Sun, Moon and Stars

Chapter one

"Where am I?" I reach my hand up to my face to rub my eyes, there's something on them, something cold and dry in most parts but still wet in others. I try to open my eyes but it's blurry. My vision is obscured, I'm started to panic, "where am I? What am I covered in?" My vision slowly starts to come back, I sit up too fast, and my head starts spinning. Calm down and breathe! my inner voice is yelling at me. I can finally see more clearly than before; I look around to see where I am. I'm in a room, it's dimly lit and there isn't much furniture apart from a sofa that's half ripped, I'm on the floor, its cold and concrete. I look to my left and see a door, a huge steel door with one lock. I go to stand up and feel the stickiness on my hands when I touched the floor, forgetting about whatever it was that I was covered in. I look down at my hands.... My heart stops, a lump forms in my throat, my eyes begin to water... "OMG!, What the fuck is this!? Is this blood?!" I see a mirror in the corner of the room, jumping up as quick as I can I run to it, please don't be blood. Please don't be blood. I get to the mirror and see myself, it's everywhere, it's on my face and is matted in my now blood-stained blonde hair, I try to get it off of me but I'm just spreading around and making it worse. Thinking in my head that this isn't real, it's a nightmare and I'm going to wake up any moment. I instantly look for somewhere to clean myself up, I don't know why but I feel compelled to wash it off. Looking around the cold and dark room that I woke up in, I try to find something familiar, I try to open the door, but it's locked tight. There is nothing, just a sofa and a mirror, I start banging on the door. " HELLO! HELP! IS ANYONE THERE?!". Nobody answers. I start to freak out, I pace the small room, starting to feel claustrophobic. "Are the walls closing in?" My inner voice is not being as helpful as I would like right now. I notice something on the walls, I can't quite see what it is, but it looks like lines, as I get closer to the wall, I see it, scratches on the walls, some are small and close together and some are huge, deep and spaced far apart. I touch the wall where the smaller scratches are indented "are these human hands?", matching them to my fingers, I run them along the wall, "it's cold". Suddenly I hear something outside the door, loud bangs and talking maybe? I can't distinguish it, it gets closer and louder, I can hear my heartbeat through my ears, I'm so scared, I look around for a weapon, anything will do at this point, but I see nothing. What sounds like bolts and locks on the doors start to echo as someone opens it, I find myself getting into a fighting stance, I'm a small woman and wouldn't consider myself the strongest but I won't back down from a fight and quite clearly since flight is out of the question then fight is my only option. The door swings open and I go to throw hands without whoever was on the other side of the door, as I clench my fist and lift my hand in the air I slowly put my hand down, tears fill my eyes and I am in disbelief when I saw who it was, my heart sank as I whisper the words.... "Mom?". She has a scared look on her face, it's clear that she has been crying but so many questions are going through my head right now and the first one that I find myself asking is "Where am I?". My Mom just looks at me and says "Honey, let's get you out of here first and I'll explain everything" "Out of here? Where is here?!" I yell. Suddenly I notice something behind her, something tall and broad. I realise that the figure behind her is a man, he looks familiar, but I'm not focused on much right now but to get out if here and have my questions answered. I don't remember much when I finally got back home, I just wanted to have a shower and get this blood off me. I try to go round in my head from what I remember last night. I remember that I was out with Maddie, we went to that Galaxy club that everyone has been raving about lately, we'd had a couple of drinks, but Maddie is such a light weight it didn't take much for her to reach the tipsy stage. We were dancing, as usual there were a few guys who tried to dance with us, but we just laughed them off and moved away, I looked over and noticed that a man was dancing with Maddie he was about 6ft and in a beige looking trench coat, greasy looking shoulder length hair and dark eyes, she seemed quite uncomfortable. I stop dancing and I go over, all of a sudden, I had this overwhelming feeling to just get Maddie away from this creep and go home, I couldn't explain it but it's like my body was just rushed with this hot feeling of dread. "We should leave!" I yelled over the loud music in Maddie's direction, the guy turned his head to look at me, well more like look through me. Cold eyes and an evil stare I knew he was up to know good, I grab Maddie by the arm and pull her to safety with me, "Were going now!" I shouted to Maddie, loud enough so the creepy guy could hear me too. "I need the toilet!" Maddie slurred. "What?!" I yell back, we were getting closer to the DJ which was close to the exit. "Alex, I need to wee!" she shouted. "Great". I start to swiftly walk towards the toilet, making sure to hold Maddie the whole time, but for some reason I lost her hand in the crowd of people, I whip my head around, but she is nowhere to be seen. I start to panic, where has she gone? I look around for her and I just see unfamiliar faces. Suddenly I see her there with the creepy guy from before and it looks like he has her by her arm and is pulling her away from the