Whispers Between Shadows

CHAPTER 3

The moon was full today. Seeing this,Eli knew he had to hide in his usual place. A place where no one could hear his cries of pain. What he didn't know was that he had people accompanying him from a distance.

As soon as midnight struck,he fell to the ground void of any strength left. Good thing he had managed to go inside the abandoned hut he was desperately heading towards.

Deep in the woods,his cries of excruciating pain echoed. His skin breaking and purple energy sipping through the cracks. This is the price he had to pay for the decision he made during desperate moment.

The three boys who had followed him from a distance looked at each other fully aware of why someone would go through such torture. As they turned and walked away from the scene,they all had one thought;'Lunaris was at stake.'

Several days had passed since Clara met Eli that night but she couldn't stop thinking about him. Slowly,her mind drifted back to the vision she had seen that night as her hand unconsciously rubbed across the mark that had appeared at the back of her hand.

Though not glowing anymore,it was still there, dangerously engraved on her skin. Her thoughts were brought back to the present when someone placed their order, "One to go,please."

Apart from the lingering urgency to find Eli and talk to him, the rest of her day went by smoothly. She couldn't stop looking at the mark on her hand as she walked home. The streets of Lunaris were darker that usual today as if the moon had abandoned it's own city.

The wind was blowing hard carrying with it whispers. The city was awfully quite making it weird. Light footsteps echoed behind her and she instantly knew someone was following her.

Clara’s footsteps quickened, her heart racing with each step as the strange whispers on the wind grew louder. She was almost certain someone was following her.

“Clara,” a voice called out from behind, sharp and familiar.

She stopped cold, groaning inwardly. Not him. Not now.

Turning slowly, Clara came face-to-face with Asher—one of the boys who always seemed to delight in making her life miserable. He stood just a few paces away, a sly grin playing at his lips, but his usual arrogance was missing. There was something unsettling in his expression—something close to... worry?

“What do you want, Asher?” she snapped, folding her arms.

He gave a lazy shrug, though his eyes darted nervously to the shadows. “Relax. I’m not here to mess with you.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

“Look," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets, "it’s about Eli."

Clara blinked, caught off guard. “What about him?”

Asher took a step closer, his cocky demeanor slipping. “He’s gone.” His voice dropped, laced with a rare seriousness. “Disappeared. And if you don’t want to lose yourself in this mess, you’d better listen.”