The Sky Watcher: Midnight (part one)

“Lena!” My mom called. “Hurry up! You’re going to make us late!”

“Sorry! I’m almost done!” I shouted down the stairs. Our church started at five forty-five in the evening on Sundays, and I was not ready. I went back to raking my WetBrush through my long, white blonde, wavy hair. “Stupid hair,” I muttered. I liked it much better when it was nice and short, but my mom wanted me to grow it out. I grew it out, all right. It’s almost down to my hips now.

I flung the brush into my closet and quickly did my makeup. My MP3 player blaring stopped blaring radio music in my ears; a man's voice replaces Sabrina Carpenter's. Eh. I don't like that song anyway. I quickly stop the radio, not wanting to hear the man talk, either. Something about a space rock. Boring stuff like that.

“Lena Faith Rogers!" My dad shouted.

Uh-oh. I peek around the corner, down the stairs. “Yessir?” I asked meekly, my slight Texan accent coming out more than usual.

“Why didn’t you do the dishes when I told you to?”

“I—Er, I forgot…” I said, squirming. That made him mad, because every time I told him that I forgot something, he took it as an excuse to get out of trouble. My dad, Chris Rogers, worked as a police officer. You never want to get on his bad side.

He shook his head and sighed. “Lena, you have to be more responsible! You’re the oldest! This is the fourth time that you’ve ‘forgotten’ something this week!”

“Sorry, okay, I won’t.” I paused. “I mean, I will.”

“Well, you can do the dishes when you get back. If this happens again, you’re grounded from your books.” He glanced to the side. “Aaron, don’t forget your Bible!” Aaron’s my ten year old brother. Dad looked back up at me. “Come on, we’re about to leave.”

I nodded and dashed back into my room and into my messy closet. I snatched up my dark red converses and rapidly stuffed them on my feet.

After quickly checking myself in the mirror, I grabbed my Bible and my laptop and ran down the stairs, barely keeping myself from tripping.

I headed to our minivan and hopped in. As soon as I did, I opened my laptop and started to type away. Rowanna couldn’t believe her eyes. She had taken the long way to school; the way that passed the Dirksons’ walnut orchard and went down Marigold Drive. She—

“You’re writing something different now?!” asked my annoying thirteen-year-old sister, Harper, looking at my laptop’s screen. I tilted it away from her.

“For your information—” I began. “—no, I already said that this is the same book!”

“Seems like you’ve been stuck on page two for a really long time.”

I ignored her and resumed writing until we pulled into the church parking lot.

“Is there youth group today?” I asked Mom.

She looked at me with exasperation. “How am I supposed to know that? You're the fourteen-year-old.”

I was going to be a freshman next year. “Well, it’s almost summer, and you know that they take off then, so I wasn’t sure.”

“Go check. I bet they’ll be there.” Dad said as he grabbed his Bible and hurried towards the church. He must have something to do, I thought. Sometimes he acted as a security guard for the church or led the parents’ Sunday school, but I don’t know why he would have to rush to either of those; we weren’t late.

I got out of the car—after sliding my laptop under my seat…I didn’t like leaving it in the van at all, really, even though we always locked the doors—and headed to the big room where my youth group met.

Teenagers usually swarmed around the room, eating breakfast food, talking, and playing some games we had, like our arcade games, ping-pong, carpet ball, but today everyone was gathered around the TV. I spotted Taylor Collins, my best friend. She had long, light brown hair and unique gray-blue eyes with a tinge of green in them.

“Hi,” I called, walking over to her.

“Hey!” She replied, not taking her eyes off the television.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“The news dude is talking about a meteor heading straight for Earth.”

“Really? Did they say where it’s going to land?”

“No, they haven’t said.” She popped an M&M in her mouth and offered me some.

“I wonder if—” Suddenly, the ground rumbled. The TV and the lights blinked off.

“What was that?” One of my other friends, Violet, ran towards where me and Taylor were sitting. She straightened her baseball cap. “Sounded almost like an earthquake!”

“I’m going outside to see if a tree fell or something,” I said, inching out of the crowd.

“Be careful!” Another girl in my grade, Cassie, called.

I gasped when I opened the door leading outside. All around the church, deep fractures appeared in the ground, caving in buildings and knocking over trees. I backed away and hurtled through the door, slamming it behind me on accident when the ground shook again.

“GUYS!” I shouted. “LOOK!”

Taylor stared out the door, her face pressed to the glass. “What. The. Heck. Is. Happening.”

I heard the television glitch back on. “Get to your safe place! Take cover—repeat, take cover! This is serious—” It cut out for a second. “—unbelievable—” Static. “—shattered!”

With a giant crash, a chunk of the ceiling fell to the floor. The room erupted into chaos.

A second later, the ground rumbled again, much stronger this time. I felt something strange; sort of lightweight and a little dizzy.

Then everything stopped. The ceiling stopped crumbling and the ground stopped cracking. I looked around. People picked themselves up off the floor, looking dazed. I walked unsteadily towards the door, which is now hanging ajar on one hinge.

The earthquake stopped, I thought. It’s over.

But it wasn’t over.

I gasped.

Yes, the ground around the church stopped cracking.

But, on all sides about twenty feet from the walls of the building, the ground was completely gone.

I have been asking Berri about the Warrior of the Second Star. Berri, as always, told me not to meddle in business that’s not mine. But everyone speaks so highly of this fighter! And I believe that it is my business if they are to free us from the Nightness.