Star-Crossed

01:Awakened

PROLOGUE; 18 YEARS AGO

“What have you done?”

The monotone of his voice made everything worse but at this point she was past caring, past fighting, past trying.

“I’d rather have her dead.”

He moved closer. She closed her eyes reaching out with her essence for anything that could tell her why he was doing this and felt…nothing.

“Impossible” the words slipped quietly from her lips. He had no emotions, not even a whisper, almost like he was dead, the perfect weapon against her kind.

The heat from the vast chasm below stung her eyes and singed her hair but she didn’t move. Past caring, past fighting, past trying, maybe even like her attacker, empty.

His hand buried itself in her hair, wrapping it around and between his fingers with the unhurried slowness of one who knew he had already crushed the wind pipe of his prey and it was already as good as dead. Using it as leverage, her jerked her head back and bared her neck.

A single tear rolled down her eyes. So sudden and cold compared to the heat around, she almost jerked in surprise, raising shaky fingers to her face. Past caring; a single tear was the only expression she could manage, past trying; not even flinching when she felt the coolness of his blade against her neck, but past fighting…never. Soon they would all burn, she was only going first.

“You know he will find her.”

A harsh bark of laughter escaped her. “Even he cannot pass the veil that separates the dead. Do what you have to. I tire of this.”

It was so fast, her last thought never even fully formed. Her head tumbled down first, disappearing in the darkness and heat far below, a gentle push sent the rest of her after it.

The other one stepped out from where he had been the entire time, cloaked in the shadows as if materializing from nothing, the fury on his face contorting his features almost beyond recognition. The hunter sheathed his sword. “We will find another.”

“This one took a hundred souls” His voice was a calm beautiful baritone, built to calm, to lead, to deceive.

“We will give you a hundred more.”

The deceiver shook his head slowly. “My patience wears thin.”

“I will not fail you again.”

“No, you won’t.” The deceiver turned slowly towards the hunter “Die.”

The hunter walked straight, tall and without a backward glance into the chasm down below, the flames greedily swallowing him.

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She was tired again; lately it was all she ever was. The endless rain wasn’t making things any better. Its pitter-patter against roofs a constant droning sound, drilling itself into her brain, the cold seeping into her bones so much, it was like she would never be warm again. She couldn’t remember went last it had been dry, when last she’d seen the sun. This wasn’t normal, a regular Nigerian rainy season was punctuated by days of bright sunshine and intense heat spells but now, all it had done for days was rain and all she wanted was for it to stop.

Readjusting the strap of her gym bag, she walked briskly down the sidewalk, not even bothering to dodge the puddles of water that had gathered in the cracks of the street. The hood of her sweater wasn’t to protect her from the rain or even hide the fact that she was an 18 year old girl walking down deserted streets alone at 11pm in the night. No it was to hide her hair, the bright red vibrancy of it.

Her hair had always been an unusual color; a dark reddish brown that was actually more black than anything especially for someone with dark caramel skin and dark brown eyes like hers. However over the years, the black had begun to fade, leaving a muddy red behind. How she had hated it. Her school had punished her at first, accusing her of dyeing it and refusing to believe either her or her mother who swore heaven and earth that they hadn’t. No Nigerian ever had hair that looked like that, never mind that it was curly and kinky has they come. It just wasn’t normal and would not be tolerated.

She spent the rest of her school years with a crew cut and just when she had finally accepted it after graduation, maybe even began to love it, growing it out a little and getting a fade cut every few months that made her look stunning and surprisingly badass, the brown faded and left her with bright red hair. One day she was 17 with unusual slightly reddish hair, the next she was 18 with a head full of ruby-red hair.

She took a sharp left between two buildings with bare concrete walls into an alley so tight she had to walk sideways. It was the shortest, most secretive way to her destination. The alley ended leading to a chain-link fence that extended sideways on both sides of her. Her bag made a faint thud as went over first and landed softly in the grass below, before she deftly followed, hooking her toes in the holes of the fencing and vaulting over with an ease that came from having done the same thing multiple times.

The first times her friends had come here, she’d hadn’t wanted to but it had been a dare, teens were stupid creatures and following along was always easier than standing up for yourself.

She remembered how she had scrambled up the fence trying to find her footing, barely making it over and falling awkwardly on the other side; vaguely cursing at whoever it was who had thought it would be “interesting” to break into a school and wondering how she was going to explain the rips in the jeans from when they had caught on the fence to her mom.

It was this big deal, almost, you could say, a rite of passage for students to rig the windows in the day so they could sneak back in at night. Getting in and out despite the 3 security guards that were always around was the ultimate proof that you could be daring, fearless, and just the right amount of bad. Of course having a chain-link fence that led to an alley around a building full of hormonal rebellious teenagers and telling children not to sneak in and out of school was like putting a fish in the ocean and telling it not to swim-stupid.

