Chapter Text
When she woke up, light streamed through the bedroom window. Moon had left her bedroom window open and a morning breeze was blowing the lace curtains inward. Moon sat up, looking around and rubbing her forehead. She tried to love this house all her life, but waking up everyday in it felt like a punishment. This family was a facade she had fit herself into just to survive. Not following the perfectly curated formula their parents had created could get you hit, or worse. But she understood, at least she thought she did. She knew that her parents were disappointed with the fact she was insufficient, incapable, and weak. Moon felt it was validated, but why couldn’t they show her affection despite what she lacked. She hadn’t given up hope though, she could prove to be as essential as her twin brother. She swings her legs over the side of the bed and stands up. Approaching the closet, she almost trips over last night's chemistry homework. She had left it there before she went to sleep last night. She centers herself, stepping over it.
After getting dressed, she starts to pack up her school things when her brother walks in. He looks down at her on the floor and chuckles.
”Is that your reggie school homework?” He says, teasingly, knowing full well it was.
Moon lets out a forced chuckle, a crooked, uncomfortable smile on her face. “You know it is…”
“I’m messing with you. But hey, there is something I need to tell-“ He is cut off by their mother calling for them.
“Moon! Mason! Get down here.” She calls, not sounding to be in one of her easy to deal with moods.
“Yes ma’am!” Moon immediately calls out. Mason scoffs.
“She doesn’t deserve your respect, Moon.” Mason says, his arms folded.
Moon doesn’t respond and gives her brother a ‘do not get started’ look. She picks up her backpack and slings it over her shoulder. She pushes past Mason, an irritation burning in her chest at his rebellious ideas.
How could he think that way when he is the trophy of the family. She thinks.
I am not. Mason interjects into her thoughts.
Moon turns swiftly around. “Stay out of my head Mason. You know I hate telepathy.” She whispers sharply.
She walks down stairs, her golden, straight hair swaying as she steps. She brushes the singular white piece in the front behind her ear. It was something she was born with, that piece of hair was always shorter than the others, but it had now grown long enough to be a part of her front hair pieces. Mason was born with it as well. It wasn’t something too strange or unusual. Loads of SPG’s, specialized power genes, caused physical mutations. Though the weird part was that Moon had a mutation, even though she didn’t have any SPG’s. Most people figured it was because of their shared womb. Well, saying Moon didn’t have any SPG’s was incorrect. The bridge in her brain that was supposed to connect the frontal lobe and the supernatural sector, a new function of the brain discovered when SPG’s first came to light, was not there. This bridge helps an individual to access and control the powers and very few individuals lack it. So she did have the genes, but she could not access them.
Moon walks cautiously into the kitchen. Her mother’s expression was critical and her posture was stiff.
“Moon, have you brushed your hair this morning? It looks horrendous. Fix it.” Her mother states bitterly.
“No I haven’t…” Moon replies.
”I didn’t ask you to respond.”
Moon, sensing the tension, apologizes. “Sorry! Sorry, sorry..”
”Pull yourself together girl.”
Moon nods humbly and brushes through her hair with her fingers. Mason enters the kitchen, snatching some toast out of the toaster.
“Good morning Mason.” Their mother says.
Mason ignores his mother, occupying himself with the inside of the fridge. Their father walks into the room at that instant, witnessing the situation.
“Don’t ignore your mother.” The tall, powerful man with thick brown hair says before smacking the back of Mason’s head, hard. Mason continues to not respond, now busying himself with putting jam on the toast. Moon starts feeling anxious and fearing being in the crossfire, so she promptly exits the front door.
She stands outside the front door, patiently waiting for her twin. A couple minutes pass until Mason bursts out of the house, slamming the door. He rushes past Moon to the end of the front yard. Moon walks on the pavement towards her brother who was now hiding his face.
“Moon, I was going to tell you this earlier but.. I’m leaving. After training school today, Veran and I are getting on the last bus to the city. You can join us if you want.” His tone was bitter but hopeful.
“Mason? What? You decided on NYC?” Moon was startled. Mason had been contemplating transferring to another school for a while.
“Yes Moon!” He shouts before taking a deep breath, “I know you don’t want to see it, but we have a shitty living situation. You are constantly degraded and embarrassed. I want you to leave with me but I can't make that decision for you. You have to help yourself.” At this point he had turned to her and she could now see he had a black eye.
There was an unspoken understanding that Moon was torn. Mason nods his head and crosses the street, heading for his training school. Training schools are schools for the supernaturally gifted and teenagers from the ages 14 to 20 could enroll if their abilities were especially gifted. There they would be taught to utilize and control their powers, then direct that to support for police force, government assigned task forces or troops. Whether you went to one of these schools or not, everyone’s SPG’s were recorded once they revealed themselves from the age range of birth to 10 years old. This was now a typical thing to see on an ID, including how strong their powers are.
