2 Chapter 1) Ghost Boy.

Xavier was on the way to the city library, minding his business and trying to appear smaller than he already was as he walked along the side of the street. But of course, he wasn't so lucky to avoid what he was trying to avoid.

The street that had been empty a few minutes ago now had boys and girls in various groups hanging around under the trees, on the front balconies, everywhere. Even curios adults where peering through their windows to watch him pass by.

Then the loud whispers and muttering started. Loud because they were meant for him to hear.

"Sshhh, Ghost boy is passing."

"Are we sure he's even human? I mean...look at him!"

"Ghost boy finally came out of his little dungeon!"

"Boy, I can't wait to see him melt under the sun."

"If I looked like that I would lock myself inside for life!"

"The poor boy won't achieve anything with that kind of face."

Xavier hunched his shoulders, clutched tightly to the straps of his backpack and continued walking as fast as his feet could carry him.

He should be used to the whispers that followed him about by now. It happened whenever he ventured out of the house. Had been that way since he could remember.

But it still worked up his stomach and set off pangs in his heart every time. They were always so mean to him because he looked different. Extremely different. Right from the very start, that little detail about him wasn't comfortable for anyone.

The day he was born, a nurse had taken one look at him and ran out of the theatre screaming for her life. Another, the bravest of them all, had decided to take a picture of him to post on her Weta timeline. The picture was shared and reposted by millions all over the planet. The news networks had never been so excited. They tagged him as 'Ghost Boy'. The first of his kind that Planet Lazuli had ever seen. Even now, almost fifteen years later, there was still fresh buzz and theories about him worldwide.

To think it wasn't his fault at all. He never chose to look this way...this strange. But no one cared about that. They all wanted to taunt and mock him.

Xavier held in the tears tingling the lids of his eyes and continued on without a backwards glance. He also wasn't looking where he was going.

Smack! He collided with something solid and strong, and bounced off to the ground.

Resisting the urge to moan from the pain flaring over his backside, he looked up and continued lifting his eyes higher before he found a face. A square face purple and throbbing with fury.

"Do you ever watch where you're going or have your crazy eyes gone dead at last?" spat the near six feet tall, broad and brawny boy in front of him. Every one in the neighborhood called him Bruiser for viable reason. He had a few broken teeth, shattered bones, weeping kids and traumatized teenagers under his belt already. Bruiser...ok.

Not wanting to cause any more trouble than he could handle, Xavier stood up with his head held down and turned around. He could do without a book to read for one evening. It would be boring but at least he won't be nursing a broken body part.

But no. No easy escape for him where Bruiser was involved.

He felt his feet leave the ground almost at the same time when he felt a heavy weight on his backpack.

Bruiser had lifted him cleanly off the ground without any effort at all. This was totally possible since Xavier was nothing above 5'5 feet tall and weighed exactly 50 kg. Bruiser was easily three times that in bone and muscle.

"Were you just going to walk away?" He barked.

Xavier kept silent mostly because he didn't know what to say.

Bruiser shook him like clothes on a hanger. "I'm talking to you, freaky midget."

"Sorry." muttered Xavier, humiliation and fear creeping up his face and choking his throat.

Bruiser sort of snarled. "Sorry?" He flung Xavier to the ground and loomed over him. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood today or I would've twisted your neck!" He kicked Xavier in the stomach for good measure before bounding away.

Coughing in pain and straining to catch his breath, Xavier slowly lifted himself from the ground. The impact had been painful. Everywhere hurt, and blood trickled down his nose.

He looked around. Most of the watchers had disappeared to prevent Bruiser from choosing them as his next target, but some remained. Mostly the adults. But no one was running over to check on him. None of them had even thought to call out Bruiser for his bullying.

That was the way things had always been for Xavier. No one gave a care what happened to him. They were scared to even touch him for fears of catching whatever it was he had.

He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the blood off his face. Not feeling like doing books anymore, he took a different route. This one led him to the stop where he could board a street train.

He didn't have to wait long before one honked to a stop in front of him. The train, like every other vehicle in the city, was AI controlled, so there was no driver. He simply had to swipe his Coin card through a slot on the front panel and obey a singsong voice to find his seat.

