Chapter 10 - Jerome Dawson

LUNA ASTERBELLE’s POV

For the longest time in my whole life, this seemed to be the first moment that I’ve experienced being transferred over to what seemed to somehow be inside someone else’s dream. The ground wasn’t the same, it wasn’t made of stone and it wasn’t made out of soil either.

It was pure flesh.

Yes, pure flesh of a human who just died.

I know for sure that it’s recent because of the scent that it had, it’s not that stinky unlike those corpses lying on the street for weeks or months.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” I asked softly at the same time that I roamed my vision around the place that gave me the chills.

My body was somehow reacting with the dimension that I was in. I could feel my bones from my back waving and that my wings were itching to show itself. It’s not just that, both of my visions were different and the exact opposite of one another. My left eye was starting to be filled with red dye, while the right one was blue. Both my wolf and vampire form was wanting to make an appearance.

“F-f*ck…” I couldn’t stop myself from groaning in tremendous pain as my body proportions grew in each second that passed by, until I was totally consumed by my weakened self. “What’s wrong with me..?”

“Welcome to my world, dearest Luna Asterbelle of the Blood Moon Pack… or should I now consider you as a member of the Crimson Moon Pack?” greeted with uncertainty by the same woman who brought me in here, who was nowhere to be found. Her voice was echoing all throughout my location and penetrating deep into my ears. “Just like what my son said, I’m Althea and I’m pretty much sure that you have the gist that I’m the moon goddess.”

“What do you want? Are you going to abduct me and take my blood just like what everyone else wants to do to me?!” I shouted on the top of my lungs.

Unexpectedly, the moon goddess laughed in a hysterical manner. “Why would I be interested in something that I created?”

“Huh?”

There was a confusion within my mind, but there’s also a part of myself wherein I am just trying to refuse to believe what I think she meant by her statement. There must be some kind of misinterpretation here, and that’s what I’m trying to avoid. Especially when Eman warned me before I was forced to get in here, that I should bear with all of the moon goddess’ nonsense.

“You’re ignoring the fact that I’m the one who bestowed the curse upon you?”

A curse… It must be the one that turned me into a hybrid.

Before I could have said anything else, the flesh that I could sense from beneath my feet were beginning to get wobbly, making me unable to stay still from my current location. I thought that it was normal for me to assume that it came from a human’s body, but the more that I think about it, it just gets worse and disgusting. I could clearly see how the muscles and some internal organs were reacting every single time that Althea would dare to speak. All of it was getting kind of aggressive, it scares me.

As if they were one.

"What should I do for you to believe that I mixed your blood with a vampire's?" she asked. Moments later on, there was a short apparition of her image, until the moon goddess itself literally flashed in front of me.

Her beauty is blinding. She had the same color of my eyes which makes me think that we're blood related... knowing that I was only adopted by the Asterbelle clan.

I was left expressionless and speechless as I was dazzled upon her eerie grin.

Althea slowly walked around me without turning her gaze away from me. "I was expecting that you wouldn't be encountering my son as soon as possible. Maybe fate really did manage to beat me."

"Your son? I don't know who you're referring to."

“Jerome Dawson.”

A sharp blow of the wind brushed through my skin when I heard his name. “Y-you’re that bastard’s mother? Aren’t all of the moon goddesses supposed to be untouched by men? As far as I know, your kind should be pure at all costs,” I mumbled in disbelief that the two were connected.

Jerome and Althea didn’t even have any slight bit of resemblance from one another, she must be bluffing and was just using Jerome to lure me into her trap.

“He’s about to come in here in a few seconds, it’s up to you if you’d think that you’re only hallucinating or something,” Althea said to make me seem like a fool. She was silently laughing as she walked away from my vision.

“Luna Asterbelle… we meet again, I suppose?”

This voice… I definitely know that it’s from Jerome, but why does it feel like his tone was ringing a bell?

Guessing that he’s only a few steps behind me, I didn’t bother to turn around and face him. I wasn’t ready to face him yet, not at all. “Is it true? That your mother is the moon goddess, Althea?”

“...” Jerome didn’t utter a single word. It was either he didn’t expect me to know about their relationship, or he was also clueless about that.

This time, I bravely turned around and met his gaze. “Why did you seek revenge for the death of your parents, when in fact, your mother was still alive?!” My tears burst out as I recalled all of the days that I’ve suffered because of his consistent arguments with me that would always end up with a fight.

Jerome raised his fist in an attempt to crush me just like when we were kids. Frustration clouded his expression as soon as a dark aura appeared around his shoulders. It seemed to be like a mist that was flowing out of his system, forcing him to do indecent and the cruelest thing above all.

“One more time that I hear you say that— that damn Althea is my mother…” Jerome gritted his teeth as he strongly resisted the urge to hit me in the face. “Anyone else can claim that they’re the one who gave birth to me, but no one can change the fact that I saw how my parents were killed by your f*cking father.”