All lights flickered and died.
Vivia gasped and her heart fell at the black screen that took place of the essay she forgot to save the last three pages of.
"No, no, no!" She stood and threw a glance to her window. "It's not even storming!"
But a white light like lightning did catch her eye. A glow, like the moon in her backyard. Upon closer inspection, it was a boy with glowing white hair, staring at the sky.
Vivia squinted through her closed window. *"What the heck, dude?"* she yelled at the glass.
*Ice crystals* crept up the window like snakes as the boy's glowing white hair faded to black. His head turned slowly to look at her and she could have sworn she'd seen him before.
"There's a meteor shower out tonight." His voice was stranger than his hair. Like water, ice, and steam, all rolled into one sound, piercing the air, too sharp, even through her closed window.
"You cut all the p—" Vivia started, but he glanced to her roof and sliver glinted in his eyes as power came back in a hum. "H...hey..."
Vivia stepped back and frowned at the lights and the strange boy outside. Fixing her jaw, she left her room.
Winter's chill filled the air of the kitchen as Vivia reached the sliding glass door and threw it open. The strange boy still stood, staring at the sky in her backyard.
*Please don't leave me...* The words whispered like a memory in the frigid air. A shiver ran through her and she braced herself before telling the boy off.
"You should be wearing a jacket!" she called against a gust of wind instead.
He contemplated her and then a 'lost, but found' sort of smile graced his flawless face. "Don't own one."
"Well," Vivia crossed her arms against the door frame. "You shouldn't be here."
A soft mew came behind her and her cat, Silky, padded into the grass to rub against the boy's legs. Vivia scowled and the boy gazed down at the *four-legged friend.*
"It's good to finally meet you too," he said, his voice still calm and cold as ice. Starlight glinted his eyes again and he crouched to pet Silky. Snow began to fall...only around him. He looked up and grimaced. "Hm. Cold."
"H-how are you..." Vivia pushed off the door frame. "Who are you?" she breathed.
His eyebrows pinched slightly in a painful kind of sad. "Humans are so forgetful."
And he closed the distance between them and reached his hands to hold hers. Her eyes widened and she tried to push him away, but the moment her hand met his arm, her vision flashed.
*"You can't come! You're pregnant!"* her dad yelled.
"You can't go!" Tears sang their way to the floor before her mom. "I'm pregnant!"
And Vivia, too young, looked up to a star, wishing for peace.
*"Saint Nicholas Day." Vivia breathed, back in her backyard with the strange boy. "The last day they ever fought," she looked at the boy, "like that. You're... the star that brought my family back together."
His irises were constellations and his mouth craved a smile again. "A joint effort really. Stars can't do much without a wish."
The galaxy was in his eyes. For a moment, Vivia forgot the cold. "That...wasn't the only wish though."
"I know," Laughter rippled under his voice and Silky purred below them. "You sort of claimed me after that."
Something changed in the air. Like a wave of sorrow, the ground shook and cracked before them.
Silky scattered into the house and Vivia grabbed the boy in panic, but he wasn't about to move.
"*Run!*" She pulled at his wrist and followed Silky into the house. Shoving the boy at the kitchen table, she hurried after Silky.
"Vivia!" The boy stupidly didn't get under the table. Did he not understand earthquakes?
"Take cover!" She ripped Silky from the couch and ran back to the kitchen.
"Listen!" He grabbed her wrist to stop her from taking shelter.
"Are you—" But something was leaking out of his skin. Like cuts on his arm, white dust and black vapor dissipated into the air. ...*Blood?*
The ground stopped shaking and she stared at the rips in his skin, like the rips in the earth behind him. He was... smiling?
"Whatever happens around me can't hurt you. Or anyone else. I just... wanted to see you. Say—ow!" He flinched and pulled his arm away.
"What's happening to you?" Vivia breathed.
He gave her a sound between a cough and a scoff. "I'm dying." His constellation eyes avoided hers. "My star. It's dying and I die with it. I'm the spirit of the star you've wished on all these years. You and many others."
"Dying?" Vivia loosened her hold on Silky and the black cat squirmed out of her arms.
