Vast

Prologue

I can feel them. The stars. The way they twinkle at you. The way they scatter themselves across the great unknown. The way they're shining down on you.
The stars will never leave you. Whenever you look up they'll always be there. Unlike people or animals who can only be there on the condition you're there too. Stars are more loyal than that. No matter where you're at, they're always there.
The way life is going right now, I wish I was up there myself. Up in the stars. Staring down on everybody. Twinkling at some little kid and his girlfriend under the stars. Getting out of the world we put ourselves into daily. Our own little box full of our own issues that we plunge deep into every day to get by. I wish I was a star. Starring down on everything. So I could see the bigger picture. More than just what I see now.

I felt a buzz in my pocket and pulled out my phone. My girlfriend texted me.

"Dylan, I need you to come see me right away. I know you're out right now so could you just please stop by? Thanks."

I groaned. Don't get my wrong, I love my girlfriend. I just was super drowsy and needed to get to bed some time soon. Maybe I could pretend I was asleep and just go home, I thought as I laid back down in the meadow behind the middle school.

My phone rang. I picked it up to my girlfriend who was sobbing.
"What's wrong?" I asked, only getting sobs in response.
"I'll be right over. Just hang in there,"

I hung up my phone, ran over to my bike, and started biking towards her house. When I got there the police were on the porch talking to Raven, my girlfriend. She spotted me gestured for me to wait a minute.
Shit, I thought, the police are involved. What have you gotten yourself into?

I had to wait a couple minutes, but they police eventually left, leaving me and Raven alone. I walked over to her and asked what was wrong and she just grabbed me and sobbed into my chest. I held her in my arms and let her cry on me for a good 10 minutes until she finally explained to me what happened.

"Dylan... somebody broke into my house... somebody whose dangerous..."
"Who was it?" I said, anger filling my chest.
"My ex... the one I had to move down here to Alabama to escape... he found me Dylan I don't know what to do..." she started sobbing into my chest again.

Even more anger filled my chest. She's told me before how her ex, Duncan, hurt her. Duncan's gangbanger friends would team up on her and hit her and sexually assault her for the fun of it. Raven moved from Montana to escape that. How did he find her? Where is he? I'm gonna kill him, I thought to myself.

Softly, I sighed. I held her in my arms as she sobbed. I planted a kiss on her forehead and whispered, "don't worry. I'm here. I'll protect you, I promise". She held me tighter and eventually stopped sobbing. I held her in my arms and watched the sky as it began to turn from dark to light again.

Don't you worry Raven. I'm going to find Duncan and settle this. Once and for all. That I swear.