Fallen Star

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“Knowledge is power.”
– Sir Francis Bacon

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Prologue

“Why would you ever want to leave the city?” he asked incredulously.

“Don’t you ever feel like there’s more to life?” she answered, taking his hand in her own to tug him across the dismal rural landscape. Over the distant hills of unending grass the sun was setting, cresting just enough to cast long shadows behind them. The world was bathed in warm hues.

“Is this where you’re always escaping to, Rei?” he asked her as she slowed and released his hand. She pushed back a distracting strand of blond hair from her eyes and mysteriously smiled at his remark.

Avoiding the question, she exclaimed, “Open your mind!” She turned her back to him and scanned the green field, her eyes finally resting on a small rock. Gingerly picking it up, she tossed it forward. It soared for a few moments, unaltered in its arc, until it suddenly stopped short and deflected back at them. He blinked a few times, squinting at the setting sun.

“I don’t understand…” he whispered, stepping forward so that he was by her side.

“Neither do I, but something is wrong here.” Rei said as he shook his head. A shadow of fear unconsciously slipped into her mind when she realized the gravity of her words. “Maybe this is why no one leaves the city, Logan, because there is nothing else beyond it. This is it.”

“Impossible!” Logan exclaimed, unconsciously taking a few steps back. Rei silently approached the area where she had picked up the rock. She carefully placed both of her hands forward, pressing her palms against an invisible wall. Pulling back with all of her strength, her fingers curling into a hard grip, Rei lurched forward and slammed her firsts against it. Nothing gave away; she was still unable to pass through.

Perplexed, Logan cautiously approached Rei as she fumed and calculated her next move. He just continued to shake his head of brown hair and mumble to himself, “Impossible.”

Rei laughed dryly, without looking up at him, “Full of that expression, aren’t we?”

“Well, how would you even begin to explain this?” he questioned, sitting back down onto the grass. Rei joined him as he stared off into space at the transparent barrier. She smiled as she watched him pondering quietly, a rare occurrence. It was seldom that Logan just sat and thought. He had more of a tendency to demand instant answers and act without weighing the consequences. She was the one who always over thought ever aspect of every situation.

His prolonged silence made Rei shift uncomfortably. Trying to bring him back, she commented, “I don’t mean to be so depressing!”

“It’s not you. It’s just that, unexplainable phenomena are quite depressing.” They both chuckled at that, but Rei had the sinking feeling that he was truly looking past her, glancing toward the city. He longed for the comfort of the city, with its safe explanations and protection from the unknown.

Desperate to hold Logan for at least another moment, she stood up and extended her hand toward him. He gave her a curious expression and her smile betrayed her purpose. She playfully asked him, “Have you ever touched a setting sun before?”

He raised a brown eyebrow and took the hand she offered. She led him forward to where the barrier was inevitably waiting for them. She guided his arm to touch the top of the hill where the last rays of the orb were about to disappear until the next day. She carefully slid his hand against it.

“It actually feels warm.”

With a bit of pride, Rei commented, “See? You have touched the center of all life.”

“No, I have touched it many times before…” he said as he gently tilted her smiling face upwards. He had never realized how beautiful her features were, the light perfectly casting its glow across her radiant skin, the ringlets of her blond hair sparkling. Her eyelids began to float downwards as he leaned closer.

Logan’s body suddenly jerked away from Rei and he stumbled backwards. Her green eyes snapped open, immediately alert, just in time to watch his arm disappearing across the surface of the sunset, the rest of him being pulled after it.

“LOGAN!” Rei cried, wrapping his arms around his him and trying to keep the rest of him from following through the barrier. His shoulders claimed, she watched in silent horror as his torso was swallowed up by the horizon. She latched onto his legs, fruitlessly trying to defeat the unstoppable force stealing him away. After only a few seconds of struggling his body slipped from her desperate grasp.

“LOGAN!” Rei pounded her fists against the wall, screaming his name in vain at the empty landscape.

After what felt like an eternity, she sank to her knees. Shock was written plainly across her face, and her head swayed from side to side in trance-like disbelief.

Choking back a sob, she could only manage one word.

“Gone…”