Count the Stars
Mathias. The word slithered across my mind, leaving imprints wherever it went. It tasted full on my tongue and was soft on my teeth.
I was sitting in the darkness, a soft glow coming from my body. I was sitting on what seemed to be solid, though I felt no ground. Looking around, I could tell the space in which I was in was massive and I saw no end. Though I did not see a beginning either.
Mathias. The word... The name... It echoed through my head several times, almost humming over and over like a word caught in the back of your throat. It was so familiar.
Soon the darkness around me became a screen, showing clips of my memory. Layers upon layers of screens on top of each other, playing different memories all at the same time. My watery blue eyes flicked from image to image, remembering the thoughts that I had kept hidden inside my personal black box.
And then.. They stopped. They had stopped as quickly as they had started. Returning the darkness into the emptiness that it once was. A sigh escaped my lips and I chose to lay on my back.
I stared into the darkness for a while, finding myself at peace before I heard a slow knocking. The knocking echoed against the nothingness and I sat up to look around, only to find a navy blue door. I got up and took strides to the door. The knocking only continued until I touched the doorknob.
When I touched the doorknob all noises stopped. Even the humming.
Slowly I turned the brass knob. Letting a slit of light into my darkness. When the door opened all the way I found a figure before me. The humming in my mind commenced and hummed an eerie sound... It.. It sounded like it was saying... Lukas.
Standing before was a man that I knew. The man who had uttered words such as a name, the cursed Mathias. Now the word Lukas was buzzing through my ears, as if meaning for me to tattoo him with this name.
"Mathias?" He mumbled in shock. In return I blinked and cocked my head, unable to find a reaction to my new addressment.
He took a step forward and I myself a step back.
I felt my body convulse into a shiver.
"Lukas-" I felt the words blurt from my lips. He blinked in shock and stood still for a moment.
Suddenly I felt everything around us crumble. The darkness began to slip away and I could not tell what was what anymore. What becomes of darkness and nothing when they deteriorate into nothing? That I could not tell you for even as I was in the moment, it still perplexed myself.
I was laying on something soft and... Scratchy. It smelled like something I had never smelled before. Almost as if it was crisp, clean and fresh. I sat up; taking notice of the sharp pain in my side.
"Mathias?" I heard his voice again. Oh god.
"Why do you keep calling me that?!" I asked in a hushed tone. I glanced around and noticed it was dark, and there seemed to be sleeping bodies laying on the ground around us. All snoring quietly and heaving their chests upwards with every breath. When my eyes had fully adjusted to the dark I saw a scene before me that was... Unimaginable.
There were long standing straight and tall figures coming out of the ground. They looked like poles with limbs hanging crookedly out of them. Attached to each limb was some sort of disfigured swatch of material, which I was unable to make out. The sight was terrifying.
"Relax," Lukas whispered quietly. I glanced at his figure, him slowly sitting up and looking t me.
Lukas. Even here the word plagued me.
I groaned in response while burying my face in my hands. He cautiously patted my shoulder before quickly pulling his hand back.
"Lukas?" I tested the word on my lips. "Were you in my head?"
He looked away for a moment, hiding his darkened expression away from me. I took this as my answer and laid back against the soft ground.
"What did you call me?" I heard him speak.
"Lukas, why?" I mumbled.
"Why are you calling me that?" He hissed.
"I dunno it just kind 'f came to me, why the hell are you calling me Mathias?" I grumbled.
"I keep having visions," He paused a few moments before finally answering my question. He slowly laid near myself and whispered quietly.
"About that name?" I turned to face him, knitting my eyebrows together.
"About all of your names," his facial expression turned into a blank one, leaving him unreadable.
"What do you mean all of ours? And if that's so then why do I know your name?!" My voice was becoming dangerously louder against the solid fresh air. I felt Lukas' pale hand give me a light warning smack before he himself answered my question.
"Who do you think I mean idiot, now quiet down or you'll wake everyone up," he hissed.
".. Well then how do I know your name?" I quieted my voice a few levels.
