Bella sat up slowly and slipped off her bed.
Her fingers found her phone, cold from the window sill where she'd left it to charge. She hadn't checked it since last night. The screen blinked to life. Two bars of signal. Miraculous.
One new message popped in, from her mum:
Hey Bels. I miss you. Call me when you can, okay? I've been worried.
Bella's chest ached. She bit her lower lip and tiptoed to the hallway, pulling on her hoodie.
She walked briskly down the dorm corridor and found an empty booth near the stairwell. Pulling her knees to her chest, she tapped the call button and held the phone close to her ear.
The phone rang two times.
Then Carla answered on the third ring.
"Bella?"
"Mum." Her voice cracked, breath hitching.
"Oh, sweetheart." Carla's voice was like a balm, warm, real and alive "I've been staring at my phone all day, waiting for you to call. Are you okay?"
Bella looked out the window. "I... I don't know, Mum. This place is... weird. Really weird."
Carla chuckled softly. "Weird how? I mean, it is an elite academy in the middle of nowhere with a creepy procedure for admission and a headmistress who didn't even let me in with you to do the tour. Not to mention the poor-quality network. I expected a little weird."
Bella smiled faintly. "No, Mum. I mean... strange strange."
Then she exhaled. "I've not been totally honest with you when you call and ask how I'm faring, because we're kinda restricted on that too. But I don't think I can keep silent any longer."
"Baby? What are you talking about? Please, talk to me."
"Mum, I've been trying to settle in, but everything feels off. The rules are strange. The students are strange. My roommates are… well, one's nice, the other acts like I don't exist."
She sighed. "Let me start from the rules and punishments for disobeying. The day I checked in, the admission officer gave me this pamphlet for dos and don'ts, but honestly, it feels like a horror movie script."
She reached into her hoodie pocket and pulled out the pamphlet, flipping it open.
"They have rules about not opening your door at night, not having anything to do with the colour red, covering mirrors, not talking about any strange thing you've seen in the school. And punishments that include, get this, an expulsion to the forest. What does that even mean?"
Carla was quiet for a moment.
Then she sighed. "Well, darling… that does sound concerning. Or maybe just... an extreme version of discipline?"
Bella frowned. "That's the thing. Nobody questions it. The other girls, every other person, acts like it's normal. Like it's not even worth discussing. They just accept it."
She paused.
"I feel like I've dropped into a whole new world entirely. I missed the start of the term, and now everyone looks at me like it's a taboo to resume classes in the middle of a term. I mean, if it wasn't possible, why did they admit me?"
Carla let out a soft breath, "Oh, sweetheart. I know you're overwhelmed. It's hard arriving in the middle of the term. But you have to spend your first few days trying to catch up."
"Exactly. That's what I've been trying to do," Bella whispered.
"Here's the thing, Bels," Carla continued. "You've always had a gift for catching up. You're observant. You just need time. Don't let the weirdness scare you off before you've had a chance to figure out what's really going on."
Bella pressed her forehead to her knees. "It's not just weird, Mum. It's creepy. Like… some nights I have very strange dreams. And last night I think I heard howling. Actual howling, outside the dorm."
Carla paused again.
Then she said gently, "It's a full moon tonight, isn't it?"
Bella lifted her head. "How do you know that?"
"I always check the lunar calendar. And I've studied how the moon works."
"I'm scared, Mum," she admitted in a whisper.
"I know, Bels. But you're not alone, okay? You call me any time you need to. Middle of the night, I don't care. Just call me if you feel the need to talk to someone or if you notice anything strange. Also, ask questions as frequently as possible about anything you don't understand, okay?"
"…Actually," Bella said after a beat, shifting in her seat, "something really weird happened recently."
"Weird how?"
"My dreams." She stared at the ceiling. "It wasn't just a dream. I mean… it felt too real."
Carla hummed, her interest piqued. "Tell me."
Bella hesitated for a second, then began slowly. "On Sunday night last week, I was just… falling asleep. You know, drifting. And then I heard this melody, Mum. It wasn't from anything I know. It was soft, kind of… mournful, but beautiful too."
She closed her eyes as the memory flooded back.
"Then suddenly I wasn't in bed anymore, I was standing in this forest. The trees were huge, the leaves were silver and shining brightly. And there was this boy…"
Carla went quiet on the line, letting her speak.
"He looked about seventeen. His hair shone in the moonlight. He was crying by a stream. And when he looked at me… his eyes, Mum. They were silver. A pure silver colour, I've never seen anything like it before."
"…Wow," Carla murmured.
Bella sat up straighter. "He said I'd forgotten who I was. That I used to be brave. That I walked with shadows and carried the moon in my blood."
Carla didn't speak, but Bella could almost hear her leaning closer on the other side of the call.
"And then he said it. A word. A name. 'Moonblood.' The second he said it, everything just… vanished. I woke up sweating. Panicked. And the weirdest part? The place on my wrist where he touched me in the dream… it tingled. It still tingles, Mum. Like I'm not crazy. Like it actually happened."
"Bella…" Carla whispered, stunned. "That's… that's more than a dream."
"I thought maybe I was imagining it. That it was stress or homesickness or whatever. But I remember every single detail of it."
"Hmmm…" Carla exhaled. "Maybe this new school is connected somehow. Maybe there's something about this place. About you."
Bella nodded, even though her mother couldn't see it. "I thought that too. And guess what happened the next morning?"
"What happened, Bels?"
Her voice caught in her throat.
"Mum, I saw him."
Bella paused, then whispered, "Mum… someone's listening to this call."