Even now, staying close to the shadows of the walls and sneaking round to the gym windows on the west side of the building, Moria knew why she had gone with them that night despite knowing how dumb it was, why she had never been able to say no to their plans no matter how dangerous or idiotic. In that moment, banged up and bruised, trying to pretend she wasn’t limping, giggling with her classmates like coming to school for the second time in a day was the funniest thing ever (it’s not) and pfft wasn’t jumping that fence just the easiest thing in the world, she had finally felt like a part of something, almost like she finally belonged. She had obviously been fooling herself because when the guard had come, drawn by the noise, flashlight highlighting the windows, everyone had fled, leaving her the least experienced one behind to get caught then conveniently ganging up the next morning to deny any involvement in the matter, letting her take the fall for all of them.

The school gymnasium occupied the entire west wing on the ground floor of the three story building to the far left that housed the secondary school students during the day, the other two buildings were the primary and nursery classes to the right and the administrative building smack dab in the center.

She had jumped the fence at the far right of the school and now making sure to keep to the darkness of the fence-the lamp posts were directed away from it and towards the school- she made her way quietly round behind the other buildings to the fence at the back of the secondary section. She didn’t enjoy the adrenaline rush that came as she ran across the open field, bending at the waist and clutching her hood to her head. She had to lean against the wall to catch her breath. It didn’t matter that she’d been doing this for over a year. She wasn’t a risk taker, she never would be.

A furtive look to her around the corner assured her that no one was there and she turned sharply to the left, still keeping her back to the wall so that the window was now right beside her.

Arriving at her destination, she rooted around quickly in her bag for the card she normally used to jimmy the pathetic lock on the window which the school hadn’t even bothered to change. Obviously they had thought expelling her two years ago, was enough of a deterrent for other possible budding criminals. The sound of whistling from the left reached her ears even before she saw the circle of the flash light appear on the fence adjacent the other end of the wall; someone was coming from the front of the building.

Ignoring the flashbacks from that night two years ago, she jammed her card in the space between the window and the wall and shook it around, the window didn’t even budge. The circle of light was getting bigger, the whistling clearer; a tune she recognized but could not place because she was too busy trying to calm her erratic breathing; whoever it was would only have to turn the corner and they would see her. Still refusing to panic she tried again and then she noticed the cement around the window. It was slightly wet and had very, very much not been there the last time she was here.

The Bastards had finally decided to change the windows.

She stuck her back against the wall and turned the corner in the direction she had come from just as the light beamed straight towards where she had been standing. There was another window behind her, one she never used because it was usually sealed shut. In one last act of desperation she pulled at the window just as she saw another beam of light approach from her right. There were now two of them headed this way and the window wouldn’t budge.

Why now? Why today? Today’s spell had been the worst of them all. They’d started about a year ago; she’d pass by someone and experience feelings that weren’t hers, emotions that raced through her making her suddenly inexplicably sad or incredibly happy, intensely irritable or burning with rage, so scared she could barely breathe, so lightheaded she could almost fly. And as quickly as it had come, it would pass and she’d be left feeling drained and unimaginably tired then, the headaches would begin-violent and debilitating-and would not stop sometimes for days. It was after one such day in utter desperation, she had gone back home and promptly immersed herself in a bathtub full of water, hoping it would make her feel better by luring her to sleep, it had worked and not by making her sleepy, no.

The relief had been instant, whole and shocking in its perfection. One second it felt like someone was opening up a club party in her head, the next it was just…gone.

Bathtubs became Moria’s instant slice of heaven, but today it hadn’t been enough. Her 18th birthday had started like any other birthday had. Her mom bursting into her room with a plate piled high with pancakes at an ungodly hour of the morning and yanked off the blanket from her head. “Happy…”

She felt it even before her eyes opened, before she heard the plate crash to the ground. A hot flash followed by confusion tangy with the taste of fear none of which was hers. She jumped up, a scream o the tip of her tongue, to see her mother, hands over her mouth and eyes the size of saucers; the pancakes in a ruined pile at her feet.

“Moria”

Her mother’s accent was almost never obvious but when it was, her “a” was pronounced “ha”. A glimpse in the mirror beside her bed had revealed the reason for her mother’s fear; her glowing red shoulder length curls that had been very short and not that color when she went to bed last night.

“Mom?”

Moria’s voice did not sound like someone on the cusp of adulthood. It was the voice of a child, still trusting her mother to make everything go away but her mother could not bring herself to look her in the eyes instead she bent down and wordlessly began to pick up the plate and the now ruined pancakes, chocolate filling staining her white rug. Moria made an attempt to get up, tossing her blankets to the side and swinging her feet over the bed to the floor. “Let me get that.”

Her mother visibly flinched, almost even recoiled. Moria tasted that fear again but this time it was mixed with hers. She didn’t move again. Not when her mom wordlessly left the room, or when she heard the front door close about an hour later, not even when the engine of her mother’s car started and slowly receded down the road. She sat there staring at the now large brown splotch on her rug, she could get down on her knees and scrub still her hands bleed but nothing would ever be the same again.

