Chapter 1: Shooting Stars

Stardust Novel

Chapter One: Shooting Stars

           He stood by the window, eyes fixated upon the night sky watching the stars streak across the celestial canvas. There were all sorts of different colors: bright green, white, and blue. There were even stars with a purple hue. Shifting his gaze to another part of the canvas revealed distant explosions of color in space, a sight he had never seen before. Watching the Goddess of the Night as she worked on this grand scale painting gave Psi peace of mind, something that was in short supply during the other times of  his day. At least he could count on this beautiful display of light and color to occur most every night. It was a rare night where one could not see the shooting stars.

            Psi pulled his eyes away from the majestic art show continuing in the sky, and looked down upon the earth. From his window, Psi could see people walking home along the dirt streets, likely exhausted from a long day at work,  people riding taxi carriages pulled by horses to reach their destinations, and stall owners carrying wheelbarrows of their unsold goods back home.

            Psi left the window and went to lie on his bed. He lived in a three-floor apartment complex, quite common in a city this large. It was the capital city of Ban’nu, after all, the country with the largest population and greatest wealth in the whole world.  Other countries could only dream of having the financial and colonial power Ban’nu had. As a powerful nation, Ban’nu had a few territories scattered across the globe that provided them with raw supplies and treasures. Ban’nu was also technologically and militarily superior, as it had the most railroads, steamships and guns. And so it was evident that Ban’nu was a prosperous nation.

Unfortunately for Psi, however, he was poor. His living quarters were small, with only two rooms: a kitchen/dining area, and his bedroom. Luckily the apartment complex had a room for bathing, so he did not have to visit a public bathhouse outside in order to bathe.

Psi let out a sigh. How long has it been since I last went outside, he wondered to himself. Most of the time, he avoided leaving the building, or even leaving his room period. He dropped out of school and stopped venturing outside two years ago, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble. Things always went wrong when he tried to interact with others. People could not accept him; he was too different.  A freak. Too much for them to handle and impossible to understand. He probably only left his place once or twice a week, and that was just to get food.  Or to go to the local gambling den in order to support his livelihood.

That’s right, despite only being sixteen years of age, Psi was an experienced gambler. He figured he didn’t have much choice in the matter. After all, it wasn’t like he had anyone to take care of him financially. It was tough to make it in this world alone, and if gambling was a way to survive, then of course he’d take the risk.

Besides, it wasn’t as if Psi ever lost at gambling anyway. Well, of course he lost the first couple of times, but after that, he started winning almost unconditionally. The men at the gambling den were always baffled by his consistent domination of the other gamblers. One might think that the other gamblers would accuse him of cheating or refuse to play against him, but he had already proven to be using fair play by having a bystander watch him closely throughout a few games. So why did he always win? The reason is he was naturally good at predicting things. Just a bit lucky he guessed. Even he deserved some luck in his life, after all.

Grrrr

Psi’s stomach was rumbling. He didn’t even remember when he last ate. He was running low on food too. He’d have to go out and stock up on food tomorrow, he supposed. Psi got up from his bed and went to look at the small mirror hanging on his wall. He looked the same as always: tan skin, dark wavy hair , and pale grey eyes. All pretty common traits for a Ban’nuin native, minus his unusual eye color. He was thin, but not yet unhealthily so�"he managed to buy enough food to stay nourished. As for his clothes, he sported common Ban’nu garb: a short-sleeved dark tunic with a simple design, slacks and a knitted tuque cap on his head. He always wore that cap; it made him feel secure.

 “Ah!” Psi suddenly exclaimed, dropping to his knees. He felt as though someone had forcibly shoved a jagged rock into his brain. This had never happened before. What could be causing this? He tried to stand, but to no avail. He collapsed again, feeling like the world was shaking. His vision blurred and his bedroom seemed to twist and turn before him. He clutched his head and gritted his teeth, trying to will his mind back into stability. The objects in his room started to rattle uncontrollably. All the candles in his room went out at once. Books, paper, and glass began flying across the room in random directions, as if flung by an irate invisible spirit.

“I am in control,” Psi said to himself. “I am in control. I am in control. I am in control.”

After repeating the words to himself several times, everything had calmed down. Psi slowly stood up, and a quick look around revealed that, as expected, his room was a mess, but he was uninjured and everything seemed to be okay. Except that, now that he had regained his composure, Psi noticed that there were screams of terror coming from outside the building.

Could it be that someone noticed me? Psi thought as his heart-rate spiked. He’d been living here peacefully for two years, and now it was all going to be blown apart by a freak accident? He’d been hiding it perfectly so far, but now…

At any rate, he figured he should probably leave until things blow over. Psi quickly packed a few essentials into a goat-skin sack, slung it over his shoulder, and approached the window, prepared to jump out. He was only on the second floor of the building, so it was unlikely he would be harmed by the jump.

What he saw outside stopped him cold.

People everywhere were in a panic. Some were sprinting down the street screaming, others stood weeping and praying, and others were scrambling to find a place to hide. Hide from what, Psi wondered. Psi could even see people exiting his building below him, sprinting out into the night.

There was a loud rapping on his door. Psi turned away from the window, considering what to do. Whatever was causing the chaos outside, it didn’t seem to be because of him. He decided to respond to his guest. He walked to the door, but didn’t open it. You can never be too cautious.

“What is it?” Psi said.

“Hey, kid, what’re ya still doing in here!? Get out while you still can!” the person on the other side yelled. By his voice, Psi could tell it was his next-door neighbor, Grantz. He was a short stocky man with a beard in his mid-thirties. He was gruff, but had always been pretty nice to Psi. Grantz sometimes went to the gambling den that Psi visited.

“Get out? What do you mean?” Psi asked, still confused by the situation.

“Boy, how do you always sound so damn calm? We’re all dead! It’s the end of the whole damn world! Just look at the sky!” Grantz screamed, and then the sound of hurried footsteps told Psi that he had fled.

Boom! A sound like a colossal beast stomping the earth exploded in Psi’s ears. Dazed, it took him a moment to realize the force had made him fall to the floor. With ears still ringing, Psi clumsily pulled himself up and rushed back to the window to check the sky. 

As Psi raised his head towards the night sky to take one last look at its beauty, the stars began to fall.

Author's Note

Please let me know what you think! By the way, this book is related to my book Lotus Eaters, also available on this site.

Reviews

[Ana Drake]

I really enjoyed this first chapter, the setting was perfect and your writing style is wonderful. I plan to read the second chapter and I'll definitely check out lotus eaters as well. I hope there's more coming :)

[Minoru Kusari]

Thank you very much, I am glad you enjoyed this! Yes, there is definitely more to come, I hope you will continue to enjoy my writing :)