Chapter 2: It Comes in Threes

In the beginning, there were Three.

The Three, born from Life and Death themselves, walked the Earth alone, each separated from the others.

They could feel the life force of their siblings as they wandered aimlessly through the days and nights, with nothing but the elements and silence to keep them company.

Driven mad by loneliness, they began to beg the Sun, Moon, and Earth for help.

They were met with silence.

When the first felt as though all hope was lost, he turned toward the Sun and cried out for his suffering to end.

“I have given you everything I can, and the only thing I have left to give is my life!”

He screamed toward the sky, no longer willing to fight for himself or the sisters he'd lost.

The following morning, he wandered into the desert, preparing for the Sun to take him.

He felt he would be a coward if he ended his own life.

Instead, he wanted the elements to take him and allow him to become part of the Earth he'd wandered for far too long.

It would be his final gift to the place that had taken his sisters from him and kept them hidden for far too long.

He wanted Death.

But Death had other plans.

When the man was breathing his last breath, Death appeared before him.

His dark features were unusually full of love.

The man looked exhausted, and Death knew it was time for his purpose to be fulfilled.

“Do you know who I am?” Death asked.

The man, with what little strength he had left slowly dwindling away, looked into Death's eyes and nodded.

“You are Death. You are my salvation.”

Death smiled and cocked his head to the side.

He'd known this day would come.

He'd been patiently waiting for it.

“You are correct, my son. I am Mortem.”

He paused, watching the confusion spread across the half-dead man's face.

“But I am not here to give you what you crave.”

“You are Solis, the Sun. You will give life to everything on Earth, and you will also take life away.”

Before Solis could protest, his body burst into flames.

His human body burned.

His soul died.

And from the ashes, something new was born.

Mortem smiled, pleased with his creation, and began to leave.

He stopped after taking only a few steps and turned toward the charred remains of Solis.

“Your sisters will be waiting for you to wake, my son.”

While Solis contemplated his new existence, his sisters faced hardships of their own.

Vita, Life, watched as one of them barely survived the creatures and elements of the Earth.

The first sister was hunted every night by the vicious animals of the forests.

She began to lose sleep in an attempt to keep herself from being killed.

Eventually, she began pleading with the Moon.

“I am nothing but food to the night hunters. They know my every move, and I cannot escape them.”

Tears fell from her cheeks as she stared into the night sky.

Her head suddenly snapped upward.

She froze.

Something was moving behind her.

Rustling.

Growling.

Snarling.

The night hunters had found her.

But when she turned, she realized they weren't fighting for survival.

They were fighting over her.

With one last look toward the stars above, she accepted her fate.

But just as quickly as the noises had appeared, the Earth went silent.

Too silent.

She refused to look behind her.

Her heart began pounding faster.

“My child, do I frighten you?”

The voice came from behind her.

The woman slowly approached, careful not to cause her any more fear.

“I am not here to hurt you. I am here to save you, my precious Selene.”

Selene still refused to turn around.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

She knew her brother and sister were still walking the Earth.

But this wasn't either of them.

Even with her eyes closed, she could see a soft glow standing directly in front of her.

Slowly, she opened them.

And there, standing before her, was one of the most beautiful creations in the universe.

Life herself.

Vita's tall, slender form towered over Selene. Her long, blonde, wavy hair reached all the way to her hips, and her entire body seemed to glow from within.

Her blue eyes were the brightest Selene had ever seen.

Selene remained speechless.

She could only stare in disbelief.

Vita smiled.

Her eyes crinkled at the corners, revealing the whitest teeth Selene had ever seen, followed by a laugh as beautiful as the woman herself.

It felt as though hours passed with them simply staring at one another.

The only movement was the gentle rise and fall of Selene's chest as she breathed.

She had questions.

So many questions.

And she needed answers.

But she knew, somehow, that whoever this glowing woman was, she wasn't going to hurt her.

She was wrong.

Selene stood and opened her mouth to speak.

Instead, a strange sensation crawled through her bones.

It moved through every inch of her body, from her skull to her toes.

Then the pain began.

Her right leg snapped.

