A tall man clad in a black dress suit and seeming entirely out of place, and a teen, head dropping so low Kael questioned if he was even awake, walked side by side down the sidewalk. Kael did not know the man, but his high quality and stylish clothing certainly made him stand out among the party people. On his side was Jason. Clothed in a plain black hoodie and jeans that did not quite fit him.

They walked quickly, and without his enhanced eyesight or recall, he was sure he would have missed them entirely. They were walking with purpose, Jason, a step behind the unknown man, and only stayed in view for a few seconds before they vanished into the dark alleyway. Something about the encounter felt strange.

There was not one thing in particular that he could point to, but more an amalgamation of tiny little details. The lifeless walk, as if he was somnambulating, in such stark contrast to the purposeful strutting of the man leading the way. Instinct forged over many years on the street told Kael that this man was not to be underestimated. There was an aura of power surrounding him. It made others move out of his way as if by instinct.

His instincts were the only reason Kael did not obey his impulse to follow them and instead walked away. He still made a note of Jason's appearance out in the streets at such a late hour. Martin had mentioned a few times already that he had not appeared at school again. At first, they had believed him to be recovering, but with every passing day, the odds of that were dwindling. Now that he had seen him here, it was obvious that something else was going on.

What a rollercoaster of emotions this evening had turned out to be. First, he had cried in the arms of a high-ranking member of the local crime syndicate that also happened to be his... Friend? Was it really so easy to have friends? Had the concept just not been possible for him in the past? Then he saw someone that had tried to kill him, the sudo-encounter not developing how he would have imagined. Whatever it may be, his emotions were still in turmoil and would take a while to calm down. At least walking helped...

By the time he arrived back at his home, his phone showed him that it was already past two in the morning. His headache had vanished at some point, though he only noticed its absence now, the stimulus having masked it so far. Sitting down against the concrete wall, he looked up at the stars.

He knew nothing about them really. They were the light of long-dead planets or something like that if he remembered correctly. How does that even work? Are they all suns, or where does the light come from? And what does long-dead mean? How can they shine when they are dead?

Stars, along with many other things, had lost their mystique as he grew older. He still remembered sitting on the balcony with his mother on a night, not unlike this one. They had just returned from a day trip, and his father had already gone to bed. He had slept on the car drive and was thus not tired yet and sat down on their balcony, enjoying the cool of the night.

With some drinks in her hands, his mother had joined him soon after, and together they sat and looked up into the night sky. At the time, Kael was maybe 8 years old and already an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi stories. Pointing at one of the stars, he had asked his mother, "do you think there is something up on one of those stars looking up into the sky just like we are?“

She had tried to explain how not all stars he saw were actual planets and that they were so far away that once we saw the light, the planet would already be long gone. Meaning that if something was out there, it was somewhere in the black parts instead. The explanation that stars were remnants of dead planets had robbed his fascination of looking at the stars and wondering what might be out there. He could only accept what they were and make the best of it.

Now he had found a new meaning in the stars for himself. Just like monuments in parks or graves, they were a remnant of something majestic dying. A testament to their existence, proof that they had been. So he sat there, contemplating their life. Had something lived on them? Had they been suns, bestowing life to their fellow planets? Maybe they were dying or already long dead, but their legacy lived on.

He was getting pretty tired by now, and with his emotions still in flux, the rest of the night did not promise to be successful. So he did the only reasonable thing and tried anyway. The failure to even enter the state of meditation after half an hour still hurt, but he had expected to fail anyway. Finally giving up and calling it a day, he lay down and listened to the distant sounds of the party street. With the noise lulling him to sleep, his last thoughts before sleep took him, went to Andrea and Martin.