Chapter 27

My Star Stone had grown. It was now bigger than my fist. When I woke up I felt something poking the side of my head. I realized it was a lump in my pillow, turns out it was my stone from Ophiuchus.

If it grew anymore it would be the size of a basketball. The Celestial Energy inside hadn’t evaporated. Maybe it was because I was hiding it indoors and it had to be released outside. I didn’t even have breakfast. I lost my appetite and had a metallic taste in my mouth. I hid outside the weapons room. I placed the stone in front of me. It was hard to hide it in my pocket since it was huge all of a sudden.

I waited there for the energy to be released because now the Celestial Energy looked like it was getting bigger, making the stone expand. I debated taking the stone to Alfred but I knew he had enough things to worry about. The energy inside the stone changed colour, it was now greenish with yellow dots. It curled up in a ball and settled at the bottom. A voice at the back of my head told me that that wasn’t what Celestial Energy looked like.

The stone was now as big as both my fists combined. I took it to the room and hid it in the pillowcase. I hoped it didn’t look to obvious. I hoped all the girls would think that the cotton balls in the pillow had exploded. That sounds more realistic. Actually, neither of those excuses sound realistic.

“I need your help,” I blurted to Tristan at lunch.

“With what?” he asked. He kept glancing at me and eyeing my new accessories.

“Meet me outside the weapons room,” I told. “I’ll show you.”

I got to my feet and left before he could ask anymore questions.

In the girls’ room Lyra was having a headache and Amara was trying to calm her down. She screamed into a pillow.

“Where have you been?” Amara demanded.

“I’m having a crisis,” I told, worried.

“Really?” Amara said. “You’re having a crisis? Well, we’re having a worst-case scenario!”

She pointed at Lyra.

“I really cannot deal with her right now,” I said through gritted teeth. My fists were clenched. “I have no idea what’s gotten into her. She was fine yesterday.”

“I’ve been doing research with Lewis and he says that...”

“Save it,” I cut her off. I stepped a little closer to Lyra. “What’s wrong? Turning into Lyla again?” Her head snapped up and slapped me. “What is your problem?” she said in a voice that wasn’t hers.

“My problem?” I repeated. “You’re acting like a maniac! You were alright yesterday and now you’re losing it...again.”

“Losing what?” she asked. “I’m fine. I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

“Of course you don’t,” I said harshly. “You were only having a migraine which was exploding your head only two seconds ago!”

Lyra looked irritated. “I say again....”

“Whatever,” I said. “Get your life together. Otherwise leave.”

I took out my Star Stone while Amara comforted Lyra. She obviously didn’t need comforting. She was suffering from amnesia or short-term memory loss.

“Belle,” Amara stopped. Lyra rushed to the bathroom.

“Don’t you understand?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“She’s turned into Lyla today,” Amara pointed out. “She was Lyra yesterday and after I mentioned something about how she bleached her purple hair dye only to do it again she got confused and her headache got worse and now she doesn’t remember dying her hair yesterday.”

“So....you’re saying that purple hair dye is soaking into her brain making her suffer from short-term memory loss?” I said apathetically.

“No!” Now it was Amara’s turn to be irritated.

“I have to go.” And I left.

Tristan was waiting outside the weapons room. I threw the stone in his hand as I approached without saying a word.

“Oh, Belle...” he started. “I didn’t know you had an overgrown....egg?”

“No, it’s my Star Stone. From Ophiuchus.” I said.

“Was it always like this?”

“No, it was just spikey and deformed when I found it. And now that I think about it...I was attracted to this particular stone in Celestial Gardens. It’s like...it was calling me.”

“Says the creeper,” Tristan shuddered.

“I really don’t know what to do,” I complained.

“Should I ask Lewis and Amara to help?”

“If I wanted everyone to know about this I would’ve made an announcement.” I snapped.

“What’s this black stuff with a dozen yellow eyes?”

