It had been weeks since I’d seen Luna. Nothing else mattered in the world anymore. I wanted to hold her hand again, feel her light breathing as she rested her head on my shoulder, and hear her voice, her laugh. I needed her.
After the incident on the train, I was taken away to the Society. They tried multiple ways to get me to confess about kidnaping Luna; but whenever I said I didn’t, I was punished. The ways they hurt me now doesn't compare to the way I hurt for missing Luna. Finally, when her parents had told the Society that Luna in fact ran away on her own and that I didn’t kidnap her, I was let go, only with the understanding of that I must never speak, contact, or try to find Luna every again.
This was a tough pill to swallow. After knowing Luna for a day I could see how much she cared about people around her. She loved the little things in life, which was what I loved about her. I admit, I fell in love with Luna. It wasn’t easy at first, with her being thick headed sometimes, but she squeezed her way into my heart, and I wanted her to stay.
If only I knew how she felt about me. I had a sense that it was mutual. She gave the signs; her holding my hand, letting herself open up to me, and the way she acted around me made me know that she was comfortable around me, which made me happy. The most important thing that I wanted was for Luna to be happy, and I knew that wasn’t true right now. I had a feeling she was stuck in her room, locked away in a world she didn’t want to live in, not having any communication with the people she cares about besides her immediate family. It wasn’t fair.
So I had a plan, and Luna’s friend Aine was going to help me. I had contacted her with the help of Terry, him being the techie geek that he is it was an easy task to find her. She was willing to help. Her herself had lost all communication with Luna ever since she came home. The Society had found out she was helping Luna. She didn’t want to tell me what she had gone through. I don’t think I wanted to know anyways.
The three of us meet in a town that was a good distance of traveling for each of us, the Moss. It was a quiet day when Terry and I had arrived, and he didn’t even want to be there in the first place.
“C’mon mate!” I said to him while I was packing my bag back at my house. “Luna’s your friend too.”
“Yeah but she’s your lover.” He had said, throwing me a t-shirt.
“You’re already in the middle of this ya know.” I said.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“You helped me contact Aine.”
“Shit.”
Then here we were, waiting for Aine to arrive. We agreed to meet on one of the tall grassy hills in the back of the town so then no one would see us. We had to make sure we weren’t being followed or watched for not only our safety, but for Luna’s as well.
In the far distance I could see Aine appearing. I waved to her and she waved back, jogging over to where Terry and I were standing. When she came over she extended her hand, “Nice to finally meet you.”
“Pleasure to meet you as well, Aine.” I said, shaking her hand. “This is my friend, Terry; Luna meet him too back in the Highlines.”
“Oh, very nice.” She said. “So, let’s get down to business. What’s the plan?”
I looked around the green grass that surrounded us, bright and luscious, blowing with the wind. “Well...”
“There is no plan, is there?” She stated.
“Not exactly...”
“Niall!” Aine and Terry yelled at me.
“What?!” I said.
“You don’t have a plan?” Terry asked.
“I thought it would come to me on the way here.” I admitted.
“Well obviously it didn’t.” Aine said.
“Don’t worry!” I said, “We’ll think of something.”
“Were you planning on just running into the giant mansion and asking for her?!” Terry said.
“Obviously not. That’s too stupid and risky.” I said.
“I feel like anything we’re going to do is going to be risky.” Admitted Aine.
In the far distance, I could see Luna’s house, tall and powering in all of it’s glory. She was just over there, God knows what she was doing. Roaming the house, locked in her room, being tortured? No, her parents would never do that to her; or would they?
“Niall, what are we going to do?” Aine asked again.
I looked at the two of them, standing, waiting for a response. I didn’t want to be a coward. I didn’t want them to get into more trouble than they could already be in. I knew what I had to do, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
----
I walked up the towering doors that were in front of me. They seemed intimidating, almost like they were saying, “If you’re a low life, leave!” But I knew that wasn’t the way Luna would want her life to be, and I knew that wasn’t what she would want if she ruled her land. Or should I say “ruled”.
One knock on the door was all it took when the door man answered. There was no turning back now. “May I help you young man?”
This man looked familiar, like Luna had described him to me before. He was tall, his eyes looked tired, and he had on an apron.
