When Stars Die

Chapter 1

Asher

"I've got a plan." I whisper into the dark space. I can feel her heavy breathing against my arm as she tries to decipher what it meant.

"Is it a good one?" She manages to croak out. I know she has to be severely dehydrated. We all were. The four of us have been stuck together in this tiny closet for almost a week without any supplies but a few now-empty water bottles and peanut-butter cracker wrappers. They litter the floor around us.

It was hard to believe we were the same people as we were two months ago. I mean, we weren't really. Every time I thought about what they had done to us, I wanted to-

Mora coughs, interrupting my thoughts.

"I have a plan." I repeat.

"That sounds helpful." She stretches out her legs on top of mine and yawns. Mora is sitting across from me, and even though we are in the middle of a life-and-death situation, she can still be annoying.

"It's not much," I admit. "But it could work."

"It doesn't look like we have much of a choice." Anise speaks up. I can feel Nox shift around uncertainly. Back on Earth, Nox had been the most popular boy at our school. He was confident and cool. But now, Nox seems to be breaking, piece by piece, day by day, and I have no idea why.

"Well then," Mora pulls herself onto her knees, "Do tell us, Asher." I can barely see her in the pitch-black closet, but my eyes have sort-of adjusted. I can almost make out the black of her hair and her tan skin and eyes that were the embodiment of night itself. Mora was one of the most popular girls in our school. She had even dated Nox, which now was a little awkward. I know she has pulled her hair up into a messy bun. Now I can almost see the strands coming loose after having it in for days and nights as she tosses and turns in and out of sleep and the nightmare that was quickly becoming reality.

The rest of our ragtag team leans in, and I carefully whisper about what I had in store so we can escape this alien cargoship.

Alder

"Your highness, what do you think?" Night and day, my father was in his planning headquarters, working to win the planet its' inhabitants called Earth. At first, the rest of the Union was skeptical about conquering such a small planet, especially so many light years away. But my father had other ideas. He was so right.

The planet is full of riches and new types of flora and fauna, and there are other humans, too. Earth is not the waste the Interplanetary Union had thought it to be. So of course, every human and their dog rushed to the planet. It was small, especially compared to my own, but now it was open for colonization and exploitation. Of course, we didn't really call it that. To the stupid Earthens' faces, we called it "integration". We would be living in peaceful harmony with them. Yeah, right. Those savages were too idiotic to realise the truth.

Now, almost the entire Union was fighting for a piece of this new land. Luckily, my father's advancements have placed a huge hold on Earth. We are winning this race. We are going to win the war. We are going to conquer Earth.

My father made me sit in on his meeting and battle planning and all of that because I am to be the next King of Magfortem. This is where I learned. In truth, I soak up every bit of knowledge I can. I love being a part of this. Sometimes, my ideas were even being used. In three months, I will turn eighteen and take my father's place on the throne, so I suppose they felt like they had to listen to me.

"Darling!" My mother rushes into the room and ran to me. "Alder! I came to tell you that Marilaurel, you know, the princess of Lynne, she wanted to know if you're available."