Noctura

eight

I move over to the door labeled "storage" and open it up. I shuffle through some things until I see my guitar case. I bring it out and then sling it over my shoulder.

Nephi happily leads me back toward his room.

On our way there, Nephi stops by the door next to his room.

"Hi, Miss Zoya!" He calls into the room.

The woman inside the room, sitting in a chair at a desk, turns around and smiles. "Hi, Nephi. How are you doing?"

Nephi forgets about the guitar for a moment and goes into Zoya's room, giving her a big hug.

"I'm good! Seungyoon is back!"

"That he is." Zoya smiles up at me as I walk in. "Hello, Seungyoon."

"Hey, Zoya," I greet her. "How are you holding up?"

She gives a small sigh. "I'm hanging in there, you know? This little one sure does keep me company, though."

Nephi beams at me.

"Yeah," I reply with a smile. "He's good at cheering people up, huh?"

Zoya smiles in agreement.

"Seungyoon is gonna play guitar for me!" Nephi exclaims. "It's bedtime for me now, so I have to go. Goodnight, Zoya!"

Nephi gives her a quick hug before racing off toward his room.

I smile at Zoya.

She chuckles. "Never a dull moment with Nephi."

I touch her shoulder gently. "If you ever need anything, Zoya, let me know."

She nods. "Thank you." She touches my hand. "For everything."

I give her a sincere smile before heading back into Nephi's room.

He's already under the covers, waiting for me to fully tuck him in.

I pull the blanket up to his chin and then I turn off the lamp on the bedside table. His nightlight in the corner of the room casts shadows of stars and planets on the ceiling.

"Play a song for me?" He asks.

"Of course," I tell him.

I get my guitar out of its case and sit down at the end of Nephi's bed. I tune the guitar and once it sounds good, I strum it a couple times.

Nephi looks at me expectantly, eyes glowing.

I start playing a soft, sweet song for him. I hum a little bit as I strum the guitar. The whole time, I watch Nephi. His eyelids start to get heavy and he tries to fight off sleep.

Once I finish the song, he's almost asleep.

I pack up my guitar and then I feel Nephi touch my arm.

I look over at him.

"Seungyoon..." He speaks with a tired voice.

"Yeah?" I ask quietly.

"I'm hungry. Can I eat soon?"

I look at his precious face, his innocent dark brown eyes.

"I'll make sure you eat soon, Nephi. I promise."

He gives me a smile. "Goodnight, Seungyoon. I love you."

I smile back at him, but he's already sleeping.

"I love you too, Nephi." I whisper.

I take my guitar and leave Nephi's room, gently closing the door behind me. I go back into the main room and put my guitar up in the storage closet.

Then, I walk over to a man sitting at a desk near the back of the room.

"Mr. Blanchard," I greet him.

He looks up at me and gives a small nod. "Yoon. I didn't know you were visiting today."

"I didn't either, until I showed up here." I give him a small smile. "Just put Nephi to bed."

Mr. Blanchard nods. "Thank you."

"And if you don't need anything else, I think I'll be off."

Mr. Blanchard shakes his head and smiles. "I think all is well, Yoon."

I smile back. "Good. I'm glad. Are they being fed properly?"

"I've been working very closely with Lucia, our Noctura leader, and she's planning on bringing in some food in the next two days."

I nod. "Thank you, Mr. Blanchard."

"No, thank you, Yoon. This wouldn't be possible without you."

I give a curt, formal nod. "I'll see you around."

"See you around, Yoon."

I head toward the stairs and go up them quickly. Once I get to the main level, I close the door to the stairs and make sure it's locked—force of habit—and then give a nod to the woman at the front desk on the main level.

That woman is a front. She works with the Alliance and makes sure that no one goes down the stairs unless they are also part of the Alliance. If someone comes in here who isn't part of the Alliance, they would never know it was an Alliance building because it's also disguised and used as a corporate office building.

This isn't our only Alliance building. This is our biggest and best-functioning one, located in the sixth sector. We have two others, though. One in the third sector and one in the eighth.

I've been working with the Alliance ever since its creation, about seven years ago. Originally, I came up with the idea but a few friends who had the same beliefs as me helped me make it real.

At first, I thought it was going to be very hard to get people to join the Alliance. For a while, it was. But my friends and I started to convince people that Nocturas aren't bad because they want to be, it's because they were created that way.

Most humans don't agree with the Alliance and our beliefs, but he members of the Alliance have a way of convincing people to join us.

I know that it's not a good thing that Nocturas are killing humans to eat. But I also know that it's not their fault or choice of life. Yes, there are Nocturas who kill and eat for fun. But there are also innocent Nocturas like Zoya and Nephi who have to eat human life essence to survive.

My parents always believed that there must be a way for Nocturas and humans to someday be able to get along. I believed that too. That's why I moved out, wished them well, and started the Alliance.

The Alliance does a lot for Nocturas. We do as much as we can. We help Nocturas get food when they can't. We protect Nocturas from the AAN. We try to make a difference in the world.

But we're not big enough yet.

We need to go bigger.

That's my next move.

I leave the building and head onto the streets. It's misty in the air.

I pull my hood up over my head and stuff my hands in my pockets. I look around at all the people in the streets, going home from work, going to work, getting something to eat, being out to just be.

If humans can be this happy and peaceful, shouldn't Nocturas?

I know there are Nocturas on the street right now. Maybe some of the people going to work or going home or getting something to eat are Nocturas. I wouldn't know, because I'm a human and there's no way for me to know who's a Noctura and who isn't.

But I don't mind.

I don't mind that there are Nocturas among me, most likely at this very moment.

Most Nocturas are innocent. They don't deserve to be wiped out because of a characteristic they didn't choose to have.

I move through the streets with a normal pace.

People don't know who I am yet, but they're about to.

I've got something big planned.

Something that the AAN is not going to like.