LunarEclipse

Ch. 4 Was it a Dream?

The only light that seeped into Eclipse’s dark room was from the moon. It wasn’t even full and yet it was still able to light his room up completely…or maybe it was just in his genes to be freakishly sensitive to light. No, that couldn’t be it…he never had trouble with the light before. Whatever the reason was it kept Eclipse awake. Grumbling, he rolled onto his stomach and reached for his digital clock that sat on the small nightstand next to his bed. The glowing red lights on the clock indicated that it was well passed midnight.

Slamming the clock back down he groaned, “Come on…!” he pressed his face into the pillow and kicked his legs. Eventually his limbs got tangled in the sheets and he spent a good five minutes fumbling in the dark trying to free himself. He sat up, resting his head in the palm of his hand, he hated when he couldn’t sleep. Especially when he had something important planned the next day. And his first mission with Lunar counted as important. There was no way he could screw up tomorrow, Lunar already hated him—God only knew why—and Eclipse didn’t want to be thought of as incompetent, too.

“…Why the hell do I care about what he thinks of me?” he asked himself, annoyed that Lunar had recently taken over his mind. There wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t think about him. Lying back down and closing his eyes, Eclipse wondered why he was so attracted to the human. What was there to like? Lunar was, mean, arrogant, bitchier than most women Eclipse met…and was absolutely adorable. “Damn,” Eclipse slapped himself on the forehead. Leave it to him to justify Lunar’s bad attitude just because he’s got a pretty face.

Tomorrow wouldn’t go well. Eclipse could tell.

---

Something was burning…someone was calling his name.

Eclipse tried opening his eyes but the smoke swirling around him stung his eyes and he kept them shut. The same person called his name again. Squinting, he saw blurs of orange and red amidst thick black and gray smoke. He forced himself to open his eyes completely. Fire devoured everything in his room, pictures he had on his wall turned to charred scraps of black paper, the curtains, his clothes, everything! He screamed, fearful that he was next in line to burn to ashes.

Looking to his left he could see his older brother, shaking him and yelling his name. The thick hazy smoke obscured Sashi’s face. Kicking the sheets off his body, Eclipse sprang out of bed. Sashi took a firm grip on his wrist and pulled him toward the door to the hall. Together they ran down the hallway, it seemed to get hotter every step they took, Sashi stopped Eclipse as they reached the stairs. Looking down the small flight, Eclipse’s eyes widened in horror. His mother and father were both face down on the hard wood floor, blood seeping from unseen wounds. A group of shadowy figures stood around them, with weapons in their hands. The flames tearing the small house apart didn’t seem to bother them at all. One of the shadow figures spotted Eclipse and Sashi and pointed, yelling something Eclipse couldn’t hear through the roaring inferno. The group rushed at them, the sound of their boots echoing as they stomped on the stairs. Eclipse looked to Sashi for help but his big brother wasn’t there anymore. He disappeared. Tears formed in Eclipse’s eyes and he turned and ran down the hall, his pursuers catching up quickly. He nearly slipped on the floor as he turned sharply in to his parent’s bedroom. Grabbing a lamp on the nightstand, Eclipse hurled it at the window. It smashed the glass and Eclipse dove through the broken window and landed ungracefully on his hands and knees. Cool night air filled his lungs; he was relived to finally be able to breath again. He slowly got on his feet and winced when shards of glass imbedded themselves into his flesh.

The click of a gun brought his gaze up. He gasped at the sight of Lunar, pointing his gun between his eyes. He started shaking; having to look at Lunar’s pitiless, ice blue gaze scared him. Neither of them moved for the longest time.

Sirens sounded off in the distance and steadily got louder and louder. With wide, pleading eyes Eclipse looked up at the human. His voice refused to work but his mouth moved any way, “Please…” he wanted to say, “Don’t kill me…”

The sirens only got louder.

Lunar’s bangs covered his eyes, and his lips curled into a sinister grin.

The alarm was blaring.

Slowly, Lunar pulled the trigger back.

