One of the Stars

Chapter Five

Two guards grab my arms and drag me away. I'm sobbing now, tears rolling down my cheeks. My mother, my mother, oh my mother. The only thing my heart feels is pain. Great, heart wrenching, gut clenching pain. No. I can't. I don't even know why. I didn't really do anything that terrible. Why?

As I'm hauled back down the stairway, a sudden realisation comes to me. If I make it out in time, then I could warn my mother! We could run, oh I don't know, to Spain? Yes, Spain. A strange strength fills me. I can do this. So as the guards bring me to the end of the stairway, I jerk my arms, kick my legs, and take off running for the top, for the gates. Actually, for really any exit.

In my head, there is a constant rhythm as both sides of me chant in victory.

Free.

Free.

Almost

There.

Then, reality hits. Quite too hard in my opinion. The taller guard, a young man with a scraggly goatee, tackles me to the ground and pins my arms to my sides. His companion (who could use a little exercise, judging by the way he huffs and puffs) comes up behind me and chains my arms together.
Trapped.

I know that feeling now. All too well.

"You're-you're a fast one, missy."

They drag me back down to the dungeon, locking me away for "safekeeping". Ha. I'd be safer in a dragon's nest. At least they take the chains off my hands.

I lay there in the dark weeping for quite some time. Hours pass. Or, at least, minutes that feel like hours. I realise something. The fairy, sorry, star is missing. Oh, that's right, she took refuge in my necklace. I pull it over my head. The tiny figure is still curled up inside.

Anger boils inside of me. In the course of an afternoon, my entire life was taken away from me. I don't know this magical creature, and never wanted to. I have to use great restraint to keep myself from hurling the necklace across the room. I gently tap the crystal. The shadow puts her hands on the crystal, making tiny imprints. She traces three letters on the gem: O-U-T.

I sigh and roll my eyes.

"How?"

I whisper to the petite figure. As a response, letters are being traced again.

U-N-S-C-R-E-W L-I-D.

My necklace has a lid? What? I look all around it, trying to see this lid that the star is speaking of. As I turn the necklace in my hands, the figure shakes her head in disappointment. She wiggles her hands, and sparks fly from her fingertips. She raises her arms up, then down, and all of a sudden her entire body is composed of the same sparks. She turns into a stream of light and funnels out the bottom.

The crystal blue sparks form again into the tiny woman. Her bell-like voice rang out.

"Ah! That was rather cramped. Necessary, but cramped nonetheless."

As she looks at my tear-streaked face and red eyes, her features soften. She begins talking in a gentle, tentative fashion.

"Dear heart, I'm so very sorry about-"

I cut her off.

"Yes, yes, you're so, so sorry that my entire life was torn apart. My mother shall soon be gone and my village as well, and what are you? You're sorry. Of course you are. This is all your fault. If you hadn't gone and done your little call, or whatever that thing was then, then, then-"

A tiny hand wipes a tear from my cheek. The star's voice comes softly.

"Then none of this would have ever happened."