Rigel's Story

In the city of Universia a mother had a baby but she didn’t want anyone to know she had a baby so dumped the baby in a dark, cold alley. The baby who had a poor immune system got sick and got a fever and heated up. The baby who was crying caught the attention of the galactic police came over to investigate, “Well, what do we have here.” The officer said as he gazed upon the baby, “let’s get you to the orphanage.” The officer drove the baby to the Proto Home for orphans and dropped him off, “hey Ma’am I found this baby in an alley, please take good care of it.” The staff member the officer was talking to nodded her head and took the baby and put it into a bed kissed its forehead and said, “may the God of stars guide you and lead you to righteousness.”

15 years later….

“Come on Rigel!”

“I know, hey, cut over Newton Ave. and I'll meet you there!"

Halley nods and takes off, I hear the blare of sirens right behind me. I jump through a funnel of apogee tubing and slip into an alley catching my breath until I hear the sirens fade, I jog the block to Newton Ave. where I see Halley waiting, I see the worry turn into relief as she sees me. "Thank the stars you are alright." She sighs, motioning me to carry on, "we have to get back to Proto before the star guard Zenith realizes we are gone." I nod and we jog along the backways of the neighborhood, the whole time I'm thinking how in the stars did I get Halley Comet to be my best friend? I'm a horrible influence. I steal, I was in juvie a couple times, I hang out with some of the worst druggies in our neighborhood, I sometimes do drugs myself, a little hydrogen here and there and when I'm feeling really down helium, lots and lots of helium. What can I say it makes me feel better, stronger, more in control of myself. I sigh and shake my head to clear it, I realize I've fallen behind so I sprint to catch up, we get to the back of the Home and climb up the fire escape and crawl through a window. Sitting in a chair in the corner of the room is Herschel, the worst pain in my behind since I can remember, he thinks he's so big and bad....Which he is he has the best drugs in the whole home ones I couldn't even think of getting but I want to try.

“What in the bloody heck were ye guys doin'?!" He says in a heavy accent as he smokes a pipe with carbon in it, "None of your business Herschel," Halley snaps. "Oooooo, the wee little princess is actually quite fiesty isn't she now?" He purrs as he gets up from his chair walking toward us, Halley rolls her eyes and clenches her teeth. "Ease up will ya?" I say quickly, He looks me in the eye clenches his jaw and backs up again taking his position on the chair, I look him over, you can see the muscles bulging underneath his thin black t-shirt. He isn't that tall, he's tall but his muscles make him look taller than he is, I easily pass him up but there's something about his build that makes him so much more menacing. Halley and I walk out of the room and down the stairs toward the foyer, where Zenith the star guard duty is sitting in his usual spot reading a book, he waves a hand toward us without looking up. I feel this itch in my throat and I know I need something, "I need to use the bathroom." I tell Halley, she looks at me and has this pain look in her eyes, she knows I use drugs and alcohol but she doesn't like it. "Don't get started," I sternfully tell her, even though her look hits me in the gut and it feels like a thousand fists beating on my diaphram, her looks get me like that. I walk into the bathroom close and lock the door behind me and slides my back down the wall so I'm in a sitting position. I get out my hydrogen needle out and I let out a sigh of relief as I feel it flow inside of me. Then a wave of depression washes over me, I

sniff and stop the tears that threaten to fall over my cheeks, I need to stop this but I can't it's like a cycle, something I need to do, before when I tried not doing it I got so weak and sick....I got so feverish, I was admitted to the Milky Way Mental hospital for a month. They had put me on all these UV meds, like; Methane, Gamma rays, Star dust, and even Ozone fluids which I don't even know why I needed Ozone fluids. I was knocked out of my thoughts by Halley knocking on the door and asking 'Am I alright', I opened the door. "I'm fine", I say, "I just wanted to make sure." She says, I get lost in her whole person, her icy pale blue hair, rusty red brown eyes, rosy red cheeks, pale milky skin. So beautiful....I smile softly "I promise I'm okay." I reassure her, even though....I know I'm not okay, not close to fine. I walk pass her to the stairs and head back up to the room.

