Mirrors & Shadows

𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝐕𝐈𝐈

յօ 𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔥𝔰 𝔭𝔯𝔦𝔬𝔯 ~ 𝔑𝔬𝔱 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 y𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔬𝔲𝔩𝔡 𝔦𝔪𝔞𝔤𝔦𝔫𝔢

All three vampires stared at her, curious to see how she would react. Then, she started to laugh uncontrollably in front of their incredulous stares. This was simply ridiculous. The science was straight before her yet a part of herself refused to believe the blood sucking monsters in Halloween movies existed. And another part of her expected more proof. Where were the fangs and the capes? She surprised herself thinking. But deep down something told her this was no joke. These people were serious.
    "Why are you telling me this?"
And her of all people. She barely knew them.
    "Dr. Enwright," De Revel began, "have you ever felt different? And I don't mean how the average human might feel like they don't fit in. I mean do you see things you can not explain? Things you shouldn't be able to see?"
Her eyes narrowed. The way he used the word 'human' to speak of other people felt strange. But her curiosity surpassed her wariness.
    "How do you know?"
    "I have reason to believe you're a shifter."
    "A shifter?"
However he offered no further explanations.
    "How did you know Dr. Valdret had cancer?" he persisted.
    "I didn't." She answered honestly.
    "Dr. Enwright. Please. This is important."
Luna inhaled slowly, preparing herself to unlock her deepest secret.
    "I can experience people's deaths." She uttered, almost in a whisper. It felt weird but at the same time it felt like a revelation. It was the truth. "Before they happen." she added.
He nodded. The two others watched attentively.
    "What does that mean?" She asked with apprehension.
     "It means that every vampire in Paris will be after you if they discover what you are. That is to say a shifter, an individual that can shift shapes and interact with objects without contact."
    "That's not possible." She stubbornly repeated. She had learnt all the physics laws that proved against it.
    "Is seeing death before it happens possible? You tell me."
    "It's not proved. Who doesn't say that my visions are just hallucinations that happen to coincide with reality or that my memory distorts to conform to reality." She countered.
An amused smile formed across his lips.
    "Do you believe that?"
    "No." she begrudgingly admitted. "But nothing's been proven."
You could have hallucinations you mistake for reality.
     "Oh it's proved, it's just not explained."
     "Really?..." her voice had found its sarcasm again. "How did you know that Cendrine had cancer?"
    "I could smell it."
    "You mean... like a dog?"
She saw Arthur repress a snicker behind De Revel's back.
    "Erm... I didn't mean..." she stammered quickly. But he only smiled shyly, his eyes taking on their cloudy shade.
    "No. It's only natural to be curious about such things. I suppose any sane person would react similarly."
     "So you were never interested in my paper weren't you?" She asked with a pinch of accusation and a little disappointment.
    "Naturally I found your perspective on electromagnetism fascinating. It was initially because of your paper that I sought to meet you in person. Although when I met you I had a presentiment."
She remembered his delving gaze when they had first met when she was surprised to not see his vision. He was trying to discern any hint that would confirm his intuition.
"When I saw you on a street near Place d'Italie, I suspected you were responsible for the flood. I wasn't entirely sure then but after what you've confirmed, there's no doubt. Only the part within a half kilometer range from where you were, underwent floods when the rest of Paris was sunny or at least as sunny as Paris can be in October. I also assumed though that you would have been aware of what you were doing but I was mistaken... Yesterday's incident proves that I may not have been the only witness to that event."
    "What do you mean 'responsible for the floods'? I didn't do anything." It wasn't as if she had suddenly started building dams in Paris.
A malevolent grin spread on Marie-Élise's arrogant face to De Revel's right.
    "She really is ignorant isn't she? She is the first person I've seen capable of flooding Paris without even realizing it."
Once more, mist veiled De Revel's gaze.
     "It is rumored that shifters can somehow attract or repel molecules particularly water molecules." He explained.
     "Wait...Whhaaat??"
     "She's a physicist. You can't just drop that kind of news on her." Arthur grinned.
     "Again," De Revel continued, "it's happened before it's just never been explained."

During middle school a lot of students decided to substitute 'Luna' to 'lunatic' or occasionally 'loser'. The school bullies were especially good at this. One time when the hallway was empty, one girl confronted Luna, murmuring nasty insults, calling her a loser and jamming her against the row of lockers (this was easy considering Luna was three years younger than her and was a head shorter). But the girl's words began to mysteriously fade out. Her lips were moving but the insults did not pass them. She too noticed, padding her throat in a bewildered manner.
"I prefer to think of myself as a winner in training." Teenage-Luna grinned as if she had somehow known she was the cause of this strange phenomenon. The words escaped her mouth as easily as if they had slipped and they came out in this bizarre hollow echo. After that day that girl never spoke another word to Luna.

That wasn't the only weird occurrence that Luna had experienced. The bathroom above her room when she still lived with her adoptive parents would often leak. No plumber seemed able to fix it. They would change the pipes but the leaking continued. Every evening, Luna would lie in her bed staring at her ceiling as it became more and more crackled. She couldn't help but think that it adequately reflected what she truly felt. Shattered from the inside.

She also recalled more than once, the game she used to play, sitting alone at the cafeteria. Teenage-Luna would enjoy imagining water splashing in slow motion out of the other student's glasses while they were busy chatting among themselves. But again she also thought not so long ago that she had imagined De Revel at first.

Or that time in elementary with that boy who used to throw stones at her in her back. One day she turned around, two stones were headed her way and they stopped their trajectory in mid-air, hurdling instead straight toward the bully's face as if they had a mind of their own. She remembered smirking at his look of utter surprise when they struck his cheek and forehead. All the other eight year olds around them erupted into laughter without understanding what had truly happened.

It had happened. It just wasn't explained.

Luna's lips parted in realization but no sound came out. All the same, De Revel nodded in silent comprehension.

A/N
Hey guys! Pleeaase vote or comment if you like this story 🥺Btw I've got another question. What's the deal with the rankings?? For example at one point I was ranked 16th for the tag "moon" and 7th for the tag "mirror" but what is it based on bcz how did I get a good rating with so few votes and reads?

Words:1162

Ps: I realized that this song illustrates the story in some ways because even though Luna provoked the rain, she couldn't really control it...