ECLIPSE

Episode 7—Before They Arrived

The dream stayed with me.

Not because I remembered much of it.

I didn't.

I remembered trees.

Moonlight.

And the feeling of standing somewhere I had been before.

Which was impossible.

I'd never been there.

At least, I was almost certain I hadn't.

By breakfast, I'd convinced myself it was nothing.

A dream was just a dream.

That was what I told myself.

Then I walked into the kitchen and knew someone was standing behind me before I heard the footsteps.

I turned.

My brother stopped in the doorway.

"How did you know I was there?"

I stared at him.

"I heard you."

"No, you didn't."

"I did."

He shook his head.

"I was standing completely still."

I shrugged.

"You breathed."

He stared at me.

"I was holding my breath."

I laughed.

"Why?"

"Because I was trying to scare you."

"Clearly, that worked."

He narrowed his eyes.

"You've been weird lately."

"I've always been weird."

"True."

He sat down.

The conversation ended there.

I didn't think about it again.

Until lunch.

Maya and I were walking toward the courtyard when I suddenly stopped.

She took another step before realizing I wasn't beside her.

"What?"

I looked down the hallway.

"Someone's coming."

She frowned.

"Who?"

"I don't know."

"Then how do you know someone's coming?"

"I don't know."

She stared at me.

I stared back.

Then we heard footsteps.

Slow.

Steady.

Coming from around the corner.

Maya's eyebrows rose.

A teacher appeared.

She was carrying a stack of books.

She stopped when she saw us.

"Why are you two standing in the middle of the hallway?"

Maya pointed at me.

"She knew you were coming."

The teacher looked at me.

I immediately regretted everything.

"How?"

"I don't know."

The teacher smiled politely.

"Perhaps you heard me."

"Maybe."

She walked past.

Maya waited until she was gone.

"Okay."

"What?"

"That was weird."

"I know."

"You knew before I heard anything."

"I guess."

She grabbed my arm.

"Do it again."

"Do what?"

"Predict someone."

"I can't."

"Try."

"No."

"Come on."

"No."

She laughed.

"You're boring."

"You're annoying."

"Yet you love me."

"Unfortunately."

She smiled.

We continued walking.

I tried to forget about it.

But something had changed.

Because now I was paying attention.

And once you start paying attention to something...

you notice how often it happens.

That afternoon, I was in the library.

I was looking for a book when I suddenly moved aside.

A second later, a student rushed past the shelf and nearly crashed into me.

I stared after him.

He hadn't made a sound.

No footsteps.

No warning.

Nothing.

Yet I'd moved.

Instinctively.

I looked down at my hands.

They were shaking slightly.

"Why did I move?"

I whispered.

Nobody answered.

I returned the book to the shelf.

Then I heard something.

A faint tapping.

I looked around.

Nothing.

The tapping came again.

I followed the sound toward the far end of the library.

It stopped.

I stood between two rows of shelves.

Silence.

Then I noticed a book lying on the floor.

I picked it up.

The cover was old.

The History of Blackwood Territory.

I opened it.

A page had been folded down.

There was a sketch on it.

The same strange circle I'd seen before.

Half covered by darkness.

I stared at it.

Then I noticed something beneath the drawing.

A sentence.

Only three words.

Before the eclipse.

My heart skipped.

I closed the book.

Immediately.

I put it back where I'd found it.

I didn't take it home.

I didn't tell Maya.

I didn't tell Ethan.

I didn't tell anyone.

Because there was something about that sentence that bothered me.

Not because I'd never heard the word before.

Because when I read it...

I felt like I remembered it.

And I couldn't remember from where.

That evening, I sat on my bed staring at the ceiling.

Maybe I was imagining things.

Maybe I'd become obsessed with the strange events from the weekend.

Maybe my brain was simply connecting random things.

The wolves.

The voice.

The pendant.

The dreams.

The sounds.

The strange book.

They could all be coincidences.

They had to be.

I closed my eyes.

For a moment, everything was quiet.

Then I heard footsteps outside my bedroom.

I opened my eyes.

My mother's voice came from the hallway.

"Luna?"

I sat up.

"Yes?"

She opened the door.

She looked at me.

Then at the window.

"Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

She stared at me for a second.

Then shook her head.

"Nothing."

She closed the door.

I sat there.

Listening.

Nothing.

Not even the wind.

But somehow...

I knew she had heard something.

I just didn't know what.

And for the first time, I wondered if I was the only person in this house pretending not to notice strange things.

Outside, somewhere beyond the trees, a wolf howled.

Once.

Then silence.

I waited for another.

It never came.

I lay back down.

And told myself tomorrow would be normal.

I was beginning to realize that normal was becoming harder to recognize.