Under the Shadow of the Moon

Chapter 13

Luna stepped down the almost empty hallway, minutes away from her next class. Lloyd and Lily stood a few feet behind her, having a giggly conversation. It had been a week since their date, and Luna was certain they'd be going on another one in a few days. Her thoughts were swirling wildly, the voices behind her watery and indiscernible. A feeling like liquid metal pouring through her brain and sliding down her spine filled her body, scattering her already muddy thoughts. She got the feeling like someone else was slipping into her skin, controlling her motions and her thoughts.

She forced her feet to stop moving, clasping her hands over her ears. The voices were becoming unbearably loud. She couldn't tell what they were saying, but they kept prodding at her. It was one voice, Luna realized. One voice she had heard before, but she couldn't remember whose it was. It was shouting over itself now, telling her to do something, to say something. To say something to Lily and Lloyd. Get them apart. The words finally drifted louder than the rest. "I could never do that to her, I care about her... she makes Lloyd happy, I won't do that to them..." Luna muttered, feeling hands on her shoulders as the words tumbled from her lips. If you care about them, you will get them apart. "No..." They don't care about you anyway... not any of them... show them you care by getting them apart. Stay away from them all yourself. They never cared about you.

The person who had come up to her tried to steady her, but she couldn't feel her body, couldn't see anything. Her vision had gone black, the words she couldn't understand tumbling through her mind in repeated strands, leaving her shaking and crying on the sticky linoleum. Her skin was turning a deathly pale and her lips frosted purple. Her eyes were shut tight, and Lloyd's shouting was lost to her. Luna couldn't comprehend what he was saying, but she could feel his arms around her. The voice in her head continued to speak, fading in and out of existence.

Sylvia Russell slipped out of the shadows, scowling at the girl on the floor as she twisted a lock of her almost white hair. "That's interesting," she muttered, stepping around her and continuing down the hall, her friends shouting lost to her. She stopped a few feet away, continuing to watch the scene a mischievous glint in her ice blue eyes.

"Luna! Luna, what happened? Are you okay? What's wrong?" The words spoke over the voice in her mind, but she couldn't work out whose they were. They belonged to a familiar voice, she just couldn't work out which voice it was. Maybe it was Lloyd, maybe it was Trae. Maybe even Harper, she couldn't tell. There were just too many sounds.

Her head filled with the sounds of screams, most likely her own, as the light behind her eyelids danced away from her. Finally the world went fully dark, and she felt the battle inside her subside, her mind growing still. Just before her vision ended, behind her eyelids she could see ice blue eyes, corners turned up in a malicious smile. Ice blue...

Trae looked around as he lifted her off the floor, spotting a head of white tucked into a crook between a row of lockers and a wall. She was muttering to herself, her gaze fixed on Luna, a malicious gleam in her eye. Sylvia. Had she caused this?

☆★☆

Luna opened her eyes, feeling her body lifted off the ground. The arms around her were strong, but straining to carry her. Her eyes remained slitted, almost closed, as the light from around her overwhelmed her senses. "Lloyd?" She croaked out, thinking back to who was there when she fell.

"No, Luna. It's me," Trae's voice came, as strained as his arms as he carried her out of the empty hallway.

"What happened?" She asked, wrapping her arms around his neck to steady herself.

"You must have collapsed or something, Lloyd said that you started muttering to yourself then just passed out or something..."

Luna blinked, her eyes opening wider. "I heard a voice... in my head... it was Sylvia's voice, I'm sure of it. I just don't know what happened. It was like she was telling me to do something, something to hurt the people I care about..."

Trae stayed silent for a ten count, running the new information through his head, connecting it to memories. "That's insane," he said finally.

"You don't believe me?" Her voice was small and shaking.

He looked down to stare into her eyes. "I didn't say that. She was there, when you fell. Right behind a row of lockers. She was muttering something, just staring at you," he paused for a few seconds again. "It's possible she had something to do with this, I just don't know how."

Luna felt the feeling coming back to her legs. "You can put me down now, I can feel my feet again."

He looked back down at her. "Are you sure?"

She nodded, and he set her down, keeping an arm wrapped around her waist to steady her. "Do I still have to go to the nurse?" She eyed the building in front of them.

"Only if you think you need to, but you probably should."

"Let's just go back to class," she muttered.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, leaning her weight against him as her head spun.

He put a cold hand on her face, studying her eyes. "Okay, let's go."