---

Eclipse’s eyes shot open and he let out a strangled cry. Lifting his shaking hands, he touched his face. Nope, no bullet holes. That’s always a good sign. But the siren was still there, screaming in his ears. Glancing to his side he saw his alarm clock, vibrating a little bit as it sounded its bell, telling Eclipse it was quarter to six and time to wake up. The odd thing was is that he never remembered falling asleep. Sighing in relief, he reached over to turn it off. He was still shaking. The dream felt so real. The small burn scar on his thigh tingled, reminding him that not all of it was just a dream, although Lunar appearing was rather new.

“Damn…how long has it been now?” he asked himself, sitting up and rubbing his thigh to make the annoying tingling sensation stop. “Twelve years?” that sounded about right. Not that he could ever really forget. The image of his parents and house burning to the ground was etched firmly into his mind. That was why he had to find out why it happened, and who did it…and more importantly, he had to find out where Sashi was.
He did survive the fire, but disappeared a year later. And Eclipse had spent most of his time trying to find information and new leads on Sashi. That was the only reason he joined CHAOS. The organization existed because of Vampires, so it was his best chance at finding his brother. But there were no records of his brother in any CHAOS database. Relief mixed with aggravation boiled in Eclipse’s stomach when he found out. He was relived because his brother hadn’t done anything to get himself on CHAOS’ wanted list and aggravated because it made Sashi that much harder to locate.

“Where are you big brother?” Eclipse asked wearily, his head falling back on his pillow.

---

Lunar arrived at Cecil’s office earlier than expected. He knocked on her office door softly and waited for a curt, “What?” before entering. Cecil was a married woman of 45 and her age was slowly starting to show. Her long black hair had streaks of gray and there were faint wrinkles on her forehead and at the corners of her mouth. But even if she was older it didn’t mean she wasn’t intimidating. She scared the hell out of the toughest men in CHAOS with just her trademark death glare. It seemed she was the only person capable of dealing with Lunar’s personality.

Lunar stood by the door, waiting for her to acknowledge his presence. She was busy typing away on her computer, glancing down at a stack of papers every now and then. There were two piles of papers on her average sized wooden desk along with a manila folder sitting at the edge. Lunar walked to the front of her desk and cleared his throat loudly. Cecil didn’t stop her typing but spared Lunar a quick glance.

“You’re early,” She said, “I’m not discussing your mission with you until it’s exactly 8:00…in fact, I’m not talking to you until then either. Run along now, you’re distracting me.”

A muscle in Lunar’s face twitched. Why was she always like this? Folding his arms, Lunar sat down in one of two plastic and metal chairs situated in front of Cecil’s desk, “That’s a real nice ‘Hello,’” he stated, leaning back in the chair. She stopped typing and exhaled loudly.

“I thought I told you to leave and come back when it’s actually time for you to come?”

Lunar cocked his head and glared, “I woke up early and didn’t have anything better to do…besides I’m already here so why can’t we get started?” Cecile pointed at the empty chair next to Lunar.

“Your partner isn’t here. Unlike you, he’s probably planning to come on time.”

“I’m on time,” Lunar argued.

“No, you’re not. You got here early. Now leave.”

“Gimme a break, it’s seven thirty. I’m not going to wander around the building for thirty minutes. And…” he got quieter, “there’s something I want to discuss with you.”

“It can wait until Mr. Engel gets here.”

“No…”

Cecil stopped all movement and eyed Lunar curiously, “You sound rather reluctant…Fine, what did you want to discuss?” Lacing her fingers together she rested her chin on them and gave Lunar her full attention.

“It’s about…Engel,” He started reluctantly.

---

“Damn…! Damndamndamn!!” Eclipse shouted bursting through the front door of his house. He had a piece of toast dangling from the corner of his mouth and he was trying to put on his left shoe as he ran down the street. “I can’t believe this! How the hell did I fall asleep while taking a shower??”  He looked at his watch, 7:40. There was absolutely no way he would make it in time. It took him an hour to get the CHAOS headquarters by foot.

“Shoot!” He bolted down the street, paying no heed to the traffic and resulting in him nearly being hit by a car more times than he’d like to remember. Hugging a streetlight for support so he wouldn’t collapse, Eclipse breathlessly took another glimpse at his watch: ten minutes to eight…and he wasn’t even half way there. He was going to be late on his first official day…what a pain.

