Amelia Smith. An average girl. Age 18. Single. Long black hair. Gray eyes that could read things others wouldn't even think about. Lives with her mother. So what's wrong with that? Good question.
Everything.
Everything has gone to hell since her father died. Everyone turned their backs on her since that day. And what could she do about that? Absolutely nothing. Ignored and despised by her own family, treated like trash, because that's what they called her, for causing something that wasn't even her fault. She knew that. But did her family know? Did they understand? No.
They won't even look at her. The only attention she gets is from her mother, only to bark orders on what's needed to be done and what she needs. You may ask, what caused that? What caused such a great hatred for her own daughter, for the only one she had?
The death of her beloved of course. Because apparently, it was her fault, it was Amelias fault.
13 years ago.
Amelia sat on the edge of her bed, peeking outside her closed window, watching her father work on his lovely truck. He loved that damn thing so much, sometimes she even wondered if he would choose the truck over his family, at that time, it made her laugh at such a silly thought.
Down, in the kitchen, her mother made some dinner for the three of them.
Still watching her father work on his truck a thought struck her.
Opening the window she shouted to her father "Daddy! Would you like me to help you a little?" Her smile widened at his surprised reaction.
Her father's head whipped around to the place where her voice came from. Not thinking long about the offered help from his daughter "Sure thing! Come down and we'll clean this baby!" He answered her with a laugh in his voice.
With that, she quickly closed her window and ran down the stairs out to the driveway shouting out to her mother that she's going to help her daddy. Her father stood already waiting for her with a smile plastered on his face.
Suddenly he grabbed her and twirled her around in a circle. She let out a bubbly laugh at the action. She grabbed him by the neck and hugged him close, at what he just smiled.
"So Amy, you ready to wash our little Duster here?" Her father always called the truck 'Duster'. She didn't get it why though.
"Yep!" She answered popping the 'p' and running to the garage to get the hose.
Quickly spraying the big black truck with cold water and beginning to scrub down the dirt from its bumper, she got wet and dirty as well. But she didn't really mind as long as she and her father had fun.
Slowly they were coming to an end with washing the truck when her mother came out and told them to get in for dinner. So that's what they did.
"Amelia why the hell are you so dirty again? I always told you not to get dirty!" And here begins the usual thing. Her mother screaming at her for every detail of what she did wrong. Her father never screamed at her. Never, ever.
She just looked up at her father with pleading eyes and back to her mother "I'm sorry... didn't mean too... I just wanted to help daddy wash the truck.."
Her mother glared down at her. "Now I have to wash those clothes again! I swear, when you'll get older you'll do all the cleaning in the house!" And that's where her father got in.
"Stop screaming at her, she had fun, that's what matters." He looked boredly at her mother, not caring the slightest about anything that came afterward.
Her mother's face became red like a tomato. "And you encourage her to do all that stuff?! Only to have fun? It's your job, not hers to wash that truck!" Pointing an accusing finger to the said truck sitting in the driveway calmly. She hated it when her mother screamed. She hated it when they both screamed even more.
As simple as the problem was, it became a big problem. Again. The dinner forgotten, Amelia left for her room to weep in her bed with her father calling after her to come back. Why was her mother always so hard on them? It always beginned from the smallest things and quickly escalated to some big fight. She hated it.
After lying for some time in her bed she started to smell something in the air. She didn't realize that the 'thing' she smelled was smoke.
Suddenly she shot up from her bed and opened her door only to be greeted by a big ball of smoke.
She started to scream out of sheer panic, calling for her father.
Getting the idea of opening the window and going out through there suddenly came to a screeching stop when the window didn't even budge.
Something blocked it.
And she couldn't get out.
She was trapped inside her room.
She fell to her knees whimpering loudly for help, calling for her father, for someone, anyone to help her.
Slowly it was getting hotter and hotter and the air was slowly contaminated with the smoke. Second by second her consciousness started to slip. Only to find big black steel boots standing before her in her last seconds of vision.
Then it was all black.
She woke up at the hospital only to be told that her father passed away saving 'her sorry ass' as her mother put it.
She didn't talk for a long time.
Why? She was at loss of words, she didn't want to talk nor had she anything to say during that time.
She was drained of her voice.
Getting out of the hospital with her already healing wounds made the nightmare at home even worse.
Amelia became the person her mother promised. Listening to all her biddings and getting punished when something isn't done or is not made the way she liked it.
Present
She lives this nightmare until now. School didn't help either. She didn't have any friends, she didn't even have a pet. She just had herself, the canvas and music.
