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Meg is young and it is cold, she rubs her hands across her bare arms and her breath hangs visibly in the air. The stars are above her, caught in the tapestry of night. They are her stars, she realizes, as they look down at her from the expanse of desert sky. She looks up, then over her shoulder at the two cold bodies of her parents, tangled in automobile wreckage. She’s in shock, she has to be, and the stars cradle her as she falls asleep. She is five years old.
She grows up in the system, thrown from foster home to foster home, and she carries the label of ‘B A D’. It is written on her forehead in thick, black marker and she can not get it off. She lands on the doorstep of a new orphanage, a carved star hangs above the door and it smiles down at her.
The orphanage is not the worst place that she’s ever been, but nothing can compare to the small scraps of memory that she has of her life with her parents.
She is alone, feared by the children, she does not know why. Maybe they can read the word written across her forehead, she isn’t sure, she isn’t sure if it’s even there, she might be imagining it. And then the orphanage mistress starts smoking cheap cigarettes and a small boy falls into her life.
His name is Jeremy, she learns, and he is alone. Detached is scrawled across his forehead in blocky letters. They bond over solitude and she tells Jeremy about her stars, he tells her about his smoke.
They are quite a pair and everyone fears them and it’s okay, it’s fine, they have each other, they don’t need anyone else. And the more time Meg spends with Jeremy, the more words she sees written across his body. Unbreakable is on the back of his neck, strong on his arms, beautiful across his ribs.
“I’m scared.” Jeremy says one night. They’ve snuck out to the roof and they are looking at Meg’s stars. “That they won’t love me.” Meg wraps her arm around his small frame.
“They will, Jer. You are amazing, they’d be stupid not to love you.” Jeremy leans into her side.
“But you have stars, Meg, that’s beautiful. I’ve got smoke. Mine actually kills people.” Meg winds her fingers in the younger’s hair.
“Technically, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs was a star.” Jeremy chuckles. “I love you, Jeremy. You know that, yeah? Even when I leave from here, even when I escape, I will always love you.”
“I love you, Meg. Even when you leave.” Meg looks upward to her stars and they look back down at her. She is fifteen, she has to leave soon, and she prays to a god that she doesn’t believe in for Jeremy to be okay.
She leaves in the dead of night, she is sixteen and Jeremy can be safe without her, she knows this. She lives in the alleyways like a rat, collecting and gathering and trying to survive.
She’s walking through an alley, she knows this one well, she walks through it often. And then there is someone behind her and she breaks when they grab her shoulders. She reacts in an instant, pulling the gun from where it’s tucked inside her boot and shooting the person twice. The body falls to the ground and she runs. She takes her things, her meager things, and spends what little money she has on a train ticket.
The whistle is harsh and the train thunders over the tracks in a loud lullaby. She looks outside, leaning her head against the glass. Her stars look down at the tranquil scene, smoke curls from country house chimneys and her mind flies to Jeremy. He does not know that she has killed a man. She hopes, she wishes, that Jeremy and she have switched places. Jeremy deserves the beauty that he saw written out in her stars, she deserves the death in his smoke, she is already walking down that path.
She finds the crime-infested city and she decides that she belongs there, wedging herself between the graffiti and the blank walls.
Like a termite, she burrows her way into the woodwork of the city. She puts stickers on her handgun and the childish stars steady her breathing when she shoots.
She climbs the ladder in the city, she rises up the hierarchy, getting closer and closer to her constant.
She never sees her soulmate, but she does see their calling card. She’s walking through the streets, Dollface persona fitting her like a glove, and she just happens to look down an alley. There is a body there, face down in the dirt and trash. There is blood sprayed on the walls and a spray painted star above the body. It’s a simple, five-point star, but Meg can not look away. She knows that her soulmate was there, she can feel it in her bones. Eventually the sirens drive her away from the scene.
She watches smoke from the factories curl into the night sky. It hangs around her stars in hazy picture frames and she thinks about Jeremy. She wants to know where he is. But she is dangerous and she is glad that he is not in danger.
