1 The Day the Stars Aligned - 0
"Dawn! Look at the stars! They're so pretty tonight!"
A young teenage girl could be seen staring into the night sky, wonder and amazement apparent in the shine on her eyes.
"And how would I do that Raea? I'm blind, remember?" Asked a girly voice sarcastically.
But, if one looked closely at the "girl" that had spoken, they would have soon realized that it was actually a boy, and that "he" had perpetually closed eyes.
Aside from this, the most noticeable characteristic of the teenage boy was his timeless beauty, one that many girls would have killed for.
His flawless jade-like skin and white hair that was the color of freshly fallen snow would have already made him an exquisite specimen in the eyes of many people. His pointy nose, long eyelashes, and the sharp contours of his raised cheekbones could only slightly heighten his beauty, but this was enough to push him to the cusp of the ideal.
But, the reason why nobody dared approach him was all due to one of his features.
His eyes, forever closed, in turn, closed the hearts of most around him.
This, combined with his unusual hair color, led many to believe that he was the product of an unfortunate accident.
And, he was.
At the age of 5, his world had been ripped away from him, in more ways than one.
Lost in the darkness of his misery and ennui, with nothing but himself, he couldn't help but grab on tightly to a dazzling star that had come by and swept him away.
And, little by little, he regained back some of his light.
After some time, with his jade skin, snowy hair, and kind temperament, no one could have imagined that there was still a lingering darkness in his heart.
All except for one being, the star that had saved him.
She continued to stay by his side, hoping to cure him completely one day.
And when he left, she was the one that searched to the ends of the Earth, all in the name of finding him.
But, during this time, he learned to embrace the parts of the abyss in his heart.
So, when they finally found each other again, instead of clutching onto each other like in the past, they sparked as soon as they touched, like flint and steel.
But that was a story for another time.
Back to the moment, the teenage girl was in the process of describing the starry sky to the blind boy.
"There's a bright star on the right, a bright star on the left, and a bright star in the middle, wait, there are bright stars everywhere!" She yelled out cheerfully.
"Raea, you know that doesn't help at all right?"
The young teenage girl tried to punch the shoulder of the young teenage boy, but, miraculously, the boy was able to dodge at the last second.
But, even though she missed her punch, the girl still smiled brightly and said, "Of course I do, you dummy!"
She then felled herself onto the boy, not allowing him to escape from her grasp.
They tussled for a while, before the girl came out victorious, her left hand in a chokehold around the boy's neck while her right hand started to knead the heck out of the boy's head, messing up his immaculate hair.
"R-R-Raea! S-stop!"
Hearing the pleading in the boy's voice, the girl could only comply and remove herself from him, but not before using one final attack against the boy.
Needless to say, the boy's hair was now unrecognizable.
As the boy took the time to fix his hair, the young girl looked back at the stars, her legs swinging under the ledge they were sitting on.
Noticing out of the corner of her vision that the boy had finished, the girl proceeded to say,
"In full seriousness, the night sky today… its beauty is akin to that of… Well, for you, imagine that the darkness that you are always staring into, was somehow pierced through by a plethora of different-sized holes, all of them no bigger than a tenth of a centimeter."
"The holes are all shining with a unique degree of brightness, and many are colors other than white. Can you "see" all of this so far?"
The only response from the boy was the soft touch of his hand on the girl's, urging her to continue as he "stared" deeply into the night sky.
"Then, imagine all of that on the backdrop of a color that is not completely black, but is almost a deep shade of purple in color. That should be the image of the night sky today."
The young girl let the young boy revel in his thoughts and imagination for another second, before flipping her palm around and intertwining her finger with that of the boy's, whose hand had been laying on the girl's since before.
As she did this, both of them never reacted, as if nothing had happened at all!
Of course, this was due to the fact that they had held hands many times before, and this was just another close moment between a pair of friends.
Both of them stared back up at the stars, the young boy having to imagine them whilst the young girl witnessed them in their full glory.
After a while, the young girl rested her head on the young boy's shoulder, and the young boy rested his head on the girl's.
Our point of view switches to their backs, where we can only see the silhouettes of the two teenagers, connected together, before we are zoomed out through the forest behind them. There is a sudden 90 degree shift in our vision, pushing us into the sky so that we are looking down at the ground, our point of view continuing to zoom out. Our vision finally turns black when the two children completely disappear from our view, and we are able to see the lights of the cities on the planet, Arteh.
This was the end of the scene.
And two months later, the boy would disappear from the face of the planet.
...
"Ding a ling!"
The door of a coffee shop opened as a brunette young adult walked in.
Looking up from the counter, the man behind the register asked,
"Just the usual, Astraea?"
"Yeah, but make it 3 this time."
The brunette calmly waited and as soon as the 3 cups of coffee were in her hand, she left.
The brunette hurriedly walked 5 blocks over, before arriving in front of a building with the name, "Arcshire Police Department" on the front of it.
Entering the familiar setting, the young adult navigated through the mess of people, paper, and desks before reaching a certain office.
