Beyond The Stars

Prologue

Raif and Rafa- 7 years old

"Rafa can you go and check the backyard one more time please?" My mother tiredly called out from the kitchen where she was on the phone with my father.

I put my book away and headed to the back door. The wind blew my hair back as I squinted looking around our backyard again. "Come on Raif." I mumbled to myself as I began to walk towards the shed, thinking he might be in there.

This was the third time. My brother just doesn't know how to keep in one place. He was talking about some crazy things yesterday, and this afternoon exactly right after our mother made us pray Asr prayer he disappeared.

I stuck my head into the shed and sighed a grumpy sigh when I didn't find him. A tap on my shoulder startled me and I stumbled backwards before turning my head towards the culprit.

A boy that looked to be the same age as me, with floppy brown hair, eyes the bright colour of emeralds that I saw on my mother's necklaces, and sporting huge grin stared back at me.

"Hello!" He said a bit too loudly. I glanced around our large yard thinking of all the ways he could've got in, "uhm hi." I mumbled back and before I could ask how he had gotten into our backyard he said, "I jumped over the wall."

I stared him dead in the eye as he continued grinning at me, "and why did you do that?" I said crossing my arms, his bright eyes blinked once, then twice before he said, "you looked worried so I thought I'd come and help you."

I shuffled myself a bit further from this strange being, "what's your name?" I asked curiously. He straightened up his dirt cladded t-shirt and ran a swift hand though his hair before sticking his hand out towards me, "Mikhail. What's your name?"

I looked at his hand before looking back up at his still grinning face, "Rafa," I mumbled before lightly shaking his hand.

"So why were you so worried Rafa?" He asked curiously as I kicked my shoe into the dirt. "We can't find my brother, Raif." I mumbled. His grin dropped as he said, "is he lost?"

I shook my head, my braids swinging from shoulder to shoulder, "no he just went on one of his adventures but he forgot to tell us where he was goin--"

"Rafa did you find him?" My mother yells worriedly from the back door, she has a light scarf wrapped around her head and as she walks towards me she notices Mikhail and she brings herself to smile. "Why hello there, are you Rafa's friend?" She asks as Mikhail smiles at her.

He nods his head, "we're going to the best of friends once we find Raif." Mama chuckles and pats his head before she looked towards me, "well that's good. Rafa head inside its starting to get cold, your father has gone to check in the park."

"What did you say your name was sweetheart?" My mother asks him as we walk back towards the house. "Mikhail--

He's cut off when the voice of an angry woman yells out from across the wall that separates each house, "Mikhail where have you gone at this time! If you don't appear in front of me right now, you just wait and see what I do to you!!"

Mikhail's ever so huge grin vanishes and he gulps before giving us a weary smile, "bye Rafa." He says before leaping up our tree and hopping over to his side. Some angry words can be heard before a door being slammed closed. My mother gives a look over to that house before sighing and pulling me into her and leading us inside.

As the minutes ticked by, with me trying to continue my book and my mother reading the Quran the front door finally opened, my father came in with his work clothes still on and a giggling Raif over his shoulder.

I rolled my eyes as I saw his cheeky grin, my mother rushed to him and started mumbling some things while hugging and kissing his cheeks before she went into her usual ranting mode.

My dad chuckled before throwing Raif onto the sofa where he was still smiling as my mother continued scolding him. I grinned at my dad who came over and hugged me, "guess what I found him doing this time," baba whispered in my ear with a small chuckle. I looked up and asked, "what?"

"He was three feet deep inside a hole claiming it was his time to travel to the centre of the earth." I laughed along with my dad and Raif scowled suddenly standing up on the sofa. His clothes looked like they were puked on by a dirt monster and his hair was more disheveled then ever. "I was so close too! You guys always ruin the fun!"

My mother didn't bat an eye as she picked up a pillow and started lightly hitting him on his behind, I chuckled as she started with her scolding again, "this is your last time Raif do you hear me, no more centre of the earth no more going way past Jupiter and for Allahs sake please don't try see what happens when you drop a coin from a fifty feet building again!"

I chuckled as Raif defended himself with his own pillow, "Calm down Rania," my dad said with a laugh calling my mother by her first name. He took both the pillows from them before throwing them back on the sofa, I jumped onto his back as he wrapped an arm around my mother and one around Raif.

"Listen to your mother Raify we don't want you to get hurt on your 'adventures'." My father said lightly as he kissed him on the forehead.

That night as we lay in our beds, Raif's on one end of the room and mine on the other I asked my twin, "were you actually close to the centre?"

He shot up out of his bed excitedly, like he always does whenever I ask him about his adventures. "Wallah I was, I felt the heat of the lava, one more scoop of dirt and I would have if rushing over my shoes, the tiny critters under there warned me not to go any further but I didn't listen. The above sky had begun to disappear. My breath was all over the place and then boom! Baba's hand shoots through it all and pulls me up." He says ending it with a sigh.

I chuckle to myself before saying, "well I made a new friend today, he's rather strange and a bit weird, his name was Mikhail." Raif leaps off his bed crosses over the floor and jumps into mine ruining my whole assortment of stuffed animals.

I push him to the side angrily as he says, "weird and strange are the best kind of people sis," He says, I pull my blanket around me tighter as he says, "I'm  beginning to think up my new adventure." A groan escapes my mouth, "not another one Raif you just had one!!"

"But this one will be epic Rafa!" He says jumping off my bed. "You and Mikhail can come too if you'd like!"

"No thank you, I'd rather read Percy Jackson and Harry Potter than go with you." I mumble as I hug my teddy bear that was gifted to me by my dad last year, "what's going to be so special about this one Raif?" I ask tiredly, a yawn escaping my mouth.

"This time Rafa..this time I'm going to go high and above, where no human has ever been. It's going to take a lot of thinking but I'm going to do it Rafa, I'm gonna go beyond the stars."

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There's the prologue, really slow but it is after all just the beginning, got a little snippet of their family, Mikhail and of course our precious little twins XD

I promise the first chapter will be great!!