Shards of Moonlight || A Short-story Collection

Wind Of Change - F

"Run."

Sweat streamed down my forehead and dropped onto the blurry pavement that resembled a running treadmill underneath my feet.

Minutes ago, I turned the paper plate with a piece of cake for my 20th birthday, whose flavor she messed up again, listlessly in my hands. I prayed for a portal to swallow me up whole and make me reappear in the middle of the deep blue sea. My crush thought I had lost my brain in the lost and found, my friends mocked me viciously and professors showered me with sympathetic looks. Who cursed me with this overbearing, helicopter mum?

Yet, my concerns blew away in the chilling wind, breezing over my bare shoulders. Every step I took, it leaped two. Never in a million years, could I have guessed a real-life portal would appear inches from my fingers and a dark being with ruby-red eyes and vulture-like, crooked claws would leap at me. With a lightning-strike of a Thor-worthy blade, something had intercepted the beast. In mid-flight, it had been struck across the chest and turned to dust, a screeching pile of headless darkness.

The sword emitted soft honey-colored light illuminating its owner: an attractive, young man, likely to be in his early twenties. His fashionably unruly, dirty blonde strands of straight hair fell into his chrome diopside-green eyes. Muscles flexed as his arms performed a zig-zag motion with his sword, turning it into a plain piece of wood that glistened in the moonlight. In the sudden darkness, a chill ran down my spin and I felt the urge to sprint away. "Cynthia. Cynthia...,"the wind called out to me, "you will be mine...at last."

"Run", the stranger commanded and my feet moved on their own. I cast a look back throughout rounding the block. Where I had stood seconds before, a battle-ax had split the cement in two and defiantly stuck blade-deep in the ground.

Distracted by the concerning sight, my feet caught on something. I hit the ground lenghtwise, managing to scrape both my knees and hands. I groaned, struggeling to retrieve my legs and throwing a look back to a horrific sight. Blood shot eyes, rimmed with dark circles and void of any light stared back at me accusingly. I scrambled back, only to hit the kerbstone with my lower back. No sound would leave my lips whileas my hands frantically wiped my hair out of my face. Wet and warm. The street light flickered on.

Blood.

On my hands.

Everywhere.

"Ahhhhh," I screamed, frightened to death and hit the floor in a full-body tackle again. My eyes flew open to a river of smooth linen and familiar parquet flooring. "Uhm, are you okay?", Sebastian's touseled bed-head appeared above me, his half-closed eyes questioning. "Where did the body go?", I asked, rubbing my forehead that had taken the worst blow. The door to my room flew open with a bang.

"Honey, what happened? I heard you scream!" I groaned before reaching over my matress to throw a pillow at her.

"Mom! I am fine!" I shoved past her and locked the bathroom door behind me. Gliding down the door, my breathing finally slowed. A soft knock vibrated against my back.

"You know, you can tell me anything, sweetheart." The words of my mother faded out when I looked down at my hands. Torn open skin.

The rest of my birthday passed in a blur: the cake tasting, rotting at a bar while Sebastian made small talk with blonde beauties and finally the mandatory Harry Potter-marathon. The clock chimed midnight and I stood in wait behind the entrance door. "Waiting for no one again?", the lean athlete called out from the couch in the living room. "Seb, drop it", I scolded him half-heartedly.

The doorbell rang its cheerful three-tone.

"You're in great danger."

My mouth must have gaped open, due to the attractive stranger placing his index finger under my jaw and snapping it closed. He stepped past me, his coat touching my cheek lightly and leaving me to blink in confusion. The stranger from my dream. My savior -?

"Hold on a second," I closed the front door and grabbed him by the sleeve, "twenty years of knocking only on my birthday. Every single time. And today you show up? - Explain." Annoyed he turned around, giving me a once over, before ripping his shirt out of my grip. "If it were up to me- ", he snapped, but the voice of my mother cut him off.

"Sweetie, who is it?"

Without further ado the stranger had shrugged out of his coat and thrust it into my arms before marching into the living room. I froze in shock prior to following the man that succeeded in making me feel like a stranger in my own home. "Yes, sweetie...", my finacé grinned predatorily, before his eyes landed on Mr. Mystery-man. "What have we got here? Pizza delivery?", Sebastian seized the stranger up, yet did not even bother to get up from the couch.

Everything happened in a matter of milliseconds. The stranger clicked his tongue in disdain and at the blink of an eye did not only sport a white long-sleeve shirt and black suit trousers, but a familiar stick. "What's that for-", I called in question to suddenly feel my heart beating out of my chest. Everything seemed to freeze in motion, taking on a bluish color. My mother stared at us wide-eyed, a bowl of popcorn balancing on her knees. The gold-fish seemed frozen in mid-blubbering and a pig occupied the sofa, baring his belly like a dog wanting to be pet. "Doesn't even know what a wand is", Mr. Confidence whispered under his breath. I intended to query, however, the doorbell played its tune.

"One of your friends?", I rolled my eyes, my hand grabbing the handle and pressing it down. "Do not-", he managed to pry out, by the time a costume tiger holding out a couple of red baloons to me had appeared in the door frame. Strange. I did not recall inviting a cosplayer. "Get down!!" I reached out to grab the gift, but a body slammed into me with full force knocking me back down.

The ringing of the explosion filled my ears with cotton wool. I remembered the appartment building collapsing in flames. My mum. Sebastian. Him.

I awoke soaked in sweat to the sight of a deserted highway rushing by. Thank god, just another nightmare. I stretched my arms, noticing that my back hurt as if something had ripped it in two. "I'd love to be saved too sometime." I gasped meeting the tired forest-green eyes next to me, a metallic smell flooded my nostrils at once. Suddenly, a fast car zoomed past our left side, making the wizard swerve hard to the right. He winced, clutching his stomach and slowed down. A red spot had spread across his dove-white shirt and with the car coming to a halt, I jumped out of the passenger seat. I rounded the car to the sound of crawing above and opened the door of the driver's seat.

Everything had changed.

For worse?