Starseed

Starseed Book One Of The Shadow & Shifter Series Olivia Hillier Copyright This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. This book has been created with the fullest intention and expression of equality and love. Content Warning: This book included references to mental health conditions, suicide, domestic violence, and sexual assault. For assistance on any of the above topics please seek immediate support by calling Lifeline on 13 11 14. Copyright © 2023 by Olivia Hillier All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. Copyright (SPLIT) "For a Starseed growing up in the ‘normal’ world there is a feeling of being different, of not belonging, of not fitting in, of not being truly understood. This is a gripping story that many will resonate with. Earth is not home for Starseeds, we come from the stars." - Steve Nobel Contents Copyright (SPLIT) (SPLIT) 1. Chapter 1 2. Chapter 2 3. Six Months Later 4. Chapter 4 5. Chapter 5 6. Chapter 6 7. Chapter 7 8. Chapter 8 9. Chapter 9 10. Chapter 10 11. Chapter 11 12. Chapter 12 13. Chapter 13 14. Chapter 14 15. Chapter 15 16. Chapter 16 17. Chapter 17 18. Chapter 18 19. Chapter 19 20. Chapter 20 21. Chapter 21 22. Chapter 22 23. Chapter 23 About Author Copyright (SPLIT) (SPLIT) "For a Starseed growing up in the ‘normal’ world there is a feeling of being different, of not belonging, of not fitting in, of not being truly understood. This is a gripping story that many will resonate with. Earth is not home for Starseeds, we come from the stars." - Steve Nobel Chapter one Her scream pierced the ears of students on the far tennis courts. But I couldn’t let go. The classroom of students froze, one by one slowly stepping back, collectively contracting from the sound of pain. Dark shadows grew around their shoulders as thirty students wrapped their arms around their body forgetting how to breathe. No one tried to break us apart. They sat, watching, waiting. The screech ricocheted off the walls. A dark mist lingered low from the ceiling. That’s when I pushed against her harder. The story in her eyes unfurled in front of mine. The images of the past played out like a movie, the thick, muddy darkness, moving around her body, became limp. A tentacle woven around her leg, detached. As did I, gasping, feeling the push back, catching my breath. All eyes in the classroom locked on me wide, flooded with fear. I was in Year One, the first time it happened. I had no idea I was the only one who saw the world this way. Not until I was sitting in the principal’s office, listening to my parents’ fight. They were trying their best to keep me in school. Nine years later and here I was again, kicking my feet underneath the chair at the back of the narrow dark room. Head down, picking at my fingernails, zoning in and out of the same conversation. ‘I think expulsion is a little too harsh. It was one incident,’ mum pleaded with Mrs. Westchester. ‘And this program? Are you serious? She’s not a mental case,’ said Graham, my father. I don’t know if Graham deserved a parental label. Family didn’t seem to mean much to him. Although, I had to give it to him today, he was putting up a solid fight for the family he left behind. He placed his hand in between my mother’s shoulder blades, lightly rubbing her back. ‘It was self-defence. Maya does not need to be treated like this,’ he raised his voice. It was strange to see my parents in the same room agreeing on something. Fighting for something together. Apparently that something was me. I was the only thing they seemed to have in common, and I’d tangled them together forever. I didn’t know if I deserved it. This argument was over my broken promise. I said it would never happen again. I meant it at the time, I’d had some close calls over the years, but always managed to flee the situation, run away as far as I could from the awful predator that lingered amongst those unaware. I promised, yet here we were, all these years later. The truth is, I didn’t understand it any more than they did. I tried my hardest to switch it off, I really did, after how much I saw it hurt my parents’ last time. I did not want to be in this situation. I’d always seen the shadows. My first memories of them were when I was four, playing in my neighbour, Liam’s, pool. The dark cloud appeared over his mum’s head as soon as she pulled him out of the pool, sputtering up the chlorinated water. A shadow grew on him and his father not long after. I clearly remember the first day of Year One. All my friends in class glowed. I remember sitting on the oval at lunchtime as we picked daisies and wove them into chains. One day I sat back, watching my friends laughing and playing together as a bright ray of light shot out from their chests and shined through their mouths, all intertwining like a golden sun ray. Everyone glowed except one boy, Benji. He walked into class with grey smog lingering over his left shoulder. I felt my stomach churn when I got too close to him, and I felt a painful stabbing in my chest. Even when he smiled or laughed, it never seemed to go away. The grey blackened as the year went on. By August, the fog had grown tentacles, latching around his shoulder,