The flight lasted about seven hours, and then the car ride had lasted about three more. Night had fallen, almost 10:30 p.m. The Prior men had arrived at a massive, curved stone signpost with a dark blue metal sign fixed in the center. On it, MoonHaven was written in sizable black letters.

A moving truck wasn't far behind the two. Alex looked up through the window at the moon hanging above the town. It had visible hints of lavender around its edges.

"I just remembered, you never told me a name for this mysterious friend in shining armor. Tell me about him," Grayson said.

"Her," Alex corrected. "Carsyn is her name. She's different — probably insane, but different, in a good way."

"Oooh, a girl huh?"

Alex sharply nudged Grayson's shoulder making him flinch. "Don't be immature. Can we go already? It's getting late and I'm hungry."

Grayson laughed and continued driving past the signpost. They drove through a lengthy, wide dirt path that sat between thin shrouds of towering trees.

Ten minutes went by, and finally on the other side, they saw a pool of houses with chimneys and white picket fences. On the far left side of the town, they spotted a dark and curved stone bridge over a thin stream of water. On the far right, they saw a lighter curved stone bridge leading to some sort of lookout point. In the distant center of the town, there was a small, still body of water with four glowing — lanterns, they guessed, around it.

As they drove further towards the center, they started noticing the closed garages of the houses, each occupied with a colourful vehicle parked in their driveway. They stopped just before the concrete road and got out of the car.

"You lost, boys?"

Grayson jumped, whirling himself around to see a man with black disheveled waves and a goatee to match, slumped back in a rocking chair, nursing a beer bottle. He wore an unbuttoned white collared shirt, black dress pants that were rolled up to the knees, and brown sandals that put his sandy-coloured toes on full display. Slowly, Alex turned to where Grayson was looking and stared as well.

"Relax, boy," the man said. "You two seem real awestruck by the place, so I figured this must be your first time in MoonHaven. You moving in, or visiting someone?"

"Oh...ah, no — I mean yes, we're moving in. And I'm a grown man, sir," Grayson stuttered. The man laughed.

"Hardly," Alex whispered. Grayson shot him a glare.

"Name's Grayson — Grayson Prior. That's my son there, Alex. We're looking for eighteen Hexicon Rd. Unit four."

"Alright, well pleasure to meet you two. They call me Martin Singh, and it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other. I'm Unit five, which means your place is right over there," he pointed to a house on his right.

"Oh, fantastic!" Grayson said.

"Hey! I gotta ask you something," Alex called to Martin.

"Manners, Lex," Grayson scolded.

"That's alright, boy. I'm quite used to the pugnacious mannerisms of the youth around here. A lot of adults are. Now what can I help you with, youngster?"

"You know someone living in this town named, Carsyn Mitchell?"

Martin's eyes went wide. "Carsyn...so you — are you some kind of acquaintance of hers or something?" Though hesitant, Alex nodded. Martin considered him for a moment. "Alright. If you say so youngster." He gestured in the direction of the darker bridge. "She's likely working her shift in the cafe, Halcyon it's called. It's the first building past the bridge there — Millennia bridge. Shop's gonna close soon. You can't miss the place. It's gotta bright, big, lavender sign."

Alex gave another silent nod, then smiled as he went on his way towards the bridge.

"H-hey, we still have to move in over here, Lex!" Grayson called.

"You go in first. Get the movers to help. I'll unpack tomorrow."

Martin snickered. "I think he'll fit right in with the other youths around here. Come on boy, I'll help ya out."

Grayson sighed and smiled. "Well if I'm a boy, then you're an old man."

"Ooh, the boy has just as much bite as his own boy. The moon has delivered to us an interesting duo, and next door to me too. This must be a test." Martin began to laugh hysterically.

Grayson couldn't help but laugh as well, and then he finally looked up and noticed the moon, its hints of lavender illuminating both the night sky and the town.

"Beautiful ain't it?" Martin remarked.

"Yeah..." Grayson said.

Millennia bridge was a charcoal stone structure. When Alex got to its peak, he stopped to get a better look at the body of water in the center of the town. It was a pond, encircled by concrete ground. The lanterns he and Grayson had seen were actually stone obelisks with thick, crescent moon shaped patterns on them lit with brilliant lights.

