Starcrossed (Starcrossed 1)

Helen heard something up on the roof. She ran up the

stairs to the widow?s walk and threw the door open as

fast as she could, but the widow?s walk was empty. She

sighed, relieved. She didn?t want any of the Delos kids

sleeping on her roof anymore. She especially didn?t

want Lucas listening to her while she had nightmares, and she had

just woken up from another horrible one. She looked around at the

empty widow?s walk, feeling desolate and lonely, but she wasn?t

sure if that was because of a dream or because of her waking life.

She went back down to her bedroom and forced herself to notice

the writing on the mirror. Then she wrote I SAW IT AGAIN in

Claire?s green eyeliner and made herself to stare at the words. That

was two nights in a row she?d seen the river she couldn?t remember.

She was racking her brain trying to picture it, but her mind?s

eye kept looking away. Suddenly, she spotted her own reflection in

the mirror and gasped.

Her cheeks were sunken in, her nightshirt was pulled out of

shape, and her arms and legs were covered in icky black muck.

River muck.

She had seen a river with black banks and gray water. She could

remember thirst and not being able to drink. But why was it such a

struggle to remember anything else that had happened? She focused

her thoughts to try and bring the memory back.

Her thirst was tormenting her so she had gone down to the water.

She leaned over the foul banks of black mud and saw pale,

crippled fish bumping around clumsily, as if they had forgotten

how to swim. She backed away from the river, refusing to drink

that water even if she died of thirst with the sound of its current

rushing in her ears. . . .

Helen ran to the bathroom and threw herself into the shower, rubbing