My family is going camping at the top of a mountain for a meteor shower. This meteor shower is going to be amazing because I’m a star mage now and so are my parents. Meteor showers give star mages more power and strength, so we always try our best to see them in an open space. The road up is steep and narrow and as we turn around a sharp corner the car tire slips. The car wobbles and starts to fall, my mom is clinging to my dad. I feel like my insides are floating. The back of the car hits a tree, and the trunk breaks open. Then moments later we hit the ground. The crash seems loud enough to wake the world. My parents shout at me to get out, so I hurry to climb out of the fallen car. Once I get my feet on the ground, I open mom’s door and beg her to get out so dad can too.
“I can’t I’m stuck, so is your dad, you need to run!” Mom says while fighting back tears.
“Mom no I can’t leave you and dad!” I plead.
“You need to run Luna,” Dad says sternly.
“No! I can’t lose you” I say starting to cry.
“Run!” Mom yells as she shoves me away. I run seeing our scattered stuff up ahead. I stop and turn to look at the car as it bursts into flames. I drop to my knees and cry. Solair is starting to set so I walk over to a large pile of suitcases and grab the two that are mine and my mom’s. After I pick up the bags, I keep walking, trying to find a place to rest.
---
It’s nearly an hour after Starset and there is nowhere suitable to stay the night. I stop to rest at a short stump. Suddenly all sound from the nearby animals stopped. I see a flash of light and hear the soft thud of footsteps. A woman steps out from the tall bushes, her light blond hair tangled with leaves. The woman yelps when she sees me.
“Umm, hi.” I mutter shyly.
“Hello, my name is Emmila Jane.” The woman replies.
“My name is Luna Greysen.” I reply.
“What are you doing out here all alone?” Emmila asks sweetly looking at my suitcases.
“I could ask the same of you.” I say, staring into her deep blue-green eyes.
“Fair enough, but you go first.” She says, unwilling to back down.
“Ok, well my parents and I were driving to our campsite at the top of the mountain and our car slipped the road.” Tears start blurring my vision and I wipe them away as fast as I can.
“Oh my! Well I live at the top of the mountain and came down to collect plants. Would you like to come stay the night? I know that suddenly becoming an orphan must be hard and you will need a place to rest and collect yourself.”
“But aren’t you busy?” I ask. Realizing only after, that I never said that anyone died.
“Not that often, I rarely have big projects. Come on we need to get back before Star-rise” Emmila says turning around. I follow her back into the bushes and wonder how she knew that my family had died. As we walk, I look around, the leaves rustle softly in the gentle breeze, small animals dash across the tree branches, up ahead there is a small stream, the light bubbly sound is soothing and almost washes away the pain of losing my parents.
---
When we finally get to Emmila’s lab and house she shows me a room on the second floor and tells me to settle in and that tomorrow we will talk more about what we are going to do.
---
I set the suitcases on the floor and open them up. Mine has all of my things like clothes and sketch books. My mom’s suitcase has all of her clothes and makeup. I get out a set of pjs and put them on. The bed in the corner looks soft and I’m tired from the long day. I lay down and try to fall asleep. I wake up to a loud crash, like pots being dropped on the floor, I jump up and race to the stairs as Emmila peeks around the corner.
“Oh sorry did I wake you?” Emmila asks.
“Maybe? Anyway are you all right?” I say more worried about the crash than the fact that I am now awake.
“Yes, I’m fine, just knocked the pot off the counter,” Emmila says “I have to get to work but I’ll be up for lunch, help yourself to anything in the fridge and feel free to look around,” as she turns around, I notice that her eyes have a menacing glint. I walk to where I assume the kitchen is and open the fridge, there’s an apple, some bread, cheese, juice, and eggs. I grab the apple and close the door. The living room is right through the open doorway at the end of the kitchen, the walls are painted a sky blue, there is a small light blue couch, a pale blue stone table, and a lamp. I walk back to the stairs and see a door labeled: “Caution! Chemicals!” I decide that I should avoid it but can’t help but wonder what Emmila is doing in that room.
---
When Emmila finally stops working she calls me down and asks if I know what I’m going to do next.
“I don’t know, I don’t want to go back home because then people will feel sorry for me.”
“Yes, well you can stay with me if you want, it gets kind of lonely up in the mountains and I could use some help testing things.”