DJ section. Maddie is clearly trying to pull away and I'm wondering why nobody else has noticed them struggle. I immediately start to push past all the people that are in my way, all I'm focused on is trying to get Maddie and get her home safe. Who is this guy? Does she know him? I finally find my way outside, but I've lost them again and I don't know how as I was right behind them. I'm frantically searching around with my eyes and all of a sudden, I can hear Maddie, "Get away from me!" Please leave me alone!" she yells. I run towards her preparing myself to fight this guy that is much bigger than me but I don't care. He say something as I'm running towards them fists clenched but I couldn't hear what he said, I felt like I was running at 40 miles an hour, the wind was howling down my ears. Just before I reached them, I see him hit Maddie around the face and she fell the floor, fear and panic soon turned to rage, I finally reached them, and that's it, that's all I remember. I immediately reached for my phone which was on my night stand, I find it weird that haven't had any messages from Maddie or anyone for that matter, so I call her straight away and the phone rings out. Is she OK?. I can hear footsteps coming up my stairs and towards my bedroom, my mom knocks on the door, "How are you feeling?" She asks whilst not making eye contact. "Mom, what is going on?" "Why was I locked up in a cold room and covered in blood?" "Who's blood was it? "And where is Maddie?". My mother finally looked up at me, her cheeks still wet with tears, "Maddie is OK, just a little banged up" she said softly. She inhaled deeply and stood up to pace the room. "Mom? What is it? What's going on?" I ask. "Do you remember anything about last night?" as the sadness on her face turns to worry. I told my mom what I remembered from the previous night. " Do you remember Ethan Lobos?" She asked. I'm confused why is she asking me about him? I don't know him personally, but I've heard rumours about him and they're not very nice ones. Some people say that he's in a gang and that he is affiliated with the Mob. I'm unsure as to what is true and what's not. I have seen him around the same sort of familiarity with him, like I know him but I don't know him I've never met him before, "I don't know him, why is he important?". "His father knew your father, they were very close, fought in wars together amongst other things" "this isn't exactly explaining much to me mom so can we just cut to the chase? What does any of this have to do with Ethan Lobos?" Suddenly I begin to hear more footsteps coming towards my room, I quite heavy and they don't sound very familiar to me and as I look up, Ethan is stood in my doorway. what the hell is he doing here? My mom walks over towards him I can see her hand shaking, is she scared of him? Is she worried about me? "Ethan please, I'm trying to explain, it's too difficult right now, she's tired and confused maybe another time when she's rested" she says with her head down. I can't believe how tall is he must be at least 6 foot 3, an olive toned skin and a strong defined jaw, his eyes are a piercing blue. His hair is messy but it doesn't look messy, He's almost always formally dressed but not too formal. A black cotton shirt matched with black trousers and black shoes. why is he dressed like he's going to a funeral? I start to feel something I've never felt before, can't put my finger on it but I don't feel scared or frightened. "She needs to know now, I will tell her everything, she will be okay Mrs Solis" He says in a low husky tone. "Yes" my mom says lowly, she heads out the door but not without looking back in my direction mouthing the words "I love you" before leaving and shutting the door. Ethan stares at me for a while, he walks over and sits next to me on the bed, not too close to make me feel uncomfortable I guess. I keep hearing this banging, more like thumping. My face winces as I try to find where the noise is coming from, as I'm Looking around the room my eyes looks on to Ethan's. why is he looking at me like that? "Look Alex, I didn't want to have to tell you this but I haven't got much time, I need you to come with me" "Come with you where." I ask confused. "To my home, you're going to be staying there a while, until I can help you". I look at him in disbelief, I don't know him, why in the world would I stay with him? "Help me with what?" I ask, annoyed. The audacity of this man to enter my room and tell me now I'm going to stay with him in his home. "The situation that you're currently in, it has put you, your friends and your family in danger and I am the ONLY person who can help you right now". I start to laugh, I didn't mean to it just kind of happened. "All of this must be a joke right?! Fake blood? A random room?" I say whilst still laughing. He stands up and towers over me whilst I'm sitting down in my bed still. "This is not a joke Alex" he says abruptly. My laughter soon fades as I start to get a little bit angry. "You need to leave, right now.... get out of my room!" I shout. "how dare you come here, after the day I've had and think that I will come with you to your home! I don't know you!" "Mom?! Come on we'll go find a hotel or something" I say as I grab my shoes from the corner of my room. My hand lifts up to reach the door handle and all of a sudden, his hand grabs my arm firmly, without a thought I move my arm out if the way so fast I don't even feel like it's me doing it, I then push him so hard on his chest to push him out of my way, but he lifts off the floor a few inches and flies back into my wall that leads onto