The moon cracks
1270 Words
Later That Night
Lior couldn't sleep.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the frost spreading across the glass.
The broken crescent.
The strange silver mark beneath his skin.
He sat cross legged on his bed, staring at his wrist.
The mark had faded completely.
If he hadn't seen it himself, he would have convinced himself that it had all been a dream.
Slowly, he touched the place where the mark had appeared.
The instant his fingers brushed his skin, a sharp pulse shot through his arm.
Lior gasped.
Images flooded his mind.
Rain pouring from a dark sky.
A forest.
A woman crying.
A newborn baby's cry cutting through the darkness.
The images lasted only a second.
Then they vanished.
Lior nearly fell off the bed.
His chest rose and fell rapidly.
"What was that?"
The room offered no answer.
Only silence.
The digital clock beside his bed glowed softly.
3:17 AM.
He rubbed his eyes.
Sleep was impossible now.
The strange feeling inside him continued to grow.
It felt like a knot tightening somewhere deep inside his chest.
As though something was trying to wake up.
Something that had been sleeping for a very long time.
Unable to sit still, he grabbed his hoodie and quietly left his room.
The hallway was dark.
Miriam's bedroom door remained closed.
He slipped downstairs and stepped outside.
The cold air hit him immediately.
The town was asleep.
Streetlights illuminated empty roads.
A few distant dogs barked somewhere in the distance.
Lior shoved his hands into his pockets and began walking.
He didn't know where he was going.
Only that he needed space to think.
The strange feeling guided him.
Step by step.
Street by street.
Until he found himself standing near the edge of the forest.
He frowned.
He hadn't planned on coming here.
In fact, he usually avoided the woods at night.
Yet standing there now felt strangely natural.
Comforting even.
The realization unsettled him.
The trees stood motionless beneath the pale light.
Watching.
Waiting.
Lior swallowed.
A strange whisper brushed against his ears.
So faint he almost missed it.
He froze.
The whisper came again.
Not a voice exactly.
More like a feeling.
A distant echo.
His pulse quickened.
"Hello?" he called.
Nothing answered.
Only silence.
The strange sensation disappeared immediately.
The forest became ordinary once more.
Lior stared into the darkness for several seconds before backing away.
For the first time in his life, he felt afraid.
Not of the forest.
Not of the darkness.
Of himself.
Because something impossible was happening.
And he had absolutely no idea why.
---
Several towns away, Kael sat alone behind an abandoned storage building.
His face still ached from the beating.
A cut beneath his lip had begun to dry.
His ribs hurt every time he breathed.
Yet none of that mattered.
The only thing he could think about was what had happened in the kitchen.
The shadows.
The fear in Mr. Matthison's eyes.
For years Kael had dreamed about seeing that fear.
Now that it had happened, he couldn't stop replaying it.
He picked up a small stone from the ground.
Rolled it between his fingers.
Then threw it toward a nearby dumpster.
The stone struck metal with a loud clang.
Nothing unusual.
Kael sighed.
Maybe he had imagined everything.
Maybe the pain had finally driven him insane.
The thought annoyed him.
He grabbed another stone.
This time, as he threw it, he focused.
Really focused.
The air suddenly turned cold.
The stone curved slightly before hitting the dumpster.
Kael froze.
His eyes widened.
It wasn't much.
Most people wouldn't have noticed.
But he had.
The stone had changed direction.
Only slightly.
But enough.
Enough to prove it was real.
A slow smile spread across his face.
For the first time in years, something belonged to him.
Something nobody could beat out of him.
Something nobody could take away.
Power.
The word sent a thrill through his body.
He liked the sound of it.
Far more than he should have.
A pair of headlights swept across the alley.
Kael looked up.
For a brief moment, his shadow stretched across the brick wall behind him.
His smile disappeared.
The shadow wasn't moving correctly.
It lagged behind him.
Only for a second.
Then it snapped back into place.
Kael stared.
The headlights disappeared.
Darkness returned.
His shadow looked normal again.
A chill ran through him.
Not fear.
Excitement.
The kind that comes before a storm.
"What are you?" he whispered.
No answer came.
Yet somehow he felt as though something had heard him.
Something old.
Something patient.
Something waiting.
---
That night both boys dreamed.
Neither would remember much when morning came.
Only fragments.
Broken pieces.
A silver symbol glowing in the darkness.
A locked door.
Footsteps fading into the distance.
A feeling of loss so deep it made their hearts ache even in sleep.
And through it all came the same sensation.
Not loneliness.
Not fear.
Absence.
As though a part of them had been missing for their entire lives.
When dawn finally arrived, both boys woke exhausted.
Neither understood what was happening.
Neither knew that the strange events of the night were only the beginning.
But far away, someone else had felt it.
A man stood beside a floor to ceiling window overlooking a sleeping city.
His reflection stared back at him from the glass.
Dark hair.
Cold eyes.
A patient smile.
For sixteen years he had waited.
For sixteen years he had searched.
Now, at last, he felt it.
The awakening.
The twins' power had begun to surface.
And Malek smiled.
Because the game was finally beginning.
Malek remained standing by the window long after the sun began to rise.
The city slowly awakened beneath him.
Cars filled the streets.
Lights flickered on in distant buildings.
People started their ordinary lives, completely unaware that something extraordinary had just happened.
He could feel it.
A faint disturbance.
Like ripples spreading across still water.
For sixteen years, the twins had remained hidden.
Silent.
Dormant.
Now their power had begun to stir.
His smile widened.
"At last."
The words were barely more than a whisper.
He turned away from the window and walked toward a large desk positioned in the center of the room.
Several photographs lay scattered across its surface.
Most were old.
Some damaged by time.
One showed a young woman with dark hair and bright eyes.
Roselyn.
Malek's gaze lingered on the photograph for several seconds.
Then he picked it up.
"You tried so hard to keep them from me."
His voice held neither anger nor sorrow.
Only amusement.
Slowly, he placed the photograph back down.
Beside it sat two empty folders.
One marked with the letter L.
The other marked with the letter K.
For years they had remained almost empty.
Now that would change.
Malek opened the folder marked K.
Inside were a handful of reports.
School records.
Foster care documents.
Witness statements.
A cruel smile touched his lips.
"Poor Kael."
The boy had suffered exactly as expected.
Pain was an excellent teacher.
Pain created strength.
And strength created useful tools.
He closed the folder and reached for the second one.
L.
The smile faded slightly.
Lior would be more difficult.
Loved children often resisted darkness.
But everyone had weaknesses.
Eventually he would find Lior's too.
Malek closed both folders.
Outside, the first rays of sunlight spilled across the city skyline.
A new day had begun.
And far away, two boys woke with no idea that their lives had already started moving toward a future neither could escape.
A future written long before they were born.
- Writer
