Luna had an impeccable ability to block out painful memories, it was the only way she was able live in denial for the last six years. She simply closed her eyes, took a deep breath and distanced herself from the situation and the memory would disappear in the abyss of forgotten thoughts. She tried with great effort to do that little trick once again but each time she tried to close her eyes, she could see the crypt and hear Twyla's taunting thoughts. It really didn't come to her as such as shock that Twyla was not quite human, she always knew that, but to believe the her mother and her were also monsters was impossible. Luna and Celeste were the epitome of normal and they had always been very proud of that.

In her younger years, Luna remembered cowering underneath her bed as Twyla rampaged through the house- shattering porcelain vases and glass windows as she went. The Goodwin family had became well acquainted with the local electrician- Jerry Foster- and his friend Bill Hines, who was willing to replace their windows at a discount price. There was one time, after Jerry and Bill had left the house, Luna found herself nestled in her mother's embrace on the large cream sofa in their parlor room. Her mother usually tried to shield her from the walking disaster that was her twin but that day neither of them were expecting Twyla to escape the confines of her room. Once Twyla was safely slumbering in her bed, Luna finally allowed herself to relish in the fear that seized her heart.

Most kids were afraid of the monster under their bed or in their closet but not Luna. No, Luna was afraid of the monster who slept upstairs.

She remembered clinging to her mother's shirt, wrinkling the silk in her chubby little hands. Whimpers escaped her lips as she remembered the nearly possessed look in Twyla's eye as she screamed like a banshee. Her father called Twyla a devil child, and Luna, though she never truly understood what that meant, coined that term as well. Now, Luna understood. Maybe her sister wasn't possessed by a demon like Luna had originally thought but she was still a monster.

"W-Why didn't you tell me?" Luna's bottom lip trembled as she stared up at her mother through misty eyes.

She watched as the anger melted away from her mother's face. It was like Celeste peeled a mask off, and she was once again the sweet and nurturing mother that had protected her from Twyla's storm. Luna wanted her mother to protect her once more. She wanted to be pulled into her warm embrace and hear her mother's soothing voice as she whispered that everything was going to be fine. But it wasn't. Nothing was fine!

Reaching out, Celeste tried to grab Luna's hand but Luna flinched away. She wiped the tears that were welling in her eyes and took several steps back from both Celeste and Twyla. Her body was shaking.

"I wanted to protect you," Celeste told her. "That's all I've ever tried to do, for both of you."

"Bullshit!" cursed Twyla.

"You protected her! You threw me away." Twyla crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the oak desk. Her hands quaked as she bit the metal hoop hooked through her lip.

"Twyla, I could not properly train you as a witch. You needed the guidance from my mother and sister. The longer I kept you home, the more destruction you would have done to yourself."

"Because you're weak! You're a pathetic witch who chose to live the life of a mortal and now, your life choices are going to bite you in the ass."

Luna watched the two, as her breathing slowly returned to normal. The shocking discovery of her new identity should have had her on the floor, panicking, but there was a small voice within herself, claiming not to be afraid. The news as terrifying and gut-wrenching as it was, was also familiar. Like one of the forgotten memories, surging to the forefront of her mind. I'm a witch, Luna told herself. She continued to repeat that learned knowledge until it vaguely sounded like it made sense.

"Do you think I don't already know that Twyla?" Celeste's voice quieted to a harsh whisper. She was no longer staring at her little girl, but her mother, her sister and every other witch or warlock that criticized her for being a dud. "I knew growing up that I had no real place in the magical world and I was fine with that. When I met your father and had both you and Luna, I hoped you two would follow my lack of powers or be completely mortal like Nathaniel. My hopes were in vain, though. When you, Twyla, turned six, and your powers began to emerge it was clear to the whole family I would not be able to protect you or control your powers. My mother and Nyx were always the better witches. I knew, they would be able to help you with your magic and give you the sense of belonging like you deserved but I didn't want to let you go. My mother told me it was pointless, she had a vision of the day I would be forced to send you away but I was selfish."

"Wait a vision? Like one of the future?" Luna asked, remembering her own run in with Father Time.

"Yes," said Celeste, "Your grandmother is one of the most talented psychics of the century, second only to a young girl in New York. I think her name is something like Anna-"

"Her name is Alix," Twyla cut in, "And she has nothing to do with your explanation."

Though the office was large enough to fit fifty people at a time, the three women were feeling claustrophobic. Luna herself, couldn't seem to get far enough away from her family members. She stood by the farthest wall, closest to the exit whereas Twyla situated herself on top of the desk and Celeste sat on the armrest of one of the plush chairs. Luna had no intention of fleeing the room, not until her mom finished divulging every last detail about this new world but once those secrets were disclosed, she planned on leaving as soon as possible. Twyla's mind seemed to be traveling down a similar path. Though Twyla's mind was mostly silent to her now, she could hear bits and pieces. And in those bits and pieces, she heard multiple curse words, one or two death threats and an escape plan. That was, perhaps, the only time they would ever agree on something, thought Luna.

