The first sensation was pain.
Konstant woke with his back burning and a metallic taste in his mouth. Everything was blurry. He blinked several times until the dark wooden ceiling above him finally came into focus.
"Where am I?"
The smell of stored grain filled his nostrils. The floor beneath him was hard and cold, pure wood with no mattress. Every small movement sent waves of pain through his back.
His heartbeat quickened.
This wasn't the cabin.
He pushed himself up slowly, feeling every muscle protest, his arms trembling with effort. During the six months he had spent alone, he had learned to wake in silence—always alert, always listening before moving. Necessity had sharpened that habit into instinct.
So he stopped, simply listening. There were breaths. Two people seemed to be asleep. One breathing pattern was uneven, the kind someone has during a nightmare. The other was deeper, but tense, as if the person might wake at any moment.
The place was dim, though not completely dark. Thin lines of golden light traced under the edge of a door, illuminating floating specks of dust that danced in the air. Konstant squinted until the shapes around him came into focus.
It was a storage room. Burlap sacks, swollen and forgotten, formed uneven piles against rough wooden walls. Crates stacked haphazardly cast crooked shadows, and among them he made out the familiar outline of hanging tools: the curved beak of a sickle, the teeth of a rake. Objects from a life that suddenly felt a world away.
And on the floor, near him, were two people. They were young. About his age. The closest was a thin boy with dark hair falling over a pale face. He was curled up, his knees pulled to his chest. Between the messy strands, his deep black eyes seemed to catch everything, even in the dim light. A little farther away, a girl with long dark hair slept in an oddly defensive position, one arm thrown over her face and her fists clenched.
Konstant crawled toward them, careful not to make noise. The cold wooden floor seeped through his worn clothes. As he approached, he noticed the dark-haired boy trembling slightly, shifting in his sleep with a troubled expression.
First, Konstant lightly touched the boy's shoulder. When there was no reaction, he pressed a little harder. "Hey," he whispered. His voice sounded strange and rough, as if he hadn't used it in days. "Wake up."
Rady jolted awake, his eyes wide in the dim light. He let out a startled sound, a mixture of a gasp and a choke, and immediately tried to pull away. However, his disoriented movements only caused him to bump into one of the grain sacks.
"No," he said, his voice low and tense. His eyes darted between Konstant and the closed door, searching for threats and an escape route. "I don't...where..."
"Hey, calm down," Konstant said softly, keeping his hands visible. "I just woke up here too, okay? I don't know where we are."
But Rady didn't seem reassured. He curled up against the grain sack and hugged his knees in a defensive posture. At least he wasn't trying to run anymore. His breathing was fast and shallow. He didn't look away from Konstant, not out of fear but with cautious, wary focus, as if expecting something bad to happen at any second.
"It's alright," Konstant said, recalling how he spoke to frightened animals in the forest. Softly, without sounding like a threat. "I'm Konstant. What's your name?"
Rady opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. For a moment, it seemed he wouldn't answer, but finally he whispered, "Rady." The word was so quiet Konstant barely heard it.
"Okay, Rady. Are you hurt?"
Rady shook his head slightly, though tension still gripped every muscle. His fingers twisted together in a nervous, automatic motion.
Before Konstant could say anything else, a sudden movement on the other side of the room made him turn.
Their voices had woken the girl.
She lurched to her feet abruptly. Still dizzy, she swayed dangerously, but managed to steady herself. In seconds, her eyes scanned the room, taking in the dim storage space, the two boys, and the single door. Then, mimicking a fighting stance she had probably seen on TV, she raised her fists, placing her feet poorly and sticking out her elbows. Nevertheless, the fierce determination in her expression almost made up for her poor technique.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" she shouted, her voice cracking in the middle. "Who are you? Where am I? SOMEONE SAY SOMETHING!"
She spun around, her long hair whipping around her, and checked every corner. Konstant saw the exact moment fear slipped beneath the anger. Her eyes widened and her breath quickened. Still, she clenched her fists tighter, as if physical pain could hold back the panic.
In the corner, Rady shrank further at the sound of her shouting, part of his face hidden behind his knees. He didn't speak, but his hands tightened around his legs.
"Please don't yell," Konstant said, firm but quiet. "We don't know where we are either."
Her expression shifted. The fury faded, replaced by confusion and suspicion. She lowered her fists a little. "You… you don't know? You aren't the ones who brought me here?"
"No," Konstant said. He stayed kneeling deliberately. He didn't want to look threatening. "I woke up here just like you. My name is Konstant."
She studied him for a long moment, then glanced at Rady. Slowly, she lowered her fists all the way. "Keiko," she said, the name leaving her lips reluctantly. Then, softer: "And him?"
"Rady," the boy murmured without lifting his head.
Keiko finally dropped her hands completely, though tension continued to buzz through her movements. She began pacing, steps quick and uneven. "This doesn't make sense. I was in my room. How am I in…" She gestured in frustration at the storage room. "…in this place? What even is this?"
Konstant had no answer. His eyes drifted to the single closed door. With a quiet exhale, he dragged himself to the wall and sat with his back against it, positioning himself where he could watch the entrance. It wasn't comfortable—the wood pressed sharply into his bruised back—but it was better. And it showed he wasn't planning to attack anyone.
Seeing Konstant sit eased Rady a little. He was still curled up, but his breathing began to slow.
"What's the last thing you remember?" Konstant asked.
Keiko stopped pacing. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "I was in my room. Looking out the window. There was that meteor shower—you saw it, right? On TV they said it would be the biggest one in fifty years." Her tone turned bitter. "My parents wouldn't let me go outside to watch, obviously. They never let me do anything. Always 'it's dangerous, Keiko,' or 'you could get hurt, Keiko.'"
Her words gained speed, her hands starting to move as she spoke. "So I was watching from inside. From my room. And there were so many stars, it was so pretty, and then…"
Her voice thinned into almost nothing. "One of the stars was coming straight at the window. Straight at me. I thought it would pass, but it didn't. The light came in and… everything turned white. Like when you accidentally look at the sun. But worse. And… now I'm here."
Konstant felt his stomach tighten. "Same for me," he said quietly. "I was outside. Watching the stars. And then one came right at me. Everything turned white."
Both of them looked at Rady.
"Rady?" Konstant called gently. "What about you?"
Rady didn't answer at first. His fingers kept their nervous motion for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was so soft they had to lean in. "I was outside. At the place where I stay. I saw the stars. So many stars. It was… pretty." His voice grew even quieter. "One came down. I couldn't get out of the way. And then… here."
Silence. Konstant felt the air grow heavy.
It couldn't be a coincidence. Three people. Three falling stars. Three...
"So either we're all losing our minds," Keiko said, her voice trembling, "or…"
No one finished the sentence.
The silence broke when the door began to open.