Xavier was wearing a big black hoodie over fitting black trousers. He had on gloves and sneakers. The hoodie was pulled up to cover his hair. If he could manage a mask he would've used it to cover his face. Shaded glasses for his eyes, too. Anything to prevent the constant staring and pointing.

But he knew deep down that all that would still not be enough. He would forever be the freak boy with pale, almost transparent skin, snowy white hair and vivid pink eyes. Lazuli had never seen anything like him before. And no one failed to show that fact the moment they saw him.

It wasn't long before the train reached his stop. After that it was a brief walk before he arrived in front of the city hospital, a rounded cluster of skyscrapers connected by glass breezeways and underground tunnels.

Since he was a regular visitor here, he didn't need to go through the regular check in process. He only had to be scanned by the hanging robots in the lobby before heading straight for the elevators.

Xavier got to room 55 just as a nurse was exiting. Her iPad dropped to the floor as she stepped back in shock at the sight of him.

"Oh... it's just you." She appeared relieved but didn't get any closer.

"Sorry, Lacy." said Xavier, bending down to pick the gadget up. He was more amused than hurt. He came here almost every day but still the nurses still managed not to disappoint in their fear of him.

She shook her head and tried to smile as if it was nothing. "Don't mind me. Just having a...a surprising day."

"Here you go." He presented the iPad to her. The screen had endured the fall without a scratch.

"Oh..." She considered it in confusion.

Xavier kindly placed it on the seat beside the door. "Is she doing ok?"

"Yeah." Nurse Lacy nodded. "She just drifted off into sleep but you can go in to say a quick hello if you want."

"That will be nice, thank you."

Not wanting to cause her anymore discomfort, he moved back a good number of steps to give her room to pass.

She gave him a brief look before hurrying out, her device forgotten.

Xavier smiled despite that and went in to the room to be with the one person in the world who loved him and didn't find him strange at all. His mother.

She was a little more than skin and bone on the bed, tucked under a fluffy duvet. He had watched his beautiful mother fade away gradually for three years now, ever since her blood condition started.

He never failed to hope that the doctors conducting research on her strange case would finally get a breakthrough. She, along with about fifty other people suffering from the same sickness around the planet, was kept on life support and injected with new text drugs and programs almost every month.

He didn't know how long he sat there with her hand in his own, but by the time he left the hospital the first moon, Camri, was already out, it's ice blue colour causing the evening sky to glow. Much deeper into the night, white and glorious Venza would come out to join it.

With his mother in the hospital, Xavier had been forced to move in with her older sister, her mostly absent husband and her seven sons. Yes, seven sons born on the same day. Xavier too had been shocked when they returned home with a street train load of baby baskets and items. This explained why the noise of shouting, banging and crying reached him before he even got within sighting distance of the house.

He pushed the front door quietly, slithered in and closed it without making any sound. He just started softly up the stairs when he heard the thundering of many tiny pairs of feet coming down to meet him. He only had time to take in a deep breath before they were all over him. All seven of them in multicolored onesies crawling up his legs, jumping into his arms...entering his eyes...a tiny finger was in his nose...someone grabbed his tongue...

But he was laughing. Though He couldn't tell the difference between any one of them, he loved his cousins. They were still two years old and didn't know how different he was. Around them he was just one of their many toys, the one big enough to climb.

"Hey guys. Missed me so much already?" Spit dropped into his mouth from the boy on his head. He smiled. "That should be a yes. Come on now, let's play catch the ball in the playroom!"

Two hours later, he trudged up to his room tired and warn. But his cheeks were red from laughing too hard and skin sticky from the sweat of chasing seven hyper toddlers all over the place.

Xavier fell into his bed, looking up at the ceiling. Tomorrow he would turn fifteen. Since his home teacher had an important appointment, Xavier would have the entire day free. He planned to spend it at the hospital with his mother as was his tradition. He wouldn't have it any other way.

Sleep easily took over his body and he drifted off.

Outside, the two moons Camri and Venza shone brightly over the city. But there was something else in the sky. Another moon. This one was a lot smaller than the others but was pitch black, as if someone had dug a hole into the sky.

At exactly the stroke of midnight, the dark moon grew larger and larger until the others where in it's shadow.

Something very wrong had just awakened on Planet Lazuli. Xavier alone would find out about it in the morning.