Chapter Text
It didn't add up.
I had spent the last two hours sitting in a rental car trying to trace back the text, but I was coming up blank. It was a new message, one I'd received the second I off-boarded the plane in London, but it wasn't pinging a location- similar to the last one I received.
I grew more and more frustrated as I tried again and again but still nothing. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I turned my head to look out the window. Houses on one side of the street and a row of trees on the other. Street lamps were sparse but still I opted for a black sedan with tinted windows to ensure I wouldn't be seen.
This was never how it should have gone. We never should have come face to face- and if we had it shouldn't have been under those circumstances. If our meeting was inevitable, I would have preferred not to have been trauma-stricken into silence or, at the very least, not have shown the violence I'd grown capable of. That was a product of lessons I shouldn't have had to learn.
To make a bad situation worse, I had been left with no choice but to monitor him from close distances- which included posting up in a rental directly outside his house. If I hadn't watched him go into the house then I might have assumed he wasn't home for all the inactivity there had been. No lights. No sound. Nothing.
I hated this, staking out his home had been something I'd refused to do. For all the invasive things I do on a daily basis through a computer screen, this felt like I was crossing a boundary. I knew where he would be and when, when his concert dates were and when they intended on announcing them, which magazines he'd be featured in, even where he liked to do most of his recordings.
However, knowing what he ate for dinner, when he showered, or what T.V shows he liked to watch or if he watched T.V at all was too much. Too... intimate. Which was why I was partially thankful for the darkness coming from his home. Partially. The darkness was just as much a hindrance as it was a divider.
An alert popped onto my computer screen. Someone had posted another unmasked picture that was rapidly gaining attention. I shut it down and locked the account. I didn't have it in me to do some elaborate form of revenge, although it might have been amusing to post the texts this Amanda chick had been sending to her sister's husband.
Another glance up to the window that lead to his bedroom only confirmed that tonight had been just as emotionally draining as it had been physical. It was too bad I wasn't going to get much sleep tonight; I might've slept hard with all the extra weight on my shoulders.
The window illuminated with light. My breath caught in my throat. A shadow passed back and forth, he was pacing. It was well past midnight but it was understandable that he wasn't able to sleep.
An annoying voice in my head kept telling me to confront him, if only to warn him and have his security doubled for the time being. However, the constriction in my throat at the thought kept me seated.
The shadow stopped in the middle of the window and my heart lurched into my throat at the thought of him spotting me. I dug my fingernails into my thighs to keep myself from cowering in the back seat. Seconds ticked by as I remained still, save for the droplet of sweat threatening to bead across my upper lip.
He retreated further back and then the window went dark again. I had just about heaved a sigh of relief before a loud thud came from behind the house. The seams of his cloak caught refractions of moonlight as it flapped behind him, but the moon could only illuminate so much before he disappeared into the dense woods.
Panic and relief warred in my body as the darkness consumed him. I tried to give myself any reason not to follow him, but not knowing where is newfound attackers might be squashed any hope for that.
I pulled my knife from its sheath and found some solace in the glint of metal. An internal swear to invest in another gun crossed my mind before I hauled myself from the car. Careful of my steps, I shot across the street, his yard, then into the line of trees where the darkness consumed me as well.
I stopped as the darkness grew even more dense, I could hardly make out the silhouette of the tree just in front of me Seeing a man in a black cloak in these woods would be near impossible. I waited, hoping for once karma would be forgiving on me and let my eyes adjust.
In the distance, there came a quiet rustle. A pattern of swooshes that grew softer as they traveled. Rather than lifting my feet to take a step, I drug them over the ground. Each drag of my toe was soft, slow, deliberate. There would be no crunching of leaves- not from me.
Deeper and deeper, I followed that soft rustling. moonlight fought to seep through the dense foliage, giving me sparse streams to see by. Occasionally, the moonlight would catch the tip of his cape as he blew by. I stayed close but kept enough distance so my presence might go unnoticed.
An ominous feeling settled deep in my core but I didn't let my nerves get the best of me. Whatever he was doing out here, it better be for a good reason.
The rustling footsteps stopped, but I couldn't quite see where. Taking my chances, I inched closer. Eventually, I closed in on the edge of a small clearing. An almost perfect circle of openness in the dense forestry where moonlight roamed free and the chill breeze seeped through, invading the leaves with a near-constant gust.
On the other side, he stood there, his shoulders rising and falling heavily. Despite the rustling leaves above us, the world fell still and that ominous feeling turned to cement in my stomach. He knelt down and then sat crisscrossed on the ground. Just past his shoulder, I spied it.
A headstone.
Before I could register the flaming embarrassment that I'd followed him to a gravesite, he started speaking but not to me, "I owe you a thousand apologies for not coming as often as we both know I should." He let out a chuckle, though it was absent of any real humor. "I've been busy as of late, but that's not an excuse. It's never an excuse when you're so close."
I shouldn't be hearing this. I shouldn't be bearing witness to such a private conversation. Dammit, I wanted to avoid his personal life as much as possible and I've landed myself right in the most intimate part. He continued to speak and as much as I wanted to run back to the quiet of my rental, to ask as if I never knew the existence of this place, my feet as become embedded in the ground and I found myself immobilized.
"You come to me in my dreams, still. Our conversations there feel so real but the apparition fades when I wake up. It hurts but I don't want to dream of anything- or anyone else." I detected a small crack in his voice. "Something strange has been occurring, Luna. Someone tried to hurt me and I think it might have something to do with that venue I reported a long time ago- you remember the girl I told you about? Apparently, she's now a self-made vigilante. She saved me that night, but I can't wrap my head around why someone would come after me- not after all this time."
My heart thunders in my ears. He's telling our story- my story- to a headstone. I should back away, return to my car and act as if I never saw this. Before I can do just that, he stands once more. His voice softens to a whisper, one that is almost drowned out by the wind, but I don't miss the loaded meaning in what he says, "No good deed ever did go unpunished, My Luna."
With that, he walked away. I crouched down behind a tree and held my breath until he passed by. I waited for the sound of his footsteps to die off completely before standing again. I dusted the dirt off my ass but the wetness stayed behind.
I took another glance back at the headstone, and though everything in my being screamed at me to just walk away and go back to my car, I took a step towards the grey stone. Then another. Another, until I'm mere inches from the rectangular slab of what looks like granite. It's clean and smooth with beautiful cursive writing on it.
Where Heaven collides with Earth
Forever my Luna
Erin Odette Mathews
My eyes linger on the death date and my throat catches. Exactly one year after he saved me. The coincidence was deeply unsettling, sending cold flushes through my body. While I was licking my wounds, tragedy had struck across the ocean. I remember what I had been doing on the anniversary of my escape- drinking mostly and contemplating if I should have kept living. At the time, something stopped me from taking my own life- I had thought it gratitude for Vessel and a debt I owed him. Perhaps my purpose hadn't come about of my own merit after all.
I spotted a small yellow flower- a daffodil- just to my left. I walked over and plucked it, bringing it back to Erin's headstone. I twirled it in my hands before gently placing it against the stone, "For what it's worth, he'll always be protected."