Stars in the Sky - Chapter One
The October night was cold and the sky was dark as Merlin glanced at the stars above. Shining out like diamonds the lights twinkled as he followed the familiar lines of the constellations. After everything that had happened, after everything that had changed, the night's sky was always the same. As a boy his mother had told him that the stars were signs that those who they loved were watching over them, keeping them safe. Gaius had taught him the names of the stars and their meanings but now as he sat there on a rickety bench, in a small garden on the 31st of October 2015, he couldn't help but feel as if it was all a bit pointless.
Here he sat with no aim or destiny in his life, all he was expected to do was wait until the time was right. But wait for what? He had been roaming the earth for many hundreds of years, educating himself on the latest knowledge to keep his mind occupied while he waited. Never making friends as he could never stay in one place for too long, not aging seemed to cause this effect. Inspecting the sky Merlin smiled sadly as he located the Sea Goat, Andromeda and the Phoenix, he could vaguely remember a time when he was surrounded by a forest and not a suburb of student housing. However his musings were cut short when the back door banged open and Sofia stuck her head out of the busy house.
"There you are!" she said to him.
"I''ve been looking everywhere for you, come inside and mingle" she chirped. Merlin glanced away from the sky to the girl, who was currently one of his housemates. He shook his head in reply hoping to be left alone but of course his request was ignored. Sofia stepped out of the house and instantly began to feel the cold wind bite.
"Ruddy hell what are you doing out here, it's flipping freezing" she chattered as she plopped herself down onto the bench next to him. She had placed herself very close to him and he coughed awkwardly as he tried to discreetly move away from the girl. Smirking at his nervousness she looked up into his face.
"I don't understand you" Sofia blurted out causing her face to go bright red. Merlin looked politely puzzled but returned his glaze to the sky above.
"You should go back to your Halloween party" he said after a moment as he lent back against the bench.
"What if I don't want t-" Sofia started to say before another voice interrupted her as Dion's lanky frame lent out of the back door and yelled "Sofia come quick its Jamey".
Sofia jerked away from Merlin and got to her feet while asking "what's he done now?"
"Who?" was Dion's reply, who was distracted as he looked from Merlin to Sofia, eyebrows drawn together in a frown.
"Jamey of course" Sofia huffed as she made her way into the house, shoving Dion back into the kitchen. Sofia turned to see if Merlin was following, but he wasn't. Why should he be she thought to herself? They hardly knew each other after all.
She went to close the back door behind her as she re-entered the house but when she got to the handle, she noticed that the back garden was unusually still and Merlin was not in sight, when he had only been there a second before. The small garden was completely and utterly empty.