Del:

Del was in a melancholy sort of mood. He had spent the day visiting the west wing and the experience usually left him exhausted and reflective. He was headed back to his room when the distraction of the fresh night air drew him into contemplation of the night sky.

That’s where Myra found him hours later.

“Where have you been all day, Del?” she asked. Myra was an old classmate of Del’s. They two of them graduated their studies the same year and had been assigned to the same compound ever since. Her pale, perfect skin was delicately flushed from the brisk breeze blowing through the open window Del was sitting at.

“The west wing,” he answered, not looking away from the stars. Like most people at the compound, Myra didn’t pry as to the details. The west wing was talked about in hushed whispers or not at all. Myra climbed up beside Del on the window sill he perched on. She folded her long legs beneath her and fixed her blue doll eyes on Del’s hunched figure.

They were silent for a long while.

“Do you ever wish we were children again?” Del asked. Myra’s mind flittered back to her childhood years; her too long legs, the constant rush of emotions, the confusing adjustments.

“No,” she said with a vehement shake of her head. Her short waves bounced around her ears and stuck to the gloss coating her lips. She flicked the dark strands away impatiently.

Del gave her a sideways glance. He got a brief impression of her thoughts and suppressed the urge to sigh his frustration. That wasn’t what he meant.

“Everything looked so different when we were younger,” he explained, returning his gaze to the sky.

“What do you mean?” Myra looked up at the sky, trying to discern what Del was seeing. The stars, the moon, the dark voids in between. There was nothing strange about the way the stars hung tonight.

“Don’t you think the sky looks flat now?” said Del. As a child, they sky always seem endlessly complex; a mosaic of infinite depth and layered beauty. But now... “The moon looks sort of … hollow.”

“Del?” Myra’s voice was low and worried. She reached out her hand, palm down as if she were approaching a scared animal. He flinched away from her touch and her concern.

He sighed. The concrete walls and no-nonsense offices of the Caul compound were no place for such contemplations. He forced such thoughts from his mind and gave Myra a rueful smile.

“Where are you coming from?” he asked her, changing the subject. This part of the building wasn’t her usual haunt; her rooms were in the opposite wing. Myra’s full lips split into a grin, all thoughts of Del’s strange reflection forgotten.

“I have just been given a new assignment,” she explained. That made sense, most of the offices and conference rooms were on this level. “There have been reports of a wild talent operating out of London, I’ve been sent on a recruitment mission.”

“I thought I was assigned to that mission.”

Myra shook her head, her wavy bob dancing about her ears. “These are new reports,” she explained. “I’m investigating a much younger talent, probably just coming into their abilities.” Del uncrossed his legs and turned to face Myra, the night sky completely forgotten with this new revelation.

“Two wild talents at once?,” he said. “It’s unheard of. How have we managed to misplace so many of our own at once?”

Myra leaned closer conspiratorially, her perfume brushing against his skin and crawling down his throat.

“Reports of wild talents have been on the rise for years,” she whispered, her face turning deadly serious. “They say it is because of people deserting.”

Outside the protection of the compounds, survival the Real World would be almost impossible. It was not unbelievable that deserters would leave orphans behind. There was one problem with that line of reasoning though.

“I’ve never heard of someone deserting the Caul,” Del said. Myra unfolded herself from her perch and jumped athletically down to the floor.

“I’ve never heard of two wild talents in the same year,” she pointed out with a shrug and a smirk.

Leaving Del to his thoughts, she disappeared down the hall with a farewell flutter of her fingers and a soft smile.

I thought I would give you guys an extra upload, considering the last one was so short.

Well, now you know why it's called Hollow Moon ;)