He turned away and walked back into the cold. "I could have stayed out there, but... I came *because I love you.*"
Something caught in her chest. An emotion she couldn't describe. Confusion, anger, terror, sadness...and something else like happiness and warmth. "But what about the others?"
"None of them chose me as often as you." He looked at the dusty vapor leaking out of his arm and clenched his fist. "They'd be able to see and witness my death too, but..." he looked to the dark sky. "I wanted it to be you."
The snow still sparkled in the air as it flurried around him alone. The crack in the ground was obvious, but... could only those who wished on him see it, then? And she couldn't get hurt? Something tore at her heart when she looked at the cracks in his arm. Anger pulsed.
"You wanted it to be me?" Her star. Always loyal. Always there. "Like some sick *birthday* gift, I get to watch you die?"
He looked at her, confused. "I wanted to say goodbye. Most humans say the death of a star is beautiful, even in spirit form. My image will still be there for all of your life, but I—"
"You think your image is what I care about?" Vivia felt sick. "Here I go my whole life talking to and wishing on this star, only to find that it really was conscious and responding—on the day that it's going to die! You gave me Silky, you kept my family together—you...you're beautiful." Her heart ached to touch him, hold him. She scowled and turned away. "And you're dying."
After a pause, he reentered the house. "*Why do you push me away?*"
The cold air from the open door breathed winter into her house. She turned with offense and he greeted her with the innocent curiosity of a thousand stars in his eyes.
It tore at her heart again. "If you really are the spirit of a star, and you *faith*fully answer the wishes of humans... don't you understand death? Why am I upset and you don't even look...scared?"
He tilted his head and the cold breeze from outside made her shiver. Realization hit him and he closed the door behind him, walked to the coat hanger at the front door and presented her with her coat. "Stars get cold when they die. Sorry."
He didn't answer her question, but that was fine. She had more. "What will happen then? If I wish on your...image. Will it still come true? What... happens to you?"
"You ask a lot of questions, favorite." His laugh echoed a peaceful night from her childhood. "Death waits for us all, but life is rare and beautiful. For a while your wishes will fall to nothing if you choose me, but if a new star is born from my dust, it may answer you."
"May?" Vivia asked. "So you chose to answer me—you didn't have to give me...everything, but you chose me like—"
"Your soul is more beautiful up close," he spoke over her. "*Shut up and kiss me.*"
"What?" She started back, staring at his porcelain face, dark hair, misty galaxy eyes.
His gaze flickered from confusion to that perfect small smile again. "You were always different. Most humans see the stars as objects to hope on for *help,* but you spoke to me like a human friend. It was... nice. I liked seeing your joy when I answered you. You made the end of my life...different."
He looked solid, but like the dust still bleeding out of his arm, there was a ghostly presence to him. Now he hesitated, moving his body closer to her. "I'm sorry." He pulled away. "Dying stars crave warmth. I thought..."
Her chest wanted to cry and she reached forward to grab his arm—the wrong one. He flinched and she saw the past again.
Her not-so-much-younger self knelt at her window, looking up at his star. "*Just for once I want to be someone's first choice!*" she cried.
But then the vision turned far away; the earth was a speck near its sun, a distant star. The boy, white hair glowing strong, floated in space, hand reaching out to the speck. Something like a heart of fire, breaking.
Back to her living room, the boy pulled away and a tear stung her cheek, rolling like a fallen star.
The cracks in his arm mimicked the cuts she felt on her heart. Each breath pressed on the cuts as she watched him.
"Um." He kept the bleeding galaxy arm behind him, away from her. His eyes were trapped in hers, but there was uncertainty. "This wasn't supposed to hurt."
More tears fell with a heavy breath from Vivia. "Why now? Why did you wait to see me until now?"
The thousands of stars in his irises became songs of apology. "It's *forbidden love,* spirits to humans. Plus, I could only travel with a meteor shower to your planet. We aren't supposed to fall in love because human lives are so quick and spirits are so distant," he continued. "The lengths we could go for love are dangerous to the balance of nature. I could have visited you before if I didn't care so much..."
The temperature fell to something icy and it was like another earthquake rushed through him. He shuddered and folded inward, clutching his arm as the cracks grew.
