Vincent stared in awe at the cosmic anomaly that now dominated the night sky, at what he could only describe as a supernatural supernova.
As he did so, he heard Miss G's approach as she joined him in star gazing. What he did not know was that he could see far more that his neighbors and any that were not blinded by the initial flash of the star's explosion could not. One such phenomena caught his attention as he could swear that from the contained starburst of dancing lights, one such glimmer seemed to shoot like a meteor, flashing from the sphere in the sky in another direction. He turned to point at it's swift passage across the sky.
"Did you see that, Miss G!?"
"I didn't see anything, child. Are you sure you're well? You did bump your head a bit when that blast hit earlier."
"I'm sure, Miss G. I saw that light streak through the sky, headed straight towards those… stars…"
Vincent trailed off as he looked closer at the patch of stars in question. Come to think of it, he'd never seen them before. He didn't exactly have every constellation in the sky memorized, but he knew a few key constellations, and he was pretty certain that Aquarius didn't have that many extra stars in he middle of it.
Looking closer at the offending stars and scrutinizing them, he noticed that they even had a rather distinct shape, forming a constellation, almost perfectly, of a dagger. It was so distinct he felt that he could reach up to it and close his hand around the hilt…
Miss G was looking in concern at Vincent as she watched his hand that had been pointing until a moment ago open and close as if grabbing onto something. A scream tore from her throat and caught the attention of the neighbors, who looked over to see Miss G standing alone in front of Vincent's home. A couple even jogged over to see if she as okay, as she was loved by many of the neighbors. When they asked what was wrong, all she could do was point to the sky, lost for words.
They turned only to be shocked by the second surprise in the sky that night. There where Miss G pointed, they could see a humanoid shape composed of stars in the night sky, a giant moving constellation wielding a dagger of stars that Miss G just knew was Vincent. Opposite from him, a second constellation form seemed to move as the lithe form of a massive scorpion moved amidst the stars, it's deadly barb glowing with a sinister white light that screamed danger as it circled around the form of Vincent in the night sky.
_________________________________
Vincent's vision blurred as the stars seemed to rush past him, the knife that he swore he saw floating amidst the stars now resting firmly in his palm, weightless in his grip and yet reassuring as it glowed a warm blue light. This reassurance lasted for all of one second before Vincent saw the dizzying drop below him, his feet standing on nothing as he seemingly hovered miles above the earth. He knew that logically, any stars should be far enough from the earth that it would appear as nothing more than a mere speck in the distance if that, and yet he found himself standing miles above this dazzling blue marble known as earth, his body replaced with some astronomically large glowing energy star body of some kind. If that weren't enough to shatter everything he ever knew and make him panic, the appearance of a massive starry scorpion in the sky circling him with its barb poised to strike certainly did.
Vincent found himself stumbling back in the sky as the scorpion lunged at him, dodging out of the way and running, although on what he was running he could not tell you. As he ran, he turned and threw his dagger at the creature chasing him. He watched as the knife sailed smoothly through the sky and pierced the hard exoskeleton like butter, sinking up to the hilt in one of the massive claws of this creature, causing it to emit a squeal of pain. Miss G, the rest of Vincent's neighbors, and pretty much everyone in the Western Hemisphere covered their ears at the grating sound as they saw a battle unlike anything they'd seen somehow playing out in the sky above them.
The scorpion continued its chase and carved at Vincent with its good claw. He rolled out of the way as fast he could but he wasn't exactly a trained combatant and found himself grazed by the claw, glimmers of star stuff flying from his form on his left shoulder. It then pressed the assault against its now defenses prey, leaving Vincent no time to do anything but dodge. Realizing that throwing his only weapon was probably a mistake, Vincent deeply regretted that he was going to die for his decision and wished he could do something, anything to live just a bit longer. He stumbled out of the way of another attack as he thought this, only to feel the familiar heft of the dagger inexplicably resting in his palm once more.