Sometime after her 12th birthday, she started to paint, at the beginning, it was just a child play. With the time passing and her growing, it started to become something more. It was a... escape from the reality. Her most favorite thing to paint with her water colors was always the galaxy. It always won over her heart. The sheer beauty of it hypnotizing her eyes and making her fall in love with it for forever.
Since they lived deep in the state of Nevada, where no one else was and where were no lights she had her favorite picture every night before her gray eyes.
She always told herself "just wait until nightfall", and that's what she was always doing. Waiting for her peaceful observation of the sky.
Watching. Observing. Monitoring.
She liked it.
Because why not? She hated to sleep. The nightmare of that day taunts her until now. It's tiring.
Today was no other day as she slowly ended up her work in the kitchen.
"Amelia your work for today is over. Haul your ass up to your room!" Yes, that's everyday for her. Her mother screaming at her for nothing.
She did as told. Getting up into her bed, lying down and listening to some songs from her old phone.
She always thought of how her life would've been if her father was still alive.
Would it be better? Would it be more peaceful? Would her mother still scream and despise her like that?
Would he still laugh with her like that day? Would he be there for her...?
She stared at her ceiling with raw tears slowly forming in her eyes. Oh, how she hated to cry. She hated being so weak.
...But she couldn't help it.
She tried. She always tried to do as good as she was told but it was never enough. It was never enough for her mother and the rest of the family.
She was just... a pushover.
She put the necklace she once got from her father for her 5th birthday in her hand and closed it tightly.
How she missed him it couldn't be described.
Slowly she got up from her bed, put on her shoes and got out from her room. Carefully passing her mothers room not to wake her.
As soundlessly as she could she walked down the stairs straight out to the driveway. Closing the door behind her with a small 'pop'.
Making her way down the driveway she passed Duster, patting him on the hood before going further away from her home.
After her father died the truck was left for her, just after she made her driver license it was fully hers. She drove it everyday to school. The truck was what's left of her sanity, it was the best thing that reminded her of her father. It always made her smile.
Amelia knew that if she got caught again by her mother she would get extra screamed on. She couldn't take it when someone screamed at her, she never talked back, she didn't have it in her to do it.
Quickly strolling down the street hoping she wasn't seen by her mother she was on her way to her favorite spot, even though it was about 3 miles away from her home. She didn't mind. She likes walking.
Listening to some songs she was quickly at her destination.
Living in the middle of nowhere had its perks, huh?
She sat down on the small patch of dried grass cross-legged and let out a small sigh.
Finally. Silence.
She closed her eyes and felt the breeze passing by, whipping at her long black hair. Oh, how she loved being here.
Living in the desert was something she loved. All around her were just some rocks, here and there small patches of grass and dried bushes.
Putting on the next track on her phone made her finally luck up to the dark sky.
The lack of lights made the sky even more visible. And she loved it.
The stars were glimmering proudly in the shadows of the nightly sky, they always captured all of her attention. They caught her in their light and hold her tightly there. They all reflected in her eyes as if burned in like on a picture.
Mesmerising.
What she didn't catch at first were those small streaks falling across the sky. As more fell she finally took notice. Focusing on them her jaw went slack.
There, across the darkness fell stars just like in a movie. One after another fell back into the blackness where they came from.
Amelia reached her right hand out to the sky as if trying to catch one of them. A smile formed on her lips. She let out a small gasp, she caught a similarity of them to her.
They were all scattered across the sky like her heart here on earth.
Her tears falling anew, glimmering in the light of the stars.
She had a wish, and there were so much of them passing by. One falling star, one wish, wasn't it?
She knew she couldn't wish for her father to come back. She knew it was impossible. Yet...
"Please... to whoever is listening, please give me someone to rely on, someone to talk to... someone who will stay by my side..." her outstretched hand fell limp to her side, with her head tilted up she pleaded. "I beg you!"
Her tears fell uncontrollably. She begged and begged. Falling into a fetal position she cried her little hear out until there were no more tears left to cry. She didn't care about the dirt that got tangled into her hair nor did she care that her mother was going to scream at her a lot the next day about it. She just lied there, thinking, wondering.
Why was she always alone? Why was she the one being hated? What did she do to deserve it? She loved her father. She was grateful to him for saving her. But if she had to choose between her life now and death she would have picked the second option.
Why her?
Just as she lied there motionlessly on the ground she didn't notice the oncoming meteorite her way.
AN: Hello there! I tried to make the first chapter as long as possible and I think it turned out pretty well. Let me know what you think about this chapter! I'm sorry about all the spelling errors. Well, if there are any. I didn't really check for them so I'm sorry.