Under the Shadow of the Moon

Chapter 23

Luna felt her head begin to pound as she was getting ready for bed. At first it was just a minuscule feeling, but it spread like wildfire through her skull. She tried to shake the feeling away, but it only got worse. The constant ringing in her ears amplified, a warning that something was wrong. Something was coming, but she didn't know what. Everything was changing, and she felt like the world was falling apart. The world worked hard to stitch itself back together in front of her, but her vision was swirling. The nagging feeling that something was amiss was swimming across her mind, the letters spelling themselves out as black spots against her eyes. The end is nearing rung through her head like a broken radio. Why was she afraid? She was shaking, curling in on herself against her covers, swallowing back bouts of nausea.

Nothing felt right, and yet everything was fine. Nothing was wrong, yet everything was off. She tried to convince herself that she was alright, clamping her hands over her ears and shutting her eyes. Her head swam for the last time, and she felt a numb sensation spread through her, as if she had been thrown into freezing water made of fire.

Black. That's all she could see. Silence. That's all she could hear. Not a single color, sound, or reflection of light there to comfort her. There was just nothing. Absolutely. Nothing.

But screeches. Deep dark screeches of pain suddenly filled her ears. She wanted to let out her own, but she couldn't. In this realm, she didn't exist. Not quite yet. One of the screeching voices stopped, and soon enough, so did the rest. A face, or almost a face. It was a shadow, a reflection cast in the darkness, only light enough to be distinguished as a face. Her own, she thought, but it didn't look enough like her.

"There's no need to be scared..." It spoke. The voice sounded familiar, but deeper, darker. The sound resonated through her ears, screeching like feedback through her head. "It's only me! You remember me, don't you?" The voice sounded like it was straight out of a nightmare, and it was, or almost.

It was her own, she thought again, but it was different.

Luna tried to make a sound, put up her hands in front of her face, open her eyes, or make any motion at all, but she couldn't. It was like she was clenched in her own fist, another hand over her mouth. Her world started to spin and the face began to disappear. Again there was silence, but only for a moment. The screeches came back, the sounds more amplified than before. Luna wanted to scream, to wake up, to leave this place of torture, to be free.

"Quoth the Raven 'Nevermore.'"

Luna's eyes snapped open. She was breathing hard, her mind reeling and her body shaking. She felt like the claws of a wolf had torn through her. She looked out the window, watching as color drained from the sky and stars splashed against the indigo canvas.

She took a deep breath to steady herself, throwing her covers off. She sat up slowly, touching her feet to the floor. She was holding a hand over her mouth and clutching her stomach, hunching over as she fought away her nausea. Her head was still spinning, and the contents of her stomach were threatening to come back up. She took another shaky breath and stood. She steadied herself against her vanity, staring at her reflection. Her hair was tousled and stuck to her skin in patches of sweat. Her eyes were glossy and her lips were dry. She straightened, taking a few gulping breaths. She used the wall for balance, making her way downstairs to the kitchen. She sat in one of the chairs with a glass of water, trying to process what exactly had just happened.

The sun had gone fully down, the soft moonlight sending a cascade of shadows across the walls and floor. Luna studied the water in the glass, focusing on the gentle rippling instead of the jumble of thoughts fogging up her mind.

"Sunflowers..." she whispered to herself, reaching up to clutch her locket.

"Luna?" Lloyd's voice game in a groggy half whisper. Lloyd was leaning against the entryway, his hair disheveled and his eyes glazed with sleep even as he rubbed away at them. "What are you doing up? It's really early," He lowered his hand, studying her. "Are you okay?"

She nodded, closing her eyes. The nausea swam up again. "I'm okay." She leaned back against the chair, bringing the glass up to her lips.

☆★☆

Luna stared at the water of the waterfall, letting the cool mist wash over her and wash away her thoughts. As she finally stilled her racing heart, a sound cut through her false sense of peace and sent her tumbling back into nausea.

"Why are you here?" Luna raised an eyebrow at the other girl as she stepped closer with a nervous look on her face.

"I... I just wanted to talk," Sylvia responded, hiding her face behind a waterfall of hair.

"Okay," Luna nodded, leaning against the rock. "So talk."

"I... I had the strangest dream last night."

Luna raised her eyebrows in response.

"It was dark, and it was loud, and when I woke up this sense of dread wouldn't go away. I felt like I needed to find you, to talk to you. Like there was something we needed to work out? I don't know, it was strange. I had a feeling you would be here, so I just followed my instincts... and I guess I was right. Luna, the things I did... I'm so sorry... I really hope there's a chance for us to be friends. I swear I never meant to hurt anyone, I just wanted my hurt to go away..."

"I think I understand," Luna said, uncrossing her arms. "And I already forgave you. I think we could be friends."

Sylvia paused, staring at her feet. "What about the others?" She paused again. "Do you think they'll forgive me?"

Luna thought for a moment, then nodded. "Yeah, I think they will, you just have to give them some time."

Sylvia ran a hand through her hair. "You're a good person, you know that?"

Luna blinked. "I..."

Sylvia scoffed. "You see the best in everyone, even in me. Even when I was trying to hurt you, you still wanted to help."

"No one deserves to suffer," Luna muttered. "No matter who they are or what they have done. My dad taught me that."