Spears of Uu'kata

Stars Above The Willow Tree

***Surprise!!! You didn't think I'd leave my readers without a Christmas present, did you? Here is a sneak peek at chapter one of Book 2 of The Twilight Stars***

Chapter 1 - A Light Beneath the Door

Willow pushed the mop over the tiles, then squeezed it out, depositing the most recent spilled fruit punch into her bucket of filthy water. For good measure, she ran the mop over the tiles again, her left shoulder squawking with a stab of pain every time she flexed her left arm. She didn't stop, though. Didn't compensate with her right. Instead, she let the pain do its thing. It was a reminder...

A shout from across the food court brought her head up and she saw a couple young children fighting over a toy as their mother struggled to mediate while holding a baby. Not far from here were three teenagers checking out their friend's new terminal implant while three toddlers giggled, chasing each other under tables.

Lights blinked and Christmas music blared and Willow watched all this, these friends and families enjoying each other's company, and she felt nothing. Thank God. She liked days where she felt nothing. They were easier.

I shouldn't have been the one to live, an invasive thought whispered through her head.

It wasn't the first time she'd had such thoughts since the accident. It was a constant little voice at the back of her head, always whispering, taunting, slowly shredding her from the inside out.

With the mess cleaned up, she put her mop and bucket away, slipped out of her apron and clocked out.

Her brother, Thomas, had been kind enough to let her borrow his old Ford until she could put her life back together. It was a beat up 2213 with a crack across the windshield. It made a clunking sound when she turned right and it smelled like beef when she turned on the heater, but it was better than nothing and it handled well in the snow.

She made her clunky way to her parent's old place, passing countless blinking homes. It belonged to her brother now and she'd been staying in his guest room, which just so happened to be her old bedroom. It had been what she needed after losing everything.
Something old and  full of good memories. Something familiar.

She parked beside the garage and turned the car off, then sat in silence and sighed, dropping her hands into her lap. The interior of the car lost heat fast in the cold Wisconsin, December night, and before she knew it, her breath was plumbing out before her.

Her shoulder ached. It always ached. Better her shoulder than her soul, though. She alternated constantly between feeling dead inside and feeling far too much to function. Today was a dead inside day. If only it would quiet the voice that told her it should have been her.

She glanced at the two story brick house. The lights were on inside and out and it looked so cheerful she wanted to just turn the car back on and find an overpass to sleep under. Or a ravine to crash into.

Leaning forward, she rested her chin on the top of the steering wheel and looked up at the sky. The stars were bright and twinkling, the sky a deep, dark velvet blue.

The car door squeaked loudly as Willow pushed it open, and squeaked even louder when she pushed it closed. She didn't bother to lock the car. It wasn't like she had anything worth stealing in there anyway. Besides, if someone wanted to steal something, her brother had much nicer stuff.

She walked around to the back of the house and stared at her namesake, the weeping willow tree that stood tall and leafless in the snow, its long, thin branches drooping, brushing the snow as the cold breeze gently blew it back and forth, back... and forth.

The snow crunched under her feet as she trudged through the yard and pushed her way through the branches, then she laid on her back and gazed up, letting the cold soak through her backside.