Starseed by Liz Gruder Read Free Book Online Page B

have to hang out.
    She thought of Paw Paw, how nice he was to take her shopping. She thought of her new outfits and imagined wearing them.
    “You must quiet your mind,” she heard in her head.
    “How? How do I get rid of all these thoughts?”
    “Acknowledge the thoughts and tell them to go,” a voice deep in her mind answered. “Imagine your mind is the space between words. Just emptiness, then you will sleep.”
    This was like what her mother said when she taught meditation during yoga. But this wasn’t her mother’s voice. Kaila imagined the space between words in a sentence and focused on the emptiness. Exhausted, she welcomed the emptiness, darkness, and lack of thought. She slipped into unconsciousness.

    The night sky held a new moon; its absence akin to the emptiness of the eyes in statues. Outside, the horses whinnied in the barn.
    Darkness enveloped Kaila’s bedroom. Though the balcony doors were shut, the damask curtains rustled as they lifted. Lucy and Woofy lifted their heads. Low, guttural growls emitted deep in their throats.
    The dogs stood with lowered heads at the balcony door, growling. Outside, in the night, an owl called.
    Kaila sat up in bed. She thought she heard the rocking chair creaking on the balcony. But it couldn’t, for the night was still. Adrenaline darted through her veins, bringing her wide awake. Again the owl shrilled.
    Something was outside on that balcony right next to her bed. She could feel its unseen presence. Then, the balcony door opened. It was so dark she could not see. The dogs frantically ran outside on the balcony, growling and snapping.
    Fear invaded Kaila like fog as the balcony door opened wide. From the dark, something flew toward her, but she couldn’t discern what. Her eyes strained in horror as she flattened herself against the headboard. As it hovered over her, she saw that it was an owl. She gasped. The owl’s eyes were fiery orange with black dots as pupils. Its large round eyes fixed upon her. Once she looked, she was paralyzed. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t scream. Her heart skittered like a scurrying mouse.
    Then, the dogs on the balcony went silent. The horses quieted outside. The tree frogs and crickets went dead. Everything had gone completely silent. An odd energy filled the room. A buzzing sound filled Kaila’s ears.
    The owl’s orange eyes loomed two inches from hers, staring at her above a thin, pointed beak. Though terrified, Kaila could not move or scream. She could not break gaze with the owl, who commanded sleep.
    She tried to struggle, to fight, but could not. She fell back on her pillow, unconscious.

Chapter 4
    T he owl’s fiery orange eyes locked her, carrying Kaila from the outer world to another. Now that she was unconscious and floating in another realm, Kaila realized that the owl’s eyes were actually Jordyn’s and that it was he floating in this darkness before her. His silver bodysuit clung like a second skin to his body. They floated in vast space. A far-off star twinkled. They traveled toward that star.
    Jordyn took Kaila’s hand with his three long fingers. His hand transmitted a strange but exhilarating charge. Now, she felt no fear. She had dropped off a precipice into another place and time.
    “It’s unnatural you sleep with this wrap on your head. Take it off, you will feel more like yourself,” Jordyn said.
    Submerged in an abyss of space, Kaila was aware of her physical hand in an unseen place, removing the plastic from her head. It felt better to have her real hair loose on the pillowcase. No crinkly, suffocating plastic! It was but a flicker of a thought, and then, like water on a match, the thought extinguished as she dropped further into space.
    “We are glad we met you,” Jordyn said. His lips didn’t move; he spoke with his mind. His voice sounded deep and cavernous.
    “I feel the same,” Kaila said with her mind.
    “It’s easier and freer to communicate this way,” Jordyn said.
    She sensed