mark of the moon child

The Cave

Her eyes slowly opened to a dark room with covered windows. She lifted herself slowly, her head feeling heavy and caught the time on the cable box under the television. 2:04 AM. She'd fallen asleep on the couch before dinner time and hadn't woken up since. She pushed the blanket her aunt had draped over her off and rose to her feet.

She walked to the kitchen where she filled a glass of water. Elle felt like she could drink a gallon her mouth was so dry. She filled her glass again then turned to face the living room. A white light was filling the cracks and spaces between the closed curtains. Elle loved the moon, the stars. They always seemed to calm her when she woke from her nightmares. Her dreams? She didn't know what to call them.

Elle walked to the windows and gently slid the curtain back to its side. She watched the moon, let it calm her as she took a deep breath in. She hadn't had any dreams, she realized. It had just felt empty, like someone removed her thoughts. As she released her breath she looked down to the neighbourhood she was living in. The man stood on the sidewalk looking back at her. Elle gasped, fear shocking her system as she dropped her glass of water letting it shatter and spill on the floor. She closed the curtain quickly and tried to even her breathing.

"Elle? Is everything okay?" She heard Mia calling from her bedroom. Elle looked down at the shards of glass and the water spreading around her feet.

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just tripped and dropped my glass of water. It's okay though, I'm just gonna clean up and go back to sleep." She called back as she rushed to the kitchen for paper towels. Mia went back to sleep and Elle cleaned as quickly as she could.

She shut the cabinet door, where she'd thrown out the glass and paper towels, and stared at the covered window. She walked back to it, slowly, cautiously. But when she moved the curtain, ever so slightly, he was gone. Maybe she was seeing things. Maybe it was all her imagination, her dreams somehow acting up again. She needed to know. Needed to be certain. So, as quietly as she could, Elle unlocked the front door, opened it, and stepped outside closing the door behind her.

She looked around, left to right, and still nothing. She released a breath she was holding, went down the front steps and went further along the walkway. She looked back up to the moon and crossed her arms. The air came back in sharp and the world became a blur. Someone was holding her and moving fast, the air racing against her hair, her skin. She didn't have time to react, to call for help, before she was roughly put down in a cave at one end of the beach she'd spent the day on. She gasped for the air that had whipped out of her, looking around frantically when she finally landed on the silhouette. Half of him was dark, the other lit by the moon.

His body was tall and strong, his skin paled by the moonlight. His dark hair, dark green eyes, his strong jaw, his full lips. It was him. The man she'd run into at the beach, who'd stood outside her window only a moment ago. The man with the black mark.

"What do you want from me?" Elle asked.

"How can you see me?" He said, his voice deep and quiet.

"What?"

"How can you see me?" He repeated, more intensely this time as he moved closer to her. Elle backed away until she hit the wall of rock behind her.

"I don't know, I -" She was so confused. Elle looked out the cave and saw the beach, realized where she was. "How did we get here so fast?" He only stared. Looking so deeply into her eyes it made her uneasy. Yet something almost clicked. "I've seen you somewhere." She whispered, slowly moving towards the opening of the cave. He turned along with her and the light moved over him. "That mark. I've seen it before. In my-"

"In your dreams." He said, stepping forward again. She stepped back, coming closer to the edge of the cave.

"How did you.." So many questions flooded her mind. "Why am I here? Who are you?"

"I think you know." He moved forward again.

"Don't-" She took a step back but couldn't feel the ground. She tried to gain her balance but she continued to fall back into the open. As soon as she lost touch of the ground something stopped her. He held her by her sweater, pulled her up into the air and caught her in his arms. Her arms landed around his neck, their faces barely an inch apart.

"Who are you?" She whispered.

"I was wondering the same thing about you." He answered. She felt such a strong pull to him. Her hands slid down from his neck, she looked down when she felt the collar of his shirt and saw his mark. Elle wrapped her fingers around it and pulled the collar down, revealing more dark thick lines. She looked back into his eyes, almost as if to ask permission, and found his intense gaze on her. She looked back down and brought her fingertips to it. When she touched the mark her fingers warmed and the mark turned red. All of a sudden there was a flash. A rush of pictures, almost like a memory, flooded back into her mind. When she could see again she pushed herself down and away from him.

"What was that?" This time there was an edge to her voice. "Stop just staring at me! What the hell is going on? Those were my nightmares or my dreams, or whatever. Why did I see them when I touched that?" She pointed at his mark. Still he said nothing. "Hey, you're the one who brought me here! Okay I get it, you're into that dark, handsome, mysterious vibe but I need some answers." He smirked.

"You think I'm handsome?" He said with that same intensity. Baffled, she turned and found herself at the edge again.

"There has got to be a way down from here that doesn't involve me plummeting to my death."

"There is." Once again he swept her into his arms and jumped off the edge of the cave landing in the sand.

"Get off me!" Elle pushed herself away from him. She turned away, faced the ocean. Even now she felt the pull to it. The reflection of the moon, the movement of the water.

"It's calming isn't it?" He stepped to her side, breathed in the ocean air.

"I've always felt so pulled to it. It's like it's been calling me my entire life but.." She looked down and stepped back from the water climbing its way towards her. "Please," She said, turning to him. "Please tell me what's going on. When I touched you all these.. whatever they were came flooding in my mind."

"They're your dreams. I took them from you. You took them back."

"You took my dreams?"

"I needed to know more about you." He turned to face her now. "How can you see me?"

"Why couldn't my cousin see you? I mean, yesterday I literally ran into you-"

"No, before that."

"Before what? I've never seen you before yesterday." But when she looked into his eyes she remembered. The shape of him, the way his eyes held so much yet he stayed controlled, trained. 

"In my dreams. You're the one in my dreams. Other people come and go but.. you're always there." His smirk slowly crept back. "Oh, don't flatter yourself. It's not by choice." At the pace this conversation was moving, she figured she should get comfortable. So she took a few more steps away from the water and sat down on the sand. He just looked down at her. "Well, you might as well sit down. We both seem to need some answers."

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This one's a little shorter but hope you like it all the same. ☺️ Hope you'll leave a comment and let me know what you think! Was cool to see it pop up #36 in angelvsdemon. Third chapter will be posted super soon! 

Have an amazing week. 🖤