Reclaiming the Luna's Throne

Breaking all the Rules

[Natalie]

I swore to myself under my breath.

What the hell was I doing?

Firstly, I'd gone for a walk in the park, alone, in the middle of the night.

Then, I’d thought I was going to end up a statistic in the newspaper, murdered by some random – surprisingly hot – thug in the middle of the woods.

And now, after worrying that he was a stalker who was going to follow me back to my apartment… I was actually... taking him back to my apartment.

I must have a death wish or something?

But strangely enough, once the initial adrenaline of encountering a shadowy figure in the middle of the park at night had worn off, I felt unusually calm around him.

He told me he wasn’t going to hurt me, and for some weird reason, I believed him.

And how did he know my age and that I was an orphan?

Maybe he had been stalking me, but I was dead certain I would have noticed someone like him following me… he didn’t exactly… blend in. Anywhere.

He was following quietly behind me now, keeping a polite distance but keeping up easily with his long strides taking casually slow steps.

Actually, now that I thought about it, I was surprised how quiet he was given how big he was. It wasn’t just that he wasn’t saying anything, I could barely hear his footsteps crunching on the gravel path.

My own seemed monstrously loud in comparison, as obnoxious as stilettos ringing against a hard stone floor. It was kind of embarrassing. Had I always been this clunky and loud?

They exited the park and started walking through the city. It was soon approaching dawn, so there wasn’t much traffic about yet other than the occasional taxi preparing for the day. s**t, had I really stayed up all night? (Again - another of my terrible life habits.)

I stole a glance back at my unexpected companion and was surprised to see him looking smaller, like he was drawing in on himself.

His eyes were alert and wide, darting around between cars and buildings as if he were… overwhelmed? He paused for a second, his gaze travelling up a high rise to its peak looming above them and then seemed to snap himself out of it, quickening his next few steps to catch back up to me.

He said something about me not being from here? Guess he wasn’t, either. Some small country town perhaps.

All of a sudden I got a flutter in my stomach. A small country town? And he knows my background?

I knew I'd been dropped off basically in the middle of nowhere as a baby and despite years of searching through databases I'd never had any luck finding anything about my potential birth parents. Could he know something?

All of a sudden I was excited about the idea of possible information about my hazy past, and quickened my pace.

“It’s just down here.”

I got my key out and led him up to my apartment, suddenly feeling the fatigue set in as I laid eyes on the bed. He’d stepped through the door and seemed to be staring at it a little longer than necessary, and I suddenly felt embarrassed about the state of it and ducked over to straighten the sheets a little, giving the duvet one final ineffective little pat as I cleared my throat. As if that could hide what had gone on there last night.

“Ah… coffee?”

The kettle was going almost before he could even reply. I sure needed it at any rate, but was grateful that he nodded. At least having a cup of coffee to sit and hide behind would make this a little less awkward, or so I hoped.

Scratch that. A mug of coffee.

“Sorry.. I only have instant”

He stood off to the side as I quickly made up the two large coffees and looked quietly around the room. At least he wasn’t one of those people that invited themselves to walk around and start poking through your stuff.

Not that I had much, but I'd tried my best to make it cosy.

I look at my table and one chair, and thought about whether the crate would take his weight. No way. I gesture him to take the chair. I then grab a cushion from the small sofa and put it on the crate before I sit down. I had a gut feeling this was going to be a long conversation.

“Thanks.” He took the coffee, the mug looking more or less like a regular cup in his huge hands anyway, and sat in the chair, resting his muscular forearms against the table.

All of a sudden I felt somehow nervous about sitting down in close proximity to this stranger from the park I had just, for some stupid reason, spontaneously decided to invite into my home.

These are the kind of i***t decisions you make when you don’t sleep!

I scolded myself, but cleared my throat slightly again.

“So uh… what did you want to talk about?”