I – When the Stars Fall

(part 2)

Edward mourned as the Skulls’ stream went offline. The scenes of the heist had filled his eyes with so much marvel that his irises shined. He only recalled who he was and where he lived after a minute of staring at a blank screen. “Oh, what?” faltered the boy, swinging his head left and right as his consciousness returned. He recalled that he was but a young loser watching a live stream through a pair of binoculars. His little sister slept in a corner of the tiny bedroom. He feared that even the sound of his breath would disturb her.

Adela watched his painful awakening from her window across the street. She covered her mouth so that she would not shame him with her cringe. Yet she failed.

“Damn it,” cursed Edward with a palm covering his face, “I must’ve looked like such a dork.”

The girl giggled. She had a pink pillow embraced between the arms to keep her sides together.

Edward grinned. “At least she’s laughing,” he bargained, simpering and looking away to hide his blush. “I’ll take that as some sort of consolation. I wonder if she’ll go to school tomorrow—“

He rose his head to face Adela. However, the horrifying scowl Adela’s mother covered the window.

“Argh!” Edward recoiled and fell on his backs as if he saw an angry pit-bull.

The woman closed the curtains. Screams erupted from the apartment and echoed for all on the street to hear. Her screams were as if barking and car horns joined forces to destroy a window. Yet instead of glass, their target was one’s will to live.

The boy cupped his ears to hear what the women shouted, yet all he heard were growls, except for when Adela’s cry interrupted the woman. Edward, like all the girl’s neighbors, had grown eerily accustomed to hearing her sob.

“It’s my fault,” he bewailed, clenching his fists. Edward sighed loudly and kneaded his forehead, crestfallen. He faced his reflection and pondered, “why do I always do this?”

Hermione, his little sister, moved. She sleeptalked, “Uh, what is going on?”

All the noise disturbed the girl.

The boy closed the curtain. He left only a tiny space from where he could stare at Adela’s window like a dog looks from beneath a door. He did not want the girl to assume that she was alone if she looked for him once the screams were over. He knew well how painful her feeling would be, and how much he did not want to look like a coward.

Yet Edward shrunk back as he heard the sound of a slap. He looked away, clenched his fists and heaved an angry sigh at the window.

“How can’t any adult hear that?” he asked himself, repulsed. His eyes searched the decrepit city below. He looked for a single soul that still cared.

Unrepaired holes covered the streets more than pavement. The roads reeked of garbage and fuel. Screams and firing car alarms were louder than the night’s wind. The windows of shops had more cracks than glass. Their shelves were empty. A red graffiti paraded proudly on a wall with an evident truth, “why bother?”

Edward was powerless. If the adults had chosen to forget their own strife, a teenager’s problems would not be what would awaken them. He resigned, “I don’t wanna be here anymore.”

Those words were usual guests in his head. The heroes that stamped his half of the tiny bedrooms were like his window to a world of meaning. Red capes, anthropomorphic robots and anime girls formed a colorful pallet that contrasted to the dim world outside. Glitchers like the Skulls had a privileged position, however. Their bootleg sculptures and embarrassing plushies filled his shelves as if Edward desired to feel among them.

A figure of yarn from Gallant, the deceased member of the Skulls, faced him with a judgmental expression on its face.

“Don’t look at me like that,” said the boy as he turned the figure around. Yet the doll’s eyes glowed white. “Huh?” faltered Edward as he peeked at the street outside.

A shooting star crossed the skies. Its light invaded the dim bedroom and brought color to the boy’s idols and posters.

Edward darted to his window to see the spectacle. “Maybe I can make a wish!” he said, searching for an angle from where he could face the stars. Yet his window was too tiny. He could not see the sky from the floor where his apartment was. “I think I missed it,” he mumbled, sighing in frustration as the streets darkened once again. He rose his frown to face Adela’s closed curtains. “And she missed it as well,” he mumbled. The boy was aware that unlike him, she never had any chance to witness the spectacle.

Yet more shooting stars crossed the skies. This time they were so numerous that they looked as if a dazzling white curtain fell from the heavens. Their reflection turned into a silvery river the uncovered holes in the pavement, the broken glass littering the streets and the windows that hid underneath iron bars. Every bit of trash on earth screened the beautiful spectacle that the heavens arrayed.

