THE GIRL WHO REMEMBERED THE MOON

I dreamed about the moon again. Only this time, it was bleeding. I stood barefoot in the middle of a stone courtyard, staring up at a sky that didn't belong to my world. There were two moons. The first was silver, bright enough to turn the stones beneath my feet almost white. The second was red. Not pink. Not orange. Red. It hung low in the sky, enormous and strangely beautiful. I should have been terrified. Instead, I felt something I couldn't explain. Home. The thought came so naturally that I almost laughed. Home? I'd never seen this place before. At least, I didn't think I had. A cold breeze moved through the courtyard. I wrapped my arms around myself. That's when I noticed the boy. He stood beneath a tall stone archway on the other side of the courtyard. He was watching me. "Hello?" He didn't answer. I took a cautious step toward him. "Who are you?" Still nothing. There was something familiar about him. Something that made my chest feel strangely tight. I couldn't see his face clearly, but I knew I had seen him before. Somewhere. Sometime. He finally walked toward me. "Amara." I stopped. My name sounded different in his voice. Almost like he'd been saying it for years. "How do you know my name?" He looked past me. The color drained from his face. "What is it?" I asked. He didn't answer. Instead, he reached into his coat and pulled out a silver necklace. A crescent moon hung from the chain. "Take it." I stared at the necklace. "Why?" "Because you've forgotten." "Forgotten what?" He looked toward the red moon. A c***k appeared across its surface. Then another. My stomach dropped. The entire sky seemed to tremble. The boy grabbed my wrist. "Amara, listen to me." "What?" "When you wake up, find Kael." "Who is Kael?" His eyes met mine. For the first time, I saw fear in them. "You'll remember." The red moon shattered. I screamed. And woke up. I sat bolt upright in bed, gasping. My room was dark. For a few seconds, I couldn't remember where I was. Then I heard the familiar hum of my old fan. My school uniform hung over the back of my chair. Books were scattered across my desk. Everything was normal. Everything except the pounding in my chest. I rubbed my eyes. "Just a dream." I said it out loud because somehow saying it made it feel more believable. I reached for my phone. 6:17 a.m. "Seriously?" School started in less than an hour. I pushed the blanket aside and climbed out of bed. Then something cold touched my skin. I froze. Slowly, I looked down. A silver chain rested against my chest. My breath caught. The crescent necklace. The exact necklace from my dream. "No." I grabbed it. It was cold. Real. My fingers trembled as I turned it over. There was writing on the back. Tiny letters had been carved into the metal. I moved closer to the window so I could see them. Two lines. AMARA. FIND KAEL. I stared at the words. "Who is Kael?" A knock came from my bedroom door. I nearly threw the necklace across the room. "Amara?" My guardian's voice. I shoved the necklace beneath my pillow. "Yeah?" The door opened. She stepped inside carrying a basket of laundry. She took one look at me. "You look exhausted." "Good morning to you too." "I meant you look like you didn't sleep." "I had a weird dream." She dropped a shirt into the basket. "What kind of dream?" "Nothing important." She gave me a suspicious look. "You've never been good at hiding things." I sighed. "Maybe I'm getting better." She smiled. Then her eyes moved to the pillow. "What are you hiding?" "Nothing." "Amara." I reached beneath the pillow. For some reason, I didn't want to show her the necklace. Maybe because I knew she would think I was imagining things. Maybe because some small part of me already knew that it mattered. But I pulled it out anyway. "I woke up wearing this." The basket slipped from her hands. Clothes spilled across the floor. She didn't move. She didn't even seem to notice. Her eyes were fixed on the necklace. "Where did you get that?" "I just told you. I woke up wearing it." She walked toward me. Her face had gone pale. "Give it to me." I hesitated. "Why?" "Amara. Give it to me." Something in her voice made me hand it over. She turned the necklace around. Her fingers stopped when she saw the engraving. Her lips parted. One word escaped them. "Kael." My stomach tightened. "You know him?" She looked up quickly. "No." "You just said his name." "I said nothing." "Yes, you did." She placed the necklace on my desk as though it had suddenly become dangerous. "Get dressed." "What?" "Get dressed." "Why?" "We're leaving." I stared at her. "Leaving where?" "Somewhere safe." "Safe from what?" She didn't answer. I stepped closer. "You know something." "Amara—" "Who is Kael?" Her expression changed. For just a second, she looked less like my guardian and more like someone who had been waiting for a disaster to find us. "I don't know anyone named Kael." "Then why are you scared?" She went silent. That was my answer. Before I could ask another question, something slammed against my bedroom window. We both jumped. I turned. A crow sat on the outside of the glass. Its feathers were completely black. Its eyes were silver. It stared directly at me. My guardian whispered, "Don't move." The crow tilted its head. Then something dropped from its beak. A folded piece of paper landed on the windowsill. The bird flew away. I walked toward the window. "Amara, don't." I stopped. "You know what that is?" "No." "Then why are you afraid of it?" She didn't respond. I opened the window and picked up the paper. There were four words written across it. DON'T TRUST THE BOY. My heart began to race. I unfolded it. A second message was written underneath. HE HAS ALREADY FOUND YOU. I looked at my guardian. "Who?" She stared at the message. Then at me. There was something in her eyes I'd never seen before. Regret. "Amara," she said quietly, "there are things about your life that I wanted to protect you from." My throat tightened. "What things?" She looked at the necklace. "Things you were never supposed to remember." Before I could respond, the lights went out. The room fell completely dark. I heard a sound downstairs. A scrape. I held my breath. Another scrape. Closer. My guardian grabbed my hand. "Stay behind me." "What is that?" "I don't know." "You obviously know something." She pulled me toward the wardrobe. The scraping stopped. Silence. Then came a knock from downstairs. Three slow knocks. My guardian's face changed. "Amara." "What?" "If I tell you to run, you run." My heart hammered. "Why?" She didn't answer. Instead, she pressed her hand against the wooden wall beside the wardrobe. A click sounded. The wardrobe moved. I stared. Behind it was a narrow passageway hidden inside the wall. I had lived in this house for years. I'd never known it was there. "What is this?" "A way out." "Out of what?" She grabbed my shoulders. "Listen to me." I had never heard her sound like this. "Whatever happens, don't come back for me." My eyes widened. "What?" "Go." "I'm not leaving you." "Amara, go!" Something crashed downstairs. The sound shook the floor beneath our feet. My guardian pushed me into the passage. I grabbed her hand. "You promised." She looked at me. For a second, neither of us moved. Then she whispered, "I'm sorry." The hidden door slammed shut between us. Darkness swallowed me. I stood frozen. I could hear my own breathing. Then footsteps. Someone was coming up the stairs. Slow. Heavy. One step at a time. I backed away from the door. My fingers closed around the necklace. It suddenly became warm. Hot. A sharp pain flashed through my head. And then I remembered. A courtyard. Two moons. The red sky. The boy. Kael. His face appeared in my mind with terrifying clarity. But that wasn't the worst part. I remembered something else. Something I had forgotten for seventeen years. Kael had been standing beside me before. Not in my dream. In a memory. And he wasn't protecting me. He was hunting me. My breath caught. A voice came through the other side of the wall. His voice. "Amara." I stumbled backward. No. It couldn't be him. Not here. Not now. The voice came again. "Amara, if you can hear me..." A pause. Then, much quieter: "...run." I pressed my back against the wall. Because suddenly, the warning made sense. It wasn't telling me to run from the boy. It was telling me that the boy had already found me. And somehow... I had been waiting for him too.