Star Bright

She cried and cried, unable to do anything else. Tears continued to flow forth from her tightly clenched eyes like a stream without any sign of ever stopping. She lay there for a time completely unknown to her. Maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours, Cathleen had no way of knowing. Nor did she care. She was tired. Tired of being lost. Tired of suffering. Tired of feeling completely alone. She just wanted it all to end.
Focusing on the pain coursing through her, Cathleen was able to slowly find her way back to the world around her. Weakly sitting up, Cathleen stared around at her room with blood shot eyes. Nothing felt right anymore, not even the one place in the entire world that she had considered the most sacred to her. The room where she had spent most of her life no longer felt like a sanctuary. It’s four simple walls felt…like the dreadful linings of a coffin. Staring around at this small room that no longer felt comforting, Cathleen wondered why she wasn’t where she rightfully belonged. In a hole in the ground.

Crawling across the floor with such weakness that it appeared as if she were severely sick, Cathleen nervously suck her hand in between her bed cushions. She blindly groped around, until her fingers brushed against the smooth plastic surface of the pill bottle. Pulling it out, Cathleen sat her back against her bed and stared long and hard at the bottle. Only weeks before, she had just wanted to end her existence to escape her pointless and miserable life. Now, staring at the means to that end again, she felt a different path based upon different reasons was being offered to her, but one in which she would still reach the same end. Somehow finding the strength to rise to her feet, Cathleen whipped away the still flowing tears from her wet face.

Wobbling on her unsteady feet, Cathleen cautiously approached the window to her bedroom. The window that was still open from which she had lunged out of, something that had only just happened yet felt like it had occurred a lifetime ago. Staring out into the night, she could see nothing except the faint twinkling light of the stars. Somehow, she felt a new longing as her eyes stared unwavering out into the night. From a place inside her that she couldn’t identify, she felt a longing from the blackness. She belonged out there, in the emptiness of it all, because she herself was empty. She didn’t belong in the world that her parents and Maude existed in. She was…after all…technically dead. Which made her…what?

A vampire? She didn’t see how that was possible because she could go out in sunlight, and the sun had next to no effect on her other than making her hair sparkle.

A ghost? That didn’t seem right either. How could a ghost have a physical body, breathe, and bleed?

A ghoul? Maybe. Cathleen didn’t know jack about ghouls, other than they were some form of walking corpses.
If none of those were possibilities, then what was it then? What could she possibly be, other than someone who had died as a normal infant yet had grown into a bizarre young adult?

Unable to find any logical or illogical answers to her dilemma, Cathleen felt the pressure of her now unwelcoming room pressing in on her. The need to flee became equal to the kind Cathleen was sure she would feel if her whole room was ablaze. Clutching the pill bottle tightly, she carefully climbed out onto the very small angled ledge that allowed her to get on the roof. Part of her wondered why she was being so cautious, after all, wasn’t she dead? But, at the same time, she gave a momentary glance to her fingers that had been sliced by the crystal shard. That had hurt, so she knew that she could feel pain. And falling off a two story house was sure to bring her a lot of pain.

Reaching the peak of the roof, Cathleen sat down on the very top of the angled edges. Sighing, she gazed down with twitching hands at the pill bottle. She had never before stared at something that looked so needed, so desired, as that simple bottle and what lay within. It would be so simple to do, all that was required of her was to pop the top off and rapidly swallow what lay within. And not long after, she would go to sleep. Forever. But as she stared at it, Cathleen actually wondered if she would indeed die from ingesting all the pills. Wasn’t she dead already? How could a person die twice?

Frustrated and completely feeling completely broken, Cathleen lifted her eyes from the bottle to the twinkling stars above. Ever since she had been little, they had always felt to her like her only friends. They were always there, no matter what happened to her. And now, she needed them more than ever.

“You won’t find it.”