“Ryan?” I asked.
"Yes..." His voice trailed off in confusion.
"You're a good friend of Luna's, right?" I was taking a risk here, but I didn't care, I was only steps closer of seeing her.
"Niall?" Ryan asked.
"I'm not here to cause trouble; I promise." I said to him.
"I trust you lad, don't worry." Ryan said. He opened the door a little wider and let me in. "Come in."
The house was huge inside, dark and cold, kind of how Luna's had described her family.
"You came on a good day." Ryan said, leading me to what I guessed was the kitchen.
"Why's that?" I asked.
"Luna's parents went off with Camryn's to disuse their marriage." He said.
I felt like a bullet had went straight through my heart. Luna would probably be marrying this Camryn sooner than planned.
"Luna and I are the only ones home, besides all the workers, but we're trustworthy." Ryan said. There was a slight pause before he continued. "Would you like to see her?"
My eyes lit up the at thought of holding her in my arms again, hearing her voice, and feeling her touch. "Can I?"
Ryan's face formed a caring smile as he said, "Follow me."
We walked through the house, actually I wouldn't even consider it a house, it was a palace. The ceilings were a good fifty feet high, glass windows placed to show the bright blue sky and water drops that were left from the previous night.
After taking multiple flights of stairs, turning around every corner, and entering about five doorways, we’ve arrived.
“I’ll leave you two alone; and I’ll let you know if her parents or someone comes home.” Ryan said.
I shook his hand, “Thank you.”
Ryan then left me at the door alone that lead to the girl that I loved. I could hear music coming from the other side, some type of classical piano. I knocked on door lightly, hoping she’d hear it. The music stopped, and I heard a squeak, maybe it was the bed or floorboard? My palms were sweating and I felt like I was going to pass out.
When she opened the door, her beautiful eyes were tear stained from crying, the perfect white dress she had on was covered with makeup and wrinkled. “Luna...”
“Niall.” She breathed out as I collected her in my arms. I walked into her bedroom and closed the door behind me. I stroked her hair, whispering soothing sounds into her ear, trying to calm her down. She cried into my shoulder, letting all of the emotions that was built up in her from the past few week be let out.
“You’re okay.” I said to her. “I’m here now, you’re safe.”
She pulled her head off of my shoulder, looking at me. “Am I?” She asked. “If my mother walks through that door she’ll have your head.”
I brought her forehead against mine and whispered to her, “I’m not leaving you again.”
“Promise?” She asked me.
“Promise.” I told her. She wrapped her arms around me again and we laid down on her bed, enjoying each others company. This was all I needed, I needed to know that she was here, that she was safe, and that I knew she cared about me just as much as I cared about her. She was everything to me, and I wasn’t going to be taken away from her again.
Luna lifted her head up from my chest and asked me, “What are you doing here anyway?”
“Why I’m here to see you of course.” I answered.
“There must be another reason.” She said.
I never really thought about it fully, but I wanted to talk to her father. I wanted to tell him that I cared about his daughter very much, and that I wanted to make her happy because that was all she wanted. But I also wanted to tell Luna something.
“There was something I wanted to tell you.” I admitted.
“What?” She asked.
I hesitated for a moment; I wasn’t sure why, I had convince myself that I knew Luna loved me as well, but sitting here with her made me nervous to tell her. I felt like I just had to let it come out. “I love you.”
She looked into my eyes and did something she has probably never done her entire life. She kissed me, with so much love and passion that I kissed her back, knowing that she really did feel the same way towards me.
“I love you too.” She said, breathlessly.
In the spirit of the moment, I said exactly what was on my mind. “Run away with me.”
“What?” She said.
I got up off of her bed and said, “Run away with me Luna. We can leave the country, start a new life together, somewhere where our love is accepted. Please.”
“Niall..” She started to say.
“I know you want to.” I told her. And I was right, I could see it in her eyes that she really did want to run away again. But I could also see that she was scared, the thought of getting caught again and me possibly being hurt frightened us both. I was willing to take that risk, but was she?
“Luna,” I walked over to her at the bed and placed my hands around her waist, pulling her close. “I won’t let anyone hurt you, or us, I swear.”