"Yer back a'ready?" Herschel sneers at Halley, "couldn't stay way from me manliness?" He flexes his muscles. She ignores him and climbs into her bed. I climb into mine, the next morning I wake up and my whole body aches, I go to the mirror and look at myself, holy crap....I'm taller, I'm buffer, I blink my eyes in shock. I throw on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans, and go to walk out the door but my eyes travel to the baggie of carbon on Herschel's bedside table. I grab it, slip it in my pocket and run out the door, Halley is at the kitchen table eating breakfast with the other kids of Proto, they all look at me, Herschel's mouth falls open cereal and milk spilling out and his spoon clatters on the table. "What kend of drugs ded yea get in ta?" He sputters, Zenith the star guard shoots him a look and says "he probably is going through puberty, you just don't remember puberty because you went through it at like 5." Everyone bursts out laughing, Safina who is a little younger than me pipes up, "I think he looks good." She makes gushy eyes at me, I look down, my face red.

"Well," Zenith says, "I'm going to the intermarket, please don't hurt each other bad." He looks at Herschel as he says this. He walks out the door, and as soon as I see his green car leave, I pull out some carbon and put it in my own pipe and start to smoke. "Where ye get that carbon from, Rachel?" "Its Rigel and I bought it." Okay that was a lie and he knew it but he didn't say a word, just narrowed his eyes at me and clenched his jaw. "Are you going to eat?" Asks Halley, nodding toward my empty chair with a bowl on the table, I then realize that I'm so hungry. I nod and grab the apple asteroids and fill my bowl up all the way, then pour some mars milk and start inhaling. After about 3 bowls of cereal I'm at full energy, "see ya." I say as I get out of my chair and run out the door toward the old Earth museum. I go to this abandoned crap hole because...It's a mysterious, but interesting crap hole, it's where I go to think about life, its purpose, my purpose. I don’t think I have a purpose, I mean my bio parents didn’t think I had a purpose….That’s why they dumped me in an alley, left me for dead. I pull a flask of this whiskey called nuclear fusion, it’s really strong, and I mean really strong. I empty the flask and almost gag,

I get up and walk out of the museum staying on a path that leads to the drug neighborhood to visit my friends. I see Fizz, Lin, Harry, and Chase sitting on a picnic bench smoking helium, “hey guys.” They nod at me and throw me a bottle of lunar beer. I sit on the bench and chug a drink, “Ahhhhh, delicious. So how are you guys?” I ask, “Um, well Rigel,” Chase says, “we have been thinking and….Well, we don’t want you hanging out with us anymore, you are too young….” “Wait, what….I’m only a year younger than you!” I throw the bottle of lunar on the ground it shatters. I storm off staggering as I go, I burst into Proto and slam the door I stomp up the stairs and into my room. I pull the carbon, helium, and hydrogen out of my pocket. I take a small bowl from underneath my bed. I dump a little bit of hydrogen, helium, and carbon in the bowl and mix it with a little spoon I found. I use a straw and sniff it and it makes me feel so strong, my whole body starts shaking, I know what I’m going to call it….Nitrogen. I shove it in a baggie and hide it under my bed. I stumble down the stairs and find Halley sitting on the couch, I’m so out of it, so high, and drunk. I grab her face and kiss her, “I love you Halley Comet.”

She looks surprised and says, “you are drunk Rigel, you don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do.”

“No you don’t.”

“Halley, I’m serious I mean it.”

