The Star Maidens Curse (A Dark Adventure)

The Star Maidens Curse Chapter 1 - The #Vision

Chapter 1—September 30, 2019

I sat on the stool watching the old cuckoo clock, my breathing matching the slow swing of the pendulum.

Tick tock, tick tock.

The constant ticking in my ears was so loud I began to imagine it was my own heart beating. I stared intently until I was lost in its rhythmic sound and movement and I was no longer focused on the clock.

I gasped as I saw a vision so incredible I couldn't believe my eyes.  I was surrounded by eleven stars orbiting me as though I were the sun. They shone as though bathed in an iridescent light that radiated the colour of a sunny sky.

Words began to swirl through my mind, at first a whisper, then rising in cadence until they echoed from every direction.

"You'll be sent afar to Earth," a glorious, beautiful feminine voice proclaimed. "You'll live as a human, remembering nothing of your past."

The voice echoed off every wall. Fear washed over me in a crushing wave. Cold sweat rolled down my neck, and my hands shook with anger.

"I am part of the stars. You cannot banish me."

"Tilly, what did you say? Snap out of it."

My gaze was hazy at first, and I felt a moment of panic – why couldn't I see? I felt the world slip back into place, and my dad swan back into view as the vision disappeared.

There was the look; the look of annoyance that I had become so acquainted with. It was far from the proud expression I used to get when I bounced on his knee as a child.

"Nothing, I-I didn't say anything," I stammered, hoping he would believe me, or at the very least just let it go.

Dad gathered his luggage together in the hall and checked his airline tickets one last time, as he prepared to leave on his business trip to New York. As he frowned over his itinerary, I noticed a touch of silver at his temples. It contrasted sharply with his sandy hair and finely weathered looks. He was getting older. Of course he was, it's what dad's do. Hell it's what we all do, but in that moment, I felt a twinge of sadness as I saw it, really saw it, for the first time. As always, he was dressed casually in the faded jeans and pullover he reserved for longer flights.

"I know you think what you see is real, Tilly," he said, his blue eyes serious as he glanced at me.

Dammit. He wasn't going to let it go. He never did, yet each time, I hoped he would. I wish I hadn't confided in my parents.

"But you've got to understand that others won't see it that way. They'll think you're taking drugs or hallucinating. You've always had a vivid imagination, but as you grow older, my words will make sense," he added

I listened resentfully to the words I'd heard since childhood. It was a speech I endured simply for it to be over with.

"Dad, you need to accept that I'm not a child anymore. I'm nineteen, and it's not my imagination. These visions aren't going away. They're a part of me, of who I am."

Dad paused to read a text on his phone.

"You're still very young and have yet to truly experience the real world. You can't continue this nonsense. I'm telling you, it will cause problems for you."

"All you care about is what other people think"

"I know I am annoying him, and I know I probably shouldn't, but it makes me so frustrated that he won't even entertain the notion that what I'm saying could be true.

Dad sighed and glanced at the cuckoo clock. It was six -forty-five in the morning.

"I don't have time for this right now."

Mum emerged from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a towel. Blonde and blue-eyed, her porcelain skin was complemented by rosy cheeks and red lips.

She had always been the voice of reason when Dad and I fought, and I hoped I could count on her to set dad straight this time too.

She frowned at Dad who choose to ignore the disapproving look as I knew he would. It still brought the lecture to an end though, and for that at least, I was grateful.

"Darling, I've got to get going if I want to catch my flight. I don't want to get caught in the traffic to the airport. It's a nightmare travelling through Edinburgh at this time of the day."

"Then get going, Trevor," Mum said, glancing sympathetically at me. "There's no need to start the day with an argument."

At least Mum was reasonable, but Dad constantly dismissed my visions as childhood nonsense. I was fed up with it, and I wanted him to know I was upset that he refused to believe me, I picked up my mobile and portfolio from the hallway table and barged past him, nearly knocking the phone from his hand.

"Stop acting like a child, Tilly," Dad said his tone weary. He was as sick of this argument as I was, and yet he was the one who refused to let it go. "If you keep this up, you're never leaving this house again. Do you understand?"

Yeah, because that's going to happen, I thought to myself. I bolted out the front door slamming it hard behind me. I heard something smashing on the floor inside of the house. I looked back towards the door feeling a stab of guilt.

Oh, no, I hope that wasn't Nan's ashes.

Dad opened the door as violently as I had slammed it.

"Tilly Rose," he shouted, with a voice that demanded I stop. "Look what you've done to your Mother's Japanese cat."

I looked over his shoulder at the now headless ornament.

Thank god it wasn't Nan's ashes.

"Mum never liked the cat. She only pretended to because it was a present from you," I shouted.

I shouldn't have said it, even though it was true, and I instantly regretted my words. Mum was the one who at least tried to believe me, and I shouldn't have brazenly shared one of her secrets.

"Get back in the house. Now," Dad snapped.

He stepped to one side, holding the door at arm's length and gesturing angrily towards the hallway.

Ignoring him, I put my mobile in my cardigan pocket. I rushed out of the gate and followed the road east toward Galashiels village. I needed a place to clear my head and calm down.