Kill The Luna

42

"Nooooo!"

The desperate, agonizing scream tore violently from the very depths of my throat, ripping through the tense air inside the vehicle. The horrifying sight of Ella being pushed from the moving van made my entire world crash down in a single second. Time seemed to slow down into a terrible, agonizing crawl as her small body was thrown completely clear of the vehicle. For one brief, heart-wrenching moment, she seemed to hang frozen in mid-air against the rushing wind. Her wide, terrified gaze locked directly onto mine, her innocent eyes blinking for a tiny, final fraction of a second as she looked at me through the open space. And then, she fell, disappearing instantly into the blur of the fast-moving asphalt highway behind us.

"No! No! Ella!"

A wild, uncontrolled frenzy of pure panic and grief exploded inside my chest. I scrambled frantically across the floorboards, my heart hammering against my ribs as I tried with all my might to follow her straight out of that broken window. Every single instinct in my body screamed at me to jump after her, to throw myself onto the road to save her, but the two massive men reacted instantly to cut me off. They lunged forward at the exact same time, their heavy, muscular arms wrapping around my torso to block my path.

Because my hands were already securely tied behind my back with the thick nylon ropes, it was incredibly hard for me to properly struggle or break free from their iron grip. The rough fibers dug deep into my wrists, chafing my skin as I thrashed wildly against them. "Let me go, you bastards!" I shrieked, my voice cracking and raw as I kicked my legs out in pure desperation. "Let me go right now! No, no, no!"

But my frantic cries did absolutely nothing to slow them down. They both held onto my small frame with an unyielding, crushing force, using their combined body weight to aggressively slam me back down and pin me flat against the hard floor of the moving van.

I lay there on my side, completely trapped beneath them, but I refused to stop fighting. "No... Ella, no!" I kept screaming at the top of my lungs, my chest heaving with ragged, suffocating breaths as a hot, thick flood of heavy tears began to pour from my eyes, blurring my vision completely. *No, this cannot be happening! It can't be real!*

The sheer agony of losing my only friend snapped something deep inside my mind, filling me with a sudden, supernatural burst of strength. With a violent, wild twist of my torso, I managed to free one of my legs and launched my boot upward, kicking the first guard directly in his face with a solid, crushing strike. He let out a sharp grunt of pain, stumbling backward. At the exact same instant, I whipped my head around and sunk my teeth deep into the fleshy hand of the second guy who was pinning my arms. I bit down with every ounce of strength I had left until the metallic taste of his blood filled my mouth.

The man let out a furious roar of pain, his grip loosening for a split second. Seizing the tiny window of opportunity, I scrambled to my knees and rushed toward the shattered window, my heart bursting with hope. I threw myself at the opening, and half of my body was already hanging completely out of the van into the freezing, rushing wind when a thick hand violently grabbed the fabric of my dress from behind.

With a brutal, angry yank, the guard hauled me back inside the cabin and slammed my body hard against the floorboards. The heavy impact knocked the wind entirely out of my lungs, making my head spin as I gasped for air in the dirt.

The leader stood over me, his face twisted into a dark, furious scowl as he nursed his bleeding hand. "You are incredibly lucky that I am not allowed to kill you, girl!" he spat, his voice trembling with an angry rumble as he stared down at my battered form. "The woman explicitly told us to bring you to her in a completely sound, perfect state. That specific order is your only saving grace today, so stop pushing your luck!"

Without a single bit of gentleness, the two men dragged my aching body off the floor and shoved me roughly into one of the big leather chairs. They grabbed another thick bundle of nylon chords and wrapped about ten heavy ropes tightly around my torso, arms, and legs, binding me so securely to the seat that I could no longer move a single muscle.

As the realization hit me that I could no longer struggle or escape, the final spark of fight drained out of my body. I completely gave up, bowing my head low toward my chest as a fresh wave of quiet, breaking tears filled my eyes and spilled over my cheeks. I shook violently in my restraints, the silence of the van returning as the heavy engine continued to hum beneath us.

*I think I am cursed,* I whispered silently to myself, the dark, heavy thought piercing deep into my soul. *Everything I have ever done in this miserable life has brought nothing but absolute calamity and destruction to the people who dare to get close to me. I think I am just the most unlucky, wretched person in the entire world.*

A thick lump of raw humiliation and grief choked my throat. *What other regular people get so easily in life—peace, safety, friendship—I have to struggle incredibly hard just to glimpse it. I can't even protect the people I love. I should never allow anyone into my life ever again, because the moment I do, they will only end up getting severely hurt or killed.*

*Ella is dead right now, and it is entirely because of me,* I thought, my heart breaking into a million tiny, painful pieces. *It is because of my horrible curse and my endless bad luck. She was thrown out of that window because she made the mistake of being my friend. I should have never agreed to take her out of the mansion with me. I should have left her safe at home.*

I squeezed my eyes shut, a bitter, empty feeling washing over my mind. *I don't even regret being kidnapped today. I don't care about being taken by these monsters, because to be completely honest, I have always had absolutely nothing left to live for anyway. I have no family, no peace, and nothing to motivate me to keep pushing forward in this world.*

*But Ella... she is nothing like me,* I cried silently, my shoulders shaking. *She is so bright, so hardworking, and so completely innocent. She didn't deserve a single bit of this horror. I should have left her behind.* I paused, a sudden, desperate thought hitting my brain like a lightning bolt. *Wait... what if she didn't actually die out there on the highway? What if she survived the fall and is just badly injured?*

My mind scrambled for any tiny bit of hope. *I managed to survive a fall from somewhere much higher in my past, so she should be able to survive this too, right?* But the brutal reality instantly crushed the hope away. *No... she is a regular human girl. She is not like me. She doesn't carry the same strange, heavy curse that I carry in my blood, and the laws of survival might not be the same for her body.*

A dark, heavy cloud settled over my mind, and I simply stared at my lap with empty, dead eyes. *I don't even want to be alive anymore. If she is gone, I could never live with myself.*

Just then, the heavy vibration of the van slowly began to die down, and the vehicle came to a sudden, complete stop. The tires crunched against loose gravel, and the heavy side door was violently slid open, letting a flash of bright afternoon light into the dark cabin. The guard stepped inside, his shadow falling over my bound body as he gave me a rough shove on the shoulder.

"The ride is over, princess," he commanded flatly, his expression entirely unreadable. "You can come down from the car now."

I didn't answer him. I didn't even lift my head, keeping my eyes locked onto the floor as the tears dried on my face. Seeing my total lack of cooperation, the man let out an annoyed hiss. He reached down and quickly sliced the ropes binding me to the chair, then grabbed me aggressively by the arm, pushing me down the metal steps of the van and dragging my weak legs forward across the dirt path.

I forced my feet to move, my eyes slowly adjusting to the bright light as I looked at our surroundings. We were standing in front of a house. It wasn't too big, but the entire outside of the building looked extremely old, weathered, and covered in a thick layer of gray dust, making it look as if absolutely no one had lived there for decades.

But as we finally approached the front wooden door, my eyes widened slightly. Standing right there on the porch was a woman who looked to be in her middle thirties. Her face was notably slim, with sharp, prominent features and a long, pointed nose. The moment her gaze locked onto my face, a slow, deeply unsettling smile spread across her lips.

She stepped forward, her voice filled with a chilling, familiar warmth as she stared down at me. "Welcome back, Fedora."