Star Keeper

Sleep couldn’t find me hidden away in my room behind the sadness of losing the elder. There was too much lurking in my thoughts, haunting my mind and memories. I stared at the fiery woman who fell from the sky only two nights ago, my star. Deyanira found sleep after about three hours of silence. Her breathing fell into an easy pattern that hypnotized my thoughts. I welcomed anything that kept the memory of Luca’s smirk out of my head. My star shifted in her sleep bringing me back to reality. I took a deep breath and focused on the clock. Violent red numbers glared at me from the dark screen. 3:00 a.m.

“Only a few more hours,” I promised myself as I sat up. My feet swung over the edge of the bed carefully avoiding her arm which hung from the windowsill where she slept. She said she felt more at home if she could see the midnight sky. The packs I started earlier had blankets, a small stash of dried food that my mother snuck in, and a change of clothes for me. I opened my door in hopes of sneaking downstairs to find something in the laundry basket to fit Dey. She’d need warm clothes at least since the nights are always so cold.

A light flickered to life behind me in the farthest area of the kitchen while I dug through the laundry basket in the pantry. ‘My luck will never change,’ I thought while trying to hide behind the pantry door from person who caught me. I was hoping that no one would wake up so that I could slip out without notice when the time was right, but nothing I hoped for happened the way I wanted. After everything with Dey, Luca, and the elder’s death I could not handle anymore. I ignored the familiar footsteps coming up behind me as I returned to my search through the basket, even though nothing looked remotely small enough for her. The footsteps stopped and I slowly stood up; I’d been caught red handed preparing to leave before my family awoke. “Are you looking for these?” Her soft voice was soft and it always made everything seem alright even when it couldn’t be farther from alright, unlike her husband’s harsh tone that never faltered in its quest to make me feel like a failure.

“Thanks, Mom,” I whispered with a nod as I turned to her. She held out a thick flannel shirt and a pair of jeans that luckily didn’t look like they came from the 70s.

“You’re leaving before your father gets up, right?” She asked softly. I nodded. “He’s not disappointed like you think, Braith; he’s confused like the rest of us.”

“So, I’ll leave before everyone wakes up to help that problem,” I retorted.

“Braith…” She sighed.

“Mom, please! All these people think that Luca has the right star. I’m nothing more than the damned, screwed up orphan around here and you know that as well as I do. She’s the right one; I know it, and that’s why I’m not going to put her through the stone throwing they’ll do if we leave publicly.”

She nodded solemnly before she stated, “Your winter jacket is in the coat closet by the front door, and the old one that’ll fit your star is still in the back of the closet in your room.” Her eyes held worry, but she passed the clothes for Deyanira to me without hesitation. “Promise me you’ll be careful.”

I smiled. “Always.” Ever since I came to live with the alpha and his family, my adoptive mother always told me to be careful before I left the house. Once I told her that I didn’t need to worry about careful; if I could survive Luca’s torture, and what had happened with my parents then I would be fine no matter what happened. She laughed, kissed me on the forehead, and made me promise to still be careful. “You be careful too, okay?”

She laughed, “That’s the first time you’ve said it back, Little One.”

“Deyanira doesn’t trust Luca’s star, and I don’t trust Luca.” I explained. “Be safe.”

“Braith, my own son wouldn’t…” she trailed off as the realization of her words sank into her ears.

“The boy you raised thinks otherwise,” I said softly.

I could see the pain in her eyes. She had loved me like a son, not like an orphan. I hugged her for a long time and kissed her forehead. When I looked at her I could see tears falling gently down her cheeks. I wiped them away with my thumb before turning away from her before she could see the pain she caused me hiding in my eyes.



Two hours passed before I grew impatient enough to disrupt Deyanira’s soft snoring. The more time that passed the more afraid I became of someone rising early and alerting the village of our departure. No; I stood by what I told my mother. These people would not cast my star in the worst light just because Luca charmed them all.

“Hey!” I whispered in her ear. She pushed her head to the side, hitting it against the glass. Her vibrant red lips parted in a familiar groan. “Please, wake up now?” I asked in a tone a little above a whisper. Both packs were prepared, and I made sure that hers was a lot lighter than my own. We didn’t have to wait any longer.

