Andrea Höst - And All the Stars

Quietly putting together two steaming cups of over-sugared tea, Madeleine handed him one, then sat to share the dawn. A seagull was hovering in the distance, the first she’d seen since the dust.

"Gav was captain of the soccer team," Pan said, when tea or company had warmed him a little. "And he could act the socks off half the school. Fantastic at the comedic roles – did a great Bertie Wooster. Really generous on the stage, too, not fiddling about drawing attention to himself during someone else’s good lines." Pan tipped the last of his tea into his mouth, and swallowed heavily. "Just before, they were showing…Madrid, I think it was. Spain somewhere. You know how we were wondering if the Moths could body-hop? Go from person to person? They can. They’d caught two Blues and – I guess some of them must shop around for Blues with the most stain? They came out, and moved into the new Blues. The people they’d been in just dropped. Some Greens carried the bodies off."

There was nothing Madeleine could say. She sat turning her empty mug and listening to the sounds the ocean made in a quiet bay. Soft, secret noises, large yet gentle.

"Gav’s dead." Pan was barely audible. "He might still be in his head right now – or not. He might walk around being the Core of the whatever the hell clan for the next two years. But he doesn’t get to come back."

He sat a little straighter, putting his mug down carefully. "I agree with Emily. Fuck the running and hiding. Let’s find a way to fight these things."

"I’m open to suggestions."

"Would you do it?" Pan shot Madeleine a quick glance. "Any plan we come up with is going to involve us hiding behind you and your metal-crushing awesomeness."

"It’s not metal I’m worried about crushing," Madeleine said. "Fighting the – are we calling them Moths now? – fighting these things means attacking the people they’re inside. Hurting people who’ve done nothing wrong. I don’t know if I could try to hunt down and kill possessed Blues. I think I could maybe fight back if we were attacked, if it meant stopping…to stop the people here from being taken."

"Oh, God, yeah. It’s hard enough with Gav. I would have gone spare if they’d gotten Nash."

"Are–" Madeleine hesitated. "Are you two a couple?"

Pan gave her a Look, and she started to stutter an apology, but then he grinned, mischief revived.

"Hah, that’s okay. You’re just the first person who’s ever asked me that outright. Nash is – I met Nash my second year at Rushies, Year Eight. I’m a scholarship student there, and while most of the guys are fine about that, there’s always a few, you know? My parents run a petrol station, and you’d think that it was some kind of personal affront the way a couple of twits reacted.

"Year Seven was pretty hellish. I wanted to prove myself. You know, be the underdog who comes in and grabs the lead role. Didn’t manage it that year, but I snagged speaking parts in a couple of productions. And kept ending up with black eyes. I was a little squit back then, and it was always an elbow to the face, sorry didn’t see you there Rickard, ha ha. Then they’d trip me up on stage, put rubbish in the props I was supposed to use. They’d drive me into a fury, then ask me Can’t you take a joke? I swear, I have to hold myself back from anyone who says that these days. Can’t you take a joke? Only complete fuckwits say that.

"Year Eight, they were putting on Peter Pan and I knew I’d get the lead if I could get through auditions in one piece. And I also desperately wanted to be on the soccer team. Managed to scrape in as a reserve, and the day before my first chance to play some bright spark had disappeared my shoes. Team members are responsible for their own kit, and if I couldn’t get replacement shoes I’d be sitting out the match, and somehow no-one had any my size they could possibly spare. Only got a lecture when I rang home for money.

"Nash was one of six in my dorm room, new that year and kind of a big deal because of his family. His life’s been all boarding schools and film sets, and he’s met a hell of a lot of industry people. Everyone was trying to cultivate him, and he was being incredibly polite and distant. On the day of the match, he gets a package from his sister – stuff for cricket, a fencing mask. And one pair of soccer shoes which were way too small for him. I didn’t figure out for months that he’d simply ordered everything himself that morning, and had it couriered over.

"Then, on my way to the auditions for Peter Pan I was shoved into a cupboard and locked in. Just a joke, Rickard. Can’t you take a joke? " For a moment Pan became the essence of smug mockery, self-satisfied and unassailable. "Nash let me out. I was foaming with rage, wanted to go get myself beaten up trying to black a few eyes. The best revenge was getting the part, of course, but I doubt I would have remembered that without Nash."

"I’m beginning to see why he calls you temper-boy."

"Yeah." Pan grimaced. "I’m not that bad, really. Well, I went to counselling, and I’m not that bad any more. Nash talked me into that. Nash has pretty much saved my life the last couple of years, and no-one could be a better friend. We got gay-boy taunts, of course. Well, I did. Rushies has very strict policies about annoying extra-prestigious international students. Nash is gay. He’s been working out what that means for him, but it doesn’t seem to be me. And I could fill a book about the time April-next-door wore this really loose tank top and from the side you could see this curve . I was eleven, and I still react when I see a girl in a yellow top."

He leaned forward, sighing gustily. "I’ve been sitting here thinking about all the guys in my class who died from the stain, and not being able to get Gav back, and searching for a way to protect Nash. We’re all trying to think of ways to protect each other, but not even Fish has come up with anything. It’s just too big ."

"We’re still gathering information, remember."

"More information really isn’t helping." He reached back and grabbed a tablet computer, tapped through screens and handed it to her. "Watch that. I’m going to get started on breakfast."

He’d brought up a YouTube clip.

" Mom, stop. "

An American accent, and a wildly jiggling image which steadied on a tearful boy of ten tugging at the arm of a woman packing a suitcase into a car. Beside them a girl of five sat on the driveway, wailing.

" Why are you going? " shouted a different girl – the one holding the camera. " How can you leave us? "

" It’s my duty to serve, honey, " the woman said, her voice soothing, unperturbed by the distress all around her. " La-Saal needs me ."

She came back toward the camera to collect another suitcase, and Madeleine saw that she was a Green, though the kids didn’t seem to be stained.

" We need you more! " the boy said. " They’re monsters, Mom. You gotta stay away from them! "

The woman ignored this, packing the second suitcase into the back seat of the car and slamming the door shut.

" I won’t let you! " The boy darted forward, snatching something from the front seat before the woman could move, stepping away hands held to his chest. " You’re staying here, Mom. You’re supposed to be with us, not them! "

The woman backhanded him across the face. He spun to the ground as the camera-girl shrieked, then the image bounced dizzyingly as she ran forward, and the camera fell. There wasn’t clear vision after that, just sobs and shouts, and the sound of a car starting, and driving away.

"There’s a lot more like that," Pan said, cracking eggs in the kitchen. "The Greens are…they’re still people, but any of them who were within range of the Spires' song have packed up and headed in to where the possessed Blues are. They just ignore or avoid the uninfected, unless someone tries to stop them."