Author’s Note: So when Luna opened up, she showed a bit of the darkness and war that goes on in her head, but she continues to surprise me (and others) with what she does and is, and I can’t figure her out.
He jerked away from her, trying to back away, not sure what had happened or why his hunger hadn’t seized her and consumed everything that she was, just for putting her head on him. He wanted to touch her, to make sure that she was all right, that he hadn’t done anything—he didn’t feel like he had eaten, but that did not mean that she was unharmed. She hadn’t moved, and if she hadn’t moved…
“Luna?”
She didn’t answer, and he rose. “Alvin! Come over here, please. Now! I need you to pick Luna up and make sure that she’s okay.”
Alvin flew over, looking at Luna and then at him. “What did you do to Friend Luna?”
“She put her head on me, and she knows better, and I didn’t… I don’t know what I did. I need you to pick her up and see if she’s hurt. Please. I just need to know that I didn’t…”
Alvin lifted her with all four arms, turning her over, and while he could see no marks, he still felt that he must have done something terrible to her since she did not seem to be moving. He wanted to touch her, to know that she was still alive for himself, and he had never hated being unable to touch more than he did right then. “Well?”
“Friend Luna breathes. She is… sleeping?”
“I don’t know.”
“Say something to her like she did to you. That made you look at her, vortex, and you had not been speaking or reacting. She would do for you, you do for her. Yes, yes. We do.” Alvin put his fingers to her face. “Friend Luna, we miss you. Come back.”
She groaned, opening her eyes, and he reached toward her, only stopping himself when he was far too close. He sighed. “Luna, how could you do that? You know what I am. You know what a danger it is. You could have died.”
She tried to sit up, but her effort failed, and she put her head back down. “I just… I don’t—You wouldn’t understand.”
He swallowed, looking at her. “You… want to end your life, is that it? You are too upset to go on? You refuse to keep fighting the darkness? Why are you so determined to give up? You can’t do that. Think of what you have given me and given Alvin. It may hurt that your mother is gone, but you are not helpless without her.”
“No, I’m not a child. It’s not that devastating. I’ll live through this. I always do,” she said, pushing herself up, this time managing to sit. “It’s not my mother. I don’t even know that I’m all that upset about her. It’s what it always is. It’s me. I’m the problem.”
“Friend Luna is good friend. We not want lose you. Be careful with vortex. Eat, eat, eat. Destroy. Destroy.”
He frowned. “Stop that. I didn’t—Somehow I didn’t hurt her, and I don’t understand that, but I don’t want to hurt her, and I’m not going to eat her. I try not to destroy things, even though it is what I am. I do kill, and I do consume, and I do destroy. That is why Luna should know better than to get close to me, and she said she did, so I do not understand why she has done this. It seems as though she wishes to use me to die, and that is not… That cannot happen. Not only am I unwilling to do this, I would take so much more than her, and that cannot be allowed.”
“Oh, you idiot,” she said, dragging herself to her feet with the help of the nearest shelf. “Like I want you destroying worlds or anything… I don’t. I just wanted… I wanted that moment where I could have… It doesn’t matter. None of it does. I finally made the biggest mistake of my life, and Dennis would love the irony of it. He would.”
“Who is Dennis?”
“It doesn’t matter. None of it does.” She looked behind her, toward the doorway that he had never crossed, not aware that she was repeating herself. “I should lie down, I guess, I don’t feel good, but I feel more like I’ll wake up and find out this is all a part of my own sickness, that I’m just… crazy. I’m broken, cracked, and maybe Mom’s death was the final straw. Luna goes for her namesake, now a lunatic…”
He stepped toward her. “Have you… You think all of this is madness? That neither of us is real because… Because I have such a false appearance? You’re not crazy, but perhaps your species is not ready to know of all these things—”
She reached for the door handle behind her, turning it. “I think I should tell you to go, but I don’t want you to go. I’m drowning, and I don’t—It would be so easy to ask you to take me away from all of this, but it’s not here that’s the problem. It’s me.”
“I don’t understand. You’re upset, and you were hurt, and you need to stay still and… We have to know why I didn’t kill you when you touched me. I…” He wanted to see her, but he did not want to hurt her, and he could not explain his reaction to the idea of traveling with her. “Please, sit, stay. I don’t know what you’re talking about, not all of it, but you’re not crazy. Perhaps you are too upset, too depressed—”
The door behind her opened, and Alvin cowered, hiding on the other side of the shelf. She turned back to the man standing there. He shook his head. “Luna, I thought we agreed you weren’t going to try and work in the store alone.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, Dad. I’m fine.”
“You don’t look it. Go lie down. I’ll close up.”
She bit her lip, but if she would have argued with him, she chose not to, letting him push her into the other room. Her father closed the door behind her, facing him. “I think you should go. In fact, I don’t think you should come back. You upset my daughter, and she’s not well.”
“Luna seems fine to me.”
The man shook his head. “She was struggling before her mother died, and it’s only gotten worse. It’s not like she lived with us by choice. She’s incapable of taking care of herself on her own. Maybe you think she’s fine, but you don’t know her. Stay away from her.”
“Sir—”
“She was always artistic, eccentric and wild. Perhaps we indulged that too much. Now she is… lost. She speaks of things that make no sense, and most of them have to do with you. This is your last warning. Stay away from my daughter.”
Hm. World’s fracturing. Very interesting. Goes to read next part.
Yeah, Luna’s mind was starting to shatter on her… and she just about took everything with her when she started doubting what was real. Poor girl, she really wasn’t ready to handle what she knew of him and herself…