Madness

chapter 15- running away is the only way

The silence stretched and stretched as it was waiting to be filled up.

"No, I'm not!" Cried Elena, her mind and voice on edge. Her paper- thin self-control was stretching to tearing point, a sea of grief visible behind the broken seams. She fought back silent tears. "I'm not! Tell me I'm not!"

There was slight motion in the house as a far-off creak echoed across the house.

Luna swallowed, glancing nervously towards the door. She gritted her teeth, searching for words. "No. No, you're not. Not anymore."

Silence wavered between them.

"It was just the tv and the light playing ticks on me, don't worry. It was nothing," she dismissed with an agitated tone. Her words would have been reassuring if her eyes hadn't been a little too bright. There was a fragile intensity in her eyes, something alive with fear.

"Yeah, just the light." Stop lying to me!

"I'm not lying to you and I'm sorry I scared you," Luna murmured, her mouth drooping in an odd sob shape.

Elena didn't reply but kept her gaze fixed on the screen. Her mind performed an odd little twist. Did Luna just read her mind, or did she merely say the words out loud without realising?

She had to get better. This wasn't normal ill, though. This was an illness of the soul. There was a darkness to her soul. She could feel it. Perhaps getting better was a matter of willpower and pretense. Maybe if she hadn't gone hysterical and pretended that she had no idea what Luna was talking about everything would have returned to normal.

I need to do something that'll get her to trust me again. Even right now she's flinching away from me in terror, she thought.

The second the thought formed, Elena noticed how Luna had stopped flinching. Suddenly, she felt cold inside and out.

Why is she blinking so much? Her mind was investigating her uncanny actions and sure enough Luna's eyes became watery as she frantically tried not to blink.

What the hell? Can she read my mind? Why does everyone seem magic now or was I just too blind to notice?

Suddenly every bad action, feeling, thought and secret pressed sharply against her mind. Her mind felt cold and shuddery as if frog skin was being pressed against it. Suddenly, she felt guilty as a murder might feel when looking over at a corpse.

Stop! I've changed my mind. I don't want to know.

Luna stifled a sigh, her eyes wandering across the room unable to look Elena in the eye.

Maybe that's why she's so weird.

"Perhaps." The word was gone as soon as it fell, and Elena did not dare question how familiar the delicate voice was.

Another voice surfaced her mind, unfamiliar and nor her own or Fake-Elena. Perhaps it was the healer from No Name Lane. It must be strange yet wicked to see someone's emotions through their own eyes. Elena focused her mind on the words, hardly a faint rustle against her skull. Stalling all other emotions and thoughts, Elena managed to make sense of the snickering chant. Next time you kill don't hesitate.

She wasn't. Her will to live was much stronger. There's no point of playing the game of pretense if the mask is going to crumble. Luna will be dead by then.

"I'm starving," whined Elena, feeling a sudden thrust of both human and inhuman hunger. "Want something to eat?

She looked nervous for a moment but quickly masked it. "For sure," she said at last. Some of the sober tension had went out of Luna's posture and voice.