Cathleen gasped. The voice from behind startled her so much that it sent tremors throughout her body. The pill bottle fell from her shaking hands, rolled down the roof, and fell off the side. Cathleen made a half hearted lung for it in desperation, but a hand grasped her wrist before she could really move. She watched with a mixture of horror and crushing loss as the small bottle disappeared from sight. Rage suddenly surged through her as her seemingly only hope for escape was gone. Clenching her other hand into a tight fist, she blindly swung around, not caring who it was she was about to clobber. The firm grip on her hand lifted and she felt a tremendous gust of air swirl about her. Her fist cut through nothing more than air, and she nearly lost her footing. Cathleen stumbled once, twice, then regained her balance. Lips pressed tightly together, she spun around, and saw Davis standing on the far end of the roof, his hands calmly placed in his pockets.

“How did you…” Cathleen asked, but she already knew that she shouldn’t be surprised by Davis being up on the roof with her.

“You saw what I did with the car.” Davis said calmly. “Do you really think that getting up here was an impossible challenge for me?”

“You, you left Maude down there by herself? With that…thing running around?” Cathleen felt disgusted that Davis would do such a thing.

Davis shook his head slightly. “No. Lance is with her. She’s perfectly safe.”

“And…Lance?” Cathleen asked the question with hesitation. Her heart worried about Lance, and had been on edge the moment he had run off with that monster chasing him. But, she had also been worried about Davis sensing her feelings and finding out how much there was between her and Lance. Even as she feared for Lance's safty, she still didn't want to hurt Davis' feelings.

“He’s fine, a little banged up. But nothing serious. He says that he lead that critter deep in the forest and gave it the slip. We shouldn’t have to worry about it for a while.”

“Why is all of this happening?” Cathleen demanded.

Davis rubbed the back of his head nervously. “It’s…complicated, Cathleen.”

Cathleen wanted to scream at him, maybe even hit him. But, there was just nothing left inside of her. She was completely drained. Hanging her head low, Cathleen fought to hold back tears, which she didn’t understand how she could even manage to summon up more with all the crying she had done.

“Davis…” she whispered, her voice losing all of its sense of self. “Please, I have to know what’s happening to me. How can I have died and still be here? How is that possible?”

She heard him sigh, but just couldn’t bring herself to look up at him. “You…you didn’t die, Cathleen.”
Cathleen’s head shot up to stare at him. Her eyes peered at every contour of his smooth face, trying to read what was lurking there. But she couldn’t understand anything that was lurking upon his pale skin. “But,” Cathleen sobbed. “I saw the death certificate. How can that be?”

“That’s something you need to ask your parents about. But I promise you, Cathleen, you’re just as alive as anyone else in this whole world.”

“Then what the hell’s happening to me!” she shrieked, closing half the distance between them. “What am I? You tell me right now!”

Davis slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets and turned his head slightly away from her. His eyes lifted towards the sky above. Cathleen followed Davis’ gaze, and saw that he was staring at the twinkling lights of the stars dotting the black sky. “It won’t make any difference.” The way he spoke, it sounded again like he was speaking to himself rather than her. His head dropped as he stared at his feet. Cathleen could see him shaking a little. “I…I just wanted this to not be as hard for you as it was for me. But…there’s no more time…for any of it.”

He finally faced her, and she saw a great sympathy in his gaze. “Cathleen, no matter what I do, you’re about to discover the truth. I know you can feel it.”

She didn’t want to believe him, but deep down inside, she felt something stirring. Something was going to happen to her, and she was dangling over the edge of that final plunge into a new kind of existence. Shivering, she instinctively placed her hands over her crystal. “Davis,” she begged, “please just tell me what’s going on. If…you really care about me…then tell me.”

“Words are pointless now.”

As he spoke, Cathleen watched as Davis grasp the bottom of his shirt. Her mouth fell open as she looked on while he slowly began to pull the piece of clothing off.

“Davis, what…are you doing?”

“Before , ‘it’, happens, there’s something that I need to show you.”

“Show me? Show me what?”

“Everything that you can really become.” Davis had completely pulled his shirt off now, and he casually tossed it aside. Cathleen stared long and hard at his bare upper torso, and how his pale skin cast ridged shadows across the edges of his well developed muscles in the moonlight. In the center of his chest, she saw his jewel glowing faintly from the moonbeam reflections. As he stood before her, Davis shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Cathleen, I promise you, no matter what your eyes or mind are going to try to tell you otherwise, what you are about to see is real. No tricks. No illusions. Only the truth.”

