Our Life Our Story - Book 1

Chapter 2 - The Star Who Was Shot Out Of The Sky

"Make a wish. Life is short, after all."

  Her name was Abigal Garcia, better known to the residents of Los Valburn and Rivenbark Secondary School as the 'Fallen Star'. She had a certain twinkle in her eyes and was perceived as the most 'innocent and helpless', so to say. That was false, of course, or else she wouldn't be part of one of the leading delinquent gangs in all of San Valburn. She would prove them wrong.

  Once people thought of it, the 'Fallen Star' dressed mostly in the same ballpark as her other outfits. Black jeans and a long sleeved crop top, stained very faintly at the hems with red. Her shoulder-length light golden brown hair was tied up out of the way with a single slivery emerald brooch. Abigal's eyes sparkled in a certain way only her hazel eyes could, whether it be as chillingly cold as during crimes, or as warm as a hearth in private. They were framed with long, dark lashes that drifted down toward her lightly freckled cheeks, covered with glitter, not unlike Meili's. However, her glitter was larger in size and a sparkly silver in colour that glinted in the light. Enchanting.

  She might not have Meili's way with words, but the seemingly innocent chirps of noise during a job had many a target drawn close, sure they could take advantage. The crew was wrapped around her pinky finger, but so was all the rest of the Voided Tigers. She was fiercely loyal and could be rather primal if provoked enough by a target. Her logo was a single silver shooting star, torn apart slightly and muddled with red.

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  Her name was Abigail Garcia and she didn't really like crowds. Public crowds were loud, messy, hot and full of people taller than her. Considering her short stature and thin form, she was often pushed around and disregarded. She used to like them, the bustle and constant noise, but the screams of the young children from her old village filling the night tore into her heart and ruined loud noise for her. A massacre, she would later find out the word of what happened there, years later, and the word still resonates in her mind. She would hear the phantom screams of people from half her age to twice, or even three times her age. What was noise anymore? She didn't know.

  Was it the noise of screams after a nightly raid, or the bustle of oblivious city-folk? The sound of her gun, painted a cacophony of blue-tinted colours and dipped in white stardust, going off, or the nearly silent shivers that wrack her body ever so slightly as she watches her victims' life slowly drain out of their eyes? The whistling of a wind, the roar of a storm, signalling an onslaught of rain to come and wipe away any remnants of her death-riddled village, or the soft patter of the same drizzle on a glass window from inside their penthouse they bought around a month and a half ago?

  Was it the shutter of the storm slowing to a stop, only to return mere moments later, or the fierce banging on broken windows as soldiers marched up to the nearly abandoned village? She tried not to think of how Meili's combat boots looked vaguely like the soldier boots she stared at from underneath a hiding place. Splashing through deep puddles relentlessly, a long gun in their hand, looking for survivors to take the life of. She knew how much Meili hated the sound as well, and she saw how the other avoided the pools, but she couldn't help but feel a rush of panic when she first saw them on a mission, steel tipped and deadly. She didn't doubt for a second that Meili would use them in a pinch, and considering her past practice of basic martial arts, she also didn't deny that she would like to one day see what they could do. But they still disturbed her to see them, hanging by the golden laces on a hook in Meili's room, near her vanity, black and gold against cream.

  Sometimes she would have night terrors about what happened and would spend the rest of the night in the kitchen with the insomniacs, (Meili, Nyx, and Tanny) wrapped in a cocoon of blankets atop a stool near the kitchen counter. She would sip some warm milk, or hot chocolate if it was particularly bad, listening as Tanny would shuffle from one end of the kitchen, who would check the fridge for ingredients to make a quick, quiet meal for the four of them. The soft scratching of a pen on paper as Meili's gloved hands frantically documented her latest idea for a 4-girl-day-out heist. The quiet murmurs of Nyx as she would make a bit of small talk, laying her head on the countertop as she watched Tanny move around. Other times, she would talk quietly with the boys and Katrina in one of their rooms until she would fall asleep.

  These people made her feel safe, and she would do anything for them. And she knew they would do the same for her.