Escaped the Night (15 page)

“That’s beautiful,” I said.

“You know when you see a shootin
g star
? Pay special attention next time to see if it’s rising or falling. If it’s falling, it
means
an immortal has
just
been born
or created
. As you can tell by the night skies, this happens all the time.” Jayce
looked
up towards the sky.
“If it’s rising,
well, you’ll see… it’s quite the spectacular sight.”

I followed his
gaze
,
wondering what he was looking for
.
The sky looked the same to me. I
saw
it
beginning to change
the same
as it did every night when the sun went down.

“B
orn
immortals have a life cycle so
mewhat similar to
a
human. They age in the
beginning the same, the difference is t
hey
can only
mature as old as they’
re destined
to be
. Some stop aging when they are sixteen
,
while others don’t stop until they are in their forties. It’s all kinda pre-pl
anned; I guess you could say it
’
s
part of
the deal they make
for
this creation. They wo
n’t ge
t sick or deal with any other
negative aspects of human life. As I mentioned before, once
they find
their true soul mate
and the timing
i
s right
,
they get
sent up to the heavens
together
.
They become one entity for all time.
”

He
sounded excited, sharing secrets
of
the immortal world
with me
,
and
I couldn’t help but
change my mood
. I was co
mpletely intrigued by Jayce
.

H
e pointed up towards the sky. “Have you ever wondered why the stars are different colors?”

I had to think about it.
I’d never re
ally paid much attention
.

“Some stars s
parkle yellow, while other
s
sparkle light purple, baby blue, and
even
orange. There’s only one that burn
s white and it’s the largest
. It
’
s
also
the fir
st and last star in the sky every
night.”

I looked up
,
searching for the stars. None were out yet
as it was
still too light
.
I looked back at Jayce
,
hoping he would tell me more
.

“The oldest immo
rtal is named Sitara,
”
he began.
“She
was the first known immortal and
lived
on earth for
five thousand
years before
finding her soul mate. Sitara
c
rossed the w
orld numerous times, in hopes of
find
ing
what she longed for.
Her
obsession took a piece of her heart and she wasn’t able to love
entirely because of it. She
did however,
end up meeting someone who
was also
immortal and he
was able to st
e
al
all th
e pieces
of her heart. T
hat’s how she’
s up there with him today.”

The sun
disappeared over the horizon
and the sky continued
darkening
.
We looked up in time to see
Sitara and her true love
making
their nightly appearance.

“Wow, it’s kind of
sad
it took her
so long
to fin
d
her
true love. It’s almost heartbreaking.”

It was as though
she
’d
heard what I said
and
they
twinkled brightly back at me.

“Don’t feel sad
. They’re
happie
r than humanly possible. That’s
wh
y
they shine
so bright. That’
s why they all do.
Going up to the stars
is the greatest gift an immortal
can receive.”

Jayce plac
ed his arm
s
around me
and we snuggled up
watching as
more
of the
different
colored stars emerge
d
. The
happy couples
twinkled
brightly
as they made their appearances
one by one.
In
no time
at all
, the
sky was full
.

Jayce
explained
what
t
he
different colors
meant
.
“
Sitara is the only white star. She received this
honor
because she
was the only immortal
to live among the humans for so
long.
Most immortals find their soul mate
much faster
.
Blue
stars
mean
the immortal was around for four centuries.
Y
ellow
, orange
and
purple
also
stand for the number of years
they were here
. Does this
make sense?”

“Yes,
I get it.
”

I
felt
so
co
mforted by Jayce’s presence and
finally
understood
why he
seemed
so
familiar
.
With every passing minute, it
felt
more and more like he was my true love.
He’d
been in my life, in the background, waiting just for me.

My
purpose was clear
. Jayce
had told me about the
immortal fight
because
I was
a
survivor. They thought I was going
to be
the
ir
savior. I wouldn’t let any of them down. I woul
d choose
good over
evil
any day. Evil
kille
d my family and t
here wa
s no way on earth
I would
ever help the evil side
win a fight.

We walked
along
the beach heading
back
towards the car when s
omething caught my eye. There was a flicker.
I looked but
it was gone. Suddenly, i
t
appeared again,
glowing
in
the
tall
grass
. “Jayce
look,
”
I
whispered.

“
It
’
s alright, i
t’s
just
a fairy house.
Their
mushroom
houses
glow blue
when the moon is up.
”

We walked
towards the glow
and
I
k
nelt
down to examine
it
a bit
closer
. Sure enough,
a patch of
glowing blue
mushrooms
hid
in the tall grass
.
It was
beautiful
the way the glow glistened
off the
tops and stems. I
stood
up
, took
a step back
wards and
looked
all
aro
und me. We were
surrounded
. A peach
color
ed
glow caught my e
ye as it
flew
quickly towards us.
I
flinch
ed as
musical wings
buzz
ed by my head.
The
glow stopped
moving
and
I noticed the figure of a tiny female. She was beautiful, with her long hair
curled, flowing freely along with her
fancy
white
dress.
Her wings sprawled opened
and
closed
, keeping
perfect rhythm. She left
sparks behind as she whipped away
,
her laugh
er
caught on the wind
.

“She must be a fairy.”

“Yeah, that’s Shea.
”

“I never knew
something
so tiny
could be so beautiful.”

W
ith a wisp
,
she was
in
my face. “I’m S
hea, Queen of the Fairies. You’
re welcome
on our land whenev
er you wish. You are our friend,
Shanntal. We keep peace with you.”

“Thank you
,
your majesty,” I said
bowing
to the tiny queen
.

She let out a
sweet gi
ggle. “I said we were friends and f
riends call me She
a.
P
lease, you don’t need to bow
.
I’m
just a girl, the s
ame as you.”

“Shea,” I repeated
slightly embarrassed.

Apparently,
I was the court jest
er to the immortal world.
Every one
of them
had
laughed at m
e during our introduction
. I was delighted
to be
such a success with them
and felt honored
that
they
’d
accepted my presence
.

A flood of new glows filled the air around us.
Hundreds
of fairies
wisped
all
around
. They were
so beautiful, each one
different. There
were
females with long locks
and some with short spiky hair.
Males
flew
past
in
all different shapes and sizes. I ev
en not
iced some
cute curly haired children.

The sound of
their wings fluttering was breathtaking
.
It reminded me of an orchestra playing music
. It combined perfectly with
the
sound of
the waves splashing gently behind
us. Jayce felt it also.
I could
tell
by
the way
he grabbed
onto
my hand.
There were so
many sparks between
us
.
Our fireworks,
the fairies
’
sweet music, this
was perfect
ion
.