Blood Moon

Chapter Twenty - Ashes

Albie woke; aching, bleeding and with a pounding headache from the Bob the Builder theme tune. There was a coldness beside her in bed and as she turned to face it her eyes widened at the sight of her sword. That meant... how had it not been a nightmare?

She gave a satisfied sigh, as she remembered the battle. The creature, Albie, had defeated it and in a hella badass way as well. As the other details from the dream flooded in, Albie shivered. The not-Lilo had moved with such a uncharacteristic direction, their voice too had been terribly cold.

Nina was in danger.

So, wrapping the sword in a spare t-shirt she stuffed it into her rucksack and ran down the stairs three steps at a time. The day was annoyingly cheerful as she struggled to haul her bike out of the shed, her muscles groaning after the events of the night. It didn't seem fair to ache from dream running.

Only when she saw smoke rising from the bottom of the hill did her heart sink. She had been through so much, defeated so much. Albie was not willing to consider she could be too late.

Whether or not she was willing to consider it or not though. The cottage, her favourite place in the whole world, was nothing but ash. She dumped her bike in the hedge and slowly now approached the ruin.

There would be no returning Lilo to her body, no saving Nina. The sword in her bag weighed down like a chain and it took all Albie's strength not to collapse. For a whole year she had lived off morsels of sleep, a whole year the creature had played with her. Albie had finally won and now this.

Something moved in the remains but Albie stayed still. Distantly, she supposed the not-Lilo was now coming for her. Then she properly looked at the thing and for the first time in days, a smile teased at the edge of her lips.

Though blurry, it was definitely the shape of Nina knelt on the ground, her fuzzy hair indistinguishable against the backdrop of grey smoke. Albie felt rather embarrassed to have assumed Nina would need a knight to save her. In fact, though Albie would have never admitted it, she was almost scared of the figure as she ran across the burning ash to Nina's spot.

Nina looked at her and at the same moment as Albie saw the tears welling in her eyes it began to rain. The kind of droplets that soaked in seconds. The ground went cool.

For a moment, Albie hovered as Nina's eyes held her gaze. So much had happened and for the first time, they had not gone through it together. Albie was so tired and so she just chose a spot and sat letting the rain soak her.

Nina did not stop looking at her but neither made a move any closer. At that moment nothing felt more exhausting than to try and understand what had happened and so they just sat.

In the distance Lilo watched the two. She wondered if Nina had stopped loving her yet. It was certain she was no longer an eighteen year old with a passion for trees. The girl Lilo had loved had burnt in the fire and she was unsure if she loved the girl who sat in the ash. She was still in awe of her though, this Nina seemed very strong.

After all, the three girls who went into the forest on the blood moon couldn't have fought the end of the world. But this queen, her witch and she - the spy. Well they could stand a chance. Lilo's human vessel was only ash but she was no longer lost.

***

"Hey, just to check you're not some shell too, what's my favourite movie?" Nina, some colour returned to her face, sat on Albie's floor steaming hot chocolate in hand. Her hair was covered in a towel and her jumper had boofed due to the two hot water bottles beneath. Two weeks ago there would have been no end of pregnant jokes.

Albie lay on her belly in bed, facing Nina. "Twilight and you should frankly be more ashamed, my favourite colour?"

Nina gave a soft smile. "Black but I think that was just to piss Lilo off."

Their smiles faded, the name had an unhappy kind of power now.

Albie lay on her belly facing Nina. "I think we've both got some explaining to do, who wants to start?"

Nina took a long swig of hot chocolate. "You can."

"It's a long story, do you want to see my sword though?"

Nina's hysterical laughter echoed through the small room, "It sounds like a bad dick joke Albie."

Ok, so perhaps not too much had changed.