mark of the moon child

The Mark

"Oh my God. I can't believe it." Elle said as she stood on the curb of a busy street looking out to the view in front of her. "It's all real." Her cousin Mia simply laughed.

Mia had lived here her whole life. She knew this place like the back of her hand. Elle had never been here. She'd seen it in pictures and was told so many stories from people she'd known that had visited. She'd never seen the big blue ocean, or what seemed to be miles and miles of pale sand. She'd never smelled the salty air or felt it glide over her skin. She'd dreamt of it countless times.

"Come on, I've gotta catch these waves before they settle again!" Mia exclaimed before she rushed across the street with Elle right behind her. They claimed their spot on the beach and Elle sat on her towel as she watched Mia run out to the ocean with her surf board under her arm.

Elle admired Mia so much - her confidence, her courage. Elle was afraid of the ocean, always had been. Yet it had always called to her, invited her in. For now, she was completely content with laying on the warm sand letting the sun darken her skin and watching the people around her. She hadn't realized that she'd been drifting off into a deep sleep when her eyes began to close. 

She was swept into the vivid dreams she had seen a million times over. Bright lights slashing through the air, the sounds of people fighting, and there was always a mark somewhere on the  warriors' bodies. The sign was etched into her memory. The way it's black lines curved or stayed straight. She had never been able to find it though, leaving its meaning unknown.

"Wake up! I can't believe you're sleeping through your first day on a California beach." Mia dropped her board and plopped beside Elle, spraying drips of water all around her.

"I didn't even realize I was falling asleep. How long was I out?" Elle asked, putting pressure on the base of the back of her neck.

"A couple hours. Have the same dreams again?" Mia asked before biting into a chicken salad sandwich and offering Elle the other half. She nodded and took the second half of the sandwich. Every single time she dreamt those dreams she woke up with a sharp pain at the nape of her neck, just over to the left side. She figured it to be where she held her tension. Her dreams were rarely relaxed ones.

They spent the entire day at the beach, Mia coming in and out of the water. She tried to convince Elle to join her a couple of times to no avail. Elle read and wrote in her lyric book, listened to tracks she had recorded. She had just completed her first year in college where she'd been accepted into a music program. She'd hated it. The rules, the strict teachers, people constantly telling her to be creative under certain guidelines, the pressure to be the best at it, it all took everything she loved about music away. It became a repetitive chore. And with her dreams getting stronger and more vivid at night, she'd really needed this. Thank goodness Mia and her aunt were there to offer a place to stay, food to eat, and great company.

The sun was beginning to set when the girls decided to pack up for the day and started heading back to Mia's car. They hopped over the short fence dividing the pathway from the beach on one side and the street on the other. They waited by the curb for an opening to rush back to the other side when Elle looked to her left and saw a little girl running straight towards the traffic.

"Hey, that little girl isn't stopping. She's going to get hit!" Elle dropped her bag and raced in what seemed like barely a split second to push the girl out of the way. As she was doing so, she saw a large dark figure in her peripheral running towards them. Elle's heart was racing as she reached for the girl, took her in, and swerved away from the oncoming traffic. She heard the sound of something being hit mixed with a scream so horrifying she bent over the girl to cover her ears as she looked up and saw an explosion of black dust. She rushed to the sidewalk on the other side of the street before a car from the next lane came by and collapsed onto the side walk with the little girl next to her. She was crying and breathing heavily and the traffic became a thick wall of cars again.