“Wait a minute…” he thought for a moment then slapped himself for not thinking of Shadow Walking earlier, “I’m such an idiot…” He mumbled and quickly searched for a large enough shadow to stand in. There was an adequate sized shadow behind a small bakery. Taking a deep breath Eclipse stood in the middle of the shadow and concentrated his power. There was a small burst of red sparks at his feet and he disappeared.

---

A white limousine pulled up in front of CHAOS. An elderly gentleman in a black suit stepped out of car and swiftly made his way to open the door on the passenger’s side. Before he could reach the door it clicked open and a young woman about the age of 17 stepped out. Smoothing her pink and white frilly dress and fixing her curled blonde hair she glared at the driver.

“Why didn’t you open the door for me? I swear you’re about as useless as they come!” she yelled, green eyes flashing angrily at the elder man.

“I apologize, Miss Vanessa,” the man said meekly, closing the door behind her.

“It’s too hot!” She complained shielding her eyes with her hand, “Charles, fetch me my parasol.” Charles did as he was told, even though the spoiled girl was only ten feet from the entrance to CHAOS. He opened the parasol and held it for her as they made their way to the doors.

“What a dump!” She exclaimed, none too quietly when she entered the lobby.

“Miss Vanessa, please…” Charles protested but Vanessa brushed him off. He apologized quietly to a few of the employees.

“What? Daddy’s new hotel is so much better than this pigsty. And it’s not even finished yet!” Suddenly a black blur raced passed Vanessa, nearly knocking her off her feet and causing her to screech a long string of profanities. It echoed throughout the spacious entryway. Everyone was silent for a moment, awestruck that so many dirty words could come out of such a dainty mouth.

As if nothing happened, Vanessa strode towards the elevators in the left hallway and turned to face Charles, who was still trying to apologize for the girl’s atrocious manners. “Charles! Who said you could leave my side! Come here now!” she stomped her foot.

“Y-yes…!” he scurried over to her and whispered, “Heaven help the poor, unfortunate souls who have to guard her tonight…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing, miss!”    

---

Eclipse was able to make it to the room in time with three minutes to spare. He felt bad for not stopping to apologize to the girl he mowed down in the lobby but he was in a hurry and, judging from her spectacular talent of weaving swear words into colorful sentences, she seemed to be just fine. But he couldn’t help but think that her voice sounded familiar…

“Whatever…” he sighed and opened the door. As he expected, Lunar was already there.

“Good morning, Mr. Engel,” Cecil said, waving her hand at the chair next to Lunar. “Please take a seat.” He did as he was told, anticipating Lunar to lash out or get up and walk away. But he stayed where he was, arms folded across his chest and a sour look on his pretty face. Cecil turned to Lunar.

“You see, Lunar, as I told you earlier Eclipse has the decency to show up on time. You could learn something from him.”  Lunar growled, flashing a hateful glare Eclipse’s way.

‘What the hell did I do??’ Eclipse wanted to ask but wisely kept his mouth shut.

“Moving on…”Cecil stated, reaching for the manila folder on the edge of her desk, “You two have an important mission to carry out today. You know the Holmes Hotel chain is opening a new luxury hotel and companion restaurant in Royal City, right? The construction is complete and they expected to have the grand opening this Friday. But the only problem is that there are a couple of Vampires causing trouble. They’ve been snacking on the hotel staff and looting the restaurant’s kitchen. All you have to do is take care of them and—“

A loud voice outside the door interrupted Cecil. It sounded like a girl…like the girl that Eclipse bumped into on his way up. She was complaining about something in an annoyingly familiar, nasally voice. The door clicked open.

‘Wait a minute…Holmes…that voice…Oh my God…!’ Eclipse turned slowly to look at the door, a horrified expression plastered on his face.

It was as he feared, the girl entered, dressed entirely in a pink and white frilly dress and a disgusted snarl on her face…that is, until she laid her small, green eyes on Eclipse. Her pink lips formed a perfect O shape showing her surprise, “Eclipse darling??”

“Vanessa…?”

TBC