Dreaming of Stars

Adoption

"You're going to be adopted!" I heard from behind the splintering wooden door. I almost started sobbing but I knew I had to be quiet so I continued to listen while tears carved through my skin.

"By who?" I heard the excitement in her voice, her little childish voice I once had.

"A nice family who already have one girl, one boy and they live by a forest, perfect for you!" The Keeper said, at least that's what I called her. The other orphans called her the orphan mother but I felt it didn't sound right considering she had no kids that were rightfully hers.

My best friend, Onca, called her the Bringer of Grieve because she had been the one to tell her how her parents had died when she was only a baby. I agreed on that name but it still wasn't fair considering someone would have to tell us eventually. Instead I had decided to lean toward the fact that she kept all of us safe. So that's how I came to her name, The Keeper.

"Let's go get you ready." The Keeper said as I scurried away from the creaking door. I didn't have enough time to get away though so I hid where the door would whack into me.

"I'm so excited!" Daphne shouted as she skipped along with The Keeper's brisk steps.

Why couldn't that be me? Why couldn't I had been taken by sweet loving people, people who would always love me. Why did my parents have to die? Why, why, why, die?

"Vela? Is that you?" I heard my one close friend Onca whisper as she moved the door back into its frame to reveal me.

"Yeah." I whispered as I started walking towards our room.

"What happened Vela?" Onca calmly inquired as she followed after me.

"You know the new girl, Daphne?"

"Yes, what about her?" Onca said as we continued to walk.

"She was already adopted, I just overheard The Keeper telling her." I finished as we ended our walk into our small room taken over with our large bunk bed. The second bed was pointless though because only one of the beds had a mattress so we usually switched nights for who would sleep on the wooden bars. When we were little though the one mattress would hold us both but during the years of us staying in our depressing home we quickly grew out of sleeping together.

"That lucky duckling!" Onca shouted as she started her climb up to the bed of bars.

"Why are you sleeping up there? You slept there last night?" I questioned knowing how much she hated sleeping up there and had once refused to stop annoying me until I let her sleep on the mattress.

"Yeah, but you had a rough night yesterday it didn't seem like you got to enjoy the mattress at all." it was true, I had had a weird dream last night of drifting through space with nothing to hold onto and no way to stop myself as all the planets came crashing onto my insignificant fragile body.

"Ok, only if you insist." I answered because truthfully I loved the mattress and I was not going to let it go to waste.

"'Night!" Onca hollered as she bundled up in all the blankets we had stolen from The Keeper's closet.

"Good night!" I whispered back as my eyes were attracted to the dusty window filled with bright stars and the waxing moon. Soon the stars dimmed as my mind faded and the moon turned to black.

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"Come find me Vela, you know you can." I heard a voice as I floated around infinite dark. "Find me before the others." the mocking voice said as it moved around in the non navigable space.

"How am I supposed to find you?" I shouted as I spun around up and down without even knowing I was moving.

"You know how you just haven't dug deep enough!" the voice shouted as light started coming into view over my head. "Find it before they do!" the voice echoed as brightly lit planets and stars fell on top of me. Suddenly beneath me became solid almost as if to make sure I would get crushed between the two.

"Help!" my throat rasped but before anyone could find me. I heard a cracking noise and i was gone.

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"What's wrong Vela?" Onca questioned as I woke back up to the dark familiar room with the moon and stars still visible in the window. They always seemed so beautiful to me but in my dreams it seemed they were always out to get me.

"Nothing." I answered knowing it wasn't enough.

"Come on! You can't wake me up then not tell me!" Onca flipped her head off the side of the bed so it was dangling in front of me with her hair waving wildly back and forth.

"I was just thinking, do you ever think we'll be adopted?" I asked knowing it was a believable answer.

"Eh, I think getting adopted is overrated. Ya know what I mean?" Onca answered as she looked at me with a little sparkle in her brown eyes.

"Yeah, I guess." I answered knowing that I still really wanted to be adopted.

"Great! Now how about we go back to sleep, is that ok with you?" she finished as she flipped back onto her bed not waiting for an answer.

"Yeah, sure." I answered. But before I fell asleep I looked out the window to see the bright moon and stars shimmering in the sky as they were before. But as my eyes searched the shimmering sky the moon and stars started moving, they started moving down like they had in my dream crashing through space and soon Earth was with them. Flashes of panicked people flashed before my eyes as the universe came crashing down into infinite space to crush someone. To crush me.