She looked at me and then down at her destroyed white dress. Wiping the runned makeup from under her eyes she said, “I’ll go. I’ll be with you forever.”
“Forever.” I repeated. I liked the sound of that word coming out of her lips. I kissed them and we started to pack everything she owned into bags. We could only take two, one for each of us to carry, but we were able to fit a majority of her stuff. Luna changed out of her dress, she told me it was supposed to be her wedding dress, and threw the engagement ring she was forced to wear down the toilet.
Once she was changed into normal clothing, and we checked that was had everything we needed, I made a quick phone call to the Ireland airlines, booking us a flight to America that was set to leave in an hour and a half.
“No one home still.” She said, looking out of her window. “We better hurry though.”
I nodded and opened her bedroom door for her. She guided me back down to the front door, where Ryan was.
“I’m leaving.” She told him.
He smiled at us and saw how our hands were interlocked with each others. “Fine by me. Be safe.”
“We will.” I told him. Luna gave him a final hug goodbye and I shook his hand once more. Once out the door, we sprinted towards the Moss where I had left Terry and Aine.
----
“You’re what?!” Aine exclaimed when we told them our plan. Once we had told them what was going on, they thought we were delusional. Aine especially.
“We’re leaving.” Luna repeated.
“To America?” Terry asked.
“Yes.” Luna and I replied.
There was a moment of silence until Aine said. “We never saw you, okay? Niall did this all on his own.”
I knew Aine didn’t want to get into trouble again, so I agreed with her, we said our goodbyes and made our way towards the airport that was in the Highlines. It was actually a quick walk, and we were there just a half an hour before the flight was ready to take off. I grabbed our tickets and Luna stayed discrete. We threw our luggage on board and walked towards the loading dock.
“Excited?” I asked her, squeezing her hand.
“Very.” She replied, smiling up at me. Her shortness was so cute, it made me chuckle.
I turned around to check if anyone was following. It was suspicious of how easy all of this had been for the most part.
We had reached the plain terminal, heading down the long hallway that brought us into the plane. We were the only two people in there, and I could see the flight attendant up ahead, getting ready to close the door. Luna kept on turning around, checking to see if anyone was behind us. I looked at her and rubbed her back, saying, “It’s alright love, we’re safe now.”
“Safe,” She repeated. “I like that word in this situation.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“My mother would always tell me that I was ‘safe’ at home, but I never felt it. Aren’t you suppose to feel safe when people tell you to be?”
“Of course.”
“Well, I’m happy now, and that’s all that matters. With you, I am completely safe from the world.”
Right before we were near the entrance I pulled her close and kissed her long and hard. Once we pulled apart I whispered for only her to hear, “I love you.”
Before Luna answered her eyes darted back over to the terminal entrance. Two men in big, dark coats were walking down the hall. They were from the Society and they were obviously coming for us.
“Niall.” Luna whispered, I could hear the fear in her voice.
I told her to stay calm and not to panic. I wasn’t going to lose her again, I promised her that. I held her grip onto my hand tightly and casually walked into the plane. I heard one of the men call out, but that wasn’t going to do any good. Love conquered all, and this time around it was going to win.
When we inside, we were the last one’s on. The flight attendant shut the door behind us right before the men from the Society were able to catch up. I handed her our tickets and she guided us to our seats. After giving the classic safety rules, we were off in the air, saying goodbye to Ireland for good.
“I thought that was the end.” Luna said to me.
“It’s only the beginning.” I told her, kissing her hand. Her head landed on my shoulder, and I felt a tear slip away from her eye and land on my shirt. “What’s wrong love?” I asked her.
“Is it sad I’m going to miss home?” She confessed.
I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her close, letting her burying her head into my chest. “No, you’ll miss people like Aine, and Ryan, Claire and Terry, but you know you have me right?”
“Of course I do, and now I can finally be happy.” She said, smiling up at me.
I kissed her on the forehead, letting her close her eyes and drift off to dreamland. She was probably thinking that this was all a dream, that when she would wake up she’d be in her room back at the Round, preparing for a wedding she didn’t want. When in reality, she’d be waking up with her head on my shoulder, entering her new life with the man who truly loved her with all of his heart; and that was never going to change.
