whispers beneath the moon

Chapter Four:The secret night

The night whispered the endings, ending of Amina and Khalid love story,the air was heavy with the scents of earth and pine;the moon hung swollen and Khalid chest tightened with every breath,he had managed to keep Amina away for so long,keeping his whole truth far away from her behind careful silences and half smiles,but fate was a predator that did not loosen its jaw once it had bitten .

That evening,Amina followed him .

she is absolutely tired of questions without answer,of his sudden disappearances of the shadows that clung to him like chains.

when she sighed at him past the village edge,his shoulders tense beneath the weight of some unseen burden,her heart refused to let him vanish away quietly,she trailed him into the forest,her footsteps masked by the rustling leaves and the night wind.

khalid sensed it_her presence but before he saw his heart dropped,his kind were trained to smell and hear everything coming even before they got to him,yet his longing for Amina had dulled his instincts,left faintly in the dark and oh! there she was:standing with resolve,her shawl pulled tight against the chill,her gaze steady.

"Amina" he breathed,there is a mixture of panic and desperation in his voice,"you should not be here"he said looking pitiful.

"then tell me why",she demanded.

"tell me why you vanish when the moon is full ,tell me why your eyes burn like fire and why you are so afraid to let me in",she asked with curiosity.

although her words trembled ,her spirit did not,she stepped closer ,and Khalid felt himself unravelled ,he wanted to push her away,to lie once more ,but something inside him shattered,the beast within,restless and impatient,clawed against his ribs,the moonlight was merciless;the change was coming,almost near.

"please" khalid whispered ,his voice breaking,"if you love me,leave now don't look back ".

because Khalid never wanted the secret of who he truly was to be revealed to Amina.

but Amina acted the other way round ,she shakes her head in disagreement with the instructions Khalid gave her ."if I love you? khalid ,it's because I love you that I will not leave whatever you are , whatever this is _i will face it with you"

and then it began.

his body convulsed,a guttural cry tearing from his throat as bones cracked and shifted.his hands curled into claws,fur sprouting like wildfire across his skin,his golden eyes burned brighter,almost blinding even in the dark.

The transformation was brutal,horrifying and yet it was the truth she had begged and longed to see

Amina did not scream,as if she had prepared for this,as if she saw it coming,her lips parted,her eyes wide open but there was no fear ,no drama,only awe and sorrow......she stumbled back a step,but her hand lifted toward him as if reaching for the boy still buried inside the beast.

"khalid",she whispered pitifully,her voice breaking like fragile glass. "it's still you,I know it's still you".....she said with voices full of pity and love

the wolf snarled,trembling,torn between the hunger of instinct and the tether of love,he should have run,hidden himself, spared her this,but her defiance,her unwavering gaze,bounded him to the ground;till he regained his human self back

in that moment,Khalid knew:she had seen his truth,and yet she chose him still.

it was the begining of her doom.

"I am afraid of loosing you",Khalid said softly and though it was not the whole,it was true enough.

Amina reached for his hand then,her fingers weaving into his,grounding him in a way nothing else could. "then don't lose me, whatever storm you are carrying let me share it with you,you are not in this alone,I am not afraid of the dark if it leads me to you ".

her courage both broke him and built him,in her eyes,he saw a world that could never exist for both of them,yet he wanted it all the same .