Repentance // Book 1: Of Angels and Men

1: The Necklace

Luna Starr had always been an exceptionally bright girl.  Her parents thought she was a miracle, her friends adored her and the rest hated her for being better than them.  As a result, her childhood was as turbulent as an airplane in the middle of a storm.   Luna didn't think she was a miracle; she knew she was a curse.

She bore no resemblance to any of her family members.  Her grey eyes stared dreamily out of a round, cherubic face.  Her red lips stood out in stark contrast to her pale face, with the scattering of freckles that she hated so bad prominently displayed on her nose and cheeks.  Her ginger hair hung in wavy strands almost half-way down her back, and her straight-cut fringe covered her forehead.  She was quite short for her age, but she didn’t mind.  It helped her blend in…well, not counting her giveaway ginger hair.  Her otherworldly intelligence and her outlandish hair made her the perfect victim, and her childhood was a nightmare of bullying.  Her parents were perfectly normal, and her older brother was a very ordinary teenage boy, who bore a striking resemblance to both his parents.  The other brother, she didn’t talk about.  It was too painful.

Sometimes, Luna wondered if she was adopted.

It was on one of these days that Luna found the necklace.

She was running back home from school.  Running, not out of eagerness, but from a fear instilled by the bullies that were running after her.  Her bag bounced on her back, loose strands of orange hair flying from her bun, feet slapping the ground beneath them and loosening the gravel.  She had unusual gracefulness for one who made it a must not to do any exercise whatsoever.  Sometimes, it felt as if she was flying.

She stumbled and almost fell, and she slipped in a shadow and hunched there, shaking with fear.  The thuds of running feet passed by, along with the yells and jeers that accompanied them.  Her breath hitched in ragged sobs, and as her hands flattened on the ground, she felt a chain beneath her hands, cool against the heat.  She recoiled in shock, but soon, her hand cautiously reached out again and grabbed the chain.  She lifted it and dropped it in her pocket, spun round and ran home in a different route as if Hell’s hounds were at her heels.

She ran up the pathway and slammed into the door.  Her mother opened instantaneously, and Luna felt the pang she always got when she stared into her mother’s brown eyes, with her straight, jet-black hair.  Her mother pulled her into a hug, guessing why her daughter's eyes shone with unshed tears, why her stray strands of hair flew out haphazardly out of the usually neat ponytail.  Luna hung in her mother's embrace for a few seconds, then pulled away and pushed past her, running up to her room ans slamming the door.  She threw her bag on the floor and knelt beside it, surveying the new blotches and holes that Triss had poked into it today.  Triss used to be her best friend, but lately she'd been hanging with Angelica and Amy, the ''cool'' girls who thought that being a virgin made them naive and stupid, and who  liked showing off how many boys they had before throwing them away like a spent tissue.  Triss joined the duo, and now made it a point to ruin Luna's life, which hurt, as Triss was the one who knew all her problems, and she enjoyed showing off the fact that she fitted in.  Unlike Luna.

So now Luna had only one friend.  They used to be five.  Triss went away.  Kathy died last year from a car accident, and her twin sister Darcy moved to a new school because she was too heartbroken and seeing all those familiar faces only made the heartache worse.  That only left Luna and Charlotte, whom she called Lottie.  Lottie was beautiful, with perfect blonde curls and chocolate-brown eyes.  What made her part of Luna's friends, the misfits, was the fact that she stuttered.

As Luna stared at her bag, she received a text message from her.

Lottie:

Are you home?  Did they chase after you?

Luna:

What d'you think, Lott?  It's that new gang, Carson's group.  They're fast...  Can I call you?

Lottie:

Sure.

Luna picked up her phone and dialed Lottie's number.  Lottie picked up on the second ring.

"H-hi Luna."

"Hey, Lott."

"Are y-you ok-kay now?  Did th-they b-beat you up-p?"

"I managed to hide.  They're fast, Lottie.  Let me pick you up tomorrow, you know I run faster than you, I can help you."

She heard Lottie sigh on the other end, and sensed something was wrong.

"Lott, is something wrong?"

"Oh, Luna, I... I'm m-moving away for a m-month.  I'm going t-to a special sp-peech therap-pist.  My st-stutter's g-getting wo-worse, a-a-a-"

"Hey, hey hey, don't panic Lott!  I'm not angry at you!  I'll be fine.  You'll get that stutter fixed, you'll see."

In reality, Luna's comforting words were coming out automatically, but her heart felt as if it had frozen, and her blood turned to ice.  Lottie was her only friend.  She couldn't face school without her!  But at the same time, she wanted Lottie to feel more comfortable when she spoke, and she knew how sensitive she was.  When she'd hung up, her knees gave way and she crumpled on the floor, landing on her side.  A sharp pain in her leg reminded her of the necklace she'd found.  She sat up and took it out.  She looked at the pendant, cool against her warm skin.  It was shaped like two wings, folded on top of each other.  They were white, and the edge of each feather sparkled gently.  The intricate detail of the wings took her breath away, and it took her a moment to realize the the wings where held together by a tiny clasp.  Gently undoing it, she discovered that when they opened, a small, golden heart was revealed.  She could make out faint writing on the heart.  She got up and rummaged in one of her cupboards, and found a magnifying glass from the days when she used to  think she was Sherlock Holmes, and brought it closer to the pendant.  A single word, picked out in cursive, read:    

Soleil.

A sudden urge to put the necklace on made her close the wings gently and slip it on.  She stuffed the necklace down her shirt, so that her mother wouldn't see it and ask too many questions.  As soon as the cool pendant touched her skin, she felt the little golden heart thud against hers, as if it had a life of its own.  A shock ran through her body in small waves, raising hairs and goose pimples, until suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and a closed door in her brain opened.

She was Soleil.

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A/N:

Soo, what do you think?  Is it a good story?  Does it intrigue you?  MMMMM?  (Gosh, I sound like an annoying aunt trying to find out if you have a boyfriend/girlfriend.  A crazy cat-lady kind of aunt)  The last part, the whole oooooh-her-brain-is-unlocking-wtf part, is going to be explained here:

You know (or should know) that humans only use a small percent of their brain.  Now, our dearest Luna Starr isn't just ANY human, she's an angel (for those who didn't get it).  With that realisation, she is now able to use alllll of her brain, so she's gonna have some supernatural abilities.  Well, that's settled.  I'll upload next week.  I hope.  If you comment and vote, I'll upload sooner.  :D See yaaa

Claira (That's what my friends call me, so I guess you can call me that too.  K bye)

xxx

P.S:  There is a reason why Soleil (sun) was changed to Luna (moon).  The Sun is something more majestic than a moon.  It gives off light, while the moon only reflects it.  It symbolises Soleil's fall from the greatness of Heaven to the sinfulness of Earth.  *dramatic pause* 'ell yeah girl.  'Kay bye xxxx