The Hidden Luna

Chapter One

"Oh, come on, Scarlett," Zoey begs. "It's the last party we're all going to be together before we go off to college. Can you please come?"

Scarlett rolled her eyes and set her French fry back onto her plate. "Correction: everyone but me is going off to college. I'm staying here until I save up enough to pay for tuition. I'm not blowing off a shift for a party."

Zoey shook her head, her curly blonde hair swaying as she did so. "It's one shift."

Scarlett gave her friend a hard stare but when she saw that Zoey wasn't letting up, she caved. "Fine. I'll see what I can do."

Standing from her seat, Scarlett picked up her plate and headed for the back.

Leon, the owner of the diner, turned away from the grill and shot her a look. "Zoey pestering you about that party again?"

Scarlett nodded her head. He may be the owner of the diner, but he also happened to be Zoey's older brother. "She won't shut up about it."

Leon chuckled as he flipped a burger. "Yeah, I know. She keeps asking me to give you the night off."

"Please don't," she said quickly. "I want to save up as much as possible, as quickly as possible."

"Too bad," Leon states, his brown eyes looking serious. "You have the night off."

Scarlett's jaw dropped. "Leon ple-"

"With-" He held up his hand that had a metal spatula in it. "Pay. Consider your job for tonight to get my sister to shut up, yeah?"

***

A couple of hours later, Zoey and Scarlett found themselves at the party.

Scarlett swatted away a mosquito and groaned. "Why must we feed into every small town cliche? A Bush Party, really?"

"Lighten up, Scar," Zoey replied, smacking her lips together to smooth out her lipstick. "Like I said, it's our last night together for the Lord only knows how long."

Scarlett ran a hand through her mahogany-coloured hair and sighed. "You're right. I'll grab us some drinks."

Zoë shot me a smile. "You're the best."

She went over to the picnic table that was overflowing with coolers and kegs and grabbed two beers. Meanwhile, Scarlett noticed Zoey was flirting with her long-time crush, Xavier. They looked fairly enthralled with one another so she placed the second beer back in the cooler and kept the other for herself, giving them space so she could finally make her move.

Scarlett looked around the crowd, seeing if there is anyone she could pass the time with but with Zoey being preoccupied and everyone else already being ineffably drunk, her options were limited.

Rolling her shoulders, Scarlett decided to take a walk to the docks and keep to herself.

As she walked, the sounds of the party faded and she felt herself relaxing. Scarlett wasn't a fan of parties but she'd put up with them to make Zoey happy.

Slipping her shoes off, Scarlett sat on the edge of the dock, sipping her beer and scrolling through her phone. The water felt cold on her toes but it was welcomed after the heatwave they had been stuck in.

A series of screams erupted from the distance, shocking Scarlett out of her trance. Standing up quickly, she slipped her shoes back on and began to run, completely forgetting her phone on the dock.

When Scarlett reached the party, everyone was gone. Trash was everywhere, the keg was tipped over, along with all the other drinks.

Scarlett quietly moved about, trying to find Zoey. She probably ran out with Xavier. She definitely did. Scarlett didn't want to think otherwise.

She kept inspecting the scene and as soon as she decided to leave, realizing that Zoey was definitely not here anymore, Scarlett noticed a trail of blood from behind the picnic table. Following the trail, her heart picked up in pace. It felt like the more she followed the trail, the darker the sky got as the sun was almost completely set.

Soon, it was almost impossible to see. Suddenly, Scarlett tripped over something, causing her to fall into a puddle. It was warm and sticky. She looked down at her hands saw the dark red glint on them in the moonlight. No, it wasn't a puddle of water, but rather blood. Turning back to see what she had tripped over, Scarlett saw the reflection of dark red streaked through someone's curly blonde hair.

She crawled over to them, feeling her heart pulsing in every part of her body, causing her hands to shake. When Scarlett saw the person's face, she let out a sob and clapped her bloody hand to her mouth to keep the noise of her cries from travelling, just in case whoever did this was still out there.

When Scarlett thought she had enough composer, she checked their wrist to find a pulse.

There was none. All there was, was blood all over the forest floor and a giant hole where Zoey's heart should be.

Before she could stop herself, Scarlett let out a scream.