“This is my chance!” uttered Edward as he clasped his hands together. He hoped that the stars would still hear him, even if he prayed to their reflection in the grime. “Please,” he began, “please show me a way to change the world. For myself and for”—the screams from Adela’s apartment reached his ears—“everyone. They are suffering so much,” he rustled as he frowned at the ruined city below. The light from the passing stars unveiled the decadence that the darkness concealed.

Edward unclasped his hands, unsure if there was anything that he would like to ask more than making a difference. Yet ideas kept slipping down his tongue:

“And if that was not asking a lot, please make tomorrow’s test easy,” he glanced at his unfinished homework, “I got busy with the Skulls, and I didn’t study a bit! Also…” He fired words like a machine gun fires bullets. He was afraid that he would miss the stars. “It’d be nice too if Adela realized her boyfriend is a huge jerk. But please make it in a way that she won’t be hurt! She goes through enough—”

His sister moved. The boy’s voice agitated her.

“Damn it,” murmured Edward as he covered his mouth. He relinquished himself from his whims, leaned his arm in the window and watched as the stars faded.

He planned to wait for Adela, yet his eyes weighed. He yawned and felt a sudden exhaustion. His eyes closed, and his arms served him as pillows before he knew. “Please,” whispered Edward as he collapsed asleep, “please listen to me.”

The Rain of Stars ceased. Yet the stars did not simply pass through Earth. They descended like hammers upon the snowy town where the Skulls hid.

“So,” began the Thief Queen with a large grin on her face. She reclined on a wooden chair. A table from her pizzeria served as support for her legs. “Did that prove to you that this treasure was worth our time?” she asked her gang.

Pyre, Jumper, GEO and Fallen peeked at the outside from every corner of the pizzeria. They watched as the stars fell from the heavens and shattered into pieces as they touched the Earth.

“T-This is absurd!” hesitated Jumper. “How the hell did you do that, Queen?” He narrowed his eyes at his boss.

“I didn’t,” she pointed at the shoebox where she concealed the treasure, “my precious did it.”

Yet GEO, the Glitcher with long hair and sunglasses, crossed his arms. He looked away from the spectacle, unimpressed. “Was that all?” asked the man.

Pyre and Fallen exchanged sights, baffled. They questioned Thief Queen, “How are we supposed to make money out of it?”

The woman rolled her eyes. “You fools really don’t understand,” said Thief Queen as she unsealed the shoebox and yanked the content from inside. “Come closer.”

The Skulls neared her. They leaned forward and widened their eyes to see the object.

“This,” continued Thief Queen as a metal heart pumped in her right hand, “is the Heart in a Vat. It makes any wish come true,” she explained, moving the object closer to Jumper. “You can’t just make money out of it, you can make anything.”

“Really?” faltered Jumper as he turned away, uncomfortable with the sight. “How?”

“I suspect that this thing”—she rose the heart for him to see closer. Thief Queen found Jumper’s disgust cute. She moved the heart closer to him whenever he recoiled—“this thing is like the command console of the Universe. It can make anything happen,” she glanced at Fallen and Pyre, “like summoning a mountain of gold or making any number appear in your bank account.”

Fallen beamed. “Label me interested,” he remarked.

Thief Queen smirked. She narrowed her eyes at Jumper and continued, “Maybe you can use it to change the past. Rewrite your history or even erase it completely so that no one will ever find you. Or, if you prefer,” she glared at GEO, “we can even summon President Johnson right now to this pizzeria to dine with us.”

The Skulls recoiled in awe, except for GEO. The woman finished:

“Just make sure you prepare a baby seat for him. His pants are probably brown since he heard that we took the Heart. And maybe, just maybe”—she held the heart with both hands. Her voice softened—“perhaps we can even use it to bring the dead back to life.”

GEO interrupted her reverie. “Do it, then,” he said, still with his arms crossed. “Make a wish come true.”

“I will,” said Thief Queen with a grin between the lips, “once I learn how it works.”

Pyre scowled. She questioned the woman, “what? Once you learn? You don’t know how to use it, girl?”

“Not yet.”

Jumper recoiled. “And how long will that take?” he asked, pulling his blond hair out.

