Under the Shadow of the Moon

Chapter 16

Luna walked towards the front gate of the school, checking her phone every few seconds for the time or a notification. She was the closest to the exit out of her friends, walking slowly and looking around trying to spot them. She was excited to spend the last day of school with them, and just wanted to be off campus. Her stomach twisted with excitement, and there was a spring in her step. She was almost to the gate when her ears started to ring.

It had been over a week since she had heard the voice, the voice she was almost certain was Sylvia's. Lloyd had said he was sure it was Sylvia, but that Lily hadn't believed him.

Luna felt words ringing through her head. Words she knew weren't hers, but she couldn't help but believe. Words that made her head spin and her skin tingle. Words that made her shiver and made her vision fog. Words that cut through her, burning with each lash across her body. Lloyd doesn't love you. Trae will never love you. Harper will never see you again. Lily is as pathetic as you are. The others can't wait to get away from you. Razaia's only friends with you because she feels bad for you. Colin only stays around because of the others. You will never be important, not to anyone. As she heard the words, felt them burn through her, she knew she believed them. They were always there, at the back of her mind. Always swimming just out of her reach. Always tucked away, not cutting through her life. Not the way they were now. They were words that had only swam through her mind one time before. One time when she had felt herself fall, her head heavy and her skin on fire. Words she heard just before waking up far from where she was when she first heard them. Words that rang ten times as loud as they had then. Words that burned with fire ten times hotter. Words that cut deeper, now that she knew they were true.

Luna felt her head hit the pavement, her skin paler than it had ever been, her lips purple and her eyelids too heavy to lift. Her arms too weak to lift her. Her legs too limp to move. Her throat too dry to let her yell for help. No one around to see her anyway. No one, except for the person who had caused it. But she wasn't the source of the words. She was just the means of amplifying them.

The ringing in her ears of the words repeating became too much for Luna, and everything went black and silent. The last thing she heard was two voices shouting her name.

☆★☆

Sylvia shuddered, her hands flying to her mouth and her knees giving out. Her hands were shaking as she stared at the limp body in front of her, skin paler than paper and lips a deep purple. She had caused this.

She ran her hands through her hair, tearing at the ash blonde strands as she stood up, walking towards the front gate with a blank expression, tears running down her cheeks. It was almost as though she wasn't in control of her own body.

She continued to walk, placing one foot in front of the other until she had made it somewhere far from the school. She didn't stop moving until her feet burned and her knees couldn't support another step. She leaned against a tree for support, her ears starting to ring with white noise, tears raining down from her face. Her hands hadn't stopped shaking, but each of her fingers had gone numb. This was the last thing she had imagined happening on the last day of school.

The white noise amplified until it formed into a voice. A voice that had become familiar. A voice she dreaded to hear speak.

"Sylvia, my dear..." the voice was deep and dark, rumbling as it tore through her mind with a sing-song tone.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Sylvia shouted, clapping her hands over her ears and screwing her eyes shut. "Get out of my head!"

"Oh but my dear, you did all this to yourself. You embraced your power. You destroy all that is good. You, my child, are like me. You will do great things. Terrible things. You will reach your true potential when you let go of this false reality and join me..." the voice rang through her head, bouncing off of every nerve.

Sylvia heaved a sob, her stomach lurching. "Shut up! I don't want to! I don't want to hurt anyone!"

"It's too late for that, my dear."

"No! It's never too late to do the right thing."

"It is however, too late for you, my dear. You are incapable of doing what is' right'. Now do it. Separate them."

"No! I won't do it!"

"No one disobeys The Eye!" The voice shouted, her ears were ringing out and her head was starting to spin.

"I will!"

"You will regret this, my dear. You will regret crossing the leader of the White Sand."

The pain in her head intensified until she collapsed, holding her head in her hands until the burning dulled.

She shuddered, lifting herself off the grass. If she couldn't fix things, she knew she wouldn't be able to forgive herself.

☆★☆

"Luna!" Trae was kneeling by her side, shaking her and patting her cheek until her eyes cracked open. "Luna! Luna, what's going on? Luna are you okay?"

She stared at him blankly, her mind taking a moment too long to recognize who he was.

"Luna... need... help..." his voice cut in and out, the ringing in her ears drowning everything out.

She could hardly see his face, and she had to strain to see the head of blonde standing behind him. Her vision was blurring with each throb of pain in her skull, and her body was limp. She could feel herself being lifted off the concrete, feel Trae's heart against her chest. Feel his panicked breath against her face. Feel his chest heaving and his muscles straining as he held her. Her eyes closed again, her body going fully limp and her mind drifting from the world.