Thin Ice
967 Words
Sienna hadn’t said a word to Luna in two days.
She barely looked at her during breakfast, avoided her gaze in the halls at school, and when Luna tried to sit beside her during their walk home, Sienna simply pulled out her earbuds and quickened her pace.
It gnawed at Luna more than she expected.
Finally, that evening, as dusk settled and their parents were out running errands, Luna knocked gently on Sienna’s bedroom door.
No response.
She opened it anyway.
Sienna sat cross-legged on her bed, flipping through a worn novel, though her eyes weren’t moving.
“Can we talk?” Luna asked, her voice soft.
Sienna didn’t look up. “About what? The fact that you're not our biological sister? Magic necklaces and family lies?”
Luna winced. She stepped in, shutting the door behind her. “I didn’t ask for any of this, Sienna. I’m still trying to figure it out myself.”
“You shouldn’t have gone down there,” Sienna said, finally locking eyes with her. “You’re not the only one they’re protecting.”
“I know.” Luna walked slowly toward the bed. “But I needed to understand what’s happening to me.”
Sienna narrowed her eyes. “What is happening to you?”
Luna hesitated, then sat beside her. “Things I can’t explain. I see things, dreams that feel like memories. Objects move when I’m upset. I feel… like I’m waking up into someone else’s life.”
Silence.
Then Sienna sighed, closing her book. “I don’t know who or what you are, Luna. But you're still my sister, blood or not. And I don't want to be afraid of you.”
That hit harder than Luna expected.
“You don’t have to be afraid,” she whispered. “I’m afraid enough for both of us.”
Shadows in Plain Sight
Kairo sat beneath the dying streetlamp just outside Luna’s neighborhood, a book open on his lap, his gaze far from the pages.
His phone buzzed in his jacket pocket.
He checked the message:
UNKNOWN
Status?
He typed with care.
She’s still unaware. But she’s getting closer to something. Found a relic yesterday, one of the old ones.
Another message came almost immediately.
You’re running out of time. Make her trust you. We need her on our side before she realizes who she really is.
Kairo exhaled, closing his eyes.
He hated these messages. The reminders. The role he’d agreed to play.
He looked up toward the house, Luna’s window was dark, curtains drawn.
She trusted him.
And that was the worst part.
Because sometimes, he found himself wanting to tell her everything. To protect her from what was coming. From them.
From himself.
His grip tightened around the phone as a shadow moved across the street.
Not a person.
Something else.
Watching.
Even he wasn’t alone anymore.
Crossed Wires
Luna stood at the school’s edge, backpack slung low and mind somewhere else entirely.
The day had dragged, Sienna barely speaking to her, and her teachers’ voices sounding like distant echoes through thick fog. Her thoughts kept drifting to the basement… the necklace… and the way her fingers had tingled since touching it.
“Hey.”
Kairo’s voice cut through the haze like a lifeline.
She turned. He leaned casually against his bike, but there was something in his eyes like he hadn't slept.
“You okay?” he asked.
Luna hesitated. “Define okay.”
He gave a crooked smile and walked toward her. “Then I’ll ask a better question, wanna ditch the bus and walk?”
She nodded without thinking. “Yeah. Please.”
They walked in silence for a while, quite comfortable… at first.
Then Luna spoke.
“I’ve been having… strange dreams,” she said carefully. “Things that feel too real to be just my imagination.”
Kairo looked at her. “What kind of things?”
“Fire. Shadows. People calling my name but not my name now. Something older. And I keep seeing this… symbol. A full moon surrounded by black thorns.”
Kairo’s heart skipped a beat. He kept walking, careful not to let his reaction show.
“Sounds intense,” he said. “Do you think it means something?”
She turned to him. “I don’t know. But I think… I think someone’s been keeping secrets from me.”
Kairo slowed his pace. “What kind of secrets?”
Luna studied his face. “The kind that make me question who I really am.”
He didn’t answer immediately. Because how could he?
Instead, he gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Whatever it is, Luna… I’m here. Okay? I’ve got your back.”
She stared at him for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Thanks. I need someone right now who won’t lie to me.”
Kairo’s stomach twisted at the irony.
Eyes in the Fog
From the shadow of a tall jacaranda tree across the street, a figure stood completely still.
A hood masked their face, but their eyes never left the pair walking together.
Luna laughed quietly, a rare, soft sound as Kairo said something only she could hear.
The watcher didn’t move.
Didn’t blink.
Their fingers flexed around a small, circular object etched with the same thorned moon symbol Luna had seen in her dreams.
The figure whispered, as if to no one and yet to Luna directly:
“Too late, child of ash. You are already marked.”
A gust of wind swept through the street, stirring fallen leaves and tugging at Luna’s hair. She glanced over her shoulder instinctively but the tree was empty.
Whoever had been watching was gone.
But the presence lingered, heavy, ominous, and the moon above, even in daylight, seemed just a little too full.
- Writer
