My Little Moon - 𝗂𝗋𝖾𝗇𝖾 𝗆𝖺𝗋𝖼𝗈𝗌

45. pinnacle of ruin

Worse. She felt worse.

That was all she had been feeling ever since they got back from their getaway. Catrina couldn't pinpoint which hurt the most. The splitting headache every hour, or the thought that she won't ever meet her real family.

Either way, they both bring her pain.

Catrina had been avoiding Irene like the plague. It wasn't because she find it necessary, but because Amaris warned her. Many times, she did. Even threatened her with a knife, something she'd done in secret and held it up against her neck. . .trailing it down to where her heart should be.

That terrified Catrina. Who wouldn't be? After someone threatening your life, with people nearby, and all you could do was stand in silence is something she thought she left behind long ago. She felt like she needed to get used to it, to feel pain.

Unlike the moon, pain wanted to be her friend. It wanted her to feel as though it was always there and that it wasn't going away.

And maybe, it was time to accept that it never would.

It had been days since the encounter with her tita Imee, and she still thought about how that forty minutes of her life was the most weirdest and yet. . .comforting memory she had with the woman. She was glad she came that moment. . .in a way, it distracted her from whatever was on her hand.

School added to her headache. Harper actually won the debate she was talking about every single day, her grades weren't plummeting but it wasn't the best either, projects gave her back pain, but. . .Catrina pushed through.

The nephews were the sweetest. Everybody called her 'Kit-Cat', teased her with that name, even went their way to surprise her with a bucket of the actual 'Kit-Kat' chocolates. It was an inside joke from everybody, though Catrina started to distance herself the moment Amaris joined them.

She didn't want to interfere with their bond. After all, Amaris was the real part of the family, and Catrina respected that. Someday, she just wished that she could do that with her own family.

Staring at the ceiling every night wasn't her ideal way of feeling happy. But it was. The moment she was introduced to the world, being alone had always been her refuge. The darkness felt like an embrace of someone she knows.

But truth be told, the darkness could never beat the loving embrace of a mother.

It could never fill in the void Catrina was feeling all these years.

It was only then, did Catrina appreciate Irene being by her side. That night at the beach with the moon up high, the sand curled between both their toes, and the hug Irene gave Catrina, was a memory the young girl treasured.

She secretly saw Irene as her own mother. She never said it, she never slipped and told her that. . .she only made her feel like she was. And Catrina was grateful that Irene noticed but never questioned.

Irene did all the things a mother does to Catrina. Even went as far as giving her a kiss on the forehead while everyone watched in warmth. But as soon as good things started in her life. . .bad things seemed to follow and they were faster.

Much faster.

. . .

It was barely five in the evening when Catrina arrived home from school. Her pale, bilious complexion didn't compliment how bright the room was.

She could feel every nerve weakening in her arms, she felt how her bones seemed to be eating itself from the inside. One small shove and she would totally plummet to the ground. Exhaustion broke out through the surface of her eyes as she watched her steps up the wooden staircase.