Alex gazed at the peaceful sight, but then he froze when he spotted someone — a girl it looked like, perched cross-legged on the other side of the pond not too far away, just staring into the shallow depths of the body of water. Alex checked his phone realizing he likely didn't have much time left before the café closed. He ignored the enigmatic scene across the pond and continued over the bridge.

Halcyon had no sign on the door to indicate whether it was closed or open. It was an enormous languid lavender building made of stone, just like a lot of other things in this town, Alex thought. He stepped inside and gawked at everything: the checkered black and white floor; the sky blue walls, the black, white, and colored photographs on the walls; the tables of various colored shapes; the dark blue chairs and booth seats; the yellow counter with a metallic top; the crimson red cash register; and the big neon jukebox in the right corner next to the front door. Oddly enough, the place was completely empty.

Alex scoped the interior until he caught sight of a plate barely covered with what looked like leftovers of someone's meal, perched on top of a yellow parallelogram table. His stomach rumbled, and ten seconds later he was seated at the table digging into whatever was left on the dish. It was shrimp. Spicy and sour at the same time. He loved it. He gobbled it up it in under a minute. He contemplated licking the plate clean.

"Hey!" someone yelled, as the sound of a door swinging back and forth began. "What the hell? You've got another thing coming if you think you aren't paying for those scraps, buddy!"

A girl with pale skin and long lavender hair, stomped over. One of her irises was blue, while the other was red. She donned a condiment-stained apron, and clutched a black staff with a thick silver band around it. On her right middle finger was a bolded tattoo of an 'S'.

"I've never seen you before. Some creeper sneaking into my café, eating other people's scraps like some hobo in New York. You have three seconds to tell me who the hell you are, or else."

Alex smiled at her but said nothing, and instead pulled out the lavender letter from his bag, and held it up for her to see.

"Where the hell did you get that? Wait...Alex?"

Alex's smile grew wider. "Syn."

"Damn...it's actually you, Lexy. Not that I'm upset about it but, why are you here? I warned you, ya know?"

Alex nodded. "Long story short, rents are divorcing, my dad and I moving here permanently. Haven't had a decent meal in hours. How much for the leftovers then?"

Carsyn stopped him from taking out his wallet. "It's on me, Lexy."

He shrugged, "thanks, Syn. Enough about me right now. This is really your own restaurant, huh? If the scraps are this good, a whole meal must be amazing here. How much for some more?"

She ruffled his hair and slid into the seat next to him. "Cool your jets. First, you're gonna put all these chairs up on the tables to pay for your late night snack. It'd be bad business to let some guy I met for the first time get off from the check. When you're done, then we can talk about getting you more food."

He nodded again before getting to it. He felt her gaze on him as his back was turned, but pretended not to.

The front door flew opened, and in stepped a boy with pale skin, dressed head to toe in black. His midnight blue strands were neatly combed over. He had a tattoo on each of his forearms; single phrases written in a small font backwards. Strapped to his back, was a sword with a black handle.

The first thing he noticed was Alex holding a chair in his hands, seconds away from placing it on a table. The boy glared at him. Alex stared back, clueless to action.

"Who the hell are you?" the boy questioned.

"Oh, Ziro!" Carsyn waved to the stranger, but he paid no attention to her. "Did I not call to say I was gonna be late?"

"You didn't," Ziro replied, still not looking at her.

"Oh, that's my bad. Anyway, meet Alex. He's the pen-pal I've been telling you guys about."

Ziro gave him a once-over before finally looking at Carsyn. "Come here for a sec." Carsyn sauntered over and motioned to Alex to continue putting up chairs. "He's white."

"He is," Carsyn remarked, sarcastic. "Talk about seeing a unicorn in the desert."

Ziro shook his head. "Why is he here?"

"His parents are splitsville, and now he and his dad are here to stay. How 'bout I tell him to hold off on the long story for when we're all together? That way he doesn't have to repeat it over and over. I know he's a complete stranger, and you value your little confidential meetings more than the air you breathe, so maybe we could just wait till tomorrow morning to hear him out. You tell the gang the news. And I hate to say it, but I can't make tonight's meeting. Someone's gotta watch him."

Ziro looked between him and Carsyn. "Then I will ask him tomorrow, after he tells us his story."

Carsyn sighed, but a sarky grin quickly caught her lips. "Try not to scar him. He's not from around here, and he's white, remember?"

Ziro didn't laugh. "Depends on him. Depends on the truth." And he was gone.