The Star Chronicles, City Of Stars

Chapter 1

************Author's Note*************

Hey guys! Quick question. Do you guys like the music videos or no?
Every time I read a chapter that song plays in my head at the end so I decided to make it the theme song.
Almost makes it feel like a TV show and th song plays after each episode during the end credits.
I dont know. Just my thoughts.
What do you think?

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He has his hand around her throat, forbidding air into her lungs. She gasps and thrashes, but every time she thinks she might hit him this time, he slips a little further out of reach. His nails dig deeper into her throat every time, drawings rivulets of blood down her throat. She clenches her teeth at the searing pain. She tries to look at his face to at least see who her murderer is, but she can't make out anything through her blurry vision. She can't speak. She can only watch as she slowly dies; feeling her heart giving out. The room around her is dark and she can't see anything anymore. As he leans close to her face, she catches a whiph of blood in his breath and recoils in disgust. Then he whispers," I'll see you soon" with a sneer, reaches out, and plunges a blade deep into her abdomen and she screams her last scream.

She bolts upright gulping for air and faintly notices her whole body shaking. Her ears still ring from the screaming. She sits there taking shuddering breaths, thankful for the air and ignore the quizzical looks her classmates shoot at her. She slumps over and cradles her pounding head in her still shaking hands. She rubs her eyes vigourously as if that will erase the image, that has been burned into her mind, away. She feels the tears surfacing but she pushes them down. She thinks bitterly that she will not cry in front of these people and show them weakness.

For the past few days, Nyla Johnson has been terrorized by these nightmares. Every time she sleeps, she is tortured into watching herself die. It has made her wary and paranoid, flinching at every sound, checking under her bed for monsters like a child. She's slowly losing her mind. She's losing so much sleep deep purple dark circles and bags are forming under her eyes. It's gotten to the point that she's dragging her corpse to school everyday and apparently, sleeping in school too.

"Well I'm glad you've decided to join us Nyla," Ms. Anderson's stern voice snaps her out of her stupor. She's glaring daggers at her. " Please try to stay awake during my class will you? Drink Redbull or something" she says and the class burst into laughter. Nyla slumps lower in her desk, eyes fixed on the chipped wood.

Nyla is neither popular nor unpopular at Beverly Hills High, a school filled with so many egocentric teenagers, the the pull of their gravity might actually cause the world to revolve around them. Nyla hated attending this school, but it was the nearest school to her home and her mother insisted. Her mother also insisted she made friends, claiming it was "good for her". So far, Nyla has made a grand total of one friend; Casey Mathews who so happens to be her lifelong friend.

The bell rings just then and Nyla perks up. Finally, the school day is over which meant the party was only a couple hours away. She gathers her books and was walking out of the classroom when she sees a girl with caramel hair running towards her; Casey. Casey and Nyla have been friends since kindergarten. Their families have been friends since the girls met and so they basically lived at eachother's houses. When they were kids, they'd have slumber parties and sometimes even camp outside in the backyard, gazing up at the stars, both trying to count all of them but eventually giving up. Nyla loved those moments. They sometimes still did that. However, instead of in tents on the grass, they'd meet on the rooftop, sometimes with bottles of liquid their parents didn't realize where missing.

"Hey!" Casey says smiling at her. Her long caramel hair was down and curled around her shoulders. She looked at her with her hazel eyes and Nyla felt that same butterfly feeling deep in her gut that made her want to throw up. For the past couple months, something had changed in Nyla. She couldn't quite pinpoint when or how, but her feelings for Casey had changed. She still saw her as the quirky bubbly Casey she always knew but now a new layer had been added, a layer that troubled her deeply. Now, not only did she notice her hazel eyes, but she noticed how her V-neck cut low and cleavage poked though, or when they went swimming, how tan and long her legs were.
Nyla wasnt sure what to make of these new feelings for Casey. Was she crushing on her bestfriend?
Whatever it was, Nyla has decided the best thing to do was not mention it to Casey. She loved their friendship and she worried her feelings would compromise the easiness that existed between them.