Star Killer

Chapter 1

(17 years later)

Darkness.

          It's a weird concept on how a world consumed by blinding light could truly be so dark. I walk along the sleek stone sidewalk and spare passing glances at the tall streetorbs that illuminate Section 3B's lonely neighborhoods. Their pale light mixes with the oxygen shield and throws shimmering patterns on the sides of every dull brown wall they meet, turning the buildings into mesmerizing works of art.

          Some people would find the sight to be beautiful or enthralling, but when it's the middle of the day and all you have is artificial florescence, compared to the true sun, darkness seems like the better choice.

          I give one last fleeting glance at the gray wavering road as I enter the large gray doors of the small gray dormitory school that has been my home for the past sixteen years of my dull gray life. Most of the kids start attendance of the school at the age of fifteen, but I've been here ever since I reached the age of three due to lack of anywhere to go. The only place I could escape to would be up, but that would be a different type of escape. Who wouldn't want their flesh to boil slowly off as acid ate away at their veins and turned their organs into something you'd find at the bottom of a flask in a chemistry class? Sabhir isn't a planet anymore; it is a death trap that we are stuck in the center of.

          My footprints dully echo in the air as I search the halls of the large building for the staircase that leads to my dorm's floor. Classes are still in session so no one will be joining my wander for at least thirty more minutes. Good. That means no one can question my absence from all the pre-lunch lessons, because honestly, I have no new excuse to use. Slept in? Nope, used that one last month. Got lost? No one would buy that one since I've lived here all of my life. Sick to the stomach... no... more like sick to the head. At least that excuse wouldn't be a half-assed lie.

          My eyes lazily land on the large B that hangs sloppily over the cracked door and, if it's even possible, my mood gets that much darker as I sprint up the chipped steps taking them three at a time. The ceiling lights illuminate my worn black boots as I go. The door at the top is open because as always people are too stupid to learn how to close it.

          The lights in the long hallway are off though. Even the idiots know to conserve the energy we have down here. It's not like I need the light anyways. After seventeen years of residing in the same broken down room in the same hallway in the same school in the same settlement in the same ocean in the same miserable solar system one would also tend to have one measly room number carved into their brain for as long as they live. 381. 381. 381.

          There aren't 381 students.

          Back when everyone first fled to the ocean when the sun phased into an infamous red giant they based themselves in an old scientific marine studies building. Without it's supplies and oxygen barrier, no one would've survived for more than a few hours. In my case, I wouldn't have made it even half an hour.

          Change after change has been made to this old hunk of stone but my room stays untouched. The leaders of the building have been renovating for years so new students have the perfect learning conditions to help shape them into the next level of brain dead civil servants. The school teaches of science and engineering so when the group of young adults goes into society they can help better Sabhir's colonies and continue the endless cycle that we have been stuck in ever since we arrived down here.

          Most students take this course without question, but then there are students like me. We know the truth. We understand that we will never escape this world. We are all slowly waiting for death because it's the only escape we'll ever have. Until then we'll continue the loop of day after day dullness. The instructors try and try again to get us to bend to their will and be good followers like everyone else, but when you don't care about living, school seems like a silly topic to worry about. We're all doomed to become field hunters anyway so why pay attention to lecture after lecture? Mathematical equations and chemical formulas won't be of much help when facing off to animals five times your size that would eat you without a single thought or care.

          Many classify the others and I as unintelligent or ignorant but we are actually the only ones perceptive enough to look through the happy lies everyone is okay with believing because the truth would hurt more than they think.

          I snap out of my thoughts and press my forehead against the familiar door, its red peeling paint is scratchy against my skin but I don't move. I don't want to move. I don't want to move. I don't want to move.

          I move.

          I dig my hand around in my pocket and pull out my key before unlocking the door and welcoming the low groan as the old wood swings away and I walk in. Darkness.

          I place my key carefully on the large wooden crate that acts as my table and then walk over to the far corner of the black room. When my feet bump gently against an object I flop backwards and sigh as the rusty springs of my mattress voice their resistance towards my weight. My arms stretch out and graze against the chill wooden floor sending a shiver down my spine. I tilt my head back and let my eyes lazily wander across the ceiling as my eyes adjust. They stop when they reach a single pale shape and stay there until they can focus enough to make out its five pointed sides. A small faded star resting above my head and a little to the left. Memories of cutting out and pasting dozens of similar ones with help from the teachers drifts through my mind and a small smile creeps onto my face. My own night sky that no one else can see. Over the years, the stars fell one by one and my hopeful ceiling galaxy faded away along with my hope of ever escaping.

          I tear my eyes away before more memories can be conjured and roll over onto my side. I'm alone with my single star hanging on my personal sky. Pools form around my eyes and warm streams leave streaks down my cheeks as I squeeze my eyes shut and block all thoughts from my mind to keep from breaking apart.

          Two little stars stranded in the sky, one fell down and started to cry.

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Finally got around to chapter two

comment if ya have any questions!