Chapter 50: A Friend in the Forest-5

Luna The papers slipped from my fingers and fell onto Mr. Penson's desk as my eyes widened. Luna There it was again! That blasted word! My breath hitched as I stared harder at the paper. Luna o- I couldn't read the rest. My hand involuntarily reached out for the paper but yet again Mr. Penson's voice snapped me out of my trance. "Ms. Winters? Is something wrong?" "Huh?" I looked at him with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows to find him looking at me with the same knowing glint in his eyes. I gulped before looking down at the brown paper and then back at him. "Is something bothering you?" he asked and I could feel the need to tell someone coming back up with a vengeance. "You can tell me, Ms. Winters", he said and I could feel my barriers breaking down. It was like there was an unspoken command in his voice which was willing me to say it. To tell him everything that was bothering me, everything that was eating me up on the inside. "Mr. Penson", I started uncertainly, "can I please ask you something?" He nodded encouragingly, "Please do" "What-", I gulped, "what is...what is a Luna?" The minute the words escaped my lips a tense air settled around us. I could feel my heart beating fast and my hands started to get clammy. My eyes shifted from the document to Mr. Penson. His face was a mask, but his eyes continued to twinkle with understanding. Understanding what? "Why do you want to know Ms. Winters?" His voice came out soft and yet seemed to echo inside my head. So he knew what this Luna was meaning he could help clear a few things up for me. I gulped, then answered hesitantly, "Mr. Talon...called me that...the other day" A ghost of a smile played across his lips, "How do you know he was calling you?" he asked, his voice coaxing me to answer truthfully. How did I know?...I just...did. "I...I..." "Has someone other than Talon also called you that?" he asked and my eyes went wide in recollection. "Lunaaa" "Please Lunaaa" "Lunaaa" "LUNAAAA" I gasped as those voices from earlier rang in my head. Fear coursed through me and I took a few steps away from his desk. "Ms. Winters?" Mr. Penson's voice turned concerned and he stood from his desk, but I wasn't paying attention. It was happening again. The entire out of body experience thing was happening again. "Lunaaa" Oh God no! It was back! The whispering was back. "Ms. Winters, what's the matter?" "Please Lunaaa" "Ms. Winters, calm down! Please sit" I stared at Mr. Penson wide eyed as I realized the horrifying truth. He couldn't hear the voices! A cold sweat drenched my body and my throat went dry. I was going insane. I was going insane. "Lunaaa" I clamped my hands tightly over my ears and squeezed my eyes shut, walking backwards away from Mr. Penson. I kept walking, knowing that any minute my back would hit the door. But when my back touched the hard surface behind me, a tsunami of tingles flooded through my body, numbing my mind and intoxicating my senses. I gasped and my heart skipped a beat as the terrifying whispers were suddenly replaced by the kind gentle voice of a woman. A voice I hadn't heard before. "No matter what happens, as long as your mate is still out there, you will always have a reason to go on living." The voice was warm and loving. It made me feel a sense of comfort and peace. And the word mate filled my body with a strange euphoria. "And she will make you very happy-" I felt warm hands on my shoulders and I looked up wearily, although a part of me already knew who it was. My eyes were met with hauntingly familiar wolf-human brown orbs staring at me intensely. And I whispered the same word that the kind voice in my head whispered at that exact moment. "-Zuerien" And as his warm chocolaty eyes widened and his grip on my shoulders tightened ever so slightly, I heard one last voice in my head. And the words it spoke reminded me so much of a large dark kind wolf with the same beautiful eyes as him. "It's okay, I'm here" ****