Davis tightly clenched his fists as his whole body began to shake. Cathleen felt an unsteady shiver roll along her skin. Without consciously thinking about it, she took a step back. Something was happening to Davis, something her eyes had never before witnessed. Her gem began to pulsate against her bare skin, sending an intense heat radiating through her to counteract the cold that was assaulting her body from all conceivable sides. She wanted to look away for so many reasons, mainly from fear of the unknown. Yet, she couldn’t. Her eyes were cemented on Davis as he continued to tremble. Not on him really, but on the glowing gem centered in between his chest muscles. The moonlight was reflecting throughout it in thousands of varying prisms, each brighter than she had ever seen them. And then, the reflective twinkles began to spread.

Cathleen rubbed her eyes, trying in some vain attempt to wipe away what she thought was trick being played by her eyes. But when she moved her hands away, the phenomenon had only gotten bigger. It…was spreading out from the gem…across Davis’ skin. It moved like a very slow ripple across water, as it passed over more and more of his pale skin, an otherworldly smooth and glistening surface was left in its wake. And, it was a sort of blue color, but not any kind of blue…

Cathleen’s eyes widened to their full extent when she made the connection. The new, strange skin that was growing across Davis’ body was the exact same color of his gem. Cathleen’s lips began to tremble and she shook her head slightly. She didn’t want to believe that this was possible, even after seeing a real life monster, she didn’t want to think that this was real also. Then she remembered Davis’ words, his warning that she would try to deny what she was bearing witness to, yet it wasn’t an illusion.

Her heart throbbed immensely as she stood with her feet cemented to the shingles of the roof. Cathleen knew that she should have been terrified by this…transformation…that Davis was undergoing. It wasn’t right. Everything that she had ever known screamed in every contour of her mind that this wasn’t natural. And yet, Cathleen felt that it was natural. An instinct, or a sense that she couldn’t identify, felt a familiarity by what her eyes were witnessing. A sense of having seen something she had lost for many years filled her, and the last vestiges of her fear faded away. She held her breath as the ripple rolled across Davis’ entire torso, his shoulders, then down his arms and across his face. The last thing that she saw happen with Davis was several long streaks of blue suddenly appear in his hair. The clumps of blue, unbelievable as it should have been, actually appeared brighter than the rest of his silver colored locks.

Even with their relative distance from each other, Cathleen heard Davis exhale softly. His eyes opened with a very slow reluctance, and Cathleen’s hands instantly grasped her own gem. Davis’ twilight blue eyes…were dotted with faint twinkles of light throughout their entire circumference. It was as if part of the night sky had been cut away and placed over his iris. Moving with a calculated slowness, Davis raised his right arm and held it out towards her. It was in that moment that her tunnel vision faded back, and she was able to take in every aspect of Davis’ new body. At first, she thought that he was glowing, until she focused harder on his amazingly smooth skin. Cathleen realized that she had been mistaken. The glimmers that were surrounding Davis weren’t from some glow he was giving off. The bluish light that the full moon was casting down upon them was reflecting off of his skin. And, she could see that the now blue streaks of hair on his head were sparkling brighter than the rest of his still sliver colored locks. Cathleen was shaking all over now, unsure of what she was feeling, her mind torn between knowing that she should be consumed with fear but her heart feeling that there was only a deep wanting from looking at what Davis had now become.

When she didn’t come towards him, Davis took initiative. He took a step towards her. Cathleen instantly took a step back to match his. “This…” Cathleen said with a shake of her head. “…this isn’t real.”

“I told you.” Davis said with immense assurance in his voice as he advanced towards her. “Your eyes will say that to you, because you’ve never seen anything like this before. But I’m just as real as you are.”

“What are you?” Cathleen gasped, backing away even more.

Davis’ crystal like lips moved slightly. “I’m…I’m everything that you’re about to become. This is hard for you to accept, Cathleen. But you have to see it. Remember what I told you. I first transformed, I didn’t even know that I could. The shock nearly killed me. And soon, it’ll happen to you too. I’m trying to make you ready for when that happens.”