"I want to help you!" Vivia rushed forward.
"No!" He tripped and fell back against the floor between the kitchen and living room. "If you try to stop my death, visiting you will become the worst *failure* of my life."
"So I'm just supposed to let you die?" Vivia huddled in her *1920's* style coat against the cold his presence carried. Would he ever let her touch him again?
He stood, star dust blood trailing in the air with him. "Yes." The cracks were like the lines of constellations, a tattoo sleeve overflowing into his chest and up his neck from under the plain t-shirt he wore.
Loneliness grew like a bomb inside, rupturing the bone of her body.
He frowned. "Maybe I should have come sooner. Or not at all. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Hurt me?" She clutched her hands together, sadness or cold, she fought them both now. "You're the one that's dying—eep!"
Her hands flew over her mouth as more cracks slithered on his body, over his face. He cringed on the ground till it stopped. Her heart beat in a chaos of fear and sorrow for time lost.
"Please..." She crouched carefully beside him. "I want to help you somehow. Like you helped me all these years."
Silky stopped licking her paws nearby and watched them both.
His easy, carved smile fought the bleeding cuts around it. "*Why haven't you kissed me yet?*"
"I'm afraid it'll hurt." Vivia's hands shook.
"Dying stars crave warmth." He pushed himself to a sitting position. He flinched when he smiled again.
It was a smile that echoed one Vivia often wore, saying *'All I want when someone asks me if I'm okay and I fake smile and say yes, is for them to take my hand and say, no, you're not.'*
So it would hurt. It would hurt both of them.
They both leaned closer and tragic stardust brushed Vivia's chin before their lips met.
He was fire and ice. A special kind of temperature—like when you step into a crystal lake and chilled spring water engulfs you with fresh energy—life.
Eternity flashed before her. The universe swirled, the earth was born, creatures of all kinds looked toward his star in wonder. Helpful magic tangled with other stars, danced on stellar winds. Some of it reached earth, until later, a crescendo of intrigue ensured it did.
But in the present, stardust consumed her and light bulbs burst around them. His hair regained its electric white glow as she raked her hand through it. Cracks increased along his skin and she gasped away from the explosion—the *death of a hero.*
He was gone. Particles of purple, silver, and black took his place in a wisp that whispered, "Thank you..." before dissipating into nothing.
Her heart broke at the empty space before her. After a moment, she tore through the kitchen to her backyard. Geminid meteors sprinkled the sky, like he said, and she quickly found his star beyond them. Nothing changed, but everything had. The normalness, the uncaring nature of the world around her, was surreal.
Silky sat beside her, sad longing in her eyes as she watched the shooting stars above them.
Eventually, the front door clattered as her mom, dad, and sister returned home from the *Christmas market.*
Days went by.
Her parents were arguing again. Adelis, Vivia's younger sister, stopped coming out of her room. It all felt numb in light of the that her star couldn't help her anymore.
Even so, some force told her to knock on Adelis' door. "Addie? Can I come in?"
"*I thought you didn't want me either." The young voice sniffled, cracking open the door. "They started fighting about me and you stopped talking to me. I make everything...complicated."
"What?" Vivia's numbness vanished.
Addie let the door open more, but stared down. "I wish... I wish I'd never been born."
"No!" Vivia gasped and rushed into her little sister to stop the wish, transitioning to a hug quickly. "Your life is rare and beautiful."
"Huh?" Addie muffled under Vivia's embrace.
"You'll always be my first choice of a sister. I wish for you to remember that everyday for as long as there are stars in the sky!"
"Vivi..." Addie's voice faltered with tears and she hugged her back. After some time of tears, hugging, and reassuring, Addie said, "Even if it's not my fault... Do you think mom and dad will have their traditional *reunion under the mistletoe* this year?"
Vivia frowned and glanced to Addie's window. How could she do this without a wish?
A similar force as before pushed her to run downstairs where her mom turned to leave her dad out the front door. When she opened her mouth, her heart spoke and her mom stopped. Conflict arose, but Vivia held tight to the ghostly whisper in her chest, the echo to her hope.
