Zodiac

Chapter 1

(Above is Keon)

As usual, school was boring.

Nothing new happened, nothing crazy happened.

Yet, his aunt was talking about his day at high school like it was the greatest thing in the world. He usually tuned her out, but this seemed to be more than just a good school day to her. So, he tried listening.

"How was math class?" His older sister interjected, "Still having trouble?"

He shook his head, "No, I'm fine."

Suddenly, he yawned.

"Still having trouble sleeping then?" His older sister added, he had no choice but to nod. The yawn already gave it away.

He'd always had trouble falling and staying asleep, always captivated and entranced by the stars outside his bedroom window at night. He would sometimes stare at them from his bed, then find out that it'd been three hours since he started staring at them and he still wasn't asleep.

His aunt would check on him in the middle of the night when he was littler. Only to find him staring at the stars with a glazed look in his eyes, almost as if in a trance. She'd be worried, come to his bed and put a hand on him and he'd flinch and that glazed look would vanish.

He remembered that his younger self was convinced the stars were... talking. He was tested for any kind of psychotic disorders, but nothing was found. It was easier to keep his mouth shut about it than to keep it up, maybe he was hearing things.

But, he could almost vividly remember how many voices he heard, even if it was all jumbled together, there were fourteen voices that were talking, they weren't talking to him, but they talked about him.

He couldn't make sense of it still.

"Keon?" His older sister's voice caught his attention, "Did you hear me?"

"No, uh, could you repeat that?" He asked,

"I asked what you were thinking about." She said, her eyes fixed on the road ahead alongside their aunt's.

"It's nothing, Nina."

"Hm.." Nina hummed, "Sounds like bullshit, what do you think, Aunt Megan?"

"Yep, sure does, kiddo." Aunt Megan said, smirking as she looked in the rear view mirror.

"...Remember when I used to say the stars talked?"

His aunt and sister's smiles fell, a worried look crossed both their faces.

"Yeah, why?" Nina asked,

"No reason, was just thinking about it. It was a crazy phase, huh?" Keon asked, Nina and his aunt's smiles formed again.

"Yeppo, kiddo!" Aunt Megan said with a smile as she patted the steering wheel. Keon and Nina just rolled their eyes, but then shared a smile to each other.

Keon and Nina weren't blood siblings, Keon was adopted as a baby. Though, their parents gave no clues onto where he was from or who his parents were before their deaths.

Keon's smile faded as he remembered, making Nina reached behind her seat and pat his knee. She always seemed to have a sixth sense on when he was thinking about their parents, she wasn't as close to them. Nina was mainly raised by Aunt Megan during Keon's time with his parents.

His parents never gave a reason as to why Nina lived with Aunt Megan and not them.

Keon never questioned much from his parents, they died around 4 years ago and he lived with them for 14 years since he was a baby. His parents were an odd bunch, he remembered they denied him sleepovers, hangouts, and the such. So he was a pretty lonely kid.

Another pat on the knee snapped him from his thoughts and he noticed they were parked in the driveway to their home, Nina was patting his knee and she smiled when she got his attention.

"Time to get out, Keon." Nina said as she opened her door and hopped out, Keon followed as he swung his backpack over his shoulder.

The tiny green house was ancient, it'd been around since the 1960s from what Aunt Megan told him when he moved in. The house had been repainted a total of 193 times, Aunt Megan counted for some reason, and the roof had been fixed a whole lot more than that. For some reason, 193 was a number stuck in Keon's head ever since she told him. It usually interfered with math.

But, English was the WORST, he couldn't read for shit and learning French was even more hard when he could barely read English. His younger self would make up words that made sense to him, but no one else. He remembered his parents scolding him and sometimes even putting him in timeout, soon he stopped doing it.

He walked inside the house, being met with a fluffy mutt that jumped on him, he laughed.

"Heya, Meatball!" Keon said, petting the dog's head as he happily barked.

Keon then quickly set onto his homework at the dining table, most of it was English he'd been putting off. Most of it was reading assignments that he struggled with, Nina was happy to help him read it though.

~~~

Eventually it was bedtime, Keon flopped on his bed as Meatball pounced onto the bed and laid next to him. Keon stared at the window of the stars once more before going under the covers.

Sleep came surprisingly quick...