“No!” She hissed. The ring in her lower lip quivered as her nose twitched like a rabbits. My heart fluttered, but I quickly pushed any thoughts of the action being cute out of my head. There couldn’t be time for ‘cute’ when I had our lives to worry about.

“What if I promise to find you somewhere to sleep after we get away from here? I’ll let you sleep for a whole day if you want,” I pleaded.

She slowly opened one eye and peeked at me. Her expression changed from the glower of being awoken to something of a much softer nature. I couldn’t stop the small smile that crossed my features, and with my helplessness came a brighter star than I was used to.

“Alright.” She grinned and swung her legs over the edge of the window in one quick motion. Her toes barely touched the floor while she rubbed her hands over her bare legs—she claimed she got too warm during the night and slipped out of her jeans, but the goose-bumps on her limbs suggested otherwise. I turned my back to let her slip into her pants while explaining to her my plan.

“We’ll quietly leave through the front door; then we’ll head into the woods on the north side where there will be a little darkness left; we’ll hike for an hour and then you can sleep.” My hands moved idly while I spoke until her long, slim fingers slipped over my shoulder returning my attention to her.

“Please tell me…” she started before glancing around the room; the room was nearly as neat as when we arrived. “Did you clean?”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “What do you want me to tell you?”

She shook her head and moved her hand away before answering, “That we’re eating before we leave.”

I sniffed the air involuntarily and nodded. My mother hadn’t slept since she caught me rifling through the laundry basket. She took the time to cook. Bacon filled my senses, and soon Deyanira smelled it too. I threw the old, faded black jacket at the back of the closet at her before I grabbed the packs and walked down the stairs. She rested her jacket on the one I told her belonged to her while I grabbed my own coat.



Breakfast didn’t last long. I was glad for that due to the uncomfortable silence and hurried goodbyes before anyone else in the house woke up. The morning light nearly filled the entire sky, but no one roamed the village roads yet. Silence was a welcome relief until Luca’s smirk lurked in my mind, haunting all that should’ve been good about the last morning I’d be with my mother for a while. I pushed as much of Luca as I could out of my mind before we picked up the pace. People were beginning to stir in their houses. The chief and Luca would be finding the house void of their unwanted guest, and they would not forgive me for taking her without a proper degrading.

“I hate this pack,” I mumbled to myself. Dey, who struggled to keep up with me, breathed heavily. She made several noises so I turned my head toward her to satisfy her curiosity. “You’d hate it to if you were considered the pack idiot.”

We reached the forest before anyone announced our disappearance, maybe no one would. I hoped that because Dey was very unwelcomed and I am the troubled orphan that the people in the village would take our departure as a blessing. We walked for a little longer until Deyanira insisted on slowing down a little, but we had to put as much space between ourselves and the pack as we could.

“I want to know more about the other star,” I stated while walking slowly. My star walked ahead of me now, pressing her fingers against every tree trunk that came into her path.

“I don’t think she’s a star at all.” Dey threw her fiery red hair over one shoulder. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“But there are billions of stars in the sky?”

Her body turned to face mine while her nose crinkled and the corners of her mouth turned down. She shook her head until her wavy flames filled the air around her. “No!” She growled. Her hands shook by her side as she found the words to explain. I stifled a grin and waited for her to continue. “There are a select few that get chosen to be in a group that have the opportunity to fall. Those billions, up there are more like a hundred at most. At least, there is only one hundred chosen while the rest watch over the skies.”

“You have to know her then?” I chuckled.

I watched her frown harden and her bottom lip quiver until she turned away from me and continued walking. I knew what I said upset her, but really, is it possible for her to know all of the stars. Maybe she missed one? I looked at her wanting to say something but there was nothing I could say that would make her feel better. Apologizing never came easy to me because I didn’t practice it; I never had to. I was thought to be troubled or the bad guy in our pack no one ever expected niceties from me and that was how I liked it, but something was different with her. I didn’t want to upset her. I felt a twinge of guilt as we continued walking.

“Deyanira?” I asked.

She did not respond. Deyanira must’ve gotten lost in her thoughts because she didn’t like the fast pace I set, but we walked faster on her account, weaving our way deeper into the forest, without saying another word.