“6 months, maybe one year…”

“We don’t have that much time. Girl, this was not our deal!” resisted Pyre. “The entire US government is after us right now. I don’t doubt they would nuke a city if that meant stopping you from possibly killing the president. Fallen doesn’t have to worry about it, but everyone else…”

“I just want my money,” insisted Fallen.

“Wait and you shall receive,” replied Thief Queen as she meddled with the Heart in a Vat. “Besides,” she glanced at them, “we are safe as long as we have Jumper around.”

“Every Glitch leaves a trail,” retorted GEO, “even if Jumper is one of the best Warpers in the world, the Feds in Washington will find someone better and bring them here. They will promise a state for whoever comes up with even a hint that will lead to us.”

Thief Queen simpered. “Go grab your state, then,” she teased the man. “I heard Hawaii is lovely this time of the year. A tan would do you good! If you like the Feds so much, just join them—”

“I am,” replied GEO, threatening to take his sunglasses off.

The Skulls rose from their chairs and surrounded the man. They slouched their backs forward like predators as if they prepared to assault GEO at the first sign of movement.

Thief Queen faced him. “What do you think you are doing, GEO?” she asked.

“I’m making stand. That is what we should have done when Gallant died because of you. We can continue either living like dogs in the hopes you will for once keep a promise; or we can take the Heart from you, give it to the Feds and join the winning team. We can make any wish come true without having to hide: as State Glitchers.”

“Is it mutiny that I’m hearing?”

“It’s an invitation to common sense,” explained the man, glancing at the Skulls. His words hit their confident smiles more than any fist could. “You,” said GEO as he faced Thief Queen, “can either join us or perish.” He stretched his left arm for her to give him the Heart in a Vat.

She retorted, “Politicians can’t bring him back to life, GEO.”

“Neither can your corpse.”

“I am willing to take that risk.” Her grasp of the Heart strengthened.

GEO faced Jumper and Pyre. “Are you two?” he asked them.

They exchanged sights, dubious of what to say. Jumper bargained, “Queen, let’s not fight over this. Maybe GEO has a point. It might be better if we just hand them the treasure. We can’t do this forever, you know”—he took his mask off. A large scrap bullet scar bonded his ears like a bridge—“one might hit the target the next time,” he mumbled. His southern accent carried an uncommon sorrow. “My mom has cancer, you know? I can’t die.”

“Listen, girl,” argued Pyre as she narrowed her eyes at Thief Queen, “I know how much you liked Gallant, but he’d agree with GEO. Enough is enough. They probably already sent OLYMPUS after us.”

Thief Queen glanced at Fallen as if her last hope were drawing a word of loyalty from him.

“Me?” floundered the undead Glitcher. “I’m just here for the money.”

GEO faced his former leader, more confident than ever. Not a single voice had risen to support Thief Queen’s plot. He kept a hand on his sunglasses as if a great power were hidden underneath. He argued, “you know this is the wisest choice, Queen. Give me the Heart. Fighting is futile.”

Jumper supported him, “It’s the right thing, Queen. No thief lasts forever…”

“I…” Thief Queen clenched her fists. She frowned, as she had no courage to look them in the eyes. She groaned with tears dripping from her eyes, “I am surrounded by bloody sellouts—”

“Be reasonable,” snorted GEO.

“—coward pathetic close-minded atrocious serpents so flat that they couldn’t even be stepped upon!”

GEO took a step ahead and gave her an ultimatum, “Don’t make me do this, Queen. Give us the Heart and our partnership won’t have to end like this.”

“Do what you must, then,” she challenged him There was no fear in her expression. The Heart in a Vat beat faster in her right hand. “It won’t work, anyways,” she said, grinning confidently.

GEO heaved a loud sigh. “Farewell, Queen,” said the man as he pulled his sunglasses away.

“Wait,” recoiled Jumper as he jolted the arm to stop his partner, “don’t do it, GEO!”

Yet he was not fast enough.

Thief Queen closed her eyes. She made an appeal to the Heart in the Vat, “please. Please listen to me.”

