The Fallen Star

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“There,” he said, and my head was freed from the uncomfortable position it had been stuck in.

I’d been holding my breath the whole time, and I let it out, a white puff of smoke rising in front of my face. I quickly scooted out of the way so Alex could slip underneath the branch and let it go.

He dusted the snow off of his hands while I smoothed my now damp hair back in-to place. Well, as much in place as it had been to begin with.

Alex watched me, seeming amused. “You good?”

I zipped up my coat and tucked my hands in the pockets. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Alright then.” He brushed past me and headed down the trail again.

With every step I took, my heart beat fiercer. We were distancing ourselves farther and farther from the car, and the trees were becoming denser. For all I knew, any spot 130/695

could have been “the spot.” The spot where I kept dying over and over again in my nightmares. It was hard to tell, though, because a forest was a forest. Everything looked the same. And in my nightmares, my death took place during the night, when the sky was black and the ground was a giant shadow.

I’d never been in a forest in real-life before. At least not that I could remember. I was quickly learning that, despite the still-ness the air held, there was a lot of chaos.

Yeah, I know, the two are a huge contradic-tion. What I meant by it was, even though everything seemed calm, I could almost feel the things hiding out in the bushes and trees that surrounded us. Things that I wasn’t sure I really wanted to see.

Every time the wind blew, I swear it was whispering danger. The branches of the trees canopied above me, making it seem darker than it truly was. And then there was Alex. Amazingly, he’d been fairly quiet. Too 131/695

quiet if you ask me. Maybe he was being that way because of the electricity firing between us. I couldn’t be certain how much of an affect it was having on him, but personally, I felt fully awake and alive because of it. Every single one of my senses felt sharp. My skin was tingling from head to toe, which helped fade-out some of the cold, so hey, I guess that was a plus.

As I was plucking a piece of a dead pine needle out of my hair, I heard a branch snap from behind me. I skidded to a halt and spun around, my gaze skimming through trees.

But I couldn’t see anything but branches and snow. I was about to turn back around when a huge gust of wind whipped through the air.

I heard another snap, this time much, much closer. Okay. Okay. It is just an animal…a deer or something.

Yeah, maybe it was some kind of forest animal, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. I whirled back around and hurried 132/695

to catch up with Alex, who hadn’t appeared to have notice I’d fallen behind.

As I tried to catch my breath and calm down, I heard it. Not a snapping twig. No, this sound was way worse. A crackle, like the one I’d heard in the school parking lot the day I’d first seen the glowing yellow eyes.

Fear rocketed through me. I had no idea what to do. Turn and sprint back to the car?

Try and explain what was happening to Alex? Neither sounded appealing.

My heart drummed in my chest as I shot a glance over my shoulder. Only trees and snow. I turned back around, only to end up slamming straight into Alex. My forehead banged against his shoulder, and a fire ignited under my skin. I gasped, backing away from him.

Holding his hands out in front of him, he cautiously stepped away from me. “You okay?”

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I nodded, rubbing my forehead. “Sorry. I wasn’t watching were I was going.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He nodded at the trees behind me. “What were you looking at back there?”

“Nothing.” My voice squeaked a little. “I just thought I heard something, but it was nothing.”

He eyed me over carefully, then apparently satisfied by my answer, spread his hands out to the side of him. “Well, this is it.”

“Huh?” I stared at him blankly. “This is what?”

“This is what I wanted to show you.” Fu

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He laughed a genuine, heartfelt laugh.

The kind of laugh that made his green eyes light up. “Gemma, this right here,” he pointed to a spot on the ground in front of him,

“is what I wanted to show you.” For a brief second, I got lost in the way he’d said my name in a normal, anti-hating voice. But I quickly forgot all about it when I caught a glimpse of what he was pointing at.

In the middle the crisp white snow, right between our feet, a small spot of dirt showed through like the snow had instantaneously melted away after it had landed there. And the dirt wasn’t brown, but black and ashy.

I looked back up and found Alex watching me with curious eyes.

“What?” I asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He shrugged. “No reason.” I shook my head. Whatever. “So what is it,” I asked, pointing at the ashy spot.

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“Well…” He tapped his finger on his lips.

“See, there’s this legend that about twenty years ago, a star had fallen from the sky and landed right here.” He pointed to the strange spot. “And I’m not just talking about a met-eorite, but an actual star.” I frowned. He was joking. He had to be.

“If a real star hit the Earth then you and I wouldn’t be standing here, talking.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” he said simply. “It wasn’t a whole star that fell, but a small piece that broke loose when the star began to spin too quickly. And when the piece hit this spot, the snow has never been able to stay here. It’s like the heat of the star is still trapped there, and it melts the snow away.”

“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” I told him. “Are you sure you’re not just trying to…”

“Trying to what?”

I sighed. “Pull one over on me.” 136/695

He gri

I rolled my eyes. “I think the real question is why wouldn’t you do something like that?”

He deliberated this. “Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. But I’m not.” We both stood there for a moment, staring at one another, my blood boiling from the electric heat.

“So if this actually did happen, then why haven’t I heard of it before?” I asked, breaking the silence.

“Because hardly anyone knows about it.” He paused, before adding, “Even some me-diocre high school astronomy teacher.”

“Mr. Sterling isn’t that bad,” I said. “And he knows a lot about astronomy.” He lifted an eyebrow. “He isn’t that bad?

Wasn’t he was the one who put you and I together in a group?”

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That stung. “Yeah…but…” I had no idea what to say.

“Relax.” He cracked a smile. “I’m just kidding.”

I tucked my hands up into the sleeves of my coat. “Kidding about the star or Mr.

Sterling?”

His smile broadened. “Mr. Sterling.” As much as I was glad to hear that, I still wasn’t feeling too ecstatic about the idea that he was still trying to convince me that an actual piece of a star had fallen. The idea was absurd. A real piece of a star—I’d never heard of anything so insane. Okay, I take that back. I guess I had.

But still…

“So, why is it that people don’t know about this fallen star?” I asked, making air quotes.

“Well, for starters, the piece was only about the size of a baseball.” He hesitated, shifting his weight to the side. “And …well 138/695

supposedly, there was this secret group who came and collected it before anyone could discover it had fallen.”

I stared at him like he was crazy. And, who knew, maybe he was.

“You think I’m lying.” He crossed his arms and leaned in toward me. My heart reacted with a jolt that nearly knocked the breath out of me. “But I’m not.” I had to catch my breath before I spoke.