I am the firework in this velvet darkness

She placed her fingers upon the transparent thin veil. The tinted glass reflecting her alabaster perfection . She longed to be able to bask until she was baked bronze. As soon as the day showed any promise of balminess her new neighbours would find their spot. They’d attempt to conceal their joy when they noticed her peering at them from above. Feigning ignorance they’d turn their sun loungers towards the sun, away from Luna’s wistful gaze.

When they first discovered that Luna had an affliction to the day they thought it couldn’t be that serious. I mean, who really was allergic to the sun?

Well Luna was, yet she yearned to feel the warmth prickle her skin, for it to cast an halo across her face, to form diamonds between the strands of her pearlescent hair.

Her Grandmother would reminisce on that fateful day, she’d forget that Luna was the child in her story. She’d brush her granddaughter’s moonbeam hair, allowing it to softly drift in between her gnarled arthritic fingers.

‘It was so terrible, to see such delicate skin bubble and blister. I put her in the pram while I was hanging out the washing, the weather had turned warmer. You see Luna is an Autumn baby, she’d never felt the sun brighten her skin until that day. The last day. How she screamed. I daubed her in ice, until her skin no longer sizzled. How she was not scarred is a mystery. From that day she remained inside.

'Do you know Luna?' She'd ask. 'If you do, tell her to forgive her mother. It wasn't Dawn's fault, she left to find her God.'

Luna had given up explaining that she had now grown, that she was that burned child, that she didn't believe in Gods and magic. Dawn had left her daughter because she knew Luna was damaged, her difference too hard to bare.

Her Grandmother was wrong though. It wasn’t the last time that she had felt the scalding fingers of the sun. Luna had tested her limitations. She’d experimented with solar rays, discovering how long she could expose her naked skin before it would begin to scarlet. She often wondered if her Mother had known. She must have known to give her the name Luna. She wished she could ask her, but no one knew where she was. Soon after the burning incident she had left. There were rumours, but there always is…

As Luna grew she felt an inner power bloom. Like a moonflower she’d slowly unfurl at the setting of the sun, eventually pouring out her potential into the crushed velvet dark. She’d glance at the quote above her bed

"We are the fireworks in this velvet dark, the blaze that dares to light up the night.” She’d smile. She did light up the night, she no longer belonged to it; she owned it…

Until the morning arrived, when like the moonflower she’d curl up, reverting back to her closed form.

“And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon."

It was the beginning of a new dawn…

Dawn had longed to start University, to escape the constant barrage of demands. It hadn’t been her mother, she was as much a slave has Dawn had been. There had been the odd friend, but eventually they’d get bored with the constant excuses. Her life belonged to her father, so when Dawn was offered a chance to escape she was afraid that he’d not allow her to leave.

At first her father was incredulous ‘What the bloody hell is natural sciences? Only science I’ve heard about is biology,’. He laughed winking at her mother.

Dawn knew better then to argue with him, after all it wasn’t her he’d take it out on. She shrivelled into her shell, the mundanity of her continued existence too terrible to contemplate. The silence within her world was palpable. Her mother continued to pretend while her father laughed at her sullenness.

‘Oh Dawn, stop with the silence now. I’ve changed my mind. Uncle Jude’s daughter is off to train to be a doctor. I told him that you’d got into Loughborough. You should have seen his face when I told him. Apparently it’s pretty hard to get a place, you have to be super smart. I have to tell you Dawn, I was shocked. Who knew that beneath that pathetic exterior you had a brain. So you can go…’

As each day passed, she could feel a sense of urgency, her mood lightened as her impatience grew, finally her name meant something. She was indeed at the beginning of a new dawn…

So when she found that she was too shy, too niaive to the world, too lost in her own world to make friends; she settled into a new form of loneliness. Then she met Lottie. Lottie was as bright as the sun, blinding. Her bright sienna hair, and bolshie personality lit up Dawn’s world. She took Dawn under her wing, became her teacher of all things illicit. She became Dawn’s muse and Lottie’s plaything.

'Come on Dawn, let me curl your hair, that tint of pink really suits you. Dawn nodded, as she stared at her reflection, the candy Floss frizz standing out like a halo. ‘I’m so excited, have you got that bikini on that I bought you? It makes you look hot. I’ve never been to a party at the lake before, apparently their pretty exclusive.’ The excitement fizzled in Dawn too.

After several drinks and Dawn’s refusal to ingest the little crescent shaped tablet, Lottie fervently insisted that Dawn strip off her tight jeans and t-shirt. She felt as though she was at a cattle market, the girls smirked while the boys looked as though they wanted a piece of her. She turned and ran, slipping on the embankment into the bleak icy depths; only the blurred outline of the moon could be seen hovering above the lake’s surface. Dawn reached for it, when suddenly she felt herself being lured towards it. Translucent, iridescent arms reached out to her, guiding her, enfolding her. Floating above the stillness, Dawn held on to the beauty that saved her… as she danced within his moonlight.