TWO: PLEASE MOON GODDESS. PLEASE.
1077 Words
REYA’S POV
I don’t remember when Ashriel turned his back and walked away.
I don’t remember how long I sat there on the blood-soaked earth, the heat of my parents’ blood already cooling against my skin, my soul torn in half.
But I remember what came next.
The silence broke—shattered—by a single, venom-laced word.
“Traitor!”
It echoed, sharp and sudden, cutting through the stillness like a whip. My head jerked up, instinct before thought.
And then I saw them.
My pack. The people I had grown up with. Faces I knew like my own. Some older, some younger. Familiar. Loved.
They were staring at me with hatred in their eyes.
“You were always one of them!” someone shouted.
“No wonder your family did it. You were part of the plan!”
“No!” I tried to scream, but my voice barely worked. It cracked, raw from sobbing, from grieving. “I didn’t know anything—please—”
But they weren’t listening.
One of them—Torin, a boy I used to play with in the riverbeds, the one who once gave me a carved wolf on my twelfth birthday—picked up a stone.
I saw the moment before he threw it. His eyes locked onto mine. No hesitation.
It hit the side of my temple. Not hard enough to knock me out, but enough to send me reeling. My fingers reached up, came away red.
More stones followed. They rained down like hail. Some missed. Some didn’t.
I stumbled to my feet, heart crashing against my ribs like it was trying to escape.
The first arrow missed.
The second grazed past my cheek.
And that was when I understood — Ashriel hadn’t killed me, but they would.
No hesitation.
No mercy.
So I ran.
I didn’t even feel the pain at first. Just the wind tearing at my dress, the pounding in my skull, the blood already soaking my gown like a second skin. My shoes were gone — I couldn’t remember when. My feet slammed against the earth, and every step burned, rocks and thorns slicing skin open.
But I ran.
Arrows hissed past me like the breath of death itself. One struck the tree just inches from my head. Another ripped through my shoulder. I screamed then, sharp and high, but I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t stop.
They chased me. The people who used to smile when I walked past. The ones who brought cookies to our house when I was little. Who danced at harvest festivals with my mother. Who laughed with my father over bonfires.
Now their faces twisted in fury. Spit flew from their mouths as they shouted for my blood. Some still hurled stones. Others had bows, and the glint of their arrowheads shone like death under the moonlight.
My body screamed in agony, but my mind—my heart—screamed louder.
Why?
Why did they turn on me?
Why did Ashriel?
Why did love die so easily?
I thought of the boy with the dirt-smudged cheeks in the training yard. The boy who used to give me flowers behind the stables. The man who kissed me with trembling hands and eyes full of wonder. The one who blushed when I was bold, who held me like I was his whole world.
That Ashriel.
That Ashriel was gone.
I choked back a sob, biting down so hard on my lip I tasted blood. Another arrow flew and hit—straight into my thigh.
I screamed.
This time, the sound didn’t die in my throat. It echoed through the forest, a cry torn from a soul unraveling.
I stumbled, falling to one knee. The pain was white-hot, lightning through my leg. I gasped, bent forward, hands shaking as I gripped the arrow. It felt like ice plunged into fire. I didn’t think. I didn’t breathe.
I ripped it out.
The scream that followed shredded my throat raw. But I didn’t stop. I tore a piece of my dress with shaking fingers and wrapped it tight around the wound, biting down another scream.
And then I ran again.
One foot in front of the other. Blood dripping down my leg, soaking the fabric. Every breath burned. Like there was fire in my lungs, clawing through my ribs. My body begged me to stop. My mind pleaded for mercy.
But I had none left to give.
Eventually, the trees began to thin.
I crossed the border.
I don’t know when the arrows stopped. I don’t remember the moment they gave up the chase. I only realized when the woods fell silent again.
My knees buckled, but I kept going. One step. Then another. My fingers were numb. My dress in tatters. My face streaked with blood and tears.
I turned to see if I was really free of them when my foot got caught on an exposed root stump. My leg twisted. I crashed to the forest floor, hitting it with a sickening thud. The air whooshed from my lungs. For a moment, I just lay there, face in the dirt, unable to move.
And all I could do was remember.
My mother’s hands in my hair, braiding it with flowers. Her laughter as we danced in the kitchen.
My father’s voice when he called me his little star. The way he lifted me up on his shoulders when I was too tired to walk.
Ashriel’s arms wrapped around me. His soft murmurs. The way he’d kiss my forehead like I was something precious.
Then—Ashriel’s rejection.
His hate.
His coldness.
The pain wasn’t just physical anymore. It was everywhere. Inside me. Around me. Through me.
I sobbed once. Then again. The sound was so small it barely stirred the leaves.
And then I prayed.
To the Moon Goddess I had whispered to as a child when I wanted good dreams. To the one I begged for signs of Ashriel when I was younger. To the one my mother sang hymns for.
I prayed like I never had before.
Please.
Just this once.
Let me live.
Let me live—and I will avenge them. I will avenge the ones who loved me. Who died for a truth I still don’t understand.
Please. Don’t let this be the end.
I closed my eyes.
The pain in my leg pulsed, slow and hot. My breaths grew shallower.
Then darkness claimed me.
- Writer