It’s late when she sees the fireworks, exploding in stars across the evening sky. It’s her soulmate, she knows it instantly, so she drives to the mountain from where they were shot. There is a girl there, sitting on the hood of her car and she turns to look at Meg.
“You called?” Meg asks and their eyes meet. The stars seem to light up all at once.
“I did, indeed.” The girl stands and makes her way to Meg. “I’m Lindsay.”
“Meg.” She looks down at the city, lights gleaming and shifting like her stars. “You want to blow up some cars?” Lindsay grins.
“I thought you’d never ask.”
She has ruthless written across her head in loopy writing, but she also has lovely on her knuckles and caring curled over her heart.
Not long after that, Lindsay brings up the idea of forming a crew. Meg says yes, of course, and they start to build their rag-tag family.
They find their first recruit by complete accident. He runs into Lindsay on the streets and falls backward, hitting his head on the pavement. Meg recognizes his face in the dim light.
“That’s Zed.” Meg whispers, huddling closer to Lindsay. Zed was a person high up on their To Hire list. They carefully take him back to their apartment, he is much too light. Sick is written across his face in pale, careful lettering.
He wakes up on their bed.
“We want you to join our crew.” Stars light up in his eyes and Meg knows that they made the right choice.
They find out soon enough that Trevor isn’t just a crack shot. He has problems with food, this they discover after he collapses on the living room floor.
“It’s stupid.” Trevor says later, gaze fixed on his hands. “Just something I’ve never been able to shake. It doesn’t affect my work.”
“Trevor… That doesn’t matter to us. We just want you to be happy, yeah?” Trevor looks up.
“I… Thank you.” Meg nods.
“We care about you. I know, I know it’s hard to stop, but we’ll help in any way we can.” Lindsay says.
Trevor still struggles after that, and it’s not easy, but at least he makes an effort to eat regularly.
Meg finds Trevor on the roof one night, nicotine smoke obscuring her stars. It winds itself around his head as it dissipates.
“Is your constant smoke?” Meg asks and Trevor looks at her.
“Yeah.” He says, taking another drag from the cigarette.
“Have you found your soulmate?” Trevor shakes his head. “I used to know him.”
“Really?” Trevor asks, hopeful. Meg nods.
“We were at the same orphanage.” She sits down next to Trevor. “His name was Jeremy and he was my best friend.” She tells him everything that she knows and Trevor is enamoured.
He still has sick written across his cheeks, but benevolent is written along his arm and compassionate scrawls down his his spine.
It is a complete coincidence that they meet Jeremy next. Meg brings him home without a second thought. And when he wakes up, she send him up to see Trevor and cries on to Lindsay’s shoulder.
“He’s home.” She whispers. “We’re all home.”
Detached is still written on his forehead, but dedicated wraps around his throat and genuine weaves between his fingers.
“Will you join the crew?” She asks later and the stars in Jeremy’s eyes light up, she knows that she’s made the right choice.
She finds out that they’re not all there when she meets two guys in a bar. One’s chirp and happy and has suspicious written on his jawline. The other is quiet and soft and has weak-willed underneath his right eye. She learns their names, Kerry and Miles, and the bar is loud, loud enough, so she offers.
“Would you like to join my crew?” The stars in their eyes light up and she knows that she made the right choice.
Miles may have suspicious on his face, but skillful is curled around his ankle and thorough is hidden behind his ear.
Kerry might have weak-willed on his cheek, but sweet is written on his palm and unfoolable runs down his leg.
Her family is building, but something is missing.
The last piece falls into place when Lindsay brings home a For Hire criminal with the code name Tide Rising and the real name Jon. he has changed written across his forehead in wobbly lines.
“You’re joining our crew?” She asks and the stars in Jon’s eyes light up, she knows that she’s made the right choice.
He has changed on his forehead, but he has intelligent on his wrist and durable in large letter across his chest.
It is amazing and she is so happy. For the first time in far too long, she has a family. It is every bit as amazing as she remembers it.