MOONFALL by Ogwua Chimeremeze

Chapter one

CHAPTER ONE

1313 Burgundy Street (French Quarter), New Orleans, 2018

Luna woke up. She paused for a while and shifted to the other side of her bed, to her table, where her alarm was. She smiled. An hour early today. Somehow that was a good sign. To say in the least.

She stretched, yawned, and swung her legs over the side of the bed. The morning sunlight danced across her room, illuminating the familiar contours of her life. Downstairs, the kitchen TV droned on, her mother's daily ritual. Daily. She got up and took her bath, brushed her teeth and spent about thirty minutes drying her thick, long brown hair. When she was done, she applied some make up and took her time on the mascara. She didn't joke with the mascara. About eight minutes of that, and she took some time to read the inspirational quotes on her wall. "Love and be loved." she read. "God took his time in creating you, you are precious." she smiled. "If only you believe, you're halfway there." she nodded, looking at a captivating wallpaper of her social media celebrity crush, Redwynn, the rich, hot male dancer who sported red. "I am a star!" Crap. She just realized that she was supposed to skip that one, because the only star she knew close to her age was the popular Aria Dermot, who was only popular at school because of her father's position as a politian and her mother as the general of the NAVY. She literally got everything she wanted. And if that was to make you frustrated, hell, she got it like a peice of cake. All the same, she was her sworn enemy.

Luna sprayed her sweet-rose fragrance, wore her charm bracelet that her Nigerian aunt bought for her a week ago, put her moon rock inside her school bag and took a deep breath before opening the door.

The sound of Jasper, her younger brother's video game blasted through her eardrums. She sighed. "Did mum really allow him to play video games this morning before school?" She asked herself. She headed downstairs to the kitchen to have her breakfast. Sure enough, her mother was by the kitchen table sipping her coffee, focused on the news.

Luna sat. "Hey mum." she said. Megan, blonde and sad eyed in her late forties, faced her daughter. She smiled. "Hi honey." she kissed Luna on her forehead. Luna smiled and looked at her breakfast of bacon, cheese and eggs, and a glass of orange juice. She knew very well that her mother wasn't well when ever her father was out for a mission. He would say it was either to fix a broken satellite, or to take record of a strange movement or to help humanity with space research, but it was really the same excuse that resonated the same motive - I'm going to space and I'm leaving you and your two kids back on earth while I enjoy with some alien mistress. You get the idea.

So Luna couldn't blame her mom. Every night her mom would cry herself to sleep, wondering why she even married him. She wondered when all this would end, when her father would come home to stay. Stay forever like a jobless house dad that got himself drunk all day rather than an astronaut who only came home with his lips and hands to kiss his wife and give his children gifts and not with his soul. One who could even hardly talk to his family on video calls because he was too busy and had a dynamic presence at home. It was really frustrating.

She decided to let her mind off those thoughts and focused on the TV. Samantha William reporting on the Great Blackout.

"...worldwide, simultaneous failure of all electrical and communication systems, lasting twelve hours!" Suddenly, a man in a thick, dark blue suit came on-screen. He was standing on the busy road, holding a black microphone tagged: CRESCENT DAILY®. He stared at her. Her eyes rolled in disgust. "Here, we have, live, Guild Corey from North the Orleans, just across town - good morning, Guild, how are you doing today?" Seconds later, as if calming himself down, he took a deep breath and spoke. "Good morning to you, too, Samantha, quite bright 'tis today, ain't it? Sun's warm enough to melt any makeup acting as a mask for the creatures of the night, am I right?" "Sure, Guild." She forced a chuckle. Luna stared. There was nothing funny about the news. Who watched or read Crescent Daily and didn't know the fued between Samantha William and her ex boyfriend, Guild Corey? The story was simple. According to what Mia, Luna's best friend said she read from her father's newspaper, the two had been dating since they met in the university, studying the same proffesion, Mass communication, so they could be newscasters. Guild was originally two years ahead of Samantha in grade, but during his final exam he intentionally failed all his papers miserably so he could stay back with his girlfriend. Not long after he added two extra years to his education and rejected a scholarship to study abroad to Berlin, Germany because of love, much to the frustration of his parents, Samantha got a scholarship a year before her final year and accepted it immediately without thinking. In fact, she didn't even give her boyfriend time to process the whole thing and left him at the university with a year ahead to finish studying, while she flew abroad, over to work with Crescent Daily, named after the Crescent City, another name for New Orleans given it's crescent shaped geography. And, about a year later, Guild still got a scholarship and began working at the same news company only to find out she was not only married at such short given period, but also pregnant. It was a really heart reviving moment, literally, because Guild fainted and was rushed to the ER to get his heart pumping again.

That was a long time ago. Now they had to live with each other's presence as newscasters only, and yet they always faked laughs. Always. "...so, Guild do you mind filling us on a little info about the effects of the Great Blackout that happened some years ago?" "Eighteen years ago, Samantha, eighteen years." He corrected. She sneered. He spoke.

