NIGHT OF REFUGE
617 Words
Episode 4:
By the time the moon reached its peak, Luna and Elias had stumbled upon an abandoned shrine deep in the forest. Its stone walls were cracked, ivy curling over the weathered carvings of forgotten gods. The air carried a faint scent of moss and damp earth, but it felt… safe.
Or safer than the darkness outside.
Elias pushed open the rotting wooden door with a grunt. “We’ll stay here for the night. The Watchers won’t find us so easily.”
Luna stepped inside, her eyes tracing the faded murals on the walls. Figures cloaked in silver, hands lifted to the moon, surrounded by beams of light. The sight stirred something inside her, like a memory just out of reach.
Her hand brushed the cold stone, and for a moment she swore she heard voices again,low chants, like echoes of rituals long past. She shivered and pulled away.
Elias noticed. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” she lied quickly, though her heart pounded. She didn’t want him to look at her differently, not when his steady presence was the only thing keeping her from breaking.
They sat on the floor, leaning against the altar at the shrine’s center. Elias tore a strip from his tunic to bind the scratches on her arms, his hands gentle but firm.
“You scared me back there,” he admitted, voice low. “When you collapsed… I thought I was going to lose you.”
Luna watched his face in the dim light. He had always been there for her, through the stares, the whispers, the loneliness. And now he was here, when the world had turned against her. Her chest tightened with unspoken gratitude.
“I don’t understand what’s happening to me, Elias,” she whispered. “The light, the voices… If the elders were right, then maybe I really am .”
He met her gaze, unwavering. “Cursed or not, you’re still Luna. That’s all that matters to me.”
She looked away, afraid he’d see the fear in her eyes. Afraid he’d see how desperately she wanted to believe him.
Outside, the wind howled. The forest creaked and whispered, but the shrine walls held firm. For a brief moment, it felt as if the world beyond had fallen away.
Sleep claimed Elias first. His head lolled against the altar, his chest rising and falling in steady rhythm. Luna stayed awake, staring at the cracks in the ceiling, her thoughts tangled.
And then the dreams began.
She was standing in the same shrine, but it was whole, alive with light. The air hummed with power, and the figures from the murals stood before her,tall, ethereal, their eyes glowing like silver flames.
One stepped forward, cloaked in shadows and light. Its voice reverberated in her bones:
“Blood Moon’s child, the empire will bleed by your tears. Do you choose to save… or to destroy?”
The ground split beneath her feet, fire on one side, water on the other. She cried out, reaching for Elias, but he was nowhere to be found.
“Stop!” she begged. “I don’t want this!”
The figure’s voice thundered again. “Choice is an illusion. The blood moon’s path is already written.”
Luna jolted awake with a scream, her body slick with sweat. Elias stirred, startled, reaching for her. “Luna? What happened?”
She clutched his arm, trembling. “The dreams… They know me. They know what I am.”
In the silence that followed, the wind outside shifted. A faint silver glow seeped through the cracks of the shrine, bathing her face in light.
And Elias, for the first time, had no words.
- Writer
