Selene

Sighing, I glance over at my notebook. My messy handwriting sprawled all over the page.  Moon?? Flying??? Wrong flower = spell gone wrong. Are just some of the things written down. I'm starting to think we might never find Eve. But I know I can't just give up.

A knock sounds at my door, I spin around as I call out, "Come in."

The door opens enough for Mama to pop her head in. "You're still up?"

"Mhm." I shift my body to try and hide the books from her. 

She opens the door more and leans her hip against the doorframe. "Are you going to sleep soon?"

"As soon as I'm done this homework."

She tsks. "Sometimes I forgot how much like your father you are."

I smile. "I miss Pa."

Her gaze softens. "Me too, sweetie. Me too. Don't stay up too late okay? You don't need the man in the moon trying to steal you away."

My brows furrow together. "What do you mean?"

"Do you not remember?" She drifts into my room and sits on my bed. I stand up and join her, making sure to pull my notebook over top of the witch book I have open. "Your Pa always used to tuck you in nice  and tight so he could never take you."

I giggle. "But why would the man in the moon try to take me?"

She smiles. "Your Pa used to tell you this story all the time. I'm really surprised you don't remember." Her eyes glaze over as she gets a far away look in her eyes. "Tale says that there was once a man who hunted witches. He was admired across the lands. But one day he faced one of the strongest witches. During their battle she casted a spell on him that sent him to the moon. Now he's up there and looking to protect little girls from that witch."

"But then why does it sound like a warning?"

She blinks and looks down at me. The glaze and far away look gone. "Because once he takes you to the moon, you can never come back." She stands up and kisses my forehead, but she must sense the fear that runs through me, because she says, "But it's just a little story to keep the young ones in bed. It worked on you." She laughs.

I manage an unconvincing chuckle, but she must not notice.

"Good night, sweetie."

A chill runs through me. "Night, Mama." I stare at the wall as she walks out of the room. The door clicks softly behind her. If a witch can send a man to the moon - if the story is true - and the man can reach down and take young girls, would he also take a witch?

I shake my head. No. That wasn't the point of the story, and I know Eve's disappearance has something to do with a spell gone wrong. But Mama gave me an idea.

Getting off my bed, I make my way over to the window. The moon shines brighter than it has in the past few days as I gaze up at it. What if there wasn't a man in the moon, but a scared girl who's spell went wrong?

What if... what if Eve's stuck in the moon?

***

"Matias!" I cry as I run up the path to the witches house. "Matias!" My feet pound up the steps right before my fist pounds the door. "I think I know where Eve is!" 

Any crickets that had been chirping are silent against my noise. The town is asleep, I'm the only one awake to witness midnight. 

"Selene?" a voice asks off to the side. My breathing is fast as I turn to it. Matias sits in the windowsill, blinking slowly at me. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I think I know what happened to Eve." The words spill out of me, and as they do Matias wakes up. His eyes are wide and his ears rise in alertness. 

"You think she's trapped in the moon?" He turns his neck to gaze up at it. "How did she manage that?" He doesn't sound so much as surprised, or worried, more like he's in awe.

"I think when she used the cereus the spell took the moon symbol literally. So instead of her flying she somehow ended up either on the moon, or in the moon. It also makes sense with everything Calchas has been saying." The wind blows my nightgown around me, the bitter cold making me shake. 

Matias turns back and watches me. "I'll come open the door for you. You can make some hot chocolate if you'd like."

I smile. "Thank you, Matias."

He opens his mouth, as if he wants to say more. But in the end he closes it and shakes his head before jumping off the windowsill and into the cottage. A moment later the door swings open, Matias sits in front of it, his front paws before him and his tail swishing back and forth on the floor. "How do you do that?" I ask, going into the house.

"Do what?" He quirks his head to the side.

"Open the door." I take my shoes off and start following him to the kitchen. I don't tell him I know the way. "Do you jump up and open it? And now that I'm thinking about it, how does Calchas open it too?"

"Well, I have just enough magic to be able to perform some tasks. Like opening the door, or lifting objects." To demonstrate a spoon on the counter starts to fly in the air. "The crow though? I have no idea, nor do I care."

I chuckle. "You really don't care for him, do you?"

"No."

As I make myself some hot chocolate I start to realize how weird it is to be in someone's house without them here. But the weirder part is that I don't feel unwelcomed, or like I'm not supposed to be here. There's just something in me telling me this is right. That I belong here. But that can't be right. This is a witches cottage, no place for a girl like me to belong in. 

But on the other hand it isn't like anything I thought it would be like. I imagined there would be skulls everywhere, maybe even spiders. But there's none of that. Instead there's plants in every room, some random trinkets, and even books sprawled over the surfaces of tables. It's homey and not scary. So were all the tales Mama told me wrong? Or are they just wrong about Eve?

And if I'm not as scared as I thought I was, what does that say about me?

"How do we confirm that Eve is in the moon?" Matias asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. He jumps from the counter to the table as I sit in a chair at it. As he leaps he ends up in the path of the moonlight, which gives his ebony fur an almost silvery glow to it.

"I'm not sure. I was hoping you would know that, being a familiar and all." I blow on my hot chocolate before taking a tiny sip. Sweetness runs down my throat.

"And I thought you're books would tell you something." His tail flicks.

I roll my eyes. "They don't talk about the topic of untrapping someone from the moon."

"Well they should."

"Well they don't! And that's not my fault." I huff. "We're getting off track."

"Well who's fault is that?" he asks.

"Matias," I warn.

"Sorry, sorry." He falls quiet. "I can only think of one way." He looks up at me, almost regretfully.

"No," I say, slamming the mug down to emphasis the word. The creamy brown liquid sloshes around, daring to fly over the rim. "Absolutely not."

"But it might point to the moon! Then we'll really know she's up there."

"I will not be using magic of any sort! It's dangerous and evil!"

He scoffs. "First off, magic is only evil if your intentions are. Secondly, it's only dangerous if you use a dangerous spell, and thirdly. How do you think we're getting Eve back from the moon?"

"I- Well... I thought..." I slump back in my chair.

"Magic is the only way to solve this." The way he puffs his chest out tells me he wants to rub it in, but the tone he speaks with shows that he understands where I'm coming from. "I know you've been told Eve is evil, and that magic is evil too, but I promise you, it won't change who you are."

"But it will," I whisper. "If the town ever finds out that I used magic, I'll be outcasted, just like Eve."

"Is that so bad?" he asks. He stands up and starts walking across the table to me. 

"I- well, yes."

He sits down in front of me. The mug between us. "Why?"

"Because I..." As I think I can't come up with a reason. It's not like I'll be missing any friends, I'm pretty much on my own. But... "Mama's business will fail if I help her, and Mama will think..." What would she think? She was the one who also told me the witch stories, and told me to be scared of them. What would she think if I was helping the witch. If I ended up using magic?

"But you'll ended up having me, and the bird in your life. You'll even probably be friends with Eve. Does it really matter what the town thinks?"

I shake my head. "But my mama..."

"If she doesn't stick by your side that says more about her than you." He walks around the mug and comes up to my face. He leans against me and brings his tail up to my cheeks. As it swipes across them, I notice tears have rolled down from my eyes. When did they start? Matias starts to purr. "You and Eve are more similar than you think."

"You think so?" I sniff.

He pulls away to look at me. His green eyes stare intently into my brown ones. "I know so."

I sniff and wipe my cheeks of the last tear trails. "Okay. Teach me how to do the spell."

Chapter word count: 1,670

Total word count: 15,330