It wasn’t until later that the headache came. She vaguely noted that this was the first time it was not instantaneous. Her feet felt like they didn’t belong to her as she dragged herself to the bathroom, carefully avoiding her reflection in the mirror. She sat in the tub till her skin began to prune and yet it only seemed to get worse. She felt hot and bothered and suddenly the bathtub just wasn’t enough water. It felt like what she needed was a small pool, maybe a river, not even that was large enough, what she needed, was the sea, all the water in the world surrounding her, wave after wave crashing over her head till she felt alive again. She stepped out of the tub shaking her head. “Come on Moria, you realize how crazy you sound right now?”

She turned to the mirror, taking out the clip holding her hair in a bun and for the second time that morning nearly screamed. The shoulder length bright red hair that she had woken up with this morning was now reaching down to the middle of her back. She held the hair gingerly in her hand, away from her body as if by staring down at it she could make it stop doing whatever it was doing. The headache increased, a throbbing pain that made her cry out and hunch over. She needed that sea, it was like a craving from deep within her, sometime she could ignore no longer ignore even though the nearest sea wasn’t even in the same state as she was. So she settled on the closest, largest body of water close to her, the gym. She waited till it was dark before hurriedly packing her bag, and tying the rapidly growing hair in as tight and as small of a bun as she could manage, making sure to tuck and stuff every last strand under her Hoodie, she decided against leaving her mom who still hadn’t returned a note and left the house

That was how she had ended up her, back pressed against the wall, heart pounding and about to be caught with no way out.

A loud voice rang out just as a beam of blinding white light aimed at her face “Hey! Na who dey there?”

Then just as she flung all caution to the wind and took a step to make a run for it, strong arm shot out through the glass of the window behind her and wrapped themselves around her shoulders and pulled her through into the dark school building. All the watchmen saw was a pair of disembodied arms reach out and drag someone through a closed glass window that upon a closer look was still very much intact. By the next day, rumors that the school was haunted will spread like wild fire, but for now, the guards threw down their torches and ran or their lives.

Inside the almost pitch black gym, Moria fought against her attacker who held her immobile against their body, hand across her mouth. She couldn’t explain why she felt this way, and it wasn’t just the fact that ghost like hands had passed through a closed glass window and grabbed her, something else, something she could taste in the back of her throat but couldn’t put her finger on was causing this innate feeling of intense danger and She knew she had to get away. She tried to scream and it came out muffled even as she realized it was stupid and pointless given she was in an empty school building in the middle of the night.

“Stop…struggling”

She barely registered the voice as male and exasperated even as she sunk her teeth as deep as she could into the hand covering her mouth. He let out a frustrated, pained grunt and removed his hand from over her mouth but instead of letting her go, he grabbed her arms and turned her to face him. Stark grey eyes bored into hers even as goose bumps crawled up her arm.

“If you’d just listen for a moment”

She tried to head butt him but he moved his head out of the way quicker than she could move hers

“Resisting is…”

She didn’t let him finish before she raised her knee and in one fluid motion had him doubled over with pain.

“…pointless” His pain stricken voice carried the completion of his sentence even as she dashed past him and around the pool, trying to get to the door. A gust of wind blew past her and one second there was open space in front of her, the next minute, someone was blocking her path.

Christ, there were two of them. She skidded slightly before catching herself and making a sharp left, heading for the second entrance at the other end of the room. Before, she could even blink that gust of wind rushed past her and blocked her path again. Whoever this person was, he was moving faster than was humanly possible.

Whipping her head quickly to look behind her, she noticed the other person was already back on his feet and was walking slowly around the pool, towards her. “There’s no escaping….”

She dived into the pool, just as the second one made a grab for her, leaving her hoodie in his hand.

The first attacker groaned. “Will you just let me finish!”

She’d hoped ghost man would run to the other side while the other would come in after her hopefully his speed was restricted to land. That way she could swim forward make a fast right and come out of the pool directly opposite the door while he was still in the water and ghost hands was on the other side. But none of them jumped in after her, they just stood watching her and she was forced to swim as fast as she could to the other side. She stepped out of the water, her bun now undone, red waves cascading down her back and brushing against her upper thigh. Vaguely registering that it had grown again, she frantically ran forward, hopefully she could get a window open before… The thought hadn’t even fully formed before the second one materialized behind her, grabbed a fistful of her shirt and flung her across the room, luckily ghost boy caught her before she could break every bone n her body. He pinned her hands to her side, back pressed against him.

“Maybe just stop trying to run for a second”

Moria scoffed. “Why should I? You dragged me through a freaking wall…

“It was a window….”

“And Flash over there just flung me across the room like a rag doll. So why should I listen?”

“You’re coming with us”

“I don’t think so” and with that she swung her head back and lucky enough this time around she got him with enough force, bruising his mouth against his teeth and nearly breaking his nose. He let her go on instinct but her victory was short lived as the second one, who had been standing quietly by the window appeared at her side and grabbed her by the neck.

“Enough”

It was the first time she’d heard him speak since this nightmare began and it was the last thing she heard before he dipped her head into the pool of water and held it there. She thrashed and kicked even as spots danced in front of her eyes and her lungs burned from holding her breath. Eyes stinging from the chlorine in the pool, her mind formed one last thought. “My headache’s gone”

Then the darkness took her.