The Star Within

Part 1

In a neighborhood in New Orleans called Bywater, an adolescent named Abby Jupiter lived in a small, decaying house on the street, Press St. Abby had grown up in a dangerous neighborhood where criminals lurked the sidewalks at night where drugs, used syringes, and cigarette butts were found along the street. As she slept, Abby could hear the loud blasting from pistols fired by thugs near her house and her mother outside cursing out her big brother, Jamie, for causing so much racket. On a normal school day, Abby walked home from school since she could not stand the ruckus of the amatuer 8th graders. The last time she got on the bus, the 8th graders were throwing paper and opened bottles of milk across the bus making splatters of undrunken milk on the windows, floor, and seats. Abby's body shuddered thinking back to that Friday. She looked around at the town she lived in that was full of small shops with cars parked near the sidewalks and familiar people greeting her. As she walked home, she tripped over something that was abandoned on the sidewalk, making her fall and scrape her knee against the hard concrete. "Ow! What the f-" she cut off her profanity when she saw what made her lose her footing. "What is this?" Abby used her small hands to pick up the uniquely-designed metal box that had three engraved constellations on the top. She adjusted her circular-lensed glasses on her dark, freckled face examining the engravings, noticing the constellations are puzzles. The thing is there were not any puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle. Strange. . .how am I- her thought was interrupted by an extreme headache that made her drop the box back onto the sidewalk. Abby gripped her short, orange curly hair tightly with tears rolling down her freckled cheeks until the headache went away. When she opened her eyes, Abby quickly covered her right eye with her hand since the eye was sensitive to light. She picked the box up with her free hand and tucked it under her arm before rushing home. When Abby got home, she quickly ran upstairs to her well-cleaned, orange-themed bathroom and uncovered her eye to see something very strange. Her right eye had turned the shade of pale yellow and her pupil was star-shaped, but instead of black, the pupil was white! Her heart began to pound inside her chest like someone banging on a drum. Soon, she began to hyperventilate and clutches her chest before passing out on her orange-tiled floor. A figure with a muscular build picked Abby up off of the floor and disappeared into thin air.