Fading away;
Into the light of day.
Morning is cold,
Muggy and gray.
Never let go;
Of this memory's glow.
Happiness falls,
Sends me deeper into sorrow.
Callista sighed, fiddling with the mismatched knobs on her radio. Static rang out and she decided to switch it off. Whilst gazing at the pale moon, she recollected upon the events of the day. It was pretty much the same as any other day; she had gotten up, eaten breakfast, gotten dressed, brushed her teeth and grabbed her lunch for work. Her feet dangled many feet over the ground as she sat on the small tin roof of her shack. What a lonely existence for a fifteen year old…. She thought. The wind blew, making her turquoise bangs float daintily past her face. They were long, much longer then the rest of her hair anyway.
The teenager looked at her fingers, calloused and arthritic from the endless work she put in at the steel mill. Callista wrinkled her nose a little, her green eyes squinting at a machine in the distance. She remembered once, telling her mother when she was young:
"I'll never fall in love, it's a waste of time and energy!"
Her opinion hadn't changed, even after her mother's death two years prior. In a way, it left her to her thoughts because, as alone as she was, she always, in some way, felt the warmth of her mother. She adjusted the aviator goggles on her head and looked back up at the moon.
Da da da da, da da da da….
"What the…." She muttered. The tinkling noise seemed to be coming from somewhere in the distance…Callista sat for a while, listening to the melodic tinkles from the distance. Is it…? Is it coming from the moon? She thought in utter disbelief. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the phaerie like noises. Yes! It is coming from the moon! Callista smiled and hopped off of the tiny roof. She ran, as fast as her legs could carry her, to the cliffs edge a few miles from her home. Her feet pounded the ground with such force, her ankles began to hurt. But it was a good hurt. It made her feel like almost as if she was flying to the cliffs edge, instead of just running. The cool night air made her thick green bangs fly behind her. It almost reminded her of a green flag, blowing through the wind on a cold night.
When Callista reached her destination, she gazed up at the moon, immersed in thought. Suddenly, she felt as if she had gotten a little less dense. As if the wind had picked her up and cradled her, like a mother would her child. A little like the cool breeze was trying to spite physics and its many laws, just to prove that legends could be real if you believed enough. Oh my god…. OH MY GOD! I'M FLOATING! OH GOD! Callista panicked and closed her eyes, hoping that it would be enough for her to pretend that this wasn't happening, that she was in bed, dreaming of the impossible. She felt a little naïve for trying to process her situation in that kind of mindset but, how else could she cope with the fact that she was floating? Callista was ascending a little too fast for her liking but, before she knew it, it had just…. Stopped…Callista felt her feet touch solid ground and she opened her eyes. "Where in the name of…." She muttered, looking around. The ground was a pale yellow… Like that of the moon… There were divots here and there. There were arches and buildings as well. It looked like a scene from a book read to school children.
Da da da da, da da da da…. Da da da da, da da da da….
The noise! She thought. She ran to where she heard it coming from. A young man came from one that resembled something that she'd once seen in a history book, from a place called ancient Greece….. The boy pulled a bubble of water from a fountain…. With his bare hands! And he placed a star inside. When he left to go back to his strange building, Callista followed him.
She saw the boy place the strange star with a cluster of others. He began to move his arms, gracefully but, with power. The stars made the noise again! Callista, forgetting about hiding, walked out and applauded the young man, giggling a little. The boy looked at her, almost startled for a minute.
"Who are you?" He asked. His voice sounded almost as beautiful as he looked. He was tall and thin, with dark blue hair that fell to his shoulders. He wore a suit, a little lighter then his hair. It looked soft… Almost like the fabric of a dress her mother used to have… He was pale. His nose was long and his slender lips were a pale pink colour. The boy gazed at her with a strange look in his eyes.
"I'm…. I'm Callista…. Callista Porter…." The girl stammered shyly. "But, who are you? And where are we?" the boy looked bewildered for a few seconds.
