Chapter 3: Forbidden Wish
The city was never quiet.
Even in the dead of night, something always moved. Traffic murmured, lights blinked, someone shouted into the wind, and music pulsed behind closed windows. To Lunara, it felt like the Earth was always whispering secrets to itself, never resting.
She sat on the steps of a crumbling building with her arms wrapped tightly around her knees, watching a torn flyer dance in the breeze. It twisted midair before getting stuck against a rusted fence. "HELP WANTED." She didn't know what that meant.
Her bare feet were already dusty, and her white dress was smudged with dirt from the alley she'd landed in. She hadn't eaten. She didn't know what food was. The first thing she tasted on Earth had been the rain, and it had tasted like smoke and metal. It made her cough. It made her laugh.
She'd never laughed like that before.
The moon had warned her that Earth would be harsh.
But no one warned her it would be lonely.
The people here didn't look at each other. They brushed past with their eyes focused on glowing rectangles, always walking somewhere, never stopping to breathe. No one noticed her, this girl with wide eyes and wonder in every step.
It felt strange to be invisible in a world she'd dreamed about her whole life.
She wandered for hours that night, barefoot and aimless. The pavement stung. Her legs shook. Her silver hair, once so light, now felt like a burden. As the sky turned a deep violet and the city slowly stirred awake, something inside her began to ache.
A wish, once simple, now felt dangerous.
She found herself in a park. The grass was wet. A single swing hung from a tree, swaying in the early morning wind. She sat on it, the chains cold against her fingers.
And for the first time since she'd descended…
She cried.
It wasn't loud or dramatic. No sobs. Just quiet tears sliding down her cheeks like moonlight dripping off her skin.
She didn't cry because she was afraid.
She cried because everything felt real now.
The hunger in her stomach. The cold against her skin. The loneliness that settled in when no one saw her.
She had wanted so badly to understand the world. To feel it. To belong.
But here she was, a stranger made of stardust, alone in a place that didn't know her name.
And that's when she whispered it.
That forbidden wish.
"I want to go back."
Her voice was small and fragile, as if she were afraid the wind would carry it too far.
"I don't want to be forgotten," she said, looking up at the pale moon that now hung low in the sky. "I thought I could handle it. But I… I miss the quiet. I miss the stars."
Her hands trembled.
"I miss being seen."
The swing creaked beneath her as the breeze grew colder. A child's laughter echoed in the distance—two siblings running to catch a ball near the playground. A dog barked. The world continued without her.
The moon didn't respond.
It couldn't.
Because this was the consequence of choice.
She had made a wish.
She had come to Earth.
And now she had to learn what it meant to be human.
By noon, the streets were packed.
Lunara walked slowly through the crowd, blending in as best she could. Her silver hair drew stares, and her pale skin shimmered under the sun no matter how much she tried to hide beneath a coat she'd borrowed from a bench.
She passed a bakery. The scent of warm bread made her stop. Her stomach twisted painfully. She watched people come and go with paper bags in their arms, smiling, chatting, living.
She reached out with trembling fingers toward a half-eaten sandwich someone had tossed in the trash. Just before she touched it—
"Hey!"
She froze.
A boy stood behind her, maybe fifteen. He was skinny, with dark curls falling into his eyes, and a backpack slung over one shoulder. His sneakers were torn, and his hoodie looked like it had lived through too many winters.
"You okay?" he asked, frowning. "You're not… like, crazy, are you?"
Lunara blinked. She didn't understand the question.
He sighed. "You homeless?"
She nodded slowly, not entirely sure what that meant but sensing it was the right answer.
He looked around, then handed her something from his pocket. A granola bar.
"Here. Take it. I stole it from the school vending machine. You look like you're gonna pass out."
Lunara took it with both hands, like it was a sacred offering. "Thank you," she whispered.
The boy gave her a strange look. "You talk weird."
"I'm new," she said simply.
He smirked. "No kidding."
That night, she found shelter under a broken awning behind a bookstore. The granola bar had been her first real food. It didn't taste like stars or light. It was chewy, too sweet, and a little bitter. But it filled something inside her.
She stared at the moon, now higher in the sky, glowing gently above skyscrapers and smoke.
"I made a mistake," she whispered. "I wasn't ready."
The silence that followed felt like agreement.
But just as she began to close her eyes, something stirred beside her.
A voice.
Rough. Tired. Curious.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
Lunara jumped.
A man leaned against the wall beside her. He was tall and dressed in black, with his hood up. His face was partly in shadow, but his eyes glinted—sharp and assessing.
She didn't answer.
He didn't move closer. He just lit a cigarette, the flame briefly revealing a scar across his jaw.
"I've seen you before," he said. "Yesterday. On the steps. You don't blink when cars pass. You walk like you're floating. That's not normal."
Lunara stayed silent.
The man took a slow drag and exhaled smoke toward the sky.
"You're running from something?" he asked.
She hesitated. "I'm… not supposed to be here."
He tilted his head, amused. "Aren't we all?"
Then, without another word, he flicked the cigarette away and disappeared into the alley's shadows.
The next morning, Lunara woke with a single thought pulsing in her heart like a drumbeat.
She couldn't leave.
Not yet.
Not like this.
If she went back now, all she'd take with her was pain, hunger, and loneliness. And that wasn't the world she had believed in. That wasn't the Earth she had wished to see.
Somewhere out there, people loved. Somewhere, they laughed like they meant it. Somewhere, a child was born and held for the first time. Somewhere, someone cried for someone else's pain.
She just hadn't found it yet.
But she would.
That night, she stood again beneath the moon, arms wide, eyes full of determination.
"I take it back," she whispered. "My wish."
The moon glowed faintly, listening.
"I don't want to go home just because it's easier. I want to stay until I find the part of this world that's worth aching for."
She placed a hand over her chest.
"I'll stay until it remembers me."
And from somewhere in the stillness of the night, a single star streaked across the sky.
A sign.
Not of permission.
But of promise.
She would stay.
She would learn.
She would live.
Even if it broke her.
To be continued…
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