Star System Part 1

“Your mother is too trusting.” Kane looked at the girl, who was a few heads shorter than him, with a serious expression.

“She trusts me, and she trusts Mama Claire’s ability to pick people,” Stacey replied with a small smile.

“Well, still… For her to trust a man, she had just met to take care of her daughter. Isn’t she basically giving you to me?” Kane sighed. “Anyway, what time do you leave for school?”

Stacey’s eyes lit up as she looked at Kane. “7:30…” Stacey thought for a moment before asking expectantly: “Why, are you going to walk me to school too?”

“Yeah, I figured I might as well do a complete job. I will be here ten minutes of, so make sure you are ready.” Kane reached over and pulled the hood of Stacey’s hoodie up. She had changed into her loungewear and was wearing a pink hoodie that had built-in cat ears. It was slightly baggy and covered the pink shorts she had on, all the way down to just above her knees. It made her look like a small animal. “Go get some sleep. I will see you in the morning.”

“Okay, brother!” Stacey slipped her arms around Kane’s waist and hugged him. It only lasted a few seconds before she quickly let go and backpedaled a few steps with a sweet smile and blushing cheeks. “I will see you tomorrow.”

Kane watched as she rushed into the house, stopping for a split second to give him a small wave. He chuckled to himself and wondered what he had gotten himself into. But he did not mind. He felt maybe with her hanging around, he would want to work harder. 

It was ten at night when Kane left Stacey’s apartment building. The city lights were in full bloom, lighting up the sky. The crisp chill of fall was in the air, making Kane shiver slightly as he walked down the street. White puffs of moist air escaped his mouth with each breath he took. He knew winter was right around the corner. He just hoped they would not get too much snow.

By the time he got home, it was a quarter to eleven, his grandparents had already gone to sleep, so the house was dark, all except the small light in the kitchen. When he walked in, he saw a plate on the table with a plastic cover over it. A note sat at the side with his grandmother’s writing on it.

He picked it up and began to read it….

‘You were not home at your normal time, so we went to bed. Heat this up and eat it. Do not work too hard. We are old and do not need much. Kane, follow your dreams. We will always support you.’ 

Kane couldn’t help but smile. His grandmother had been saying the same thing all week. He heated up his food and ate it with relish. He always loved his grandmother’s cooking. When he was done, he washed his plate and dried it before putting it away. Only then did he shut the kitchen light off and head to his bedroom.

After switching on the light, he put his guitar on the bed and opened the case. But when he lifted the guitar from the case, he heard something rattling inside. “Hmm? Is there something broken?”

Kane lifted the guitar up over his head and began moving it around. He could hear something rolling around. It took a while, but finally, something looking like a glass marble rolled out and fell into his lap. He set his guitar aside and picked it up. It was blackish purple in color, but it looked to have a whole universe concealed within. He felt mesmerized just looking at it as if he was being sucked into this strange universe. 

Kane leaned back and looked at the glass marble between his fingers in a bit of a daze. He did not think that the seemingly perfectly normal glass marble would suddenly explode into balls of purple light that showered down and entered into him through his eyes. Kane had no time to react. The purple light entered his body, and after that, everything went black. 

A few hours later, Kane woke up with a raging headache. He held his head and looked around in a confused state. “A dream?”

He shook his head, which only made it hurt more. He felt like he had just been hit in the head with a baseball bat. But he felt like what had just happened before he blacked out was definitely real. Or at least it seemed to be real. He slowly got up and walked towards the door to his room. He wanted to splash water on his face and get some headache meds. 

Kane had only just reached out for the handle of his door when he realized something was off. In front of him was a message on a blue transparent screen. “Huh?” Kane rubbed his eyes, but the screen did not disappear. The words ‘Star System Activated’ were in bold white letters with the word ‘loading…’ underneath it. A golden glowing loading bar was also slowly progressing across the screen. It was currently at halfway. 

“Am I still dreaming?” Kane had no idea what was going on. But when he pinched himself, he felt a sharp pain. “Not a dream?” Kane began to wonder if he had taken some kind of weird drug that was making him hallucinate. But he felt perfectly fine besides the raging headache. “I should wash my face.” With this thought, he hurried to the bathroom, doing his best to ignore the screen that was still hovering in front of him. If it was a dream, he was sure to wake up at some point. If not, then he was probably going insane. But he had never heard of any mental illnesses in his family.