After that school day, Moon, for the first time, thought about fighting against her parent’s continuous cruel treatment. She couldn’t possibly do that, not because it wouldn’t be satisfying to stand up to them, she was just too terrified. Moon walked slowly, kicking rocks on the pavement sidewalk. Moon was trying to delay her time getting home because she didn’t want to see her brother leaving on the bus to the city because it passed her street. She looks up from her feet and the thought hits her, What will things be like without Mason? Knowing him, he won’t come back. Things could get worse, especially with no one to talk to. Wait, why does any of that matter? This is my brother, I can’t let him leave without me.
She runs. She doesn’t stop. Her backpack slows her down from its weight but she doesn’t stop. Just as she turns the corner, she can see the bus had come and gone, it was a little ways down the road and there was no way she could catch up. She can feel tears stinging her eyes. She looks up the driveway of her house in the distance and sees her parents' extra car. She gets an idea. A possibly illegal, terrifying, idea. She runs into the house, her parents at work, and runs to her room. Moon frantically dumps out her school stuff from her back pack. She packs a few pairs of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, a phone charger, headphones, wallet, and her phone. She zips the bag up, and barges through the house, grabs the keys off the hook and slams the door. She gets into the car. She had never driven a car herself, but had observed her brother do it many times this year. Their friend Veran, who was a year older than them, had gotten his permit and let Mason drive the car occasionally.
Moon turns on and backs out successfully. She finds the highway, it was surprisingly empty. It’s smooth sailing from here. She thinks to herself. She tries to steady her breathing and tell herself everything was going to be okay. But she had never done something like this. She never rebelled, never stole, never broke a law, and she had never been this terrified and panicked.
After 1 hour or so she became suspicious of the still vacant highway. Suddenly, in the distance she saw two bright headlights, this eased her anxiety for a few moments until it looked as if the headlights were on her side of the road, heading towards her. She panics, freezing. The car is hurtling towards her. She can't swerve, there is no where to go. No, no no. Please no. She panics, squeezing her eyes shut.
She feels an impact, the car toppling over, she hugs her arms close to her body, glass shatters, and she cries out. Everything settles and Moon scrambles out the windshield, dragging her bag along with her, trying to get out of the way of the flames erupting from the car. The only car there.
“Where is the-“ she mutters feebly, not getting up from her army crawl position. The sound of someone approaching makes Moon freeze. She strains her neck to look up slowly. Once her eyes catch sight of the figure, she feels fear rush over her like a rip tide. The figure was a misty black and seemed to flicker. It had a feminine form, remnants of curves and long hair, but these attributes were blurred by the singularity of its color. It took the shape of what most believe a ghost would and for a moment Moon wouldn’t deny that it could be because she had thought she died with how much pain she was in.
“Don’t worry Moon, I’m not here to hurt you.” Despite what this figure was saying, Moon was not at all comforted.
“I know what you desire. I can help you. I’ll only take a small toll.”
”What?” Moon says, gasping for air.
“Your abilities. You want to access them. I'll be the bridge.”
‘What? There is no way you could… What are you? Where did you come from?” Moon couldn’t decide on one singular pressing matter. This couldn’t possibly be a person, she had never seen a mutation be this drastic.
“Well I am not human. At least not anymore. Where I come from does not concern you,” it steps closer, “Listen Moon, you have dreamed of an opportunity like this. I can help you. Some people would call what I can do similar to a ‘possession.’ I’ll enter that brain of yours and…”
Moon knew she shouldn’t be so easily tempted, but this really played with her emotions. For once in her life, she felt a desire for more.
“bridge that empty space,” It says, sounding pleased seeing how hopeful Moon looked.
“Yes… I don’t care anymore. Do it.” She says.
Moon gets up to her feet, groaning at the ache in her body.
“I don’t need you to move, stay there,” It says, extending its arm to press its palm against Moon’s forehead. Moon feels uncomfortable in the pit of her stomach, maybe it was guilt, or regret, or simply how it was supposed to feel when a mysterious entity possesses you. A sting of pain hits her head like a large needle and somehow, in some weird sense, she could feel another conscience within her— a second voice. Her eyes slam shut, hoping to ease the pain. Suddenly, she could see behind her eyelids. She could navigate the source of the pain.
I don’t want this. This doesn’t feel right. She thought, knowing something was wrong, or maybe her body recognized the foreign presence. Either way, the pain seemed to tighten. Maybe it heard her. Inside this sort of residence of her consciousness, she could visualize herself moving through it. She felt disconnected from her body. Reaching the source of the pain, she could see a dark, ink like substance over taking a bright white orb of light.
It’s suffocating it. Moon thought. She drifted closer, trying to pull away the light from the substance's grasp. Somewhere distant, she could feel the pain of her body falling to its knees. But she couldn’t pay attention to that, she needed to focus. With all of the force she could muster, Moon ripped the infection off.
Suddenly she felt her presence jolt back to her body, immediately hitting the ground.