THE STARS HAVE EYES.
CHAPTER ONE: EMILY
EVERYTHING WAS SO DARK.
The world was crumbling beneath my feet and there was nothing I could do about it. The sun was fading and the heat dissipated with it. Cracks on the ground were elongating, the grass was gone, the air was dusty and hard to breathe. I had to get out of here, off of this horror we call Earth and off its hemisphere. Everything was dying around me and I was at a loss. This place I call home, this place where I felt safe, was vanishing and all I could do was stand and watch.
"Emily let's go!" The shrill of my moms voice breaks my thoughts and brings me back to reality. I turn to walk towards her and all I can see is the comparison of my mother and the ship that is towering over her, towering over all of us. The ship that will take us far away from this fading planet, that will contain me for the next future decades or so in its metal walls until we reach a new, breathable planet.
"You're wasting time, girl. Get on this ship now! For Gods sake, could you be any slower?" My mom orders as she grabs my arm and leads me to the entrance.
"I wanted to say goodbye." I whispered looking over my shoulder for the last time at the degrading planet that I once loved.
"There's nothing to say goodbye to, love. The Earth is dead, gone, and there's nothing anybody can do about it, you should be thankful your dad is in the military and that he is needed on this mission or else…well I don't even want to think about it." Her voice cracks at the end, probably feeling the same dread as I do right now. I say nothing, there's nothing to be said, so I let her drag me up the ramp.
The entry way is as fancy as a spaceship entry way can be, full of metal; metal walls, metal floors, metal doors. There's absolutely nothing welcoming about it, they could've at least put a sign up saying 'Welcome aboard your new home, you'll be isolated here for life!' they could've been a bit humorous about it, of course, there's nothing humorous about going into space with a possibility of finding a new home is zero to nothing. The feelings of dismay and loss creep up and tears prickle my eyes but I contain them, I have cried enough, for now. Its useless to cry in front of a whole crowd, especially embarrassing my mother, she's not to fond of weakness in public places, neither is she too fond of consoling me. A loud bang! reaches my ears and I turn around to see the doors that I walked through are sealed, the doors that led me to home have closed and left all of us in a metal box.
"There you two are, I was beginning to think you've toured the ship without us!" My body turns a full one eighty to see my dad walking towards my mom and I, his voice sounds bright and cheery, he's always the optimist in the family, someone's got to be.
"Emily wouldn't want to budge, I had to drag her all the way in here." Mom sneers at me but I couldn't care less, it's the last thing on my mind right now.
"Aw, my little Emsy is scared isn't she? Don't worry, you're perfectly safe here, this ship is designed by the best of the best in the whole damn world! Nothing can stop this beauty, not even a meteoroid!" He sounds too eager to be here, it makes me want to cry out 'I'm not scared! I don't belong here, my place is on the solid ground!' but I hold my tongue, instead I smile and let him wrap his muscled arms around me.
"Come on, don't want to let your siblings wait too long now do we?" He says while pushing past some people and leading my mother and I to my sister and brother.
The interior is somewhat beautiful; it's vast to say the least. Like it could go on forever with its fake fields and its apartments, except well, there's an ending. The solar lamp above my head is comforting with its heat and brightness trying to mimic the real sun on Earth, unfortunately it is powerless from the star that I have come to know that is slowly losing its beauty. They decorated the walls as though we are outside in the endless blue sky, no clouds though and no windows, I guess they wanted to make us forget that we are in space. To think that they made this spaceship in four years is surprising; we were that desperate to get off as soon as possible. I know this isn't the only level on this ship, my dad had shown me the blueprints, there are four different floors but I know this is the main centre for the population. I couldn't tell what was on the other floors, my dad told me it wasn't any of my concern which I don't understand, I will be living here for possibly the rest of my life, the least they could do is tell us to ease our minds, well my mind.
"Finally you guys are here, took you long enough. Can we get this over with already?" The obnoxious loud voice of my sister Katie disentangles me from my thoughts and her impatience makes my lips curve up into a smile, her attitude will never change in the slightest of any situation.
"Yeah, Katie hasn't looked at herself in the mirror for the past five minutes, we should hurry up before she really freaks out." My brother James says rudely which awards him with a slap upside the head. "Ow, what the fuck bitch?"
"Shut up you little turd, you're no better, its not like you have anything else to do." Says Katie.
"Katie, James, your language! You both better settle down, I will not tolerate this in public!" My mother shouts, which undoubtedly make heads turn towards us in curiosity.
"Now now, lets not start getting into fights already. We've merely got on the ship and I know this isn't what any of you want, but there isn't any other choice if we want to survive. Come on, I will show you our new quarters!" My dad exclaims, I don't know how he does it but he always makes a bad situation turn to some extent tolerable.
I find myself examining the floor, ground, metallic pathway; whatever you want to call it and I see the fake soil with no bugs or earthworms crawling out of it. There's nothing living here, except for us humans, I hate it. Although, I'm beginning to wonder how many individuals are on this vessel? Surely it can't support all the souls on Earth, right?
"Dad, how many people are on this spaceship?" I have to ask or it would keep circling in my head like a song that never stops playing.
"Only the important people are here, love." What does that mean? Why won't he just tell me? I'm about to ask him that exact question but he beats me to it.
"Here is the hospital and right over there are the apartments we'll be staying in, they haven't got a lot of space in them but don't worry, you guys will learn to appreciate them." Easy for him to say. "And over there is the library, isn't it brilliant?"
"Are we off the planet yet? I want to see the stars!" James, always the curious one. In all honesty, I wouldn't want to see it. It would just bring me even more miserable than what I am feeling right now. No, I can't think of this. I have to try to be happy; I don't have any other choice.
Et voilà! The first chapter to a new story from a new writer. I have to thank the author Beth Revis and her new book 'Across the Universe' to give me inspiration and as a disclaimer: Yes I have taken a few ideas from both skins and Beth Revis, they do not belong to me. All I really own is this laptop. That's it…
So, what did you think about it? Please don't be shy to tell me, criticism is welcome :) Btw, Naomi and Emily will meet in the next chapter so stay tuned!
Question: How would you feel if you had to leave Earth to become a voyager of the distant stars? Excited? Anxious? Terrified?
Personally, I would feel excited to know the enigma of the cosmos but terrified of the open space. Let me know ;)