Luna's Arc

Chapter 8 of 29

Morning light crept through the leaf shelter. Luke still slept, one arm around the little black cat. Luna eased away and pulled three things from her pockets. Her own letter. The note hidden in her locket. And the note Luke had carried, the one their parents left for him. She laid them flat on the cold ground. She smoothed each one with her palm. Her hands shook a little. Until now she had nothing to compare. One letter meant one voice. But three letters meant she could match them. She leaned close and read the loops of every letter. The tall Ts. The slanted Ms. The tail on each Y curled the same way. Same hand. Same person had written all three. Luna sat back. Her chest felt tight. The letters called her parents kind. They promised to return. They said the woods gave her a better chance. But the same hand had written those promises and then driven a car into these trees, over and over, and left child after child in the dark. The book in the shed held hundreds of names. One person wrote those too. She was sure of it now. The cat lifted its head and blinked at her. Luna scratched its ears. "They planned it," she whispered. "Every word." Luke stirred. He rubbed his eyes and saw the three papers on the ground. His face went pale. He knew that handwriting. He had watched the hand that made it. "Why?" Luna asked him. She kept her voice soft. "Why us? Why all of them?" Luke pulled his knees to his chest. "I don't know," he said. "They never told me. They just drove." His lip trembled. He reached for his gold lighter and turned it in his hands, the way he did when he was scared. Luna took the papers and folded them. She could not read a reason in the loops of the letters. The handwriting gave her one answer and stole another. She knew who. She still did not know why. But a reason lived somewhere. In the shed with the book. In the names. Maybe with the other children Luke had seen handed out of that car. Sitting here would not tell her. She stood and shook out her legs. "We can't stay," she said. "We're out of fish. And the answers aren't here." Luke looked up at her. "Where do we go?" "To find the others," Luna said. "More sheds. More notes. Food on the way." She held out her hand. "Whoever wrote these wrote them for a reason. I'm going to find it." Luke took her hand and stood. He tucked the cat inside his sweater. Luna gathered their few supplies. She looked once at the trees, then chose a direction and started walking. Luke followed close. The cat peeked out from his collar, its bright eyes on the path ahead.