Entering, she placed one of the cups of coffee on the desk in the office, before leaving without even greeting the man behind the desk.
Moving on, she once again slithered through the mess of people, before arriving in front of a certain desk in the central area.
Placing the second cup of coffee down, the brunette then waited patiently as the woman behind the desk continued to studiously inspect a pile of papers.
After some time, the woman looked up from her desk.
Setting the pile of papers aside, she quickly grabbed the cup of coffee before gulping it down in one sitting.
Although, most would be surprised by the ferocity at which the woman drank the coffee, the young adult just sat there in front of the desk, reading her own pile of papers.
After finishing her coffee, the woman threw the empty cup into the trashcan, where another empty cup already was.
"Oh, so you finished faster than me?"
"You were so absorbed in your work that I decided to just finish the other pile."
You see, the system that the two women had built with each other after their many years of cooperation was that, whenever one of them finished, they would drink all of their coffee in one sitting, signaling that they were done, while also helping with their tiredness, apparent by the dark circles under both of their eyes.
"So, anything new?"
"No, the "Hatter", once again, left no clues at the scene. All that was found was his trademark black feather and a hole in the glass box, with no diamond in it."
"What's the count now?"
"176, 176 items have been stolen since the "Hatter" made his debut 2 years ago."
"Sigh..." The older woman, out of pure defeat, sighed whilst rubbing her already red temples.
"He hasn't sent another teaser yet, right?"
"No, but we've figured out something..."
"What is it?!" The woman yelled hurriedly, before shrinking under the harsh gazes of her peers.
The younger woman waited until the chaos resumed, before revealing the information.
"It seems like the "Hatter" goes to "National University"."
"And how'd you figure this out?"
"His hat, or more specifically, the speck of dirt that was on his hat, which lodged itself in the wound he made on me during our last confrontation, which was 3 heists ago. The results just came in from the lab, and they say that the dirt definitely came from the grounds of "National University"."
"Then you know what you need to do, right? If I'm correct, then you should be in the perfect position to investigate."
"Yes." Said the younger woman, simply.
The young woman got up, put on her cloak that had been hanging on her chair, before leaving the police station.
Arriving at the train station, she boarded a train headed towards "National University".
After getting off, the young woman was faced with a crowd of many other young adults, all aspiring to become the best in their fields.
As the bus left, and our point of view was unblocked, we can see that the young adult is standing under an arch with a banner stretched across it.
It reads, "Admission Exam of Class 27".
The young woman passes under the arch.
...
An Hour Earlier:
A young man with snow white hair held up a blue diamond to a light in a dimly lit apartment in a not-so-good neighborhood in Arcshire.
And, although he couldn't see it, the young man still tried to visualize the glint of the light refracting off the diamond in his mind.
Burning the beautiful image into his head, he finally put the diamond down before getting onto a computer and logging onto the online black market.
He put the diamond up for sale, and then closed the laptop. He proceeded to secure the diamond in a secret compartment, before walking out of the room.
He stood there in the living room for a while, contemplating, before grabbing a black bowler off his hat rack. He put it on, adjusted it, and then left the apartment.
Walking a few blocks to a train station, the youth got on a train headed towards "National University".
"Pshhh..."
The doors closed, and the youth was off.
...
"Pshhh..."
The sounds of the train's door closing was once again heard, and as the train moved on, you could see that a youth wearing a black bowler hat was left standing on the platform.
In front of him was an arch with a banner strung across it with the words, "Admission Exam of Class 27" on it.
The youth proceeded to walk under the arch.
...
Several hours had passed, and the morning yellow sun had turned into an orange setting sun.
Thousands of youths could be seen standing in a courtyard, all were nervous.
For the past few hours, the youths had been sequestered into rooms of a hundred each, and had taken test after test, all of them to gauge the youths' capabilities.
They had been released from their exam rooms for 30 minutes now, and were still all anxiously awaiting their results.
After all, just the thought of admission into this prestigious university would make many of the youths happier than they had ever been in their lives.
So, they all continued to wait, staying in the courtyard long after the sun had set, waiting in the absolute darkness.
On one side of the courtyard stood a slim brunette, who was a police intern with a mission to complete.
On the other side of the courtyard stood a tall lanky male, a thief with a passion for learning, who was wearing all black, including black gloves, and had a black bowler hat on that covered his eyes.
As the clock struck midnight, the results were announced for all to see.
Everyone present immediately grew quiet, completely still, as they didn't even dare exhale a breath.
The two youths were no exception, as their livelihoods and futures depended on this one moment.
Using a superpowered projector, the results were cast into the night sky.
[Seed 1: Dawn Shrodinger
Seed 2: Astraea Adhara
...]
The two youths could only gape, but not due to the shock that they had made it into the university.
No, it was because they had seen the name of someone that they had buried long ago, both literally and figuratively.
As some youths cheered whilst most others could only lower their heads into the darkness of their shadow, the night sky shimmered.
The strings of fate shuddered.
