(Versions of) Tangled Stars

Version 1 chapter 1

    Goodbye morning, it was nice knowing you but you no longer exist. Lucille thought, then tried to roll over; she had to wake soon. As Lucille attempts this, her side seeped into a wet goo. The goo had seeped into her boots, she squirmed around, attempting to take them off. Lucille was hit by a jolt of coldness as soon as her foot touched the ground. Snapping up in alarm, she shook her feet away from the slush and shivered. Millions of thoughts chased around in her mind as she tried to piece together how she got there.

    The feild her was covered in snow; She had no way of finding her way back home. Her breathing started to quicken, she looked around for a sign that this was a dream. Instead, she spotted three other kids around her age just a few feet away from her; A girl and two boys. At once, Lucille noticed that the other girl’s jet-black hair has a conspicuously blue streak on the left hand side, she doesn’t know what it’s for, but it sure looked interesting.

    Lucille remembered her sister Samantha, both of them did everything together, be it writing an essay to singing songs. Everyday, after they finished school, Samantha and Lucille would wander around in the pit of dirt and swamp right by their house and search for old belongings.

 The belongings had been the possessions of the owners of the house- or was it a store?- that was there years before. The house had been destroyed somehow, though Lucille couldn't remember what the reason for that was, but it must have been bad.

    After it had been destroyed, no one wanted to go near it anymore since it brought back bad memories; the memories of which Lucille can’t recall. Eventually, plants started to grow over the remnants of the area and no one wanted to do anything to it when it rained. Everyone just started calling it The Swamp. Later people like Lucille and her sister realized that there were still belongings left there, so they would visit it and scrounge around for them.

    The most that they ever found was a brown stuffed object- Samantha had found that, of course. Samantha was always the best finder, whilst Lucille was better at receiving the objects. They made such a great team that they almost never left the other’s side.

But when Lucille woke up in a forested area with three random strangers- her sister was nowhere to be seen. 

“Oi, you there,” The other girl called out, Lucille looked up and pointed to herself, “Yes you, blondie- what’s your name?” she asked and nodded to Lucille as she sat down on a dry spot on the floor.

“Mafleur, Lucille Mafleur.” she responded instantaneously, jumping up and down,“How did we get here?” she asked.

It takes the girl a minute to respond, “No idea. I’m Gliseaetta by the way.” she extended her hand for Gliseaetta to shake. She hesitantly ignores the gesture and turns to the two boys. 

    The boy to her left shook out his shirt from the snow, his light dirt brown hair soaked to the side of his face. He caught her glancing at him and looked up, “Liam Bryer.” he said. He then leaned against a tree.

She turned to the other boy, he had swift, black hair, “Sorry about Liam, he doesn’t like small talk,” he said as a cloud casts a shadow over the trees, “Yeah, and before you ask- no. No one here knows how we got here or why we are here.”

He was about to turn away when he added “Oh, and by the way- The name’s Marco.” Lucille smiled and extended her hand. He shook it.

“Lucille Mafleur.” she told him, he nodded and the four children walked into the center of the forest where they had just woken in. 

Each of them stare expectantly at each other, waiting for one of them to make the first move. Eventually, Lucille watches the clouds of the bright blue sky clear, anxious for what was to come next. Marco cleared his throat, “Well, before we do anything, we have to find out where we are.” he said.

Lucille pondered his statement, after all they had no way of finding out where they were- without getting caught by the people who live here of course. Just then, a bell rang and they hear a scream that startled Liam, causing him to jump. Without a word, all four of them insticitly sprinted away from the screams, “Halt!” a woman screams, her voice echos all across the forest.

Lucille and everyone else ignored her command, except Lucille gets whacked across the face by a branch. She falls back and sends Gliseaetta, Liam and Marco back as well. “You’re surrounded, there’s no running away now.” she says.

Seeing the woman now, Lucille could make out the features of the woman. She was short, but Lucille could tell by the strength in her voice that she was not to be messed with. That’s not all that stood out; Through her dark walnut hair, neatly tied in a bun, Lucille noticed that one of the strands on the left side was a faded blue. The woman stared at Gliseaetta’s hair, she put her hand up. Some other people wearing the same tan uniform as the woman had already arrived, their weapons ready.

The woman’s eyes widen, “Wait,” she exclaimed, causing odd looks to appear across everyone else’s faces, “This girl, she’s one of us!” she explained.

The other people murmur and one man speaks up, he has black spikey hair, also with a blue streak, “Ma’am, but what about the others?”

The woman considers this, Lucille bites her lip as her heart rate quickens, “I’m sure they’ll have their explanation- Let’s bring them to Zylie.” she said. They handcuff them and that’s all that Lucille remembers before they knocked her out.