Moon Angel

Chapter 30: Run for your life

Chapter 30: Run for your life

I ran through the trees, dodging branches and avoiding roots. My face was hot, my thighs were burning and my mouth had dried out long ago. I hated running, compared to flying, but this time I didn't have an option. I could hear the helicopters circling above. I couldn't hide from them.

I knew I wouldn't be able to continue for much longer. But I had to. I couldn't stop. I had to put as much distance between me and that place as possible. Omega. Just the name of it caused emotion to boil up inside of me.

It was amazing how quickly things could change. A few weeks earlier, I had thought of it as home. Now, I never wanted to go back there.

I could hear the security guards getting closer. I could see the beams of their torches sweeping the area. I couldn't let them catch up to me.

I kept running. They weren't far behind me. I tripped over a large tree root, sending me sprawling. I scrambled to my feet and kept going. I could feel my body becoming more and more exhausted, my muscles screaming for mercy.

I tripped again, knocking into a tree. I knew I had to stop, or the exhaustion would get to me before the guards could. I hid behind a tree and lent against its cold, rough surface. My heart was bouncing out of my chest, thudding in my ears.

I froze as I heard someone coming. They were closer than I thought.

"Selene..." I recognised his voice instantly. I hadn't thought he would come after me himself.

"Selene!" he called out again. "I know you're around here somewhere. You can't have gotten far. Why don't you give yourself up and we'll forget all this nonsense when we get back?"

He couldn't be more than 10 metres away.

I slowly looked around the side of the trunk. I couldn't see him. It was risky, but I couldn't wait any longer.

I ran.

Soon the forest ended and I found myself standing on the edge of a cliff.

The strong winds whistled past me, picking up my hair and swinging it around my face. I heard footsteps behind me as Mr Carter broke through the tree line, but I didn't turn around. I didn't need to, to know he'd found me, faster than I thought he would. He must have seen me running.

His torch flicked off as he stood behind me. The moonlight was strong enough for him to see me without it.

"You can't run anymore Selene. You will have to stop now. Come back with me and we can talk things over." His voice was warm, persuasive, but I knew he didn't mean it. He had lied to me for long enough. I wouldn't fall for it again. I didn't want to go back. I just wanted to forget everything.

I looked around. There had to be another option.

I realised that I had been impulsive. I should have waited longer, planned more thoroughly, but I couldn't handle the thought of killing one more person.

My eyes looked over the edge of the cliff, to where the ocean crashed against the rocks.

There was one last option.

I turned around, and looked him in the eyes.

"No," I told him. "I won't ever go back with you," and with that I threw myself off the cliff.

My wings unfurled quickly behind me, catching the wind to stop me from dropping.

I started upwards, hoping the shock would give me a few extra seconds.

But it didn't work. Loud shots rang out and then my body filled with unbearable pain.

I plummeted towards the sea.

I hit the water, sinking into the icy darkness. Ribbons of red ink floated up around me, the water filling with blood.

I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. My body felt like it was on fire, pain searing through my chest.

I knew that I needed to get to the surface or I would drown, but the strength was gone from my limbs. Only pain remained.

I had been shot, I realised. One of the guards had shot me.

And now I was going to die.

I closed my eyes, willing my mind to shut out the pain, to cease the burning in my lungs.

As if on command, a sense of relief washed over me, the pain washing away. It seemed like I was floating upwards. I couldn't understand what was happening. I didn't know what dying felt like, but I never imagined it would be like this.

I opened my eyes and saw light everywhere. But the light didn't blind me like it normally did, it comforted me.

Moonlight, in tentacles, had pierced the dark water and wrapped themselves around my body. They seemed to be lifting me, calling me towards the surface, towards the Moon.

I started to swim, twisting my body towards the surface.

It felt like forever before my head burst out of the water, my lungs once again filling with air. The light around me dispersed as quickly as it had come. I coughed and spluttered, my body burning, but the pain did not return.

I had come up a fair way from the cliff and I was glad of the noise of the waves crashing against the cliff to cover any other sounds.

Beams of torchlight swung out from the top of the cliff, and dragged across the water, searching for signs of me. I could see Mr Carter standing on the cliff. The guards that had been chasing me beside him. It seemed like Mr Carter was shouting at them. I couldn't hear what he was saying. He was probably angry that they hadn't been able to capture me.

I had to get out of the water.

It is amazing what adrenalin does when you need it the most, and somehow I managed to swim to dry land. A sort of beach I think. I managed to drag myself up onto the rocky sand.

I should have been dead, but instead I was still very much alive.

I felt my chest... where I was sure I had been hit only minutes before, where there should have been a raw wound, where there should have been blood... there was only an indentation, a scar.

I found the place on my shoulder that had also been hit. My fingers came away with blood; the wound still open. But, as I watched, the hole slowly closed before my eyes, until it too was only a scar, a mark of what it had been.

I wasn't sure what was happening to me, but I was feeling stronger by the minute.

I looked up, and my eyes caught the Moon, a full Moon, in the sky above me. The area had been enveloped in moonlight, creating a pool in which I was sitting. Warmth spread throughout my body and I was filled with sensations like pins and needles, like I was humming and vibrating with energy.

I realised that the Moon was healing me.

I knew that my life source was connected with the Moon, and that I gathered power from the moonlight, but I never knew its full power. It had saved my life.

For the first time, I realised the truth in the rumours and myths they told on Elvira. Unable to die, some said. Immortal. God-like. And while not all of it was true, I could see where it came from.

Lunair; born of the Moon.

For the first time, it felt like I really was invincible, at least at night time, under the cover of the Moon.

-A/N- Hey everyone, hope you enjoyed the newest installment of Moon Angel. Three chapters in a week! Wow, I'm on a roll. Thanks to all those who have continued to read even through months of no chapters updating.

Thank you to ADFbookworm for your continued support. You are amazing and your reviews give me such encouragement. :) 

Have a great week everyone :)