Marked by The Moon

Chapter Two

I’ve always hated my birthday.

Most people look forward to theirs — cake, parties, photos they’ll regret later.

But for me, it’s always been a night wrapped in tension.

A night when the air grows too still.

A night when my grandparents stay awake longer than usual, whispering prayers they refuse to explain.

This year is no different.

I turned eighteen three days ago… and everything has been strange ever since.

The dreams started first — the forest, the whisper, and the two figures watching me from the shadows.

My grandmother’s hands tremble whenever I mention them.

She doesn’t say why.

And then last night…

the mud on my feet.

The pine scent.

The way my heart kept pounding like I was still running.

Today, even sunlight feels wrong.

I walk across campus, books clutched to my chest, pretending I don’t feel watched.

Pretending I don’t feel pulled, as if something just beyond the trees wants me to step closer.

To follow.

A breeze sweeps through the courtyard, cold for a warm day.

It brushes the back of my neck like fingers.

I shiver.

“Jenna!”

Tessa’s voice breaks the spell, loud and chaotic as usual.

She jogs up beside me, red braids bouncing, her expression equal parts worry and annoyance.

“You okay? You look like you just saw a ghost. Or failed an exam.”

She nudges me with her elbow.

“Just tired,” I say — the safest lie.

She squints at me through her oversized glasses.

“Did you have another one of your freaky I-swear-it-was-real dreams?”

I don’t answer.

Which is an answer in itself.

Tessa releases a breath and slips her arm through mine, grounding me like she always does.

“Well, don’t think I’m letting you wander around like a haunted Disney princess today. You’re sticking with me.”

I almost smile.

Almost.

We’re halfway to class when the wind shifts again.

This time, I smell it — pine.

Cold earth.

And something warm and feral underneath, something that makes the hairs on my arms rise.

I stop walking.

Tessa stops too. “Jenna…?”

There’s nothing there.

Just students.

Just campus.

Just daylight.

But my pulse races.

My skin tightens.

And deep inside my chest, something ancient stirs, stretching like a creature waking from a long, long sleep.

I’m not alone.

I don’t know how I know it.

I just do.

Someone is here.

Someone who has been looking for me for a very long time.