“Really?”
“Of course. You need a home and I want company” she says standing up “I’m going to go back to work, eat and then you can do whatever you like, just don’t go into the forest alone.” Months go by and I’m now fifteen. I’ve been sitting on my balcony watching the birds and other animals play while Emmila works. She said I could come down any time this week because she’s only doing the finishing touches. I go downstairs and open the door that has a warning sign I walk right through because that’s where Emmila said to go if I needed anything or if I wanted to help. There is a hall that is dimly lit and, at the end, Emmila is messing with some wires connected to a clear box. She hears my footsteps and turns around. “Luna! Come here, I want you to help me test this” Emmila says gesturing to a clear box.
“K, what do I do?” I ask.
“Just step inside the box and tell me if you feel something.” Emmila said turning toward a control panel. I step into the box and the door swings shut behind me. She pushes some buttons on the panel and my hands start to feel numb, I’m cold and shaking, my head is spinning, and I feel like I’m in the car falling again.
“EMMILA!” I scream as the memories darken and I see flashes of other painful moments in my life. “PLEASE HELP!” no, no, NO! this is not what my life with Emmila was supposed to be like. The lights in the lab flicker, everything in my sight is fuzzy like I stood up too fast, then everything goes black. I know my eyes are pointed at Emmila, but I can’t see her or what she’s doing, but I hear her mutter a cheer of celebration. My legs give out and I fall.
---
I don’t know what time it is when I wake up but I’m still in the clear box and Emmila is sitting in front of me.
“How do you feel?” she asks.
“Horrid, like I relived every pain in my life.” I say sitting up slightly.
“Think about darkness.” Emmila orders with no emotion in her face or voice.
“Why?” I ask not wanting to feel any more pain.
“You’ll see” I do as she says, and my heart feels like its darkening and the lights go out all around me. “Amazing!” Emmila says, gazing around the room. “The world will be begging for me to save them from you and your magic.”
“What?! No this hurts me! What’s happening to the stars?! The light?! My old magic?!” I say curling up on the floor.
“They will never return to your heart. You are my monster now and you will make the world fear you.” Emmila says, reminding me of one of those evil mad scientists I used to see in movies.
“You had something to do with my parents’ death, didn’t you?” I ask with poison in my tone.
“Of course! Star mages are the most vulnerable to darkness, I wanted to see how darkening their heart would affect them,” Emmila gets up and hits a few buttons and my head pounds, as if memories were being ripped out. I put my head between my legs and hope with all my heart that the pain will stop. Eventually I go unconscious and fall to my side. Memories of the night I lost my family run through my head.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
---
I open my eyes to the glaring lights in Emmila’s lab. Once my eyes adjust, I see Emmila in a chair in front of me.
“Do you know who I am?” Emmila asks staring right at me.
“You’re Emmila my…” I say trying to remember the words I would use to describe her.
“Your?” Emmila asks urging me on.
“My ‘adoptive mother’ but you bring only pain.”
“I’m your creator.” Emmila says sternly.
“NO!” I shout knowing that I only started living with her recently.
“What?” She asks in disbelief.
“My parents died 4 months ago, and you took me in!” I yell, the pain of their death haunting me.
“How can you remember that?” Emmila asks glaring at me.
“Something like that doesn’t just leave” I say daring her to do something about it. She stands and says that she will bring my stuff down and she will make a better living space for me. I want to leave this dumb box, but I don’t have strength to even move. Emmila works on making a large room like the box but with dark walls in some spaces so I can have privacy.
---
It’s been a week since Emmila moved me to the new space. To be honest it’s quite boring here, I have a bedroom, bathroom, a room that’s really bland and I’m not sure what it’s for, and a lounge. I know that some would think ‘wow! You have a whole floor to yourself! So lucky’ but I’m in a lab and only one room has things to do, the lounge which has clear walls so that Emmila can see what I’m doing. The lounge is also where I have been eating since it’s the only place with a table.
My magic hurts me because it eats away the stars from my old magic. I stay in my bedroom most of the time, and hope that if I don’t move the stars will come back. Emmila gave me a clock and calendar so there are times where I just stare at the clock and wait for the numbers to change. I know that she has a way to measure how much power I have but I don’t see the point because I never use it.
