Bound Starlight (The Ones in the Darkness #1)

Prologue

Diablos

It was one of those nights. Stars shone brightly in the night sky, painting a breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

One where darkness didn’t reign, one where there was light despite the grip of the shadows.

And here I was, falling deeper into the darker shades, desperately trying to hold onto the light.

If my life could be described in colors, I would say it was black, red, and golden. Black was at the core, the persistent background that could never be changed. Red was swirling in my mind, my thoughts consumed by crimson, dripping with blood. Gold was my love for my family and their love for me.

These were my colors.

Yet I couldn’t deny the ache in my chest. What was I even yearning for? Was it to see the beauty in the dark hues, and in myself? To know what it was like to live a life filled with different colors? Just for once, to experience what it was like to live without the pain that was always haunting me?

A dark chuckle slipped through my lips. Damn, it was a night of unreachable reveries.

My eyes wandered over every single one of the little dots in the night canopy.

Some shone brighter, while others were just a tiny flicker, barely visible but still there.

The stars were genuinely magnificent and held the power to soothe my soul.

Somehow, they calmed my busy mind and showed me there was always a flicker of brightness through the darkness.

As I got lost in my thoughts and the skyline, time slipped through my fingers, and the sky gradually changed.

The sunrise was almost on the horizon. Hints of pink and yellow were visible in the distance.

Yet, here I was, wide awake, afraid to go to bed because the voices in my head were too loud, haunting me even when I closed my eyes.

It hit me then why I loved the stars and craved the sanctuary they offered.

The night felt like a part of me. I reached for it, and my soul recognized the darkness.

The stars made me question whether I, too, had some light inside.

Like some faraway burning orb of flames, it existed, yet it was too far out of reach for me to glimpse and feel.

I knew the truth was simple.

The stars were bound to the night, and I was bound to the darkness inside. My life was one of mere subsistence, stuck between an altered mind and a confined heart.

As the sun broke on the horizon, I moved to my bed and closed my eyes. Darkness reigned again. This time, it was without the stars to light up the voids inside the abyss of who I was.