Invisible
o most she would have been invisible, hidden amongst the shadows as she
was. She had a knack as far as making herself unseen was concerned.
Something good had come from her childhood after all. She had made
herself a concave in the soft sand and now sat there, staring at the
silver moon. She wasn't aware of anything bar the soft washing of the
waves against the shore and her moon. If only she could untangle the
knotty mess of thoughts in her mind. He would have seen her, she
thought. Only He would have seen her.
The beautiful night mocked her. It had been such a torrid day. She had decided that her happiness mattered more than the whims and fancies of her so-called friends. It turned out to be a ruinous decision. Luke hadn't taken it too well. It was not as if some sort of negative reaction hadn't been expected. Everyone had known that he would not take her leaving him too well, but the intensity that he reacted with could not have been foreseen. She hoped to the Gods that he did not live up to his threats. Being responsible for the destruction of another life was the last thing she wanted.
A ring of cloud had formed around the moon and begun to radiate the colours of the rainbow. So it had been when she was here last, with Him. The Him that now made her stomach churn. How easy life would be if one could just give in to the heart. She longed to hold Him, stroke His hair and feel His arms around her. But still, her mind dominated in the eternal war between logic and emotion. It told her that it would be wrong, so soon after leaving Luke. It was socially unacceptable. What would they think they had been doing with all the time He and she had spent together? Her heart interjected every now and then reminding her that she had promised to care for her happiness, regardless of the Circle's opinions and protocols. For once she had decided to take the hard option and now she was not sure if she had the strength to stick by it.
How she wished that He was there to hold her and to wipe the tears from her face as he had done so many times before. She had never cried in front of anyone else. Never. She was too proud and stubborn for that. Now sobs rocked her body. She was so drained. She just wanted to curl up in a little ball and sleep to shut out the world. As she began to fix in her mind the image of being the only person left in the world - that life consisted of only her and the moon - her eyelids became heavier and heavier. Eventually, sleep overcame her raging mind.
He sat on the drab couch in his living room and tried not to listen to the conversation taking place in the kitchen. He knew full well that parts of it were intended to be heard by him. Look what I've done, he thought. All the misgivings and doubts he had tried so hard to push back came flooding forward. I should have left Her alone. All I have to give is pain and trouble. His mind was frantic with thoughts of where She could be and what She might be doing.
In the kitchen, the murmur of soothing tones could be heard. He had tried. There was no doubt in his mind that he had tried to do the "right" thing by them. Their own presumptions were so much worse, yet so much more trivial, than the truth. The friendship, the relationship, that he shared with Her was so much more unfathomable and sacred than the occasional dalliance.
The anger that he had hidden for the last few months began to resurface twofold. It was not he who had caused this mess. They had done it: the petty little Circle. They had destroyed Her and now they were trying to blame him. It's funny how a past can never truly be forgotten, he mused.
Inside him, a maniacal laugh began to form. It pushed and pushed until finally, it erupted from his mouth. The murmuring in the kitchen fell silent. Peter stuck his head around the door and fixed him with a cold, hateful stare. "I suggest you get out of here. Luke's on his way around and he's not too happy with you at all." With that, he disappeared back into the Mother's Club meeting go war council in the kitchen.
He would not go. Yet something was gnawing at his mind. Where is She? He was presented with a dilemma: Leave to find Her and have it seem as if he were backing down or stay and fight. He knew that She needed him. He could feel Her pulling at him. There was really no dispute when it came to the answer. "Let them have their misguided fantasies," he growled aloud. With that he grabbed his keys, phone and jacket and stormed out of the house, shutting the door loudly behind him.
He had no idea where he was going to start looking. There were so many places that She could have gone. She may still be moving, driving as far away from the problem as She could get. With a flash of intuition, he knew where to go. It wasn't really as much intuition as simple deduction, but he liked to be melodramatic at times. She had to be at one of the two places they usually went to sort out things that weighed on their minds. He headed out along the highway. The other place was too close to the source of the problem.
What if she didn't want to see him? His heart ached at the prospect. She did though, he knew that. It was just his paranoias playing with his patience again. Patience was something that, when driving, he did not have a lot of. That night it was truly being put to the test. No speed seemed fast enough. He slowed down to the speed limit. It wouldn't do him any good to get pulled over now.
He prayed to the Moon that She hadn't done anything stupid. He hoped that he had given Her more to live for than that. He felt so hopeless. What was he going to say when he found Her? He couldn't just say, "Don't worry about them." That would be so inadequate. He would face that problem when he came to it.
He pulled into the car park and saw Her car. His heart leapt and his stomach started to flutter. He got out of the car, trying to collect himself. Shit, forgot the phone. Damn it, he thought, I only have Her to leave it on for anyway. He could not help noticing the moon and its rainbow ring. A smile of remembrance spread across his face. From the corner of his eye, he caught the sight of a shooting star. His smile widened and a laugh escaped from his mouth.
He had to stop himself more than once from bounding along the beach. The sound of the waves filled his mind. She would be in the shadows somewhere, trying to hide from Her troubles, he found himself thinking. It was then that he saw Her. It was not so much sight that alerted him but a tickling feeling in the back of his mind. Curled up as She was, She looked like an innocent child. She often did when sleeping. He thought of the night that he had sat by the bed and watched Her sleep. He had yearned to wake Her and say sorry for all the things he had done; all the pain he had caused. He let another fond laugh escape, his goofy smile still present. That was in the past now. They had been shown the bad so that what they had now could be realised.
He wondered if he should wake Her and promptly decided against it. It would give him time to think. Now he had found Her, he could think of what to say. He took his jacket off and laid it over the sleeping body, now surrounded by the hazy light emanating from the luminous moon. She awoke with a start. She had been dreaming. It was more of a nightmare, to be truthful. He had been trying to find Her, driving much too quickly. He lost control and ... more loss. She awoke with her heart shrouded in deep sorrow. She rubbed her eyes and nearly screamed when she heard something moving beside her. She let out a sigh as she realised that it was Him. Sitting there beside her, she was hit with an image of Him that she was never to forget. His whole frame seemed to be illuminated by the light of the moon. His face was serene one moment and contorted with pain and worry the next. Conscious of her stare, He turned around to meet her eyes. She gave Him a wan smile. He lay His hand on her head. She rose and sat by His side, laying her head on His bony shoulder. For some strange reason, she felt at peace here with Him, on the shore of the ocean, beneath their moon. He lay his arm around her shoulders.
There they sat, silent and unmoving, until the moon begun to descend and with the sun momentarily shared the sky. Anyone who by chance passed by would have though they were statues, perfectly carved. An image of star-crossed lovers. There was no need for words, everything was said by look or gesture. When the sun had finally taken its place in the sky and the moon had gone to bed, they rose in unison and headed towards the car park. It was time to face the Circle and tell them exactly what they thought. They smiled happy, slightly devious, smiles.
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