Under The Moon

one

One 

It's great to be back again. 

My hometown. 

10 years have passed since we decided to move houses but I choose to come back here. I don't remember much about this place, but I know that I have a lot of memories here. 

My family moved to another for an unknown reasons and until now, I had no idea what it was. They won’t tell me. 

I’m 17 and still in high school. They wanted me to enroll in a far away place, like a boarding school, but I decided to come back here. I don’t even know why. It’s just that there was some voice inside my head that told me to go back to where I came from. 

I still remember where we lived before and it’s my cousins who live there now. I have my own apartment and even if my father disagrees with me coming back here, I don’t care. I’m turning 18 soon and I can do whatever I want. 

As I was walking down the hall to my new place, my phone suddenly rang. It’s my mother. I bet she wants me to come back and apologize to my father for disobeying him. 

Well, I am not doing it. 

I have already spent my whole summer with them, so it’s time for me to go back home. I usually visit my parents for holidays and then come back here. It’s been a year since I moved in here for school though.

I ignored her calls and walked directly to my room. 

As I opened it, it’s nothing special but it has everything that I need. A bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. I also have a balcony which is great because I can see the city. 

I placed down my things and went outside my apartment to explore the city. I miss this and even though I’m only away from like two months, I feel like it changed a lot. 

I walked to the cafe near from my apartment and walk again to the park. There were still children playing but their parents really eyed them well. Hmm, it’s not like their kids would vanish in just a blink. 

I sat on the bench while watching them when someone called my name. Ugh. That voice is familiar. 

“Oh, hello, Gav.” I greeted even if it’s disgusting to say his name.

He sneered, “I see you’re back, now.”

“Yeah.” 

“So, school’s starts next week. Are you ready?” he smirked. I averted my gazes and ignored him. 

Gavril Javaid Stark is one of my bully. Why I can’t fight him? Because he’s big enough to crush me into pieces and no, he doesn’t beat me, he just love making me his slave and do his homework most of the time. 

“C’mon, Kori. It’s rude to ignore me.” he added. 

“Yes. Can you please leave me alone now?”

He just give me an annoying pout and shrugged. “Okay.” he plainly said and started to walk away when he stop his tracks and looked at me again, “It’s getting dark, Kori. You should go home. You don’t want some devil to catch you, right?” 

I laugh, “What do you think I am? Twelve?” 

Gavril had no reaction but being serious. 

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” he said and left. 

I was dumbfounded when he said those. He’s really serious but I’m really sure that he’s just messing with me again. People like Gav can’t be trusted. They’re a bunch of idiots and brainless. They know nothing but play football. 

While I was busy thinking on what he said, I just realized that it’s getting late and when I looked at my surroundings, the people who were here earlier was gone already. The kids aren’t playing anymore.

The cold air hits my face and it gave me shivers. I don’t know if this is still shivers or it’s a goosebumps. Something inside me felt that maybe Gavril was telling the truth. 

Does this town had its secret? What is it then?