my bathroom. I stop instantly, I look at him and look down at my hands, what the..... Ethan stands up, the whole time making sure not to lose eye contact with me, "You can hear it too can't you?" He asks as he sorts out his clothes and pulls his shirt down that had crumpled when he hit the wall. "Hear what?" I ask almost in a whisper as I try to fathom what just happened. Surely he can't mean the banging?. "That sound, the thumping, its so loud you just want to pull off your ears". I stop looking at my hands and look up at him, " How do we hear the same banging?" I ask. "It is our hearts, mine and yours, I felt it get louder too, the closer I got to you the louder it became". Our hearts? "What do you mean our hearts?" I'm so confused at this point I feel like my head mayactually explode. "There's a lot of stuff that's been happening to you this last month that you can't explain, am I right?" he asks knowingly. "How did you know?" I say softly. "because they happened to me too, a few years ago." He proceeds to tell me about the odd but similar things I've been going through. Anger outbursts, strength from I don't know where, I mean I did push a 6 foot 3 man across my room with no effort. I've started to hear things from a distance that I shouldn't be able to hear, "So what is going on with me?" "Surely I shouldn't be able to do all these things". He looks at me, takes a deep breath and says nonchalantly " You're a werewolf Alex". A what?! Is he crazy?. I just look at him in disbelief, did he really just say that? "A werewolf? Like sharp teeth, hairy body, shifting on a full moon?" He looks at me with a serious stare, I feel compelled to listen to him but it's just so unfathomable that it could even remotely be a possibility? But deep down I can sense that he isn't lying, hearing his heart beat like he said I could it doesn't skip a beat, its steady and slow. He stands up and puts his hand out, "Come with me please Alex, I cannot leave you here, it's not safe" Not safe? This has been my home for the past 20 years; I've never felt safer anywhere else. "Where is my mom?" I demand. His tone changes, it starts to become firmer and with conviction "Alex, either you come willingly or I will have to take you against your will, this is not a joke, you are in danger and the longer you're here the...." He stops mid sentence abruptly; he tilts his head towards my door and stares at it intently. "What are you..." I ask inquisitively, "Shhh" he says whilst putting his finger index finger to his mouth. "It's too late, they're already here, we have to go now!". What they hell is going on!? "who's here?" I ask as I head towards my bedroom door. He grabs my arm and pulls me in his direction, "not that way". Not that way? Then which way? He pulls me towards the window, "are you crazy?! I say as I pull away from him again. What we going to do fly?" He stops and looks at me "trust me" he whispers as he holds his hand out again, and for some insane reason I do trust him, someone I've heard about but never met, I feel like I can trust him with my life and I don't know how to explain it. He jumps out the window and hits the floor, landing on his feet, he turns around and screams "JUMP!". I climb onto my window ledge, I can't believe I'm doing this, what am I doing?! I can feel my body shaking, I'm unsure as to whether it is my adrenaline or because I'm scared for my life right now but here goes nothing. I grab onto my window frame, bend my knees and I go to push off the ledge to jump down to him then suddenly I feel this pain in my right side, like I've been hit by a truck and I go flying through the air, over my bed and into my bathroom wall. I go to stand up dazed, my ribs are burning and my head is throbbing, I get up off the floor and all I see is two body shaped figures fighting, throwing blows after blows. Is that Ethan? But who is...? Oh my god it's the creepy guy from the club! What is he doing here? In my house, why are they fighting in my bedroom? Ethan hits the creep so hard he hits the floor, he then glances over at me and in a split second he gets back handed into my nightstand. Worried about him (for some reason) I stand up quickly but that just makes the creepy man notice me, he stomps over to me with his bulky frame "Hello Alex" he says with a low tone, almost like a growl.

How does he know me? About to fight for my life which feels like the tenth time in two days I get ready, clench my fists and get in a fighting stance, which is when I hear it... The most intense, low growling I have ever heard before which stops creepy guy in his tracks, the look on his face soon turns from a serial killer grin to fear and panic. I look over into the corner of where Ethan was laying and there he is standing, I can just see the silhouette of his body and his eyes, bright red eyes. He swiftly jumps over the bed, more like floats over my bed and grabs this man with such force I can hear something sharp penetrate his skin, Ethan throws him into the direction of the window, his big bulky body flies through the air like a leaf in the autumn falling off a tree, so buoyant and carefree then suddenly smashes through my window frame and takes out most parts of my house. I stand there for a few seconds before I work up the courage to go towards the window and see if the intruder was there, I look out and I see nothing, apart from the rubble and debris that was once the side of my house. Nobody was there, but how? The growling continued but was getting quieter until it ceased, I turn around and the redness in his eyes fade completely and he looks at me with sad eyes.