Under the Shadow of the Moon

Chapter 43

Luna tossed around in her bed for a long while, not being able to find a comfortable place to lay her head. She had her friends on her mind, the danger they were all in, the rising war, and her own sanity, all muddling together and making her head feel heavy. All the thoughts swam around her head along with a terrible headache that seared across her forehead. She was hungry too, her stomach arguing with her body, but she couldn't bring herself to eat anything. Her throat was dry and her body was limp. Silent tears spilled from her eyes, once lively, caring brown eyes, reduced to dark empty pools of what used to be. Luna was the same person, technically. But anyone could take one look at her and see the changes, the fact that she was no longer the same carefree person broke her even more. Betrayed, she wished she had just disappeared under the glassy layer of water. She wished Trae hadn't stopped her from falling in. She wished her head had gone under and her screams of agony silenced.

On top of all her thoughts floated Trae, no matter how hard she fought to push him away. Trae's eyes, the way he looked at her, the way he wanted to help, the way he promised her he would stay. Trae was her last spark of hope. The last thing keeping her tethered to her life.

"Sunflowers..." she whispered, hearing the shallow husk of her own voice. She scoffed, the corners of her lips turning up ever so slightly. "Sunflowers, and hazel-green eyes."

Sunflowers, her favorite flower. It was another thing she found solace with, calming her down in times of desperation. Her father had given her one right before he disappeared, and she guarded that flower with her life. Her mother had pressed it into an old book when it had started to wither, and after the funeral, they had put it into a frame that hung on the wall in her room. She stared at it now, her hand clasped over her locket still around her neck.

For their fourteenth birthday, Lloyd had gotten her the sunflower locket that she had kept with her ever since then. She ran a finger over the cool metal petals. Inside of it was a picture of her, Harper, and Trae's families at a backyard party before the population was split. Luna must have been around five or six when the picture was taken. She looked so happy and bubbly in the picture, a stark contrast to what she looked like now, a sleep deprived husk with no one to turn to. The bags under her eyes were intense, and the emptiness of her eyes haunting.

She felt like an eternity had passed before she slipped into the comforting grasp of sleep, only to have it be corrupted by a certain heterochromiac.

Luna was back in the Shadow Realm, the hall as dark as ever. This time all the doors were shut tightly, each going dark besides the white one directly in front of her. She could feel chills running down her spine, over and over, causing her to shiver ever so slightly as her ears rang. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward. As she walked closer to the white door, the sounds of thousands of people in agony filled her ears. She collapsed to her knees, clamping her hands over her ears. After a moment, the sounds dulled enough for her to look up. She looked straight into a pair of eyes, barely visible through the dark. This time it wasn't the comforting eyes of a friend as she longed to see. These were the petrifying, empty eyes of Elijah. The blue eye glowed with malice while the yellow one glowed with rage. Luna gasped, the sound lost to the dark.

Elijah beckoned her forward, stepping closer and closer to the door. Luna shook from head to toe, but suppressed it as best she could. The white door opened when Luna stepped up to it, revealing a throne room. Elijah sneered, and before Luna could do anything, her eyes snapped open and she was lying on her bed drenched in cold sweat. She had only slept for a few short hours but she couldn't take it anymore.

She pulled herself out of bed and took a cold shower, sunlight still coming in through her window. The water washed away all of her fears as she took the time to think over all the events of the past two months. She came out refreshed, itching to go down to Base Camp and make more preparations.