---
Weeks go by and I do practically nothing, I’ve given up on Emmila letting me go back to my room upstairs or giving me something to do. One day Emmila comes into my room but stays far away from me.
“I haven’t seen you in a while.” She says with a sad tone to her voice. “Would you come into the lounge more often?”
“No” I say stiffly. “It’s too bright out there and you will try to do something else to me.”
“I promise that I will do nothing more to hurt you” Emmila says cautiously.
“How can I trust that?” I ask, taking a step back.
“I’ve made a special pill to help with the pain and you will not feel your old magic slipping away.” Emmila says walking forward.
“Will it really help?” I ask skeptically.
“Of course. I also have some paper and drawing supplies if you want.” She offers, seeming kind.
“Yes! I need something to do!” I answer enthusiastically.
“Great, so do you want the medicine?” She asks to confirm that she is supposed to give me the pills.
“If it will help, then yea.” I reply hoping the pills will help me with this new magic.
“I’ll bring it to you tonight” Emmila promises as she walks away.
“Wait! What about the paper and stuff?” I ask walking toward her.
“You will get them when I give you the pill” Emmila says coldly. She leaves the room and locks the door behind her. I slump against the wall and slide to the floor.
Hours later Emmila comes in and I’m still on the floor, staring at the digital clock. The numbers are a blurry mess in my eyes and so is everything in my line of sight. I don’t even notice Emmila standing by the small table down the hall. She clears her throat and I jump and turn to stare at her. She walks toward me and puts something on the bedside table.
“What’s wrong?” she asks sweetly “I thought I told you that I would come back with the pill in the evening.”
“You did. I just lost track of time and forgot.”
“That’s fine, here the pill and some water” Emmila says handing me a small cup and a plate with a pitch-black pill on it. “The drawing things are in the lounge. Tell me how you feel in the morning if you’re not too tired.” she turns and walks out of my rooms and locks the door. I pick up the pill and swallow it along with some water. I get up to grab the drawing supplies from the table in the lounge. There’s a pad of paper, markers, paints, paintbrushes, colored pencils, normal pencils, a sharpener, and a few erasers. I grab the supplies and walk back to my room just in time because the moment I walk through the doorway my vision goes blurry and I fall with my head on the bed.
I wake up the next morning with my head spinning and my heart pounding. I get up and change into soft clothes, grab one of my mom’s bracelets from her bag, and get into bed. I stare at the bracelet and wish that I had been a telekinetic so I could have saved my parents by tearing apart the car. The lights flicker and the sparkling white starstone ovals that make up the bracelet turn black and blue in front of my eyes. I drop the bracelet and run into the empty room and sit against the wall. I think about being a telekinetic and the door pulls shut. I stare at the door and then my hands. I turn my hands over and then palm up, I think about lightning. Bright purple bolts dance across the room, I duck and dodge. When the bolts fade, I’m shaking, I stay in that blank room for hours testing out my new powers.
Month after month I do the same routine, I wake up in the morning get dressed then dash to the empty room, I practice controlling the magic, and when Emmila comes into my rooms I’m already out of the blank room sitting on the floor drawing. I take one of the pills she makes after I eat and then the world goes dark, the pain I feel at night is nothing like before, but it makes me stronger, because I know why I must leave this place. I practice magic for most of the day so, I have brought in random things from my room, like a cup, bracelet, pin, and a plate. I have been learning how to move things with my mind, make the room go pitch black, control where the lightning goes, and any combination of those. I know Emmila has ways of tracking how much magic I have but she thinks that I can’t control it.
It’s been two years, and I’m now seventeen. I have my magic mostly controlled and the numbness the pills used to give me has faded but they still feed on the remaining stars.
One day, Emmila comes into my rooms and says that I will let her film me using my powers so she can show the world because other wise she will make my magic uncontrollable and I will never get free of the pain.
“What?! No way I’m not a puppet! I will not be some little ‘monster’ that you can show off” I yell trying not to let the room go dark.
“You will unless you want unbearable pain and suffering.”
“I already have that but fine where are we going to film?”
“In the room down the hall and to the left.”
