THE UNIQUE LUNA

CHAPTER 5: PRESENT DAY

I jolted awake, my chest tight as I glanced at my wristwatch. 10:15 a.m. My math class started at 10, and I was already late. Not that it mattered—my professor probably wouldn’t care if I showed up at all. Most of the faculty and students, frankly, wished I’d just disappear. But I refused to grant them that satisfaction. I needed my education. I needed to survive on my own. I had no one else.

Tossing my cigarette aside, I strode toward the Math Building. Students scattered around me, instinctively giving me a wide berth. Their eyes were sharp, curious, even judgmental, and their whispered conversations reached my ears like faint static. They looked at me like I carried a contagious disease, a curse.

The same treatment, huh.

After that incident… the k********g… I had become the center of rumors, the school’s tragic headline. I was the sole survivor, and instead of pity, I received fear and suspicion. Whispers called me the “friend killer.” I was cursed in their eyes. And for almost two years, I accepted it.

“Who needs friends anyway?” I muttered under my breath, my hands clenched into fists. “I’ve been alone for almost two years—and I survived.”

‘You’re not alone. You forgot I’m still here,’ a familiar voice whispered in my mind.

I stopped in my tracks, my forehead creasing in frustration. “Shut up! I told you never to speak to me again until we die!” I yelled silently. A soft whimper answered me, and I groaned.

Heads turned. Students stared at me like I’d lost my mind. Great. Now I was crazy, cursed, and alone—the trifecta.

I shook it off and continued walking, though the weight in my chest made each step feel heavy. Then a scent hit me. Faint, familiar… yet sharp, and entirely new. My nose twitched instinctively, and I shook my head. I’m imagining things. I’m losing it.

By the time I reached the math classroom, the scent had grown stronger. Vampires. Werewolves. Mixed among my classmates. My chest tightened again as I entered. All eyes turned toward me immediately, their expressions a mix of disgust, hatred, and blame.

They blamed me for Donna and Drake. For their deaths. My friends who had been ripped away in that tragedy. I had survived—and they hadn’t. I exhaled, swallowing a lump of guilt that lodged in my throat.

I was human. Their laws forbade them from harming me directly. That gave me a small, bitter comfort.

The professor droned on, pretending I didn’t exist. I smirked and slid into my seat. Some of my werewolf classmates muttered excuses and left, pale with fear. Then, the sharp, metallic scent of blood wafted through the air. My stomach churned violently, and I discreetly pressed a hand over my nose.

Something is wrong, my instincts whispered. But I shrugged, forcing my attention back to numbers and formulas, though the tension in my muscles refused to ease.

By the time I walked to my English class, the whispers of my werewolf classmates reached me again. Rogues—outsiders, outcasts, wolves abandoned from their packs—had infiltrated their territory. They had killed some pack members and captured humans as hostages.

My chest tightened. Rogues were reckless. Dangerous. But entering this school? That was pure suicide. This area was under the protection of a powerful Alpha, someone I had never met—and I prayed I never would. Donna’s mate. A man whose anger I could only imagine.

And then… my thoughts drifted. Alexei. That maniacal doctor, obsessed with power, with me. He was back. I could feel it, the unmistakable tug of danger that only he brought. My breath quickened, my hands trembling slightly.

No. Calm down, Freya. You’re safe now. The voice inside my head tried to soothe me.

I looked around. Students stared at me, curious and fearful, but no one came to help. No one could. I was untouchable to them. Helpless, isolated… again.

I hugged myself and bolted for the woods beside the school. This area had become my sanctuary, my hideout whenever the world felt too heavy. The green canopy of trees, the soft rustle of leaves in the wind, the earthy scent—it all calmed me, if only slightly. I sank to the ground beneath my favorite tree and exhaled deeply.

Being alive… was it truly a blessing? My life was a shattered mosaic of guilt, fear, and endless solitude. It would never be normal again.

I missed Nina and Bella. My best friends. The only ones who had truly listened to me, who had never judged me. But they were gone. Forever.

My gaze fell to the scars on my arms and legs, reminders of the horrors I had endured. No human knew what had happened that day, and I swore I would keep it that way. I carried the blame for everyone, protecting the secrets of those who could no longer defend themselves.

Families hated me. Friends despised me. And now… I was completely alone.

The wind brushed against my face as I hugged my knees, trying to calm my racing heart. The shadows of the forest stretched around me, the sunlight fractured by leaves above, and for a moment, I allowed myself to imagine a world where I wasn’t hated, where I wasn’t cursed, where I wasn’t the survivor.

But reality rushed back, cold and unyielding. Alexei was out there. And even if Dwight, the Alpha, protected the school, he would never know the truth. Only I could see the threat he posed. And for the first time in a long while, fear settled deep in my chest.

Alone.

The word echoed in my mind, heavier than any chains. I had survived the tragedy once, but surviving now meant hiding from monsters everyone else didn’t see. Not just rogues… not just the pack… but Alexei.

And I didn’t know if I was strong enough to survive again.