CHAPTER 4

Falling into the water, forgetting that she was just lying beside the ocean. Luna sank into the water, her long dress pulling her down even further. She stretched her hands up and pushed herself up. She swam up to the surface, and she glanced around the place immediately after her head left the water. Her hand moved to her hair, grabbing it and wrapping it in a messy bun.

"Assy," she repeated.

She kept glancing around before moving towards the land. She wasn't hearing things; that voice looked familiar, and only Assy had always said those words. She was about to reach the land when she felt something pulling at her dress. She glanced back at the dress only to see it stuck between tree roots in the water. Without thinking, she pulled the dress with so much force. The hem of the dress tore away, and she was free. She held up her gown and stepped into the land.

Immediately after her feet touched the sand, she began running towards the woods where she had heard the voice. Her heart was racing hard in her chest, the woods were quiet, and she could not hear anything or any grunt coming from anyone. Has the ball killed him so much that she can’t hear a thing coming from the woods? Her wet dress was rubbing the ground as she ran, and the hair she had packed into a messy bun was already let loose and flying in the air. She reached a clear spot; the moon was shining and giving her light to see. She circled the place, her eyes scanning everywhere, and she clutched tightly to the long gown.

"Assy!"

She spun around. "Assy."

She heard nothing; she turned left and kept on running into the woods. Calling out to him, he was closer to her, she knew it but why was he hiding? She knew if she let him go this time, she would never get to see him again. She kept on running, her pace increasing as she screamed his name.

"Assy!"

Luna glanced around; the place was silent except for the chirping of birds. She paused to study the environment; she barely recognized it. She moved around in circles, thoughts running through her head. Had she imagined what she heard? She could not keep the thought out of her head; after all, her father had told her that Assy was an imaginary friend. But he wasn't, she sighed.

"Assy!" She yelled again, this time in a high-pitched voice.

Her voice echoed around the woods, scaring the birds, which began flying up to the sky and chirping loudly. With tears filling her eyes and her vision getting blurry, she slowly shrank down to her knees. A sob escaped as she tried to stop it; she had heard his voice. There was no way she was going to be able to recognize that voice. He was nowhere to be found, which means she had hallucinated the voice.

'I heard wrong.' 

'Assy is never coming back.'

She sniffed as the tears began pouring down even harder. She covered her face with her palm. She had come looking for him, and now she might be lost. Just as she was about to let out a loud sob, she heard a rustle of grass beside her. In a swift motion, her hands flew away from her face. She spun around to face the direction, but nothing was there; the thing had moved in a really fast motion.

She got up rather slowly. "Assy!" She called out "Is that you?"

Something fast moved behind her; she got a glimpse of it from the corner of her eyes. She turned around to look at the direction; nothing was there. Luna clutched tightly to her dress and wondered what was going on. Even though she had caught a glimpse of the figure, she couldn’t tell if it was a human. Why on earth had she gotten lost in the first place? The figure moved again in a fast, swift motion and disappeared behind a tree branch.

"Assy?" She called out, moving closer to the side where the shadow had disappeared.

The moon barely shone in that direction; there were trees blocking the light from entering. Luna pushed away a tree branch that was blocking her from going in. She looked ahead, trying to see what was there. She saw nothing but pitch darkness.

"Assy?"

Another movement behind her caught her attention, and she spun around to face the direction. She saw the shadow of something huge; it was so huge that Luna's knees weakened. What was that thing? She watched it step into the light; its eyes were away from her, and its back was facing her. Luna's throat went dry when she saw the creature’s fingers; they were razor-like.

The creature suddenly sniffed the air, and Luna went numb. She was sure that thing was going to eat her if it spotted her. The creature sniffed again, like it was perceiving the scent of something. Luna tried to move her feet, but her feet felt stuck to the ground. The creature began to turn around. Luna held her breath, waiting for the worst. Just when the creature was about to turn to her, a hand stepped out of the darkness. One hand covered her mouth, and the other grabbed her by the tummy and pulled her into the darkness.

The creature completely turned around, sniffed, and stared for a while. Its eyes were focused on the branch blocking the path Luna was pulled into. In the darkness she had been pulled into, Luna's back hit something hard. She tried to struggle to get away from the grip of the one who had held her. He was pressing her against his chest and still covering her mouth. His eyes were focused on the creature, which continued sniffing and walking in their direction. It titled its head and looked directly into the darkness. Seeing nothing, the creature turned around and ran into the woods.

Luna began humming, and she raised her hand to remove his hand from her mouth. He completely ignored the girl in front of him, his eyes scanning the outside to be sure the monster was gone.

"You could have been killed." He scoffed, his hand still tightly wrapped around her.

Luna slowly raised her eyes to look at his face; his eyes were stickling ocean blue. His eyes glowed in the darkness, and her eyes widened as she watched. She suddenly remembered why she was here in the first place—to find Assy. She hummed for him to release her. He removed his hand from her body and looked down at her. He looked so much taller than her that Luna started to feel really short. She had to raise her head to look at him.

She had not seen him before, and in the darkness, she could not see his face properly. She could only see his eyes—those eyes that looked so adorable and beautiful. She could feel her cheeks turning red as she stared into his eyes. She waved her head and snapped back into reality. She was here for Assy; she was here to look for Assy, and she found this guy with gorgeous ocean blue eyes. She could have said the guy standing in front of her was Assy, but Assy's eyes were green and not blue. Luna sighed; it seemed she might have misheard those words.

"Thank you for saving me." She forced her lips to move after drooling. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

She extended her hand for a handshake, but the figure in front of her ignored her and kept on staring at her. He was standing still and staring. Luna retrieved her, and he wasn’t saying a word to her. Luna raised her hand and waved it in front of him. She would have said he could not speak if he had not spoken to her earlier. The silence was killing her. She could have left, but leaving after he saved her was rude.

"Are you there?" She questioned.

He slowly nodded. "What were you doing here?"

Luna ignored the question. "I don’t think you need to know; thank you for saving me. I would have said, I owe you one, but I am sure we might ever cross paths again.”

“How are you so sure?” He inquired in a sharp tone. “We are going to be seeing much of each other for a very long time.”

Luna glared at him, his eyes boring into his. “We will see about that.”

“Okay, you are going to be surprised.” He said there was a tone of mockery in his voice.

Luna knew there was going to be a smirk on his face as he stared at her.

“I am leaving; my father would be worried about me.” She said.

She did not know why she said that; she shouldn’t have told him. He did not utter a word, and Luna took that as an answer that she was free to go. She turned around to leave when she heard a voice, a voice she had not heard before.

'Don't leave.'

She turned around to look at the man, who was still standing there. Luna could feel his eyes on her as she walked close to him. Confused by what she heard, did he ask her not to leave? He wasn’t the one; she was hearing things again.

"Did you say something?" She questioned him, walking close to him.

They were only a few feet apart; she was looking up at him while he looked down at her.

"No, I didn't say anything." He denied.

'Dummy!' Luna heard again, and this time the words came with a low groan.

Luna looked around, trying to see if they were alone. She could not find anyone, and she wanted to speak again when she heard the same voice speak again.

'Mate…Mate…Mate.'

Luna looked at the man in front of her, he had saved her from the creature. Though she found his eyes really attractive but the thing inside her was speaking. She remembered what her father had said to her earlier, her eyes quickly widened in disbelief.

"Mate?" She asked, yelling out loud.

“Soul mate.” He responded, grinning down at the open-eyed girl in front of him. “I told you we would be seeing each other for a very long time.”