STAR STRUCK: epilogue continues (book 2)

Chapter 10

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Chapter 10

An End Before Anything Starts

still 19 days before take-off

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There's only so much a person could take. There's only so much pain someone could feel until they stop feeling anything. But after the numbness comes the excruciating and inexplicable torture.

It came one night when my mother, Stella, was going home from a neighbor. She was walking absentmindedly, hugging herself as the cold seeps in through her thin clothes.

She stopped short at the corner a few steps from our gate. She was looking at something. There were silhouettes that I could barely see, but she must've seen it as clear as day.

Mom bolted, leaving a shoe in her run. She rushed inside, into her room, grabbing anything she could. She was panting. Her mind was shut. She was set on one goal: forgetting everything else that she couldn't see.

That was the night I couldn't forget. The night she left. The night of meteor showers. The night of unexplained mysteries that left nightmares for many nights.

She boarded a ship, the closest she could spot. She did not stop to think. Didn't even check what she took with her or realize that her luggage was unlocked, her clothes spilling everywhere.

It was halfway through the journey when the haze in her eyes disappeared. She anxiously looked around her, looking for something. She stood up from her seat.

"Becca?" she called. I felt my heartbeat stop. "Becca!" she cried. But it was too late. The boat wouldn't turn back.

-

"She... She didn't mean to leave me behind," I whispered.

"No. She did not," Castor said.

"She... She wanted to take me. I saw it. She had two tickets in her hand. She was planning for that escape. She was meaning to take me with her. She was..." Tears were blurring my vision. "But she didn't. She—"

I was screaming. It was painful. It was even more painful to know that I couldn't turn all of this back.

"I wasn't there," Castor said. "Like you said, I was beginning to feel like a criminal, stalking her wherever she went. I wasn't a martyr either. I was becoming more human, though I didn't want to admit. I didn't want to hurt myself when I knew I wasn't going to be an option. When I was never meant to be in this story. That was stupid of me."

I couldn't comprehend what Castor was saying. It was all gibberish in my brain. I was screaming still, breaking down on the dirt of the frozen flashback that stilled on that pavement where I stumbled and fell as a child.

I was being hugged but it didn't matter. I was still in pain.

It took me awhile before my sobbing calmed and the only audible sounds out of me were my panting breaths. Snot and tears covered my face. I smeared them off with the sleeves of my shirt.

I tried to stand but my knees were weak. I settled there on the cold dirt.

"What... What happened after this?" I asked. "Wouldn't she have found a way to come back? Wouldn't you have helped her?"