When the Stars Align

Things Get a Little Out of Hand

I awoke the next morning to the sound of footsteps coming towards the door. I pushed myself against the wall and put my hands behind my back as if the handcuffs were still attached to each other. Too late, I remembered the blindfold on the other side of the room as the door creaked open. Two different men entered the room, both with black streaks in their hair. One was blonde and the other had an Arabian look to him. They looked about my age. The blonde one grabbed me by the arm dragging me roughly to my feet. Once I was upright fully, I pulled my fist back and socked him right in the nose. He staggered back, blood pouring. I whipped out my dagger and threw it across the room. It hit the other guy square in the shoulder. I had been aiming for the heart.

Jase and Carrie sprang to their feet and attacked the guy with the dagger protruding from his shoulder. I lunged at the guy with the bleeding nose. He had regained himself and tackled me to the ground. I kicked him off of me but he moved faster than I could blink. I felt myself thrown against the cinderblock wall, but I somehow managed to roll into a landing.

"You have more Obscurité in you than I thought," he spat. "No Étoile could have withstood that."

I lunged at him again, moving faster than I could have thought possible. He was on the ground, blood continuing to stream from his nose as I threw blow after blow.

"Stop!" yelled the Arabian guy.

I looked up. He had pulled the bloody dagger out of his shoulder and had it up to Jase's throat. Blood trickled down his neck but I couldn't tell if it was Jase's or the guy's.

His eyes were big with fear. "Nova, I'm fine. Don't worry-"

The guy pulled the dagger closer, silencing him. More blood ran down his neck that was definitely his. Carrie had a shard of glass in her hand from who knows where that she slowly let drop to the ground. I stood up, letting the blonde guy tie my hands in front of me this time with a piece of rope after removing what was left of the handcuffs. He tied it off tightly, the rope digging into my skin.

"Let him go," I said nodding towards Jase.

The other guy shoved Jase to the ground and pocketed the dagger as they led me out of the room and shut the door behind me.

"You'll pay for what you tried to pull in there, I can promise you that," the blonde hissed in my ear.

The only thing I regretted was losing my dagger. They led me into a dimly lit room. There was a large piece of glass that I could tell was one-way because I couldn't see through it. Two chairs were pulled up to a table in the middle of the room. A small black briefcase sat on the edge of the table. The blonde guy sat down in one of the chairs and motioned for me to sit in the other. The Arabian guy stood in front of the door, guarding it.

"I'm Garrett, and I'm going to ask you a few questions. If you want to get out of this room alive, well, I suggest you answer truthfully," said the blonde.

Looking at him closer, he was more of a dirty blond. His hazel eyes searched my blue ones.

I scoffed. "You won't kill me."

His eyes flashed. "There are worse things than dying, Nova Green. There are thousands of ways to torture an Étoile to leave them lingering between life and death, especially one with Obscurité in them too. Might I also remind you that we have your 8 year old brother in the other room?"

My eyes filled with terror as I thought of what they could do to Jase.

"That's what I thought," Garrett said darkly. "We'll start with something simple. How old are you?"