Page 1 of Nemesync
PROLOGUE
The air was warm, filled with salt and that comforting scent of the ocean. Luna and I sat on the sand, the reddish sunset comforting somehow, and my best friend laughed as her long blonde hair danced around us.
She was doing well, went to all her therapy sessions, and found love again in her passions. She even painted a beautiful black dahlia for my room yesterday.
I knew that taking her to the beach would be the best thing for her birthday.
Luna was easily pleased. Anything related to nature, especially water, would bring her joy. We first met when we were four years old; I was with my father’s bodyguards at the beach, and she was there with her father, laughing and smiling. I felt jealous at the time, but she approached me, her blond hair swaying in the air, and asked if I wanted to be her friend. We used to always go for a nighttime swim to celebrate her birthday when we were younger.
But we sadly missed out on that tradition last year.
I looked into the distance, adoring her presence, the water, the inner joy it brought me. Luna’s hand rested gently on myshoulder, her head turning towards mine. “Do you realize it’s been over a month since we last went swimming? Are we getting old or what?”
I smiled, leaning my head against her shoulder. “We’re just feeling a bit more tired.”
She ran her fingers through my hair, planting a soft kiss atop my head. “My beautiful Zanae, you’re not old enough to be tired, okay?”
“Yet I am,” I replied.
“Come on, get up, old lady!”
She pulled out her phone, turned on some music, stood up holding my hand to follow her, and started singing, ‘We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again, some sunny day…’
I followed her lead, dancing with her to the tune. My broken heart swelled with gratitude. Luna’s happiness was as important to me as my own, maybe even more.
We danced and sang, the music and the waves soothing everything around us. My soul and heart felt at home here, with her, with the melody serenading love words to my mind.
We sat back down, tired, sweaty, but smiling. Luna placed her hand on mine. “How do you feel,mi Dalia?” She asked, her eyes filled with so much affection and kindness.Mi Dalia… She loved that nickname.
I closed my eyes, a small smile gracing my lips. “I’m okay, Luna,” I lied, my voice carrying the weight of my sins to the wind.
My mind had wandered to an obscure and cold place not so long ago, and it never came back to me. I knew it was something sinfully wrong, but it was too late now.
Focus, Zee.
The dark waves found turbulence in my eyes as if they mirrored their own abyss.
Constant and furious, exhausted by their own endless rage.
The beach had always been a refuge of tranquility in our lives, but tonight it was tinged with an awful sense of melancholy.
Thinking was painful, breathing was burning my lungs, and my thoughts threatened to engulf me, pulling me into the depths of fear and anxiety; I felt the crisis coming.
But Luna was there, as always, her warm fingers gripping mine tighter. She knew me better than I knew myself.
“We’re together, Zanae,” she murmured, her voice so soft.
She’s here Zanae, you’re not alone, you’ll never be alone if she exists.
“I know. Always,” I answered, in a soft whisper.
I remembered everything from that night, and yet she still didn’t know what they had done to me. She was already fighting for herself, and I didn’t want to add to her healing journey.
I still feel disgusted by my own body.
It was as if it no longer belonged to me, as if my soul had been hijacked. I felt ripped from my own self.
Dirty and sullied.