"The Great Blackout, the explosion that it's source is still unknown till today still leaves scars in the minds of people. People were killed, animals died, and no one knows what caused it. A very chill morning, and bam! an explosion, not just a TNT bomb, or a grenade, an energy blast that was so strong it killed thousands of lives. Indeed, it's effects were numerous. Not only was the city affected but other parts of the world, too. Global power grids collapsed, communication networks went dark, financial systems were disrupted, transportation systems ground to a halt..., it was a serious disaster that morning. Several minutes later, there was widespread panic and chaos, economic losses estimated in trillions, and hours later, over ten thousand reported deaths around the globe.

"The NASA has tried all they can to find out the cause possibly, or the effects, if any on outer space, and reported months after that the explosion disrupted the Earth's magnetic field, interfered with global satellite communications, and caused a chain reaction in the world's power grids.

"However, Governments and scientists are really struggling to understand the cause. Although conspiracy theories are spreading, it only pushes us, the world, deeper into becoming increasingly paranoid about what really happened that morning. Questions have been asked by different - " "Very well, then, thank you so much, Mr. Guild Corey for your wonderful time well spent with us, we hope -" she forced a cough. " - to see you next time. Bye for now." Halfway through her sentence, she ended the video call with Guild and faced the screen with her plastic smile. "And that's all for now, folks, we will see you later in the day for more important news in the city and from the globe. Once again, my name is William Samantha and I hope to see you - only you, no one else, next time. So, until then, bye for now." As the background began to fill up with the company's theme music and credits in opaque texts began to roll, Samantha sighed, flung her hair backwards and made a stylish catwalk across screen, brandishing her Prada.

The TV went off. Luna looked up at her mother, holding the remote. "We're getting late." She warned and left to get Jasper. Luna sighed. She realized that she was so lost all this while on the screen that she forgot to start eating. That wasn't the first time she felt drawn to something. Whenever someone mentioned or made her mentally imagine the moon, she would feel like she wasn't supposed to be on Earth, like she was supposed to be floating in space. It was a feeling that literally hurt her chest when she knew she would never even get out of Earth to space. Then she'd remember her father. And the entire day would become bad for her.

"Luna??" her mother called. Luna stared at her food. She still hadn't started eating. "f**k this." she said and munched the bacon in one mouthful. She swallowed the eggs and gulped the juice. Sprinting, she headed outside to her mother's car and got in. A while later, her mother called inside the house. "I'm outside!" Luna replied. Shortly after, Jasper came out with his box of toys, followed by his mother who locked the entrance door. They both entered the car. "You okay?" she asked her mother. Megan paused. "Yeah."

Luna turned to the backseat. Jasper was upset. He bluntly spoke to her. "But I don't want to go to Mrs. Pamela's house," he groaned. "Mum, why is Jasper not going to school today?" Megan started the car and began to drive. "He's down with a cold and I don't want him to meet that kid Crowley at school today."

Crowley was supposed to be Jasper's nemesis, and was three years older than the rest of his classmates. Last week, he snatched Jasper's red apple from him and began to chew. When the kid began to cry, the teacher took the case to the principal, who gave Crowley detention, and two days of suspension. Few days later, Crowley swore to deal with Jasper, and took his revenge by shredding Jasper's notes. The next day he was to be expelled. That was today, and Megan didn't want her son to get involved with a breeding thug.

Luna faced her brother. "It's okay," she said. "Mrs. Pamela is very kind. She has some toys you can play with," "But she doesn't have a PS!" he cried. Megan sighed, but kept quiet. Luna sensed her mother's tiredness. "Okay let's make a deal. You spend the day at Mrs. Pamela's house quietly, I'd take you to the party tomorrow -" "What?!" Megan shouted. "That is, if it's fine by mum." "Well, no it's not fine by me!" Jasper began to cry silently. "I can't let him go to a party where there are only teenagers," Luna turned to Jasper. She wiped his tears. He poured more. "Okay, look. You go to Mrs. Pamela's, peacefully, take your drugs, and I'll get something for you after the party, ok?" He stopped crying, but looked determined to his words. "Please, Jasper, just..." Luna sighed. "just make this easy for mum, for me, for us,"

He said nothing for a while and after what seemed like a moment, he finally looked up, then smiled. "Okay." Luna and her mum laughed in joy. Megan touched Luna's cheeks, the other firmly gripped to the steering wheel. "A world I wouldn't give for you children," Luna smiled and relaxed in her mother's hands. "It's gonna be alright, mum," Those words touched Megan so deeply, she let a tear drop on the other side of her cheeks away from Luna, hoping that she didn't see it. But Luna did. And her heart broke. She couldn't keep living like this. Max Dane was such an asshole to keep his family, his longing wife away because of his f*****g work.

The rest of the ride was silent.

Very soon they were at Brookstone, Luna's school. Luna got down hurriedly. "What's all the rush, honey?" Megan asked, smiling. "Nothing," Luna lied. It was everything! The new kid, Darrell Taylor was like freaking handsome and totally got Luna off her tracks. Literally, cause she tripped over when she first saw him at the gym at a hot workout. She lost her senses immediately and fell from the energy bicycle she was riding.

He was the first to come over. At the sight of him, she got so weak, she could barely stand. He held her waist. "You okay?" First words of a trail of imaginations. "Y-yeah." She almost fainted looking into his warm eyes. He looked calm, confused even, possibly asking himself if the girl in front of him wasn't insane or mentally ill.