There's a time for everything, they say. I would say this is a time of disaster. Heaven saw how I tried, but somehow it felt almost as if the universe was making a joke out of me, and my heart felt heavier than its function as my whole body went numb. I wished this was just another nightmare. I prayed desperately beneath my breath that I would wake up next, with none of this being real, but the sight of my mom and my brother crying jerked me back to reality—my reality.
"Mom, why is the principal saying weird things?" I found myself asking.
"Dad was home this morning. He should be there when I get home, right?" I added as I tried to walk, but my feet failed me.
My mom let out a loud cry.
"He told me he was going to fix a quick project, but I was called to come to the hospital," she said.
"I got to the hospital and was told he was brought in dead," she added in tears.
"But I pleaded. I genuinely begged that he shouldn't go anywhere," I said, tears streaming down my face. I was sad, angry, and disappointed as I ran out—away from my family and the principal, away from the school, wherever my feet could take me.
No one warned me losing a loved one would hurt like this. I felt nothing but pain, which clouded my understanding as I kept running farther and farther away.
Then I stopped suddenly and looked around.
I wasn't in school anymore. I didn't know where I was. It almost felt like I had entered a new dimension. The place was almost empty, with a few buildings around that I could have sworn I had never seen before. They looked ancient, nothing like anything in my vicinity.
I looked at the sky. It seemed strange—unreal, like I was stuck in an abyss.
There was no one around.
I tried walking to call for help, but my legs failed me, almost as if they had forgotten their function, and the ground became my only solitude. I touched the ground while looking up at the sky when suddenly it started raining—slow at first, but eventually heavily.
But something strange happened.
The rain didn't touch me. Not a single drop pierced my skin.
Then I saw it—it was like a shield, preventing the rain from touching me. But it seemed to come with a price, because I began to feel weak and hungry.
And just when it felt like that weakness would consume me, I saw him—Alex.
He had the same red eyes I had seen earlier in school, and he looked at me with pity, almost like he was looking down on me.
"Ohhh, pathetic creature," he whispered loudly.
"Why do you keep rejecting your path?" he said as he came closer and touched my face, his expression almost affectionate.
"Luna, this isn't who you are. You aren't human, and it's time for you to accept who you are," he said as a single tear fell from his face onto mine, leaving my world black and my fate unknown.
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"Lunaaaaa!" Zion cried.
"Has she woken up?" my mom asked.
"Thank goodness you are alive!" Sarah exclaimed.
My eyes slowly opened to what seemed to be bright light. I looked around and noticed I was in the hospital.
"How did I get here?" I asked.
"Calm down," my mom said.
"Can someone please tell me how I got here?" I asked again.
"You fainted in front of the house, and you've been here for three weeks," Zion said, almost moved to tears.
I paused for a moment, still trying to process everything.
"Where is Alex?" I found myself asking.
My brother looked puzzled, but his expression quickly changed to sadness.
"Where is he?" I asked again, more intense this time.
Zion took a deep breath and turned his face away.
"Alex has been missing," he said. He paused for a moment, looked back at me, and then added:
"For the past three weeks."