Tug of Fate | When Stars Align Book one

And....it begins

🜃 James 🜃

I hear the scream and run towards the sound. Multiple footsteps follow me. We all reach the corner at the same time, and stumble to a stop together.

In front of me is a swirling and writhing black light with a moonlight kind of strand floating in it. Ananya rushes past me and checks up on Ali.

"You found The Star... Why did you scream? You hurt?" she asks Ali.

"Yes I think this is The Star. But.. I was thinking that these murals just started fading. I touched the glowing point of the star and there was this burst of light. And then I realized that the fading murals were not fading. They are covered with ages old bloodstains. I just ... I just lost my balance at that I suppose..."

Yeah I had thought so too. The blood stains. These are gallons and gallons of blood stains. Both old and new. Som time in recent years blood has flowed here as well. I am brought out of my thoughts by the laughing and giggling sounds of Ananya and Becca.

What the fuck. Ali is freaking out and they are laughing.

"I am sorry.... But you freaked out by the walls and the bloodstains and not by the fact that... that... there is a star carved on the wall, with one point glowing?" Ananya dissolves into another peal of laughter. Yeah I see her point.

"And not only that. Without any electrical connection, the center lights up. Black light, shaped like an eye, with a blue gray strand in it. But you don't find that scream worthy?" Becca joins in laughing.

As if to reiterate the point, Althea woofs at Ali and rolls her eyes. The guys and I exchange looks and just smile. These girls...

"Okay enough shut up. I didn't scream. I just lost my balance." Ali tries for indignation. But fails. Miserably.

"Oh... lost your balance ah.. Of your vocal cords?" Ananya asks with a smirk.

We all start laughing at that.

"Okay if you guys are done, shall we see what needs to be done?" I say pointing at the star.

"Yeah okay.."Ali says.

Grateful for the topic change. She turns to look at The Star and then stops mid-step.

"Wait a minute. The glow... the glow is sort of throbbing and pointing to the top right? Is that what you all are seeing too?" she asks.

Logan steps forward. "Yeah... it's like a vibrating dotted path leading to that point. Maybe we are supposed to solve that point riddle first? Wait.. There is a groove here, above it." He says making all of us huddle close to the wall.

Yes. All the points have different shaped grooves. I look at the glowing point and realize that its groove already contains the object meant to be fitted there. It is a crescent moon shaped thing. Only that is the point that is not hollow. Which leads me to believe that our motive is also to find the missing objects and insert them in their respective grooves. At least the shapes of the grooves give us an idea of what we are looking for.

"If I am not wrong, these are the shapes of various elements." Ananya says. Pointing to the different grooves, going clockwise from the glowing point, she names them, " Moon, Earth, Fire, Sun, Star, Air and Water."

Well damn, she's right.

"So what... these will be elemental riddles? And where is the puzzle or the riddle?" I ask