She shakes her head, “Halley, I love you, I’ve always loved you, and I always will. You are there for me every time I need you, you are my best friend.” My voice breaks and I start to cry, “I don’t know what I would do without you, I’d….I’d kill myself.” By now, I’m sobbing my head resting on her lap, She sets her hands on my head stroking my hair. And before I fall asleep on her lap I hear her say, “but I don’t love you.” I wake up on the couch, tears stained on my cheeks, depression is over me like a thick blanket. I see Halley sitting across from me with a person I don’t know, I sit up. “Rigel, this is Denib….My boyfriend.” Halley says hesitantly, she looks so pitiful….Sorry for me. “Hello, Rigel.” Denib says with a smile flashing his straight teeth. He has rusty brown eyes as well, and so blonde-almost-white hair. “H-hi,” I stutter. I look down so they can’t see that I’m choking on tears. “I-I-I-I need to go.” I say my voice breaks. “Nice meeting you….Denib.” I run out the door, run to the top of Brahe Hill and scream at the top of my lungs, "WHY ME!?!? WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SCREW ME OVER!?!?" I collapse in a ball shaking. I walk to Craters, a pizza place in town, I go behind the dumpster they have in the back and knock on the door of a shack that's there. The door opens, "Yes?" Asks a man in gray sweatpants. "Do you have any new drugs?" I ask desperately, "as a matter of fact I do. It's called oxygen, its very strong and very effective. And when you are ready, you can mix it with carbon and you get this super drug called Iron, but don't mix it UNTIL you are for SURE you are ready. You here me?" I nod, and take the baggie he had picked up as he was talking. I walk away, and as I walk away I make the decision to walk away from Halley....From Proto, from everyone. I don't go back to Proto that night. I sleep in Solar park that night under the sky lit up by planets, I only had one friend, Halley Comet....And I blew it, I'm nothing now I let my feelings for her get to me and now I have no one. I take the baggie of oxygen out of my pocket, these are capsules with powder in them, the directions on the baggie which are hand written say to take 1....I take 5 of them. I get so drowsy, and then I finally fall asleep. I wake up to being shaken by Halley who is screaming in my face, "get up, you are so pathetic Rigel you look like crap, what has it been? Like a week since you actually took a shower!?! And why are you messing with this scum?!?!" She waves the baggie of oxygen in my face. "I thought you were better than that!!!! But you are just like Herschel!!!!" She spit out his name like its poison. I get up and start yelling back, "I've tried so hard but it just isn't worth it, I'll always be like this Halley. FACE IT. I was always destined to be a scumbag just like Herschel!!!! You are my best friend NOT MY MOTHER, I don't have a mother so stop acting like one!!!! I'm DONE, I'm DONE with YOU, DONE with PROTO, I'M DONE WITH LIFE AT THIS POINT....I'VE DISAPPOINTED EVERYONE SO WHY EVEN BOTHER TRYING ANYMORE!?!?! I'M WORTHLESS!!!! I WISH THAT THE GALACTIC POLICE DIDN'T EVEN FIND ME YOU KNOW WHY???? BECAUSE EVERYONE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF WITHOUT ME!!!!" By the time I'm done yelling my voice went hoarse, my face was as red as Jupiter's red spot, and....And, Halley was crying, words were flying out of her mouth but I couldn't make out what they were because of the sobs, and I could tell they weren't good. I turned away so I wouldn't start crying because I felt so bad, I've never really yelled at her out of anger before. I felt worse then before I was yelling. I started walking away, and she said, "what have you done to yourself, you used to be this bright person....Happy all the time, laughed, made smart funny remarks. But all you do now is become distant all the time, you never laugh anymore, you don't even use a real smile. I don't know what to do anymore Rigel, I want you to be happy but I don't know what to do to make you happy." At this I turned around still angry but not as angry. "You know what you can do to make me happy? You really want to know?" She nodded, "Let me die off, I don't want to be here anymore, I want to die....I want to kill myself. That would make me happy, okay?" She has a look of shock on her face, I turn around and run away before she has a chance to even react. I go to this abandoned railway, there is glass by the crossway, I grab it out of pure anger which had clouded my mind and jab it into my wrist, the pain makes me forget about what had just happened with Halley, I drag it so it makes a big gash in my arm. I'm done, I chuck the glass at a stop sign. I take some oxygen out of my pocket, I don't even count how many, I just grab a handful, shove them into my mouth and swallow. I'm done caring, feeling, even knowing. I'm done. I take the rest of the oxygen and open the capsules, and put some carbon in each one of them. "Finally, what I've always wanted," I whisper. I swallow them. And I count all of them, 10 pills. I get up and walk back to Proto, and into the bathroom, on my way back I picked up another piece of glass. I run a bath and walk out of the room to go see what everyone else is doing. They are all sitting in front of the TV watching a show, except Halley, she's distant. She notices me there. I wave at her and she notices the huge gash on my arm, her eyes go wide. I realize what she's looking at....Dang it. I run back to the bathroom, I hear right behind me, but I turn and shove her back, not hard, but gently so she gets pushed back. "Don't do this she." She whispers, well practically begs. "No, I'm going to do it, I'm ready....." "Please, just sleep it off." I try to say no but she kisses me, and grabs my hand. She pulls me into the bedroom, and puts me to bed, she then lays next to me and holds my hand, "it will get better." Is the last thing I hear before I fall asleep. I wake up, my skin crawling, I look at the clock, it's 2:00 o'clock in the morning, I feel even more depressed, I go to the bathroom. Someone must have emptied the tub because there's nothing in it, I look at myself in the mirror, I'm all skin and bone, there dark circles under my eyes, my hair is matted. I look like crap, and I mean literally like a pile of crap. I have no more energy, I fill the tub again. The water looks so welcoming, so warm, like it could solve all my problems. I go to take some more of the capsules with oxygen and carbon in it called iron but I accidentally drop them in the water. They fizz and the water turns into this welcoming swirl of toxic looking colors, I sit there letting them intrigue me. They hypnotize me a little, my skin starts crawling, I start itching it doesn't help, I dig deeper at my skin, drawing blood. I start feeling pain from the crawling, I dig into my skin desperately trying to stop the itching. It hurts so bad, I just want to end the itching and the pain, and the ability to disappoint anyone. I climb into the tub, the toxic water burns my skin. I'm still trying to itch, so I get that piece of glass I had and dig at my skin with that, the tub turns red with no more colors. I stop feeling itchy, and the dig of my skin and the blood feels good, I do it all over until I look over and see myself in the full length wall mirror, I look like a bloody mess. Blood drips and then runs out everywhere. I feel the water drawing more and more blood out as I sink further into the water, I go under and....I pass out.

