Dead Giveaway

Glowing

I forgot how cold Arizona nights can get until I got to the roof. Monsters worked to pitch tents and roll out sleeping bags. We really were camping out on the roof.

I helped to set up the tent that Azzy, Frisk, and I would be sharing, and then I went to the edge. The wall around the edges of the roof came up to my waist and kept me from plummeting. I leaned over the ledge and looked out at the city. The bunker was on the outskirts of the town. On one side of me the skyscrapers of the city loomed. In the hot sun, the shiny steel buildings hurt to look at. But at night they glowed softly in the light of the moon.

On the other side was the country. Barren fields with patches of grass scattered about. Old farmlands, from what we had learned in school.  Overused long ago, and now the soil was nearly dead. Over time it would slowly regain its nutrients, and the grasses would grow again.

As the sky darkened overhead, monsters began to yawn and retreat into tents and sleeping bags. Behind me a chorus of zippers echoed off the wall and bounced back to the center of the wide circle. I stayed in place, enjoying the feelings of the night air washing over me.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I flinched.

"Hey." The voice was low and soft as the hand turned me around, nudging me towards my tent. "Ya know it'll get cold fast. Go curl up with your siblings." The voice encouraged.

I cast one more look at the stars before doing as Sans urged.

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Sleep. Sleep. Why does such a pointless endeavor exist? My eyes were heavy even as a mysterious calling pulled me from my sleeping bag and out of the tent.

The night air nipped at my skin through the thick flannel of my pajamas. I stumbled to the wall, feeling the worn brickwork with my hands. I'm sure when it was new it would have calloused my hands, but the stone was worn smooth. Who knew how many generations of hands had been run along this wall. A child running around, pushing off the wall to escape a pursuer in a game of tag. A nervous young man, drumming his fingers against the ledge. The building was ancient.

I looked to the city. Lights bounced off some of the newer headstones in the graveyard, calling my attention to the dismal place. I could see the ground lights illuminate the mausoleum my brother was buried in, and if I squinted I could still make out the faint letters of Dreemurr on the side, spelled in my own blood.

In another direction lay the pond he had drowned in. Across from it, the church. What used to be our old preschool. And down the street from that, my childhood home. The place of my suffering for almost three long years of my toddlerhood.

And then there was the decrepit old hospital. The architecture was crumbling, and yellow tape blocked off the courtyard. Most of the windows were boarded up, but through the ones that weren't I could see into the rooms. The beds looked like any hospital beds but those of us unfortunate enough to have stayed there knew what those beds really held. We knew those rooms were just a cover for the high security rooms that lay deep within the building, out of sight of windows.

And then I looked up. The stars were up now, and I looked for constellations. I found the collection of stars that made up the leg of Heracles, and the tail of Scorpius. The stars were always there. Even when I couldn't see them. And that always kept me grounded to reality.

Overhead the dimly lit stars seemed to wink at me. Their soft light wasn't enough to see by. But if I looked up farther I could see the moon.
It was only a half moon tonight, but it glowed as bright as ever. The sky was peaceful. The city below us was silent, but risky. Danger could be anywhere and we couldn't take risks. But I could always count on the sky above for peace.