Becoming the Luna

I wake up to soft sobbing against my hair, I'm cradled against someone and I don't feel the hard ground under me anymore or the glare of the sun on my face.

"Virgil get my keys, it's on the dresser." My mom's voice calls out, her voice breaking on a sob, my mom is the one cradling me. "We've got to go to the hospital."

How did I get here?

Oh. Stupid me, taking a hike all alone into the forest just to hide from Virgil but why was I being taken to the hospital, my bleeding had stopped right?

"Mom?" I whisper out, at the same time reaching for my face to check if I was missing something.

"Oh my God!" She exclaims, leaning back to take my face in her hands and pepper my face with plentiful kisses. "Baby, you're awake." She proclaims, her watery grey eyes sharp as they rake through my body looking for some obvious sign of discomfort.

"Are you hurt? Do you feel pain anywhere?... Virgil!" She cuts off her worried interrogation to yell. "You still haven't found the bloody keys??"

"Coming Renee." His voice calls back, an ugly shade to his familiar voice. "Shana texted, Dale and her will meet us there." He says coming into the living room.

I unconsciously sit up to get a look at him and the events of the day crashes right back into me making tears sting my eyes.

"Hey, baby." My mom quickly notices them. "Are you in pain?"

"No." I whisper in a choked out voice, at least not the kind of pain she was talking about.

I gingerly get out off her arms to try out my legs even though she protests profusely at this, I truly don't feel pain, just a little sore and bruised from falling down a couple of times but I actually feel just fine.

"How did you find me?" I ask, sheepish about my foiled escape attempt but also curious.

"I found you."  Another person walks in dragging my gaze from Virgil's piercing look.

I look over and see a pretty girl with dark skin, curly black hair and pretty brown eyes.

A flush climbs up my cheeks. "Um, who are you?" I mutter, today just kept getting worse, from being woken up early to having to go to school even earlier, then Elise broke my heart and then I broke my body by trying to run away into the woods and now a cute girl I don't know saves me?

"Um, thank you." I mumble, holding the edge of my dusty and bloody shirt, I need to change.

"Maë said she found you passed out on the forest floor, then she carried you out and knocked on the first door which was luckily ours. Why is there blood on your shirt?" My mom asks fearfully. "I checked all over but you have no open cuts.

I blink at this, I had wiped all of the blood running down my nose with my shirt so they couldn't have known. 

Instead of answering, I twist from side to side to check if I could still feel that terrifying pain, nope! Nothing.

Virgil just stands quietly, watching me with an almost manic desperation, I want to believe him when he has that look in his eyes but Elise words cut too deep.

I study my shirt again, taking note of the rips so that I can be sure that the incident I remember matches the proof.

The three of them remain quiet, just staring at me doing whatever it was I was doing. I had a lot of questions to answer and I had a lot of questions that I needed to be answered, I was going to run away from all those questions though.

I'm not strong enough.

"Um, the blood?" I repeat again, probably sounding very confused.

"Yes." My mom says very gently like she's talking to a traumatized animal. "How did you get blood on you?"

"My nose bled." I tell her softly, twisting my messy shirt in my tiny hands, Maë probably thinks I'm retarded. "I started to feel dizzy and then I blacked out." I continue in that same soft voice, deciding to keep out the fact that my side hurt and I coughed up blood, I didn't want to scare my mom.

Besides we're going to the hospital anyway and the doctors would find out about that themselves so it isn't like I'm hiding things from her.

"Oh dear." She hugs herself like she needs an action to hold herself together. "We have to go see Doctor Rizha."

"Mom!" I canll her in a slight warning tone. "Let's go to the hospital here in Pine Creek and if the doctor says I'm ill then we can go to Doctor Rizha but I want to write my exams first, I can't write make-up exams next year." I half whine.

She stares pensively at me but mulls this over. "Fine, I hate to say it but we have a deal." She gets up and pulls me into a hug. "Now let's get you changed so that you can get checked up at the hospital."

"Okay." I say quietly.

"Actually Renee." Virgil finally speaks, his voice quiet and sad. "Could you just get a new shirt so Hayden can change, I'd like to speak to him."

My heart thuds at Virgil's words, what could he possibly want to talk to me about?

"Um, I think I'll be on my way now." Maë quickly says, making hand signs at the door and I cringe, was it really that obvious?

My mom smiles, much calmer now that I don't look like I'm a step away from death's door. "Sure." She nods, making her way up the stairs.

"I almost forgot to ask." I reflexively reach out as Maë started to move towards the door.

"Huh? What?" She asks, pushing a hand into the front pockets of her black jeans, she's really pretty.

"Um…" I mumble when I realize that I haven't even thanked her. "I also forgot to thank you so thank you so much for helping me." I rush over my words and it's a miracle that I don't bite off the tip of my tongue.

"Nah it's fine, happy to help." She drawls, turning around to fully look at me. "You also had a question?"

I blink at this. "Oh! Oh, yes." I reply, sounding very ditzy but it's hard to concentrate with Virgil's supposed talk hanging threateningly over my head. "I've not um, seen you before, are you new in Pine Creek?" I ask curiously, inwardly marveling at the fact that I haven't stuttered once since I woke up, maybe I should pass out often. "Not to sound too forward."

"No you don't." She reassures me. "And I just moved to Pine Creek from the city, my parents said they wanted a change of scenery." She shrugs like she doesn't really care either way. "I couldn't attend school because the semester is already over but I'll be admitted next year."

"You're in your final year right?' I call to her as she makes a move to get going, she seems to be in a hurry to go, I know this but I'm terrified of being left alone with Virgil.

"Yeah." She says with a knowing smile, I just live in the second house opposite the street, you should come by sometime." She says kindly, before slipping out.

I gulp as the door clicks shut, I was going to have to face Virgil.

"Hay?" He calls me in a worried voice and I can't put off confronting him any longer, knowing my mom, she was definitely standing on the stairs, eavesdropping.

I try to swallow but my throat doesn't work anymore, unconsciously I raise a hand to the junction of my neck where the wide bruise still persisted. "Y-Ye-Yes?"

Of course! I hold a full conversation with an absolute stranger and I don't stutter once but Virgil calls my name and I forget how to pronounce a three lettered word!

"Can I hug you?" He asks, obvious fragility in his voice and I frown, walking closer to him. Virgil is still my friend no matter what Elise says and right now it seems like he needs my support.

I walk up to him and engulf him in a warm hug, at least that's what my small arms try to do. "W-Why would you feel like you had to ask? Are you okay?" I ask worriedly.

He just pulls me tighter to himself like he's a couple inches away from cracking. "Please never disappear like that on me again, p-please." His voice breaks at the last word and the hug gets tighter.

Guilt sears through me as I thought of the trouble I had put them through, I had just disappeared from school before anyone could see me. Elise didn't count because she isn't a person to me, she's a thief that stole Virgil from me.

"I-I'm s-so-sorry." I stutter hard, starting to shake. The forest had been so scary, I thought I was going to die, all alone, how fitting.