Chapter Ninety Six
Chapter Ninety Six
Luna's Pov
What was going on?
Lenny moved backwards, trashing the walking stick.
“Stand at the door.” She said to the maids, as she took off her coat, and the maids bowed, going to the door instantly.
She went back to the window, where she jumped onto a rotating chair, and twirled it around.
“It was fun.” She squealed, before turning back to me, with all the seriousness etched on her face, “Nice meeting you, Luna. I'm the MoonCub.” Moonlight shed onto her beautiful features. Even with a poker face, she looked divine.
“I don't understand.” My words came out in a broken whisper.
“What part do you not understand? I assumed you were smart.” She replied, staring at me with a raised brow.
MoonCub.
We should have known. A cub was literally a baby! And she… was a product of the moon.
It was just so hard to imagine that the blind girl who was cautious about everything and everyone was the one I was searching for all along.
Slowly, I rose to my feet, “How can you be the Author?”
“Why can I not be the Author?”
“The Author has lived for so many years.”
“So have I.” She replied rather calmly.
“You're just like six or seven!”
“Make that six hundred or seven hundred. With every century I live, my body only ages a year. So I'll be stuck looking like a kid until the next seven hundred years or so? I've lived for six hundred and twenty four years now.” She said, and I gulped, “I founded this place, I coordinated it with the ancestors, and have watched people born and people die. I am older than the very bones of this place. What did you expect? At my age, you expected me to run around with a bunch of kids with no work on their hands?”
That explained everything.
“Then… why did you pretend to be blind?”
“So I could see everything clearly. If you picked another kid, beat them up or conducted suspicious movements, I'd be able to watch you better because no one would pay attention to a blind girl. That way, I'd see everything, but you just happened to get hooked on me.”
“Ah…” I let out softly, speechlessly.
“But it's all good. Completely good. Now, you wish to go back. Is that it?” She asked, with a smile, “I don't think you actually want to.”
“What? I want to! Do you know how much I've risked by being here!?” My feet propelled me forward in desperation.
“Stay right where you are. Don't come closer.” She said, a look of disgust on her face, “If you wanted to go back, you wouldn't actually cut your arm up with your nails. You wouldn't bite your lip to stop the memories from clearing.”
“I don't understand.”
“You and Keira had a connection when you switched souls. You were both at dire times in a forbidden river. You just have to do it again. You have to connect with each other. Once you connect with each other, the pathway will open up. Go back to the river she drowned in, and you might be able to go back.”
“So what should I do to connect?”
“Let yourself go. Become Keira, gain all her memories and access to her mind. Then you'd reach her, and tell her what she has to do. When both of you fully let go, you will be able to cross over. Then you'd have 24 hours at most to find a way to switch souls before you completely lose who you are.” She said, with a little grin.
“So that's it?”
“That's it.”
“What about Elaine?”
“Easy. Tell her to do the same thing. Connect to her counterpart, tell them what to do. It's all easy. Sheila here will tell you what to do, and how to get back.” She said, and the maid, who seemed to hate talking, stepped forward.
“Let's go.”
“Thank you.” I said to Lenny, “Thank you for helping me to go back to where I belong. Thank you.” I said, and it sounded so weird.
It was the first time I had thanked someone. I didn't know how to sound really sincere. All I could say was ‘Thanks.’
~
Three hours later, me, along with everyone else, were in front of a swirling portal that would supposedly take us wherever we wanted to go in the human world.
I'd told my friends all about Lenny, and how to get back, but it had been a bitter sweet moment.
Like… parting with them when we'd been together for months on the same journey had somehow brought us closer.
To part with them felt so difficult— but we all had our places to be, and I knew they both wanted Keira back.
Stepping into the portal was no different from the one we'd stepped in to escape the snakes, and this time, it wasn't terror that encompassed us, but gloom.
We plopped down harshly onto the beach sand in the river where Keira had supposedly drowned.
“I have to get to Keira first.” I said, sitting up on the sand, while dusting my arms.
“I'll do the same,” Elaine said, going off to sit in the distance.
We lay on the sand with a sigh while Nikkie and Emily watched us.
It was time to let go and connect to Keira.
I surrendered easily to the hands of fatigue, letting it take me smoothly into the land of memories, and I began to think of the memories of Keira that I'd gained, letting them flow, dwelling on them, welcoming them, embracing them, letting my heart beat like hers, letting my mind settle, and naturally, more new memories came, floating in gently.
And this time, I didn't stop them. I welcomed them.
Darkness settled on me in a dreamless state, and I just knew that we were in the same space.
Me and Keira.
The silence, the heavy feeling.
We would get to converse.
“Keira! Can you hear me? Are you there? Surrender!”