Davis was almost upon her now, and she could feel him, feel his life force radiating out through his glistening skin, skin that reminded her so very much of the surface of his gem. It was channeling through her own gem, and the comforting warmth was radiating all through her. Cathleen’s grip on her pulsating gem tightened as Davis’ reached out for her. She followed the tips of his fingers as they drew closer and closer to her, each digit looking very similar to the crystal shard she had found. Her heart was ramming into her rib cage with such force that she was afraid that it was going to explode from the strain.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed, slapping his hand away before jumping back. As her foot went down and nothing solid connected with it, Cathleen was propelled into momentary state of free fall. She had just enough time for a totally shocked expression to come over her face as she fell backwards off the roof. An uncontrollable scream started to build up in the back of her throat as she plummeted, and her eyes connected with Davis’. Terror flashed across his star like eyes, followed by a blur of movement. Cathleen felt the immensely powerful grip of his hand in hers, and then she was back on the roof with her trembling feet planted firmly on the sloped surface and her shaking body nestled safely in Davis’ glowing arms.

“Don’t…” he gasped, hugging her tighter. “scare me like that, Cathleen. Please.”

Wrapped tightly in his embrace, Cathleen felt her entire body freeze. There were so many reasons for why it happened that she no longer could tell what was making her feel the way she was. The only thing that she was totally aware of was how Davis’ body felt against her own. Cathleen lowered her head without any struggle and rested it against Davis’ shoulder. His skin felt unbelievably smooth, yet so solid at the same time. It was like pressing her face against the surface of a diamond, only she could feel the warmth of a living being underneath the crystalline layer. She had expected his skin to be cold, like the surface of any gem, yet it wasn’t. But more than just the warmth, Cathleen felt the pulse of Davis’ own gem coursing through his skin, in a sort of peaceful harmony with her own. When she realized this, everything that troubled Cathleen’s mind melted away, leaving nothing for her to experience except the wondrous comfort of Davis’ embrace. Cathleen blinked, and felt a tear roll down her cheek. As far as she knew, this was the first time that she had ever wept without being sad. Her arms lifted, locking around Davis’ back, and she pulled herself as close into him as she could. Cathleen couldn’t think of anything anymore, except knowing that in that moment, she needed Davis. Needed him as if he were the very blood pumping through her throbbing heart.

“Cathleen, please don’t cry.” Davis whispered into her ear, sending hot tremors through her body as his grip on her tightened slightly.

Cathleen wanted to scream. A flood of emotions was engulfing her, threaten to drown her very spirit. Unable to stop her shaking, Cathleen pulled her head off of Davis. She swallowed a thick lump in her throat down, and looked up at him. His glistening eyes were completely focused on her, and didn’t waver for even a fraction of a second. As she gazed up into those twilight blue rims that twinkled with dozens of almost microscopic lights, Cathleen became lost in their seemingly endless amazement. A surge of energy blasted through her chest, propelling Cathleen to do what she knew was lurking at the edge of her rational mind. Something that she knew she wanted to do yet until that moment had been too afraid to. Lifting her head up slightly, Cathleen parted her lips and pressed them tenderly against Davis’.

Shutting her eyes, Cathleen blocked out everything else that was encompassing her. She felt Davis stiffen from her affectionate touch, but only for a moment. And as her heart jack hammered inside her chest, she felt the tension in his lips fade, and he kissed her back. The connection she felt from his touch was unbelievable, Cathleen had no idea how her lips could be touching something so solid which seemed to cave in against her. The pulse passed through his lips and into her, filling her with such joy that Cathleen’s breath was stolen away. But more than all that, it was the way Davis was kissing her. There was no strength or force of any kind embedded in his touch. It was so tender and reserved, done with the complete assurance that the faint connection they had was more than enough for total bliss. It was entirely different from the way Lance…

Cathleen’s eyes suddenly shot open, and she pulled herself away from Davis’ passionate kiss. His own eyes opened, and he gazed at her with a mixture of endless joy and total confusion. As she stared at his crystal like face, Cathleen was consumed with the horrible truth that until then had been hidden by the multitude of other things that ensnared her life.

She was in love with Lance…

…and Davis.

