The Star Fallen

Chapter 1 - The End of the Begining

It all started when I was 19. I was on the bus heading home, from my last class of the day, with my best friend, and boyfriend, James. It was only us on the bus then. We were always the last ones on the bus. Our stop was the last one on the route. I heard a grunt come from the driver, so I looked up from the book in my lap. The driver's hands were at his side, not on the steering wheel. I could feel the bus veering. I jumped up from my seat and ran up the aisle. What I saw when I got to the front was horrid. In the middle of the bus driver's chest, blood slowly flowered out and soaked his white button-up. His eyes were wide open, unblinking. He was dead. The bus jostled, knocking me off of my feet as it went off of the road. I grabbed the wheel, but it was too late. The hill was much too steep to save its veering path. The bus flipped and flipped. It finally stopped with a sickening crunch. Then everything went dark.

I awoke to the sound of James' calling my name, his usual calm tones replaced with desperation. "Gray? Where are you? Are you ok?" I tried to move, a feeling like lightning shot throughout my whole body. I screamed out in pain. "GRAYSON?! What's wrong? Talk to me!" I heard a loud, scraping sound like James was trying to move parts of the bus to find me.

"I'm.... over here..." I wheezed through the pain. My entire being was encompassed in pain. I tried to take a few deep breaths. James' head came into view over the wall of debris surrounding me.

"Gray... you're..." he cut himself off before he could finish. I could tell that something was seriously wrong. He climbed down from wherever he was standing. His head disappeared again. I could hear him on the phone.

"James.... Help me... come back, please..." I begged, hoping he would come back into view.

"It's James. There's been a complication. I'm requesting immediate extraction of me and the asset," he was quiet for a second. "The asset has been damaged. We can't wait any longer, Father," his next few lines were muffled. He must have moved farther off. I was confused. What asset? There wasn't anything special about me. It couldn't be me. Could it be? If it were me, does that mean that everything between James and I was a lie? The pain coursed through me with a renewed vigor. I screamed out in pain once again. I heard a loud crash and the sound of feet on the ground. James' head popped over the edge again. "I called for help; I promise you'll be okay. I swear I won't let anything happen to you, Gray." There was something I wanted to ask him, but my mind was so fuzzy, I couldn't remember. I nodded. "Grayson?" I looked up at him with half-open eyes. I was so tired. "I love you, remember that," James said. I could feel my consciousness fading. I slowly nodded.

"I... l..love you t...," I mumbled. I closed my eyes. I couldn't stay awake. My eyelids felt like bricks.

"Gray! Stay awake for me! Baby, please! Open your eyes, look at me," I could hear James' say. I could feel the desperation in his voice. I heard the thrum of helicopter blades overhead. I squinted up at James, his perfect black hair blowing in the wind, no longer perfect. He had a gash above his left eyebrow. It didn't look good. I blinked, the world slowly darkening around me.

"James... y... you're hurt..." I managed to squeeze out of my dry mouth. He reached up to the gash. His eyes were full of sadness.

"I'm fine. You're hurt more, a lot more..." James said as he looked over his shoulder. "I can see them. Just hold on, Love," his smooth voice and English accent washed over me. I closed my eyes again. They were on their way. What could be the harm? "Grayson! Look at me, don't go to sleep." I heard the sound of boots crunching on the dried leaves and twigs covering the forest floor.

"Where's the asset?" said a voice I didn't recognize.

"Over here!" James replied. I could hear the pain covering his words. The pounding of boots surrounded me. There were loud scraping and groaning sounds. I squinted my eyes, trying to see what was going on. The debris around me was slowly being removed so that I would be accessible. James rushed through the hole they had made. He knelt at my side and entwined my hand with his. "Jefferson!" he yelled through the hole. The head of a boy, no more than 14 years-old, popped through. "I'll lift him off of it. You heal him. Do you understand?" James asked the boy. The boy, Jefferson, nodded. He went to my other side and knelt.

"L...lift off of w...hat?" I croaked. I looked down at my abdomen and realized what the problem was. There was a piece of metal impaling me straight through the middle like a shish kabob. I felt faint when I saw all of the blood. "I'm going to die..." I whispered, looking at James. He put one of his arms behind my head and the other one behind my knees.

"Not if I have anything to say about it, love," James said as he moved from kneeling to a squatting position. Jefferson slid one of his hands under my back next to the metal and placed his other hand on top of me, next to the metal. "Ready, Jefferson?" James asked. Jefferson nodded. I felt a strange heat emanating from Jefferson's hands. James began to lift me. The pain was unbearable. It felt like every nerve in my body was on fire. I screamed. Jefferson's hands were getting hotter. James finally lifted me completely off of the metal, and the pain began to fade. Jefferson took his hands off of me, then fell over. A man caught him. The man was wearing all black: cargo pants, kevlar jackets, etc. He looked like a soldier. James held me close to him. I rested my hand on his chest. I looked down at my stomach, expecting to see a giant bleeding hole, but I saw nothing. There wasn't even a scratch. I blinked a few times, trying to comprehend what was going on. James kissed my forehead, "Don't worry about it, Love. I'll explain everything later but, first, you need to rest."

"Okay," I whispered, closing my eyes. I was tired, and I was safe. James proceeded to walk, carrying me.

"I can carry him, Boss." one of the soldiers said.

"I can carry my own boyfriend, thank you very much," James replied, holding me closer still. We walked for almost a mile. We reached a helicopter. James carried me into the chopper and strapped me into one of the seats. He buckled my safety harness before sitting next to me and buckling his own. "I think it's time for you to meet my father," James said, taking my hand into his.

"Okay," I said as I closed my eyes and fell asleep.