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Entire parts of town are trussed up in banners and stars to commemorate the holiday. You can find them dangling from lampposts, walls, trees--paper stars are everywhere. While this has become common in the past few days, what’s uncommon is how some of them seem to glow at night. While passing through town, more stars seem to light up, guiding you down some strange path. There is an unnatural pull to them, a lull deep in your chest that something just meant for you is waiting at the end. When the path of stars end, what do you find? Someone? Something you lost? The answer to some question you’ve been asking yourself for some time? The stars eventually lose their glow and do not light back up again; any examination yields that they seem to be normal paper.
The stars that shone above her paled as the city lights took hold, flourescent bulbs dulling the sparkle of the astral bodies that looked down upon her. In a city filled with lights the occasional lit banner had at first seemed largely unimportant and she her suspicions hadn't arisen for several days. It was only on this fateful night that the young woman glanced up and noticed that banners which had once seemed dark had begun to light up. Except that it wasn't every part of it; just the start at its heart.
It had a similar colour to the gold star charm she had been offered as she had passed by the swan sculpture on the way home. With some of the stalls closing for the evening, it had been by chance that she had caught the festival guide on her way towards the library. Arguably, a little late for her to be visiting in the grand scheme of things, but she had hoped to collect a couple of books on her way home. In terms of timing she had confidence she would get there thirty minutes before closing and that would have been ample time to pick up what she needed.
Or she would have done, had she not turned her head at the right moment and caught sight of another glowing star.
A pause, and her eyes weren't deceiving her as more stars began to pop up, creating a clearly defined path that wove through the street and then seemed to flit off to the right. The festival had already been a series of several odd occurrences for the red head, but it seemed she hadn't learned anything about avoiding the odd and unusual. Perhaps it was that now she knew that certain things seemed to happen for a reason, if it was magical, then it wasn't something for her to ignore. She wasn't sure if anyone 'normal' experienced these kind of paranormal events and she wasn't sure who she could ask without seeming completely crazed, but at this moment she was alone.
No one would judge her, not here.
Her lips parted slightly as a breath escaped her lips and she soon found herself moving forward to track the stars that wound through the street and into the next. There was no one at each corner, scarcely a whisper at each bend, and yet the stars managed to lead her further and further away from her intended destination. There had been a moment when she had thought better, when she had gone to check her watch to ensure she had enough time, but there was something about these stars that compelled her to follow. She couldn't explain the compulsion but she didn't feel threatened by it, in fact she suspected that if she genuinely needed to pull away then she could have, she just didn't want to.
There was naught else to do than continue to follow the trail and with quiet footsteps she did so until she was completely immersed in light.
A sea of stars and at their heart lay a light shrouded figure.
Indistinct, but at her very core lay a familiarity, she knew this person or had know whoever lay beyond the veil of white.
She attempted to draw nearer, reaching out a hand to try and grasp at the figure that lay in front of her, but with each attempt it grew more distant... And then it turned, glancing over its shoulder as if to look at her before dissipating into nothing. With it, the light of the 'veil' fell, leaving her alone in one of the quieter streets on the block. There were none around to witness what she had witnessed, none to explain what might have occurred, and so she was left with a deep seated curiosity.
Maybe it was a trick of the eye?
She made an attempt to inspect the banners themselves but there seemed to be little indication that they were unique in any way. For all intents and purposes the banners that had guided her to this little street were nothing more than paper and whatever magic may have lay within had dissipated.
One last glance assured her that the street lay empty and it was then that she checked her watch, eyes widening in surprise when she realised that the time she had spent chasing the lights had been significantly longer than it had felt. There would be no library visits today, it would be more useful for her to head home and maybe, just maybe, consult the phone the Mauvian had given her. Maybe that device would know something, and if it didn't, then maybe she could find someone who did?
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