Eclipsed Moon Prologue

No Fate, but what we Make.

Closing the front door behind yourself, you exhale in relaxation. Home and safe after another night out there in the dark. Another night soaked in seemingly bloodless violence and the sparkling gleam of powers you have never truly been comfortable with, despite those powers being your right by birth. Leaning against the frame, you sigh and slide to the floor, cursing all the while. Curling forward to hug your knees you find your eyes washed in a loose sea of pink tresses.

You hadn’t even noticed your hair ties had come undone. Had you really been that distracted on the way home? Yes...yes you had. It was around when you were passing the Junior High School that a sudden panic set in and you broke out into a run. You didn’t stop until you fell on the porch.

Still high on the adrenaline and magic from earlier in the night; you were not even winded by the frantic scramble. Not sure if you were trying to outrun the tightness in your chest or get away from something terrible. Shit, now you’re crying. Not sad, no, there is frustration and anger coursing through your veins, the sensation is sudden and white hot.

How the hell did your mother ever deal with crap like this?

Clenching your hand around *IT* you hold the source of all this high and cast an accusatory glare at it. Deceitful little thing looks like a cheap plastic brooch, but you know the truth. Even if it were slammed down again and again it wouldn’t crack. This horrid thing that gave off a hopeful light in the dark. This terrible thing that restored life in the face of death. This heirloom from a line broken in blood, but continued countless ages later through reincarnation.

You hate this thing. You hate it. You hate it. Youhateityouhateityouhateit.

Not as much as you hate yourself; no she isn’t you. She is the you that could have been and now she walks around like a fucking paradox screwing with your life and you mother just lets her.

“Mikage-neechan” your head snaps up from the brooch and toward the couch set in the center of the living room.

Having finally adjusted to the dark, you see a slightly built frame sit up, hidden by a dark blanket among the cushions. Blonde hair spills from beneath the comforter as it slides away to reveal your younger sister. Sweet, innocent, & almost always distracted. Hugged tightly to her chest is the oversized soft plush caricature of the family pet.
Her mouth shoots open in an elongated gasp. Not caring to keep quiet she all but somersaults over the armrest before scrambling the rest of the way toward you, pulling you into a tight hug. Talking at speeds nigh comprehensible to mankind she wants to know what happened. It’ll be okay. Don’t cry big sister. It’ll be okay.

~I’m done~ you croak out hoarsely, thrusting your sister far enough away that you can press the brooch into her hand. ~It’s your’s now Koyomi-chan. Learn how to use it, bury it, learn enough to teleport it into the sun...I don’t care.~

“Mika-”

~No. I’m done. I’m just done. Tell mom I’m sorry, I’m not going to school tomorrow.~

Forcing her off and rising, you tune her out as your stagger toward first the stairs and then to your room. Passing the master bedroom you can hear your mother snoring between love sick babbling in her sleep. Dad has been in Manhattan for two weeks on business. If he were here now you’d wake him up and tell him everything. You wish you could be that close with your mother...but she always seemed to favor *HER*. You can’t help you are the wrong version of yourself. You can’t help that you’re the you she bore in this time-line.

Finally the sanctuary of your room. Where you can’t be compared to *HER* or be reminded of anything you don’t want to. Before you close the door, you catch a glimpse of the cat staring at you, sadly, from down the hallway; eyes and golden crescent moon crest shining in the dark.