Fractures in the Sky
Stella couldn’t sleep. Again.
It wasn’t the usual feeling of restlessness she often dealt with — this time, it was something deeper, something gnawing at her from the inside. Her star pulsed weakly in her chest, a faint, rhythmic thrum that she could feel in every fiber of her being. It was calling to her, but not in the way it used to. The connection felt distant, wrong somehow, like a tether pulling her somewhere she couldn’t follow.
She rolled over in her bed, pulling the thick blanket tighter around her shoulders. The room was dark, save for the slivers of moonlight slipping through the window. The stars above were barely visible through the haze of magic that hung thick in the atmosphere of Alfea.
Alfea — this place felt like it was suffocating her. She had once felt so alive here, surrounded by magic, the very air crackling with possibility. Now, it felt as though the walls were closing in on her, the magic suffocating rather than inspiring.
And the other girls. The Winx. They weren’t just her friends. They were her lifeline. The bond they shared, this strange, unspoken connection between them that was growing stronger every day. The more they stayed together, the more Stella could feel their thoughts intertwining with hers, their emotions a constant presence in her mind. It was both a comfort and a source of overwhelming pressure. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d been alone with her own thoughts, without the soft echoes of Bloom’s fear or Musa’s anxious hum in the back of her mind.
With a sigh, Stella sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes. She needed to get out, to breathe. She couldn’t stay locked away in this room much longer.
Quietly, she slipped out of bed, her bare feet touching the cool floor. The hallway outside her room was quiet, dark and still. She moved quickly and silently, too familiar with sneaking around the castle. She needed a moment to herself, away from the others, away from the weight of their expectations. And yet, as she reached the door that led outside, she felt the tug again — the pull of the stars, faint and almost imperceptible.
Her heart beat faster. Without thinking, she pushed open the door and stepped out into the night.
The cold air hit her like a splash of water. The sky above was a blanket of dark velvet, the stars blinking weakly through the haze of magic that clouded the atmosphere. It was a poor view of the stars — her stars — and it made something twist painfully in her chest.
She moved farther out onto the grass, her footsteps soft and hesitant. For a moment, everything felt still. The world was asleep. And in that stillness, she could feel the weight of something greater, something older — something that wasn’t supposed to be here.
A flash of light flickered in the corner of her vision. Stella froze, her heart leaping into her throat.
It was faint, a brief shimmer of golden light that was quickly swallowed by the night. Her breath caught in her chest. That wasn’t a trick of the moonlight. It wasn’t an illusion.
She had felt that before. Years ago, in the heart of the battle against the Ancestral Witches, when the lines between worlds had started to blur. That same light, that same pull — it’s happening again.
"Stella?"
The voice cut through the tension like a knife, and Stella turned to see Bloom standing at the edge of the courtyard, her face pale and tired. “You okay?” she asked softly, though there was an edge of worry in her tone.
Stella’s heart skipped a beat. Bloom was always the one to sense when something was wrong, when Stella was struggling. It didn’t matter how much she tried to hide it — Bloom always saw through her.
“I’m fine,” Stella said quickly, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. But her voice wavered, and she knew Bloom could hear it.
“You’re not,” Bloom replied, taking a step closer. Her gaze flicked up to the sky, as if she could feel the same pull that Stella had. “What’s going on?”
“I — I don’t know,” Stella admitted, her hands trembling as she looked back at the sky. “There’s something wrong, Bloom. I can feel it. My star — it’s. . .not right. And the magic here feels off. Like it’s being twisted.”
Bloom’s brow furrowed with concern. She reached out, placing a hand on Stella’s shoulder. “What do you mean ‘twisted’?”
Before Stella could respond, there was another flicker of golden light. It was stronger this time, almost blinding. Stella’s breath caught in her throat as she instinctively reached for her magic.
And then —
The world bent.
It wasn’t like before, when they’d been thrown back in time. This felt different. More violent. Time itself twisted around them like a rope, warping and stretching until everything felt like it was on the verge of snapping.
Stella gasped, her hands instinctively glowing with golden light as she reached out for Bloom, pulling her closer as if that would somehow shield them from whatever was happening.
“What’s happening?” Bloom gasped, her voice sharp with panic.
“I don’t know!” Stella shouted, but her voice was barely heard over the sound of a rising wind, a deep, vibrating hum in the air. It was like the very fabric of reality was being torn apart.
Suddenly, everything stopped. The wind died. The light faded.
And they were no longer standing in the Alfea courtyard.
Stella blinked, disoriented, her heart racing. Where were they? What had just happened?
Bloom was beside her, equally bewildered, her hand gripping Stella’s arm as if she could anchor herself in this new, unfamiliar place.
The world around them was a blur. Dark and silent.
Then, a voice spoke — a voice not from the present, but from somewhere else, somewhere older.
“You’ve returned.”