“Again, if I knew I wouldn’t have come to you.” I rolled my eyes.

“I don’t know,” he admitted after examining the stone.

It slowly expanded a little more, so did the black matter inside of it. I groaned in frustration.

“Hey, relax.” Tristan pulled a strand of hair behind me ear. “We’ll figure it out. We always do.”

“Yes, but you’re forgetting that I have to help plan a wedding, knock some sense into Lyra and figure out if that even was a Star Stone.”

“What happened to Lyra?”

“That’s what your worried about?” I raged. “She going bonkers...again!”

“Yeah, about that...” Tristan hesitated. “Lewis told me that he and Amara found something about the Gemini...”

“Hello!” I almost yelled. “We have a bigger problem!”

I threw him the star stone, which was the size of and as heavy as basketball. It had grown so fast.

“I have to go talk to Hellen about the wedding.” I said dejectedly. “Please hide that somewhere.”

I ran to the Conference Hall building and knocked on the door of Hellen’s office.

“Come on,” she called. I stepped inside. Hellen was dressed in a green tracksuit with her hair pinned back. A bag was on her desk and she was studying a Star map by the window.

“I wanted to know what you’re wearing and we need to fix a date.” I said as happily as I could but it’s hard to be giddy when your having a worst-case scenario.

“My dress is in here,” she picked up the bag. “And we have decided that we’ll do it next week.”

“Perfect, let’s see the dress.” I smiled.

She opened the plastic bag and pulled out a shimmery emerald green dress which fell to the floor. It was flowy and had ribbons tied around the waist. The sleeves were long and made out of lace.

“It’s beautiful,” I gushed. “Have you tried it on?”

“I don’t need to,” she answered. “I’ve had this for a really long time. It’s the only dress I brought with me to Crimsyn State when I left my home.”

“Where’s you home?” I asked reluctantly.

“Here now, but originally I was born and raised in Hydrus. My family traveled to all the provinces.”

“I’ve never been to a wedding,” I said to no one in particular.

Hellen smiled. “So, you’ve never seen people exchange Signs?”

I shook my head. “This is going to be my first time.”

“It’ll be fun,” she promised.

I cleared my throat multiple times in hesitation. “I already picked out my dress,”

“Really? Can I see it?” she smiled brightly.

“I want it to be a surprise,” I teased.

“So, do you want to practice with you new Star Stones?” she put down the dress on the chair.

Bile rose in my throat and my stomach churned. She looked so excited and giddy that I couldn’t say no. “I’ll get them,”

I only brought back the Virgo one. Tristan was holding the other stone and sitting outside the girls’ quarters. I snatched it from him and hid it.

“Where’s the other one?” she asked.

“Do I have to use both at the same time?”

“Your choice, it’s good practice.”

We sat cross-legged on the floor. Only a Star Stone between us. I focused on it and managed to get it to hover. It didn’t exert me, though I had tingling feeling in the back of my head. But that was just the feeling of a Star in Virgo waking up every time I powered up the stone.

The stone floated around in the air. “Make it punch the ceiling,” Hellen whispered, here breath tickled my face.

I brought down the stone and made it fly to the top in full speed. It made a depression in the ceiling.

It fell in my hand. “Are we done?”

“Not yet.” Hellen looked at me like she was waiting for me to realize something.

“Astral Travel.”

“But I don’t think I can do it with you in the same room. I get nervous.” I admitted.

“I’ll leave but you have to practice. You’ll get better.” Hellen said.

“Can’t we meet during the Astral Projection?”

“We can, but we can’t do it in the same room. It messes out individual Astral Energy,” she thought. “I’ll go to the room next door.”

I set up the pillows after she was gone, draped the curtain and closed my eyes. I relaxed my body and calmed my mind. I felt all the stardust settle down inside me. My soul walked out of my body and instantaneously I was surrounded by all the Constellations up close. I looked around for Hellen. I recognized all the Constellations and asterisms.

