Eclipse

Melissa looked at the moon rising over the dark forest. The woods had just started waking up from the long winter sleep, and animals everywhere rushed to mate. She took a deep breath, smelling the distinct odours of the animals, plants, and wet dirt. It was time. Her blood was boiling telling her it was time, whether she liked it or not. She carefully braided her long golden hair into a thick braid, she hadn't been allowed to cut it since the day she became a woman, and she was getting tired of it. The wind blew on her naked skin that was still wet from her bath. Living in the forest, she usually went naked around, that, at least, she was permited to do. She always felt more comfortable naked and in the middle of the forest, and she wondered if that had anything to do with being named after a nymph. Most of her sisters lived in the coven, however, as she did until she came of age, but she always felt trapped in there. She would need to return there, that night, as she did for every equinox and solstice.

Annoyed, she stood up from the cliff she had been sitting on and went back to her cave behind the waterfall. Her only dress was hanging from a makeshift coat hanger she had fashioned out of a dead tree. It was moss green, unlike the black garments her sisters used to wear, and it felt strange against her skin. Melissa cursed the social conventions against nudity once again, as she did once every three months. She was late, and she knew it, and she also hated herself, because it meant she would have to appear in the coven instead of taking the scenic route. 

The lights and the noise startled her. She had appeared in her room on the third floor of the coven, the one she could use any time she wanted to visit, or, rather, every time she was forced to visit. Everything was as she had last left it, during the Winter solstice celebrations. Her bed was made, as she had never actually slept there, and her fancy clothes were in the closet. Knowing that she would need to dress in a specific way made her skin crawl. Someone knocked in her door. 

-Come in.

Alecto opened the door. She was her best friend, as wild as she was, although in another way. Alecto had decided to stay in the coven, although some sisters would have preferred to see her gone. She was an exotic tall woman, with bronze skin and almond-shapped eyes. She closed the door behind her. 

-I thought I had heard you. Melissa.- the last word had a dangerous shade in it. She and Melissa had experimented a bit when they were still young. Seeing her again, dressed like that, made Melissa want to kiss her. 

-I just came in. Will you help me decide what to wear? You know I'm terrible at it.- the blonde girl said, restraining herself. 

-What's the need to wear anything? You look good naked.- Melissa glared at her.- Ok, I'll help you. You managed quite well these last two years, what's... 

Alecto fell silent with realization and covered her mouth with both her hands in surprise. Melissa blushed to the root of her hair, not wanting to admit her urges. 

-So, it's time, isn't it?- Alecto asked, and her friend simply nodded.- Well, then, yes, we need to find something good. 

When they made it to the ground floor of the house, they found a full-blown party, as Spring equinox celebrations used to be. It also helped that the coven was disguised as a sorority. Unlike the rest of the year, there were men around, young fertile men who would get too drunk to realize what was going on. And Melissa had to pick one out of all of them to be the father of her daughter. She had always been told that she would know which one was the best, the one whose genes were more fit to survival, but she was terrified. Looking around she saw lots of handsome men, and she felt her blood urging her to pick one and be done, her sensitive sense of smell picked up the thousands of pheromones in the room and made her a little dizzy, yet she had to focus. From experience, Melissa knew that most handsome men were jerks, it wasn't much of a problem for her in her normal life, and hadn't been much of a problem while she had lived in the coven, but it was then. Alecto pushed her towards the party, and when she saw her friend wasn't moving decided to help her introducing her to different men. There was the football player, the rockstar, the business major, one after the other passed in front of Melissa, making her blood stir, but making her wonder if she had been right, if the right moment to have a daughter was that one. 

Overwhelmed, she decided to get outside in the garden. It was very dark outside, the sky was full of stars and the moon looked down to her like an old friend. Melissa leaned on a fence, wishing she were back to her cave behind the waterfall. She had been in there for some time when someone else leaned on the fence beside her. 

-You've come outside to see the eclipse?- a dark haired man asked her. 

Of course, the eclipse! She had totally forgotten! She told so to her new companion, who introduced himself as Mark. 

-Pleased to meet you, my name is Melissa. 

-Like the nymph.- he smiled.- You don't really seem the kind of girl who goes to sorority parties. Although I see you've tried to disguise yourself. 

-You don't seem the kind of guy to come here, either.- she said, dodging the implicit question. 

-I'm not. I'm here only because my friends forced me to come. I'd rather had gone somewhere quiet and watched the eclipse from there. 

And then, Melissa knew. He was the father of her daugther, there was no questioning it. Both her mind and her blood agreed, it had to be him. 

-We can still do it. 

-Well, there aren't lots of quite places in campus. 

She took his hand. 

-Can you keep a secret? 

Before he was even able to say yes, they were on the top of her mountain by the waterfall. She kissed him, trying to forget that she would need to kill him as soon as she got pregnant. That night the only thing that mattered was them making love under the lunar eclipse.