Celeste twisted her fingers in and out of knots. Her tongue wetted her bottom lip as she prepared herself to divulge the facts that she fought to keep secret for so long. "I kept you two for as long as I could. After your father's death I knew I was in over my head but still, I couldn't let you go, Twyla. I had just lost my husband, I didn't want to lose one of my daughters as well. But then they came. The night of your twelfth birthday my mother called me, she told me what would happen. I watched Tommy, tracked his every move but during the process of opening presents, I lost sight of him. By the time I realized you both were gone, the vision had already began and I knew I couldn't change fate. When you came home without Tommy I finally decided it was time to give you the life you deserved."

Tears pooled in Celeste's eyes as her beautiful and tragic pale face turned a startling shade of scarlet. The red rims and exposed veins in her eyes caused Twyla's stomach to churn, not because she felt bad for her mother, but because the image was rather humiliating. As an eighteen year old girl who had no children or any interest in having children, Twyla couldn't empathize with her mother's actions. She could only feel her own self pity expand as the story continued on. If only her mother hadn't been so damn selfish, thought Twyla, she would have raised by Aunt Nyx and Nana. They wouldn't have locked her in the attic and neither her father or Tommy would have had to die. It appeared to Twyla, that the mistakes of her past were never really her mistakes but the mistakes of her mother, which just so happened to greatly affect her life.

"I let you go. As hard as it was, I knew I had to protect you. That's all I've ever done."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Twyla jumped off of the desk and leaned over her mother's chair. "Poor baby," Twyla sneered.

"Wait," said Luna. She knew she had no real place in the conversation between Twyla and her mother but there was a sinister way in which her mother spoke about, them, that caused the hairs on the back of Luna's neck to rise. "Who are they? I thought Twyla was the reason Tommy disappeared."

A short, half hysterical cackle escaped Twyla's lips. "Yeah, I'm sure that's what you thought. In fact, I'm sure if I asked around town they'd give me the same answer."

"You have to understand Luna that this is a small town-"

"With small minded people," Twyla interjected.

"-we are the only supernatural beings in New Brooks and to keep it that way, we must hide in our human facades. The rumors that were spread around town were completely false. Twyla was as much of a victim as Tommy was that night, if not more. They were coming for her not him."

That news was not easy for Luna to swallow. She was very comfortable with her villainous image of Twyla and the story her mother described about a mistreated and abandoned child, didn't really match. To Luna, everything was in black and white. She was good and Twyla was bad. That was like saying water is wet and dirt is brown, it's a simple fact. But now, in the strange alternate universe she seemed to have entered, simple facts didn't exist. She still felt as if there was some truth to that idea but now there were other factors, complicating her most basic ideals.

"But who are they and why are they after her?" Luna asked.

"People with power will always be in danger, Luna," said Celeste, her stare was fixated on the window as unwilling memories of the past surged to front of her mind.

"So? You're a mayor, you have power and you've never been in danger."

"It's a different kind of power Luna. Most supernatural creatures are partially human and in those humane parts of them, they possess the good and the bad traits of the human race. One of those traits is the fear of the unknown. It was clear when Twyla turned six and her powers emerged prematurely that you two would face... struggles, in the future. Whereas most witches and warlocks adorn their powers at the age of twelve, Twyla received hers six years earlier. And with each passing day the magic only strengthened."

Luna casted a look at her uncharacteristically silent twin. She expected Twyla to make another snide remark but her attention was secured at the desktop as she traced figure eights with her finger. Her eyes were narrowed, not in a glaring way, but in a way that told Luna that she was thinking. Luna didn't like that look one bit, the last time she adorned that look, she brashly told Luna that her whole life was a lie.

"You need to leave," Luna told her sister. She might not have been the devil incarnate but she was still dangerous. "These people could come back to New Brooks and hurt more people, just like they hurt Tommy."

Completely unfazed by Luna's statement, Twyla shrugged. "I don't plan on staying. You can read my mind, if you don't believe me."

It was true. Pushing past the static in Twyla's mind, Luna heard broken pieces of what seemed to be a plan to go to New Orleans or New York, if need be. There were also panicked thoughts of the possibility that Nana would find her and force her to come back, but she wasn't worrying about that too much. She supposed that if it came to a family manhunt, Luna would help her escape. When it came to her leaving New Brooks, they were both on the same team. The similarity of their thoughts startled Luna. She quickly blocked out any and all thoughts from Twyla before she could learn something else that they shared in common.

"This is not just about Twyla. Twins are rare in our kind. They are not simply two siblings born on the same day but two intertwined souls. Their powers alone have been known to break customary bounds but together, they are something else altogether. Since twins witches are so powerful, more powerful than normal witches, there are only five sets born every hundred years."

Celeste picked up the book of Draíocht from the place Twyla dropped it. She flipped through the withered pages, until she finally found the passage she was looking for. Her black, cat-eyed glasses slid down the bridge of her nose, until it sat snugly on the bulbous tip. Her eyes looked more gray than blue in that moment as the tension within her continued to coil like a spring. When she finally found what she was looking for, she let out a short noise in acknowledgement and pressed he pointer finger to the page. Sparks bursted from her palm as the book began to shake. Luna's eyes widened as she watched the spectacle. Now that, was magic. Not the strange little mental tricks she was capable of but the sparkling fingers and glowing pages- that was the kind of magic she remembered from tv. Luna was glad she had yet to eat breakfast or lunch, or else both meals would have made a reappearance on her mother's haringbone floors.

