22nd February 215 a.D
My name is Asteri, but everyone calls me Star. I was born on a starry night in the capital of our country, Perzys, in the year 199. My dad named me after a shooting star he saw the moment I came out of my mother. My family, alongside my sister, live in a country called Vezos, and our story is quite the one.
We were an average country for quite a long time, but everything changed one day. Tragedy engulfed us all in the blink of an eye, two hundred and fifteen years ago. We used to be neighbours with another country named Setio. Legends say that it was a beautiful place filled with magical creatures and witches of all kinds. Some have also described it as a paradise, with magic flying in the air and everyone coexisting peacefully without bothering one another, but I guess we'll never know how much truth was in all of that. What they explain to us in school it's that one day the country, in mysterious circumstances, exploded in a thousand pieces. We don't know why, we don't know how. The only thing that we do know is that it affected our country tremendously. Part of Vezos was also destroyed, and so was a big chunk of our economy and population. All of it meant a fresh start for a lot of the remaining inhabitants. Not much later, our government declared Setio a banned place and forbade everyone from accessing it, as they deemed it dangerous. We don't know if anything or anyone made it out alive from it; no one wants to tell us about it, and if you dare ask, or you'll be jailed for life. We have to accept our situation as it is.
Our calendar restarted, and years started to count from scratch. Hence, our time period is known as 'After the Disaster', as it seems that restarting a country was not an easy task.
Fast forward to our days. Weird things have been happening for a few weeks. A large number of women have been randomly disappearing under strange circumstances. All of them followed the same pattern: women from the ages of 20 to 25, taken at midnight from their own houses, in their own beds. Nobody quite understood these kidnappings, since they started to happen quite suddenly. Immediately after, people began to panic, women even stopped sleeping in fear of being taken. The whole population ended up demanding that the government did something. Investigations were made, but it all came to no avail. They couldn't figure out who had been doing it, or at least that's what they said. So, tough decisions had to be made. The government imposed a curfew that ranged from six in the morning to eight in the afternoon. People complained about it, they even protested, but it didn't work. In spite of the curfew, women were still being kidnapped. It actually seemed that whoever was behind this was enraged, thus they started to kidnap men too. People got more and more infuriated, and consequently they were forced to make an even worse decision. They decided that the police were going to be everywhere, all the time.
This is our new reality. We are constantly supervised by law officers, while afraid of disappearing in the middle of the night. At this moment, we already got used to it. It has been a while and it seems that it has helped to dismiss the attacker. We started to feel safer and genuinely thought everything was going to be okay. Until today.
Fengari, my sister, although everyone calls her Ari, she has always been a weird child. She doesn't look like anyone in our family. She has grey eyes and straight, purple dyed hair, meanwhile all of us have brown eyes and curly, brown hair. She has been dyeing her hair purple since I became aware of my existence, if she didn't have any baby photos I wouldn't know her actual hair color. Moreover, she has freckles. No one else has freckles in the entire continent, just her. Children in school used to bully her a lot for it, she always said she didn't pay attention to it and didn't mind it, but I believe it did affect her quite a lot. Also, she was a big troublemaker. She was always making a mess or hurting herself. Hence, she always spent her time grounded or at the hospital. This also led to her being pretty lonely during all her childhood, since nobody wanted to get involved in her messes.
Aside from all her issues and quirkiness, she was actually a pretty normal person. She went to our local university, one of the best in the country, studied and graduated in Botany. It is a curious choice of a career, but she had always been keen on plants and everything that surrounded them, and since our parents own a flower shop, I guess she thought she would always have a job and regular income. And that's what she did. She helped in our parents's flower shop growing unusual species and taking care of the plants for them.
Surprisingly for everyone, one day she came home and introduced us to her new boyfriend, Vala. Ari had never been in a relationship, as far as we were aware, so this was a first. Mom was ecstatic that Ari had finally found someone, and immediately started talking about weddings. Dad, on the other hand, wasn't so happy. He has always thought that nobody was good enough for us, and Vala was not an exception to the rule.
From this moment, she started to change. Ari became obsessed with her appearance, and with why she was different from all of us. She kept bugging mom and dad about it, but they wouldn't give her an answer, so her curiosity only grew stronger. She started investigating on her own. It was when she started to get into dangerous territory that our parents put a stop to it, and we thought that was the end of it.
