Alpha Luna Diary: My Personal Obsession

CHAPTER 18: The Two Diaries

Open this diary only if you have ever wondered whether every family has a secret they would kill to protect. What if everything you believed about your past was carefully rewritten by someone you trusted?

Dear Diary… today I discovered that the greatest danger is not an enemy standing in front of you. Sometimes it is a lie that has lived beside you your entire life.

The underground chamber fell into complete silence the moment Rowan Ashcroft stepped into the dim light. Dust drifted lazily through the air, stirred only by our footsteps and the slow drip of water somewhere off the ancient stone ceiling.

The air felt heavy, not from anything supernatural, just from the weight of every person in that room realizing we had reached the center of a secret that had stayed buried for seventeen years.

Rowan’s golden eyes moved from my diary to the black one resting on the stone pedestal. Whatever calm had been sitting on his face slowly drained away, replaced by something closer to disappointment and regret.

“I hoped this day would never come,” he said quietly, his voice echoing through the chamber. “Once both diaries are opened together, there is no turning back.”

Arthur Briggs stepped forward, his cane striking the stone floor with a sharp crack. “You should never have come back, Rowan,” he said, cold. “Your disappearance is what kept this secret alive.”

Rowan gave a bitter smile. “My disappearance never protected anyone,” he said. “It only gave everyone seventeen extra years to build better lies.”

Jack looked between the two older men, confusion written plainly across his face. “Enough,” he said, firm. “Everyone keeps talking about lies and betrayal, and nobody is actually telling us what happened. Marionette deserves better than half-truths.”

His voice had an edge I had not heard from him before — protective, almost sharp. Something in my chest tightened, and it was not entirely fear.

I looked at Rowan. “So do I,” I said softly. “You said you knew my mother. You said my diary held answers. So stop talking in riddles and just tell me the truth.”

Rowan stayed quiet for a long moment. His eyes softened when he finally looked at me. “You remind me so much of her,” he murmured.

“My mother?” I asked immediately. He nodded. “The same determination. The same habit of pretending to be brave when you are terrified out of your mind.”

I lowered my eyes. “I am terrified.” He gave me a sympathetic smile. “I know that one very well as well.” He walked slowly toward the pedestal, stopping several feet short of the black diary.

“Seventeen years ago,” he began, “two families gathered in this sanctuary to negotiate peace. The Briggs family wanted the fighting to end. The Sterling family claimed they wanted the same.”

Arthur sighed quietly. “But someone never intended for peace to happen.” Rowan nodded. “Before sunrise, someone leaked the location of the meeting.” Gabriel frowned in confusion and annoyance, “To who?”

“Mercenaries,” Rowan answered. The chamber went silent again. “They were not Briggs,” Rowan said. “They were not Sterling. They were hired by someone who wanted both families to blame each other for what happened.”

Max Briggs clenched his fists. “So that is how the war really started.” “Exactly,” Rowan said quietly.

I listened, my heart hammering harder with every sentence. “So… what does any of that have to do with me?”

He looked directly into my eyes. “Everything.” Then he took a slow breath and continues. “During the attack, a child disappeared, a little girl.”

My breath caught in my throat that instant. Nobody said a word.

“The official story claimed she died,” Rowan went on. Arthur lowered his head. “But no body was ever found,” Rowan said. Jack turned to his grandfather. “Is that true?”

Arthur said nothing. His silence answered the question for him. Gabriel looked stunned. “So… everyone actually believed the child was dead?”

“They were supposed to,” Rowan ssaid My heartbeat felt like it was pounding in my ears. “The child…” I whispered. “…was me, was it not?” Nobody answered right away, then Rowan nodded. “Yes.”

The word hit harder than I expected it to. My legs went weak underneath me. Jack was beside me instantly, his hand steadying my arm before I could stumble.

“I am alright,” I whispered to him. “No,” he said quietly, “you are trying to be.” His voice carried so much concern that I nearly cried right there.

I looked up at him, and for one strange second, everything else in the chamber — the diaries, the two old men, the weight of seventeen years of lies — went a little quiet in my head. It was just him standing there, holding my arm like he had no intention of letting go.

“Everything I knew about myself,” I whispered. “What if none of it is even real?” Jack shook his head slowly. “Your memories are real.”

“My parents?” I asked him reluctantly. “They are real,” he replied. “My childhood?” I asked again to be certain. “Also real,” He then gave me a gentle smile. “The people who raised you loved you. That part was never a lie.”

His words settled something in my chest, more than he probably realized. Rowan nodded in agreement. “They may not have told you everything,” he said, “but they protected you the only way they knew how.”

I wiped at the tears gathering in my eyes. “Then who hid me?” The question echoed through the chamber. Nobody answered. Instead, every eye in the room slowly turned toward Arthur.

His face went pale. "It does not matter anymore,” he muttered. “It matters to me,” I said, firmer than I expected myself to sound.

Arthur let out a long breath before finally speaking. “The person who hid you… was someone inside the Briggs family.” Shock rippled through the room. Max stared at his father. “You never told me that.”

“Because I never knew who,” Arthur said. He looked at Rowan. “I only knew that someone betrayed us.” Gabriel crossed his arms. “So the traitor was not necessarily a Sterling.”

“No,” Rowan said immediately. “The betrayal came from someone everyone trusted completely.”

Silence dropped over the room, heavy enough to feel. Jack looked around the chamber, thinking it through. “If that is true,” he said slowly, “then the traitor could still be alive right now.”

“I believe they are,” Rowan said. I looked at the two diaries sitting side by side on the pedestal. “If one diary remembers the truth,” I said, pointing to the black one, “then what does this one remember?”

Nobody answered. Rowan stepped carefully toward the pedestal instead. He did not touch the black diary. He just stared at it, like it might do something on its own if he got too close.

“I have spent seventeen years trying to keep that diary sealed,” he said. “Why?” Gabriel asked. “Because whoever holds it,” Rowan said, his voice unusually serious now, “also holds the names.”

“What names?” Jack asked. “Every person who attended the peace meeting seventeen years ago,” Rowan replied. Everyone in the room froze that very moment.

Arthur’s eyes went wide. “If those names ever get out—”

“Then every surviving witness becomes a target,” Rowan finished.

A cold silence spread through the underground chamber. Then, from somewhere behind us, a faint clicking sound echoed off the stone. Jack turned fast. “Did anyone else hear that?”

Before anyone could answer, red laser dots bloomed against the stone walls. Then another. And another. Within seconds, dozens of laser sights were trained on every one of us standing in that chamber. Gabriel’s face went dark. “We are not alone in here.”

A distorted voice crackled through hidden speakers somewhere in the dark. “Thank you for finding the diaries,” it said, almost amused. “You have saved us years of searching.”

Jack stepped in front of me without a second of hesitation, his shoulder blocking mine like it was the most natural thing in the world. "Who is there?” he demanded.

The voice ignored him completely and kept talking, calm as anything. “We do not care about the Briggs family. We do not care about the Sterling family. We only want one thing.”

A long pause followed.

Then five words came through the speakers that sent a chill straight down my spine.

“Bring us the surviving child.”

At that exact moment, dozens of armed figures in black tactical gear stepped out of the darkness, surrounding every exit out of the sanctuary.

One of them slowly raised a rifle, and aimed it directly at me. Jack’s hand found mine in the dark without either of us really deciding it should. His fingers closed tight around my own, and for one terrifying second, that was the only thing in the entire chamber that felt steady.