Rigel sadly kills himself in the bathtub, he wasn't feeling itchy it was a hallucination. He wasn't ready for the Iron, the itching he thought he felt was the Iron being absorbed into his blood making his blood flow faster. And the burning sensation he felt was actually the feeling of him almost blowing up from the inside out.

Halley:

I wake up at around 4 o'clock in the morning, and realize that Rigel isn't next to me

I shoot out of bed, and before I could stop it, sobs were coming out of my mouth. I run downstairs, quickly but quietly not wake anyone and rush to the bathroom. The door opens with barely a push and I come upon Rigel....Dead in the bathtub. My throat closes up, and my eyes burn. I sob uncontrollably, "Why, why, why?!?!?" I whisper. I run upstairs and wake up Herschel, "What in the bloody freakin' solar system are yo---" He stops when he wakes up more and hears me crying. "What happened princess??" He whispers as I crash into his arms sobbing into his chest. "R-r-r-r-igel." I make out within choppy breaths as I cry. He jumps out of bed, "where Halley?" I point toward downstairs. He grabs my hand and shoots downstairs faster than I had ever seen, "bathroom." I squeak. He stops in front of the bathroom and walks in and almost immediately scrambles backwards and falls over. "Bloody hell." He whispers. "Why'd he do this? Do this to you?" He looks at me and pulls me into a hug and I start sobbing harder. He sits there rubbing my hair with his chin resting on my head.

Rigel becomes the permanent black hole in Halley's heart that will stay with her always. Rigel's death motivates Herschel to quit drugs and alcohol for good. Herschel is now Halley's protector and lover. Herschel changed drastically after the unfortunate event that happened, he became kinder, more caring, and loving. Let's just say Rigel's death did have some good come out of it, without Rigel's death, Herschel would have been killed in a drive by shooting because he messed with the wrong gang. And Halley would have married that snotty Denib, who only wanted Halley as a trophy wife.

Coming soon....Halley Comet and Herschel Squinn: A love story.