Ari had a fixed schedule. She would go to work everyday from eight in the morning to four in the evening. After that, she would go to the market with Vala just to fool around until curfew. And that's what she did yesterday; she went to work like any other day, with just one difference: she never came back.
Me and my folks were chilling in the living room when Vala knocked on our door to ask if we had seen her, but nobody had since she left the flower shop. It did not sound like her at all! She wouldn't just disappear without telling anyone, something must have happened to her. I then voiced my concerns to my parents, and so did Vala, but they dismissed us and said that she would probably be back in the morning and to calm down.
I wasn't able to sleep tonight, just the mere thought of not being able to see her ever again was haunting me like nothing before.
I got up this morning at the same time I do every day and followed my routine as always, with my sixth sense locked on the sound of the door, in case she decided to come back, but she did not.
When my parents got up, I begged them to go to the police to report her disappearance, and they finally heard me out. We made the trip to our local police station and reported her missing. Immediately after, I made some 'missing' handouts that I could give out everywhere, I really believe it might help to find her.
I talked with my friend Keli. We have been friends since we were at least five years old. We met at preschool, hit it off, and have been friends ever since. We always introduce each other as twins, that's how close we are. Although my parents don't like him one bit, he is still a man after all, and they don't trust him. Anyway, he agreed to help me out with the posters. His family is loaded so he printed a big chunk of them at his own place, which we took to school and started handing them out to everyone that paid us even just a little attention.
We were doing our thing when we saw someone unusual. This girl, we had never seen her before, thus we figured she was new in the school, but there was something off with her. For instance, her hair was red; I had never seen something like that before, aside from my sister, of course: her natural hair color was ginger. In relation to this, she also had freckles, but I just think of it as a pretty coincidence.
"Have you seen that girl?" Keli asked me, pointing at the red-haired girl with freckles, while I was handing a flier to one of the girls in our class. I looked at her, and before she could leave my sight, I ran to her and placed myself right in front of her.
"Hi!" I greeted her. In the background was Keli screaming for me. He then followed right behind my steps and stood on my side while I talked to the new girl. "You must be new here. I'm Star and this is Keli, " I said as I pointed to my friend on my side, "My sister went missing yesterday and we need all the help we might get to find her. Hope you communicate with us if you see anything!" I handed her one of the fliers, which she took and looked at with an expression of curiosity on her face.
"She looks different," she said abruptly while reading the pamphlet. "I'll be on alert," she continued as she looked at us. It was like she had no thoughts or feelings, her eyes felt empty somehow.
"What's your name?" Of course Keli did not lose the opportunity to get one more weirdo for his collection. Well, perhaps I shouldn't call her that, at the end of the day she reminds me of my sister, and making fun of her would be a little hypocritical on my part.
"Siren." The expression on her face was static, feeling-less. It honestly gave me goosebumps, and not the good kind. But, it was unlikely that Keli would simply give up on her.
"Great then, Siren. Are you new here? When did you move?" Keli asked with a smile on his face, even though that girl was showing no interest in us. I could see the spark on his eyes; and that's when I noticed that he liked her.
"I'm new. I moved last week, on a Monday." She did not even wink. It was starting to get creepy, real creepy. She was staring at us with that empty look, in silence, until I decided to break it, once and for all.
"Well… We should keep handing these, don't you think, Keli?" I said while looking at him intensely. This situation was getting too awkward and I couldn't stand it anymore.
"Yes, definitely. A pleasure to have met you, Siren. See you around." Keli waved her goodbye as I dragged him back to the door to continue handing out the flyers.
We kept distributing them until the bell rang for us to go to class. It was a pretty calm day, I have to admit. Taking into account everything that is happening in my life right now, it was nice to have a peaceful day at school, at least. On Wednesdays, me and Keli have Book Club. I didn't feel like going, what I really wanted was to hit the streets to look for my sister; but, somehow Keli convinced me to stay by exploiting my love for romance novels. Today's novel was one of my favorite ones, to be honest. There's nothing better than enemies that learn to cherish and love one another with time.
There's this little lake outside, deep in the forest that's behind the school. I really love that spot; little to no people know about it, so there's rarely anyone there. It's not so big, the water's colour is of a stunning turquoise that would leave anyone amazed, lotus flowers floating on it like on a painting. The best thing about it? When it's silent you can hear all the birds singing and the wind whistling. I could honestly say it is one of my favourite places in the world; there's nowhere I like it better in. After whatever today and yesterday were, all I wanted was to sit on one of the rocks and enjoy nature.
