Celestial Lessons 001: Black Hole or Shining Star?
Written by: THREE
It was unreal. Control. She controls. She was unreal. Celeste.
He felt her eyes on him. Burning through. Controlling him. His every move, his every action, his every word, or lack of it. Almost like she had him on remote control. Was she really doing this to him? Why? Was she making him do this? Like the way he would stay up late at night, alone in his room, dark, silent, staring at the ceiling, doing things boys his age shouldn’t be doing anymore. The guilt. The shame. Pathetic. Was it all because of her?
He looked upon her like his elder sister. But that would just be wrong. He always did feel strangely protective over her, even though she didn’t really need anyone’s protection, like he did with his sister. But no, not like a sister. She was much more than that. Beyond that. No, ‘sister’ was just wrong.
Her lips moved. The Universe moved with them. With her. Around her. Around him as well. With him sucked in. Like a black hole. Inescapable gravity.
And as her words flowed around him, and the others whose presence, or rather, existence he never noticed anymore, her casually brief glances would feel like intensely burning hair-thin lines of invisible deadly laser beams searing right through his body, his skull, his soul, his ribcage. Yes, that’s just how it felt. To be under her ‘surveillance’. Like an escaped convict running from the blinding spotlights that seemed to be chasing him one moment, then pass by without a care, until the next beam intercepted him.
But he didn’t really want to run from the deadly beautiful laser beams or confounding spotlights of those emerald green eyes.
So why couldn’t he face them? Her.
“Kieran?”
Oh, the softness of her voice. The sound of his name on her lips. The resonance of the vibrating sound waves, too soft to move quarks, but powerful enough to move galaxies, even send them crashing into each other. But so lacking in any real emotion. Like the winter breeze. Cool, deadly beautiful, and sending chills down his spine. How that felt, good or bad, he wasn’t sure. Just unreal.
She called my name? he blinked. She called my name!
She moved towards him. Like a comet. A shooting star. Shining brightly against the darkness of this cold, empty Universe.
Celeste.
Oh no.
She moved closer. Towards him. Or just his general direction, he suddenly hoped.
And with that bleak half-hearted hope, space-time seemed to suddenly distort. Seconds dilated into aeons. The far edges of the Universe around them seemed to come to a standstill. Sounds became as loud as a vacuum, and it didn’t make sense since sounds don’t exist in vacuums. Yet she still moved.
The comet Celeste still hovered towards him at her steady pace. Her long brown hair slightly lagging in the space-time vortex behind her. And then the comet came to an impossible stop. Right before him.
Towering high above him like a beautiful Angel of Death, she asked him, softly, “Are you all right?”
“Um…” he struggled to find the words, “y-yes, Cel– …Miss Samson.”
“Really?” she asked again, so soft almost mocking, so casual almost teasing, “Have you been following everything I said?”
There it was again. Control.
The shining star was now the overwhelming black hole crushing him to the tiniest worthless particle with its infinite mass. Again.
Kieran only nodded helplessly.
Celeste smiled. Like a beautiful predator. Again that subtle mocking. That which only he could perceive. “Good then. Kieran Pittman, define Planck’s constant to the rest of the class, please.”
Now he was seriously doomed.
Love the twist at the end! It really held me to keep on reading the fantastical fantasy until I get what the story is about – which is.. at the end. hehehe…
Thanks, Z. Was experimenting with styles, throwing in some ‘signature’ geeky/’sci-fi’ elements in as well, and keeping it short (606 words).
Very nice, Three. You should submit that to Fantasy & Sci Fi magazine.
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/
Wow. FSF. Now THAT’S a compliment. Too much though, because I don’t think I’ll stand a chance. Too many times people have tried to get their works published, and failed. I’ll stick to free online fiction for the timebeing, but yeah, thanks
That was really an unexpected twist! I like the way you played around the prompt picture. And I love the use of short sentences here!
And it is great to see your fiction in the outside world
Thank YOU, Lena. You inspired me to venture into writing again and share it with the outside world without much fear. And yeah, short sentences
work wonders
Super! I liked the description of the affinity and yet the fear…
An exaggerated version of basically every youth’s experience at some point. A bit dark/psychological though. Thanks for the comment
Come on. We’ve all had hots for one teacher or the other back in school. My chemistry teacher was stunner.
Not a surprise at all that I came close to flunking it… twice.
Really loved the end. I was thinking on the lines that maybe the protagonist worked for his object of affection. But your take was better. There are 3 more in the series to come right? Cant wait.
PS: Glad you made it here. Any friend of Lena’s is a friend of mine.
Very true. Happens to (almost) all boys and girls. In this story however, I thought I’d add all the (geeky) ‘fantasy/sci-fi’ plus some dark psychology elements, as you may have noticed from Kieran’s thinking that he is probably not your everyday teenager with a crush. There are some dark not-so-hidden elements at play at the back of his strange mind there.
Thanks for the compliments on the story…
I really have to thank you for setting up this lovely site for us aspiring writers to experiment with and share our works. I have a feeling there might be more to this ‘series’ than the 4-5 I had in mind, but nevertheless they are all independent stories that can stand alone as their own flash fiction, and do not really need to be followed in any specific order. Will try to fit them with the future prompts 
A breath of fresh air. The subject isn’t new, but they way you’ve played around is remarkable.
Oh and another thing! Short sentences. Rock.
Thanks so much, Kriti
Yeap, the age-old crush that happens to everyone. And yeah, was really experimenting with short sentences.
Wow…you know what this reminded me of? Calvin and Hobbes!!
Great writing….
Scribblers Inc.
LOL Calvin and Hobbes… now that’d be a bit too ‘innocent’. Thanks for the compliment, Mithun.
wow. really makes me wonder if they know what they’re doing, those doe-eyed muses. they must, right?
this was a great ride, passionate, alive. nice work!
Thanks, Joaquin. Was trying out in the short fiction department. And this is what came to mind when I saw this pic