A Luna for Alpha Kieran-Chapter 299: Calareth

Darkness swallowed the last echo of Autumn’s laughter.

And she screamed.

She didn’t ease into it.

She forgot to breathe. Panic surged through.

The scream tore out of her in ragged pieces...like a raw, animal cry that scraped the inside of her throat.

"KIERAN!"

The name ripped out of her and vanished instantly...not into distance...not into silence,

but into something that literally ate up the sound.

Nothing came back.

Not even an echo.

Slowly... painfully slowly...

her breath returned.

She tried again, louder.

"Kieran! KIEEEEERAN!"

Still nothing.

It was like yelling with a pillow pressed over your mouth.

Here the darkness pressed against her mouth, pushing her words back into her.

Her pulse hammered in her ears...the only proof she was still alive and not dead.

Her hands flailed out, searching for anything...a wall, a floor, the bed she had been sitting on...Kieran’s shirt, her children’s hands... anything...just something real... but those were more distant than a dream...

Her fingers met only void.

Nothing.

Her legs buckled beneath her as if gravity suddenly remembered she existed.

She stumbled, falling to her knees...or whatever felt like knees...because even her own body felt distant, like a hollow. Gaseous.

A sensation spread through her arms.

Her breaths came faster.

Harsher.

More broken.

"Kieran..."

She tried again, voice cracking.

"Willa? Jasper? Freya? Baby...sunshine...my loves...where are you...?"

The darkness swallowed her words whole.

A choked sob broke from her chest.

Her fingers curled into claws as she dug them into nothing, into the void, as if trying to tear her world, her family back into existence.

"They were here. They were right here...laughing...touching me...Kieran kissed me...he kissed me...he held me...how can it vanish...how can it..."

Her thoughts shattered like cracked glass.

"No, no, NOOOOOO....." she gasped, pounding her fists into the unseen ground.

Each impact was swallowed with no sound, no echo... no proof she was even striking anything at all.

"Don’t take them...don’t take them from me...NOT AGAIN!"

Her voice broke.

Fragments of sound trembled in the air before the darkness devoured them.

Autumn curled forward, forehead pressing against her fists, shoulders shaking violently.

Her chest tightened so painfully it felt like invisible hands were squeezing the breath out of her lungs.

Her breaths came in short bursts.

Like she was inhaling vacuum instead of air.

"No, please..."

Her whisper trembled, more silence than sound.

"Please... don’t let this be real... don’t let them be gone..."

She tried to move, crawling forward blindly, hands sweeping through empty space.

"Willa!"

Her fingers stretched, trembling.

"Jasper!"

Her voice cracked again, splintering.

"Freya, baby, answer me...please...just make one sound...only one..."

Nothing.

Only the suffocating black pressed tighter.

Her heart slammed against her ribs...too fast, too loud, too scared.

Her vision...though there was nothing to see...blurred with tears.

Her throat burned like she had swallowed fire.

Her stomach churned.

Her arms shook so hard she couldn’t keep them steady.

She clutched her head, fingers tangling in her hair as she rocked forward and backward, breath hitching, voice quivering with every exhale.

"Bring them back..."

Her voice was barely a whimper.

"Bring them back to me... Kieran, please find me...I can’t fight anymore...I don’t want to fight anymore..."

The darkness pulsed.

Just once.

A slow, cold ripple brushed her skin like a warning,or a promise,or a hand closing over her heart.

Her breath caught.

Her nails dug into her palms so deep she felt the sting.

Her entire body stilled, trembling like a leaf caught in the winter wind.

Her chest collapsed around her next sob.

Her voice cracked into a whisper thinner than air...

"Kieran... I love you...I have always loved you...even in my hate..."

And the darkness tightened around her like a fist.

Autumn’s sobs tore through her like violent tidal waves.

Nothing but her...

Just her grief, echoing into the void.

Her voice cracked—

"Help..."

another sob;

"Goddess...what is this test? Will you have no mercy on me? Someone...anyone please...please...my heart can not take this anymore...it’s worse than dying..."

And then... she saw a flicker.

So small she almost missed it to be exact.

Autumn froze mid sob, breath hitching painfully in her chest.

There, in the endless darkness...a pinprick of neon blue shimmered to life.

Tiny.

Delicate.

Pulsing gently like a heartbeat.

Slowly... almost shyly...

The glow spread outward, expanding into shape...wings, translucent...trembling...a magnificent butterfly.

A neon blue butterfly, glowing like a fallen star.

Autumn’s breath broke into a soft, silent gasp.

The darkness around her remained absolute, but the butterfly drifted closer, its wings beating in slow motion...fwip... fwip... fwip...each movement leaving thin trails of shimmering blue dust that floated in curling spirals around her.

The dust brushed her cheeks...

So comforting.

Like a hand she remembered from childhood.

The butterfly circled her.

Once.

Twice.

A third time, slower... tender... deliberate, as if studying her face, as if recognizing her.

"Wh...what...is this?" Autumn whispered, voice trembling.

She reached out a shaking hand...but the butterfly danced just out of reach, its light pulsing softly with every beat.

The blue dust coated her palms.

Autumn stared, eyes wide, heart thudding.

A warmth bloomed in her chest...

Then she heard a voice.

Not from the outside.

Not around her.

But from the inside.

Inside her mind.

Warm.

Soothing.

So painfully familiar her knees gave out.

"Autumn..."

Her breath stopped.

"Don’t be sad, child."

The voice wrapped around her like arms she had been longing for since she last saw them.

"Don’t be scared."

Autumn’s lips parted in a silent, quivering whisper.

"Mamma?"

The butterfly’s glow brightened, swirling closer around her face.

"Mamma’s here," the voice said gently.

"Mamma will help you through this mess."

Autumn’s eyes filled again but not with despair.

These tears were different.

Soft.

Disbelieving.

Ache filled.

She couldn’t form words, couldn’t exhale properly, couldn’t do anything except stare as the butterfly danced around her in slow, glowing arcs.

Her mother’s presence brushed her mind like a warm palm to the cheek.

Autumn swallowed hard, trembling.

"Mamma... how... how are you...where...where have you been? Lyla...Lyla..." Fresh tears filled her eyes as she remembered the painful end of her little sister. "Lyla said you weren’t gone... I am so sorry Mamma... I didn’t know... and I am sorry, I couldn’t save her... I couldn’t keep my promise, Mamma..."

But the butterfly suddenly pulled back.

Still glowing.

Still pulsing.

But now drifting away from her.

Autumn blinked in shock.

"Mamma!Mamma,wait...I know I disappointed you...I am sorry...please don’t leave...."

" My darling, Autumn... you are my brave brave girl... you have nothing to be sorry for... "

But even then the butterfly floated backward, wings beating slower, softer... drawing a trail of blue stardust through the dark.

It was leaving her.Definitely.

"NOOOOOOO!" Autumn sprang to her feet, stumbling forward.

Her legs felt weightless but desperate, fueled by panic.

She reached out, fingers stretching desperately through the empty void.

"WAIT! Please...don’t go...Mom...!"

The butterfly flew just beyond her reach, its glow dimming slightly, as if fading into another realm.

Autumn’s heart as if cracked open.

"MAMMAAAAA!!"

Just when she thought the darkness would swallow the butterfly completely...

The voice whispered again, so close it brushed her ear... a warm breath... no longer just inside her head...

"Find me at Calareth..."

The last word lingered.

The butterfly flickered...

One last pulse of blue.

And vanished.

Leaving only darkness.

Autumn stood there, breathless, trembling, hand still outstretched, as she murmured, "Calareth!!! "