The moon was bleeding.
That was the only way Elara Quinn could describe it as she stood on the slanted roof of the foster home, shivering under her threadbare hoodie.
The news had called it a rare total lunar eclipse, something for amateur astronomers to celebrate. But the news didn't feel the way the air felt - heavy, electric, holding its breath.
And the news certainly hadn't mentioned the strange dreams she'd been having for weeks.
Dreams of forests, of beasts with fire in their veins, of the two moons hanging in a violet sky. And a voice, soft yet commanding calling her name.
Tonight, that voice felt closer.
She shifted her weight, peering over the edge below, the cracked asphalt was slick from a day's rain, reflecting the amber glow of the single streetlight Everyone else in the house was asleep - or pretending to be.
Elara's foster mother wouldn't care if she disappeared for the night. She might not even notice until breakfast.
She tilted her face upward. The was almost full now, the moon dimming into a bruised shadow. She couldn't explain why her pulse speed up with every passing second, or why the sta-like scar on her left wrist - an old, silvery mark. She had since she was little - was starting to burn.
It had never done that before.
This is ridiculous, she told herself. You're just imagining things. It's the cold. It's the -
A thrum vibrated through the air, deep and resonant, like the world itself had a heartbeat.
Elara froze...
Her knees nearly buckled. It wasn't spoken out loud. The voice was inside her head - familiar and alien at the same time.
She spun, scanning the rooftop. Empty.
Her breathing quickened."Who's there?"
She whispered.
No answer. Just that heavy silence pressing in, thick enough to feel on her skin.
The the mark on her wrist blazed like fire.
The sky split
It didn't open with a crack of lightning or a roll of thunder - no, it tore, like a seam being ripped from reality. A jagged tear of blinding white light cut across the darkness, right above her head.
Wind surged, roaring in her ears , pulling at her clothes and hair. She dropped to her knees, grabbing the railing. The metal seared her palms, but she held on.
The voice came again, stronger this time, tinged with urgency.
Elara... remember who you are.
Her heart pounded so had it hurt. She wanted to scream, but the wind stole the sound from her throat.
The light widened. The pull grew stronger and then, the railing bent under her hands like it was made out of paper.
She was yanked upward.
Weightlessness. Darkness. A sense of failing and flying all at once. Flashes of places she 'd never been - stone towers, shadowed forests, a lake floating in the sky. And eyes. Always eyes - gold, crimson, silver - watching her.
Her body hit the ground hard.
She gasped, air rushing back into her lungs, heart hammering. The surface beneath her was a cold stone, slick with moisture. She rolled onto her back blinking up at the sky that wasn't normal.
Two moons hung above her head. One whole in shape and shining pale blue. The other shattered, it's pieces suspended in sky like frozen tears.
Elara sat up slowly. Her breath turned to mist in the cool air. She didn't know where she was. She didn't know what had happened.
But she knew for certain she wasn't on Earth anymore.
From the shadows beyond the strange spiraled stone pillars, something stirred. Massive. Breathing. Waiting.
And it was moving towards her.