The crack echoed through the forest as she collapsed to her knees.

Confused, Selene looked at Vita.

But Vita only stood there with a small, sad smile.

Selene didn't need to hear the words.

That smile said a thousand different things.

But only one came through clearly.

I'm sorry.

Another crack echoed through the trees.

Then another.

Her other leg snapped.

Then both arms.

Selene stifled a scream as tears poured down her face.

She stared into Vita's eyes as every one of her senses became overloaded.

Her sight was the first to disappear.

Then her sense of smell.

Soon, she couldn't even taste the saltiness of her own tears.

Her words became slurred, but she managed to force out one final question.

“Why? Why are you doing this t—”

She couldn't speak anymore.

But she could still hear.

“This will help you. I am helping you.”

A small sigh escaped Vita's lips, barely audible over the loud cracks of breaking bones.

“You will become the thing the monsters that hunt you at night fear. You will become the Beast that hunts with every sense, my sweet Selene.”

The cracks became more rapid.

So did Selene's breathing.

“This will hurt now, but in the end, you will be powerful. You will join your brother and sister in a new form that will never know pain, hunger, or fear.”

Vita bent down beside the panting, disfigured Selene and brushed the fallen hair away from her face.

“I am Life. I am Vita.”

Her glowing eyes held Selene's.

“And you are the Moon. The Night. Selene, you are the Darkness.”

Vita smiled.

“The Goddess.”

The world went quiet.

Selene couldn't hear the snapping of her own bones anymore.

She could only feel the pain.

Her back arched in a way it was never meant to.

One final, thunderous crack echoed through the forest.

Then—

Nothing.

The pain stopped.

And she was new.

Vita smiled.

“You are the Wolf.”

Unlike her brother and sister, Terra learned to master her problems.

When the rain became relentless, she used her mind to create barriers that shielded her from it.

When the wind became harsh and unforgiving and snow buried her nearly to her eyes, she was never afraid to manipulate the Earth and elements around her.

That didn't stop her from acknowledging what she truly wanted.

Her siblings.

Every day, while the Sun hung high in the sky, she cried out for her brother to return.

And when the Moon rose at night, her howls for her beloved sister never went unheard.

They heard her.

They called back.

But Terra believed she was alone.

So she began exploring the strange abilities her subconscious had been pushing her toward during what she perceived as her exile.

And that made her dangerous.

Vita soon decided it was time to intervene after watching Terra excel with the powers she'd been gifted.

Normally, Mortem would disagree and tell Vita she was mistaken.

But this was different.

Terra cursed Life and Death aloud, promising them misery if she wasn't reunited with her family.

Every step she took caused the Earth beneath her to decay and die.

Animals stopped approaching her.

Days seemed gloomier.

Nights grew darker and longer.

Fires ravaged once-green fields, with the wind breathing life into the flames.

The ocean became ravenous, swallowing everything in its path.

The Earth shook heavily, day and night.

Terra brought the Earth to life.

Then killed it.

Again.

And again.

Her determination to feel the embrace of the love her family had once given her fueled her misery.

Vita knew the one thing that could stop it.

And Mortem had finally—

“Mr. Long, do we really have to go over our history again?”

Jonah's whining voice ripped me from the story.

I looked over at him.

His textbook remained completely unopened on his desk.

Judging by the look Mr. Long was giving him, his answer was probably going to be full of sarcasm. This had been an ongoing battle between them for as long as any of us could remember. I'm pretty sure he'd asked the district at one point if they could stop putting Jonah in his classes.

Ultimately, they'd turned him down because everyone needs to learn.

Yawn.

Jonah was my friend, and he could be very disruptive. Not just to Mr. Long's education. Everyone's. He'd been like that since preschool.

Liz and Sarah, my best friends in the entire world, rolled their eyes beside me. All three of us knew where this was going.

We always did.

It was hard to separate us, especially as we'd gotten older and grown up together.

We were graduating in a couple of months and would soon be seeing the world together.

Three continents.

Three cities.

Three best friends.

Jonah continued rambling, so I finally turned my attention toward the window.

