The "stars" turned out not to be stars at all.

Fei Hong stared up at the dome above them, where the darkness that was supposed to stimulate the night sky stretched above her head, giving her the illusion that it spanned further than the eye could see. Fibreglass shards glinted through the canopy, piercing through the darkness with an incandescence that could only be described as overwhelmingly bright. Their sharp, unnatural colours glinted in every corner of Fei Hong's vision until her eyes began to strain from just looking at them. Each of them was perfect copies of each other; glittering in unison with an unnatural gleam to them. She sat, leaning back with her hands behind her, feeling waves of disappointment tug at her chest.

These weren't the stars she'd loved. 

Earth's stars were faint; they had a faint, silver tint, and they looked like they were the distant, glittering sparks from angel fire—barely noticeable until you tilted your head to look up at them. Her father had teased her once, many blissful summers ago, for loving the stars so much. "A head full of stars," he'd called her. But his stony grey eyes had softened too, when he gazed up at those lights with her. 

Feeling suddenly sick to her stomach, Fei Hong shifted slowly away from Marice and Elora, who paid her no attention, their eyes darting hungrily from one star to the next. Half stumbling, half crawling, Fei Hong made her way to the door, pushing it open and slipping out as quietly as she could.

The doors led to a terrace balcony, overlooking the city sprawled underneath her feet. She tilted her head back, drinking in the cool night air that kissed her skin and rifled her hair. Sighing, she leaned on the balcony bannister, feeling the familiar tug of longing in her chest...

And that was when she caught the first glimpse of him.

He stood, in a small balcony a few meters away from her. Light poured from the doorway behind him, and the sound of vigorous music drifted to her ears, but he paid them no heed. He moved with lethal grace, more dancer than warrior as he leaned against the glass walls of the hub. His tall, lanky figure was silhouetted against the pale beam of moonlight.

A stranger. But there was something captivating about the way he moved-- something that pulled at her.

His face was turned upwards to the sky, his lips moving silently, murmuring words she couldn't make out. For a fleeting moment, she caught a shadow of wistfulness gracing his features; it was a familiar expression that she knew--an expression that she saw etched on her own face each day when she caught her reflection of the mirror. But while she always tried to cover up and push away those emotions, he wore his plainly like one would wear a crown.

And then, almost as if he felt her gaze on him, he turned his head abruptly. His grey eyes meeting hers.

Eyes widening, he took a step back, almost stumbling in the process. He opened his mouth. Closed it again. And then mouthed one silent word through the darkness.

Run.

Fei Hong blinked, surprised. She narrowed her eyes, bewildered as she took a step back. Run? What was there to run away fr-

And that was when a blood-curdling scream cut through the night air; tearing through Fei Hong like a shard of icy glass. It sounded like a scream of wild panic, an inhuman sound that chilled her to the bones. A scream of hysteria and disbelief, bordering on terror.

It took her a second to realize whose voice it was, but as soon as she did, she felt her blood run cold.

It was Elora.