The Book of Gemma -Apocalyptic Fantasy Romance-

CHAPTER 17: ROUGH RAPIDS

After my star lit up again, Deecon and Albi discussed letting me outside my room. We practiced control and ways to get my hateful thoughts to leave my mind. All morning we argued over if I could handle it or not, I admitted to them what happened that day in the forest.

"You slept all night outside in the storm without the pendant? ... practicing your levitation skills?" Albi says dumbfounded.
"I just wanted to see if I could still do what I was once so good at... but never exercising those muscles left me at almost my child state of strength. I could barely pick up a log.. I promise I'm too weak to do damage." I explained.
"Your eyes though.. The hair could just be an artistic statement but the eyes you can't explain." Deecon points to my face.
"I could wear sunglasses?" I threw out an option.

Deecon swings his head low.
"Everytime you're in public? People will think you're drunk or high. No... your people never learned to make them stop glowing?"
I sulk back in my chair scoffing "Our eyes are the symbol of my race. It was something to be proud of, not hidden. Don't forget we are your Gods."

The room grows quiet as we think of other solutions to my problem.
"Maybe we could get thicker colored contacts? Layers of darker brown to cover them? ... I don't know, it's something to try." Albi throws his suggestion into the mix.
"They would need to be glass.. Plastic would melt on my corneas." I say pushing the hair from my face.
Albi stands up, leaving the room, telling us he will go find a way to get his hands on glass contacts... but Deecon remains seated, staring at my hand.

"Gem, give me your hand." He reached out and from the expression on his face it wasn't lust for it, he was curious. I put my hand into his and started inspecting my index finger. The black swirl still wraps around it from when I was consumed into the darkness.

"What is this marking?" He questions still analyzing it.
"It hasn't disappeared since that day I killed you." The words leaving my mouth tasted horrible.
I think back to the voice that invaded my mind,

'Your first kill.. Is it almost time? Have you grown tired of humans?'

Deecon pulls my focus on the words to him.
"Have you heard the story of Scorpz?" He says finally looking into my eyes.
Scorpz made it into the Word of Starzithians?
She was a toxic obsessor, what story could have made it into the book?
I shake my head at him. Teach me more.
"There is a story about a solar-... Starzithian, slaughtering an entire town in the northern hemisphere of Darus. A human woman was stoned to death in front of the town for loving another woman.. A pendant state Starzithian.
Loving the same sex was freshly taboo,
They hid their love for years. I know you tried to teach my people right from wrong but some wires were crossed in most of them back then. The story goes that the Starzithian had gotten there too late and found her spouse beaten to death by stones. She removed her pendant and killed not only every person that picked up a rock but everyone they had loved... including their children.
Two Starzithians came to the town to find only a couple people left. They found the Starzithian pulling the ground around her as a barrier, consuming everything in her wake. The pair managed to break through it and discovered her entire body was wrapped in black markings. The darkness showing on the outside. Some people say they ripped her star from her chest, others say she was banished to the night sky."

I pull my hand from his and place it over my chest. Rip out her star? The amount of force that would take from my own kind was chilling. I stick my hand out in front of my eyes, now analyzing it closer.
"I will not stray." I whisper. I look over to meet Deecon's eyes.
"I promise. I will never stray again."

With my pendant no longer being an option for my body, it left them in the dark on how to proceed. Albi's search for glass contacts was successful, telling Edna it was for a theory I had to help see further than the clouds. 'Bird's eye views' He called it.
My eyes were dimmer from sharing my star with Deecon so it helped sell my eyes more into hiding.
Deecon's were a brighter green though, his hair was glistening and even his body more sculpted. Just a tiny bit of star in him gave him a glowing aura. Killing him.. Almost killed me.

They left the room to discuss it further.
I look at myself in the mirror to see my eyes a dark brown again.
I could already tell that the contacts were a one time use, I could feel the fragility of it compared to the burn my eyes still had.

My white roots have grown to my ears from the overbearing burn of the star. It left the hair from my ears down to my pelvis still black from the years of dying it. I reach my hands up to grab a couple strands to braid but I stop... he liked when my hair was down.

I look down at my throat where the pendant dug into it, the tears in my flesh healing slower with my power only at 80% after Deecon.