Chapter 1- The start of the End

“Rayes, you know what you’re doing is outlandish. Don’t danger yourself just so you can be “different”. It isn't worth the pain it may cause.” I bit my lip and clenched my fists, when she talked like this it made me so mad it hurt. I gnawed on my teeth and let her ramble on. There was no point in trying to stop her now anyway. “But that’s just how it is, and- are you even listening to me?” “No.” I stare straight into her pure white eyes, cold and callous. I hope it pisses her off. “You should though, this is important,” Ryko pouts. Mission failed successfully? I don’t think she was actually upset, but I take it as a victory anyway. “Ryko, you shouldn’t think that way. Why were we made if we aren’t of any importance to the universe? The least we could do is see as much of it as we can. This little cluster is too confined for me. I see the same stars in the same places all the time. It’s boring and repetitive, you get it don’t you?” I paused for a second, hoping maybe she’d open up to me. Show me that all these years she’d been hiding the feeling, convincing herself. I knew she was, a sister knows… but Ryko could never say it to me. “I do.” She could? “But we can’t feel that way Rayes. Not anymore. Not since things changed. You know this-” “But I didn’t want things to change! I wanted to listen to my role models and be like them. Learn the error of my ways and become better. And I'm still allowed to do so! Even if nobody thinks I should!” I hold my hand against my face. I hate being reminded of those events. Even if you didn’t get hurt yourself, it was hell to even think about it. Those who were always taking from others were rewarded, those who only gave: exiled and treated with such disrespect. I hated it. And now it meant I was expected to shut up, sit around, and look at the same faces all the time, everyday.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

No fair.

I stormed away from Ryko, holding her head down. She was obviously affected too. We both knew this wasn’t okay, we weren’t okay. But still, she always wanted to be strong. And I hated her for it.

. . .

“It can’t be only me momma! I saw it in her eyes, she cares. How can I get her to- '' my mother star blew smoke in my face. “You can’t.” My mothers hands always had a pipe in them. She would take a smoke, and blow it in mine or Rayes’s face. Contrary to how it sounds, it wasn’t a bad experience.

The pipe contained the fibers of our existence as stars: dust and gasses, like the nebula we are born from. The pipe was a home without being there. “I know, but I still want her to feel. . . okay, you know? She has the right to feel and I want

her to know that. I just can’t find out how to convey it.” “You can’t tell her anything ,Rayes. Not until you do it yourself.” “She will see. If you make a change she will see it in you, and learn from you, and grow. Rayes, you can become her role model.” My mom had opened my eyes again. She had shown me what I really needed to do. I had always had my own role models but now, it was time to be one myself. It was the only hope for my sister, the only way to save her and all the other red dwarfs affected by the new order set in place after the war.

*Red dwarfs are small, cool low mass stars that are extremely abundant. They make up around 75% of the (around) 200 billion stars in the milky way alone.