[ WP ] At the edge of the city , you could look out into the dark .

`` What is it you see out there?'' 
 
 Luna sat at the edge of the concrete wall as Derek stepped forward. Thirty feet down, tree tips swayed in the darkness, muddled green waves that lasted the long night. It had been three days since they saw the sun last, and the weather report said it'd be another three'til sunrise. 
 
 She turned around to his dim outline, a cut-out in front of the soft twinkle of the city beyond. `` I see what we left behind -- nature.'' She turned back again and wished she could run once more out there, like her parents had. Like she had. 
 
 `` Death you mean. That's all that's out there. A forest filled to the brim with life that wants us gone.'' 
 
 Derek had been there when Luna came through the check-point. He was around the same age as her, so for lack of immediate alternatives, she had chosen to befriend him. It was still hard to know if it was a mistake. `` Why are you up here then if you hate the view?'' 
 
 `` The vid lot was boring. They're showing the same five films again tonight. Vines of Venus started and I thought it time to go.'' Derek always side-stepped the real questions. His attitude always tended toward sliding between the cracks, and his body had to shape to match. Sometimes Luna wondered if a single, strong breeze would knock him over the wall into the forest he detested. 
 
 She looked out over the landscape. For some reason, the trees never grew above forty feet, leveling out in uniformity regardless of the terrain below. No one questioned it, just as no one moved beyond the wall. 
 
 `` I think I want to go see it.'' Tears began welling up, a reminder of memories she spent five years pushing to the back of her mind. There was a house, nestled beyond the boundaries of the forest, at the very edge. It was snug, or maybe it was that way when she was small. There was always a fire dwindling in the hearth, and constant stream of pictures above the mantle. 
 
 `` See what?'' His voice oozed ignorance. She'd bunked with him, ate with him, but the veil never dropped between them. She was just some exotic thing, a nymph come through the portal into his world. How could he understand that there was -- is -- a world out there. Her world. 
 
 `` I'm leaving next week, heading back home. I think it's time.'' Luna raised her hand and stretched her fingers toward the horizon. It'd be out there. Somewhere. 
 
 `` You ca n't. They wo n't open the gate for people leaving. You have to stay here.'' He was dancing around it again. His words swirled, a vortex always pointing toward what he really wanted. 
 
 `` Is that all?'' She was tired of playing. Luna needed him to say it before she could go. 
 
 `` The council --'' 
 
 `` The council will let me leave. They knew it was a condition of mine in the first place. I brought them what they needed, they'd let me leave when it was time.'' 
 
 `` I -- I,'' he stuttered, caught between the dazzle of the city and her. Her, enveloped in the embrace of a world he feared. A world that lacked even the basic trappings of his world. 
 
 `` Say it!'' It was overdue, and he needed to understand. 
 
 `` I need you. You ca n't leave because I need you, Luna.'' He moved to the edge of the wall, standing next to her. Derek clenched his fists, a reaction he'd developed when there was nothing to hit. He could n't fight the truth, and she knew it. 
 
 `` I'm sorry, but you need to make a choice too. I'm going, but you can come with me. I need to see it once more before I die. I need to stare into the void at the edge of the world.'' She stood, a wisp next to his form. `` It will tell me what to do next.'' 
 

