Moonlight | Lucien Castle

Chapter 1

May 2, 2012

The Bayou was still.

Except for the two figures creeping through it, trying to find someone who could tell them where they were, and why they'd appeared there, of all places.

It had been strange at first, appearing naked in a clearing, as wolves usually did following a full moon. The man and the young woman had not been shy about being seen nude, despite the fact they hardly knew one another. In their time it was natural. Only the modern world made a bigger deal about nudity.

They'd attempted to transform into their wolf forms, but found they were too exhausted to do so. Very well, then, the journey would need to be via their human soles, which had callouses built up from many years of walking without shoes.

They came across some clothes about a mile into their trip. Several old shirts and one pair of men's underwear that neither touched or even acknowledged. The man wrapped one shirt around his waist. The woman slipped hers on completely, finding it was long enough to cover her bottom, which was good enough for her.

As they continued to walk, they began to speak. Had anyone passed by them, they wouldn't have understood. In fact, it would have taken a very specific group of ancient vampires to comprehend the language they were using.

Soon enough, however, when they realized how similar their experiences were, they found themselves speaking in English. Something they'd picked up in the last thousand years that they'd been on the Other Side, unable to find peace.

"I wouldn't have expected you to still be trapped there," the man told the young woman. "You were very young when you died. You had committed no wrongs."

"You did not see what I did prior to my death," she replied. "You would have been ashamed."

"I did see it. You abandoned your mother. Your anger overtook you."

"And yet you wonder why I never found peace."

"I simply would have expected you to have moved past it now."

"My goal remains unfulfilled. I found my family once I could no longer speak with them. Could no longer touch them."

"You still resent your mother," he deduced. "For keeping the truth a secret from you."

"Of course I do. Had I known Adriel was not my father, I could have found them sooner. Had I known..." her voice broke, "I would have been gone before he started to beat me for something that was not my fault. It was not my fault that my mother lied. Just as it was not your son's fault that his mother was unfaithful to the man who should have been his father."

The man drew a deep sigh. "I know. And I will forever regret it. I have been watching over him. I hardly leave his side."

The young woman snorted. "I leave his side constantly. He's not my favorite to observe. I like watching the others better. Though, he constantly daggers them, and it leaves him being the only one I can pay attention to. I don't like him."

He remained serious, though he might've chuckled if the situation wasn't so confusing and tense. "We ought to continue moving. We need shelter." He glanced up at the clouds, "There is to be a storm tonight."

It took two hours for them to stumble across a main road, where a truck driver stopped to see if they were alright. He happened to be carrying loads of clothes that were to be donated to a nearby shelter. Figuring they were in need, he let them take a large bag each— sufficient for two weeks before everything would need to be hand washed. They thanked him, assuring him they could handle themselves now that they had clothes. He left wondering if maybe he should have pried a bit more about where they came from.