Chapter Twelve: Campfire Story

"Oh that was great," Seungri moaned, leaning back on his chair and patting his stomach, which was now full of food. Everyone was finishing up their meals to head over to where TOP and Daesung were setting the campfire. I was too busy with throwing away the trash that I didn't notice GD creep up behind me.

"Surprise!" I yelped as he grabbed my waist.

"What are you doing?" I said, laughing as I pushed him away gently. These past couple of weeks I've gotten used to GD's antics and I've learned that playing along is usually better. He smiled and opened up a can of soda.

"Waiting for you," He said, taking a sip. He looked at me again before extending his arm towards the others. "After you."

"Oh my, what a gentlemen," I mocked, taking his soda and stealing a sip before he ran to me and snatched it back.

"You could've asked!" He yelled. "I would've said no, but still!" I laughed and shrugged my shoulders. GD looked ahead at everyone else sitting around in a circle. "So what usually happens at these?"

"Eh, TOP's a great story teller," I told him. We ended up sharing a log with Seungri and Taeyang. Seungri was complaining to himself because he wanted to sit next to Electra, who was sitting with Giana, Reimy, and Ambrose on the opposite side. Taeyang hadn't really talked much since they all starting eating.

"GD," TOP said. He was sitting on a log with Daesung and Helen. "Do you mind?" he asked. GD stared at him with a confusing face until TOP shifted his eyes to the stack of logs in the middle of everyone.

"Oh!" GD exclaimed. He got up and showed off his fire breath to light up the stack of logs. Everyone clapped and GD bowed before sitting back down.

"Ok," Daesung said, clapping his hands together. "What do you guys feel like hearing?"

"Talk about how Eugene fought off all those drones to save all the kids with him," Reimy suggested. Electra scoffed.

"Nah, too lame," she said. "TOP, talk about how we basically saved the city of Celeste all by ourselves!"

"Aww," Ambrose said. "I kind of wanted to hear Reimy's story. It sounded-"

"I vote for Electra's!" Taeyang announced. "It sounds more exciting."

"Aw, but I've heard that one before," I whined. Technically, I've heard all of them, but that particular one bothers me because they didn't let me go with them.

"Who's Celeste?" Seungri asked. Everyone stopped talking and looked at him.

"Are you serious?" Electra asked. Seungri shrugged.

"I know the city was named after her and our race, but why?" he asked. Helen turned to GD and Taeyang.

"Do you two know who Celeste is?" she asked. They both shook their heads and the rest of us looked at TOP. He stared at us until finally he spoke.

"No one knows for sure who was the first of our kind, we might've have been around as long as humans for all we know, but the humans always made sure to keep their distance from us. Sure, they called us freaks, excluded us from their world, but they never harmed us until Alexander came along. No one knows why, but Alexander hated our kind with a passion and stopped at nothing to make sure we all were killed. Eventually, our kind retaliated. People died on both sides and our kind was isolated from humans even more. But there was one individual who didn't believe violence was the answer to our problems. Her name was Celeste. How do I describe her? Celeste was the most extraordinary of our kind to ever live. Her powers were limitless, to this day no one knows what she was fully capable of."

"So what happened?" Seungri asked. TOP continued,

"She asked for the help of her hometown. The people there loved her so much that they all assisted her in harboring runaways in danger of Alexander's wrath. Everything seemed to be fine until Alexander figured out what she was doing. His army of drones attacked the town and many people were killed. Although she hated the idea of violence, Celeste defended those who were still alive and fought against Alexander. No one is alive today to know what happened, but one thing is for sure: Celeste defeated Alexander."

"What?" GD asked. "So how come the Dark Age happened?"

"We don't know," TOP said. "Most people speculate that Celeste just couldn't do it, she couldn't kill Alexander. So when she let her guard down, he killed her."

"What?!?" Taeyang shouted. "That's not right!"

"It's what happened," Daesung replied. "That's the thing about history, it doesn't have to be right."

"After the death of Celeste Alexander and his drones overthrew the government and became the world's supreme ruler," TOP continued. "Because of this accomplishment, he gave himself the title Alexander the Almighty and we've been in the Dark Age ever since."

"That's so...tragic," GD mumbled. "I sort of expected a happy ending."

"Well it kind of is," Helen said. "The survivors discovered an area beneath the mountain to rebuild and named the city after Celeste. Along with that, they labeled our race Celestrian. Do you know how important that was? Now our kind can live our lives without being labeled as 'freaks' or 'monsters.' We're our own race." GD nodded. Seungri stood up.

"Thank you for the story," he said, bowing at TOP.

"No problem, little man." TOP checked his watch. "We should probably go, Charlie's going to worry." Everyone packed up their stuff and got in the van. Reimy was saying goodbye to Ambrose before Giana took him in her car.

"Thanks for coming," Reimy told him, kissing his cheek. Ambrose nodded and left with Giana. I noticed Reimy's head was looking down as they drove off so I walked over to him.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked, slipping my arm through his.

"We broke up," he mumbled, wiping a tear with the sleeve of his shirt. My eyes slightly grew and I wrapped my hands around him.

"It's ok," He said. "We both saw it coming so we ended it on a good note." He turned to me. "I'll be fine, let's go." He took my hand and we both entered the van. Seungri, who was sitting next to us, patted Reimy's back.

"It'll be alright, Reimy, you'll find yourself someone better," He said.

"You heard us?" he asked.

"Yeah," he mumbled, then his eyes popped open and he threw his hands up. "But not on purpose, I swear!"

"What happened?" GD asked, sitting behind us. Seungri turned to answer, but I beat him to it.

"Just leave it," I told him, begging GD to trust me with eyes. He nodded and I turned back around, but not before catching the look of concern Taeyang had, a look that was solely on Reimy.