The Rebel Star Part 5

“You’re glowing,” I told her, as we slowed on the main street.

The street-lights cast pools of gold on the pavement. Dark clouds had covered the stars.

“Yes! Isn’t it brilliant?”

“People don’t glow.”

“Oh. Don’t they? Of course! They don’t!”

I tugged at her arm. “You need clothes.”

But her glow was fading. The dark windows of the shops showed racks of clothes and shelves of crockery, but the woman stopped in the middle of the street. She stared at her dimming hands.

“My power… It can’t survive down here,” she said sadly. “I’m… it’s going away.”

“Will you be all right?” I asked.

She didn’t look at me. “Oh, well, nothing like improvisation. Shall we break in?”

“What? We can’t do that!”

“Now that isn’t the attitude I’m looking for!”

I had to grab her arm, pull her back from the glass doors before she could smash them open with a fist.

“Stop that! Stop it!”

“Aw, you’re no fun!”

I asked her name, and she smiled.

“My real name describes the starlight on a lake,” she told me. “But you can call me Fallen.”

From the valley below, a roar shook the houses.

NEXT STOP: Stroud Bookshop XXXlocationXXX