The Final Star (Book Four: The Star Series)

I'm the girl with a hundred names. Since I was little I have learned that your name is nothing. It's meaningless in a world that's filled with so much cruelty and hatred. Nobody cares if you say your name is Sarah, or Bethany, or even Sam. I've been so many different people in my life that I think I'm started to lose the real me. I'm only fourteen. I'll be fifteen in a few months. And at an age that I should be exploring and figuring out who I want to be and what I want to do with my life I'm to busy trying to hold on to who I use to be. Who I want to go back to being. And where I want to go back to. I live with my supposed uncles. I know they aren't my real uncles. If they where they couldn't do he things that they do to me. We move around a lot. And every time we move I have to become a new person. We moved here to Indian Hills about three months ago. I had to cut my hair and change the color. I decided to go a soft honey brown this time. I usually have dark brown hair. It's a trait that most werewolves have. Yes I am a werewolf. By now most people know of the super naturals existence but we try to stay with our own kind. I don't mind the other super naturals. They have never bothered me. But my uncle's hate anybody who isn't like them. Which when I think about it is probably why they dislike me so much. See, they are hybrids. Vampires and warlocks. Which is odd if you think about it. They hate other kinds but they are two in one. So if everybody thought that way they wouldn't even be here. I tried to bring that point up a few years ago when I became friends with a little fae girl when I was eight. When Uncle Jared found out that was the first time he broke my arm. Since then I have learned not to make friends. I try to stay to myself. Another time I got beat because I said hello to a girl I knew from school that was a wolf. So then I eventually stopped talking to others as well. I thought if I just stayed to myself and didn't talk then I would have no reason to get hit. But I was wrong about that too. For now my name is Jade. Until we move again. Or I can get away. I scarcely remember a time when my life was good. And I try to hold on to that memory. It was just so long ago that it gets hard. I have small memories of my family before. I can remember my mom and dad. My mom was a witch and my dad was a wolf. I think I took after my dad because so far I haven't been able to use any magic. And trust me I have tried. I remember my mom use to rock me and sing to me. My dad used to shift and I would sit on his back and we would run around in he woods for hours. They never hurt me. They were always so kind and nurturing. And I think that's the hardest part about my life. I know that I use to be loved. But not anymore. So I hold on to those memories. And one day, no matter how far away, I will find my mom and dad. I will find that love again. I have flashes of the rest of my family also. My grandparents. My aunts and uncles. I even remember that I have two cousins. Well, one now I suppose. I used to have an older cousin. His name was Dex. I only remember his name because at least once a week I see him in my dreams. He isn't here anymore. He tells me he's with the moon goddess. And it used to make me sad that I wouldn't be able to meet him when I find my way home. But at least I still get to see him in my dreams. He gives me encouragement. He promises me that one day I will find my way home. And I believe him. He says that I just need to stay strong. So I try. I don't want to lose the little bit of memories of a happy life. So I have started to draw the people in my memories. I have gotten really good. When I look at my drawings I feel like I can almost reach out and hold them. They look exactly like what I remember. But I was so little so I don't know if what I remember is real. I don't know if these people are real. But I'm going to hold on to the hope that is. And I will get back. I will be happy one day. I'm lost in my thoughts looking at the latest picture I drew of my mother when the door to my room flies open. I say my room, but it's really the dirty basement. I've cleaned up a small corner and I've tried to make it a little sanctuary for myself. "Goddess damn it girl. Where's my breakfast. I swear if I don't get something to eat in the next ten minutes you won't be eating for a week." Uncle Jared yells down the stairs. I hurry up and close the notebook I was looking at and stuff it under the small mat I have to sleep on. I rush up the stairs and straight to he kitchen. It's so dirty in this house. I use to try to clean it up but it doesn't help. I would pick up all the beer cans and wipe everything down. I can't stand to be in this filth. I know that my efforts are useless because by the time I get home from school it's always a mess again. All my uncles seem to do is lay around and get drunk. So eventually I gave up. And I decided to just focus on my little area in the basement. I open the fridge door and try and find something to make for breakfast before I go to school. There's a carton of eggs so I take those out and begin to scramble them. While I'm cooking the eggs I find some bread and make some toast. I start a pot of coffee as well. I am just placing the eggs on the last plate when my uncles walk in. They sit at the table. I walk over and place their plates and coffee in front of them. Uncle Jason and Uncle Josh begin to eat right away. Uncle Jared looks at his plate in disgust. "What the hell is this? I said I wanted food. Not scraps." He grumbles. "I'm sorry. It's all we had." I say. "Your worthless." He shouts. I turn from him and go to stand out the counter to eat the little bit of eggs and one piece of toast that I kept for myself. "I think it tastes good." Josh says. And I smile a little. Josh is the only one out of the three that has never hurt me. And I think he tries to stand up for me. But in a way that it doesn't make Jared mad. So he's not too obvious. I don't know what to think about Jason sometimes. When he's with Jared he's mean. He's only hurt me a hand full of times and it's nothing I couldn't take. He would slap me across the face. Or pull me back by my hair. He never did any real damage. And if Jared wasn't around he completely ignored me. Which I was just fine with. Jared is the one who I really dislike. The one who does anything he can to make my life miserable. I'm stuck in my thoughts again nibbling on my toast when suddenly a hand strikes me across my face. "You will learn to listen. I told you that since you wanted to feed me scraps that you would give me what you thought you were going to eat." Jared growls in my face and his hand yanks my head back by my hair. "And your going to stand there and ignore me and continue to eat my food." He says angrily. "I'm sorry I didn't hear you. Honest. You can have it." I say. I have learned not to cry anymore. No matter how bad I'm hurting I won't show him my pain or fear. He pushes me down to the ground and takes my plate from he counter. When I fall my head slams against the kitchen counter. I reach back and rub where it it and when I pull my hand away it's covered in blood. I sigh and pick myself up from he floor. I head to the small bathroom down the hall. I clean the blood from my hair and touch the back of my head again. That's one good thing about being a werewolf. I heal super quick. On the other hand because I heal so quick no matter how bad they beat me nobody would ever know. I rush down stairs to get dressed for school. I don't have very many options. They don't spend any money on me so everything I own is something I've found in the trash somewhere or once a year on my birthday Meridith comes around and brings me a nice clean outfit. Mainly so when she takes me out to dinner, since it's my birthday, I don't look like a homeless girl. Last year she bought me a pair of black leggings and a cute top that was a bright pink tank top with a crop top black hoodie that went over it. I wear the leggings almost every day unfortunately because they are the only pants that fit me. The rest are too big and I look ridiculous. I'm excited for Meridith to come in a few months so that I can get a new outfit. Meridith is, actually, I don't really know who Meridith is. I think she might be my uncles mother. At least she tells me to call her grandma and she's the one who told me to call these men my uncles. I use to beg her to take me with her. I would tell her how Jared would hurt me. But all she would say is that it wasn't safe in the world and that I was being hidden to protect myself. After awhile I gave up trying to get Meridith to help me. And I just started to enjoy the time when she would come. It's the only time I knew nobody was going to punish me. So for the last ten years, that one day a year, I got to be happy.