"I'm William….. And we're on the moon…. My question is; where are you from?" His brow was furrowed in curiosity with his head tilted to the right a little. Callista thought it was sort of… well, it was kind of cute. She blushed a little at the thought, after all, she had just met the boy.
"The what? That's impossible! We are not standing on the moon! This has to be a dream!" Callista exclaimed in disbelief. That's ridiculous! The green haired girl thought to herself incredulously. "And I'm from a town called Fallenvale… It's in the eleventh squadron….. " she added. She pushed hair from her face and looked around, just beginning to notice the breath taking beauty of… Well, wherever it was that she had managed to sneak her way into….
"So… Earth…." The boy mused, ignoring her comment about the moon. "Whatever did happen down there? It doesn't seem nearly as… Lively as it used to be…" He sighed, his delicate features arranging themselves into a delicate frown.
"Armageddon…" Callista mumbled. Her features hardened, her eyes looking a tad dull, compared to the way that they usually sparkled. She didn't like talking about what happened. She remembered very few things from the time before the giants but, what she did remember was more valuable then a month's salary from the steel mill in her eyes….
"Ah…" William nodded his head.
"What was it that you were playing?" Callista asked, gesturing towards his stars.
"Something that I wrote a while ago, would you like to hear it?" He asked, grinning a little. Callista felt her face turn red. She nodded.
"Sure…" The green haired girl smiled at William encouragingly. The boy pulled his arms up and looked almost like a bird… His movements were graceful and almost as beautiful as the sound coming from his stars.
Da da da da…. Da da da da….. Da da da da da da.. La la….
The song played, caressing her eardrums with pleasant fairy like tinkles. Suddenly, Callista wanted to try and make that noise. For the nest few parts of the song, she watched Williams arms. When he had stopped, she went over the movements in her head and flowed them as best she could. Suddenly, a higher pitched tinkling resounded throughout the little pavilion. William smiled and looked at her in disbelief. He started waving his arms in a different way, to join the green haired girl.
Together, for at least an hour, they played their song.
"You're good at this…" Williams's soft voice interrupted the melodic waves of the song. Callista blushed, her face turning a deep red.
"Uh… Thanks.. You are too…." The girl was at a loss of words, having been lost in William's perfectly symmetrical smile. He suddenly grabbed her, his right arm around her waist and his left hand intertwined in hers.
"Would you care to dance?" he asked. Callista's face must have been the colour of a cherry by then because she saw William grin.
"I uh… I don't think I know how too…." She confessed. William looked at her, his eyes surveying the embarrassed grin on her face.
"There's always time to learn…." The blue haired boy sang. He placed her right hand on his shoulders and told her to stand on his feet. Once he had shown her the steps, they were moving like clockwork. "See? You're not too bad at this… Are you sure you didn't know how to dance?" he laughed.
"Absolutely positive." Callista giggled.
Suddenly, it seemed as if the ground was melting out from under her…. Shadows had wrapped her in complete darkness, the only solace she had was feeling herself in William's arms.
"What's happening!?" Callista asked in a panic. No answer. She wasn't even sure if he had felt William next to her anymore… "William!" She yelled. The inky black density of the shadows let up a little, only to show that William's and her hands were barely even touching. "NO!" She yelled. William gazed at her, trying to hold on. The force of the shadows pulled them farther apart, forcing William to let go of her hand.
"I love you!" he called. Callista felt tears well up in her eyes.
She was suddenly back on the cold tin roof of her small home, the fiery red glow slowly creeping up in the sky. She caught a last glimpse of the moon before she couldn't stand it anymore. She felt a warming presence in front of her. Callista looked, only to see one of their stars, playing their song in front of her.
"We… We really were on the moon…." She mumbled…. Callista gazed back up at the pale yellow crescent and smiled feebly. "I… I love you too…."
Looks like love isn't a waste after all….