The Circle of Stars
Madison Siwak
With only the light from the full moon and her memory to guide her, the young woman slipped between the rocks. She was careful not to slip off the rocks or to get caught sneaking through the cove, because both mistakes would result in her death. She had made her way through this mysterious path nearly a dozen times, but every time she wondered if it would be her last. The dark water roaring beneath her could very well be her grave if she wasn’t careful.
She tightened her cloak around her and shifted the pack strapped to her back, making sure it was still there. If she lost the pack, there would be no light for the Circle to work by. The others would blame her for a lost night and she would be scorned by her brother. As that thought crossed her mind, she scoffed and kept trekking towards her destination.
Her destination was a hidden cave, nearly two miles from the public edge of the docks. She had discovered it several years back, when she ran away from her mother’s cruel words. The memory of getting caught flashed through her mind as she climbed over a particularly jagged rock. She had been followed by an officer which had resulted in her very first escape. She had never forgotten the cave. It was lucky she hadn’t forgotten her very first hideaway, because she couldn’t think of another place the Circle could possibly work.
The entrance to the cave appeared in her vision and she sighed in relief. She could feel a storm brewing and she had wanted to reach the cave before it struck. With a nimble hop, she jumped from higher ground to the lower ledge of the cave. She teetered for a moment, regained her balance, and carefully made her way into the dark cave.
She walked in the darkness for a minute before stopping to open her pack and pull out one of her candles and a match. With an expert hand she lit the match and put the flame to the candle. As she held the candle out to see, she nearly screamed when she saw her brother leaning against the cave wall.
Shadows danced across his thin face as he smirked at her. His brown hair was tied in its usual tail, his dark eyes flickered with their standard brilliance, and his mouth was twisted in the smirk that he reserved for his younger sister.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed, taking a step back. With a slightly shaky hand she set the candle down and reached to light another one. The Leo - that’s what he was called in the Circle - simply shrugged one shoulder.
His voice was its usual, condescending rasp. “I’m here for my meeting.”
His plan was the reason she did all that work. It was her childhood dream come to life and since it was illegal, it was all the more exciting. The Circle of Stars was put together to construct a flying machine, to fly out and away from the city. In a city where flying was forbidden, there was no way to escape except by ship, and that wasn’t going to work. Ordinary civilians weren’t permitted to board ships. Besides, sailing away had been done by a handful of rouges. Flying away had never been done.
The name for their group had been the Leo’s idea. He had spent the last few years digging up anything he could about the old mythology and beliefs, which had been about the Star Signs and everything they stood for. Of course, that had been all been banned many years ago, which made it the perfect thing to name their little group after. They were all named for the ancient Sign they had born under, making Enigma the Libra. The scales, the balance, which made sense to her. She seemed to balance out everyone in this mismatched group.
As the minutes crawled by, the remaining members of the Circle showed up. The first one to do so was the Capricorn, who was a rouge soldier, and then the Pisces showed up. The Pisces was the first one she recruited, because she knew him personally. He was the son of a legendary cat burglar and he’d been dubbed the Prince of Thieves. The Libra deeply respected him, though she would never say that out loud.
The entire Circle was now here. The Libra finished untying the plans and she handed them out to their respective members. They took them silently and began their work throughout the cave. The Libra studied them all carefully, watching them do their work. It was interesting to observe them and see how they were contributing to this insane project. The Aquarius was scribbling out calculations, with the Scorpio peering over her shoulder. The Capricorn was talking quietly with the Pisces and the female soldier was scowling as the thief prince gestured with his hands. The Leo was reading something, leaning against the wall, his feet crossed causally. This was how these meeting usually were and the Libra wondered if anything more was going to be accomplished tonight.
They had already had five meetings, which always took place under a full moon, meaning they had been at this for five months. The Libra had wondered from the very start how long this flying machine was going to take to build. Just as she was thinking this, the Capricorn spoke.
The soldier ran a hand through her curly red hair and asked, “How many times are we supposed to meet for this, eh?”
From his place against the wall, the Leo raised his eyebrows. “It depends on how diligently everyone works. This could take months, years perhaps.”
The Pisces exclaimed, “Years? Are you insane?”
“Please, Pisces, you didn’t think this would take just a couple meetings? This is a serious and a difficult project.”
personal lives, and no one would bother another member of the Circle. The only person that knew everyone’s names and business was the Libra. Even the Leo had never asked her about the members of his group.
The storm started to pick up speed outside and the wind wailed its way into the cave. The Libra wandered to the mouth of the cave to peer outside. This was a bad storm, with the ocean angrily lapping at the rocks and the wind practically screaming. As she glanced up at the sky she saw that the sky was nearly completely covered with dark clouds. She watched the thick clouds float past the shining moon and then it cover it completely. Now they didn’t have the moonlight to work by.
With a sigh, she walked back to the group. Her cloak fluttered behind her as the wind nipped at her as she said, “I don’t think we’ll be getting out of here anytime soon. The storm’s getting bad.”
The Leo waved his hand carelessly. “That’s a good thing. Staying later means more work being accomplished.”