"I don't know, I was hoping you would be able to tell me," he sighed.
I merely shrugged before scooting a bit closer to him. Taking notice, he cocked a brow before scooting away, threatening to bump into his brother.
"What's your brother's name?" I asked curiously.
"I think it's Emil," he whispered thoughtfully.
"Emil," I nodded, drinking in the letters against my tongue. It seemed strange but then again mine and Lukas' name felt strange as well. "Well then what's the Intelligent's and the Childbarer's?" I chipped away at my curiosity.
"Berwald and Tino," he turned on his back and looked upward. My eyes followed his and I gasped at the sight.
Millions and billions of little lights lit up the lengthy ceiling that seemed to be never ending. Lukas heard my gasp and chuckled lightly.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" He murmured. I merely nodded, unable to form words.
They were so tiny and were just.. Everywhere. Speckling the sky and leaving it illuminated. My eyes traveled over them and I found myself unable to count the lumineering lights, for there were too many. Through these sources of light I found myself in amazement. What had created this sight and how we're they able to remain suspended up in mid air, without any cord or attachment. It was unexplainable.
"Count them with me," I whispered, not taking my eyes off of the sight.
"You idiot, there's too many," he chuckled quietly.
"I don't care," the words ghosted my lips and I began once more, trying to count the endless illuminations.
It wasn't before long that I found the figure laying next to me was fast asleep and was breathing slow heavy breaths.
"Lukas," I tasted his name on my lips once again before shutting my own eyes and falling into my own much needed sleep.
When I woke up I no longer found the sight that I had gone to sleep to, which disappointed me greatly. Though I did well to hide my disappointment.
Instead of the darkened ceiling of last night, we had awoken to a colorful blue colored with white cotton that moved slowly with the air that pushed our hairs out of our faces.
I took notice of the poles as well. The poles were a strange brown color and the swabs of fabric were all sorts of different colors of green and yellow.
I had never been exposed to so much color in my entire life and I was starting to get dizzy from overstimulation.
When Berwald had noticed that I had awoken, he immediately made his way over, examining the large bruise that was forming over my left kidney.
"I think they broke a couple ribs and did yer kidney some real damage.." He stumbled over his words as he examined closer, poking and prodding my skin and muscle. I winced at his touch and attempted to pull away when I found Tino's defiant hands forcing me down by my shoulders. I whimpered at him, which he replied with a violet glare.
Lukas and Emil seemed to find this hilarious however, much to my distaste. I shot them a glare in which Emil returned with sticking out his tongue. When Berwald finished examining my barely important injury, Emil found himself laying on his back with myself tickling him, making him squeal and yell on the top of his lungs.
"Children," Tino tsked behind us. I glanced back at him, making threatening tickling movements which he shot back with a disapproving glare.
"Oh come on, what's with this tough guy act?" I chuckled.
"I've always been tough!" His façade melted into pout. I rolled my eyes in return and chuckled at him.
"We need t' move on in case they come lookin' fer us," Berwald cut in.
Everyone eventually sighed and groaned in agreement. It didn't take us long to pack up our pathetic camp and make haste up to what Lukas called a mountain.
What strange words and sights we were discovering.
As the day grew onward a large orb moved higher in the sky, making the air around us warmer and warmer until it was becoming uncomfortable. On Heimlr everything was either a relatively comfortable temperature or drop dead cold. This newfound heat was strange.
As we traveled on we passed by bushes that held small berries, resembling some of the foods they offered for dinner and lunch sometimes, so we thought it was safe to try a few. Once we discovered they weren't poisonous, we packed as many as we could find and hold.
It was even more so strange in this new found nature. Above us there were these strange beings that flapped graceful arms and were able to swim against the air, and smaller little creepy creatures that crawled on the crisping ground below our feet.
Once again, I felt myself becoming more and more overstimulated.
