To You Who Swallowed A Star Novels & Stories

She gripped his shoulders, throwing her head back, revealing her swanlike throat. “I really love you,” he whispered as he pushed inside her again and again.

Beckoning for me to come sit at the chair, he cleared his throat, and strummed a random note on his guitar to warm up. "Okay, okay," He said, clearing his throat. "I will now be serenading the love of my life." I laughed, barely holding back my tears. "And I will be singing to you, one of my own creations. I wrote this song as an ode to your beauty. And it is called — a handful of stars." ________

In his mind, I was gentle, non-threatening, and easily manipulated. A flicker of disappointment crossed Atlas's eyes. I ignored him and turned around to leave. After paying, I handed the black card to Felix, joking, "I suddenly regret not using the black card he gave me back then. It's so satisfying to pay with someone else's money." Felix smiled, but suddenly, his face froze as he stared intently behind me. I turned around and met a pair of violently trembling pupils. "W-what did you say?"

"The intern rule has been fixed for you, and you have no other option than to accept it." She concluded and cast her full attention on me, her sagging eyebags causing me to swallow hard.

Beyond the atmospheric veil, stars are winking out—one by one, then in clusters, the darkness spreading with a silent, sucking pull that makes my ears pop. A swarm—millions upon millions of shadow-ships, tendrils of pure void writhing like living smoke, cold and slick against my senses even from here, mouths like black holes yawning open, edges rimmed with devoured starlight that leaves a taste of ash on my tongue. The Devourer Swarm. Hungry for worlds. For magic. For us. The air here tastes metallic—ozone mixed with the void’s nothing, making my tongue numb and my skin crawl with static.

She swallowed. Holy shit.

"Let me do this. Please. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me now." Above them, the stars shimmered like the tears that fell freely from two pairs of eyes.

She gently traced my tombstone and whispered, "You are the starlight that vanished from my sky." Finally, my soul began to fade. Thank you, my sister.

But I was deceiving myself, my stomach was determined as well, soon it won , I got up in the darkness, waved my hands around, then leaned to the Floor, touched all over it, until I felt a cold metal clank and I knew that was it. I pulled the metallic plate and its contents to my hands, I reached for them, my nails sag dipper in the cold moist dog food, and brought to my mouth, its musky stench almost had my empty stomach contents pour out. I held myself, closed my eyes, then into my mouth it went, i couldn’t bare the thought of chewing, because I was pretty sure that it would have me puking my guts out. I swallowed a handful of it, soon enough, I felt the tangy contents burn on my throat, I

Giant clumps coming out with each pull. I winced. Held on. As if some signal went off in my brain, I felt it. Like a lock clicking into place, I shoved him away with all of my might. I settled my hands on my own body. One on my head, one on my heart. "Stella luceat." "No!" He lunged forward. My vision winked in and out. I watched in horror as he caught the edge of my shirt in his grasp. But the sparkling prison melted away. I could see the sun, could see the stars even in the bright blue sky.