Beyond the Ninth Star

Ch. 1 The day her life changed

October 25th, 2049. The day her life changed forever.

That morning the sky darkened ominously and an abnormal cold followed. Unusually strong winds blew fierce gusts of snow, howling like wolves as they swiftly moved through huge pine trees, and it was as if the day turned to night. People were running inside for shelter with their coat collars up. However, Amelia seemed to barely notice the strange weather as she kept walking, relatively fast, towards the main building of her university to take an important statistics exam. Despite mumbling to herself, again and again, the formulas she had memorized the night before, she wasn't nervous at all, she knew she would do well in the exam because, for her entire life, she has always been the smartest person in the room. Amelia, a 24-year-old girl, hails from a quaint town on the outskirts of the bustling Eltrids. She's been studying at the prestigious University of Eltrids for the past four years, dedicating herself to her studies. At 1.62m, she's petite, with an elegant frame that is accentuated by her slim figure. Her shoulder-length blonde hair is a work of art, with the ends dyed in a soft shade of green that complements her fair skin tone. She has a few strands that gently fall around her face, adding to her delicate appearance. Her most striking feature, however, is her big amber-colored eyes, which are hidden behind a pair of robust round-shaped glasses that she never takes off. Despite her stunning looks and intelligence, she has been unable to make any friends during her time at university due to her extreme shyness.

Amelia walked through the pavemented pathway that crosses the remarkably beautiful university's main garden. Imposing pine trees with a fine layer of snow line up with the pathway, surrounded by very well-maintained bright green bushes that greatly contrast with the snow. And at the distance, she could see the massive main hall of the campus standing not only sturdily but also elegantly in front of the vast gardens, just like a castle. The building was made entirely of marble and it perfectly combined classical architecture with modern techniques, and with the two magnificent statues of the original school founders by the sides of the main door it certainly deserves its title as the greatest landmark of the country. She finally arrived at the majestic front door, made with beautiful dark wood and intricately carved, and quickly entered the building and took the side staircase, heading into her classroom. She arrived a little before the exam started, so she sat at an empty desk by the window at the back of the classroom. As the room was filling up she looked through the window and realized that the abnormal weather from before had intensified and now the wind was violently shaking the trees and carrying away smaller and lighter stuff, she found that scene unusual but didn't pay much more attention to it since her professor started passing the exam around. She peeked at the first few questions and opened a big confident smile as she started to write down the solutions. 

It took her only 1:30 hours to finish all the questions, but, when she was about to start revising her answers she noticed that all the other students and even the professor couldn't focus on anything other than the weather outside. A massive storm was happening with extremely fast and strong winds carrying big tree branches, they could hear the heavy raindrops falling on the roof as it was about to break it, and the windows were constantly hit by the wind making loud noises and it felt like they could shatter at any point, the lighting strikes were very close and frequent, it felt like they were in the middle of a hurricane. Suddenly, a huge bang came from the classroom's door, followed by other vigorous loud noises, as if someone was trying to break it down.

" What the fuck is going on right now?" Thought Amelia, she could feel her heart rate increase with each hit on the door, she was already sweating anticipating the threat

The hits on the door were getting more frequent and louder, the hinges were barely holding the door in place anymore.

"First this weather and now the door. This sound, the force being used on the door... that's not something that simply anyone can do, something is very wrong" she kept questioning herself, while being on the edge of her seat, observing what was happening at the door.

Then after one last hit and extremely loud noise, the door was sent flying across the room, people were screaming, but no one dared to run towards the only exit, some gathered at the back of the classroom trying to stay the furthest away from the door as possible. the door fell almost 10 meters away from its original location, the strength used was clearly inhuman, but no one could precisely identify exactly who or what caused it due to the smoke created by the impact. 

The only thing they could see were two huge glowing red eyes staring at them.