?Chapter 0429


    As I came to a painful stop at the bottom of the steps, the battle around me continued to rage on. Luke fell beside me, motionless after his tumble down the stairs. I slowly pushed myself up to my hands and knees and looked up to see that the Luna was walking toward me.


    And behind her, Lori and Jessica were suspended in the air by magic.


    "Let them go!" I growled.


    The Luna justughed. "You and your little friends are putting up quite the fight," she said, her voice low and almost sultry sounding. "It''s such a shame that I can end all of their lives with a single snap." She raised her hand and twisted her wrist. The battlefield fell silent. I looked up frantically to see that all of my friends and recruits, and even the rogues, were frozen in time. Behind me, Enzo stood frozen as well. He was still in his wolf form, and was stalking toward the Luna with his teeth bared. Now, the only things moving were his eyes.


    "What have you done?" I asked, scrambling to my feet. "Why are you doing this?"


    "Don''t you know already?" the Luna said, walking further down the steps toe face to face with me. "Do I really need to exin it again?"


    I shook my head, trying to stay strong beneath the piercing gaze of her red eyes. "You won''t get away with this," I whispered. "Let my friends go, or I''ll kill you." I pulled the knife out of my boot that I had been hiding and brandished it, pointing it at the Luna''s face. But she justughed again and swatted it away with an unexpected amount of force, causing it to tter to the ground. My hand and wrist rang out in searing pain where she had hit


    me.


    "We can make this easy, you know," she whispered. "I have a proposition for you. A proposition to end this all... to save your friends."


    "I don''t believe you." I took a step back. Suddenly, the Luna''s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. Her grip was like steel, and she gripped me so tightly that my skin burned beneath her touch. I cried out in pain and felt my knees buckle beneath me, but she held me so firmly that I couldn''t even fall to the ground.


    "Join me," she said. "You''re powerful. You''re smart. You''re everything that your useless sister isn''t. If you join forces with me, I promise I won''t hurt your friends. The town of Mountainview will be treated like royalty, if that''s what you want. Just join me."


    In an odd way, I could sense what sounded like a hint of desperation in the Luna''s voice. She seemed desperate for my help.... Or maybe she was afraid of what I might do to her if I didn''t join forces with her.


    "No," I snarled.


    The Luna sighed. She raised her free hand and snapped, causing Lori and Jessica to squirm and writhe in pain. Neither of them could speak, as some sort of magic was keeping their mouths closed. But I could still hear their groans of pains through their closed lips, and I could see the tears streaking down their faces.


    "How do I know you''re not lying to me?" I said, gritting my teeth through the pain of the Luna gripping my wrist even more tightly. "How should I trust you?"


    "That''s a valid question," the Luna replied with a bit of a wry chuckle. "But it doesn''t matter. You have two choices: help me end the human race and your friends will live, or don''t help me and they''ll all die. Either way, you''re going to be my puppet. The choice is yours."


    I groaned again from the burning pain of the Luna holding my wrist. "I''d rather die than let you take over the world," I snarled. "Someone will stop you. You can''t go on like this forever."


    *Really?" the Luna scoffed. "We''ll see about that."


    She finally released her grip on me. I immediately fell to the ground, holding my wrist where a deep red handprint was burned into my flesh. The skin bubbled up around it, still burning. Beads of blood started to fleck on the


    surface, but I didn''t care. All I saw was the Luna walking back up to Lori and Jessica, and with a flick of her wrist, they writhed in even more agony. Not just them, but everyone. Even the rogues. The battlefield became filled with the sounds of screaming.


    I turned to see all of my friends writhing on the ground, screaming bloody murder. Right in front of my eyes, Enzo trembled and groaned with pain. He tried to stand, his eyes still fixed unwaveringly on me, but soon the invisible pain forced him to the ground. Beside me, Luke screamed out mercilessly.


    I couldn''t bear it any longer. If I didn''t do something, everyone would die.


    "Wait!" I shouted. "Don''t kill them!"


    The Luna slowly turned back to face me. There was a sick, twisted smile on her face as the screaming around us continued. "You changed your mind, then?" she said, looking down on me from where she stood on the steps. Her all-white, calm appearance stood in stark contrast against the pain and agony around us. "You''re going to join me?"


    I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked around onest time. Luke''s eyes began to bleed beside me, like red tears streaking down his face. Enzo, still in his wolf form, started to cough and gag, sending spurts of blood out onto the muddy ground as he continued to struggle to stand. Even in his pain, his eyes were fixed on mine. *Don''t do it," I heard his voice say in my head. "Let me die. I love you, Nina. But don''t do it..."


    I stared at him in abject horror. Everything in me was torn in two different directions; let my friends die and still be a puppet to the Luna, or willingly join the Luna so my friends could live - if the Luna even stayed true to her word. As I stared at Enzo, the sounds of the screaming around me filled my ears, filled every part of me. I couldn''t let it go on for any longer.


    "Yes," I said, looking back at the Luna once more. "I''ll join you."


    Suddenly, the screaming and agony around me stopped. Everything fell silent again, and once more everyone around me froze in time.


    The Luna held her ghostly pale hand out to me with a dark and twisted grin on her face, her long white hair billowing in the wind while her red eyes shed with excitement in the moonlight. "You''ve made a good decision, my child," she said.


    I reached out to take her hand.


    But suddenly, behind her, I saw movement. Someone wasn''t frozen in time. The Luna had forgotten someone when she cast her spell.This content ? N?v/elDr(a)m/a.Org.


    I saw a sh of dark hair and blue eyes. A knife glinted in the moonlight.