𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐭☆

5 days ago | [YT] | 2

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐭☆

6 days ago | [YT] | 1

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐭☆

Before The Stars Wake
The clock on my nightstand clicked at 2:00 AM, and the air in my bedroom suddenly smelled like spun sugar and ozone. Outside my window, the empty alleyway began to glow with a soft, lavender neon light. The Midnight Market was open. My name is Nova Vancé, and I have spent the last three months watching my classmates slip into that glowing mist, trading away their heaviest pains for a pocketful of beautiful dreams. But tonight, as I saw Flynn Brookes standing under the street lamp, stubbornly refusing to step inside and give up his grief, I couldn't shake the feeling that the rest of the town was coming back with far less of themselves than they started with.The lunch bell rang, and the cafeteria filled with the mechanical rustle of lunch boxes opening. Everyone sat in perfect, quiet rows, eating with identical, plastic smiles. But not Flynn. He sat at the corner table, completely ignoring his food, his hand flying across his sketchbook. He was the only person in this entire school who felt genuine. In a town where everyone whispered to stay polite, Flynn was the only one who still laughed out loud—a real, booming sound that used to make people turn around.I swallowed my nervousness, walked over, and slid into the empty seat across from him. I didn't beat around the bush. "Flynn, do you notice something wrong with the students here?"He didn't look up from his drawing, but his pencil slowed down. "It's not just the students, Nova," he whispered, his voice low and tense. "I’ve been watching the staff. Teacher Linkton visits The Pendelton Café every single evening. He sits in the back corner and talks suspiciously to Mr. Pendelton. But two nights ago, I stayed late, hiding behind the bushes. After they finished talking, Mr. Pendelton looked around to check if anyone was watching. When he thought the coast was clear, he pulled out a strange, silver pocket watch. Right there, in the dim light of the café, he hypnotised Teacher Linkton."
A chill ran down my spine, and my breath hitched. Flynn's words didn't just scare me—they electrified me. It felt like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle clicking into place, almost completely solving the dark mystery behind my sister’s sudden disappearance last month.Before opening up to Flynn about what happened to her, I tilted my head down, my eyes falling onto his sketchbook.I expected a normal drawing, but the charcoal lines on the paper made my blood run cold. Flynn was sketching a portrait of Teacher Linkton. The likeness was terrifyingly accurate, but instead of drawing normal eyes, Flynn had shaded them into hollow, swirling pools. They looked disturbingly blank, staring off into nothingness, perfectly capturing the expression of someone trapped under a deep, mysterious hypnosis. Crawling up the teacher's neck in the drawing were faint, smoky lines like invisible puppet strings disappearing off the top of the page.
I swallowed hard, the name of my sister, Luna, resting heavy on the tip of my tongue. I was finally ready to tell him everything—to confess how she had changed before she vanished.But just as I opened my mouth to speak, Flynn caught me staring at the eerie drawing. He looked up, his dark eyes locking onto mine, softening the tense air between us. Instead of closing the notebook in embarrassment, he tapped the charcoal lines of the hypnotised teacher."Instead of going to a fake therapist like Mr. Pendelton to wipe away my problems," Flynn said, his voice dropping to a quiet, intense whisper that made my heart skip a beat, "I make sketches that contain truths. I call it my own version of art therapy. Pain isn't something to be erased, Nova. It's something to be drawn out until you can understand it."He slid the sketchbook a fraction of an inch closer to me, inviting me into his secret world. "The people in this town think Mr. Pendelton is curing them. But my sketches don't lie. He isn't fixing minds he's stealing them." Flynn stopped talking, the cafeteria noise around us seeming to fade into a distant hum. The distance between us shrunk as he leaned slightly across the table, his dark eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that made my breath catch in my throat. There was no hiding behind his sketchbook now. It was pure, unfiltered vulnerability."Nova," he said, his voice dropping so low it was almost a whisper, yet it vibrated with a desperate weight. "You and me... we are the only ones left. The only two people in this entire school who haven't gone to Mr. Pendelton to explain our problems."The air between us grew thick, charged with a sudden, quiet electricity. He reached out, his fingers hovering just an inch away from my hand on the table, as if he wanted to hold it but didn't want to scare me away."Please, Nova," Flynn pleaded, his eyes searching mine, bright with a fierce, protective fear. "Never, ever go to him. No matter how bad things get, promise me you won't let him touch your mind."Looking into his eyes, I realized this wasn't just about the mystery anymore. It was about us. We were two survivors holding onto our humanity in a room full of ghosts. I opened my mouth to give him my promise, the words practically melting on my tongue, but the universe didn't give me the chance.Riiiiiiing.The loud, mechanical scream of the lunch bell cut through the air, shattering the quiet sanctuary Flynn and I had built between us. Around us, the cafeteria instantly burst into motion. The students rose from their seats in eerie, perfect unison, packing away their lunch boxes with those same identical, smooth movements. The heavy, warm electricity that had just been buzzing between Flynn and me evaporated, replaced by a sudden, unnatural draft of cold air.Just as Flynn pulled his hand back, a shadow fell over our table.We both froze, looking up. Teacher Linkton was standing right there. He wasn't looking at us with anger or curiosity; his eyes were perfectly wide and unblinking, like glossed marbles reflecting the fluorescent lights. A soft, artificial smile was plastered onto his face. Without saying a word, he placed a small, lavender-colored business card on the center of Flynn's sketchbook. Written on it in elegant, looping silver ink were the words: The Pendelton Café Where All Your Cares Float Away. Teacher Linkton tapped the card once with a pale, stiff finger, turned around, and walked away into the crowd of students, leaving a faint scent of spun sugar behind him.

1 week ago | [YT] | 1