After class I managed to avoid Keli and sneak out to the lake. I really needed it. I sat on one of the rocks and closed my eyes, allowing nature to make me forget about all my problems. I could hear the water flowing, frogs croaking, birds chirping, when suddenly I heard someone walking towards it. I looked to where the sound was coming from and recognised a figure from afar. It was blurred, but as they walked they became more and more recognisable.
"I knew I would find you here." It was Keli, of course. If anyone in the world would know about my hiding spot, it was him. I sighed in relief that it was not a stranger. He walked towards me and sat right next to me. "How are you holding up?"
"I could be better," I said as he was looking at me with those doggy eyes of his. I was broken, but it was not like I was going to tell him that. We are close but I still feel shy around him sometimes.
"Heard anything about Ari?" He grabbed a pebble from the ground and threw it in the lake. It bounced in the water about three consecutive times.
"Nothing. Mum and dad gathered a searching team to look for her this afternoon. But I have a gut feeling that she will not turn up." I put my legs up on the rock, with my knees touching my forehead. In retrospective, not a very good position since I was wearing the skirt with my uniform.
"Do you want to go? I know I said going to the club would be a good idea, but if you want to help I will go with you." He was stuttering a little, a sign that he was getting nervous. Maybe he felt a little guilty for convincing me to stay for the club. Even though he gets easily nervous; he is a walking cack attack.
"I prefer staying for the club." I redirected my sight to him. "And you do not have to get nervous around me. You know that, right?"
"Right. I'm sorry." He looked downwards in embarrassment. What was he apologising for? I looked at him, raising my eyebrow in confusion, something that made him react surprised. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to apologise…" he stuttered back, placing his hand on the back of his head.
"You just apologised again." I started giggling at Keli's nervousness, given that I didn't understand it at all. Apparently my sister's situation was pushing everyone to the edge.
"Oh, God…" he sighed, and finally realised that this behaviour was not bringing anything good to anyone. "Whatever… Going back to our main topic, I thought maybe my dad could give me some information about the investigation." Keli's dad worked for the Home Office. He is a top dog of the government. And, maybe he did have information about her disappearance, but I highly doubt that he would share anything with us.
"I don't think he would, though. You know your dad, he is too stubborn and work-centered." I got up from the rock I was sitting on and stood right in front of Keli. "We should get going, the club is starting in five minutes." He then nodded and got up.
We started to walk back towards the school. "The new girl's pretty," he said while we were making our way back. I didn't get the hype he got for her. I saw it the moment he fixed his eyes on her, but I couldn't understand it. She didn't have anything that special, but I guess he has always been into weird people.
"Do you really fancy her?" I replied, confused. Keli stopped in the moment. I felt his absence and stopped too. I turned around to face him again. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Why is it so weird that I liked her? She seemed nice," he answered and then started walking on my side again.
"She did not seem nice, Keli. She seemed weird, and offputting," I said while looking at him, he honestly looked like he was having none of it.
"I think you mischaracterised her." He started playing with his hands in an act of nervousness, like he always does.
"It is fine. I'll drop it. It is obvious we won't reach an agreement." He looked at me in relief. Something that made me feel relieved too. The last thing I needed in that moment was to have a confrontation with him. Anyone but him.
"I think it's just an innocent crush." He redirected his sight back to the front. "I highly doubt anything would come out of it." A little smirk could be seen in his face as he looked to the floor.
"Little faith you got in yourself…" I smirked back at him.
We finally reached the door; Keli kept it open for me. We walked towards our club room on the third floor. It was not big, actually it was a relatively small classroom compared to all our others. The tables were composed in a circle that occupied the whole room. All over the blackboard, the title of this month's book was written in big letters.
We sat down in our usual spots, right next to one another. We had started to take out our stuff from our bags when she appeared on the door. She looked at us, and we looked back at her. "Hey, Siren! Come sit with us," Keli shouted to her. And she did as he said; she sat down next to him and prepared her things for the session. I didn't even want to look at her, she gave me bad vibes. But, for some reason, Keli likes her. So, I have to start to learn to tolerate her presence if I want to keep our friendship.