The weather outside had taken a drastic turn since that morning.

We were expecting a large storm, with the possibility of tornadoes.

They weren't usually normal for the area, so it was a little shocking to see dark-gray skies gathering above us with thick wall clouds forming in the distance.

I turned toward Liz and Sarah, who had also tuned out Jonah's loud voice.

“Don't you think the weather has been weird lately?” I whispered.

Both of them looked at me.

I continued before either could answer.

“I mean, it's almost summer. And not to mention the earthquake we had yesterday. It's just so weird.”

Liz nodded.

Sarah looked thoughtful, her answer hidden somewhere behind her thoughts before she finally shrugged.

“I mean, we do live in California, so anything is possible. There were three earthquakes by the way, pretty common.”

She said it so nonchalantly that I almost laughed.

She wasn't wrong.

California's weather could be wild.

But the probability of tornadoes and an earthquake happening one after another was strange.

I opened my mouth to respond, but the classroom door opened.

Jonah finally shut his loud ass mouth.

I expected an administrator.

A teacher.

Maybe an office aide.

What I wasn't expecting was the most delicious man to ever grace my eyes to walk through the door.

Mouth-watering delicious.

He scanned the room while girls giggled in hushed excitement, deep-red blushes spreading across their cheeks.

Then his eyes met mine.

And for the faintest moment, we weren't in the classroom anymore.

Images flashed through my mind.

Different places.

Different parts of the world.

They appeared so quickly that I couldn't make sense of any of them.

Light erupted behind my eyes like I was watching an explosion from beginning to end.

Then—

It was gone.

I was back in the classroom.

Locked in a staring competition with the stranger who seemed to have eyes only for me.

As he looked me over, I felt what could only be described as static electricity wherever his eyes traveled across my body.

It wasn't uncomfortable.

If anything, it was welcoming.

Familiar.

Like I'd known him my entire life and the excitement of seeing each other after so long was singing beneath my skin.

Liz and Sarah's heads bounced back and forth between us like ping-pong balls, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

I couldn't even answer their unspoken questions.

I was too preoccupied with my future husband.

What felt like minutes in my head was actually only seconds before Mr. Long interrupted us.

I snapped my attention toward him.

Only for a second.

My body was still humming from the stranger's stare.

And boy, was he a man.

I could tell just by the way he moved.

Fuck me.

Literally and figuratively.

“Ah, you must be the transfer student. Mateo Fernandez?”

Mr. Long looked toward him.

Mateo.

Hmm.

I couldn't wait to say it.

Or scream it.

Just so I could taste it with my tongue.

He didn't say a word.

He simply nodded.

Before anything else could be said, the bell rang.

Students began packing up and filing out of the classroom.

Great.

Now this beautiful stranger would be gone, and I'd never get to hear his voice.

Which, I'm sure, was just as beautiful as he was.

Mr. Long started giving instructions about assignments and classwork, but his voice was drowned out by the scraping of chairs and shuffling feet across the floor.

I turned to get up, but Long called my name.

“Amara, hang back for a minute.”

I stopped.

Once the classroom had mostly cleared, he continued.

“The district has assigned you as Mateo's guide around school and town.”

He paused while I silently breathed a sigh of both contentment and relief.

“It's hard for students who transfer this late, especially during their last year, so I expect you to show him around and make him comfortable. We all do.”

Something about the last sentence felt like it had a double meaning. I nodded anyway. Mateo handed me his schedule. I looked down and froze.

We had all the same classes.

Definitely done on purpose.

When I looked back up, he was staring at me. Then he smiled. And somehow, that made him even more familiar. I knew that smile from somewhere.

Oh well.

I took a deep breath and smiled back.

“Looks like we have the same schedule. Follow me, and I'll show you the good and bad of Little Falls.”

As if on cue, the sky outside grew even darker. Three loud claps of thunder sounded directly overhead. Every head in the room snapped toward the windows. Just in time to see three funnel clouds touch down.

One. Two. Three. They lasted only three seconds before disappearing back into the clouds.

My mom always said something bad—and sometimes something good—always came in threes.

I had a feeling she was right.