry of diamonds, glimmering above his head. That's what it's like- almost as if darkness itself is pale and glittering.
Billions of stars, some so close that they appear massive and some so far that they appear as faint pulsing specks- with thousands of them morphing into constellations and patterns, right in front of his eyes.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
His head whips to his side.
She sits beside him, a serene smile resting on her lips, hair tumbling down her back in graceful waves as her eyes drift between the stars. There aren't any wings resting on her shoulders this time, so apart from the faint glow that she seems to emit, she looks human, like he is.
"This is what the universe really looks like," she murmurs, almost wistfully, "and to the earthlings, it once looked like this too, before the invasion of darkness began."
"It's-" Axel breathes, looking back up at the sky with awe. "It's more beautiful than anything I've ever imagined."
"I know," her voice fills the silence- yet there's something so pleasant and melodic about it, like tinkling water or the murmur of a stream, that he could spend his forever listening to it.
His eyes drift past the expanse of the sky taking it in, and committing it to his memory, the best he could- before she speaks again.
"The universe," she says, "is always sending us messages, causing coincidences and weaving the tales of fate."
The stars above begin to morph into something. Some brighter, some smaller- some further spaced than others- but they begin to form different figures.