The book club went smoothly, aside from that little surprise. She is new in the school, but apparently had the time to read the 500-paged book in just an evening. Keli and I finally left and went outside once it had finished. We were about to go home when he called her to come with us again. I have to admit that that conversation was not as bad as the first one. Actually, we got to learn more things about her. Apparently, she had just moved from a little village called Hura, which is located on the west of our country; it is actually a really pretty coastal vacation point. She lived alone, since her parents had to stay to take care of their business, and she lived off her job at a local supermarket chain, right outside the train station. For what she said, she did not have much family and lived most of her life taking care of their house and going to school.
I went back home and tucked myself in bed. The searching party had been in vain. Not a single sign from Ari, or her whereabouts. I was lying on the bed on my back and began thinking. Thinking about everything that had happened in one single day. My sister had gone missing and Keli had a crush on a new girl, who apparently was our new friend. Just one of those days where you just want to crawl into a hole and die. But I guess for every dark day there's a brighter one. Maybe tomorrow will be brighter. Perhaps… everything gets better.
24th February 215 a.D
There is not much to say about yesterday. We conducted a new search party that went nowhere, exactly like the first one; not that it was a surprise; I already knew that. We hung out with the new girl after school. She is like a big chunk of iceberg, but we are at a much better place now. At least I do not find her insufferable anymore. It also looks like she and Keli have hit it off. They talk a lot, even on the phone, it's kind of annoying. Although it is not like it has passed a lot of time, but, in the end it looks like there will be something between them. I am happy for them, I believe.
Anyway, today was not special either. We went to school, like any other day. Today is the last day of the week, so everyone was especially tired and not very motivated. Given this, we decided to spend the day doing something more or less productive. After brainstorming a few ideas, Keli invited us to a café near the park we usually go to.
I was in my vanity, putting on my makeup for the outing, when I got a message from Keli. I took my phone from the table and read the message, "Alrdy here, waiting for you." I looked at the clock on my night table, and realised that I was running thirty minutes late. I finished my makeup in a hurry, took my bag and started to run towards the park. It took me ten minutes, but I arrived. Sweaty and out of breath, but I arrived. Keli and Siren looked at me, and I could see that they were trying so hard to not laugh.
"I am so sorry." I held my chest trying to get my breath back. "I thought it was still four o'clock." I grabbed a streetlamp that was right next to me in an attempt to recover.
"It's okay. Let's go inside and sit down, you will feel better," Keli said while still trying to hold his laughter.
"What are you laughing about?" I asked, bothered. He should be thankful I decided to run and not just take my time. Brat. He just looked at me, trying harder to hold it, and went inside the café.
It was a beautiful place. The floor was made out of dark wood and the walls were made out of bricks slightly lighter than it. Once you have entered it, on the left you can see the bar where they prepare the beverages, in the same colour as the floor. On the right, the tables and chairs started to show; made out of the same material of the floor, and black metal. It was all decorated with various classic paintings that followed the aesthetic perfectly. On the left back was a door to what appeared to be the bathroom.
We sat on one of the tables that was right next to the window. The waitress came over and took our order. The three of us ordered a simple espresso and a few pastries to share. Once we had done it, we just stared at each other, in silence. I did not know what to say, or what to talk about. Thus, I waited until someone broke the tension.
"Any news about Ari, Star?" Keli asked me. He put his elbows on the table, as a sign of interest; or at least that is how I interpreted it.
"Still the same. Nothing at all." I sighed. "I do not think we will find her. The police said that she probably ran away with someone. Wherever she is, it is clear she does not want to be found." Keli pulled his elbows out of the table and looked downwards, with a sad look on his face.
"Do not mind them." Siren suddenly interrupted, which took me by surprise. She has not talked too much with me the days we have known each other. "They are just lazy, and it is simpler to blame the woman for her own disappearance than to do their job." She continued with a sarcastic tone in her voice. Keli and I stared at her, eyes wide open, for she usually did not talk with that much conviction and will to live.
"Wow," Keli interjected, "I would have never guessed you actually had a way with words." Siren smirked at Keli's statement.
The waitress came back to the table with our order in hand. She took our coffees from her tray, placing them in front of the person who ordered it. Next, she placed all the pastries in the center of the table, in no specific order.
"Ironic, isn't it?" Siren answered once the waitress was gone as she took one of the biscuits from the table.