At this, the Scorpio snorted. “Leo, some of us have things to do in the morning. Actual jobs we need to show up for.”
“You’re a low-level builder. No one will care if you’re a few minutes late for work.”
The Scorpio’s amber eyes flashed, but he didn’t reply. The Libra felt bad for the builder, because it wasn’t his fault no one could win an argument with her brother. She went over to the Scorpio and gently touched his arm. He jerked back at the contact, his arm falling away from her touch. Frowning, she said quietly, “Don’t take it personally.”
He stiffly nodded but didn’t say anything. The Libra turned away from him and looked at her brother with her lips pursed. He was currently looking over the Aquarius’s work but he looked up and met her stony gaze. The Leo raised one eyebrow and for a second, the Libra thought she saw a flicker of regret in his eyes. Then it was gone and she looked away, feeling disappointed.
Just then, the Pisces cleared his throat and the Libra thought he was going to say something. He hesitated for a second and in that second, a fierce gust of wind blew through the cave. It blew out all the candles and sent them in total darkness. The Libra was startled, because this was eerily dark. She could usually see well in darkness, but right now she was blind.
“No one move,” she said, though her voice nearly cracked when she spoke. She swallowed. “If we move, we might step on something.”
“When can we move?” the Aquarius asked from an undermined location.
“When the moon comes back out.”
As soon as the Libra finished her sentence, the storm really picked up. The only thing they could hear was the wails of the wind and the waves crashing against the rocky cove. It was louder than any storm the Libra had ever heard and she wondered if it was a sign from above. She practically held her breath as the tempest outside raged on and the darkness remained. She couldn’t hear anything but the storm and her own breathing. She didn’t know if the others had moved, because she couldn’t see or hear them.
It seemed like an eternity passed before the storm began to die down. The howls subsided and the first sliver of moonlight peeked through the clouds. Several more minutes passed before the clouds started to pass away from the moon. The moonlit lit the cave dimly and the Libra could make out the members of the group. They were standing still in their various spots in the cave, but it was still difficult to see anything else.
“Does anyone have the matches?” the Pisces inquired lowly.
The Libra reached around for her pack and pulled it off her back. She flipped it open and dug around, trying to feel for the matches. Her fingers closed around them and she hastily pulled them out. She reached out to grab an exhausted candle and as quickly as she could, she struck a flame. The Libra held the candle out to give out more light, but she nearly dropped the candle in horror.
Lying limply on the ground was the Leo, his throat slit in a deep red slash. As the light illuminated him, the members of the Circle gasped in near unison. The Libra gaped at her older brother, frozen to the bone with shock. It wasn’t possible. He wasn’t dead, he couldn’t possibly have been killed. Someone hadn’t slit his throat. There was no way that could have happened.
The first one to snap out of their shock was the Capricorn. She shakily stepped over to the Leo and bent down, touching his forehead with one finger. The soldier used her other hand to search for a pulse and the Libra’s heart nearly stopped when the other girl announced, “He’s dead.”
The Leo, the leader and mastermind behind The Circle of Stars, was no more. He had somehow been murdered right under their noses and with them being the only people in the cave…it had to have been one of them. The remaining five realized this at the same time and they all warily looked at one another.
The lighting was still dim, but now the Libra could see perfectly. She could see the Pisces, the Capricorn, the Aquarius, and the Scorpio in this broken darkness. Now they were more than mere members of an illegal genius club. They were all suspects in her brother’s murder.
She glared at each one of them and they all glared back. No one had moved from their spot from before the storm and she had no way of knowing who killed the Leo. Suddenly, as if they could read each other’s minds, all four of them backed up towards the entrance. Then they turned and ran out, not even bothering to grab any of their things. They just scampered away like measly little mice.
Maybe they thought she killed the Leo.
But it hadn’t been her. It had been one of them and she was going to find out which one. Everything in the Libra’s mind stilled as she went to kneel beside him. She set the candle down and brushed her hand against his forehead. His throat was still bleeding and his brown skin had gone ashen, but he was still fairly warm.
He had never been her favorite person in the world. Often, she hated him. But he was still her brother and she would make sure he didn’t die without his killer paying. He had given her many things, though it sometimes could be hard to find them. He had reached out to her. Almost no one but the Leo had reached out to her, in her twenty years of life.
“Matthew,” she murmured his given name. “I’ll find them.”
Everything had changed in the blink of an eye. The project was done for, the other members couldn’t be trusted, and she was once again by herself. All of the Circle members had reasons for killing her brother. It was up to her to track them down and find out who brought the Leo down.
The stupid stars hadn’t aligned in the ways she had hoped, but she could work with it. She was the Libra, she was Enigma, and she was Marion Malone. Perhaps with some luck, she would be able to catch a killer. After all, she was one of the best cat burglars in the entire city.
“That’s it,” she said loudly, standing up. “That’s all it is.”
This…this was simply a game of cat and mouse.
She was the cat. They were the mice.
The search, or rather the hunt, had begun.
Winner of the 2015 Spooky Story Contest
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