Moonlit Promises: A Tale of Shadows and Redemption

is little something off itself in this very same place, sitting clumsily in her chest. She shrugged,

he trees, old and unyielding, made her feel them, the mist curling through their ske

lavender from her mother's kitchen. She tried to remind herself that this was

side for some air. The moment she did, t

emembered ever. The houses seemed just the same,

eps in that direction. She felt the reverberations of laughter, of hometown gossip and community

y her

row alley. Scarlett froze at her pace, her heart racing on. She kept tell

she whispere

in the s

ing. The mist had made it hard to see and every shadow alive. She wou

re. Here, these local shops, used to be full of people greeting each other, opening up their

more abandoned. No warm words. No smiling faces. Just the screams of the wind tearing through cobblest

y also, as well as she was able. She listened to the quiet padding, r

ere w

s features were sharp and angular, totally unfamiliar, yet there was something about him that reached

looking

. She automatically knew he was not just another street gu

help

steps toward her. Scarlett felt the p

said finally, his

ind racing. His words sent an

are

toward the misty horizon. A

nition, but nothing came. His words

rong, she started to s

Scarlett Whitmore, he sai

ith such deliberation, sent her reeling. She didn't know whether t

are

k another s

esitated.

ing. The words sliced through her like a jagged spear

g, the cold seeping into her bones, as he turned to disappear back i

llow him but her

just gotten

friend o

as it carried his words to her like shadows: H

back to Hawthorne was going to lead

d to walk away from her mother's house, the wind catc

n it was. Scarlett's paces sounded on the cobblestones as h

he was gone. Some kind of refrain stuck in her head, words t

omething that had been latched to Hawthorne itself. The notion did make her skin crawl as it wasn't one to consider as a child visiting grandparents, assisting at the l

to care even about the town's and family's secrets. Maybe this dark-coated man understo

nd nipped at her cheeks. Breath came more sharply now, lungs cold, home was within view. It l

d. The scent of lavender and bread

ed and her hands a-rubbing round at the sink in the kitch

in' some bread, she said, her voice warmly r

strange thing that sat inside her chest, and she nodded and moved into th

or behind her, Scarlett knew things in Ha

answers, and they did not leave her