Ferah
November 13th, 2015. 9:00 P.M. Distant Countryside, Virginia.
The stars. They're beautiful. It's like a giant painting in the sky. And there's different constellations for different seasons. I could tell you all the constellations in the sky right now, without even looking at my notebook. It's full of constellation names and star patterns and anything astrology related. Scientists discover a new star? Jot it down. Another Goldilocks planet found? Jot it down. A picture is worth a thousand words, but the sky is worth a million. Andromeda and Cassiopeia, daughter and mother. Pisces, the two fish that are really Venus and Cupid. I could just tell pointless factoids for hours, and I wouldn't run out of things to say.
"Ferah! We're heading out for groceries. Do you want to come?" Auntie shouts from the other side of the house.
I look out my telescope. "No, not really. I'll be fine here."
I admire my Newtonian telescope for the hundreth time. It sticks out the window to my room perfectly as to not take up too much space, but still allow me to turn it to see more. My bedroom door opened slightly, only making the lightest of a creak. Auntie's head peeps through the crack.
"Well, the closest decent store is a few hours away, and we have other errands to do, so we're leaving while it's dark, and we'll be back around noon tomorrow. Food's in the fridge, just warm it up, I've written down everything you need to do on a sticky note on the fridge. It's getting late, so go to bed soon, okay? Oh and don't do anything you wouldn't do if I -"
"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen."
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Hello again. It is I, the guide. This is Ferah. She's 15. Unsuspecting, young and naive. She lives in the country-side, the only house for miles around, with her aunt and uncle. Unless she didn't make it clear enough, she has a clear love for astronomy. Most of that's going to change. But let's go back a few centuries. You remember Walter.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Poor Walter went insane, poor Walter lost his brain. He saw the Light, got quite the fright, a shell's all that remains. Poeticness aside, Walter's daughter and caretaker, 19 year old Mary, was loyal to him when no one else would. Only for Walter to turn on her. Or, did he?
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Mary
February 24th, 1750. 4:00 P.M. Distant Countryside, Virginia.
It's been half a year since Father went crazy. A quarter of year since Mother "left." She just disappeared, no prior warning. Allegedly, she left our village and that was that. But I have a feeling there was more to it than that. When he saw the Light, he went crazy. While I don't know what he saw up there, I do know it did a lot more than remove his sanity.
Strange things began to happen. First, he disappeared from time to time. The first time I panicked, and looked for him for a solid hour before finding him back in his room, as if he never left it.
The glowing eyes came less than a month later. He would sit on his chair, and his usually glazed eyes would turn sharp and stare at whatever was in front of him. His right eye would begin to twitch. Then his eyes became balls of light. Glowing balls of light, almost like the Light.
"Father?"
I saw him sitting there, and all of a sudden, the air began to shake. Everything around us began to blur, and I screamed in fear, but I quickly became astonished, as with a *CLICK!* I was in the middle of a field. One second there, the next, here. Just Father, his chair, and me. Father looked at me, and for the first time in forever, he looked perfectly okay. And he began to talk.
"Mary. Listen to me. I don't know how much time I have before we return. The Light gave me an ability. A power, if you will.. I can travel places and bring others with me. I can't stay very long, but the ones I bring with me can stay. I'm leaving you here. No, don't talk. That'd waste precious time I don't have. They're going to treat us as freaks. Yes, us. Your mother is here with the other men that came with me on the fateful day, they got powers as well, just not as powerful as mine. They're around here somewhere. You'll see them. The Light, it fused with me, and cost me my sanity. I can only remain sane for short bits of time."
He began to blur, and became slightly transparent.
"I don't have much time left, I can tell. Mary, I have to leave you here. I know you'll understand soon. Okay? Okay."
And *CLICK!* He disappeared.