The very thought of each of these two amazing boys made her heart flutter about in ways that she had never felt before. She loved Lance for his strength, his unshakable will which would never be deterred, his endless devotion to protect her, and how he always made her feel completely safe no matter what. And she loved Davis for his gentleness, his caring nature, how he made her feel an unmatched joy and love for life that she hadn’t ever understood. Each with their own unique strengths had been able to lay roads within her that caused Cathleen’s heart to be bound to them.

But, the horrible truth she realized in the moment after that, was that she couldn’t have them both. No matter what she did, no matter who she would bind her heart to, the other’s would shatter into a million broken pieces. And, Cathleen began to cry as the understanding came over her, because knew that she couldn’t possibly live now without them. Lance and Davis, they each had breathed life into her where she thought that she had none, and now she was hopelessly trapped in these new feelings for each of them that were both wondrous and terrifying.

“Davis.” she whispered, fighting to keep herself from looking away from him.

Davis didn’t move. He stood there, completely still, like a glistening crystal sculpture. Cathleen couldn’t think of anything to say to him. There were no words that made any sense to her feelings and how to explain them to him. As she stood there, feeling completely helpless to even express the way that she was feeling, Davis moved. He backed away from her, one hesitant step at time.

“I know.” he said, sadness echoing in his words.

“You…do?”

“I’ve known Lance all my life, Cathleen. He’s never acted the way he has been since we came here. Hiding his feelings isn’t one of Lance’s strong points. And tonight, when we came to rescue you, I saw how afraid he was when we found you and Maude. I’ve never seen him afraid of anything, until tonight.” Davis sighed, and lifted his head to gaze at the night sky. “He was terrified that he was going to lose you. And so was I.”

“Davis,” Cathleen said, clutching her gem so hard that it made her hands throb. “you can’t make me do this, not now. I can’t…”

“I wish that you didn’t have to deal with this along with everything else you’re having to face, I really do. But…I can’t just stop the way I feel about you. And I know Lance can’t either.” Davis turned back to her. “Cathleen, everything happens for a reason. Don’t tear yourself apart for either of us. Somehow, someway, you’ll see which of one of us is right for you. No matter what your decision is, I know you’ll make the right one.”

He gave her a forced smile. “No matter what… I’ll be here for you. I’ll always be your friend.”

Cathleen felt as if a vice had been clamped around her heart from Davis’ words. She wanted to scream at him, to punch him, anything to destroy the way he was being towards her. She didn’t deserve this…treatment from him, or Lance. How could either of them be so willing to suffer seeing her with the other, and still want to be so close to her regardless? What had she ever done to make either of them be so devoted to her? There was nothing that Cathleen could see that would make that possible.

Davis raised a hand, stopping her before she could say anything. “Cathleen, don’t worry about any of that tonight. There are many more things that you’re going to have to face before worrying about where your feelings stand.”

The way he spoke, it was like he was expecting something. Cathleen was about to ask Davis what he meant when it happened. There was nothing in the entire world that Cathleen had to compare the sensation to, other than a sort of electric jolt that blasted through her mind. She froze, her jaw dropping as goose bumps popped up all across her skin. Her arms fell to her sides as she felt her gem pulse harder than it had ever done before. The moment that she had been waiting so long for had just passed. Davis nodded his head slightly.

“Yes, Cathleen. You’ve crossed the threshold, it’s time.” He said, pointing at something behind her.

Cathleen turned slowly, tracing to where he was pointing. But she already knew where his finger was going to be directed at, because the place was now pulling at her with unimaginable force, like that of an insanely powerful magnet. When she had turned completely, Cathleen saw the barn. It was the one place she had been forbidden to go to. The one place that she had always desired to search inside. She always felt herself drawn to it. But now, it was no longer a quiet nagging in the back of her mind. Something lay hidden behind the flimsy wooden walls of that structure. A key that could unlock all the secrets that had surrounded Cathleen her entire life. As she stared at it with her heart racing in perfect synchronization with her gem’s pulses, Davis gently rested a hand on her shoulder.

“It’s time for you to learn who you really are.” he whispered into her ear, sending shivers all through her.