"We should talk about something else. I'm tired of all the pessimism." I would be lying if I said my sister's disappearance had not taken a toll on me. Even getting up in the morning was starting to get harder. So, hearing about it nonstop from other people rubbed me the wrong way.
"Maybe we should talk about our History project. We have not even started it yet and it's due next Tuesday." And he was right. We have to make a four thousand word essay that we have not even started.
Siren rolled her eyes at Keli's statement, which made me believe that she had no interest in the project at all.
"We should all gather at one of our places to do it," I said, looking closely at Siren, who still showed no interest in it.
"Let's go to mine, then," Keli suggested. "I have plenty of space and I am closer to school than any of you." And he was right. Keli lived in a mansion quite close to the city centre.
Both Siren and I nodded at him. We finished everything at the table, got up and approached the counter to pay. Once we were outside, we said our goodbyes and went in our own direction.
1st March 215 a.D
It has been a while since the last time I wrote, and a week since my sister disappeared. Some stuff has happened in the meantime that deserves to be written.
On the one hand, my sister. We have not found her yet, but the police came to our house the other day with some news. They found her jacket near a river, down south from home, with the help of the police force and some dogs. They said they are close to finding her. It is exciting, is it not? The thought of finally seeing my sister again, after this nightmare, gives me goosebumps (the good ones). I can not wait to see her again, and she better have a good explanation for everything that she has put us through.
On the other hand, we finally finished our history project and got an A. As we agreed on, we went to Keli's house to work on it. His house is truly amazing. It has a Victorian style, at least when it comes to its structure and facade. The path to the house is surrounded by beautiful bushes with rhododendrons all over them. To the right from the entrance, there is a porch with two wooden chairs and a table. Furthermore, the entrance door is made out of an incredible stained glass window with the drawing of a rose. It is truly an architectural masterpiece. On the inside, the decoration for the whole place follows the same pattern. All the furniture follows a vintage-victorian style that fits the theme perfectly. I will be forever jealous of his house, and lifestyle in general.
We settled down in his room to work, and so we did until the next day. The pajama party was not planned, but one is not always invited to spend the night at a mansion, so we could not just refuse. We had a really nice time, though. Aside from working, we did much more, such as playing board games and gossiping. Keli also disposes of chefs and housekeeping service. Therefore, the dinner was one of the best I have ever tasted, truly a wonder. We were given: dived scallops with charred leek, onion broth, pink purslane; salted pork neck with dried berries, wild mushrooms and wild garlic; and, as dessert, buttermilk panna cotta with lychee, raspberry and rose. I do not know what half of it meant, but everything was delicious.
The project was not quite an easy one. We had to analyse the fall of our country once the accident happened. We chose to take a social approach since, at least from my point of view, it was the easiest. The explosion messed up many people's lives, and destroyed a lot of vital information for human kind. All for a reason we may never know.
I came back from Keli's place this morning. I spent part of the way back with Siren, due to her needing to go to the market near my place. She's less and less icy every time we hang out. I'm grateful for it, it makes it way easier to talk to her and hold a conversation. I think I'm genuinely happy, for the first time since my sister disappeared. I'm also feeling like Ari will come back soon, I feel it. Sincerely, I feel hope for the first time about her too. I feel her close.
Finally, I got home. The moment I turned my eyes to the entrance I saw two cop cars. My first thought was that my sister had finally appeared, or at least that there was a new clue. I ran inside and went immediately to the living room. "Is Ari back?!" I screamed as I held myself to the door frame. I looked. Both mum and dad were there. The police officers were right in front of them. One of them was holding his peaked cap while looking at my parents, the other one was looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact with them.
My parents? My mum was covering her face with her hands, it looked like she was crying. My dad was offering her comfort by placing his right hand on her back and his left one on her left thigh. I stared harder and noticed that my dad was crying too. Suddenly, I heard a loud noise in the kitchen. It was someone hysterically crying. I recognised that voice in less than a second after hearing him, it was Vala.
"Why is everyone crying?" I asked, confused. It was then when everyone in the living room acknowledged my existence. One of the cops approached me and placed his hand on one of my shoulders.
"Your sister, Ari… We found her body an hour ago on the river Sedar. We're so sorry for your loss."
A dark feeling started to run through my veins. It was not possible, she could not be dead. My eyes started to fill with tears while I stayed still in the same position, in shock.
My sister… she was… dead?