Luna

Her eyes flew wide open as she sat straight up from a deep and long dark place of sleep. She gasped for air and clasped her throat with both her hands as if it were her first ever intake of breath. All she could hear was her own breathing and all she could see was complete darkness. “Luna!”, she whispered to herself, "calm down!"

Luna tried to move and realized she was tucked tightly underneath several blankets. She started to violently fight with them, unable to remember right away where she was or why she felt so cold. She slid down the side of a bed she had been laying on, falling hard against a tile floor but still trapped in the blankets. She winced out in pain and cried out loud for her sweetheart, "Laken! Laken!" She quickly realized however he was not there.

She sat up and through the blankets still wrapped around her body and now her face, she tried adjusting her eyes to the pitch black of whatever place she was in. She was suddenly startled by a light turning on from a bathroom toward her right side. The back side silhouette of a naked woman appeared in the doorway.

Luna stopped moving and she placed her hands over her mouth to hide her rapid breathing. She no longer fought with the blankets that she now felt grateful had been hiding her away. The mystery woman dropped to her knees and vomited into the toilet. Through the light Luna could recognize the woman was not well and she also noticed the violence in her vomiting and the way her body moved was not quite right or normal. To her the woman looked like death and Luna started to tremble even more from fear and loneliness.

After what felt like forever the woman dropped onto her hands and crawled, rather than walk from the bathroom toward an empty bed, right past Luna and onward to an opposite side of the room that she could now recognize thanks to the bathroom lights. There was something very off about the way Luna observed this woman crawl and for a moment she was certain she heard her growl.

Out of nowhere flashes of her sweetheart and their baby girl started to flood her memory. She remembered the airport and how he held her five more times because she just could not let go as they were saying goodbye. She remembered having a drink the second she got on the plane while reading Laken's flood of continued texts...of his love, affection and encouragement.

She suddenly remembered her sweethearts face clearly and the way the corners of his eyes would crease when she could make him belly laugh. She remembered movie nights and the chaos and the love and the warmth they had grown to have as a family over the last 13 years together. Her heart started to race a bit when she imagined the years of love making, the passion and how every single time he made his love to her, he would gently hold her face, as she held his. She started to cry harder when she thought about the way he scooped her up from the couch so often and started slow dancing with her, even if there was no music. Her baby girl's laughter lingered in her ears after family tickle fights and splashing each other in the pool during summers gone by.

She closed her eyes while trying to imagine their smells and the feeling of having her body safely wrapped in Laken's arms again while snuggled up together as a family with their baby on a winter night. Even in this dark room that was so foreign for her, she could hear the echoes of their love and it suddenly gave her the strength to get off that cold floor.

She finally saw more light from the bottom crack of a doorway she had not noticed before. Before walking toward the door, she stopped and remembered the naked woman was her roommate and she finally remembered she had checked into rehab the day before for alcohol addiction. “Your miles away from home and in rehab Luna", she said to herself out loud."

She walked over and lifted her roommate’s legs onto her bed, as the woman had just barely been able to get her top half in. She was an absolute stranger but somehow Luna felt a connection of pain and saw herself as she kissed her roommate’s forehead, brushed her hair from her face and tucked her tightly underneath the blankets. Someone had obviously done this for her earlier in the day, she thought.

She finally stumbled her way back toward the door, took one last quivering deep breath in and she opened it...

It felt like she opened Pandora's Box of creative chaos and she stood as a statue, wide eyed while trying to take it all in. There were bright lights, loud music, several TVs, tables full of snacks, cigarettes, coffee...There was so much coffee! Artwork was plastered everywhere on the walls and there were more people than she could count because there was just so many coming and going all around her. As Luna recalled her last concrete memory being of that drink on the plane, she said out loud, “Thank God I’m wearing a bra and how in the Sam Hell did I get here?”

Luna was suddenly startled by an older gruff man who aggressively shoved a small package into her chest and said, “The next time you decide to sleep for three days, I’m not going to hold onto your packages!” While apologizing, the package slipped from Luna’s hands, and she fell to the floor right after trying to catch it. She said, “Wait? It’s been three days???” Two women came immediately to Luna’s aid and while helping her up one of them screamed at the said gruff man, “You’re going to die with one testicle Carl! Mark my words, you stupid Cunt Bastard! Also, we need more bath tissue in the Ladies’ room!” Carl never turned around but gave them all double middle fingers in the air as he continued walking down the hallway.