"Twyla get the drapes," Ordered Celeste as she placed the book on the middle of the floor. Twyla snuck a suspicious glance at her mother, unsure of where she was going, but followed her order nonetheless.

With the drapes closed, the room was almost pitch black. Both Luna and Twyla's hearts skipped a beat as they stared at their only source of the light, the glowing book. Kneeling in front of the book, Celeste opened her palms and moved her hands in circular movements. Luna couldn't remember any time in her life when her mother had ever done something like that. And yet, it looked so natural. Under her breath Celeste began to mumble a series of chants in a language that was foreign to Luna. A blinding light erupted from the pages as Celeste uttered the final word in her chant. A hiss escaped through Luna's lips as she crouched and covered her eyes with her hands.

"Open your eyes, honey." Her mother said but still, her eyes remained shut. She was almost afraid to see what awaited for her in reality.

"You need to know," Celeste coaxed her daughter, "This is very important for you to see, Luna."

At an agonizingly slow pace, Luna removed her hands from her face, finger by finger. She opened her eyes, fully expecting to see a terrifying horror awaiting for her, instead, she was greeted by the sight of thousands of twinkling compact stars orbiting around a moon that hovered above the spellbook. Her breath was caught in her throat as she stared at the 3D model of the solar system. There was no technology that could capture and recreate such fine details, it was like her mother stole every star in the sky and shrunk them to the size of pea.

This is magic, thought Luna with a small smile pulling at the edge of her lips. Witches were commonly perceived as wicked old hags, hunched over cauldrons and sacrificing virgins- they were scary masks that hung in store windows on Halloween and villains in Disney movies. They were supposed to be monsters but there was nothing about what she was seeing that looked to be remotely monstrous. It was actually quite beautiful. But it was still a dangerous sort of beauty, as Luna would learn, like a rose with thorns.

Celeste stood beside the moon, her face was barely illuminated by the glowing light of the book. "There's an old myth, long forgotten by the masses now that pertains to the creation of magic. In the early centuries of this planet, people believed the earth was created by the God of the sun, Orion. He created the grassy plains, snowy mountaintops, furry critters and even the human species. Earth was his pride and joy but he needed his sisters, the goddesses of the moon to complete his creation by adding the sea and the night sky. His sisters, Alla and Aki, helped finish the planet but they wanted more. They too wanted to create their own life forms but knew their brother would never agree, so they went to earth disguised as humans, selected individuals they saw potential in and blessed them with magical abilities. There were six of them and they were the first witches to exist. Orion was furious at his sisters for tainting his precious humans so he created hunters as a way to exterminate these imperfections but each century, his sisters returned creating more species like vampires and werewolves."

Gripping the doorknob tightly in her hand, Luna tried to keep herself steady on her feet as she registered the idea that vampires and werewolves coexisted in the world. If the evidence of magic wasn't staring her straight in the face Luna would have been screaming psycho at her mother an hour ago. But the facts were in front of her, she was a witch; vampires and werewolves existed and the world might have been created by an asshole sun god and his greedy sisters.

"The Moon Goddesses were twins you see, and they had a fondness for anyone who shared the connection that they had, so everytime a set of twin witches are born they are gifted with powers from both the Light and Dark side of the moon. They are more powerful than the other witches that exist and because of that there are those who wish to use them or kill them. Those who hunt them down trying to kill them are afraid that their magic will awaken the dormant hunters and all supernatural creatures will be doomed or to put it simply they are jealous because of their own shortcomings. Those who wish to use them are very greedy individuals are want to harness their powers as weapons for their own benefits. These people hunt twin witches for a living, they spend every second of their days trying to find pairs like you and Twyla. Luna, it is not just your sister they are after. They are coming for both of you."

It took Luna a minute to fully understand what her mother was saying but when it finally settled, she wasted no time throwing the door open and running out of the room. Behind her, she could hear the sound of racing footsteps and panicked cries but she refused to turn back. She wanted nothing to do with their pretty stars and mystical tales. For the past six years she created a life based on lies and she was not afraid to continue with that charade. She thought if she pretended the afternoon had never happened everything would go back to normal but normal simply did not exist anymore.

She could run away from her mother and sister but the one person she truly wanted to leave behind, would stay with her forever.

**These chapters are always hard for me to write because I personally cannot empathize with Luna. If I were in her shoes I would be excited, apart from the people hunting her part, but she's very different. This will really be interesting. I don't see the twins coming together any time soon and I think you guys should also expect more resistance on Luna's part. In the next chapter Luna goes to the one place in which she feels safe and receives some advice from a loved one. In the next chapter Luna will also have her own run in with our anonymous bad guys. Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate all the support!
XOXO,
Ro."