As the day grew forward, the sky began turning all sorts of colors and temperatures. Blues mixed with purples flashed into oranges and reds that melted into yellows and greens. The colors grew cooler in temperature when the glowing orb disappeared from view. Though this night I found was different than the one previous. The darkened cotton balls had blanketed over the lights and prevented our wandering eyes from looking unto the heavens.
When we made camp I found myself laying next to Lukas for the third night in a row.
"Lukas you asleep?" I whispered. He merely grunted in reply, which I took as a no. I prodded him with my elbow.
He opened his eyes and glanced at me.
"What." He stated more than asked.
"Where are the lights?" I whispered in distress.
"What do you mean?" He yawned.
"Look," I pointed to the sky. "The lights have gone out,"
"They're just being covered up stupid," he grumbled, slipping his eyes shut once again.
"By what?" I asked.
"I don't know!" He spat angrily.
Lukas seemed more irritable though I was unsure why. I decided it was probably best to leave him alone for a while and let myself worry about my lights in silence.
The air was starting to become chilly.
Wetness. I woke to a wetness against my face and a clash of loud noise that vibrated against the ground we slept on.
I sat up and looked around. Droplets of water poured from the sky and fell onto our exposed bodies, soaking our clothes through and through. I quickly nudged Berwald and Lukas awake, trying to yell over the howling wind and pouring water. It didn't take much to wake them up and they seemed to be as discombobulated as I was.
We quickly packed up our belongings and tried to find refuge but found no such luck. The water only poured harder and harder, beating against our exposed bodies until it actually began to hurt.
Soon it was becoming harder to see rough the rush of water and the flash of terrifying lights.
Emil was becoming increasingly terrified and we had to stop every couple hundred meters or so before he could calm and collect himself once more so we could move onward to safety.
I was becoming more and more cold and found my body shivering. Water ran down our faces like tears and slid down past our throats, piercing every pore through.
After what seemed like hours we stumbled upon buildings that were supported against the mountains.
We began to sprint into our safe haven.
Once we found ourselves inside we were able to catch our breaths and sat down close to one another. It didn't take more than ten minutes before we all huddled together and tried to keep ourselves as warm as possible. We eventually fell asleep this way.
When we awoke it was the middle of the next day, and our bodies were still damp and cold. The tips of each other's noses and lips were a faint shade of blue and it didn't take long before we laid against the softened ground and basked in the warmth of the golden orb that hung in the middle of the sky.
"... What was that?" Emil spoke first.
"Who knows," I spoke with my eyes closed, taking in every drop of light I could.
"Terrifyin'," Berwald mumbled under his breath. Tino nodded in agreement.
The only person who refused to talk was Lukas, whose eyes remained fixed on the structure that had housed us the night prior.
"What are you thinking about Luke?" I nudged him.
He merely rolled his eyes at the nickname and shrugged. Tino saw this as an opening to press on.
"What is that doing in the middle of .. This?" The lilac eyed man glanced around our surroundings.
No one had an answer for him. Not even Lukas with a witty remark, or even Berwald with a sigh or grunt.
"Maybe we could live here," I added. Everyone looked up and stared. "I mean it's so far out of the way, I don't think they'd come looking for us out here and it can protect us from er.. The falling water. It could be like our little home!" I added wishfully.
"We have no home," Lukas stated bluntly before turning away from all of us. The entire mood shifting with him.
I frowned.
Welp and here is suddenly chapter four guys. My family has a missionary family who's going to Africa next week staying with us and I was hiding in my room so... I decided that instead of knitting a scarf I would write an update yes. Lucky ducks get one so soon!
Yeah this coming week is going to be busy so I'm not sure when the next update will be. I have a paper and a project due next week and two tests in German and one in math next week as well so... And the week after next week is finals week so it's going to be busy!
I'm also going to be going to California right after finals so... Who knows when I'll get Internet there, though I'm sure my uncle has Internet so... Yeah!
Also I hope it's finally a lot less confusing for you guys! I've named everyone finally so... Yeah! Tell me what you guys think I really really want to know .
Also next chapter I will introduce those two mysterious characters I was talking about last chapter ;) hope you liked this chapter!