The woman had no will to watch as Death embraced her. She felt as if she drifted into the unknown while her eyes closed, aware that her life would end at any millisecond as the last speck of sand went down the hourglass of life and death. She had no will to fight, as Pyre and Fallen would likely support GEO’s cause. “Is this”—Thief Queen ventured to open her eyes—“Death?” she asked, wondering if she would unveil the mysteries of the afterlife. Yet the pizzeria remained around her, exactly as she had left. She searched her surroundings and found that the Skulls’ recoiled as GEO pulled out his sunglasses to kill Thief Queen. Their expressions, like the snow that fell outside, were frozen in time.

Yet there was truth in their gestures, as they had not had time to lie. She saw neither tears nor grief as she looked at them. What paraded on the faces of her companions, for whom Thief Queen would have given her life, was a relief. “Just take me away from here,” she pleaded in disgust, “I don’t want to see these deplorable faces anywhere besides an obituary—”

She fell on her knees with both hands on her chest. “W-What is this?” the woman cried in pain. She felt as if her heart had turned into heavy metal and her tendons could not hold it in place. “T-The Heart in a Vat?” she asked, agonizing. “It is inside me?” sobbed Thief Queen as she frowned at her chest and saw that her hands darkened. Her cells shriveled and died. Her limbs turned to ashes.

“No, no”—she collapsed onto the ground as her legs left her. Darkness engulfed the woman from all sides—“I must stay alive, I…” She fought to stand even when her feet were gone. “I mustn’t die looking up to them!” she shouted in disgust as she carved their faces into her brain. “I can’t die!” she cried, helpless. Thief Queen could not see farther than she could breathe. She felt every limb in her body going numb as if she died one muscle at a time. The shadows devoured her. Lost, she rustled the name of her deceased comrade as if he were a light to show her the way, “Gallant.”

Her body disappeared. Only ashes and clothes littered the ground where she once stood.

Time passed once again, and the Skulls searched their surroundings for her.

Jumper rose his voice, aghast, “w-w-where would Queen go? I felt like reality just crashed. I feel like someone hammered my skull…”

Pyre bemoaned, “I’ve never seen anything like this. My brain”—Pyre collapsed on her knees—“I feel like my head’s burning.”

GEO searched for the Heart in a Vat in Thief Queen’s remnants.

Fallen narrowed his eyes at the man. He rose his voice, “where is she?”

“At least 800 meters away,” replied GEO, with empty hands. “I can’t detect her with any senses. The Heart is also gone.”

“Think you can find her?”

“Every glitch leaves a trail.”

“I don’t think that was a glitch, GEO. She must be dead.”

Jumper recoiled. “Wait, Queen is dead?” asked the blond, falling on his backs. “No, she can’t be…” His lips trembled. He growled at GEO, “You! It’s your fault! You killed her, you animal! I thought that was just a bluff!”

“I wouldn’t say that Queen died unless there is absolute certainty, Alan,” asserted GEO as he walked to one of the pizzeria’s windows. “Whatever she did, we will find her and the relic.”

Pyre chuckled. “Should we, GEO? Really?” she questioned the man. “We’ll never find her with an army on our tail!”

“If it is not us, it’ll be someone else. The Feds are but one threat. Every Glitcher in this country and beyond will want to retrieve the undefended spoil of a heist that only we could undertake. If they fail to see the signs, the desperation in the government will entice their curiosity. They will seek her,” said GEO as he rolled the pizzeria’s curtains open and faced the sky. Northern lights covered the heavens like a pallet of clouds. He finished his speech as he stared at the wonders reigning above the town:

“The hunt is on.”

The Northern Lights made their stage the skies of the American Midwest. The lights were visible from the forests of Manitoba to Tijuana.

Yet Edward, who had fallen asleep while waiting for Adela’s mother to leave the girl alone, slept near his window with both arms serving as pillows. He did not notice as a beacon of emerald light crawled through the gap in his window and basked his cheek. He felt an object pumping in his right hand. “W-What is this?” he faltered.

The boy opened his eyes and saw the Heart in a Vat between his fingers. “I-Is this a nightmare?” he asked himself.

A neon-like glow in his window robbed him of his attention. He rose his head and saw that his window reflected the purple light that his eyes emitted. Numbers hovered over his blurry reflection:

Thief Queen’s voice roamed Edward’s head as he faced the image in the glass.

“Am I…” She faltered. “Alive?”