Star Childs

Chapter-1: A Weird Dream

October 10th 2022

It was my 17th birthday. Like every night, as midnight approached, I went to bed. I lay down in my bed, and put my head on the pillow, hoping for a peaceful sleep. Part of my dream is still vivid in my mind. Years have passed since then. After falling asleep, I opened my eyes to find myself at my school desk. Looking around, there were both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Right in front of me, my close friends were chatting. I called out to them. They looked at me as if I had said something strange. Although I knew I was dreaming, their peculiar gazes intrigued me. To confirm, I looked at my wrist. I believe in the powers of ancient runic inscriptions. That's why I always wear runes inscribed on my wrist for protection. Seeing that the inscription was missing confirmed I was dreaming. The fact that it was a dream explained their strange looks. I got up from my desk and walked over to them.

"What's going on? Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked A.

"Mert, remember we don't talk anymore?" said A.

Why weren't we talking anymore in my dream? What could have happened between us? It was increasingly making sense that it was just a dream. (But I didn't know this event would come true in the future.) Since we weren't talking anymore, I left the classroom alone. When I went outside, the first thing I did was look at the name of the classroom. It wasn't written. I recognized a few people in the school hallway, but they seemed older. It was as if one or two years had passed. Judging by the time, it was lunch break. I started wandering the corridors. There were familiar and unfamiliar faces inside the classrooms.

[I think I'm having one of those "future" dreams again.]

I used to have such dreams occasionally, and they would turn out to be true. While thinking about this and looking around, I bumped into someone. We both fell to the ground. When I turned my head to see who I had bumped into, I saw it was a girl. I didn't know her. She was tall, about 5'9-6'2 feet, with light brown hair tinged with blonde, hazel eyes, and fair skin. I had a feeling inside me that I knew her. I don't know where this feeling came from. Just a feeling. I got up from the ground. The girl looked around in panic. I reached out my hand to help her up. She hesitantly reached out her hand. When our hands touched, there was a very loud, high-pitched ringing in my ears. It was unbearable. She must have heard the same sound because she covered her ears with her hands. The sound stopped within seconds. It was a very bad experience. The girl cautiously reached out her hand again to mine. When the sound didn't return, she held onto my hand, and I helped her up from the ground. We looked at each other closely.

"I feel like I know you from somewhere. I'm Mert. What's your name?"

"I'm Natalia. Nice to meet you, although I can't say it's been a pleasant introduction."

"You're right. Did you hear that sound too?"

"Yes. My ears are still ringing. What do you think it was?"

"I don't know. You said your name is Natalia. Did you come here from Russia?"

"Where is here?" Natalia said. When I told her this was Turkey, across from Istanbul, in Yalova, the smallest province of the country, her expression was unforgettable. She was very surprised. I asked her where she was from. "Moscow, Russia. Good guess," she said.

"How come you speak Turkish so well?"

"Turkish? Are you aware we're speaking Russian right now?"

"What? No, I'm sure we're speaking Turkish."

"It's impossible. I only know two languages, Russian and English."

"This is very strange. Anyway, it doesn't matter which language we're speaking. Why are you in my dream?"

"Your dream? This is my dream! Look, this is my school," Natalia said and pointed to the end of the corridor. Indeed, at some point, my school merged with another school. The girl looked at where my school was, saying, "This is very illogical. It doesn't look like my previous dreams." I asked her how she had before seen her dreams.

"If I said that I would never believe it."

"Let me guess, you're seeing the future."

"How did you—"

"A lucky guess. Because I'm like you," I said.

During our conversation, we felt that ringing again, piercing through our souls. Both of us covered our ears with our hands and knelt. Seconds later, a strong white light enveloped us. Even though our eyes were tightly shut, it was incredibly bright. When the sound passed, we opened our eyes. We were sitting in the cafeteria of my school, eating.

"What just happened!?"

"I don't know, but we need to find out, Natalia."

"We need to get out of here."

"I agree with you, but how?"

"Maybe there's an exit around here, what do you think?" I said, and we got up from where we were sitting. The first place that came to my mind was the school's terrace. When we got there, I was speechless at the sight. The terrace belonged to our school, but the sky... On the left, there was the light of sunrise, and on the right, the darkness of sunset. The suns were together.

I thought [I wish I had my phone with me. I would like to take a picture of this.]

Natalia was looking at the sky with the same astonishment. Seeing her like that gave me a strange feeling. She looked very sweet and beautiful. It was as if she were a piece of art created by the gods but gifted to the world. Natalia snapped out of the scene's enchantment faster than I did. She grabbed my arm and dragged me inside. She was strong, almost as strong as I was. "We need to try to get out of here, come on!" she said. I followed her inside. The sound started to return, growing louder. The door we had entered suddenly filled with light and began to widen. Natalia and I looked back, then at each other, and started to run. After running about five yards, the light engulfed us, and the sound disappeared. I wanted to get out of this dream now. What did all these events mean? Something was off. We needed to figure it out and wake up. As the light faded, we began to see. We were at a beach. We were sitting on a bench, entwined. Natalia quickly pulled away from me.

