Kill The Luna

36

The moment we officially stepped past the heavy iron gates of the pack walls, the massive stone barriers felt like a completely different world fading behind us. We started walking down the long, dusty main road, the afternoon sun beating down on our shoulders as the minutes slowly ticked by. We kept pushing forward for about thirty-one long, exhausting minutes, our boots kicking up small clouds of dirt with every single step. My legs were burning, and my throat felt completely parched. I finally stopped in my tracks, bending over slightly to rest my hands on my knees as I looked at the endless road ahead.

I turned my head toward Ella, my eyes widening in pure disbelief. "Wow... I honestly had absolutely no idea that the pack walls were this massive, or that the distance to a nearby house or shop was this incredibly far. Why on earth didn't you warn me about this before we left the mansion?"

Ella paused beside me, a guilty but playful smile breaking across her face as she shrugged her shoulders casually. "Well, to be completely honest, I just thought you loved walking as much as I do! I figured a nice, long walk under the sun would create the absolute perfect time for us to do some deep roommate bonding."

I shook my head from side to side, a dry, sarcastic laugh escaping my lips as I stared at her in utter disbelief. "Bonding while suffering? Let me tell you something right now, Ella—there is absolutely no real bonding to be found in pure physical pain. True bonding only happens when we are experiencing luxury and enjoyment, not when our feet are literally blistering!"

Ella’s eyes lit up, and without a single word, she dipped both of her hands deep into the front pockets of her white cleaning apron once again. With a triumphant grin, she pulled out two small, chilled cans of classic Coca-Cola, the metal surfaces covered in tiny droplets of cold condensation. "Fear not, Luna Fedora!" she cheered proudly, holding one of the red cans out to me with a dramatic bow. "I brought us a little something sweet to sustain our energy along the way. See? I told you I always come fully prepared!"

I eagerly snatched the cold can from her fingers, popping the tab open with a sharp click before taking a quick sip. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, giving her a pointed look. "All of these sugary things are just light foods, Ella. They don't actually give a person real physical strength. I don't want liquid sugar; I want real, heavy food."

Just then, the dusty trail finally opened up, and we successfully approached the edge of a paved main road. A massive wave of relief washed over my chest, and I let out a loud gasp. "Ah! Finally, civilization!" I breathed. We stood by the shoulder of the empty road, anxiously waiting for a yellow cab or any passing car to drive by, but the highway remained completely dead and silent. Exhausted from the half-hour trek, my knees gave out, and I simply dropped my body down, sitting directly on the dusty floor of the roadside.

Ella burst into a sudden, ringing fit of laughter, pointing a finger down at me as she shook her head. "Luna Fedora! Oh my goodness, you are literally sitting right on the bare dirt floor!"

I looked down at the gravel and dry grass surrounding my buttocks, then looked back up at her, raising a single eyebrow in total defiance. "Yes, I am. Is there a specific problem with that?"

"Your clean clothes are going to get completely dirty, Luna!" she protested, her hands flying to her cheeks in mock horror.

I let out a loud, frustrated hiss, rolling my eyes toward the sky. "The way you screamed, I thought you had actually spotted a venomous snake or something dangerous crawling toward us! You really have some serious mental problems, Ella. If my clothes get a little bit of dirt on them, so what? I have plenty of clean dresses waiting for me back in the wardrobe."

"Ohh... right," Ella murmured softly, a look of sudden realization washing over her features as if she had just remembered the black credit card sitting securely in my pocket. A gentle, quiet expression settled over her face, and she slowly lowered her body down to sit right beside me in the dirt. She shifted closer, leaning her upper body against mine before gently resting her head flat against my shoulder, her breathing slowing down as she stared at the empty road.

The silence stretched between us for a long moment before she spoke, her voice dropping into a quiet, strangely heavy whisper. "Luna Fedora... if I were to suddenly die one day, would you genuinely miss me?"

My heart squeezed uncomfortably at the morbid question, but I kept my face completely blank. "No," I replied bluntly, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead.

Ella instantly whipped her head up in pure surprise, her eyes widening as she stared at me with a deeply hurt expression. "What? Why?!"

I turned my head to look into her big, innocent eyes, a soft, bittersweet smile touching my lips. "Because I am absolutely going to die long before you ever do, Ella. And don't you dare try dying before me, because if you do, I swear I will hunt you down and kill you myself."

A bright, joyful chuckle escaped her throat, and she shook her head at my ridiculous logic. "That is completely absurd, Fedora! You can't possibly kill me if I am already dead and gone."

"Oh, yes I can," I countered playfully, narrowing my eyes. "I can easily kill your wandering spirit, or completely destroy your soul in the afterlife." Ella’s smile widened, her shoulders shaking with quiet amusement. Seizing the moment of distraction, I raised my hand and gave her shoulder a small, gentle push, sending her tumbling sideways onto the grass.

"Hey! What on earth was that sudden push for?" she laughed, scrambling back up into a sitting position while wiping the dry blades of grass from her arms.

I looked away from her, my smile completely fading as a dark, heavy cloud of reality settled back over my mind. My voice dropped into a somber, serious whisper. "I'm intentionally making you hate me right now, Ella. Because the exact way I see things going in this pack... I might not be around here for very much longer."

Ella’s playful expression vanished instantly, replaced by a fierce, stubborn look of determination. She reached out and tightly grabbed my wrist. "Of course you will be here, Fedora. Don't say things like that."

Before I could even respond to her comfort, a sudden flash of yellow caught the corner of my eye. A battered old cab was cruising down the asphalt road toward us. I leaped to my feet instantly, grabbing Ella tightly by the hand and violently pulling her up from the dirt. "Look! A car!" I shouted. We both rushed toward the edge of the pavement, frantically waving our arms up and down in the air, jumping and shouting at the top of our lungs to get the driver's attention.

The car's brakes let out a loud, piercing squeal as the driver finally slowed the vehicle down, pulling over onto the gravel shoulder right in front of us. The dusty window rolled down slowly, revealing a middle-aged man behind the wheel. The moment my eyes locked onto his face, a cold chill of pure terror traveled straight down my spine. The driver was staring directly at us, his features twisted into an incredibly angry, mean, and aggressive scowl. His dark eyes were completely blank, his true expression entirely unreadable and empty of any human warmth.

A heavy, suffocating bad feeling instantly exploded deep in my stomach. Looking at the sinister expression on the strange man's face, a silent alarm bell began screaming inside my head, warning me that something incredibly bad was about to happen to us.