As one of the women handed Luna the package while helping her back to her feet she said “Hey boo! How ya feeling? Girl, we could not wait for you to wake up as your entrance in here was extremely dramatic and entertaining! Who are you, what do you do? What are you in here for? Trixie here is guessing it is definitely pills…I think you look a little crack…ish? I’m Vonny BTW! This is Trixie. We’re both alcoholics.

Luna burst into tears and muffled that she also was an alcoholic. Vonny and Trixie said in unison, “Oh no Honey! Trixie said, let’s get you to the nurse’s station sweetie, you need to check in now that you’re awake anyway. We will stay with you the whole time, promise.” Luna followed them down a long hallway and finally sat comfortably in a quiet room with them and was able to calm herself down. She remembered the package and realized she had been holding onto it so tightly since it had been given back to her that it was nearly completely crumbled. She relaxed enough to breathe, straightened it out and realized it was sent from her home and from her sweetheart. She ran her fingers across his name and handwriting and said his name out loud…” Laken.” She ripped it open as fast as she could and found inside a small box and a card. She opened the card first and read his words...

“My love lets be real, it's not like this is some post-apocalypse; this is not the end of the world my Darling! It's just rehab. Everything is going to be alright; we are going to get through this. We love you and we will be waiting for you when you get back home. Luna, I love you and I am missing you so much my Darling. We will be in each other’s arms again soon. Be strong, as I know that you are. Keep this close to your heart, that way we will always be together while we are a part for now.”

Luna’s eyes flooded with tears, and she said her sweetheart’s name out loud again. She asked God to send her cries toward her love so that he would come and take her home, rescue her…or at the very least hear her love for him. She tried to open the box with blurry eyes, but her fingers and body were shaking so hard from withdrawals she could not. She slumped over with her face in her palms, and she cried so hard, harder and more real than she could remember in a long time.

Vonny and Trixie immediately stood up and pulled her up in a better sitting position in the chair. Gently Trixie took the box from Luna’s hands and asked if she could open it for her. All Luna could do at this point was just nod in a yes motion. Trixie gasped as gently as she had when she took the box from Luna’s hands. Laken sent Luna a silver heart shaped locket and it brought all three of them to tears.

Trixie stood up but paused and asked out loud, "Do you hear that screaming?" Vonny moved closer to Luna and Trixie and puzzled they looked at each other and toward the closed door. Vonny said, “You know how stupid and loud this place can get late at night.”

Trixie shrugged and continued toward Luna, pulled her hair to the side and hooked the heart locket around her neck. Screaming continued in the background but Luna could only think about her sweetheart and their baby girl and how special this locket was going to be to her forever. Trixie helped her open it and said, “You see, this is your family, you love them, they love you still. Everything is going to be okay.”

Suddenly the door flung open and the screams they had all three heard before were recognizable now as terror and not of party shenanigans. Luna stood up and moved in front of Vonny and Trixie as the person that burst through the door was Luna's roommate. Luna tried to speak but the growling sound that startled her before when she was alone with her in their room was so loud now it caused them all three to clasp their ears. Luna screamed for them to get back and she tried to speak again but her roommate lunged forward, ripping her locket from her neck.

For a moment time stood still…completely…but Luna did not have to think extremely hard about her next move as she felt enraged the moment her heart was snatched from her. That locket was a symbol of her sweetheart and her family, all that she had waited for her entire life and all that she was working toward now to salvage and ensure its future…as that love, and their family were worth it. She screamed “fight to the death!” as she leaped toward this suddenly unknown creature from the dark, that was once her roommate. Vonny and Trixie followed behind with the same rage, to give their aid again. You could feel the air move with them.

A loud gunshot sound broke through, so loud it dropped them to the floor and covered them in blood and the smell of gun powder. As they helped each other up, Carl lowered his gun and said, “I’ve got the company truck running in the back, everyone else is either turned into something crazy as fuck or dead."

As Luna struggled to stand, she spotted & picked up her heart shaped locket sitting in a puddle of blood. “I’m going toward Laken and our baby girl, now!” Carl shrugged and said, “Alright then, that's where we're going."