"Where are we? Did we leave the school?"

"Yes, we did. This is the beach."

"Why were we hugging!? If this is all a dream, shouldn't it have ended by now?"

She forgot that I didn't have the answers to her questions either. This was the first time something like this had happened to me too.

"Look, this is the first time this has happened to me too. You need to understand, I have no clue about this. I have no slightest idea what we should do. Let's sit down calmly and try to understand the situation. Maybe then we'll figure out what's going on."

"Sorry, I started to panic. I apologize if I overwhelmed you."

"No problem. I just wanted to say. Actually, now that I think about it..."

"What?"

"Never mind, it's a silly thought."

"Come on, tell me. We need all kinds of ideas!"

"Okay, listen. What if this is a shared future for both of us? Not impossible, right? Imagine, both of us seeing the future in our dreams."

"Hmm... Actually, you might be right. But why you and me? Out of eight billion people, why just us?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out," I said to Natalia. She told me that if we were really seeing our shared future, there could potentially be something romantic between us in the future. (At that time, I didn't think it was possible because I was in love with someone else.) Upon reflection, it seemed like a possibility. We were experiencing the same dream, eating together, and now sitting embraced on the beach. Apart from this, there didn't seem to be any other logical explanation. After observing our surroundings for a bit, we decided to get to know each other better. We asked questions: How old are you? What do you like? Incredibly, our birthdays were the same, down to the exact hour! It felt like we were the opposite genders of the same soul. Could this mean Natalia was my soulmate? As we discussed these thoughts, suddenly we heard a voice.

"Can you hear my voice, my children...". The voice didn't resemble that of a man or a woman. It was strange... "Who are you!" I shouted nervously. I'm not easily scared, but this voice gave me a fearful feeling. Natalia asked the mysterious voice, "Why are we here?" The voice replied,

"First, let me answer you, Mert. I am Orion. Your genetic origins trace back to me. I can technically be considered your grandfather. As for your question, Natalia, you are here because before returning to Earth, I need to make contact with you and have you do what is necessary."

We were both stunned. Was this person called Orion really someone we were related to? The grandfather I knew was someone who spent all day lying down watching TV, went fishing on weekends, and definitely couldn't enter people's dreams. I asked Orion,

"Can you tell us who you are again? I think I misheard, but did you just say you were our grandfather?"

"Yes, Mert. I came to Earth a hundred thousand years ago. Your species, in its current form as Homo sapiens, had just evolved.I united with one female human from each continent. The descendants of these humans, when the time comes, will awaken the powers of the genes they carry. And now, that time has come."

"According to what you're saying, there should be many more of us, right? With all those people, even if they are not exactly human, there should be many more candidates for this task besides Mert and me. Isn't that right?"

"No, Natalia. Because only the children born on the day of unity, the day of singularity, will possess these powers."

"What exactly do you mean by powers?"

"Do you think it's a coincidence that you can see the future in your dreams? That's one of your powers, Mert. I don't have time to explain all your powers to you. Therefore, I will place the knowledge in your minds."

"How are you going to do that?"

"You'll find out. From time to time, I will visit you in your dreams."

The place we were in started shaking as if there was an earthquake. Natalia and I looked at each other. "I guess this is where we part ways," she said to me. "If what's happening here is real and this is our future, I'll be waiting for you, Natalia. I know we will meet again someday," I said. Orion said, "Find each other, my grandchildren. Gain control of your powers. I have full confidence in you." The ground beneath us disappeared, and we began to fall. It felt as if we were in outer space. The surroundings were filled with stars.As we were falling down, she held my hands and said, "No matter what happens, I will come somehow." Then she said something else, but I didn't understand because she spoke in Russian. Within seconds, I hit a hard surface. I looked around. I had fallen out of bed. There were two options: either all of this was a nonsensical dream, or I had seen the future again. I got up from the floor, went to the bathroom, and washed my face thoroughly with cold water. My head was splitting. I looked in the mirror. I looked terrible. Maybe I should take a shower. Quickly, I took off my clothes and got into the shower. As the warm water flowed from my hair to my shoulders, I was thinking about the dream.

[Nonsense... All these things happening, this dream, it's all nonsense! If what happened was real, wouldn't the information have been implanted in my mind as Orion said? Did my family know? If they did, why didn't they tell me before?]

My headache had returned. But now I knew. The information Orion mentioned was in my mind! Cosmic beings, powers, and other things. I knew at least some of it. Twelve cosmic beings, telekinesis, and seeing the future. For now, that's all there was. I guess they would become clearer with time. After I collected my thoughts, I got out of the shower, dried off, and got dressed. I wondered if others might have had a similar dream. I decided to investigate. I turned on my computer and typed the information that Orion had implanted in my mind into the internet browser. A site where people shared their writings appeared. One of the posts caught my attention. It had been written 3 minutes ago. The person who wrote it was someone named Samuel, living in America. He had had a dream very similar to mine. Could he be like Natalia and me? After everything I had experienced, it didn't seem too impossible. I saved the post and turned off the computer. By the time I lay back down to sleep, it was 4 AM.