Vincent looked incredulously at the scorpion standing opposite from him, and sure enough, the dagger was no longer piercing it's claw, but resided in his hand somehow. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Vincent hefted the dagger once more and chucked it at the scorpion again, this time hitting it squarely in the back of its torso as it squealed once more, drops of star stuff falling from its wounds. Vincent closed his hand on nothing and hoped that his guess was right, wishing once more for the dagger to fill his grip. Time seemed to slow as adrenaline pumped through his veins, his feet never slowing as he continued to run around the scorpion, never letting it get him solidly in its bearings. As he focused on the knife, he watched in sheer excitement as it disappeared suddenly with a small pop from the back of the scorpion and returned to his expectant grip.
"Okay," Vincent grinned.
"I'm gonna kick your ass, now. Nothing personal, I just don't like bugs."
The knife flashed across the night sky repeatedly as Vincent threw and summoned the deadly blade back to his grip, kiting the scorpion for almost five minutes as the small wounds accumulated on its body before, with a final gargling screech, it crashed down and ceased moving. Up in the stars, Vincent sighed in relief as his form and that of the scorpion faded in a wave of star stuff, Miss G and his neighbors watching on in shock and confusion as the glowing stars descended back to his driveway and reformed into the figure of the solitary boy that had lived in the house his parents left to him for as long as they remember. Silence descended upon the neighbors as they watched the glow of star stuff fade from Vincent's form. It was this silence that allowed Vincent and all of his neighbors to hear the distant sound of a woman's scream filling the night, followed quickly by the sound of something breaking, and an unearthly howl filling the silence of the night. A blood-curdling inhuman howl that belonged to no creature that belonged on this world. Shivers instinctually ran down the spines of everyone gathered there before one of Vincent's neighbors spoke up. He was a bigger man, 6'3" (1.9m), with a large gut and arms thick like logs. His grey hair was rather thin, kept cut short, and he appeared to be in his late 40s, early 50s.
"I'm Dave, Dave Cornwall. I'm ex marines. I'm not sure what the hell is happening, but whatever this is, it's clear to me that the world is changing and things are getting dangerous." He looked pointedly at the bloody claw mark on Vincent's shoulder which Miss G was now fussing over.
"We should stick together, maybe even shelter in the same place together. I don't want to sound crazy, but who knows what kind of monsters are out there. At least until the sun comes up, we should all stay put and figure things out in the morning when it's safer."
For the most part, no one disagreed although some of the neighbors decided to stick it out alone. They figured that when the power came back, everything would be fine. What none of them knew was that the power would never return, nor would the way of life they'd all grown to know.
As the small community gathered the supplies they needed for the night, they all made their way to Dave's house where he and his wife welcomed everyone, offered drinks and food, and made sure everyone was in before they closed the doors and locked them shut. That night, no one would get much of any sleep, as the unearthly howling repeated at random intervals, slowly growing closer and farther as the creatures producing the noise wandered their town. Tears and muffled sobs escaped the terrified children as they clung to their parents, as nearly twenty individuals gathered in this home, the hushed whispers of the adults occasionally speaking over the din of snores as those adults keeping watch out the windows passed the time.
Upstairs, sharing a room with two other kids much younger than him, Vincent was the only one awake as he held his hand before him. Thinking of the knife he had fought with amidst the stars, Vincent watched as the soft blue glow bathed the room he was in, the knife appearing miraculously in his hand as if to confirm that what he had experienced wasn't just some fever dream. He stared into the depths of the dagger before lifting it and experimentally cutting at the wrought-iron headboard of the bed. To his surprise, the dagger cut through the metal like scissors gliding through paper. His eyes widened at the incredibly lethal weapon he found himself able to summon as he dropped the knife in shock, watching as the blade merely hovered in midair, seemingly weightless.
"I bet I could throw this thing so far if it doesn't fall…" Vincent mumbled in the dark room.
"But how am I supposed to hide it?"
As if in response to his question, the dagger simply disappeared, vanishing as abruptly as it had been summoned and eliciting a shocked laugh from Vincent which caused one of the sleeping children next to him to grumble in their sleep.
He did not know what dangers lay ahead of him or in how many ways the world had changed, but that night, Vincent smiled like only a boy who has discovered a light saber could.