“One minute, I wanna get changed.” I say dashing to the blank room where we’ll be filming. I have some clothes in there because I try to move them with telekinesis, there is a black dress with stunning embroidery along the bottom of the skirt and across the sleeves and top, there are tiny jewels sewn all over the dress making it look like a night sky. I put on the dress and shove all of my training things to one corner of the room. I race to the bathroom and pull my hair into a slopy bun at the back of my head, I leave two strands hanging in front of my face and use my mom’s old curling iron to curl the small strands. When I finish I walk up to Emmila and tell her that I’m ready.
“Get in front of the camara and wait.”
“Fine” I say grumpily. Emmila pushes the record button and starts talking about her ‘little monster’ and her ‘horrifying magic’. When she finishes, she walks behind the phone and motions for me to start using my ‘chaotic’ magic. I pull a few colored pencils to me and then fling them across the room, I make lightning rain down from the ceiling all around the room, I make the room go pitch black and have lightning dance around me.
Once Emmila finished she left me in peace. For some strange reason only minutes after she left my heart starts beating like it wants to break free from my chest and then explode. I fall to the floor and curl up, waves of darkness and purple lightning swirl around me, I close my eyes and wait. I spend hours curled up on the floor, I have a headache now too, things are floating, and I can’t stop it.
When Emmila comes to give me food I’m still on the floor, crying, memories of that night play in my mind. I don’t know why but the next morning I can’t get up, I feel so tired, I want to lay on the floor forever. I have to get up so I can practice, I need to break free of this place, if enough pills can do this to me, I need to get free.
---
Emmila tells me that I have to stand still for testing because she thinks her readings on my magic are wrong. I don’t want her anywhere near me, I want to go to a place I can call home.
“Come to the blank room” Emmila says pulling my hand. I jerk back slipping free of her hand.
“NO!” I scream “I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE WITH YOU!”
“Didn’t you choose to live with me?” Emmila asks.
“Yes… but I will NEVER follow you again” I say with poison in my words.
“YOU WILL FOLLOW ME” Emmila says her tone ice cold. She grabs my arms and pulls me forward.
“NEVER!” I scream at the top of my lungs.
“Luna, I’ll stay here until I can test you.”
“LET ME GO! PLEASE! I WANT TO GO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE!”
“No you are far too dangerous; you would kill the world.”
“I would?” I say stumbling back in surprise.
“Now come.”
“NO!” I yell, the lights flicker and then go out, lightning dances across the room every inanimate object starts levitating, if she wants to see my true power then she will get what she wants. Emmila jumps back.
“LUNA! STOP THIS AT ONCE!”
“NO! YOU SEE ME AS A MONSTER AND AN EXPERIMENT! I’M HUMAN! I FEEL PAIN AND SADNESS! THE PILLS YOU GAVE ME ONLY MADE IT WORSE! I WOULD WAKE UP IN THE MORNING AND MY HEART WOULD BE POUNDING SO HARD, I COULDN’T MOVE! AND THE MEMORIES, the memories… it still hurts to remember them, AND YOU TRIED TO MAKE ME FORGET THEM! I LOVE THEM! MY HEART IS DARK NOW BECAUSE OF YOU! I miss the stars. I wish I could have saved them. BUT I WILL BE HAPPY, I WILL BE HAPPY, BECAUSE I KNOW THAT IS WHAT THEY’D WANT! I WILL LIVE A HAPPY LIFE WITHOUT YOU!” I’m out of breath when I finish but I feel much better. It’s still dark but I can tell that Emmila is stunned. I grab my stuff and dash out the unlocked door and down the hall of the lab. I can remember where the front door is and run down the hill as fast as I. When I see the thin road up ahead, I slow down so I won’t fall off.
for some reason I know it’s midnight, and I’m now eighteen. I run into the forest so Emmila can’t find me. I go back to the crash site and grab a few more things then stare at the burnt car with my parents’ skeletons in the front seats. I use telekinesis to tear apart the car and lift my parents out. I move the parts of the broken car out of my way. There’s a shovel in one of the bags so I dig a grave for my parents and lay them inside. I find a big rock and use a little spark of lightning to write their names on it and place it on their grave. I know that I can’t stay any longer or otherwise Emmila might find me.
I walk for hours until I see a part in the trees. I can see a gorgeous city at the bottom of a large hill. By now it’s dawn and so the birds are singing. I carefully walk down the hill with the few bags I have with me. I see a few people on the streets, there are some simple shops closer to the edge of the city, and in the distance the majestic skyscrapers sparkle in the early morning light.