“Annabelle,” she said. She was standing in front of Ophiuchus. But she was staring at one of it’s Stars. Oh no...

It was the one I had been inside when I got hit by Celestial Energy. “Don’t get so close.” I pulled her back. “That can hurt you.”

She didn’t say anything, her mouth fell open. The brightest Star of Ophiuchus had a red and purple aura but on the inside it was dark and green. It was a small figure but still terrifying even in a huge Star. There were yellow dots too. It looked just like my Star Stone.

Something was moving inside it too. Then, Celestial Energy burst inside the Star like it was trying to escape but couldn’t. The effect was as same as lighting striking a tree. The greenish figure moved inside the Star. I floated a little closer, there was no ground and my bare feet were tickled.

“Annabelle! Annabelle!” Hellen looked mortified. “What is that?”

“I have no clue,” I said, in a trance. I didn’t want to stare at the Star because I knew if I did it would give me nightmares but I couldn’t help it. It hypnotized me in a way that I found the slithering matter mesmerizing.

“We have to go,” Hellen tugged at my sleeve.

“You can go,” I sighed in amazement. “I’m going to go inside that...”

Hellen pulled me back and shook me like a snow globe.

“Snap out of it!” she demanded. “Go back to your body.”

Hellen disappeared. I focused on traveling back to my physical body. I imagined a silver cord tugged my back. I opened my eyes. Hellen was standing above me. She helped me up.

“What was that?” she shuddered, like she was getting flashbacks.

I shrugged.

“I know that you know!” she snapped.

I sighed. “I don’t know what was inside of the Star but I have the Star Stone and it was just as deformed as that Star.”

“I’m going to talk to Alfred about this,” she said. “You can show the stone to both of us tomorrow.”

I nodded. Hellen rushed to the Conference Hall. I felt queasy after the Astral Travelling. I dragged myself to the girls’ quarters.

“Belle,” Amara said gently.

“What?” I faced her.

“I’ve put Lyla to sleep, let’s hope she becomes Lyra again tomorrow.” Amara talked about Lyra as if she was a child. “I need to tell you something.”

She talked about Lyla like she was a toddler. I could see her mop of light brown hair, she had washed out all the dye again. If she woke up as Lyra she’d dye it again.

“I’m not in the mood,” I said nonchalantly. “I don’t feel good. Let’s talk about this tomorrow. She better not throw one of tantrums at the wedding.”

Now I was talking about Lyra like she was a toddler. But she was being a pest.

“You don’t understand her condition...” she was cut off.

I grabbed my Star Stone from it’s pillowcase, it looked like there was a basketball in there and replaced it with the Virgo one. I went outside. I had missed dinner but it’s not like I was hungry. I sat outside the girls’ room and focused on the Star Stone. It wasn’t expanding anymore. The green figure was long, it looked like it had a tail but that was impossible. It was curled in a ball and kept hitting its head at the Star Stone. The energy was congested in there. The colour of my stone was now black because the figure blocked the crystal like texture.

It looked like a smaller version of the brightest Star of Ophiuchus, which it was. It’s name tingled in the back of my head but I couldn’t concentrate on that right now. The same matter slithered inside, making a hissing sound. It hit the walls of the stone...like it was trying to escape. I nearly dropped the stone. Normally, I would’ve been scared to do this alone and in the dead of night but those things didn’t even cross my mind because I was amazed.

The yellow dots became more clear now, they were tiny particles of the same Star Stone but they were fixated into the greenish matter. The figure moved, it hit the inside of the stone. Trying to find a way out. When it opened it’s yellow eyes revealing snake like pupils, I realized it wasn’t leftover Celestial Energy, deep down I think I had known it was something more dangerous than that. It kept curling in like ball, obviously suffocated, the stone wasn’t large enough for it.

I brought it close to my face, almost touching my forehead. It opened its eyes again-yellow with oval pupils-this time looking directly into mine. It was a serpent.