Lunar's Curse

8- Run

     “I heard.”

     I looked up to see an old woman standing in front of me. Her white clothes were very dirty and frayed around the edges. Her brown eyes peered into mine with dull curiosity.

     “I heard,” she repeated in her monotonous voice. “Who are you?”

     I wasn't sure whether it would be smart to answer or not. She didn't look particularly dangerous so I said, “I'm Myra.”

     “Mel,” she whispered. “I remember her. Her eyes were as bright as yours...”

     I felt a chill go down my spine. After I had passed out, I had a dream about someone named Mel. I was almost sure that it was a figment of my imagination but there was just something about that name that made me think twice about it.

     It was dark already and Justine had not returned. When I tried to go after her, the guard outside stopped me. Apparently, Justine had some royalty treatment and she was with the honourable marquis Alex Burke. Her words, not mine.

     The others had already returned to their cots and were sleeping. Some were even curled up on the floor. I was almost sure that hygiene didn't matter to them, not when they were trapped here with very little chance of escape.

     The old woman was still looking at me. “Oh, I remember the girl. She had hair as red as blood against white roses and eyes as green as the fresh grass.” She gave me a toothless smile that made me cringe. “Just like you.”

     She started to laugh. It was high-pitched and cold, filled with insanity. My eyes widened and I backed away slowly trying not to make it so obvious. She wasn't even looking at me anyways.

     “They all call me crazy,” she said, “but I'm the one who really knows.” She started to laugh again before she gave me another look. “Do you think I'm crazy, child?” she asked me, her eyes wide and insane. “Do you think so?”

     I didn't think that telling her the truth would do me much good. Instead, I chose to lie. There would be time for truth later. “Oh no,” I managed. “I don't think so.”

     But she started laughing again. “Liar, liar,” she said in a singsong voice that made me shiver. “Lying child. Liar, liar,” she continued. “Oh, such a lie.” Though she knew it was a lie, she didn't seem very perturbed by it. She started to laugh again.

     “What's wrong with you?” someone else whispered in the dark. I blinked and then bright yellow eyes appeared in front of me. Their pupils were so big that they didn't even look human. Those eyes...they were staring right into mine. “What's wrong with you?” they repeated.

     Now more people were crowding around me and staring at me. That is, if you could call them people. Now in the darkness, they looked even worse than before. Their eyes were too big and their limbs looked twisted in the wrong places. Their mouths were open in wide empty grins.

     “What's wrong with you?” They advanced closer. “What's wrong with you?”

     There's nothing wrong with me! I wanted to shout that. What's wrong with you?

     As if sensing my thoughts, they all started laughing in unison. The laughter was bare of humour and wasn't inviting me to join in. “Souls,” the first woman who spoke to me said. “Our souls are shattered. Ruined. We are desolate. Only empty husks of our former self.”

     All this talk was getting to my head. I thought about my dream. The one where I saw the Mel girl. A grim reaper. Staring at them. I wasn't sure what to make out of it. Was the...dream...real? If Vampires and Werewolves—sorry, wolfen exist, then who was to say that other supernatural beings didn't?