Fall of the Light Ones

3

"The thirteenth moon happen every ten years. When that happens every magical creature in the realm feels its influence, you see, all ten moons that we have lighting up the night sky in the realm align, and all magic becomes ten times stronger," Mara's mother says stroking her hair. 

Mara looked up at her mother. Suddenly she was her nine year old self again, getting tucked into bed. 
"That sounds amazing. Everything gets stronger?" she asked again.

"Yes, everything, even your father's alchemy. Medicine gets even stronger under the light of the moons, that's why some people, if they are able, they take the very serious medicines under the moonlight," her mother said getting up from the bed.

Mara immediately sat up straight. The brown paint on her childhood bedroom wall starts melting and the walls started crumbling.
"Mom!" Mara called out and tried to throw herself off of the bed. She was stuck in place, her hands started melting into the bed. 

Suddenly, she fell through the bed, through the floor, straight into her father's study. It was still the same study she always knew, no crumbling walls or melting paints. Her hands and feet felt like led, all she could do was sit in the corner of the room where she fell. Her mother ran into the study, Mara could smell her familiar scent of Vanilla. Her father, oddly enough, loved the scent of cinnamon so when they were together the room smelt of vanilla and cinnamon, like now.

"Ian we need to leave," Mara's mother said.

"I am not done Lorelai, I need to do this," her father said scribbling away on a piece of paper.

"Ian please we have no time, we need to leave now, we have to catch up with the girls and get to safety together Ian!"

"You don't understand I have to finish-"

Her father was cut of by an explosion, the walls crumbled and Mara was covered in blotches of her parent's blood. 

Suddenly something grabbed her face and suddenly she was face-to-face with her mother. Skin was hanging off of her face, meat and bones were exposed. With every word her mother uttered blood spat onto Mara's face.

"You have to do it!" her mother pleaded.

"What are you talking about?" she tried to ask her frantic disfigured mother.

"YOU HAVE TO!" 

Mara woke up.
Random hair clung to her forehead from being drenched in sweat. Her body was unnaturally warm, as if the room was on fire. Across the room Athena was fast asleep on her little makeshift bed. She wasn't sweating or in distress. 

Mara pushed her flimsy blanket off her body and slowly pushed herself off of the floor. Her own makeshift bed was wet, drenched in sweat as well. To Mara this was strange. She was no stranger nightmares, on the contrary, those were her favorite type of dreams; the terrifying and macabre imagery that the brain can conjure up was fascinating to her so she never minded nightmares, but this one was different. This one left her drenched in sweat and weak in the knees.

She stumbled through the little hallway into the kitchen. Once there she fell to the floor and reached under the table for their big bucket of water, grabbed a mug and started chugging. She could still hear her mother. She could still feel the heat from the explosion and her hands felt slippery as if they were still covered in blood.

"YOU HAVE TO!" 

She heard her mother plead again and she stopped chugging mugs of water. No amount of water in the world would be able to quench her thirst, nothing at this moment would be able to help her feel better, except one thing. 

Athena turned around in her sleep. For a split second she opened her eyes and scanned the room. Usually she needed complete darkness to sleep, but ever since her and Mara went into hiding in this little house she was grateful for the little sky window which allowed the moons to shine through at night; lighting up the room so that she could peek at her sister and always check if she's safe.

Athena was never one to be calm for too long. It was always a problem for her to sleep through the night, but ever since the death of their parents her sleepless nights got worse. Athena was not the only one struggling to sleep through the night. 

The other reason why Athena doesn't sleep through the night is because ever since the death of their parents Mara started sleepwalking. Every other night Athena has to be ready to run after Mara otherwise Mara walks through the woods the ruins of their old house. 

This night was no different. Athena could hear Mara rummaging in the kitchen, she almost ran down the little hallway and saw Mara gulping down water. "This is new." She thought, slowly walking towards Mara. Just was she got close Mara stopped drinking water. 
"Mara..."

Athena reached out to touch her. Before she could touch her Mara turned to face her, her once green eyes were a dark brown, almost black. Athena jumped slightly.
"This is very new..." she said out loud. 

"This is very new," Mara repeated after her. She sat there looking at Athena for a couple more seconds before falling forward slightly. 

Athena caught her immediately and helped to steady her back on her feet. She placed her hands on Mara's shoulders and tried to get a glimpse of her eyes, green... they were green again.

"Athena? You look insane, your hair looks like a crows nest," Mara mumbled and Athena chuckled. It seemed like her sister snapped out of whatever was going on just a couple minutes ago, but Athena knew she couldn't just forget what happened.

She guided Mara to her makeshift bed after noticing how drenched Mara's bed looked and made a mental note to ask Mara about what happened. Once she helped Mara lay her head down on the pillow she was fast asleep. 

Athena went to the big chest that held their extra blankets and pillows and made herself a little bed next to Mara. She made mental notes to remind herself of everything she had to do when she woke up and tried her best to go to sleep.