Finally, her dad spoke softly and her mom returned the confession. True, vulnerable conversation piled up until tears turned to innocent laughter that echoed the lights of a *Christmas* tree from long ago, still shining now.
Addie crept out of her room and Vivia marveled at the renewed happiness.
Her heart held a warm she didn't recognize. After a good long moment with her family, she stepped outside to process everything. She wanted to cry, but she wasn't exactly sure if she was happy or terrified now.
For so long, she'd counted on wishing for the hard things to work out. Now, everything felt like temporary glue with no promised. Should she choose another star?
A strong wind pierced her with cold and then circled her with warmth and she looked up.
"*It's always been you.*" His cold, icy voice whispered around her. "Stars can't do much without a wish."
"You're alive?!" For a while she'd wondered if it'd all been a dream. Or if he really was dead. What happened to spirits after death? "*Please* don't leave me." Tears welled up for sure now.
"Dead," the earth whispered. "Dead, dead."
"Dust to dust," the sky shrieked. "All are dust."
"Part of you," her heart thumped. "Part of all."
"You are my wish." His voice whistled through the glass door behind her. All of it was more a feeling than actual words. "Go. Fulfill your own life now."
The wind turned her to her family and she fell to her knees in one breath.
"*I thought I lost you...*" she said, but the world stopped speaking.
Addie came outside and stared at Vivia. "You... okay?"
Vivia looked up at her sister and realization melted a determined smile on her face. Quickly, she wiped her face and stood up. "I am. Just... thinking about... a guy I once read about who spent his whole life fulfilling the wishes of others."
"Oh, he sounds cool." Addie smiled and tilted her head. "Does he get to fulfill his own wishes too?"
Vivia pressed her hand over her heart and turned her smile inward. "I think so."
***Epilogue, because there were three prompts left and I had to complete the challenge! XD***
New Years Eve was different that year. Closer. Happier. And her family wasn't the only thing Vivia started stepping into more. Once she saw the change she could bring with brave actions on top of hope, she started speaking up among her friends more. Asking if they had any wishes she could help with and taking better charge of her life.
Her star may have dies, but his *legacy* of helping wouldn't. And every time she spoke up, something kind and warm awoke in her chest.
One day, the lights flickered again while her family waited for her mom to get home for New Year's dinner. Vivia's heart skipped a beat and she looked to the window. No, there were no meteor showers tonight, but the snow fell hard...
"The wind is insane tonight!" he dad said on the phone. "Are you going to be okay?"
Addie sat by the front window, staring at the sky. "I wish the storm would stop."
Vivia grimaced at the snow that ignored all requests. So stars really did choose wishes. Or maybe the obstacles were too much tonight.
Her dad rested a hand on Addie's shoulder, watching out the window. "*I'll wait for you.*"
The wind howled and the lights flickered again. The storm muffled and blocked too much; the quiet was eerie. Inside, Vivia's blood began to rage like the blizzard.
Please, she wished for the first time since her star died. To the earth, the sky, all the stardust in the universe. Things are going so well. Just let mom get home safe.
The wind screamed in response and Addie shivered on the couch beside her. A while passed...until finally car lights broke through the snow.
"Mom!" they cried, running to her.
After all four of them ushered their coats and snow back inside to the warm embrace of their home, Vivia's dad asked how in the world her mom made it through the snow.
"Well, I almost didn't!" her mom replied after a quick kiss. "But then I saw you, Vivia, and Addie waiting here at the window and finally the car jolted out of the snow pile. It was like magic!"
Vivia's heart swelled and her grin felt like starlight. "I'm just glad you're okay."
"Happy *New Years Eve!*" Addie cheered.
"And here's to another year together." Her dad wrapped an arm around her mom's waist.
Something was hidden in her mom's smile. Thankfulness, relief, love... Vivia couldn't quite put her finger on it. Instead of voicing it, her mom simply gave her dad a second longer kiss. Long enough that Vivia turned to awkwardly distract Addie.
"Together," her mom whispered.
And the four of them gathered around the table against the roar of the storm, laughter filling the air like magic only true love could produce.
"Thank you," Vivia whispered back to the fallen star she once knew. "For helping me first." She swore she could still feel his dust around her, warm inside her. "I love you too."